Commander Lee Carter was busy, but she liked it that way. Piloting the Arizona was a lot more complicated than flying her Banshee fighter, and the helm console in front of her demanded her full attention.
On the main viewer at the front of the bridge, the stars streaked by as Carter piloted the Arizona towards their meeting with the G'Kar. The ship was in gray mode, sensor masking system active, hopefully hiding them from Jem'Hadar and Mullura patrols. That meant that only their passive sensors were scanning space around them, but the risk of ambush was minimal; the enemy lines had been well scouted out beforehand.
Besides herself, three of the other Banshees were also aboard the starship: Jo was in Astrometrics trying to coax a few extra joules out of the scanners, while the two ace pilots, Sam and Max were in the hangar with their planes, ready to launch at a moment's notice.
Only Kim Tycho was missing from the team, mainly because she still couldn't be found, and the Arizona wasn't going to wait until she decided to show up. Even if she had been present, Carter would have kept her grounded. Kim's recent behavior demanded no less. Carter hoped that things could get quickly straightened out after the mission was over.
Just then, a perimeter alert flashed on her console, drawing her thoughts back to the here-and-now. She reached over and deactivated the alarm, then studied the helm's small tactical display. A tiny vessel was approaching the Arizona from dead astern, quickly overtaking the larger ship. It was already within a thousand miles before the passive sensors detected it.
Impossible! thought Carter, alarmed, but aloud she calmly reported, "Captain, contact dead astern. Range, nine-hundred miles."
"What?!?" said Wallace, standing up from his chair. Had the enemy found them? He took two commanding steps forward and snapped, "Identify!"
But even as the order was issued, Carter was already at work. Fingers dancing over her console, she sought the identity of the elusive craft dogging their tail. There was not nearly enough time however, for the unknown ship was upon them.
Before the sensors could get a lock, it flashed past the much more massive starship, and as it pulled ahead it appeared on the bridge's main viewscreen. It seemed to hover there for a long second, then its tiny warp engines flared brilliant blue. The hull of the sleek vessel gave the appearance of stretching itself forward into infinity, then it shot ahead and was gone in a starburst of unleashed warp particles.
Shocked beyond words, Carter just sat at her console staring at the empty space on the screen where ship other ship had been. There was no more need to identify it to Wallace, because everyone on the bridge had recognized it when it swung into the viewer's field of vision.
It was the Banshee of Kim Tycho.