Sinzar high orbit. Some moments before the beginning of the battle.
"All right, Randall.." Elaine began, as the CIRCE emerged out of hyperspace, sixteen other destroyers and cruisers right behind it, "What do we have here?"
She could have found out the answer from Commander Daele, of course...but Randall Carpenter and his crew were probably feeling just a little bit edgy by now, and as battlegroup commander, it was her job to raise the morale of Carpenter and his crew, and this she could accomplish simply by *asking* questions.
"Seven fleet carriers, a combination of their medium and heavy class capital ships, emerged from hyperspace just before you did, Captain." Carpenter reported, his expression tense. "They've already launched a serious number of those light cruiser-class warships they carry aboard, and those are headed inbound towards our fighter screen, estimating contact in six minutes...mark! Suggest that if you're planning on doing something, it had better be soon."
"Stand by." she replied, taking a brief moment to nod in the direction of her Exec, who immediately began issuing combat orders, his deep voice crisp and decisive. "Help's on the way." she told Carptenter, as rather abruptly, Daele brought her command to combat acceleration, and the distant multiple shudders from the fighter bay told her the Thunderbolts were on their way, as well.
"We're launching our fighter screen now, and will shortly be moving most of those squadrons into close proximity with the advance Drakh fleet units. The two destroyer groups under my command are also moving to engage their motherships, while Captain Richter of the HECATE will bring his group in from behind."
"Understood." Carpenter noted, as he turned aside for a moment to issue an order of his own. "Closing the pincers...let's hope it works. We'll be joining your battleline shortly, CIRCE. HELENA out."
A few minutes passed, then: minutes in which the two unstopable forces drew closer together...but finally, the moment came, as it always did. "Range to target?" she inquired, as the hundreds of fighters moving ahead of the destroyers on point began to split apart into seperate flights, vectoring towards the nearest Drakh targets.
"Nine hundred kilometers, and closing." Daele rumbled. "Seven hundred. Five hundred. Drakh forces are locking their weapons on our fighter groups, our people are doing the same. Three hundred...the Drakh have opened fire!"
"This is Fleet Command to all destroyers!" Elaine ordered, as the multiple flashes of fighter-to-Drakh weapons exchange began to fill the skies of Sinzar. "Engage the enemy closely!"
It was then, even as the flash of close-range weapons fire began to fill space between her capital ships and the Drakh main force...even as long ruddy tracers of light and flashes of plasma began to reach out towards the enemy, that a *far* brighter flash of light illuminated the battlefield.
"What the *HELL*?" Daele exclaimed, and Elaine whirled, to see shock emblazoned on his face.
* * *
On the far side of the battlefield, the rearmost Drakh carrier calmly moved on towards its ultimate goal...the bombardment of the human colony ahead. The Zau Vekh'shivalht had issued his orders, and all but a handful of the carrier's protective light cruisers had retreated behind their mothership to deal with the Earther secondary force approaching from the rear.
This was the last mistake that warship's commander would *ever* make, as behind his carrier, a swift midnight shadow moved against the stars...a shadow quickly moving itself into firing position...
A moment later, the SHARD OF NIGHT revealed itself briefly as its main gun engaged, followed quickly by the five sets of forward and engine-mounted pulse cannon it shared with its White Star predecessors...but after the initial seconds of engagement, that light was absorbed by the hull, and faded from sight. To those few watchers who were actually paying attention, and more would do so in the minutes to come, it was almost as if the focused energies produced by those weapons were emerging from nowhere.
The pulse cannon bursts were the first to reach the hull of the Drakh carrier, beginning the job of rending its hull asunder. A job that was completed a moment later, as the four hooked Vorlontech tines on the prow of the SHARD finished focusing the main gun's powerful energies in front of the battlecruiser's nose...and then, rather suddenly, a long, rippling blast of directed white-hot plasma struck against the side of the Drakh capital ship.
Before very nearly tearing it in two.
* * *
In the first moment after the main gun had fired, something akin to incomprehending awe filled Julia's mind...and then, fear followed it. For the first time, she realized *exactly* what Varsak had done in designing and building this ship. For the first time, she knew what President Sheridan had committed himself to, when he had given her command of the SHARD.
And lastly, she finally understood *why* Rahkeel had responded the way he had, when the President had told the Minbari who would be replacing him in the battlecruiser's captain's chair.
And then, the moment passed, and here-and-now became far more important, as the SHARD passed rapidly through the spray of molten metal spewing out of the heart of the Drakh carrier, and moved back into the darkness.
"Target...destroyed." Klairika reported, her face showing almost as much shock at what had just happened as she had just felt. "Anla'shok Fenric and his squadron are away, Val'na. The Drakh, for the moment, appear to be disoriented by our sudden attack..."
"So I note! Time to recharge of main battery?" she inquired, a little shakily, as Holm and the secondary gunners at the front of the bridge tore into a small squadron of Drakh cruisers that had whirled back towards their carriers to try and figure out what was going on.
"Eighty seconds." Klairika reported.
"Bring us to bear on the next nearest carrier, make ready to take her out. We've only just *begun* to crash this party."
* * *
EAS CIRCE.
"What's going on?" Elaine demanded, as the space between the CIRCE and the Drakh filled the signs of death...as the Drakh cruisers drew close enough for the pulse cannon and main batteries of her destroyer to open fire on that enemy, and for them to do the same.
"The rearmost Drakh carrier just...exploded." Daele replied, an almost bemused expression on his face. "Whatever hit it was a *single*-strike weapon, Captain...but the volley was sufficient to completely destroy the target!"
"Well I will be *damned*!" she exclaimed, as a stray Drakh energy bolt struck through their defences, and the CIRCE shuddered beneath her feet. "It would appear, Commander, that someone's decided to enter into this engagement on our side!"
"But where are they, then?" Daele exclaimed. "Our sensors show nothing!"
* * *
On the Drakh command ship, Palakz found himself listening to two very disagreeable things at once. The first, of course, was his Vaarliht explaining, in exacting terms, how one of his fleet carriers had just been shattered into very tiny pieces by an energy weapon stronger then anything in either his *or* the human arsenal. And the other thing, was a shimmering chime-warning he had not thought to hear in this place.
The warning that spoke of Vorlon weapons technology being used, nearby. The last time he had heard that tone, it had been when the Fleet had been engaging Sheridan's daggerships, in orbit around Earth...
His teeth bared, Palakz whirled to face Raeznon. "So! The humans have recruited a new ally, have they? An ally using *Vorlon* technology to strike against us. Aeillok!"
"Vekh'zha!" the comm-Drakh hissed.
"Establish a communications link with our reserve force in hyperspace, and summon them to this place to guard our flank. After you do this, you will call out to the nearest node of hte Entire -- I would speak with our leader."
And even as the words were spoken, the human ally revealed itself again, and another of his carriers died. "Take us out of the main battle line..." he ordered. "Make ready to rendezvous with reinforcements!"
* * *
"Did you catch it that time?" Elaine demanded, as Daele bent over his situation board.
"Affirmative. But Captain...damnit, you have to see it to believe it!"
Elaine left her seat, and moved to stand at Daele's side. "Show me."
And show her, Daele did...but what he was showing her didn't make things any clearer. On the screen, she saw an image of the Drakh ship that just been destroyed...and then, the by-now familiar white flame of light emerged from the night beyond, and tore it asunder.
"It's almost as if the blast's coming out of *nowhere*!" Daele exclaimed. "No one has stealth-tech that good, not even the Minbari!"
"No one until now, that is." she replied, her voice razor-sharp. "Commander, it looks like the rules have just changed again, and for the moment, I am not about to argue..." She winced then, however, as on one of the bridge observation screens, a Drakh cruiser was winged by a fusion laser blast, and, spinning out of control, collided with the side of the nearby destroyer DAEDALUS... Captain Shantei Atura's command.
"That..."
"Was a critical hit, I'm afraid." Daele replied, as they both watched the DAEDALUS fall out of the formation, its main drive silenced, fires burning both on the habitat section and along the main axis of the destroyer, as well. "Reports coming in; Captain Atura has ordered the evacuation of her command, and only just in time, it looks like..."
They both looked away, then, as the DAEDALUS suddenly exploded, and winced again, as the unwelcome chime of jump warning rang through the bridge. "More Drakh." she stated; not a question, but a fact.
Daele nodded, as the jump point faded from sight, and the new arrivals joined their comrades. "More Drakh. Three carriers, inbound...they're already launching their cruisers. Do we continue this?"
She nodded resolutely. "We have to hold the line, Commander! I will NOT let those bastards have Sinzar!"
* * *
The bridge of the SHARD.
"One of the Drakh capital ships has left their line-of-battle..." Klairika reported, even as Holm opened fire on another Drakh carrier with the secondaries, tearing great fragments of hull off and opening the ship's interior to space, and Fenric and his fighter group further damaged the listing Drakh vessel. "It's looping around behind the newly arrived reinforcements."
"Could they have seen us?" Julia inquired, dread possibilities whirling through her mind.
"I do not believe so." Larieken interjected, even as space around the SHARD filled with blue fire from Drakh cruisers returned to try and locate their new enemy. "Instead, I would surmise *that* carrier is the flagship of their armada...and the commander is protecting himself from the new threat we represent."
It was at that moment that the tiny, sometimes frighteningly fast Drakh escort cruisers got lucky, and the artificial gravity system shuddered for a moment as over half a dozen of the enemy managed to score hits on the hull simultaneously, nearly throwing many of the standing crew off their feet. "Damage report!"
"Damage is...negligible." Klairika replied a moment later, a slight smile on her face as the helmsman moved the SHARD clear of their opponents, and accelerated towards the newly arrived reinforcements. "Much of the energy from those strikes was absorbed or reflected by the hull, Val'na, and the little damage we *did* receive is already been repaired."
"A promise Varsak managed to keep." she noted. "And while the Drakh are Shadow servants, luckily they don't have anything closely equivalent to our main battery in strength or configuration. Shift our assault onto the newly arrived Drakh vessels...we *have* to keep them away from the Earth fleet. And see if you can get us through to target their flagship, somehow!"
"An understandable wish." Larieken said, his face grim. "If unlikely, given the number of Drakh vessels between us and that command. Also, four of the Earth heavy warships have now either been disabled or destroyed, and many of their fighters, while the rest would appear to have suffered damage ranging from minor to significant, even though they possess numerical advantage over their foe. And if the Drakh break through, and manage to destroy the planetary defense network..."
"Let's just hope the Drakh don't have any more reinforcements coming." she replied, as the SHARD sliced across the distance between the main battleline and the approaching reinforcements. "We're only one ship...and we can't destroy this fleet all by ourselves!"
The battle continued. While elsewhere in the ship, another movement of fire and shadow , briefly forgotten in the fracas, was also approaching its ultimate end.
* * *
Rear mid-decks. Engineering.
For the moment, the crisis appeared to have passed, and Nicholas briefly ran his eyes over the SHARD's realtime operating stats before turning to meet the gaze of his primary assistant, the Minbari named Lesaki. Receiving an understanding nod in response, he then glanced over at the lanky, brown-haired figure of Rohan Klavait, standing steady at his station near #2 Auxillary Reactor. That power plant was now feeling the strain, as the Captain had already fired the main battery twice in the last ten minutes, and if he read the stat board correctly, would shortly be using it again when they ran into the second wave of Drakh ships approaching Sinzar.
This was, however, the moment that he and Sheynell had chosen to spring the trap on Klavait. Even as he moved away from the stat board and Lesaki took his place, Nicholas knew that a summons had been sent to the man, and that one of his stand-by crew was already moving to take the Scandanavian's place at Reactor Two Control. Now, the question was, how would Klavait respond to being summoned away from his post in the middle of a battle?
He smiled; if the testimony that Damon Jeffries had 'given' to Sheynell was accurate, he knew exactly how Klavait would respond. Given that he'd tried to kill Dasouri and then hidden it from all but his friend and (luckily) one other prying mind, Klavait would probably, even if he *could* get the man into his office, be overly defensive and argumentative, and would likely attempt to deny everything. And then, he would probably try to escape, take control of part of the ship.
As he moved to stand behind his desk, and the pair of Rangers sent down by Sheynell to aid in this affair appeared at his door, Nicholas considered how they were ready for *that* possibility, as well. He'd been busy in the time since the Captain had given him his present duty...and if Klavait turned away or managed to escape from his office somehow, he would eventually find out that his access-line into the computer system had been elliminated. And then, of course, the *other* part of the trap could be sprung.
The important part.
* * *
His heart thumping wildly, Rohan Klavait approached the door that lead to the office of his Chief, thinking of worst possible scenarios. He hadn't heard from Damon since before the battle had begun, and worst of all, the Drazi had survived, saved by Tikopai's telepathic tactical officer. Now she, he considered, was the strangest of all the senior Rangers aboard, and kept her secrets locked up tight...so tight, even *he* hadn't been able to open her files.
And while he didn't know how strong she was, Klavait knew that she was dangerous, and also, an obstacle to his plans. But then, he smiled. *He* was dangerous as well, but in a different way. The ones who had met with him before he'd left Minbar to come here had told him *many* useful things about the SHARD, and given him a few...gifts to make things a little easier. He'd already used one of those gifts in the failed attempt to kill the Drazi, and if the Chief accused him, he'd escape, and move on from there. Hell, he knew enough about the SHARD now to make things *very* difficult for the Captain, when the time came. Enough to make them take him to the dropoff point his associates had told him about.
And then, he rounded the corner, and came face-to-face with the two Rangers standing outside the Chief's door, met their gazes and that of the Chief in his office, just beyond...and saw in their eyes that they *knew*...that they were planning on drawing him into a trap, and then confronting him with their version of the 'truth'. Well damn them, *and* their truths...he would have none of it!
Klavait turned, and began to run. Behind him, he could hear the Rangers coming in pursuit...well, he didn't have to stand for that, either. Barking out a set of commands to the computer, Klavait turned off down a side corridor, even as the the pursuing Rangers ran straight into the firewall descending between them and their quarry...the firewall *he* had ordered to descend. Klavait allowed himself to relax a little, then, as he continued the work of isolating himself from the rest of the ship, dropping down firewalls all around the little bolthole he'd worked himself into. Try to trap him, would they? Klavait laughed. They might have broken his cover wide open, but the worst was yet to come!
* * *
Behind their fleeing 'quarry', the two Rangers paused, nodded at one another as the firewall swiftly raised back up out of sight, and then turned away to meet the cool gaze of their just-arrived superior officer.
"Thank you, gentlemen..." Sheynell told them both. "I think *I'll* take it from here."
* * *
The Drakh flagship.
{What is this you are saying?} Palakh exclaimed, as the seemingly amused face of the Sha'drakh looked down upon him. {Are you saying that this battle was only a test?}
{That is...one way of putting it, yes.} the Elder mused. {We needed to learn exactly what strengths remained to the humans, and to what lengths they would go in protecting their worlds, after so many of their primitive warships were destroyed at Earth, during the battle where we lost the Fist.}
{I *see*.} Palakz spat. {You however, do not, my leader! The evidence, it must be examined more closely! Our forces have encountered an unknown force here at the human world Sinzar, a force that has already destroyed two of my carriers, and badly damaged another. Even with the addition of my reinforcements, our advance has ground to a halt, trapped in between the primitive but numerically *superior* humans, and this unknown attacker savaging our flanks!}
{I would hear more of this at a later date.} the Sha'drakh commanded, his gaze forceful, and eyes narrowed. {For now, however, Palakz, be at peace! We have learned much this day...learned how far the humans will go in the face of adversity, and learned of the existence of a new enemy, an enemy we will watch carefully for, in the times to come. Another of our battlegroups will shortly be jumping into the area to cover your retreat.}
{I *thank* you for that consideration.} Palakz intoned, as behind him, Raeznon grimaced at the tone in her elder-partner's voice. {What are left of my forces are disengaging *now*.}
* * *
EAS CIRCE.
"Oh, Hell!" Daele exclaimed, even as Elaine's ship shuddered violently from a new volley of Drakh hits, and the centrifuge paused briefly, throwing everyone on the bridge off-kilter...while another of the Drakh carriers, this time in the first set of reinforcements, expanded into a fireball, the latest target of their mysterious hidden 'friend'. "I think we've got a problem, Captain. We've got *four* jump points opening behind the Drakh lines, in between us and HECATE's battlegroup." A moment later, he confirmed her worst fear. "More Drakh entering the system...the remnants of the first group are pulling back to join them."
Elaine blinked, then, and sighed. "How many?"
"Looks like eleven more of their capital ships, accompanied by at least three hundred light cruisers." Daele met her gaze levelly, then. "Captain, I beg leave to reveal a somewhat nasty truth to you. While we've been aided in this battle by our unseen friend out there, every one of our ships has taken varying degrees of damage in this battle, and we've now lost three destroyers and four cruisers to the Drakh attack. If those new arrivals decide to join the fray, we're in deep trouble."
"As I told you before, Commander," she began, "We have to..."
"Captain!" her comm officer began, his voice almost...excited. "Message incoming!"
"Who is it from?" she exclaimed.
"On screen."
And Elaine began to smile, as the face of one of her oldest friends appeared on the wallscreen. "Captain ap Glydden." Captain Bethany Tikopai began. "You look like you could use a little help...stand by, we're on our way in."
* * *
Almost before he'd begun, Klavait realized it had all just been another ruse. Dawson had *let* him get in here, away from the rest of the crew, and then had cut off his access to the computer systems. And now, his back to the wall, knife in hand, he heard the footsteps approaching, and knew the end had come.
The end, however, wasn't at all what he had been expecting, as a fairly tall, blonde-haired woman rounded the corner. Klavait snarled even as he felt her eyes calmly meet his, and the awesome power behind those eyes begin to shatter the surface of his mind...and began to use the only defense he knew.
His opponent laughed. "Rhymes won't help you, you know. I've been trained by the best, in my time, and the best showed me how to use *every* trick in the book, and plenty of those your friends didn't tell you about."
"I...won't..."
"Oh, but you WILL." the telepath replied, her eyes now icy with concentration and only-just controlled anger. "You see, Mr. Klavait, I'm a P12...high end, and you're a normal. And since you chose to threaten both one of my fellow Rangers, and also this ship, as well, I cannot allow there to even *be* a contest between us."
"But..."
"Your friend also thought to throw the rule book at me, and I explained to him, at some length, why that wouldn't help him. You are no different. Now then, Mr. Klavait, I'm going to ask you some questions, questions you will answer, or I might tear your mind apart to get the answers, a process you won't enjoy, I assure you. To begin: *Who* do you serve?"
Klavait screamed, then, as a dagger of pain flashed across his synapses, and he sank down into darkness.
* * *
The remnants of Palakh's force had only just met up with their leader and half of the just-arrived battlegroup when something completely unexpected occured. Both the Vekh'shivalht and his Favored Claw started, as the jump-in signal sounded yet again. "What *now*?" he exclaimed, as a single new jump point twisted open.
'What now' revealed itself to them both a moment later, and Palakz whirled to meet Raeznon's now openly *concerned* gaze. "We jump *now*!" he commanded. "Before all is lost!"
* * *
Palakz's concern was shared by many other Drakh captains in that instant, as the just-opened jump point flared, and a dead-black Earthforce warship dropped into the system firing as it came, the jade-white plasma streams of its twinned forward batteries tearing into the newly arrived Drakh forces, the multiple turrets of its anti-ship needlers turning to acquire the smaller Drakh cruisers. They had not thought to encounter one of those ships here, so rare were they rumoured to be...but if one of Earthforce's most valued commands had come to this place to join the line of defence, were those rumours true?
In any case, before the retreat was even begun, two more Drakh capital ships died, and no few of the light cruisers as well, before the ominous, mile and a half long form of the Warlock Class Destroyer DE'MOLAY turned away from the enemy, its job done, to meet the now-stationary battleline of the Earth forces around Sinzar.
* * *
The bridge of the SHARD OF NIGHT.
"Our presence here," Klairika noted, as a suddenly pale-faced Julia turned to face her, "Would no longer seem to be required."
"Absolutely...the case." she quickly admitted, her voice still catching with the surprise she'd felt at the entry of her mother's Warlock destroyer into the system. "That's my mother's ship, after all!"
Behind her, Larieken laughed. "Please, let me recall a comment you made to me offhand when meet we first did meet, during the last days of the Shadow War..."
"Don't you *dare*!"
"But I must!" the Minbari replied, humour lacing his tone. "Now how did it go? Ah yes: 'Perhaps there will come a day when I and my mother shall meet in the night as equals. Perhaps I will even be commanding a White Star of my very own.'"
"I was younger, then." she shot back, casting a somewhat sour gaze in the Minbari's direction. "Things change...lives change." It was then she realized another sound, an *unusual* sound, could be heard above the faint chiming of the bridge instruments. A kind of...whining.
"What *is* that?"
"Interesting." Klairika reported, a moment later. "It would appear that the Vorlon components of this vessel are, how shall I say it?...*responding* to the latest arrival, somehow. I know not why..."
"I *do*." Julia ruthlessly replied. "And that response, Klairika, is why we must recover our fighter group and make ready to jump, before my mother realizes HER ship is also capable of responding to ours!"
"How?"
"A history lesson it is, then, my Na'lai!" she continued. "A lesson suggesting sadness, a reflection of a tale of two warships; a tale I cannot reveal just yet, if at all. And as to why that is, I swore a solemn vow to my mother that I would not talk of it unless the reason was pressing, after she told me *some* of what happened to her and Captain Ivanova, five years ago.
But this, I will tell you. The DE'MOLAY, my mother's ship, the Warlock Class Destroyer that just arrived to break the backs of the Drakh and force them out of Sinzar System...that destroyer contains *Shadow* technology, Klairika. Now, do you understand my concern?"
"Now that you speak of this," the Brakiri admitted, after a moment's thought, "Some small memory of the rumours surrounding those times returns to me, something that was on the newslink at the time? No!...it matters not, I do understand your need for secrecy, and the meaning of vows, and finally, the concern you have. If our organic technology responds to theirs..."
"Theirs may also respond to ours." Larieken finished for her. "Exactly."
"Getting underway NOW."
It was then, of course, that a faint chime rang through the bridge, and the main bridge holocurtain rippled down to reveal the grim features of Sheynell, with Nicholas standing beside her. "Val'na Tikopai." her tactical officer began, her voice and form *very* proper. "I beg leave to report that the man who tried to kill Anla'shok Dasouri has been captured, and is presently being detained in the brig."
She let out a long breath...well, at least ONE worry was done away with. "Well done, both of you...but especially *you*, Mr. Dawson. That's one problem, at least, that we don't have to deal with, any longer."
"I'm not so sure."
"What do you mean?" Julia inquired.
Sheynell's lips tightened with frustration. "Let's get out of here, first, so you can get off the bridge. Then I'll tell you what I've discovered."
* * *
It was only just, Captain Bethany Tikopai considered, that she had decided to shadow Elaine ap Glydden's battlegroup on its way here to Sinzar. Like so many other Earth captains, she hadn't made it to Earth in time to join the battle, and almost immediately afterwards, the Chiefs of Staff had ordered her to protect the elements of the Fourth Fleet under Elaine's command. And while her friend's destroyer force seemed to have been sufficient to break the back of the first Drakh force to invade the system, the far larger group that had just arrived would have probably taken out many of the Omegas in Elaine's battleline, damaged as they were.
Now, however, what remained of the Drakh fleet, still a fairly impressive warfleet, all things considered, was beginning to jump...and even as her command passed unheeded through the rubble left behind by the just-concluded battle, the rest began to move towards the opening jump points, apparently with some haste.
It was nice, she supposed, to have a reputation. Although the truth of where that reputation had come from was something she *still* didn't like to look at too closely.
"We would have appeared," Commander Paul Telluride noted, "To have arrived at an oppurtune moment, Captain."
"But, of course!" she replied, turning towards the now oh-so familiar spot her exec held on the DE'MOLAY's gray-shadowed bridge. First Deitrich Alwhin, gone on to his own command these past two years, and now Paul. "I've noticed, over the years, that there always seems to be a moment in every battle where one can jump in with numerically superior forces..."
"Or, in our case, technologically superior?" Telluride inquired.
"...and force the enemy to run for it." Bethany turned her thoughts away from *that* line of thought, too, and back to the matter at hand. "Commander, re-establish a line of communication with the CIRCE."
"Already taken care of, Captain." Commander Telluride assured her.
"Captain Tikopai..." Elaine ap Glydden began, as she appeared on the screen, "So just how long *were* you trailing behind us in that black-hulled monster of yours?"
"Long enough to tell that we made the right choice in following you." she replied. "Although, it sure looks like you didn't need my help until right near the end of the battle..."
"Actually," the other captain admitted, "If we hadn't had some help during the early stages, things might not have gone as easily as they did."
"Help?" Bethany inquired, a frown of inquiry now creaing her brow.
"Help. Right after we engaged the Drakh, some kind of ship we couldn't see also engaged the Drakh forces, and promptly began blowing their capital ships out of space, one after the other. Of the seven 'our' side managed to destroy, only three of them were *entirely* taken out by my destroyer groups, Bethany. The rest...the rest were destroyed by this other ship, one neither us nor the Drakh could see, given the degree of surprise they showed after whatever-it-was started to attack."
"Captain!" Commander Telluride exclaimed, "A jump point just opened and closed on the far side of Sinzar's outer moon. Looks like *something* just left the system."
"Can we leave this conversation for some other time, Captain?" Bethany asked her friend.
Elaine ap Glydden nodded, with a slight smile thrown in for good measure. "Of course. I can already see the gleam of needed pursuit in your eyes...Captain. If anyone can find a ship that can't be seen, it's you."
"The question I have for you, though, Commander," Bethany inquired of her exec, as the transmission ended, "Is can we?"
"Believe it or not," Paul Telluride admitted, "I think we can. But not for the reasons you might, well, suspect. It's got to do with, ah..."
"Oh my God." Bethany muttered, falling back into her chair. "You're not trying to tell me what I *think* you're trying to tell me, are you?"
"I'm afraid so." Telluride finished. "It's another one of *those* situations. The sensors are showing a trail...I'm damned if I know HOW we're picking up the signature for the trail, but it's showing up on the sensors all the same."
"So be it, Commander." Bethany wearily concluded. "I'm not going to argue. Even though we've got a lot of bad memories associated with it, the DE'MOLAY's Shadowtech has saved our butt more times then I care to remember in the past five years...so let's not complain. Just follow the trail, Paul.