Shades of Treason by Sandy Williams

didn’t want the man on his ship. Hagan used to command the Fifth Fleet, and Bayis couldn’t be comfortable having the man breathing over his shoulder.
    “All outbound flights are terminated,” Bayis said in a calmer tone than Rykus would have managed.
    Rykus stared down at the command console. He had no patience for the war chancellor. Somehow, he had to find Ash. The problem was, he wasn’t an anomaly. He didn’t have every detail of the ship’s schematic memorized.
    Brookins would though.
    He tapped on his comm-cuff to call his XO when a tone chimed across the bridge.
    “Sir,” a spacer called out. “Three life rafts have launched from deck two starboard.”
    “Order standby fighters to their birds,” Bayis said. “Deploy when ready and engage to cripple.”
    “Aye, aye, sir.”
    The admiral’s command and the spacer’s response were calm, professional. Rykus sealed off his own emotions and studied the forward viewscreen. Three bright orange life rafts veered away from the Obsidian . The small craft had limited maneuverability. They were designed to move fast over a short time period, just long enough to get away from a damaged ship or from a skirmish, and while they were equipped with some defensive weaponry, they didn’t have enough to divert an opponent who was set on retrieving them.
    There was no way Ash was on one of those rafts. They weren’t covert. She’d know Bayis would notice. She’d know she wouldn’t make atmosphere before the admiral deployed his fighters.
    Before he deployed the fighters.
    Ah, hell.
    “Admiral—” A siren cut Rykus off.
    “Admiral,” a spacer called out. “Unidentified warships have appeared in-system. They’ve engaged the Centennial .”
    “Ephron Station is reporting additional bogeys, sir.”
    “Close-range radar picking up two vessels approaching at point-five light.”
    Rykus took a step back from the command console as the bridge erupted into a flurry of activity. It took several seconds for the situation to sink in, to recognize what was going on and who had just invaded their star system. When the truth finally stabbed through his mind, his gut plummeted like a jump from a sub-atmo fighter.
    The Sariceans had just launched a preemptive attack against the Coalition.
    The Sariceans had started the war.

    Ash watched the life rafts shrink to tiny dots as they shot away from the Obsidian . She didn’t expect Bayis to shoot them down. He still needed her to decrypt the files. Plus her supposed death would have made things too easy for her, and she was fairly certain the gods of the universe weren’t finished putting her through hell yet. So when one of those life rafts did explode, she blinked. She stared harder, convinced her vision was failing her. Then, seconds later when more explosions brightened the life systems chief’s office viewport, she cursed. She’d only released three life rafts. There were five explosions out there.
    Chewing on her lower lip, she focused on the unconscious chief’s desk terminal. She’d remained virtually invisible since escaping her cell, covertly passing through bulkhead after bulkhead until she’d pried open a panel to the LSC’s office. She’d forced him to initiate an emergency drill for the three life rafts, an action that didn’t raise any alerts until after those rafts shot out into space. A simple diversion code she’d inserted into his terminal made it look like they were fired off from their pods, not fired remotely. Bayis didn’t know where she was right now. Plugging into the desk terminal to determine what the hell was going on outside might change that.
    Ash couldn’t risk it. She needed to drop down to the flight hangar, which just so happened to be right under her feet. It was the best chance she had to—
    An explosion rang through her ears. She was on the floor, something wet and sticky running from her nose.
    Blood. Had to be.
    She forced her eyes open. Her vision blurred, blackened, then came