But as she reflected further and realized how quickly they’d mobilized and how little they’d understood of their allies or enemies, the anger began to blossom deep in her chest. It was no new phenomena to be used by her superiors as a pawn in the games they played, hell, it was just such an occurrence that put her on the bridge of Captain Wolfe’s destroyer. A bigoted fleet admiral wanted him gone simply because he was from Earth and she thought the young and upcoming Commander Wright of First Fleet would be just the person. The admiral had put her on the bridge of the Blue Jacket with the express intent of having her replace Wolfe in as humiliating a way as she could manage.

But this wasn’t then. Back then humanity had enjoyed centuries without armed conflict, and Starfleet did little but move cargo and posture a bit when the enclaves became fussy. The Phage War changed all that and now that they knew there were real threats out there, threats that could wipe the human race from existence, she was no longer able to accept that this was just how things were done. Somewhere in the halls of power of the brand-stinking-new United Terran Federation someone had decided that it was okay to send ships and spacers into harm’s way for a handful of planets and the promise of new tech from allies they could barely communicate with.

She reflected back on her time aboard the Blue Jacket and for the first time she understood, really understood what it was that Captain Wolfe had gone through. He’d fought an uphill battle against not only an enemy nobody understood or even believed existed while simultaneously fighting his own chain of command. The symmetry of it all wasn’t lost on her as she was now the one in the big chair with a whole crew of men and women looking to her to do the right thing.

“Captain Wright to the bridge immediately,” the computer intoned over the intercom.

Her chair hadn’t even fully rolled back against the bulkhead before she was already through the hatchway and racing back to the bridge.

“Captain, we’ve lost contact with the Atlas, and the New York has dropped off the Link,” Barrett said as soon as she emerged on the bridge. “Fourth Fleet destroyers are still steaming to the jump point and the Hyperion is accelerating to transition velocity. We’re the furthest down the well right now.”

“How long until we hit the jump point?” Celesta asked.

“Just over fifteen hours,” Accari said. “We’re nearing Delta-V roll off now.” He was referring to the slim area at the top of a ship’s performance band right before its maximum subluminal speed in which increased engine output had a negligible effect on acceleration.

“Go ahead and—”

“Contact! Multiple targets appearing further out in the system,” Adler called. “Populating the threat board.”