The ABDs, of course, were our key hurtle. We had to deactivate the relay’s defenses to get a team onboard, but we had to have a team onboard to deactivate the station’s defenses. And we didn’t know if the ABDs would be able to track the Essta’s sensor buoy.
The answer came in the form of the last Maunhouser stealth shuttle Gloria had stolen from the Essta and subsequently returned when she and Alex had arrived on Selma III with Katherine.
Once the Essta was in position, Katherine and I launched in the shuttle. Then I lined us up and made one final surge with the engines before I powered down the shuttle’s systems. We would drift our way into the tiny relay, so the active electronics of the shuttle couldn’t give us away, all while the Defiance stood ready to run a diversion at the edge of
