"Aye, sir," Ellsworth said. "Helm! Take us up to a high parking orbit and put our relative velocity at breakaway minus ten percent."

"Transferring orbit, aye!" the navigator quickly fed the speed and course corrections to the helmswoman as she pushed the throttles up and angled the destroyer over away from the planet.

"Admiral, Captain Barrett is wishing to speak to you on a private channel regarding his mission status," the coms officer said. "The Nemesis is on her way down and will contact you when the com lag is cut down to a practical level. The captain says it's too sensitive to trust over the normal Bluebird network."

"Tell the Nemesis to hold position, and we'll come to them," Jackson said. "OPS, get a fix on their— My apologies. Captain Ellsworth, please initiate a warp hop and put us within half a million klicks of the Nemesis."

"Very good, sir," Ellsworth said, nodding in appreciation as Jackson retreated to the back of the bridge and let the captain do his job. Old habits were hard to break, and he'd been a starship captain for a lot longer than he'd been an admiral.

As the Saber made preparations to leave orbit, Jackson walked over to talk to Barton. The Marine looked dead on his feet and showed the same strain the rest of the crew did after watching the shocking spectacle of the Jericho fighting to the death in real-time on the main display.

"Everything still good down below?"

"Yes, sir," Barton said. "She's trussed up and sitting tight. She injured one of Munoz's people when they went to grab her, but after the restraints went on, she's been quiet. In fact, she hasn't said a damn word the entire time. Just stares off into space."

"That's not good," Jackson murmured. "If she's a sleeper agent, there's no way to tell what sort of conditioning she's been through. We should probably call for a Prowler and let CIS handle this."

"I'd imagine they all have their hands full right now, sir," Barton said. "And we don't just need a Prowler, but one that just happens to be carrying an Agent. Is your friend available?"

"He's tied up," Jackson said. "We'll figure something out. You're sure you can trust who you left her with?"

"As sure as I can be. You want me to go babysit?"

"I'll need you up here. Just make sure your people are checking in with you periodically and make sure the master at arms is keeping this quiet."

"Will do, sir," Barton said.

"Admiral, Colonel Beck has called up from the surface and said she'll be coming back aboard with her initial assault force in their shuttles but that the rest of her Marines would be riding up on the Cutlass," Ellsworth said as Jackson walked back onto the bridge.

"Good, good," he said absently. "Make arrangements to dock with the Cutlass and get our detachment back as soon as you can once we've flown back from our rendezvous with the Nemesis. As soon as Exeter Base can re-initiate their defensive screens, we're leaving the system. We've been here far too long as it is."