Unity

Chapter 40

Assuming everything went according to our carefully crafted schedule, the trip home would take about a week. I reviewed the plan one last time before giving it my stamp of approval. Each jump destination would place us on the outskirts of a planetary system. While the drives were being prepped for the next jump, sensors would be deployed, and the system assessed for the presence of any Zrynt. If the Zrynt were present and were small enough to be eliminated, we would destroy them and leave evidence pointing to the Zrynt as the culprits.

I cleared the screens at my chair and looked around at those stationed on the bridge. Every system had been double checked and everyone was anxious to be on the move. We were now far enough away from Narrisal to initiate the jump drives. We could jump while in system, but the Tuleeriri had begun frowning on the use of the jump drive next to their home world. I noticed my commanders were congregating behind me. I looked at them and asked, "Why are you still here? If you are looking for something to do, I'm sure I can find something to occupy your time."

Andrew stepped forward and said, "We wanted to be present for the first jump of our journey home. We promise to head back to our ships once we have jumped."

I decided to give them this one small concession. It was going to be a long week, so why not start it off on a positive note. "Okay then, you can stay," I replied, "but I still want to know who couldn't keep a secret for more than five minutes."

I turned to the bridge crew, "Put all ships on alert, and commence jump sequence in one minute," I ordered. The bridge crew went right to work. The countdown reached zero and we disappeared from the Narrisal system.

We safely arrived at our first stop, and in the distance, I could make out a bluish white star. Our charts indicated this was supposed to be a class A star, and I was disappointed to discover there was nothing orbiting around this star besides a dense cloud of debris that was too fine to be called an asteroid belt. I turned to my commanders and said, "Now that you have seen our first stop, I'll need to have you return to your posts. You and your crews are to rest when possible. I can't say how soon the next opportunity will be."

I turned my attention to the bridge crew as my commanders left for their ships. "It'll take about an hour for the engines to charge and be checked for stress. Send out scouts to scan the system and locate a spot to drop our sensor." I was relieved and annoyed at the same time when the scouts reported in. No sign of the Zrynt in this system, but I wasn't too surprised, as this system held little strategic value. Once the subspace sensor was placed and the drives charged, I gave the order to jump again. We had five different systems on our schedule for today, and I was relieved when we found the fifth system free of Zrynt presence. I really expected them to be more widely dispersed, but then again, with so many different stars in the galaxy, it would be nearly impossible to secure them all. That was something we would have to keep in mind as we attempted to eradicate the Zrynt.

I stood and stretched. Hours of sitting had stiffened my muscles, and I looked around the bridge and noted the relief on faces as we went from full alert to normal operations. This still required diligence at each post, but we were done jumping for now and the odds of something happening were slim. The engineers responsible for maintaining our jump drive requested a break after each series of jumps to perform any needed maintenance and check the drives for any irregularities. It would do us no good to be stranded out in the middle of hostile territory without a working jump drive. I turned and saw Shahae sitting stoically in the back. She had chosen a location that was out of the way but allowed her to observe everything. Even I had forgotten she was still here. I smiled and approached her. "Are you hungry?" I asked.

"No, but I probably should eat," she replied. It was then that I realized she looked thinner than when I first met her. I wasn't sure if it was the stress of fighting the Zrynt, or a side-effect of her confinement, but I tried to push the thought from my mind as I escorted her to my office. I had food sent there, and it arrived shortly after we did.