‘We have our plan.’

The words hummed through the Rookery, but any dramatic impact was lost as Q’ira flopped dramatically back on her beanbag and said, ‘Thank stars, I’ve been so fucking bored!’

Nallera glanced down at her. ‘I thought you were worried we wouldn’t have petty crime for you to help with?’

‘I am. I don’t know what I’m going to do against inter – intra-galactic warlords. But I’m starting to think I’d rather find out than get real good at sudoku.’

Ranicus looked like this was not the reaction she’d expected or wanted. Rosewood, beside her, cleared his throat.

‘Think that’s your cue to press on,’ he muttered.

‘Right. I forgot, you’re all hilarious.’ Ranicus straightened, eyes settling more on Cassidy, Falaris, Jakorr – the bridge officers. ‘Our sweeps of the Proxima sub-system have given us a thorough strategic overview. We know the Vaadwaur forces and defences – as best we can without risking exposing ourselves further. This is the first objective of Sirius Squadron upon their arrival: assault and liberate Proxima.’

This got a more impressed hum of silence. Aryn leaned forward in his worn, battered armchair. ‘We have force superiority?’

‘We have it,’ said Jakorr quickly, like he would burst if he didn’t have his say on a tactical matter. ‘Significantly, this plan hits the Vaadwaur forces while they’re divided across the sub-systems and stops them from consolidating their strength. There’s no way they can get reinforcements in from A/B in time once the squadron shows up.’

‘Sure, but the forces at the main system are huge,’ said Nallera, brow furrowed. ‘Won’t they just show up in a couple days and paste us?’

‘That’d require dispatching the majority of their forces, leaving A/B under-defended,’ explained Ranicus. ‘We’d see them coming. Obviously, a withdrawal would leave Proxima free for them to seize again, but then what do the Vaadwaur do? Split their forces to try to hold both?’

‘Probably,’ mused Aryn, ‘send for reinforcements from Underspace.’

Ranicus raised a sharp finger. ‘I know there’s a lot we don’t know, and we have to prepare for the worst. But I refuse for us to let paranoia, presuming the enemy is all-powerful, stop us from taking action. We can liberate Proxima. Holding it does raise questions – but we have options, and we’ll take it as it comes.’

‘And,’ said Rosewood, ‘holding it becomes Commodore Rourke and Commander Harrian’s problem to figure out. But we can help take it.’

‘Good,’ rumbled Cassidy. ‘I’m not watching Proxima get freed from a bridge.’

‘The Blackout interference is affecting the Vaadwaur as much as us. Maybe more,’ said Ranicus, turning to her strategic map and bringing up an overlay of criss-crossing lines spanning the system: the comms network. ‘Because we know AC and they don’t. We’re in a better position to compensate. They know this, which is why they’ve hijacked the old communications relay network, and are using it for system-wide comms. We’re going to take it out.’

Nallera sat up. ‘Boom?’

Rosewood tilted his hand. ‘Some boom.’ She fist-pumped.

Ranicus sighed. ‘The network relies on a series of relays distributed throughout the system. The comms hub for the Proxima sub-system itself is on the surface of Proxima II, in the city of Innes. The Rooks will infiltrate the city, get into the facility, and, yes, rig it for detonation. But that’s not all.’

Rosewood slid in there, bringing up a second holographic screen as he explained. ‘Falaris has cooked up a… you know what, Maive?’ He’d been geared up for an intervention, only to realise it was best coming from the woman herself.

‘I – oh.’ The Bajoran operations officer perked up, realising it was her turn. ‘A computer virus. Codenamed “Wraith.”’

‘Original,’ Q’ira drawled. Nallera elbowed her hard, which took leaning over very deliberately and was thus not at all subtle. Q’ira squeaked and fell silent.

Falaris flushed and pressed on. ‘It’ll disrupt the comms network, but once Proxima is liberated, we can switch it off ourselves, restore control. It’ll basically… once uploaded, it’ll create redundant ghost nodes in the comms system, intercepting and looping transmissions, delaying and corrupting messages. And using a masking protocol only modern Starfleet systems can decipher, it’ll lock out the encryption keys the Vaadwaur have -’

Now Rosewood stepped in. ‘It’ll stop them from turning the virus off. But we can turn it off.’

Nallera looked at Falaris. ‘Hey, that was better! Minimal jargon for those of us who are just a pretty face.’

‘Hey!’ protested Q’ira.

‘I meant Aryn. Anyway,’ Nallera turned back to Ranicus. ‘So why do we blow it up, too? Not that I’m complaining.’

‘So the Vaadwaur have a harder time restoring control during the battle. And, well…’ Ranicus grimaced. ‘Redundancy.’

‘In case we lose,’ said Cassidy.

She nodded, and pressed on. ‘The Rooks will deploy into Innes in six hours, infiltrate the facility, upload the virus. We trigger it as late as possible before the squadron’s arrival, two hours later.’

‘And detonate?’ asked Nallera.

‘Once you’re free and clear,’ said Ranicus, ‘and, ideally, once the Vaadwaur are scrambling against this attack force. The squadron still have to make it to Proxima after they arrive through the catapult.’

‘Oh good,’ sighed Q’ira. ‘We get front-row seats to the light show.’

Cassidy spoke quickly, trying to cut off the banter of his team. ‘How do we infiltrate?’

Ranicus nodded, and moved to the more detailed phase of the briefing.

Holding his breath on the bridge didn’t make the Blackbird harder to detect. It just felt like it to Rosewood, stood at the rear next to Aryn at his auxiliary console, watching on the viewscreen display as the contact dots on the strategic map drew closer and closer.

Or, rather, they drew closer, drifting on low power from their hiding point and towards Proxima II. Creeping from cover to cover – a pocket of gravitic shear between the stars, a passing comet, approaching by slipping from gravity well of a moon to the activity hum of an outer-system ore processing facility – they advanced into the belly of the beast.

Cassidy stood before the command chair. Like Rosewood, he was dressed in what looked like civvies from the outside, albeit hard-wearing gear that could be mistaken for an industry worker’s clothing: solid boots, thick cargo trousers, a worn jacket. Underneath, invisible, was the filament-woven bodysuit, no thicker than an undershirt and leggings. It wouldn’t withstand the blast of a high-powered phaser. It might make the difference between life and death in the field.

Falaris’s hands slid with careful precision over the sensor panel. ‘No movement from the outer patrol lines,’ she confirmed. ‘Background radiation’s still helping mask us.’

Jakorr leaned over his panel. ‘If we cut a route direct from VII to V, bypassing the moons of -’

‘Stick to the plan,’ Cassidy said in a low voice. ‘Let’s not get cocky.’

Ranicus shifted her weight. ‘This is already cocky,’ she said to him, too quiet for any but Rosewood to hear.

‘It was your plan,’ Rosewood murmured, meeting her eye with a faint smirk.

The interruption was not welcome: a tense bark from Jakorr. ‘Vaadwaur cruiser’s changed course! Coming in fast!’

‘Have they seen us?’

‘I don’t…’ Jakorr took a moment. ‘No sign of activating shields or weapons systems. I don’t think they’ve noticed us.’

Cassidy looked at the movement on the tactical sensors and took a deep breath. ‘If we swing back into the shadow of the moon -’

But Ranicus piped up, low and respectful. ‘Recommend we drop to minimum power. Weapons offline, all systems offline; if it’s not keeping us alive or keeping us hidden, kill it.’ There was a beat as Blackbird’s two masters looked at each other – then Cassidy inclined his head and stepped back.

‘You heard her.’

‘Bleeding it down now,’ said Falaris, fingers dancing over controls.

This time, everyone did hold their breath.

They couldn’t see the Vaadwaur ship through the canopy, or the moon they’d sidled past. Only their systems told them that the cruiser was advancing towards their position, closer and closer with every second. They didn’t have a cloaking device; were nearly entirely reliant on nobody looking for them…

The proximity alarm flared silently red. Rosewood inhaled sharply through his nose.

Ranicus stood firm in the centre of the bridge. ‘Do not blink.’

On the sensor feed, the cruiser passed nearly overhead, humming with deadly energy – and moved on. No alert. No lock.

Another beat passed. Then Falaris let out a slow breath. ‘We’re clear. Nav window to Proxima II is open.’

Cassidy looked at her. ‘Nothing in orbit that’s gonna pick us up?’

‘We’ll handle it,’ Ranicus told him. ‘You should get to the transporter room. We might have a very narrow window to beam you down.’

He nodded, turning for the door. ‘We’ll be on standby. Tag the zone the second you can and transport us.’

‘And don’t forget,’ said Rosewood, patting Aryn on the shoulder as the two fell into step behind Cassidy, ‘to leave the porch light on for us.’

When he glanced back, he could swear he saw a hint of amusement in her eyes. ‘I assure you,’ said Ranicus. ‘I will be leaving all the lights off while we wait.’

‘Attagirl,’ he said as he left, and wondered if he could ever get away with saying that to her again.

Though if this went badly, he wouldn’t say anything to her ever again.