"Private channel request coming in from the Nemesis for you, Admiral," the com officer said. "It just says it's from someone named Joseph and that you'd understand." Jackson almost rolled his eyes at Marcum's pathetic attempt at being discreet. Everybody had clearly recognized him when he'd come marching aboard the Saber shouting orders.

"Send it to the bridge briefing room, please," he said, standing and walking back to the hatch that led to the small chamber.

"Wolfe," Marcum said once the video resolved.

"Joseph," Jackson said, keeping a straight face.

"Goddamn it, I couldn't just use my last name," Marcum growled. "It was the best I could come up with on short notice. Do you want to know our destination or keep making lame jokes at my expense?"

"My apologies, sir. I take it your sources came through?"

"We can stash Bluebird at a base in the Arelius System. It belongs to Fleet R&S and the system itself is strategically insignificant. One habitable world that was never colonized, no resources to speak of other than iron ferrite in the inner asteroid belt," Marcum said. "The base was set up as a research outpost by Tsuyo Corp, and once they were gone, it evolved into an off-the-books place where they could perform some of their more…controversial…research."

"How controversial?"

"Let's just say they're in the biomedical enhancement business," Marcum said. "But the base is large and well-equipped. Certainly enough room for Bluebird and all the personnel until we can find a more permanent solution."

"I doubt the project managers will be too thrilled about sharing a base with whatever medical abominations Tsuyo had going on there, but I don't see too many other options," Jackson said.

"This was a cybernetics lab," Marcum said defensively. "No genetic experiments on humans if that's what you're thinking."

"I don't need to know." Jackson raised a hand to stop his old boss. "How long a flight is it?"

"Hell, I don't know the math, I don't even know the speed these new ships fly at, much less remember how to do the conversions in my head," Marcum said. "It'll probably be a three or four day flight since it's in Britannia space. There is something else I'd like you to consider while I have you here and you seem to be in a good mood."

"Yes?"

"I think it would be a decent idea for you to move over to the Nemesis. There's a psychological factor at play here, moving you back aboard this ship. It would be one more thing to help keep the enemy on the back foot."

Jackson pretended to think it over for a moment just to be polite."

"Unfortunately, that's not practical," he said. "This taskforce has its own high-bandwidth Bluebird network, each ship connected to all the others that we run Link data and com traffic through. It's a huge strategic advantage I'd be giving up moving to the Nemesis."

Jackson respected Marcum too much to point out that perhaps he didn't remember what it was like serving aboard starships and having him on the same bridge as Barrett would cause issues. He had mentored Barrett through most of his career and was proud of the captain he'd become, but when they were aboard the same ship together, they tended to slide into old habits.