Page 72 of Stars on Fire

‘I don’t want to be in any officer’s way. Can’t I sit at the back?’ she said, pointing to the shadowy corners of the bridge.

‘How about the upper deck where you can see everything,Excellency? Where you can focus only on the mission?’ Kainan spoke quietly, sarcasm dripping from his lips. While still not giving her a single glance.

‘Good idea,’ Selene mumbled, her face hot and flushed. She hurried away, moving as he’d suggested to the upper galley of the command deck to sit behind an empty station where her credentials had popped up.

Selene sighed in relief. Here she could lurk in peace while taking in her new surroundings. At the same time, being as far away as possible from His Saltiness. All evidence indicated that he was still butt-hurt about their most recent confrontation.Why, when he’d been the one who’d walked away from whatever-the-fokk they’d been?

She shook him out of her head and looked at her new surroundings. She had a bird’s view of the bridge. There was no doubt about it; the Phantasm was a stunning vessel. A sleek, neo-steel plated behemoth designed with the same faceted streamlined sleekness as Kainan’s corvette.

Yet the battle cruiser was a significant upgrade, with all the teeth, bells and whistles required to act as a planetary bomber and raider. Moreover, its lasers and cannons were state-of-the-art in all things lethal.

Phantasm was, from what she’d learned from her comm tab, a general-purpose warship and a command vessel for extended campaigns. It ran on a mix of nuclear energy and antimatter that powered its warp hyperdrive and gravity accelerators, allowing it to achieve FTL travel. In addition, it had a secondary, short-range warp drive to reduce wear and tear on the main one and operate in atmospheric conditions, using sophisticated anti-grav tech.

Its black skin and stealth tech allowed it to slip unseen in and out of systems.

The ship boasted a weapons system unlike anything she’d ever seen. There was an enormous cargo bay that comfortably fit up to ten full-size corvettes and multiple small fighter crafts. It also sported a large, extendable flight deck and hangar for multiple drone-piloted air systems equipped with weapons that could target the enemy without harming the crew.

Also appearing on its manifest were defensive hypersonic missile tubes and directed energy weapons with the power to stop any small enemy craft. In addition, on the outrigger hulls were mounted torpedo tubes to fire super-cavitation torpedoes capable of supersonic speeds.

The fast-moving neo-steel city currently housed over eight hundred crew and troops and came complete with a well-equipped medbay and a brig. She’d already attempted to tour the gargantuan ship’s cantinas, rec rooms and bars, trying to wrap her head around its size.

Its interior was modern, every surface gleaming white, grey and silver, and kept squeaky clean by an army of bots. Cabins were spacious and roomy, packed with all the mod cons a Dunia girl would want - from a small kitchen to holo screens, a generous head and even a tiny library.

Her respect for The Sable Group’s operations had grown immensely just by being on board this behemoth. Their enterprise had to be raking in gazillions of schills to afford the sophistication of its fleet. Especially its battleships - for the Phantasm was a behemoth of a battlecruiser, escorted by the Sable Group’s two frigates that the Riders had brought to the mission.

A whole fleet of badassness, with Kainan as its lynchpin.

Speaking of.

She and he were still avoiding each other, especially after their highly awkward 10-hour flight to rendezvous with the rest of the Sable/Edenite and Free Dunia alliance fleet.

They’d hardly exchanged a word, each taking great pains to avoid the other except at mealtimes and when liaising with the incursion’s planning team.

Selene remembered her relief when Mirage had docked the corvette beside the Phantasm. She’d walked reticently onboard behind the hulking Edenite, then slipped away at the first chance, practically fleeing to her new quarters aided by Mirage’s precise directions on her comm tab.

And there she’d remained until her comm alert had trilled and Mirage had announced a general stand-up meeting on the Command Deck.

A meeting that was now coming to order.

The screens on the bridge and at the station Selene sat on buzzed. With feeds from all the key players. Most were on vessels that made up the armada assembled within the asteroid shadows of Rhesus’ rings.

‘Excellency, I’ll turn on your camera at this station,’ Mirage told Selene.

‘Thank you,’ Selene said, shaking her head, impressed by the AI’s efficiency.

A high-end camera holographically projected the armada’s formation in 3D in front of Kainan’s chair. It displayed his gunship hovering next to the Phantasm, its bridge in Mirage’s complete remote control. Also included in the projection were the two other frigates supporting a fleet of corvettes captained by various members of the broader Alliance.

On the incoming feeds, Selene spotted Kage and Riv, each captaining their stealth corvettes and in the lead position to infiltrate the planet. Xion was in his corvette, hovering in stealth mode closer to Dunia’s orbit, dodging The Technocracy’s sensor arrays.

Zane patched in from Eden II, where he kept an eye on the logistics of the operations and worked with The Sable Riders’ patrol boats to keep any wanderers out of any affected space lanes until the operation was over.

The last feed was from the planet’s surface, where Rina and the Free Dunia Council had assembled in the boardroom at Zulu One.

Kainan rose from his chair and approached the main screen that took over one wall of the massive bridge. He opened the meeting, cutting quickly to the chase.

‘This is the Phantasm. We’re the command ship for this op, which we’ve dubbed the Ghost Incursion. You’ll understand why very soon.’

Kainan prowled the bridge, so full of barely controlled power that the highlights in his hair flared as if lit with an invisible flame. Selene could sense the waves of pure, palpable energy flow from him, throbbing through the bridge as he spoke.

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