Two and a half hours later, the Rishi was in a station-keeping orbit behind one of Ikalitek’s many moons; Valeni, if Bowman wasn’t mistaken. One couldn’t keep track of the names for all the moons throughout Solvonus, but Carter Bowman was a self-professed space nerd, and he always challenged himself to name a planetary body without looking it up on his HUD first.

  He glanced at the star map, projected on the bridge’s main screen, and gave himself a small mental pat on the back. It was Valeni alright. Ikalitek’s Cluster pulled in most the planet’s celestial bodies, but a few outliers, like Valeni, maintained their usual orbits, undisturbed by the exceptional forces taking place.

  It was a simple plan. Bowman could still hear his instructors from his distant past, from his other life, telling him that simple was best. Break the plan down and get rid of the complications. Simple allowed people to accomplish the most complex.

  Bowman, along with his senior officers, had conceived as simple of a plan that was possible for a space battle. Especially as the aim was capture, not destruction. Carter Bowman was not an aggressor at heart. As a military man, he would do what was necessary, but he hated killing. Besides, he wanted to know who the hell these people were and why they were here. He also knew his superiors would be interested in that information as well. In the past, the Solvonus Navy’s attempts to gather information at the Rift resulted in finding only atoms of the self-destructing Interloper ships.

  Bowman’s Rishi sat in Valeni’s shadow, hidden from the enemy ship. The only way through this area of space, at present, was through the Ikalitek Orbital Cluster. The Barrier surrounding Solvonus was cylindrical. Its origins had eluded scientists for generations. Ikalitek, and each of the other eight planets, orbited Solvonus on the ecliptic plane. With each orbit taking on a slight oblong shape, keeping the planets within the Barrier. Ikalitek's loop around the central star was the most pronounced. Even at its closest, it was still the furthest planet away from Solvonus, maintaining a constant distance from the Barrier. Each of the nine planets had their own celestial bodies, moons, mini moon and smaller celestial satellites. These inexplicably orbited perpendicular to the primary celestial plane. A fact that the current understanding of celestial-physics determined should be impossible.

  This oddity was the basis for the Orbital Clusters. The prevailing theory stated that at the apogee of a planet’s orbit, the magnetic and gravitational forces from Solvonus were weakest. This is turn weakened the forces holding a planet’s celestial bodies in their own orbits, causing them to spread out in a pinwheel formation. It was further theorized that the Barrier’s radiation and own magnetic forces then interacted with these new orbits, causing it to bow inward, intertwining with the new orbits. The Clusters lasted until the planet was past its apogee and moving closer to Solvonus, when the star’s forces took hold again.

  Unless one employed a Traveler, there were only two ways to deal with a Cluster; either wait for it to dissolve, or go through it, carefully following a path determined by the Transit Buoys. That was far from a luxury cruise. From their tracking, it appeared that the Interlopers knew this, and whatever their plans entailed, they could not wait the ten days it took for the phenomenon to dissipate.

  After disappearing from the Rishi’s scopes, but not from the covert tracker Ms. Tavu had placed on their ship, the Interlopers had done a little evasive maneuvering but had maintained their general heading towards the Orbital Cluster.

  Bowman’s plan had set the Rishi ahead to lie in wait. The cloaked drones, spaced out in a loose half sphere beside and behind the Interloper ship, trailed the enemy ship. The net would tighten up, the closer the Interloper ship got to the Orbital Cluster’s entry point. There, the enemy vessel was required to slow to a mere fifteen thousand kilometers per hour to navigate the hard-pin turn immediately after the first navigation buoy.

  The senior staff assumed the Interloper ship, not being from Solvonus, lacked the required shielding to protect them from the exceptional gravitational and electromagnetic forces an Orbital Cluster exerted. Their plan was to use this to the Rishi’s advantage. A low yield tactical missile, aiming to knock out their shields and engines, was to be fired just as they approached the I.O.C. entry. The Rishi's staff hoped this would put the ship between a rock and a hard place, allowing them to be captured.

  The drones were in position as a backup and would use their own munitions to further disable the enemy ship, or if needed, destroy it before it entered the cluster. No one on the Rishi relished the idea of a chase, at speed, through an Orbital Cluster.

  The Rishi, being a Solvonus Navy ship, and more specifically a Delta class cruiser, had shielding in its critical systems to help ease the effects of those awesome forces. That, however, did not mean their own transit through the I.O.C. was without risks. Bowman watched as his crew worked tirelessly to prepare his ship for the upcoming mission. Each station lead, even now, using this as a teaching opportunity.

  It was possible to transit the cluster, even at its zenith, because, despite its outward chaos, it had an eerily repeating precise nature. Long ago, the navy placed buoys to help with navigation and ships could safely, albeit cautiously, travel through the cluster. With some of the inner planets, it was usually easier to wait the cluster out, as they only lasted a few hours. Most ships that plied their trade in the deep black between planets timed their trips to avoid the Clusters, and to minimize the distance between planets. But sometimes, schedules, maintenance problems, and a myriad of other issues meant that transiting a Cluster was unavoidable.

  However, it was usually faster to always navigate through the Ikalitek Cluster. Ikalitek was by far the largest planet in the system, being a Giant M Class. Of its fifty-nine moons and mini moons, fourteen were habitable. It also had several large asteroid satellites and a planetary ring made of ice and rocks. This made the space around Ikalitek extremely complex, its entire planetary system comprising some five million kilometers. Trying to wait the cluster out, or circumnavigate it, would add the better part of a week to a trip.

  “Update,” Bowman said.

  “Sir, the tracking signal from the Interloper ship shows it arriving as the Inbound I.O.C. forms. Within the next eight hours. It looks like they slowed some. Possibly so they can enter the Cluster as soon as they arrive.”

  Bowman nodded. The people in charge of how space travel happened within the system had long ago designed routes for both inbound and outbound traffic. The tolerances were narrow in some spots and so they had worked hard to find two routes through each of the orbital clusters. They were classified by the direction and planet name. In this case, the Inbound Ikalitek Orbital Cluster, or Inbound I.O.C.

  Navigation reported next.

  “We’re in geosynchronous orbit on the far side of Valeni, which should hide us from any scans the Interlopers may run, right up until we spring the trap. We’ll be fifteen minutes at full burn from the Transit entry buoy.”

  “Sir, the drones are in a thirty-thousand-kilometer semi-sphere around the target zone. They’ll tighten that up as the Interlopers approach the Cluster. Their signals are five-by-five.”

  “The Rishi’s weapons are primed and ready, sir. Engineering reports shields are ready to go to full strength on your command.”

  “Flights ready, sir. The pilots not on drone duty are going over their StarFires now. They can be in their cockpits and spooled up at a moment’s notice.”

  Bowman took in the reports and nodded.

  “Good job Rishi. I know this isn’t what any of us had in mind when this tour began, but you’re all doing an exemplary job. Keep up the good work and at the end of this, Rishi will have its own Interloper silhouette painted on her hull, just like those fancy fly boys at the Rift.”

  He could see this announcement pleased his crew, but his station leads had tightened the leash in the last hour, and everyone was laser focused on their jobs. There were no cheers this time.

  __________

  Zirenna sat in her chair, poring over the star maps. This blasted system had insanely complicated orbital patterns around each planet, and those planetary systems had their own intricate paths around each other and the central star of Solvonus.

  By the Faithless Night, how did a system like this ever come into being? There’s no way these orbits are natural. The tolerances are too tight, and after millennia, how are they still this precise? Never mind the fact that there shouldn't be any way for people to live and survive on these planets with the forces I'm seeing.

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  An hour ago, they had lost the Rishi’s tail. Her Corsair had the latest in stealth capabilities, and she was confident they weren’t on the Rishi’s scans. They weren’t technically cloaked; the Da’a’shori had only managed that feat on a small scale in their labs so far. However, the Oshakati had the next best thing. It was a complex system of polarized low powered sensor outputs which scattered incoming sweeps and pings. A charge on the hull plates would absorb any sensor pings which made it past the polarized sensor outputs. The two systems worked together to deny any sensor returns to enemy ships.

  Once the Oshakati engaged her stealth capabilities, the Solvonus ship had scrambled, trying to pick them back up on their scanners. Their captain, having realized the futile gesture, was running wide open back to Ikalitek to report her ship. Thankfully, the radiation in this part of the system made long distance communication unreliable. She planned to be long gone from the vicinity by the time they mounted any defense.

  V’Resh! Curse this system!

  She didn't blame to Forsetti's unfortunate encounter with the mining vessel or the delayed repairs. The universe was not fair, and incidents happened. A Corsair captain knew this and knew to roll with the punches. However, the makeup of this system didn't seem natural or fair. She was comfortable complaining about that fact, even if just to herself.

  “Report!” Zirenna said, sounding harsh, even to her own ears. Her crew was her family. They knew each other too well to hide their feelings.

  The command crew of the Oshakati reported in, telling their captain what she already knew. There was no other path through or around this cursed planetary system except through the marked navigation channel. She hated to put her ship in an established travel corridor. It was not how Da’a’shori Corsairs operated. They always stayed away from known shipping lanes and populated areas.

  However, Zirenna didn’t want to wait around on this side of the Cluster. Their chances of being detected were too high. On the other side of the Cluster, there was nothing but deep space for billions of kilometers. More than enough to disappear into while waiting for the Forsetti and the Traveler.

  Ikora reported that within the next six or seven hours, maybe sooner, the forming cluster would play havoc with their sensors, and she had no clue how they would react.

  Zirenna closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths, praying her personal mantra and trying to find her center. Her frustrations would only hurt the crew at this tense time, and they needed her to be her usual calm self. After a few moments, she could feel her tension ease and her jaw relax.

  “Yaziri, have we accessed the navigation buoys information net yet? What are we looking at in there?”

  “Putting it onto your screens now, Zirenna.”

  Zirenna pulled her terminal closer, examining the path Yaziri had uploaded to her station. She sat there staring at the screen, speechless for a moment. It was such a convoluted path it was difficult to follow. The buoy information net, accessible to all ships that queried it, gave times and speeds for each leg of the transit, considering each ship's size and engine capabilities. That information didn’t mean it would be an easy time, though. The space lane tolerances were incredibly tight, even for a ship the size of the Oshakati.

  By the blessings of the Black Suns.

  Zirenna examined the data in front of her one more time. She was the captain of a Da’a’shori Corsair. One did not come to sit in that chair by being timid or scared, nor did they sit there by being reckless. It was a fine balance she had always walked in her professional life. That experience was telling her this was a poor play. Everything was against them, but Zirenna had her orders, and those came foremost in her consideration. It was her job to complete those orders, regardless of her personal opinions.

  She keyed her mic.

  “Oshakati, we’ll be at the Cluster in about nine hours. We’ll most likely lose our sensors before that, essentially blinding us. If we can get to the Cluster, I can’t even begin to describe what we’ll encounter. Hopefully, the Forsetti will meet us on the other side. Sadly, we don’t have the luxury of using their Traveler for this part of the trip as planned. We have no choice but to make the transit on a known, controlled transit lane. The closer we get to the cluster, the more vulnerable we’ll be. I want everyone at their stations and primed for anything. This is what we do. We’re the knife of the Da’a’shori. We will complete our mission.”

  She keyed off her mic. Taking a moment to keep her center, repeating her mantra one last time.

  “Ikora. Take the chair. I’m going to go meditate and get some rest. I’ll be back in four hours, so you can do the same.”

  __________

  “Sir, it looks like the Interloper ship is finally getting ready to head into the cluster.” Tanaka reported from his station hours later.

  About time.

  “Thank you,” Bowman said. “Everyone, you know your roles. Man your stations. Station leads, call out with anything pertinent.”

  After a slew of ‘ayes’, a susurration permeated the bridge, everyone working hard at their tasks.

  Bowman sat, feeling the tension build, but knowing that there wasn’t anything he could do about it at the moment. His crew had trained hard and were ready.

  The captain waited, thinking, while tapping a staccato with his fingers on the armrest of his command chair. It was a subconscious habit he could never quite shake, but one that, unbeknownst to him, comforted his crew. They knew he was deep in thought, thinking through every angle, making sure their plan was the best one for the Rishi and her crew to succeed.

  “Helm, you’re free to spool the engines up.”

  “Aye, sir.”

  “Don’t move until the drones are in position, their net closed. We don’t want to spook them.”

  “Aye, sir,” Nvellan said. He was the only senior officer working their station, as his experience would be paramount to the upcoming engagement. He had an Ikaltekian sub-lieutenant in the co-pilot seat, just in case, and she was bent over her own terminal in deep concentration.

  “Draskol, call out the instant they are in position. I want to keep the Interlopers on this side of the Transit. If we have to follow them through the I.O.C., we may lose them.”

  “Flight, I’ve sent coordinate updates to your screens. Adjust the drone’s flight paths match.”

  “Aye, Captain.”

  “Ok people,” Bowman said. “Stay sharp. If possible, we want to disable the ship. We could use prisoners and find out how they got this far in-system. I’m also sure the suits at Research would love to get their hands on the ship itself to strip it of its secrets.”

  Bowman looked at his map, seeing the Interloper vessel drawing closer to the point just outside the I.O.C., where they would spring the trap. He didn’t give any further orders; his crew knew their job well. The Rishi’s massive engines thrummed through the floor plates as it spun up to full power.

  A moment later, Draskol reported the drones were in position, with Tracking reporting a split second later that the Interloper ship was in the target zone.

  “Do it!”

  __________

  “Zirenna! Ship off our port bow. It’s the Rishi!” Delemi barked as they were making their final approach to the Cluster’s entry point.

  The captain and first mate had traded off the command chair, ensuring each had a rest. They both knew it would probably be the last peaceful moments for a while. Zirenna was just settling back into her chair after touring the bridge, stopping to give some encouragement to each of her crew. She grunted, her back flaring with pain as Yaziri already had the ship dancing.

  By the Black Suns and the Faithless.

  “Evasive maneuvers!” Zirenna said, even though the Oshakati was already testing its grav-generator.

  Zirenna glanced at her HUD with its overlay showing the Oshakati’s location in relation to the Orbital Cluster and the Rishi.

  Do they know where we are, or just guessing? By the Shadows, I hate this system.

  “Yaziri, how much longer until we enter the Cluster? They’re bigger than us, and from what I’m seeing on the information net, that means we may lose them in there, disappearing once we're through.”

  “We’re about fifteen minutes from the first buoy now. The transit corridor is opening up.” The piloted grunted as she worked her controls.

  “Ikora, are we still stealthed? Is there any way they can know we're here?”

  A pause, while the first mate double checked her terminal.

  “Negative. Stealth capabilities are still working, but only for another minute or two. The clusters’ magnetic fields are going to make them, and most of our instruments, useless shortly.”

  “Disable stealth!” Zirenna said, her mind racing. “Shields facing the Rishi to one hundred percent, drop the rest to twenty-five percent and divert any additional power to the engines. Move it, Yaziri. Max the core.”

  The pilot didn’t hesitate. She had crewed with Zirenna for a long time and had complete faith in her captain. She threw the overrides and hit the thrusters. The Oshakati jumped, throwing its crew hard into the back of their seats. She heard a few cries of pain, hers included, as her back complained at the rough treatment, but she didn’t care. She had her orders. Zirenna needed to get her ship out of danger ASAP.

  Everyone better be strapped into their stations or that’s gonna cause some serious injuries.

  “Status on the Rishi?” Zirenna asked, once the grav-generator compensated for the sudden acceleration, easing the pressure on her chest.

  “They’re coming on fast, Zirenna.” Delemi said. “They’ve quite a bit of mass, but their engines look like they were already spooled up. It’ll be down to whose engines are better maintained. I think we may just beat them into the Cluster.”

  Zirenna noticed the woman had a streak of blood on the side of her face, but she seemed able to still do her job, so she ignored it for the moment.

  “Akandi, any chance of getting a message to the Forsetti from inside all of this?”

  “I can try a brief burst,” the specialist said, “but I can’t guarantee it. Too much interference.”

  Va’Resh!

  “How much longer until they’re supposed to be in position waiting for us?”

  “At least another ten hours,” Ikora said. “It’ll take us twice that to make the transit at the recommended speed.”

  “Missile incoming!”

  “I didn’t think the Rishi was close enough yet for a lock in this blasted place!” Ikora growled.

  “It wasn't the Rishi,” Delemi said. “I can’t see where it came from, exactly, but it wasn’t them. I’m playing back the logs trying to back track its course.”

  “Quiet!” Zirenna said. She didn’t have time to be distracted by her crew, and she needed them focused.

  “Are the APC’s tracking?”

  At the Weapons console, Tala didn’t have a chance to respond before the staccato of the aft APC drummed through the ship.

  “Missile destroyed.”

  Zirenna whooshed out a sigh of relief.

  Thank the sacred silent of the Abyss.