"Change of plans Captain. I'm laser linking rendezvous coordinates to you," Oz said as the coordinates came up on the computer. "We're taking too much damage to take you on, we'll meet you there."
"This is Ronin. My squadron is following you, Clever Dream. We'll hitch through your wormhole. We're coming up on your six."
Jake took the controls and nodded. "You're going to have to play navigator Lewis," he said.
His answer came like a shiver. The ship computer and Lewis connected to him through the link systems in his hands, a capability Jake hadn't used extensively since Pandem. In fact, he had made a point not to unless he was trying to access the biological regeneration abilities he'd discovered when Ayan had been shot. "I'm sorry, I wasn't aware how surprising this sensation would be to you. I often shared this link with Alice."
"I'm sorry she couldn't be here," Jake replied aloud.
"She made a point to say goodbye before she left. I miss her, but don't worry, she'll live on in another form." Lewis sent Jake a mental picture of a workable course that would lead them through the debris and enemy fighters.
Ayan watched as Jake worked the controls with easy precision. It looked like he was staring at something very far away. "Are you all right Jacob?" she asked quietly.
"I'm fine. Work the weaponry controls."
The console in front of her reconfigured, her seat slid into place, and she was surrounded by holographic images and targeting controls. Minh and the rest of his squad had moved in to a flanking position behind and fired at the single seat fighters that threatened to close in from their port side.
There was another group coming in to position, threatening to block their path with a line of deadly weapons' fire. To Ayan's amazement, the tactical controls were configured exactly the same as she'd find on any Freeground starship, and she got to work.
Her fingers twitched from one holographic representation to another, marking targets for the fighters behind and for the Clever Dream's missile banks. The weapons suite on the ship began to fire, sending cluster missiles that burst into searing high speed flack, other missiles that honed in on one target and accelerated through them at incredible speeds and firing the ship's main guns. The Clever Dream was a dangerous vessel, a long range gunship made to accommodate a boarding crew. Few mercenaries could afford one, however, so it was sometimes seen in the hangars of wealthy collectors. She never thought she'd have the opportunity to operate one in any respect, especially from the weapons console.
Even with her energy systems switched from high powered Xetima to a more dependable mass reactor system built across the ship, the Clever Dream was still capable of exerting incredible force.
The shields were taking several hits from the fighters, but bearing it well, especially since most of the fighters were distracted by Minh-Chu's squadron following behind. They remained in position, pivoting the bodies of their Uriel and Ramiel starfighters and unleashing the full force of their weaponry on anything that threatened to get in their way.
At long last they broke through the obscuring field into regular space.
Ayan breathed a sigh of relief as Minh's entire squadron made it through the field, and then gasped at what she saw on the secondary tactical display as it populated. There were three massive destroyers flanking another base ship. Each of the escorting ships were over nine hundred meters long, with a density reading that equalled the Triton. She overlaid the Triton’s last known course. "The Triton will be caught off guard by that group of destroyers, we have to-"
"I see it, we're looping back inside," Jake interrupted mechanically.
Ayan nodded and switched all available power to the forward shields. As an extra safety measure and a warning to the fighters emerging from the field she opened fire with all the Clever Dream's weapons, hoping that the burst would frighten vessels they couldn't detect out of their way.
Her hopes were partially fulfilled. One of the larger fighters glanced off their shields, sending the Clever Dream slightly off course. "We're too late." Jake said quietly. "They're crossing through the field. We have to go and hope they meet us at the rendezvous," Jake informed her.
It was true, they had come back just in time to see the Triton’s aft section cross through into normal space, her shields were already taking extreme damage from the beating they were taking from the other side. Ayan balanced the energy distribution across the ship's shields and resumed fire on the fighters trying to follow them as they flipped end over end and blasted the engines at full thrust, reversing course through the obscuring barrier protecting Ossimi station.
"I read you Clever Dream. You'll be creating a wormhole as soon as you emerge," Minh replied over the communicator. "Everything all right Captain? You sound a little… different."
"He's sharing a direct link with the ship. I think it has to do with the framework system." Ayan told Minh.
"I really have to look into getting a neural link."
"Jason had one, he had to get rid of it to save his marriage."
"Ah, then maybe I'll talk to him first. Good shooting Sunspot."
Ayan couldn't help but smile at the old call sign. It was chosen on a whim when she was in the academy and it stuck because of her size and temper. She'd managed to bring her temper under control since, and she had stopped seeing the use of the nickname as a derogatory comment on her size years before. Too many friends had called her Sunspot over the years for it to have any negative connotation.
They broke through the field and Ayan could hear the power systems hum as they shunted energy towards the wormhole generator. The entry point formed and Ayan began broadcasting the entry point location to the fighters over an encrypted channel. She watched as Ronin's Ramiel fighter, followed by his thirteen squadron mates entered the barely visible end of the wormhole and accelerated away so quickly it was almost as though they disappeared. The Clever Dream was the last to enter, and either Lewis or Jake, she wasn't sure which, shunted most of the energy from the shields to the engines.
The entry point to the wormhole travelled along after them like a three kilometre wake as they accelerated through compressed space, making it impossible for anyone to follow.
The information streaming to Captain Valance through his connection with Lewis was amazing. He could see all the fighters in perfect line formation, centred in the wormhole with their controls slaved to the leader's, Minh's fighter. All their vital statistics said that they were at rest, and there were sporadic communications passing between them.
"I can't believe we didn't lose anyone," commented Finger.
"With every successful mission the likelihood that we lose anyone, or even a ship will lessen," replied Slick, who had been reassigned as Ronin's wing man.
"Even so, we buy our minutes with our decisions. Not one second comes free. I'm proud to fly with all of you," Ronin added. Jake was enjoying having him back.
Amidst the flow of data came something Jacob did not expect, an emotion. Lewis was glad Ronin had joined the crew of the Triton, and he expressed it emotionally. The feeling was strange, inexplicably different from any human feeling. Even still, there was only one way to comprehend the expression, and that was as a mild happy one at the presence of Ronin and after the experience of that emotion passed Jake realized that Lewis felt the same way about Ayan and himself being aboard. Lewis actually enjoyed having people on board the Clever Dream, even the people who were busy setting up fold out cots and partitions in the main cargo hold. Lewis had already informed them that they would be in transit for at least ten hours. Stephanie had given the order to rest and tend to the few minor injuries they had.