Emerald Flight: “Star Wing” (continued)

Even though their sensors detected no other vessels in the immediate area, Hawkes was certain that they were being monitored in some fashion. If their survey of the anomalous objects turned up anything interesting, this previously neglected region of space might become a focus of great attention.

Hawkes brought up the updated chart for this area of space on one of his tactical displays. What he saw did not surprise him: the region was essentially empty space for several light years in all directions. Without any large astronomical bodies present to create hazardous gravitational effects, incoming vessels could approach from any direction. It would a difficult region to defend and manage from a tactical standpoint.

Not impossible, Hawkes noted. Just . . . difficult.

One advantage of this situation was, should they need to retreat quickly—assuming they were given enough time to bring the slipstream drive cores properly online—they could do with relative ease. The lack of any significant gravitational fields meant any direction out from the fighting would be a good one. Their escape would be dependent on the positions of any enemy ships, rather than the locations of immovable celestial bodies.

Hawkes checked the chronometer display, comparing it against his internal time sense. Assuming that she followed her usual routine, the Captain would return to the bridge within the next ten minutes, having stopped at the galley along the way to obtain a low-fat cappuccino and processed protein bar. He had that long to update the readiness status of their weapons and defense systems.

It took him even less time than he had estimated. The changes in those systems were almost trivial since the report he had delivered at the beginning of his shift, almost not worth updating it for—almost. He filed the report in his duty log and then submitted it for the Captain’s review.

Checking the chronometer display on his station one more time, he performed a quick mental calculation. There was time for one more battle alert drill before the Captain returned.

There’s was no telling what they might find ahead.