"Keep us here and hidden for now, Captain," he said. "When we get a lock on the Implacable, I want the Nemesis ready to intercept her."

"She'll be ready, Admiral," Barrett promised.

* * *

"Traitorous bastards!"

Vadim Kohl fumed as the conversation was replayed for a second time. Russo didn't bother to point out that, perhaps, since he was currently chasing and destroying ESA ships, the people begging for help from an outsider weren't the actual traitors in this case.

"We still hold the numerical advantage, sir," Russo pointed out. "There's also the carrier still waiting in reserve."

"The fighters will be needed on the planet once Makov and Chan arrive," Kohl said, turning and lowering his voice. "They were explicitly clear we were not to risk them in space combat operations."

"That's not optimal but understood," Russo said. "Sir, I'm going to personally go to CIC for a brief time and talk to the analysts before Wolfe can start to reorganize this fleet."

"Go." Kohl waved him away. "The Implacable won't be moved unless absolutely necessary."

Russo left the bridge, waving his security escort back to her post as he rushed down the corridor. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the compact datacore he'd put his entire mission journal onto. Right now, there was utter chaos in the area of operations. Ships were making alliances with their enemies to fight someone from their own side, top secret Fed ships were sitting in the system, and Wolfe himself was here overseeing the whole thing. This was the best chance he'd likely ever get to put his collected knowledge into the right hands.

"As you were," he said when people in CIC looked startled to see him come charging into their workspace. "I'll need a terminal with secure com."

Once he was seated and the privacy door sealed behind him, he disabled the secret observation system he knew was in place. It would be easier for him to explain how he'd broken something that wasn't even supposed to exist than it would be for him to get caught doing what he was about to do. Before he'd gone to the bridge that morning, he'd already laid the groundwork for this next step. He took a deep breath and, with a shaking hand, plugged the datacore into the slot and pulled off the encrypted file.

His fear had little to do with his own personal safety. He'd come to terms with the fact he was a dead man already long ago. It was only a matter of time before they caught onto him. What he was worried about was taking this one shot and missing. If this didn't work, his years of sacrifice and service would have been for naught.

"Here goes nothing."

34

Jackson's comlink buzzed in his jacket pocket, alerting him to an incoming Bluebird message from Pike. When he'd come back aboard the Nemesis and removed Lieutenant Trapp from her post, he'd gone ahead and relaxed his security measures and had the box tied directly to his comlink and personal tile.