Chapter 24 snippet 1 (brand new writing)

Ducharme lounged in her desk chair. Things had been quiet since Almir had jumped out on them. Seeing the pattern of colonies before her, she had moved to the next in line. However, not finding Almir there had thrown her into some confusion.

It was obvious to her that the Fleet Captain was sneakier then she had given the other woman credit for. Having read her file, she chided, she should have known that was the case. Someone who had done Intelligence work would know better to follow at pattern. Especially when they had someone hunting them.

Shaking her head she groaned in frustration. Finding the woman in a hundred light year sector was going to be like finding a needle in a haystack! How was the going to capture her and keep her own military for killing the woman?

She picked up her glass of tea, sipping at it gingerly. There had to be some rhyme or reason all this. With the destruction of the Intelligence Array on Alpha Delta Six had hurt them more then Command was telling. That array, she reflected, had been their main source of Intelligence on the Alliance and it was now down.

How did they learn it was there? She thought, placing her cup back on her desk. Either then infiltrated MI6 or there is a traitor there…either way it’s not good for us.

Tapping a few keys on her computer, she brought up the holographic image of the sector. With a few more strokes, she brought up the listing of colonies. As she added the ones that had been killed in red, the screen started to make sense to her. Why hadn’t she seen it before?

“Captain White-Green,” she said into her com unit. “Will you and Captain Alwyn please report to the Flag Office.”

Killing the connection, she leaned back in her chair. The answer had been before everyone’s eyes and no one had seen it! As long as she had been cruising this sector, she hadn’t seen it either, she told herself, so it wasn’t fair to be hard on others!

“Commodore,” the ship’s communications officer Tom Graves said. “We have a incoming message from the Admiralty. It’s encoded with Code Omega-Delta One.”

Omega-Delta One? Sitting upright in her chair, she felt her pulse increase. Omege-Delta One was the Admiralty’s most secretive code. Only used in cases of dire emergencies, it was one that made every officer’s hair crawl. Whomever had sent them the message, she told herself, had a damned good reason to send it.

“Sent it to my terminal,” she said, changing it into com mode.

The message appeared on her screen, and she read it. Taking a few moments to let it sink in, she felt a smile cross her lips. So, she hadn’t been wrong after all! Now the nature of their mission had changed from hunting Almir to keeping her alive. That would take a bit of strategic maneuvering since she, at the moment, didn’t have a damn clue where she was!

She rubbed her chin in thought, while she waited. Almir was a smart woman, she mused, so the odds of her finding the pattern were high. So, with that being the case, making best speed for the Epsilon Zeta system would be in order. If they beat her there, then they could play like a hole in space until she arrived. Then, it would be a matter of shadowing her.

Which will be easier said then done, she told herself. Because it was obvious that she would know about the Fleet ship involved in now.Which means she will be treading lightly, not knowing if she had the firepower to take it.

“Helm,” she said. “Change course for the group, new heading: Epsilon Zeta system, top speed.”

She killed the connection and waited for the Captain’s to arrive.