CHAPTER 657

THE WILDS

16.6 LY FROM BONTAWILLIAN BORDER

ARIZONA STRIKE GROUP

Miranda couldn't help but smile as she sat in her command chair on the bridge of the ARIZONA and watched as her crew, most of them hand picked, went about their duties with a sense of purpose and ease. The moment Ben had cut them loose; it had taken her only two hours to get the entire Strike Wing out of Dreamland and into open space. Three jumps later they were in The Wilds and had reached their position only an hour ago. Miranda had chosen this position and not the two light years from Kranek that Ben had wanted because it put them in place to respond to several different locations with only two or three LSD Jumps. As with all Union Military warships, their computers and engines allowed them to make longer jumps and be more precise in their calculations, yet the ARIZONA Class ships were exacting in the precision they could execute.