“Good luck, Captain.”Amaya said, watching the small vessel slip away from the Yamato and into the plasma fields of the Badlands.

“To you as well, Commander. Keep the Yamato hidden for the time being…” the Captain replied. ‘Only engage if you are discovered.” she added.

“Yes ma’am.” she said, nodding, mostly to herself, than to anyone else on the bridge. She closed the comm channel, turning to step back up to the command dais. The Captain’s vessel slipped behind a plasma drift and disappeared from sight, heading for their destination.

“Helm, take us to the charged particle field… set us behind the largest piece of debris you can find.” Amaya ordered, taking her seat in the center chair.

“Aye, ma’am. Course plotted and laid in.” the helm officer replied.

The Yamato banked to starboard and made its own way deeper into the Badlands toward the charged particle field that the Captain had identified. It contained a large swathe of planetary debris, with several large chunks suitable for concealing the presence of the ship. Or so it was hoped. If they were discovered, so close to a Syndicate space station, the infiltration team would be in trouble.

“Rukia… keep an eye on their ship as long as possible… and the station if we can… I want to know the first sign of trouble.” she ordered.

“Already on it, Commander.” Rukia replied, cracking a grin. Amaya nodded, staring at the view screen. It showed nothing but the various plasma drifts and eddies that littered the area. At any other time she would have thought it pretty, but now she was just focused on making sure the ship was safe and worried that her Captain was stepping into the lion’s den. The Yamato rocked slightly, passing through some ionic turbulence as it slipped quietly into the charged particle field. Rukia let out a low whistle as pieces of debris started to fill the view screen.

“You have to wonder what cracked that planetoid…” she commented, looking back down at her sensor readouts. She frowned.

“Commander, the charged particle field is limiting our sensor range. I can only barely read the space station at this range.” she reported.

“Ideas?” Amaya asked, twisting to look at the trill officer over her shoulder.

“We could increase power to the sensors.” Soren said from his position next to the helm officer.

“That wouldn’t be wise… increasing our power output could make us more visible to enemy patrols.” Rukia said. She paused thinking for a moment, bringing up a list of the ships stores. She scrolled through it, then nodded as she found the entry she wanted. “We could launch a pair of class-7 reconnaissance probes and set them up to relay back to us.” she suggested.

“That won’t draw attention to us?” Amaya asked. Rukia shook her head.

“Their sensor suites are incredibly low power, but high resolution. They’re meant for just this sort of operation.”  she reassured. “Unless the Orions trip over one… they shouldn’t even be detected.” she added. Amaya considered for a moment, then nodded.

“Do it.” she ordered. Rukia tapped a few commands into her console, reprogramming the pair of probes before keying in the launch sequence. There were two low thuds as the probes swerve fired from the ships torpedo launchers and the view screen tracked them for a moment before they too disappeared behind the debris the ship was currently hiding behind. It took a few short moments before Rukia had something she could report.

“Probes are in position and relaying data now.” she said, bringing up the sensor display on the view screen. Slowly the fog of war receded and the screen soon showed the location of The Jade Exchange as well as the location of the Captain’s vessel as it was currently flanked by a pair of what Amaya could only assume were Orion ships. She held her breath for a moment, ready to order the ship into action then exhaled as the pair of dots broke off and let the Captain’s ship continue unmolested.

“That was close…” she commented.

“Likely a security patrol… waiting to see if they had clearance to be there…” Rukia advised. “Guess the codes intelligence provided were good after all.” she remarked.

“They finally did something right then.” Amaya said, leaning back in the chair. She studied the sensor display more, looking at the locations of the other Orion patrols. There weren’t many, which made a lot of sense, given most people weren’t supposed to know about this station, but there were just enough to be a problem if they got too close. She glanced up at the ceiling of the bridge.

“Ensign Soren, go to grey mode… give us just enough power for sensors, life support and maneuvering thrusters.” she ordered.

“Commander?” he asked, though started keying in the proper commands. The bridge lighting started to dim.

“I don’t want to risk one of their patrols getting too close and seeing something on their sensors.” Amaya commented. “Be ready to give us full power if we need it…” she added. Soren nodded, finishing up the sequence of commands. The bridge was now dim as the ship shifted into its lowest power mode. Any further and the ship would have been completely powered down.

“Grey mode active.” Soren informed, turning back to look at the Commander. She nodded to him, keeping her eyes on the view screen. Hey eyes tracked the various sensor contacts as they moved about the area. It was all she could do. This was the hardest part. Sure, the Captain had it harder. She actually had to walk into the lion’s den. But Amaya could only sit, watch and hope that nothing went catastrophically wrong. Because if it did, there was nothing she could do about it. All she could do was wait. All they could all do was wait. So they would, they would wait and they would be ready to spring into action at the first sign of trouble. On the view screen the sensor contact representing the Captain’s ship merged with the contact for The Jade Exchange. That was the point of no return for the Captain. They were now locked into whatever happened next.

“Good luck Captain.” she whispered. “Come back in one piece.” she added.