>HAIL/DEPLOY. Hail them. Scramble all you fighters while doing so.
>Hide Sojouner-91



confirms the ancillary attending the navigation console. Her response is accompanied by a subtle change in perceived weight. The starscape smears into line-blurs as the escort carrier swings its hull along its short axis. Three seconds later, main engine ignition imposes a modest three-gravities of thrust, pushing your vessel parallel to the spindle-built superstructure of Sojouner-91.

As the fighter scramble order filters down towards individual pilot-clades, you hear the characteristic whine of fighters disengaging from their magnetized launch cradles. Overcharged engines trace auburn exhaust streaks as they streak past the forward view screen, pushing well over forty gravities of acceleration onto their fluid-suspended pilots. The violence of the maneuver is intentional. While there was the practical matter of attaining effective separation, you also saw an opportunity for misdirection.

At full burn, each fighter would radiate enough heat to blot flare-bright on thermal imaging. If the incoming raker mothership was scanning the system - as it almost certainly would be - then you and your constellation of sensor-bright fighters would be their immediate priority. The presence of a single rogue salvage ship should barely warrant an afterthought - if they could see it all.

Once the first wave of fighters finish launching, you ping Hibiscus. Her face is pinched from the after-effects of sustained acceleration, with both of her arms still locked inside a supportive grav-frame.