Hunter's Prey by Richard Tongue

Author:Richard Tongue [Tongue, Richard]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-02-02T07:00:00+00:00

Chapter 15

“Three minutes to egress,” Fitzroy’s voice barked over the speaker. “I repeat, three minutes to egress. All hands to alert stations. I repeat, all hands to alert stations. That is all.”

Hunter finished his tuna sandwich with a single bite, rubbing his hands clean with a wipe before tossing it into the nearest waste chute, calmly walking towards Auxiliary Control, passing a damage control team as they moved to their assigned station.

They’d finally beaten the battlecruiser in simulation that morning. Once. Which a shot he knew had been a fluke, knocking out the forward turrets and giving them an opportunity to press a salvo home. The odds of them pulling off a maneuver like that in an actual firefight were lousy, but at least it had given his team a morale boost before they arrived at Lemuria.

Which had been the reason he’d asked Fujiyama to arrange it.

He stepped through the doors into the room, his crew already at their posts, Xiang rising from the command chair as he approached. Ortega, now on semi-permanent loan from Sickbay, was at the helm, his hands poised and ready to take control at a moment should it be necessary, Varna keeping up a running commentary with the damage control teams, checking that those in the rear areas of the ship were in position.

“We are at full alert, Commander,” Xiang reported. “I have requested access to the tactical network, but Captain Schultz has yet to approve it.”

“He doesn’t want you watching over his shoulder,” Ortega added. “I can’t say I blame him.” He looked at his console, then said, “At least Holloway seems to know what she’s doing. We’re going to be executing a full-evasive pattern as soon as we break out of warp.”

“Keep checking her work,” Hunter ordered. “You’ve flown a ship in battle. She hasn’t. Ensign Volkova, I want a full report on the situation in this system as soon as we arrive. Don’t wait for any analysis from the Command Deck, because I don’t think we’re going to get any. And run a check on the defense systems. If it was up to me, we’d be at battle stations, but…”

“One minute to egress,” Ortega reported. “All nominal at present.”

The rear door slid open, and Riley stepped inside, saying, “Anyone mind if I take the observer’s chair? I don’t want to miss anything.”

“Go ahead, Chief,” Hunter replied. “Sing out if you see anything we might have missed. Ensign Varna, status of the engineering teams.”

“Dedicated damage control teams are in position, sir.”

“And the rest?”

“On five-minute readiness for action, Commander”

It felt so damned strange to be sitting in what looked like a flight deck, getting the same reports as the Captain with no ability to influence the situation at all. He’d held off reporting to Auxiliary Control for as long as he could in order to avoid the temptation to start a fight he couldn’t win, but had already seen a dozen mistakes he could have corrected with a single order.

For a start, they should be emerging at battle stations, not merely at alert status.

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