Lens of Time: Book 05 - Star Rover-The Worst of Time by Saxon Andrew Page A

prayed for his survival.
    • • •
    Jill collected herself and pulled up a simulation and started it running. She found a line immediately. She had her ships skip in and fire and then skip away. She continued to watch the ships maneuver after her attack and saw another line appear. By the end of the simulation, all the enemy ships had been destroyed. She pulled up another one and increased the speed of the playback. By the tenth simulation she was shocked at how easy it was to see the patterns. She leaned back and knew that simulations were only that, a simulation and didn’t match up with real space battles. But she was gaining confidence in the system and felt her fear start to diminish. Dat had given her hope. She now wished she hadn’t said anything. She sighed and knew she couldn’t stop herself.
    Jon Anders appeared on her display, “How’s it coming, Lieutenant?”
    “I want you and the others to link in with me and go through three simulations. I need to get a feel for directing other ships in the system.”
    “We’ll be ready in ten minutes.”
    The Wing went into the simulation and all of them were shocked at the difference in Jill’s control. At the end of the third simulation the Wing was ready to follow her lead. After the others dropped off the channel Jon asked, “What happened?”
    Jill slowly shook her head, “I really don’t want to say, Sir.”
    “I need to know, Lieutenant. My Wing’s survival is being placed in your hands. Now what changed?”
    “Dat contacted me and downloaded some protocols he had developed. He took some time to show me how they functioned. It really helped a lot.”
    Jon stared at her, “You know that information is a Prime Secret?” Jill nodded. “Let’s just keep that between us.”
    “He did it to help us survive, sir.”
    “I know; but sometimes doing the right thing doesn’t matter. Let’s just say you are very talented and leave it at that.”
    “Yes Sir. If Fleet finds out you knew about this and didn’t report it…”
    “I know. Let me worry about that. My primary responsibility is to those under my command. Don’t let me down, Jill.”
    Jill stared at Jon and nodded. It was the first time he had called her by her name instead of her rank. Her respect for him grew because of his disregard of personal consequences. She knew that she could trust Jon to do the right thing. That trust is critical with warriors.
    She turned back to the most difficult simulation and started her attack. She began seeing individual ships with lines moving across them and she targeted a single ship on them. She found holes in the enemy ship’s formations that allowed her to skip in and kill ships. After an hour she learned an important lesson. In fleet combat, rushing in was tantamount to suicide. Never go in without a clear objective and target and never get greedy.
    • • •
    The sun was dropping quickly and Dat knew the Masters would be arriving shortly. He looked over his shoulder and saw the lengthening shadows. He was amazed at how quickly it grew dark after the sun disappeared below the horizon. “You need to come inside.”
    Dat looked over his shoulder and saw Gresha standing in the doorway, “No, you should close the door. I’m going to need you if I can survive this.”
    “I don’t want to leave you, Dat.”
    “The Master said that only those on the roof would be safe. I need you at the door.”
    “Here they come!”
    Both of them looked up at the one that yelled and then looked out at the field. A cloud of Master shuttles was moving slowly toward the planet. “It looks like the Master has brought an audience with him.”
    Gresha said, “If the only safe place is on the roof, you’re in danger staying out here.”
    Dat laughed and shook his head, ““Do you think for a moment that the Master would deprive himself of the victory by killing me before he has an opportunity to run me down. No, I’ll just sit here and wait. Now get inside and close