Starship Vengeance

Chapter 36

Efficiency. No other word could succinctly describe a Nyth'La'Kell warship with as much accuracy. Ayrn'Na'Teck was proud the way her people took to their assigned posts. The generations of genetic engineering had played no small part in that. For a crew, the only objective more important than efficiency was the holy cause for which the Nyth had been created. Generations had looked forward to the day that the purpose of their creation would be fulfilled. The honor of leading the first Nyth to battle had fallen on non-other than Ayrn.

Ayrn had been an exceptional example of the benefits their altered genome provided. She excelled at every aptitude battery her caste had thrown her way. In fact, there was even talk of selecting her as her caste's next Thish'Na'Kell. The success of this campaign would virtually guarantee her position as the matriarch of the next generation.

None of that would matter though unless she focused on the task at hand.

"Ayrn, we have reached our destination," Wylth'Lo'Byrn, the ship's communications section chief stated. "All ships have reported in."

"Commence search," Ayrn commanded. They had arrived at the center of their designated area. They were the last of the Alliance's fleet to reach their destination as it was the furthest from where the fleets had separated.

Ayrn's flagship remained at the center of the area they were to scout, while the other heavy destroyers separated. Each destroyer was accompanied by fifteen battleships, which left forty in defense of their flagship. Ayrn, at the insistence of her intelligence officer, instructed her commanders to search along existing subspace routes. The Zrynt relied solely on subspace travel, so if there were Zrynt to be found, they would be found somewhere along those routes. This method of searching would help in making up time lost in transit by reducing the searchable area by thirty percent.

Progress was made very quickly at first. With so many ships in a concentrated area, Ayrn was able to scout multiple exits along subspace routes simultaneously. As the ships spread out, that advantage disappeared. Two Terran days had passed without incident. The most irritating part of the alliance was being forced to use the Terran's time and distance standards. There were much more efficient ways to track time than rely on the nine billion one hundred ninety two million six hundred thirty one thousand seven hundred and seventy cycles of radiation from an element the Terrans called Cesium. At least the Terrans based what they called their metric system off of that constant. It had been decided to use the Terran standard as a universal standard, not because it was the most efficient, but because of all the members of the alliance, the Terrans had the most difficulty with adapting to new standards.

The third day on the bridge was more active that the previous two had been. The various sections of the bridge were busy processing incoming information and sending out orders. With the flagship acting as a communications hub, there was plenty of work to go around. Trel'Lo'Tryn, the dark purpled haired intelligence section chief, approached Ayrn's location with a certain air of enthusiasm. His blue eyes, common to all military personnel, belayed the exiting nature of the news he bore. "Ayrn, we have identified a probable location for the Zrynt."

"How probable?" Ayrn asked.

"An estimated sixty eight percent chance we will find some level of Zrynt activity."

"Who is closest to this location?"

Tryn motioned to one of the intelligence recruits, whose hair only had faint traces of purple. New recruits were often referred to as whites by those they worked with as a reminder of their low rank. He handed Tryn a datapad and moved back to his assigned location. "Under our current search, Eyth'Lo'Teck would have been to that location in twelve Terran hours."

"Send Eyth there immediately," Ayrn commanded. "Have the two closest commanders rally as well. If there are Zrynt present, we wouldn't want Eyth to get all the glory."