"It was awfully convenient that a Bluebird-cleared intel officer just happened to find you as soon as we boarded the Jericho with a story about conspiracies and missing com drones, sir," Barton said. "If she suspected treason went as high as the captain of a Juggernaut-class battleship, an assignment that requires Federation Parliament approval, then why would she just assume an admiral she just met wasn't in on it, too. She didn't even try to ease into it, just blurted it all out."

Before the Battle of Odmena, Jackson had relocated to the TFS Jericho. The battleship had been commanded by Captain Alto Hardy, a man who had inexplicably committed suicide during the middle of the operation, though there was some suspicion it had actually been a homicide. Jackson had received evidence it might have been the ship's XO, a Commander Trane, and had him quietly arrested and detained. It was there that Commander Trane, against all odds, apparently killed himself as well using a well-concealed knife while still in custody.

The command staff of the Fed's premier battleship coming down with sudden cases of suicide, along with about a dozen other irregularities, had convinced CENTCOM to pull the ship off the line and initiate a level four investigation of the incidents, the ship, and her entire crew. By the time it was over, half a dozen officers were kicked out of the service, and the ship had sat in dock for nearly a year before she was crewed and ready to rejoin the fleet.

"Point taken," Jackson said. "I suppose I was too quick to take her story at face value. What else?"

"The murders—and I'm convinced they were both murders—taking place so closely together and just when you were beginning an investigation into her allegations? Captain Hardy wasn't able to defend himself or explain the discrepancies of his com drone inventory and then Commander Trane just ups and cuts his wrists right after Lieutenant Trapp visits his cell and had been implicated in the murder by evidence she claimed to uncover. It's all adding up to something rotten, sir."

"And the cameras in the cell went out just as she went into it," Jackson finished. "All compelling but hardly proof."

"Sir, I think we have enough to approach the master at arms and have her open an investigation into this," Barton said.

"The funny thing about all this is I personally vouched for Trapp to get her off the Jericho when Fleet was segregating the whole crew to be investigated," Jackson said, ignoring Barton's comment. "I needed her on this project. Before I came up here, I reached out to an acquaintance at Fleet Investigative Services to see what they found. He said there were nineteen minor charges filed against fifteen crewmembers on the Jericho…but none for espionage, treason, or murder. They had jack shit, and he said they dug deep. It turns out that odds are good I took the traitor with us."

"But the taskforce is isolated right now," Barton said. "That has to minimize the damage she could do, right?"