“I’ve just received word that a com drone has entered the system with greatly disturbing news,” the President said, leaning heavily on the lectern. “A week ago the Darshik returned to Terran space. The Juwel System has been overrun and the enemy has landed ground troops on the planet. I’m now declaring a state of emergency … we are once again at war with an alien species.”

Prologue:

“Can you tell me what Project Prometheus is?” Celesta finally asked, swirling her drink around in her glass. After the immediate chaos created by the news that the Darshik had invaded Terran space and were landing assault troopers, she had finally pulled Captain Wolfe away for a private word. The two were sitting in the lounge of his well-appointed quarters on the New Sierra Platform splitting a bottle of very expensive bourbon from Earth.

“It’s an emergent AI project,” Jackson shrugged. “It didn’t really have much practical application until the Darshik dragged my old ship back from the outer regions and blew it up. I’m still pissed about that.”

“So how does a starship captain get involved in an emergent AI project?”

“It asked for me,” Jackson said, his words slurring ever so slightly between the ess and kay sounds of the second word. Other than that you couldn’t tell he’d polished off more than a third of a bottle in less than an hour and a half.

“If you don’t want to tell me then just—”

“The principal was an object you carried aboard the Icarus for a time,” Jackson interrupted her. “It had been in storage and somehow … woke up. It asked for me.”

Celesta was about to snap back at him that his answer wasn’t any more helpful than it had been before when she realized what he was talking about.

“The Vruahn stasis pod?” she asked in shock. “It’s … emerged?” Her alcohol-addled mind couldn’t find a more appropriate term before she said it.

“Emerged and still able to remember a lot of what the Vruahn had programmed it with about local space,” Jackson said. “It also ran the analysis that discovered the link between the Ushin and the Darshik. That probably would have been useful before our new President and esteemed Chief of Staff rented the fleet out to the Ushin in return for a couple dozen planets.”

Pike had stopped by earlier, before the pair had really decided to drown their frustration, and quietly told them of the conversation he had “overheard” between Marcum and Wellington.

“About that—” Celesta said, not finishing her question.

“It’s not the flimsiest reason we’ve ever used to go to war as a species,” Jackson said. “In fact, most wars are started on false pretense. At least territorial expansion is an idea I can wrap my head around even if I don’t agree with it.”