Nightshade is
halfway between von Krantzhoff's Tr-X-1 fleet and the three rebel
fleets which are shadowing it. It's now 11:20 and the crew is
mostly resting. Sir Misha Ravanos has bought them more time by
asking to consider the evidence against Archduke Norris. The
battle itself started on 138, and the rebels have been delayed by about
two days so far. The loyallists are down to two fleets, between
them about enough ships for one full fleet.
The last engagement of the Battle of Tussinian
started at about 06:00, so the crew is pretty tired. Most go to
rest. Shark is still guarding the two conscious and healthy
prisoners. Santanocheev and the other prisoner are unconscious in
Sick Bay.
The data that has been provided to Sir Misha by the
rebels -- cleaned of all viruses by Robert Morris -- is certainly
comprehensive. It has listings of the movements of Norris,
meetings between him and known Zhodani sympathizers, meetings with
Zhodani ambassadors. It has detailed analyses of treaties and
agreements between Norris and the Zhodani, pointing out how they are
clearly betraying the Imperium.
Shark suggests that what's contained in there could
be either used to show betrayal, or the exact same evidence could be
used to show advancements of peace.
For example, letting Zhodani observers on board the
bridge of Imperial warships on the border could in fact be an act to
improve trust, communication and stability. It could also be
allowing the Zhodani to observe and collect Imperial secrets.
Further details include meetings between Norris and
psionic rights sympathizers. According to the authors of this
report, there are clear indications, including details like times and
attendees, that Norris intends to loosen up the Imperial ban on
psionics and introduce limited legalization.
Shark is amused that it does not mention Imperial
research on psionics.
The whole report shows a distinct trend of weakening
the Imperium in the face of the Zhodani. If one were a
Zhodani-hater, this would definitely be very bad indeed. It's
hard data, solid information. The interpretation, however, is
very one-sided.
Santanocheev has never made it a secret that he has
always been opposed to any peace with the Zhodani that did not consist
of the Imperium dictating terms.
Shark breaks off from reading this data and calls
Jack, who is still in Sick Bay having helped move the two injured
prisoners up there. Shark says, "Jack, what do you know about the
succession rights of the leadership of the INISO?"
Jack doesn't, but expects a normal chain of
command. She responds to Shark's suggestion that the Right of
Assassination is believed only to apply to the Emperor.
Shark's train of thought is very obvious, but
unfortunately won't work legally.
The document also contains legal references to
INISO. There is a vast body of obscure and scattered laws that
apply. Shark asks Vonish to start studying these legal statements.
For the vilani chef, it's a welcome break from the
excitement and stress of the last couple of days. He starts
putting together a light overview of this obscure collection that the
crew will be able to understand. He tells them right away that
this will be a major effort. The document contains references and
conclusions without quoting the text of the laws and resolutions
themselves, and it will take a great deal of research to study
it. Kalida will help later on, but she's still pondering matters
in her own special way right now.
Vonish says that if it indeed is as presented, then
the INISO definitely has a case. The references are all very
scattered -- none of the laws individually give them this power.
They were clearly designed as an entire package, and put together over
the course of a couple of decades in order to give that power.
This had to have been planned this way.
Shark agrees. If he was going to set up an
organization with this power, he'd do it slowly through a whole series
of minor laws. It's pretty clear it was not set up by an Emperor,
who wouldn't have to do it this way. He says that sounds a lot
like Illuminati, and suggests Robert should try to use that in his
decryption attempts.
Having left off the matter of the documents, Shark
returns to whiling away the time guarding the prisoners by thinking of
methods of harrassing the rebels' refuelling efforts with the resources
the loyallists are likely to have available. Most of the
Imperials' nukes will have been used up at this point and won't be
available to blast refuelling areas.
Of course, Nightshade herself can use her
nukes, as well as atmospheric expander shots. He makes a mental
note to ask Kalida if the expander can disrupt weather patterns enough
to interfere with refuelling. There is already, of course,
substantial dust in the atmosphere from their attacks on the ground
installations.
On the other hand, they'll be limited to ships and
boats that can operate in an atmosphere. While fighters can, and
several other ships, a great many of the naval ships cannot do so.
The battle so far has used significant fuel.
It will definitely be a factor in any future engagement, especiallly
considering they regrouped back at the moon. Shark believes
they'll be transferring all but minimum fuel from less effective units
to ones to be used on the front line. The three fleets here in
orbit will be low on fuel, but not as bad as the ones that climbed up
out of the battle area.
It's a given that the defenders are ridiculously
outnumbered, even with the force multiplier effect of Nightshade.
They have to be concerned that their communications could be disrupted
again, but for that Nightshade would have to get directly into
their communications path.
Shark then considers setting up missiles as mines in
orbit. Mich, however, tells him that Imperial units aren't set up
that way, and would have to maintain a minimal power level that would
make them too easy to detect.
Shark is aware and considers that there are people
on this world, but the delaying action here is much more important than
the 5000 inhabitants who were living here in addition to the personnel
at the class B starport. That would add a refuelling capacity
once the rebels win, he thinks, and so perhaps the last thing they
should do before leaving is destroy the starport. That would of
course put them on the same level as Scorpionis Admiral "The Butcher"
Cartha that Bridgehead has told them about in his stories of the
Cockroach War.
Everything now is waiting for Kalida to finish her
crystal ball pondering.
She's been thinking about Sir Misha's
concerns. Have they disrupted the rebel flotilla enough?
Will the fleets continue with Santanocheev in their custody? The
answer to that is a clear yes. The next thing is if they deliver
Santanocheev to Norris right now, do they need to continue to stay here
and delay, or could all the defenders here cut and run and sort it all
out at Mora?
She translates that into her terms. First she
looks at the situation as a whole. Previously everything was
clear about it coming to a head here, but after this it was very fuzzy
indeed. She is a little surprised that it is still fuzzy, despite
not only their actions here but also bringing the Duke of Rhylanor to Mora.
The fuzzy propagates from here, depending still on what happens at this
thread nexus.
She finds something odd. She would have
expected it to condense somewhat having captured Santanocheev, but it
hasn't closed down enough. It hasn't limited things as much as
she would have expected. There is an effect, but it's not clear
what.
She starts pulling threads, investigating what
happens if they take Santanocheev with them versus staying here with
the fleets. If they leave, the fleets here will continue on their
way to Mora. She can't really predict when they would
reach Mora, although through the fuzziness she can tell they'll
be trying to reach there in time. If they stay and delay, there
is even more fuzziness, more consequences intended and otherwise from
their actions.
Here and now, she feels, her ship and crew are a
significant factor in pulling threads, much more than they used to
be. The slightest action will have very significant consequences,
intended or not. Strong threads were pulling them, and strong
threads still are. They're being pulled, but in a different way
and with less influence on the threads that they themselves are
pulling. Again, the feeling that here, now, they are a very
significant factor. If Kalida just coughs the wrong way, it could
change everything. She is the butterfly, deciding which wing to
flap. The more she looks at herself, the more the feeling is
overwhelming -- but by now she knows to back out and not get lost in
it. She pulls back out of her state and gets up.
At 13:10 she finally emerges from her stateroom and
walks to the Lounge.
Shark is there, having been relieved in turn by
Teri, and immediately calls the captain to wake him. Shark has
been making the coffee while Vonish is busy, and while it's obviously
not Vonish's, it still tastes pretty good to everyone at this stage of
events.
Sir Misha is soon in the Lounge too. He asks
Kalida what she's found, and she says that things are still a little
hazy.
Kalida says that they are definitely having an
effect on things. If they leave and take Santanocheev with them,
the rebel fleets they leave behind will put themselves together as
rapidly as they can and head for Mora as fast as they can to
try to make the rendezvous. That was very clear. Anything
else is still very fuzzy. If they stay here and continue to
engage, she can't tell what will come of that.
Shark says that to be effective enough here to delay
them significantly will put them at grave, high probability they will
be able to kill them. They'll have to go into the middle of
clusters of fleets, and they know that's where the Imperial weapons are
dangerous to them. They can be of some help on the outside at
limited risk to themselves, but if they do that, it is inevitable that
the defender fleet will lose. It'll be a matter of hours which
way it goes, whether it takes a long time or fast.
Kalida agrees, and adds that those hours won't make
much difference in the long run.
Shark nods. He says they could try to help the
defenders establish guerilla tactics on the planet, just being able to
get them from random positions over and over. Nightshade
could delay them at least a day by scooting around underwater and doing
expander shots at the refuelling ships. It would slow them down
at least.
Kalida knows an expander shot in the atmosphere will
create a pretty large explosion. The more mass the expander has
to play with, the bigger the explosion. An airburst in a normal
atmosphere would be in the gigaton range.
The next thing Shark wonders is if they and the
defender fleets went to Mora with news of their glorious stand
here, would it help boost the defenders there significantly? He
states firmly that their presence here, without extreme risk to
themselves, is not going to be significant to the defence of this
system.
Kalida agrees that they will be reaching diminishing
returns. The defender forces here are tiny and getting tinier by
the minute.
Clearly they're reaching a critical point.
It's 13:30, and Sir Misha calls an immediate crew meeting, leaving Teri
monitoring it in her battledress while guarding the prisoners.
Sir Misha says that whatever happens past today and
past Mora, assuming they survive, he has a serious vendetta
with the INISO and would love to take them apart. They're the
ones who left the bomb on their ship, as well as everything else
they've done. Is there anything they can do here to improve their
chances of that once this whole thing is over? Can anyone imagine
information they can gather from the INISO personnel here at this
battle that might let them trace the rest of the INISO organization?
Shark is afraid that they have a significant
fraction of the INISO personnel in custody in Sick Bay at the moment.
Sir Misha says that would go a long way to his
overall goal.
Shark says that given how they've operated in the
past -- one person walking in with a piece of paper and taking command
of a whole base and entire system, and getting away with it -- they
might have five guys here total. They must also have some solid
legal points which they've given to the Imperial Navy legal staff on
these fleets to convince them to submit as well.
Kalida says that there's going to be a clear line of
succession from Santanocheev, and she is sure somebody has already
taken over. She adds that any organization as large as INISO has
to have factions within it that are going to be pulling and pushing
each other.
Shark nods, and says that while Santanocheev claims
to be the head, is he merely a sector chief or is he the head?
Each sector has to be able to act independently because of
communications time.
Kalida and Sir Misha seem convinced that he really
is the head. Kalida adds that depending on the relative strengths
of the factions, simply keeping Santanocheev here and alive might be
seeding conflict within the INISO.
Shark asks Bridgehead where he obtained the
legendary bean juice. Could make Sanatanocheev a temporary puppet
and go into other areas, like for example where the other fleets are
coming from, and give them bad orders.
Bridgehead says the beans were from Faldor,
and it's a babble juice, not mind control. He'll enthusiastically
tell them everything he knows, but it doesn't control him. It
will be the real truth, too -- that's been well tested. It would
probably take a week or so to make, but he'd have to check his notes to
be sure.
Bridgehead pauses, then says, "I do have one
concern. I'm not 100% sure that this is actually
Santanocheev. I'd have to say about 80%."
Kalida silently agrees that would explain why
capturing him hasn't tightened down the fuzziness that much, but then
again that could depend so much on INISO's organization here.
Shark says that even if they do have the real
Santanocheev, any intelligence organization has a report-to person
outside the organization -- the Emperor, the Duke, a General, somebody
-- who appoints the next leader. This organization claims not to
have anyone they're reporting to, so how they come up with a successor
is, well... Do they have a named successor who would have to be
informed? There's a lot of unknowns about that.
Sir Misha comes back to something Shark said some
time ago. Shark implied that Norris will want to take out
INISO. Does he still believe that?
Shark says, "Personsally, yes. Now, is there a
good political and legal reason that Norris would choose not to take it
apart? If you're truly loyal to the Imperium, no. If you
believe in a checks and balances system, you might do that."
Sir Misha says, "It very well could be, that if we
imagine INISO has a bunch of factions within it, it may be partially
controlled by Norris or any number of other people. So this
public war could be just an external manifestation of a private war or
internal struggle."
Shark wonders what the effect would be of making
INISO public? They are very secretive, but they've just given
them a set of documents showing their existence and means of
creation. If they publish that, about this secret organization --
"And we don't even have to use Gavrolovitch's name!"
Amid the laughter, Kalida says that since they would
be publishing the actual reasoning behind it, that could also
strengthen them.
Shark says that there's a lot of things that they
could do. He votes for leaving here, but perhaps if they could
identify another definitive member of INISO first. He asks
Bridgehead how long it would be to identify Santanocheev with
certainty, and what information he would need.
Bridgehead of course wants Santanocheev's DNA for a
100% yes or no. "I can tell you some things," he says.
"This person is from the right region of the Imperium. He has the
right genetic markers, and he's about the right age. But I'm not
sure."
Shark asks if his military and medical records would
be on the loyallist fleets here?
Bridgehead shakes his head. "INISO has it, I'm
sure. They can tell which is the real one if there is more than
one. If they have done surgery on his appearance, it's been with
higher than Imperial tech. Not significantly higher -- I could
have done it with the Sick Bay on Anastasia, but somebody put
that Sick Bay together, even though it's clearly based on something
like what's here."
Shark didn't know Anastasia had some early
black tech on it.
Mich and the Baron agree that it had some things
along the lines of that technology, yes. Mich points out that Anastasia
had identical nuclear warheads to the ones on this ship.
Bridgehead says that if there was one on Anastasia, they could
have had one themselves.
Sir Misha changes the subject. What's left of
the command structure on the loyallist side? Commodore von
Krantzhoff is in command, so how many levels down is that from the
original? Four, perhaps? His point is this: given they
don't think they can hang out here much longer, even if they do drastic
things...
Shark interrupts and says they can, but the risk is
very high.
Sir Misha continues. Given that the people and
equipment on both sides of this battle is Imperial, he wants to waste
as little of it as they can. So, his plan at this point is for
them to cut and run and get to Norris as fast as they can with what
they have, whether Santanocheev is the real one or not. Also, he
wants to try to convince the defending fleets to leave too.
Shark agrees. While Kalida isn't in the chain
of command, her rank is equivalent to the commander here, and she's a
Marquis. If they tell von Krantzhoff that the position is
untenable, and they're ordering them back to Mora at best
speed, a good many of them would do that.
Kalida gently explains that they can't really order
them, they'd have to phrase it differently.
Shark says that they know there are people leading
this battle who claim to be higher than the Emperor. If they made
that knowledge available to everyone else on both sides here, how might
they react to it? Would they mutiny? Of course, the
Imperial Navy controls communications in the ship very carefully.
Sir Misha says that as a parting shot he does want
to broadcast a message along those lines, backed up by some of
the very evidence the INISO sent them. It might get to a few
communications officers who would spread it, officially or unofficially
through gossip, and they might fight not quite as hard. He tells
Shark to arrange that for the right moment. He then tells Kalida
that they'll be talking to the leader of the defending fleets to
convince them as best they can to get out.
Robert opens a link to von Krantzhoff.
Sir Misha says that they've been considering what to
do at this point, and have decided the best option for all of them is
to take Santanocheev back to Norris immediately, and to encourage him
(von Kranzthoff) to cut and run, saving as many men and ships as they
can.
Von Krantzhoff states that his orders are to remain
here for another three days.
Sir Misha says that effort, although valiant, would
not delay the rebel fleets in any significant way. Their presence
at Mora would be much more advantageous, both from equipment
and moral standpoints.
Von Krantzhoff is polite and friendly, but seems
determined not to be dissuaded. He says that his orders are that
if they leave here, they are to go to Katarulu. He
intends to continue the stand here as long as possible, and to follow
his orders. Heading on to Mora would be the opposite
direction, and there certainly isn't time to go to Katarulu and
then on to Mora.
Sir Misha asks if he can convince von Krantzhoff to
regroup at Katarulu.
"Not at the moment," says von Krantzhoff. "We
need to see what the other fleets are doing. We've had
substantial success here -- if the battle delays for another day or so,
we can make that to three days instead of two, maybe I'll
reconsider. If you can buy us another day of non-combat, we can
meet again and consider it. Even then, however, our orders are
for five days if we can. We simply cannot leave after two days."
"I'm not sure I can buy you a day, but I'll buy you
what I can," replies Sir Misha.
"Buy us what you can, and we'll talk again."
Sir Misha wishes them good luck.
"You too," says von Krantzhoff. He looks for a
moment as if he was going to say something else, but doesn't. He
ends the call.
Sir Misha addresses the crew again, and tells them
what they're going to do. He asks who the best lawyer is aboard.
A chorus of "Vonish" goes up. The chef is
apparently also the most skilled at law.
Sir Misha asks him to study the documents provided
by the INISO, and argue legal points with them.
Vonish nods, and says he'll need six hours to
prepare.
Sir Misha clarifies that the point here is just to
delay. The premise is that Sir Misha is concerned that this will
not hold up in court, and wants Vonish, his legal expert, to challenge
them to the best of his ability. He laughs that Vonish is to
remember that this is just a bluff, and he really doesn't care at all.
Shark adds that on the other hand, they could get
one of the loyallist ships out. A courier, to make sure that this
particular legal argument gets to Norris to let him choose whether it
gets further. Just in case they somehow die or whatever.
Everyone agrees this is a good idea.
Shark does express concern that a courier jumping
out might precipitate action. They may need to tell him to
prepare a courier to get out as soon as action begins. He then
asks Robert and Kalida to verify his assessment of what fuel the rebels
have, and whether they are as he believes transferring fuel to a
smaller group to be able to attack effectively.
Robert and Kalida both agree. They confer, and
say that the rebels could add four well fuelled fleets to the three
already in orbit here.
Shark points out that leaves a whole bunch of
under-fuelled ships sitting up by the moon. They won't be able to
change their formation much to respond to an attack. The fleets
at the mainworld won't be able to come back to help -- or if they did,
that's all they could do, which would win the battle for the
defenders. If the rebels were dumb enough, the loyallists could
actually pull out a win here.
Robert opens a channel to von Krantzhoff again.
Sir Misha says that they need them to get a package
of information back to Norris, against the eventuality that they don't
get out of here. He says it basically contains the information
the INISO provided. He wants von Krantzhoff to prepare a courier
to send out as soon as hostilities resume.
Von Krantzhoff is glad to do this, but points out
that the issue will be getting the courier out far enough to
jump. If it was desperate, he could give it to four couriers and
have them jump at 10 diameters, but if they can get to 10 they can
probably get to 100.
Sir Misha says it's very important that Norris
recieve this information, and he'd like von Krantzhoff to get it there
any way he can. He says that it will be a confidential message,
for Norris's eyes only.
Von Krantzhoff agrees.
Robert transmits the information package, sealed for
Norris.
Now it's 14:00, and time to talk to the INISO lady
again. Robert hooks up a link to the flagship of the Mirriam
fleet.
Sir Misha tells her that he's still reviewing the
information. He's finding some holes in the legal arguments about
their authority, and is very concerned that it will not hold up.
The lady in the dark suit assures him that it will.
Sir Misha asks if she has any legal experts that
could discuss it.
She assures him firmly that if he checks the
references in the package, it is very clear that it will stand up in
court simply because they say it will. She tells Sir Misha to
have his legal person look at it and to call him back in two hours at
16:00. She closes the call.
Sir Misha tells Vonish to do the best he can in the
time he has. Kalida says she can be a legal assistant, and
perhaps help him out. Vonish gladly accepts -- he says he thinks
he has a line of reasoning that can cause enough doubt to justify a
discussion, and with her help it'll take him an hour and a half to
prepare. He says that the rest of the crew will have to figure
out their own food while he's working on this.
Shark tells Callisto to take a break, since they
have two hours now. He wants her fully alert later. In the
meantime, he'll run some scans himself. He looks carefully at the
rebel fleets, but nothing is moving -- and still nothing moves for a
long time. He can't tell exactly what's happening up at the moon,
but nothing significant is moving, that's for sure.
Jack asks if she can look into the brown box with
Mich. She says she thinks it's very important that they look at
it right now. She joins him down in the maintenance shops,
working together to study this encryption unit they captured from the
courier. Shark has warned her that Mich will be busy as soon as
things start happening again.
Vonish is ready at 15:30, and relaxes in the Lounge
for a while with some crew-made coffee.
At 16:00, Robert opens a link to the INISO person
again.
Sir Misha introduces Vonish, and says he'd like to
talk with their legal expert.
Before she'll do that, the lady asks Vonish to tell
her what he has.
Vonish goes over his presumably specious but well
presented arguments.
The lady accepts that there are matters to discuss,
and that he should call back again in an hour to talk with the legal
expert.
With still nothing going on among the rebel fleets,
Shark asks Jack how she and Mich are doing.
Jack says they have the box open now. Inside
is kind of a silicon block, with wires hooked up to it.
Mich says it's some kind of circuitry, but it's
really weird. It's conventional, but a very strange design.
Shark quickly checks that the football sensors
aren't picking up anything now that the box is open. His paranoia
proves unfounded.
Jack continues. She says that they've found
that the box hooks itself up into the ship rather more heavily than
just an in and out box.
Shark asks her what she means by that.
Jack says it has some feedback into the ship's
systems to make it work. It's sending control signals back to the
ship it's installed in, in order for the communications to work through
this box. It's like in order to encrypt it through the box, they
go back into the computer systems and modify how things are being sent
out in the first place, before it gets into the encryption
system. It's very strange, she says.
Shark feeds this information to Robert.
It doesn't make much sense to Robert, in a strange
kind of way, he says. It's like the box itself is thinking Wrong.
"Thinking wrong intentionally?" asks Shark.
"No," says Robert. "You don't think Wrong
intentionally."
Shark says if he was designing an encryption system
that was going to be hard to decrypt, why not have it encrypt wrong in
some predictable fashion? He asks if he's oversimplifying again.
Robert gives him a look like a chimp just jabbered
at him and offered him a banana.
Shark takes that as a yes.
It's 17:00 and time to call back the INISO
lady. Robert hooks up the link, and Vonish starts his legal
discussions with another person in a dark suit.
Vonish asks Kalida to stand by. Sir Misha
stands by too, clearly profoundly interested in the discussion.
Vonish talks slowly and deliberately. Every
now and again, Sir Misha doesn't understand a point of the discussion,
and Vonish explains each one to him at length. Occasionally the
INISO lawyer corrects him, and he too is dragged into explaining to Sir
Misha. The talks are taking a satisfyingly long time. A
couple of hours go by very easily.
Two hours later, at 19:00, Kalida gets a private
call asking if she could spare a few minutes. Vonish is right now
listening to the other lawyer explain a point to Sir Misha, and
correcting him. Kalida asks to be excused for a few minutes, and
is given permission for a break.
Suddenly, on the spur of the moment, Vonish comes up
with an extremely strong argument that one of the votes on the pieces
of legislation was invalid, and therefore the legislation did not
technically pass.
Sir Misha looks meaningfully at the other lawyer,
who winces.
The INISO lawyer asks for a two hour recess, to
which Vonish agrees. Sir Misha breaks the connection with a
serious look of concern.
Everyone takes a break. They have until 21:00.
Shark relieves Callisto again, and says that after
her break she is to talk to the Grand Admiral. After she comes
back, it'll be Shark's turn to talk to the Grand Admiral. It's
time to juice themselves.
Vonish, however, is not going to take a break.
He pulls in Robert's help as well for computer resources and works on
the argument he's just invented.
Kalida, however, can take a break herself.
Before she leaves, Sir Misha asks her what called her out of the talks,
but adds it would be ok to say that she doesn't want to.. She
says she doesn't think she's ready to tell him right now, but that
there's sort of a last ditch emergency maneuver that might be possible.
Sir Misha will take the two hours for a nap, but he
-- and the whole crew -- have been told that Baron Bridgehead is
prepared to juice whoever needs it. The Baron prepares a package
for Shark to have on the Bridge to use as necessary.
Shark -- still on sensors -- then asks Bridgehead to
knock out Teri's wards so she can take a break too. He suggests
Low Berth, and asks for additional armed backup. Shark first asks
Jack, but she says she's busy. He then asks Sir Misha to help.
Bridgehead explains what he's planning to do to
these two people, but perhaps he's been awake too long, or just is his
usual tactless self, and it really does not go over well. It's a
good thing Sir Misha is there, because he smoothes things over and
takes over the talking. The two prisoners cooperate fully with
being placed into Low Berth, and clearly expect to wake up healthily
from it.
Sir Misha tells the Doctor to take a break himself,
or juice himself up. The Doc says he's covered already, and that
a rest is just not physically possible right now for him.
By 21:00, Vonish is looking very happy. It
looks like he's lucked on to something solid and real.
Robert opens the link again.
Vonish presents his point. He's done the
difficult work already, and now he's just showing the other lawyer the
supporting information.
Clearly it sounds plausible. The INISO lawyer
suggests they take a recess for the night and come back in the
morning. He suggests resuming at 07:00 tomorrow morning.
Shark looks smug from his position off camera.
Shark suggests to the Captain that it might be wiser
for them to move back with von Krantzhoff's fleet so that they have a
bit more distance from the fleets in orbit around the mainworld.
If they're all going to be off station overnight, it might be better to
be in a position where they could get more warning to wake up.
They're already where they could be laser scanned, and it they could be
taking heavy fire within 15-20 minutes. If they back up to join
the defending fleet, they'll have more warning. They can always
come back up here in the morning.
Shark says he'll be on sensor watch while Callisto
gets some real sleep. Helia will be sleeping in one of her
hammocks on the Bridge, so she could be on station quickly.
The rebel fleets are sweeping sensors, but not over Nightshade
at the moment. Sir Misha suggests going into stealth to move.
Shark, however, is concerned that it might be taken
the wrong way. Shark is in fact very concerned about triggering
the battle being resumed by otherwise simple and innocent
actions. Even moving back to the other fleet could be taken the
wrong way.
Sir Misha says they should not take the risk of
restarting the battle. It would be more prudent to take the risk
of a surprise attack.
Shark announces to the crew that they're on break
until 07:00 tomorrow. He makes a mental note to catch Jack and
Mich and ask them if they've found anything else new about the brown
box.