Free The Oncoming Storm by Christopher Nuttall Page B

all times. The wear and tear on the drive nodes would cost them thousands of crowns to fix, if the drives didn’t fail completely while they were in hyperspace. You should know better.
    She turned to look at the tactical officer. “Raise shields,” she ordered. “Cycle the weapons systems; bring us to full tactical alert.”
    Alarms howled through the ship as the crew raced to combat stations. They’d run endless drills while they were in the shipyard, but this was different. Kat watched as the starship’s shields snapped into existence, silently relieved that the Navy designers had indulged their usual desire for multiple redundancy. Lightning could take a great deal of damage and still maintain her shields. But she wished there was more time for a live-fire exercise.
    “Shields and weapons at one hundred percent efficiency,” Roach reported after several minutes had passed. “Long-range tactical sensors active; passive sensors active. Running tracking exercises now.”
    Kat allowed herself a moment of relief.
    “Good,” she said. “Stand down from combat stations, then devise a set of exercises for when we reach Cadiz. There should be some harmless asteroids in the system we can use for target practice.”
    “There should be drones too,” the XO put in.
    His voice was impassive, but Kat thought she sensed doubt in his tone. Cadiz Naval Base was on the front lines of the war everyone knew was coming. Seventh Fleet should be training every day, running live-fire exercises constantly, despite the cost. But she’d checked the shipping manifests and noted that Admiral Morrison hadn’t requested any replacement drones from Naval HQ. It was just possible, she supposed, that his techs had managed to salvage all the drones, but she wouldn’t have put money on it. No matter how good the techs were, one or two drones per exercise were always a write-off.
    She gritted her teeth. It was far more likely Admiral Morrison wasn’t running any training exercises—and that was absurd. Didn’t he know there was a war on its way?
    Lieutenant Ross cleared her throat. “Captain, the convoy master reports that his ships are ready for departure,” she said. “He would like to know if we intend to open a vortex for the merchantmen.”
    Kat tapped her console. “Engineering, this is the captain,” she said. She wasn’t surprised by the request. Each use of a vortex generator cut its lifespan by several months . . . and they were staggeringly expensive. She didn’t blame the civilians for wanting to rely on a military ship to open the pathway into hyperspace. “Can we hold a vortex open long enough for the merchantmen to enter hyperspace?”
    “Yes, Captain,” Lynn assured her. “We should have more than enough power to hold the gate open for ten minutes, if necessary.”
    Kat nodded, then closed the channel and turned back to the helmsman. “Plot the gate coordinates, then pass them to the convoy,” she ordered. “We’ll follow them into hyperspace, closing the gate behind us.”
    “Aye, aye, Captain,” Weiberg said. He worked his console for a long moment, designating a location several thousand kilometers from the station. Opening a gate close to a large structure was asking for trouble. “Gate coordinates set.”
    “Take us there,” Kat ordered. Lightning started to move, followed by her nine charges. Kat had to wince as she saw what passed for a formation among the civilians, and she shook her head ruefully. This wasn’t a parade. “Lieutenant Ross?”
    Ross turned to look at her. “Captain?”
    “Transmit a formal departure notification to System Command,” Kat ordered. It was unlikely that System Command would object to their departure, not after they’d received orders to leave as quickly as possible, but the signal had to be sent. “Attach a full copy of our readiness status and the test results from our final trials.”
    And let them know the ghost of Uncanny didn’t put in an appearance, she