Project Faith

Chapter 16

"Understood, ma'am."

The ship continued its trek through bradist's space. They detected several patrol ships tracking them. Every twenty minutes, the weapon lock alarm would go off. This was adding unnecessary stress to the crew. This mission was becoming harder than expected. The Enigma couldn't make a move without the bradist being aware of it. Lydia needed a plan. She needed the ship to disappear, without the bradist getting suspicious.

Lydia ordered the crew into the briefing room so they could progress what to do next. The crew sat around the table. Simona and Ezi shared a look. They thought about the pleasure they had several hours ago right at the briefing room's table. Simona could still feel Ezi's touch, the sweet and spicy aroma of Ezi's body. The tactical officer still felt the soreness between her legs and throbbing of her vagina, but she had to stay focus to assist Lydia, so she blocked out those feelings.

"We need a plan," Lydia said with such urgency. "If we turn off the translator, every ship in this sector will become suspicious. They might not be able to locate us, but they could make things difficult."

"What do you mean?" Faith asked.

"They could block off the jump point," Simona added. "Especially if their listening post was attacked."

"Maybe it a chance we have to take," Faith commented.

"I think it is a big risk," Simona said.

"Everything is a big risk out here." Piet jumped in. "Shit happens! Sometimes we have to eat it."

"You and Faith might like the taste," Simona said, "but I don't."

Lydia shook her head. "This is getting us nowhere."

Ezi sat with her eyes closed waiting to add to the discussion, then her eyes shot opened and she offered an idea. "First, we have to get the bradist off our trail. Without that, this conversation is pointless."

"How do we do that?" Lydia asked.

"We blow up the ship," Ezi answered. The crew waited for the punchline that never came.

"You're serious? How would that even work?" Lydia asked.

"Of course I don't mean we really blow up the ship," Ezi explained. "We will detonate two torpedoes at our location."

Lydia's face frown. "That will still blow up our ship."

"Not if our ship is not there," Ezi explained even further. "We will put out a distress call stating we are having engine trouble, like a jump core breach. Then, we turn off the translator, release two torpedoes, fly away in stealth mode and detonate them at our last known location."

Lydia's frown turned into a smile. "Letting the bradist believe we were destroyed by a jump core breach." Lydia leaned back in her chair. "Three torpedoes will be a more convincing explosion." The doctor hit the intercom button on the table. "Vlad, get ready to do some fancy flying."

One didn't have to see Vlad's face to notice his excitement. His voice gave that away. "Yes, ma'am!"

The torpedoes on the Enigma were designed to explode on impact. So, Simona, with the help of Ezi, modified three torpedoes to detonate by remote. It wasn't a hard process. Simona, who was a tactical officer and weapon specialist, had working knowledge in this area. Ezi was just brilliant. The shavili had a working understanding of many disciplines that the crew wasn't aware of. Ezi knew chemistry, electronics, mechanics, and bioengineering and had a tactical mind as well. If she was human, Lydia would have recruited her for SINDRI.

After working on the torpedoes, they had to make temporary modifications to the launcher, so that the torpedoes would drop out of the chute. Completing this process took some time, but they were able to accomplish it. After all of the modifications were completed, the crew was ready to implement the plan.