"Thoughts, Admiral?" Barrett asked.

"There are two big issues with this that I can see," Jackson said. "The first is that Davies wouldn't be the type to take this sort of rogue action since it's certainly not sanctioned by the Fed Parliament or President Stark. He was a by-the-books, procedurally perfect officer who prided himself on being able to cite the entire Starfleet charter from memory."

"The second issue?"

"He's probably dead by now. He was ninety when I went to his retirement ceremony aboard the New Sierra Platform almost eight years ago. They'd been storing him in 1^st Fleet's offices since the end of the war, trying to decide what to do with an aging old flag officer who refused to leave."

"Why would Kohl pick an officer we know is no longer active, sir?" Hori asked.

"This performance isn’t for us, Commander. It was for those listening from Xinjia," Jackson said. "I also know Davies had been in Black Fleet for some years as a captain who would have probably patrolled through the AU and Warsaw Alliance enclaves. He went back to 1^st Fleet before I got there. Maybe someone on the planet has a familiarity with that name."

"Maybe he's just trying to confuse them even more." Barrett shrugged.

"Ultimately irrelevant," Jackson said, pushing off on the armrests of the chair to rise and making a conscious effort not to grunt or groan in front of the younger officers. "Those old Tritons aren't any faster than the Raptor-class ships were. Captain Barrett, please, get me firing solutions on each ship as best you can using the passive array and make the taskforce ready for a warp hop to intercept them if needed."

"Aye-aye, sir."

"Admiral, the Xinjia defense force is mobilizing. Fourteen ships are breaking orbit from the planet's moon and are on an arc that should give them an escape vector for an intercept," Hori said.

"Track them," Jackson said. He bit his tongue just before he was about to order her to call up her relief and go get some rest. That was Barrett's responsibility, and it was part of that old habits thing he was worried about falling into. Instead, he excused himself and told Barrett to continue to monitor the situation. Looking at the clock, he realized he'd been awake for almost thirty-six hours, and it was catching up to him.

"Rack time, sir?" Barton said, falling in behind him.

"Let's hope Vadim Kohl has the courtesy to give me a few hours before we start slinging missiles at each other," Jackson said.

30

"So, that's it?"

"It's what they dropped off, sir," Accari said, turning the small unit over in his hand. "That and the paired Bluebird box we'd need to talk to the command ship."

The hand off of the Mickey fleet was short and sweet. There had only been a single ship watching over the massive formation, and after authenticating the Coyote's orders through Admiral Pitt's office, they had flown over with a shuttle to drop off a com module and a manual. The bored-looking lieutenant barely acknowledged PM Marcum before climbing back into the shuttle and slamming the hatch closed even as Accari was asking him a question.