"Do we withdraw, sir?"

Jackson looked around the bridge and saw nothing but determined faces tinged with anger. They weren't willing to back down from a fight, even after losing two ships of their own comrades.

"I have something that will work, but it's not without risks," Jackson said. "Coms, open TF1 and make sure our CIC is patched in. I want Commander Hawkins involved in the planning."

"Aye, sir."

* * *

"Makov's fleet has arrived, Admiral," Russo reported as Kohl finally got up from the terminal at the rear of the bridge and showed some signs of life again.

"Has he bothered to hail us?"

"No, sir. The beacon signals are only just now reaching us so the message may still be inbound," Russo said. "We're currently on course to intercept the rest of your fleet within the next…twenty-two hours."

"Makov will move directly down to the planet," Kohl said. "He'll secure that first from whoever is holding it." Russo frowned at that odd statement but said nothing.

The Implacable flew along her course uneventfully for the next eleven hours, during which Kohl had received a terse message from Makov's fleet to stay in the outer system. Russo had started to believe they'd be able to rejoin their forces, and then would probably be ordered out of the system.

Apparently, there were some internal politics of the cabal he wasn’t aware of. They seemed to each have their own military forces loyal to them, and they distrusted each other completely. It was a dynamic he'd not noticed until now, and he wasn't sure it was because he'd missed it. Something had changed.

"Transition flash! Dead ahead!"

"What?!" Kohl asked, jumping from his seat. "What range?"

"Three-hundred and ninety thousand kilometers," the sensor operator said. "Resolving radar data now."

"They're beacon is squawking," the tactical officer said. "It's Federation."

"One of the—"

"Ship ID is the TFS Nemesis," the officer said, cutting off Russo.

"The Nemesis? Did Captain Barrett arrive late to the party? What's she doing?"

"Bearing down on us, sir. Not full power, but coming at us at a decent rate of acceleration."

"Incoming transmission from the Nemesis," the com operator said.

"Put it on!" Kohl barked.

"This is Admiral Wolfe aboard the Nemesis, reaching out to the battlecruiser Implacable," Wolfe said. "We have you dead to rights, Kohl. Heave to, come aboard my ship in a shuttle or tender, and we'll spare your ship and crew." Kohl's eyes bulged from his head when he heard that. The last he'd known, Wolfe had been aboard the Saber when his ships destroyed it. Hearing his voice over the channel now sent waves of rage and hatred through him.

"You arrogant, simple…Earther!" he spat. "Your little destroyer may be fast, but you've screwed up and let me get close enough to you that you can't run. We both know you can't warp hop away just yet, and you can't reverse course before you're in range of my guns. You've made your last mistake, Wolfe. I told you I'd blow you from the stars."