Pearl of the Stars

Grace lit a cigarette as she waited for the other unit heads to join her. They were not doing so in person, but digitally. Around the conference table were five screens situated evenly. The hastily called meeting would be as close to the real thing as possible.

One by one the screens around the table came to life until all six unit heads were present, yet Grace stubbed her cigarette out in the ash tray before she spoke.

“You all know why you are here, so I’m not going to bullfick you,” she began, her opening statement going down well if the nods of approval were anything to go by. “There was an attack on the Victoria system, annoyingly whilst we were still there. The Council has requested our immediate return.”

“Then why the fick are we still heading towards the jump point?” Captain William Frost of the Rose of Sharyn demanded. It was the first time Grace had heard the man speak for at the last meeting, he had not uttered a word.

“Because we’re not going back,” said Captain Danielle Casper, taking the words right out of Grace Ifhans’ mouth.

“You expect us to disobey a direct order?” Captain Hubbard almost yelled.

“No, I do not,” replied Grace calmly. “Only I will be disobeying the order. You are under my command, therefore the buck stops with me.”

“Why are we not going back?” Captain Frost asked, and Grace found that she already longed for him to shut the fick up.

“Please Captain Frost, think it through,” replied Grace. When the blank look upon William Frost’s face did not change, she continued. “It is clearly a trap, a ploy to lure the Fleet into enemy clutches. I have discussed the matter with Major Hynes who as you know, is a former Councillor. He agrees that the Council would have issued no such order. Our mission is far too important.”

“Then who issued the order?” Captain Frost seemed extremely determined to get on Grace’s bad side, yet she remained as calm as she could.

“We would know the answer to that, if we knew who had attacked.”

“The Others?” Captain Jane Erstwhile asked.

“The evidence would suggest so, yes,” replied Grace with a nod. “However that in itself begs more than a few questions, the first of which would be, how the fick did the bastards sneak up on Victoria like that?”

“It is no secret there are Others spies all across Council space,” Captain Frank Holding spoke for the first time. “Although to get the jump on us like that would have taken some planning. They must have known the Fleet was leaving, and that Victoria would have minimal security.”

“Who else could it be?” Captain William Frost asked, a sensible question for once.

“It’s a big universe, and we’ve found evidence of other civilisations before,” said Captain Casper. “Although to the best of my knowledge, we have never actually encountered an alien race.”

“Even if we had, chances are people like us would know nothing about it,” replied Grace, lighting another cigarette as she spoke. On the table beside her a light flashed, indicating to her that the bridge was attempting to contact her. “Yes?” She asked having engaged the Pearl’s internal communication system. “You’re fickling joking?!”

“I believe we’ve just received the same information as you,” Captain Casper said, her face as all around the table, a picture of worry.

“Let’s wrap this up quickly,” said Captain Grace Ifhans, getting to her feet. “Head to the jump point as planned, we’ll regroup when we reach Faraday.” With that she turned and ran from the conference room, leaving behind her a chorus of agreement. Luckily she was not far from the bridge and within a minute or two, Grace was staring at the vast radar display, not entirely sure she was believing what her eyes told her she was seeing. She saw the Council Fleet, no more than a few hours away from the jump point to Faraday, the next star system on their route but that was not the problem. The radar showed that a little over an hour ago, another fleet had exited the jump point from the Victoria system.

“Do we know who they are?”

“No Ma’am,” a Lieutenant replied. “I can tell you who it isn’t though. They’re not Council, and they’re not Others.”

“I do not like the sound of that at all Lieutenant,” Captain Grace Ifhans grimaced. “Inform the rest of the Fleet to double their speed. I want to put some space between us and them, whoever they are.”

“Aye Ma’am,” said the Lieutenant.

Moments later the Fleet accelerated to two-tenths the speed of light. They would reach the jump point to the Faraday system in half the time, but such speeds even for such a short time would put a strain on fuel supplies. Grace knew full well that the Fleet could not maintain that velocity for long, but she felt she had little choice. She did not want to fight an unknown enemy, for all she knew whoever was chasing the Fleet had weapons capable of destroying a vessel with ease, and Grace certainly did not intend to make it easy for them. No fickling way.