"Welcome to government bureaucracy, Captain," Marcum said. "Some analyst somewhere wrote up a proposal, that the politicians didn't bother to read, that then got rolled into a law, that states if CENTCOM issues a general alert in the capital system, civil space traffic must immediately depart the area. Think about how much money that would cost given the amount of commerce that comes through this system."

"I'm afraid I still don't understand, sir. If CENTCOM is issuing an evac order, wouldn't that indicate there's an emergency?"

"Ah, to be young. Ideally, yes. But the problem is that whoever issues that order will have to answer to the politicians, because those politicians will be answering to the corporations who pay for their election campaigns that lost money when their ships were ordered out of orbit and out of the system. You ever hear of shit rolling uphill? Nope. Whoever the poor bastard is at the end of the line that's at least got a single star on his shoulder is going to burn." Marcum leaned back, lacing his fingers behind his head. "It's a beautiful system."

"But what happens when there's an actual attack?"

"Same thing. The same poor bastard who would be blamed for a false alarm would also be blamed for not stressing the severity of the threat."

"I can see why Admiral Wolfe fought so hard to stay a captain," Accari muttered.

"You and me both," Marcum said.

"Captain! A ship flying Alliance codes has just entered the system!" OPS called out.

"One ship?" Accari asked, jumping to his feet.

"Just one so far, sir. It's flying along the outer system boundary, not even trying to hide."

"Diversion tactic?" Marcum asked.

"No," Accari said. "No, this is something different."

"What would they do with a single—"

"Broadcast coming from the lone ship," the coms officer said. "It's a text transmission that says, 'The future belongs to those as are bold enough to seize it.' It's just repeating over and over."

"What's it mean?" the tactical officer asked.

"It's gibberish," Accari said. "Meant to sound profound and make us think it's a psyops mission, but this was an activation code. Someone in this system has been waiting for this transmission."

"There are more subtle ways to send it," Marcum argued.

"Yes, sir. But they also want the credit for whatever is about to happen. OPS! Have CIC coordinate with Fleet Intel over Bluebird. See if this is happening in any other systems." Accari paced the bridge, becoming more agitated. The signal would propagate throughout the entire system in a matter of hours but would hit the populated planets in mere minutes.

"CIC is already talking to CIS and Fleet Intel, sir."

A minute later, they found out what the signal activated.

"What the fuck was that?" the tactical officer blurted as the spot in space about where the planet New Sierra should be lit up for a split second. The fact they could see it at all was terrifying.