It was a risky jump, but he had no choice. Taking a deep breath, he backed up a few steps, getting a running start before launching himself into the air and sailing over the invisible barrier in a heart-stopping leap. He hit the ground in a roll, the impact jarring his bones, but once again, he pushed through the pain, coming up in a sprint to the safety of the jungle.

  His two hours were nearly up when he reached the secluded spot where his team waited. Their faces were lined with worry. They surged to their feet as he approached, the relief obvious.

  “Gunny,” Zoe cheered softly. “We were getting worried. We thought for sure you'd been caught."

  "Almost," Alex admitted, holding up the pack of medical supplies. "But I got what we needed." He recounted his infiltration, the intercepted communication, the close call in Weather's office, and his interaction with the doctor.

  "War is coming," he said at last, his voice heavy with the weight of it. "And for some reason, they really want First Company out of the way before it starts. All of First Company.”

  "But why?" Zoe asked, voice tight with tension. "What threat could we possibly pose to their plans?"

  "I don't know," Alex admitted, frustration coloring his words. "But whatever it is, it's big. Bigger than this attack, bigger than taking out First Company. I have a feeling it may also have something to do with my sister’s disappearance. And we're running out of time to figure it all out."

  CHAPTER 25

  Soren Strickland's eyes flickered over the multiple status reports across the command seat’s curved display surface, his head aching from just thinking about the number of incomplete systems, some more important than others.

  Despite the best efforts of Lina and Tashi, Wraith’s comms remained offline, requiring more complex repairs than either of them knew how to affect. Ethan had also discovered three port-side railguns had yet to be fully wired. Finally, there were several secondary systems and redundancies that had yet to come online. They didn’t affect the ship’s operations right now but would make the vessel more brittle under stress, such as in the heat of battle.

  At least life support and gravity were functional. Small comforts, but he'd take what he could get.

  As he pondered their situation, his comm chirped in his head. "Captain, it's Ethan. Can you meet Keira and me in the conference room? We've made some progress on analyzing the main gun."

  Soren raised a surprised eyebrow. "We have a conference room?" He felt vaguely embarrassed for not knowing, but right now he was lucky if he could navigate from his quarters to the bridge without getting turned around. At least getting lost in the labyrinth of dark, half-finished corridors made for good exercise.

  “Three doors down from the bridge, on your left,” Ethan confirmed. "Though calling it a conference room might be a bit generous. More like a glorified storage closet with delusions of grandeur."

  Soren chuckled despite himself. "I'll be there shortly.” He turned to Retired FUP Admiral Jack Harper, his second in command. "Mind holding down the fort for a bit?"

  Jack waved him off with a grin. "Go on. I'll try not to accidentally eject the reactor or anything while you're gone."

  Shaking his head, Soren left the bridge. Only three compartments down. He managed that without a problem. When he entered the conference room, he found out Ethan hadn't been exaggerating. The space was large but stark, utterly devoid of any furniture or even a wall-mounted display. Ethan and Keira stood in the center, cradling a tablet between them. A holographic display of the Wraith's primary weapon hovered a short distance above the tablet’s surface.

  "Captain," Ethan greeted him. "Thank you for coming. I know we're close to the Wolf system, but I promised you we would have a report on the main gun before we arrived.”

  Soren crossed his arms, studying the slowly rotating schematic. “That you did. And you never disappoint, Ethan. What have you got?"

  "It's like nothing I've ever seen before, Captain. The principle is similar to a standard particle beam, but the execution is on a whole different level." He manipulated the display, zooming in on a portion of the schematic. "Instead of just firing a stream of charged particles, this weapon creates a distortion in the fabric of spacetime.”

  “Like a wormhole?” Soren asked.

  “Not quite. More like a vortex, where spacetime is twisted like a corkscrew, or more accurately, a tornado.”

  Keira chimed in. "Anything caught in that maelstrom is caught between two different locations in spacetime, leaving the original whole completely shredded.”

  “Even better, it’s immune to force fields,” Ethan said. “The intense heat and energy created along the outside of the vortex is just a side effect, but almost equally as devastating.”

  "Incredible,” Soren said. “So it's not just a weapon, but a fundamentally new technology."

  "Exactly," Ethan said, a grin spreading across his face. "We're calling it a vortex cannon."

  "Catchy," Soren said dryly. "But how do we use it effectively? We already experienced the power problem.”

  Keira nodded, her expression turning serious. “We did. As you said, power consumption is the biggest liability. The vortex cannon requires an immense amount of energy. We're talking orders of magnitude more than any conventional weapon."

  "How much more?" Soren asked.

  "Enough that we can only fire it once, maybe twice in a typical engagement," Ethan said.

  “And not consecutively, I imagine. How long between shots?”

  “Two to five minutes,” Keira answered. “Depending on what other systems we’re running at the time.”

  “Obviously, there are ways to increase efficiency,” Ethan said. “Like shutting off the artificial gravity during combat, and charging the supercapacitors ahead of time. But it's still going to be limited and slow.”

  “There are tradeoffs to everything. What about the range?”

  "Another limitation," Keira confirmed. "The vortex is unstable, and the effect weakens the further it travels from the emitter. Effective range is about five thousand kilometers."

  "A knife fight, in space combat terms," Soren mused.

  "Exactly. We're going to have to get in close to make it count."

  Soren was silent for a long moment, considering the implications. A powerful but limited weapon that required them to get dangerously close to their enemies. It was a double-edged sword they had no choice but to wield.

  "Good work, both of you," he said at last. "Keep refining the system, see if you can squeeze any more efficiency out of it. We're going to need every advantage we can get."

  "Aye, Captain," they chorused.

  Soren nodded, turning to leave the room, his mind churning with this new information. The vortex cannon opened up new tactical considerations. But it also underscored just how precarious their situation truly was.

  As if on cue, his comms chirped again. "Captain to the bridge,” Jack said. “We're t-minus five minutes to the Wolf system.”

  "On my way," he replied. He turned back to Ethan and Keira. “Nothing like taking it to the wire, eh, Ethan? Join me on the bridge. Let’s see what there is to see.”

  They filed out of the conference room and hurried to the bridge. By now, the crew knew not to get up when Soren entered. Jack abandoned the command chair as he approached. “You have the conn,” he said.

  “I have the conn,” Soren said, settling into the command seat. Jack remained at his right hand while Ethan and Keira crossed to their stations. The countdown to arrival descended on the right side of the command station’s surface display, each second ticking down like an hour.

  At last, the counter hit zero. The jump drive immediately began spooling down, and reality appeared on the viewscreen as stars, planets, and a sun.

  “Welcome to the Wolf system,” Bobby said.

  “Contacts?” Soren asked right away.

  “Negative,” Mark replied. “We’re well away from Wolf 1061.”

  “Nearly an hour at maximum velocity,” Bobby said. “Twenty minutes to sensor range.”

  "Helm, take us in," Soren ordered. "Tactical, activate the cloaking system. No one needs to know we’re here.”

  "Aye, Captain," Keira replied from her station. "Cloaking device initiated.” The bridge lights dimmed slightly as power was redirected. “Cloak engaged.”

  “I wonder if the time will ever come where I trust this ship enough to trust that feedback,” Soren said.

  “Let’s hope not,” Jack said. “It will mean we found Dana and went home long before we got too comfortable.”

  “Good point. Sang, take us in. Full ahead.”

  “Aye, Captain,” she replied.

  The main thrusters slowly built to full blast inside their covered exhausts, pushing Wraith toward Wolf 1061 and the scene of Dana’s disappearance. Soren couldn’t help feeling a sense of trepidation and sadness to be in the system. He would much rather be back on Earth with Jane, fishing and looking forward to Dana or Alex’s next communication.

  The tension continued building as the minutes passed, and the ship added velocity, every second bringing them that much closer to sensor range. Without complete confidence in the cloaking system, they had to be ready to act in case they weren’t as hidden as they thought.

  One minute turned into five, five into ten, and ten into twenty.

  “Entering sensor range,” Mark announced.

  “Sang, kill the mains,” Soren said. “We’ll coast in from here. I don’t want to take any chances.”

  “Aye, Captain,” she replied.

  “Mark, put our sensor grid over the barrel.”

  The projector flared to life, displaying space around them. Ahead and to the right, a star. Dead ahead, Wolf 1061. Three blips were also present, just barely in sensor range beyond it,

  "Picking up multiple contacts near the planet,” Mark said. “Encrypted transponders match Recon Three."

  Soren nodded, unsurprised. Recon fleets were built for speed and agility, trading armor and firepower for enhanced sensor suites and flexibility. They were designed to scout potential trouble spots and report back, not slug it out in a stand-up fight.

  Still, even a small naval flotilla threatened his lone, untested ship. If they were detected, if the cloak failed...

  They wouldn’t fire unless fired upon, but his mission would be blown, his identity revealed. If he were lucky, Montoya would commandeer the Wraith and have him and his crew on the next ship back to Earth. If he weren’t lucky, he would quickly find himself locked up. Neither of those outcomes would help him find Dana.

  “Trigger retros to slowly bleed off velocity,” Soren told Sang. “I want to slip in on them, not go burning past.”

  “Aye, Captain,” she replied, carrying out the orders.

  Soren could see the estimated time to reach the flotilla on his display, increasing as the ship slowed. Forty minutes turned into three hours, but remaining undetected was more important than getting there in a hurry.

  He kept his gaze locked on the viewscreen as the Wraith crept ever closer to the distant specks of the Recon flotilla. Thankfully, there was no indication the ships could detect them, even with their highly-advanced sensor packages. As long as the cloaking system remained stable, they could sneak undetected right into the middle of the scrum.

  That didn't stop Soren's heart from pounding or from clenching his jaw anytime Mark flinched or stiffened even slightly in response to the sensor feed. Every flicker on the sensor grid became a potential harbinger of disaster, a sign the Navy had seen through their invisibility cloak.

  As they drew closer, the ships of Recon Three resolved into sharper focus, sleek shapes prowling against the backdrop of stars. At their center, the flotilla's sole Valkyrie hung in space, the flagship a looming presence amidst its smaller cousins.

  “Stay focused,” he said, controlling his voice. “Sang, take us to within five hundred klicks and bring us to a near stop. Mark, active scans on emissions. I need to know if they've gone hot."

  The navigation officer nodded. "Aye, sir. Reading eight...no, nine ships total. The Valkyrie and eight Hermes class cruisers. Everything appears to be operating within standard parameters."

  Soren exhaled slowly, some of the tension draining from his shoulders. No active emissions meant ordnance wasn't primed to shoot. At least, not yet. That could change in a heartbeat if their presence were detected.

  "Keira, put the zoom view on the main screen,” Soren ordered.

  “Aye, Captain,” she replied.

  A high-resolution telescope view snapped into place on the central display. The Recon ships were now close enough to make out details with the naked eye. Beside each vessel, a small tag appeared, listing its name, class, and registry number.

  Soren's eyes roved over the information, his mind comparing it to the mental database compiled over decades of service. He knew these ships, had memorized their capabilities and crew complements. In another life, he would have been proud to serve alongside them, to call their captains comrades-in-arms.

  Now, they were potential obstacles standing between him and his daughter.

  A small, irregular shape drifted at the edge of the naval formation. Soren leaned forward, trying to get a closer look.

  “Keira, increase magnification on that object.” He selected it on his command station.

  “Aye, Captain,” she replied, zooming in even more so that the unidentified object gained enough resolution for him to identify it.

  It was a ship or had been once. Now it was little more than a mangled wreck, its hull perforated by weapons fire. It hung suspended in orbit around the planet, spinning slowly.

  “That must be the Valkyrie Montoya told me about,” Soren said. “The one Galileo came to investigate.”

  “That’s what’s left of it, anyway,” Jack confirmed beside him. “Looks like it's been through hell."

  Soren couldn’t tear his gaze away from the ruined ship. He shuddered, thinking of Dana in his current position, approaching this mysterious, battle-damaged starship, questioning who it belonged to and how it had gotten here. And ultimately, coming to the same conclusion.

  He needed answers, and there was only one place he would find them.

  “What do you think, Jack?” he asked, glancing at his friend. “Can we sneak a drone into that ship without the boys in gray noticing?”

  CHAPTER 26

  Jack chuckled, a glint of amusement in his eye as he turned to Soren. "Sneak a drone onto the ship? That’s quite a challenge.”

  Soren met his gaze, a wry smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. "Are you telling me you’re not up to it, Jack?”

  He ignored the veiled dig. “I suppose you already have something in mind?"

  "You know me too well, Jack. I like to stay a step ahead."

  Jack stroked his chin thoughtfully. "Testing me, are you? Well, let's see if I can rise to the occasion."

  "Great minds think alike," Soren replied, his tone light but his eyes serious. "I can tell you have an idea. What have you got?"

  Jack considered the problem for another moment. Then, like a lightbulb flicking on, his expression cleared. “I think, if we position the Wraith between the naval ships and the Valkyrie, we can use the cloaking technology to deflect their sensor signals around both us and the drone as it makes its approach."

  Soren nodded, following his friend's train of thought. "But if we're too far away, the effect will be diminished and they’ll spot the drone. Too close, and they might pick up an anomaly in their readings."

  “That’s right. They might not think much of it at first, but if they decide to investigate..."

  "It could blow the whole operation," Soren finished. "And with Commander Karlov in charge of Recon Three, you can bet he'd follow up on even the slightest irregularity."

  "Karlov?" Jack asked, raising an eyebrow. "He's a stickler for procedure, that one. He’d absolutely investigate, and expect a full written report on every minor detail.”

  "Which means we need to calculate the optimal distance," Soren said, already thinking ahead. "Ethan, any ideas?”

  “I spent most of our jump time organizing a repair schedule, sleeping and investigating the vortex cannon. I haven’t had a chance to dive into the cloaking tech yet.”

  “Vortex cannon?” Jack asked.

  “That’s our big gun,” Soren explained. “Though, it’s more like a vortex knife.”

  “Vortex cannon sounds more impressive.”

  “That it does.”

  “Captain,” Lina said, looking back at him over her shoulder. “Tashi showed some interest in how the cloaking system works. Maybe he can help.”

  “Good thinking,” Soren answered. “Thank you. Jack, call Tashi and Wilf to the bridge. The more heads the better.”

  A few minutes later, Wilf strolled onto the bridge with a grin. "You rang, Captain? Finally ready to put my talents to good use?"

  His smile faltered as Tashi entered behind him, the younger man equally excited by the summons. The tension between the two was still palpable, but they both straightened under the warning in Soren's gaze.

  "Gentlemen," Jack said, stepping forward. "We have a situation that we believe you can help us with.” He quickly briefed them on the plan to sneak a drone into the Valkyrie wreck and the need to find the perfect position to maintain their cloak.

  Tashi's brow furrowed in thought. "I've been studying the specs on the cloaking system," he said, his voice eager. “I understand the crystals work to bend wavelengths around them—infrared, lidar, radar, the works. It’s not like a cocoon around the ship. The signal passes on. If it’s supposed to bounce back, it will and then bend around the ship in the other direction in the same way, which makes it impossible to tell it was bent in the first place.”

  Wilf grew visibly annoyed that Tashi seemed to understand the cloaking tech so well. He remained silent, settling for an angry glare.

  “It makes sense that there would be a dead spot on the far side of the signal, where the bent signals don’t reach. We have the shape of the ship, we should be able to calculate the size of that dead space. I’ll need help, though.”