Omega Force: Rebellion (OF11), стр. 60
Didza wasn't sure what to make of the high admiral's claim that a credible threat had been made against the capital world. K'Tao wasn't known to waste his time playing games with his subordinates and making them run readiness drills for the fun of it, but who in their right mind would attack the ConFed's seat of power after seeing how easily the fleet had dismantled the Eshquarian Empire?
Regardless of the circumstances, he'd been given an order and had a job to do. Whether this was a real-world threat or just an exercise, he'd show the high admiralty that he was worthy of his family name and rank. Perhaps this was just the sort of opportunity he'd been waiting for; the chance to distinguish himself from the other legacy appointments and boost his family's standing into the echelons of mainline fleet.
20
"The HDF ships are all at full burn, heading back for the inner system, sir."
"I can see that," Mok said. "That's not a normal move from them unless there's a planned demonstration for incoming dignitaries. This is the first solid evidence we've seen that Captain Burke may have been correct in his assumptions. Please send word to the Sarafin that they should be ready to jump into the system the moment we give the word."
"Yes, sir."
Mok's small courier ship had been loitering in the Miressa System for over five days waiting for something to happen. There had been no sign of the Eshquarian ships and, until very recently, no sign that the ConFed was planning anything major within the system. Now that the HDF ships were pulling back and regrouping, Mok thought they might be close to seeing something happen. It made sense that the Machine would at least get its ships moving in the right direction before bringing in an Eshquarian battlefleet to pit them against.
"Another ship transponder has just popped up on the other side of the system, sir," Similan said from where he sat at the back of the cramped bridge. "It's the Cridal's flagship, Defiant."
"The ship that Councilman Scleesz is aboard, currently," Mok mused. "This is going to happen soon, I think."
"I must admit to thinking the young captain's theory was a bit…overwrought," Similan said. "Perhaps he knows our foe better than I've given him credit for."
"I've learned not to underestimate or ignore Jason Burke over the years, my friend," Mok said. "Despite the jokes at his expense by his crew, he has a keen mind that is able to make intuitive leaps that make him appear almost precognizant. Of course, I've also witnessed him almost kill his entire crew when he accidentally crashed his ship into a building."
"Are we sure we want to trust this operation to such a man?"
"It was a long time ago." Mok waved him off. "On second thought, go ahead and have the Sarafin move into the system now and move into one of the holding patterns in the outer system. We might not have time to reposition ships once this all kicks off."
"At once, master."
"We're back in real-space," Kage said. "Sensors confirm we're in the Miressa System. Mok's forward observation ship is sending over all the intel it's gathered so far."
"Doc, you go through all that," Jason said. "I need Kage focused on the sensor feed from the Sarafin."
The Miressa System was one of the most congested Jason had ever seen. The situation display between the pilot and copilot stations was showing so many transponder signals that you couldn't pick out a single ship among the chaos. One ship that did stand out, however, because the Phoenix was instructed to highlight it whenever it was in the area was the Defiant. Scleesz has mentioned that he was aboard the Cridal ship, but he'd neglected to mention that she was also heading to the capital system. This complicated things slightly since he didn't know why Seeladas Dalton would have sent her flagship to Miressa, but the chance of it being a mere coincidence was slim. Had Scleesz flipped on them? Was Kellea there to provide reinforcements if things drift away from the plan?
"What the hell is the Defiant doing here?" Kage asked.
"I wish I knew," Jason said.
Scleesz had warned him that Seeladas was playing both sides, hedging her bets to make sure she maintained her position even if the ConFed decided a sovereign Cooperative wasn't in their best interests. He'd passed on the information to his friends in Earth's new military and hoped that they'd take his advice and stay out of it as long as possible. The ships they were building from the engineering data he'd provided from the Archive were more than impressive, but there were so few of them that, in a standup fight against the bigger powers, Earth wouldn't last long.
"Is Lucky still down servicing the XTX missiles?" Crusher asked.
"Yeah, he's still in the aft bay right now," Kage said. "The Sarafin crew decided not to pump up the cargo hold with atmosphere until the attack boat crews are ready to load up, so it was either send Twingo out in a pressure suit or just let Lucky do it."
"I'm going down to grab something to eat," Crusher said, making a show of stretching and yawning before walking off and stopping by the pilot's seat. "Care to join me?" Jason just rolled his eyes. Crusher was skilled at many things, dropping subtle hints wasn't one of them.
"I suppose," he said. "Kage—"
"Yeah, yeah…I'll watch everything while you're down there whispering to each other." Kage waved at him with his two left hands. "Don't be talking about me down there."
"You're actually getting something to eat?" Jason