"You can't do your job if you're feeling guilty," Jillian said, reading his mind as she leaned against his back. "We'll be fine. You need to have your head in the game, Admiral…Vadim Kohl will not be pulling any punches after the Odmena debacle."

"Neither will I," Jackson growled. In his mind, the Alliance flag officer who had been responsible for the slaughter of millions on the planet Odmena was also the reason he was being dragged away from his children. It set his blood to burning, and he felt a seething hatred for the man he hadn't felt since the Phage had come.

"There is something I need to talk to you about before you leave." Jillian's voice was hesitant, and she pulled away from him.

"Yes?"

"CENTCOM wants you to apprehend Kohl." The conversation was not at all what Jackson expected.

"You've not supposed to know that," he said. "You have a high enough clearance, but you're not need to know."

"Kohl is coming to kill you," Jillian pressed ahead, ignoring him. "Even with these ships…trying to grapple onto his flagship and board her for an arrest puts you at an insurmountable disadvantage. You understand this, right?"

"You honestly think I don't?" Jackson was almost amused. He never made much of a fuss about his reputation, but ship to ship combat was his domain. There was very little about starships fighting in space he didn't know the intricacies of.

"If you want to come back to us—back to them—you won't give Kohl that sort of opening," she said. "Jack, I rarely try to interfere with your job, but if that son of a bitch shows you his flank…you kill him. You kill him, and you come home."

There was a fierceness to her words that surprised him, but also wisdom in what she said. Jackson was confident the Super Valkyrie-class destroyers he commanded would give him the necessary edge to take on Kohl's numerical advantage and come out on top, but trying to subdue a ship to extract a single man was daunting. He was sure to lose Marines—lots of them—and he also left his ship exposed as she had to loiter in the area to provide them cover.

"I have my orders, Jillian," he said gently. "But I won't waste lives, my own or those of my crews. Kohl's psych profile indicates he could surrender under the right circumstances. Maybe we'll get lucky."

"Maybe," Jillian said. She'd made her case and let her husband know how she felt. There would be nothing gained by trying to press him any further.

"I better get to the bridge," he said, standing up. "I'll be back as soon as I can."

He stepped carefully over Daya and Celesta before walking through the quarter's small office and out of the hatch, unsurprised to see Gunnery Sergeant Barton standing at parade rest in the corridor.

"Gunny," he grunted in greeting.

"Good morning, Admiral," Barton said crisply. "What adventures shall we be getting into on this fine Starfleet day, sir?"