“Captain, authenticated emergency message from CENTCOM,” the second watch com officer called out. “Your eyes only, ma’am. Where would you like it routed?”

“I’ll take it in my office, Lieutenant Moll.” Celesta stood calmly despite her rising anxiety. “Mr. Accari, you have the bridge until Commander Barrett arrives.”

“I have the bridge, aye,” Accari said.

It took Celesta less than a minute to go the short distance to her office on the command deck, lock the hatch, and validate her credentials so the computer would allow her access to the secure servers. When she began reading the flash message header she could only shake her head in amazement, unsure what it meant for her immediate mission and Starfleet as a whole. By the time the accompanying video was done, her mouth hung open in shock.

“Have Commander Barrett report to my office,” she said conversationally. The computer beeped twice in acknowledgement that she’d been heard and understood. Barrett must have been close by because there was a loud, single knock on the hatchway a few seconds later. She rose to unlock it and let her XO in, motioning to one of the seats in front of her desk before reclaiming her own.

“You’ll need to be aware of this,” she said, spinning the monitor around and restarted the video without explanation.

“This is Fleet Admiral Pitt, speaking on behalf of CENTCOM Chief of Staff Marcum during his absence on an undisclosed, classified mission.

“I am not a politician nor do I claim to be particularly eloquent, so I’ll just come out and say what’s happening here on New Sierra: The Terran Confederacy has been dissolved and is no longer the governing body controlling the worlds outside of the Eastern Star Alliance. The decision was made to permanently disband the Confederacy after no accords could be reached within the remainder of the Senate and the absence of our duly elected President, Caleb McKellar.

“I will not bore any of you with the details because, honestly, there aren’t any. Delegations from each enclave will begin arriving on New Sierra in the following months to decide what should happen next. As of right now, each enclave is responsible for governance on their member worlds, but all Fleet ships will now report directly to CENTCOM and will ignore any and all orders from local authorities no matter how mundane. I expect this to be sorted quickly and I will not tolerate any of my ships exchanging fire with each other due to planetary governments deciding it’s time to settle some old scores. I have the newest warships here at my disposal and I will not hesitate to use them should I hear of any extracurricular activities from my deployed units.