New Frontiers (Expansion Wars Trilogy, Book 1) by Joshua Dalzelle Page B

many assumed would be the new capital.
    “The rest of the taskforce was able to escape,” Ellison reported with obvious relief in his voice. “They’ve launched com drones ahead but they’re not due in for another week. We have confirmation from the Prowler that we destroyed two enemy ships and disabled one … no word in the mix about the Leighton .”
    “Anything in there about our approach priority?” Barrett asked.
    “No, sir,” Ellison said. “We’re being told to queue in behind normal traffic; they’re sending up target coordinates now. Apparently there’s another group of ships due in soon that has priority over us.”
    “That has to be the delegation to the Ushin,” Accari said.
    “The who?” Barrett turned to look at the OPS officer.
    “Shit,” Accari muttered before raising his voice. “Unofficially, I’ve heard that’s the name of the new species we’ve made contact with. It’s either what we call them or what they call themselves. Anyway, the only group of ships I could imagine that would have a higher priority than us would be the Amsterdam , the John Arden , and their escort.”
    “In addition to being very interested where you’re getting your unofficial intel, Ensign, I’m inclined to agree,” Barrett said. “Why don’t you go ahead and verify our intel package and mission logs and send those to Coms so that it can be retransmitted and verified by New Sierra before they have to ask for it.”
    “Aye, sir,” Accari said. They’d already transmitted the encrypted intel package at every waypoint on the flight back, including expending one of their next generation com drones that was capable of point-to-point warp flight instead of having to relay a message through each system’s platform via the established warp lanes. The new drones were abhorrently expensive and Fleet wasn’t all that enthusiastic about increasing the drone traffic in most systems, so they were to be used under emergency circumstances only. Captain Wright had felt a second alien invasion into the Xi’an System qualified.
    Barrett was happy to learn that all the other ships in the taskforce had been able to escape. The loss of two was still devastating, but it could have been much worse. Just as he was about to send a runner to go and physically knock on the hatch to Captain Wright’s quarters, he looked over when he detected motion at the bridge hatchway. There stood Celesta Wright, sharp-eyed and in an impeccable set of utilities.
    “I have the bridge, XO,” she said as she walked around, inspecting each station. “I’m sure I can get turnover from OPS, so why don’t you go and get some rack time. I’ll need you fresh and alert when it comes time to dock.”
    “Aye aye, ma’am,” Barrett said crisply, hoping his voice masked the relief he felt. As per his unofficial duty as executive officer, he’d taken it upon himself to deflect and absorb from the crew in order to protect his captain during an understandable moment of weakness. Celesta Wright had earned that sort of loyalty from him during their time serving on the Blue Jacket together and then later when she’d approached CENTCOM and lobbied specifically for him as her new XO with the declared intention of grooming him for command.
    He vacated the command seat, grabbing his tile and comlink as he did, and marched off the bridge on his way to his quarters. While the fact Captain Wright had come back on duty looking like she was more than fit for command was a relief, Barrett still had some lingering worries about her. He’d replayed the engagement in his mind over and over and he didn’t see anything that she should have done differently given the information that had been available at the time. He just hoped that eventually she’d see it that way and that at some critical moment in the future she wouldn’t hesitate or doubt herself. Only time would tell.
     
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    “My word!”
    “Look at her!”
    “How did they make it all the