Admiral Kirana Paktu felt the palpable relief on the bridge. They had only lost three fighters, and replacements were being constructed now. Their pilot pool was large enough that they could sustain the loss of several squadrons before they had to bring some people out of cold sleep, but she hoped it would not come to that.
During the battle, she had ordered a salvage corvette to be built and despatched to the wreckage of the Khar-Selim, where they retrieved the data recorder that would hold the last few minutes of the bridge logs. The recorder was fashioned of extremely tough materials, so there was a good chance that they could access the majority of the data without problem. The corvette Porter had located and brought back the requested item, and Fleet Intelligence was decoding the information as she thought about it. She drummed her fingers on her knees as she thought about what had just occurred. The carrier and its complement of fighters had, apparently, ruthlessly destroyed the Khar-Selim without reason, then attacked the mothership when it had shown up. Only a few shots had struck the shields of the massive colony vessel, and they had not been enough to even dent them. However, the fact that such an aggressive race existed and wanted their destruction was worrying.
"We have decoded the bridge logs of the Khar-Selim, ma'am," came the voice of Intel. She nodded serenely. "Put it on bridge speakers. I want everyone to hear this."
The speakers crackled momentarily, then the voice of the now-dead captain of the support vessel came tumbling into the bridge, accompanied by whistles and clicks that must have been the crew working the various control panels. "What do you mean, you detect a hyperspace entry?" the captain was saying. He sounded frustrated and tired. "The mothership isn't due for nearly – "
"Sir, I have multiple contacts on closing vectors," another voice said. It was probably the communications or sensor officer on duty. "Unknown profiles, no recognition codes. Uh…they're not ours."
"Not ours?" the captain spluttered, disbelieving as he realised that they were probably about to be attacked. "If they're not ours, then who the hell are they?"
"Sir, they're coming in fast. Checking…" The sound in the log went dead for a long moment, then came back, now filled with various explosions and flickering noises that told Kirana that power to the bridge had been momentarily compromised. "We're under attack! Incoming fire! They're punching through our shields, sir. They're getting through! Hull breaches across the board. Our hull integrity is failing…"
"Khar-Selim to mothership! If you are receiving, abort hyperdrive test. Repeat, abort the hyperdrive test!"
The rest of the data was corrupted, and the sound faded into garble and winked out.
Kirana Paktu sat down heavily.
They're gone. And if they warned us off, then that must mean…
She swore under her breath.
"Helm," she snapped. "plot a course back to Kharak. Hyperdrive Control, I want us back in orbit in the next five minutes! If those raider ships intercepted that transmission, that means there could be more of them heading in-system. We have to reverse course and warn Kharak about an impending attack. The mothership is the only hope we have to avert that attack. Tactical, stay at alert level three. Recall the fleet and get us into hyperspace."
Now, Kirana, she thought to herself. Will you be in time?
The bridge crew scrambled, and within minutes, the pane of icy quantum waveform particles ate the mothership from outside in. Now, it was a matter of getting back before the raiders – whoever they were – did, and possibly attacked their people.
* * *
