Everyone was Ok. They were outside the primary lethal zone. Just. She was glad she’d kept them moving, mostly silent. They’d survived a Daisy Cutter, not much else had.

  “Full stealth. Comms off. Come to me.”

  Meanwhile, somewhen else… In a murky, deniable place, the Long Quiet awoke, the Quietus Protocol had been evoked.

  MESSAGE: ‘The Silent One’ is at risk.

  “We have eyes on.”

  Resources, frightening resources were mobilised.

  Back now …

  Bikky’s ghillie suit was smoking and one of the cats had singed hair. It licked at it.

  ‘Do they never learn. Another tongue wounding?’ asked the QI.

  ‘Funny’

  Before she could start briefing the squad Feebee was interrupted on an open comm, aimed directly at her. It was MAJ Chen.

  “Jones…”

  Before he could utter another word, she cut him off, “MAJOR. Entangled comms.”

  He turned to his EO. “She cut me off.”

  He tried again. Nothing.

  “Sir, you don’t have secure comms engaged. That may be it.” The EO reached across and flicked the switch from OPEN to SECURE. A telltale went from orange to green. He also turned the speaker on.

  Chen tried again.

  She responded immediately. “Jones.”

  “Jones, you really annoy me.”

  “Thankyou sir.”

  “It’s not a compliment.”

  The EO shook his head, amazed at how Chen rolled with sarcasm.

  “We’ve detected what we believe to be enemy activity in your area.”

  It was Feebee’s turn to shake her head, “Yes sir.” It was all she could manage.

  “I spoke with HQ, the Drexari are attacking other planets, a major swarming event. HQ is considering my belief that it’s signalling major incursions into our territory.”

  The QI cut into Feebee’s train of thought, ‘Go figure Einstein.’

  ‘Not now. Be polite.’

  ‘Difficult.’

  ‘Agreed. Now shut up!’

  “Can you neutralise their ship?” she asked Chen.

  There was a pause.

  A long pause.

  He turned off the speaker and picked up a headset. “My mission is to follow their ship back to their home world. It’s imperative I… we survive to achieve that. It could change the whole war.”

  If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  Nothing. Silence.

  His EO reached across and plugged the headset into the console. He took another for himself and plugged it in. Chan looked irritated but said nothing.

  He could hear gunfire but continued without missing a beat, “Jones. My mission is to follow their ship back to their home world. And you play a critical part in that.”

  “But sir. HQ confirmed this is a swarming event. By definition, that’s an isolation event intended to establish a new colony. Did you mention that?” Feebee let her frustration show.

  Chen ignored her question, “You’re doing well. Doing great. And their ship; well, it’s a lot bigger than us. If we attack it, we give away our position and compromise my mission. Before I go,” he added as if making a call about a trip to the shops, “let me know if there’s anything you need.”

  He was about to cut the comms, clearly intending it to be a rhetorical question. But this was Feebee.

  “Sir. Can you see their people on the ground? Through their cloaks?”

  He looked at his EO, who shook his head. “No, we cannot.”

  “Can you get your comms people to take a look. We’re fighting blind here.”

  Again, he looked at his EO who nodded and mouthed, “We’ll have a look at it.”

  “Yes Jones. We’ll get onto it. Immediately.” He shooed the EO away to get some people onto it.

  The Drexari were monitoring their comms and Chen’s open comm had just given their position away. Feebee knew it, because she would do it.

  ‘We have five, maybe ten minutes at best. Agree?’

  ‘Yes. Unlikely to be less. Maybe even fifteen.’

  She pulled the squad in close.

  “Good to have you back Grim. We were lucky. Had that dropped on us we’d all be dead.” She pointed to the area where the daisy cutter had landed. Then continued, “They’re monitoring our comms, they know we’re still here, not how many. So SILENT RUNNING and we have to move, quickly. They may bomb this location. Lets go. Grim lead us around their ship so we are behind it but I want line of sight on it.”

  They were about to set-off. “One last thing. I’ll get the QI to rotate our cloaking signatures so they can’t detect us. We need to move from here and quickly. Stay safe.” She made Diri to the group.

  “Stay safe,” they echoed back, making Diri.

  Feebee hefted Hissy, getting comfortable within her coils and started jogging after Grim who was setting a pace that kept them going but wasn’t too fast. They didn’t have to move too far, thirty minutes max. Vex took point and Kestrel was providing forward cover. Bikky and Tom Tom stayed close to Feebee, while Anchor watched their six.

  They made good progress and came across a stream that ran down the middle of a gorge. There was a good thirty meters of stream, and a twenty-meter, gravelly lateral bar on either side of the stream. Below, there was a cascade and a waterfall upstream and off to the left. Grim had described the ship as being across the other side and maybe two hundred meters away from the stream.

  Hissy had been placed behind a huge rock, annoyed at being unable to see what was happening or being able to take part.

  The QI reached out to Feebee, ‘Hissy wanted to help.’

  ‘How? How can Hissy help?’ she’d asked the QI.

  Hissy started huffing, like someone trying to be heard.

  The QI translated. ‘Hissy says she’s seen this before. The river will draw them to us.’

  ‘Huh. You’re talking to Hissy?’

  The QI continued, ‘She says, trust the water.’

  Feebee thought for a minute, then it came to her. ‘Ahh, I get it. Good idea, but how can she help us.’

  ‘Well, she just did. But she says she can make the water talk louder.’

  ‘Perfect.’

  She called Bikky over. “Do we have a spare cloak?”

  “Of course. Why?”

  “I have an idea.”

  ‘Rude. Not your idea,’ intoned the QI.

  ‘You reckon they’ll buy into a plan, delivered to me from a musical instrument via a Quantum Intelligence that is still a myth to them?’

  ‘Hhmm, now you put it that way…’

  ‘So, you can do that? Without affecting anything else?’

  ‘Yes’ The QI’s response was emphatic, no undertone of doubt.

  ‘Good. How long would you need?’

  ‘Ten seconds. The rest is up to you.’

  Feebee laughed, ‘Fair.’

  Grim was back. “It’s done.”

  “Nice. Everyone’s in place” Feebee was lying down next to Grim, looking out across the gorge, just below the waterfall and down the stream.

  Feebee started to hum a tune, it was an old earth lullaby. She went to Hissy, stroked her head, picked her up and got ready. She fidgeted and started to sing the words that matched the only tune she’d known. The one the QI had sung to her every night as she’d matured and grown up.

  Whisper, whisper silent flame,

  Carved in stone before you came.

  Drifting far through void and glow,

  Dreaming things you shouldn’t know.

  Sleep now soft as we all wait,

  So, you grow and write you fate.

  Grim asked, “What is tune.”

  “It’s a song my … mother sang to me each night. Helped me go to sleep.”

  Grim chuffed, “Cats just sleep.”

  Feebee reached into a side pocket in her backpack and took out a Holiday Cheer Stim Pack. It had pictures of Christmas pudding with red berries and a snow man on top. She started eating her way through the bar.

  “What is?” asked Grim

  “Energy bar. Good before action.”

  “I try?”

  Feebee considered it for a moment, unsure what red berries and human stim supplements would do to a Panthera. Then shrugged, ‘Stuff it’, broke off a piece and gave it to Grim. Her face lit up and she chuffed as she ate it, anything but grim.

  “Is good. Humans nice food.” Grim then chuffed and nearly choked, “Mean, human’s food is nice. Not humans.” She chuffed some more, “Not eat humans… anymore.”

  Feebee laughed and broke off another piece, “That’s all.”

  The cat suddenly lived up to her name.

  “You ready?” she asked Grim. The cat nodded.

  Feebee then sent six clicks over her comm. Dash, Dash, Dot…Dash, Dash, Dash.

  GO.

  And then an outline was visible in the spray that fell from the waterfall. A partially cloaked human outline.