“This is not a negotiation, Marcum!” Wellington said loudly. “Either get with the program or get busy with your resignation. I need you doing the job your position requires. You’re fairly useless to me if every time I need an answer from you I have to wait four weeks for a com drone to find you.”

“Yes, Mr. President,” Marcum said neutrally, knowing this was an argument he wasn’t going to win. “I’ll assign someone as soon as I get to my office. I can’t afford to have Pitt gone for that long.”

“That’s fine,” Wellington said. “Just make sure it’s someone who can work well with Captain Wright since she’ll be executing the initial push. Which ship is taking the Amsterdam’s place? This is just idle curiosity, mind you … I’m not micromanaging Fleet operations.”

“It’ll have to be the New York,” Marcum sighed. “She’s the only Dreadnought-class ship that’s FMC. The Amsterdam is out and the others are at the Tsuyo-Barclays Shipyards over Arcadia getting the RDS refit.”

“Get your people spun up and get those ships out of the DeLonges System as fast as you can,” Wellington said. “We have legislative approval on this so let’s not sit on it. The Ushin are holding up their side of things so far, at least according to the diplomatic team, so as soon as Fleet Planning decides this is an acceptable risk given the size of the taskforce we’re fielding I want them underway.”

“Yes, Mr. President,” Marcum stood. “Will there be anything else, sir?”

“Yes,” Wellington said slowly, his eyes going cold. “I’ve been making some discreet inquiries and have so far been getting nowhere, so now it’s time to get it from the horse’s mouth, as the saying goes. Have a seat, Admiral. You’re not going anywhere until I get a complete rundown on what the hell Prometheus is and don’t spare any of the details.”

“It’s an artificial intelligence research project,” Marcum shrugged, trying to control his reactions. “We have it isolated for its protection and that of our own networks, not to mention the damn ESA sniffing around. We’re using it to wargame through various training scenarios … it’s nothing of particular import. Was there some reason you’re asking about that project specifically, sir?” He knew that sprinkling in just enough truth would help him cover his own ass later should Wellington ever find out what was really going on in the Arcadia System.

“I don’t like having to hunt for answers, Admiral,” Wellington said, turning his back in what was an obvious dismissal.

****

“The drone just made dock, Cap—Mr. Wolfe! There are com packets for you, both personal and project related.”