"So, I'm supposed to pretend my protect the VIP at all cost orders actually mean ferry the VIP to a warzone because he asked?" Barrett shook his head.

"Let's finish this conversation in your office, Captain. There's some things you probably need to be made aware of, and talking about them on the hangar deck isn't prudent."

Over the next forty-five minutes, Marcum and Essa filled Barrett in on just how precarious the Federation's position really was. Barret's reaction was typical of someone who had just been told the war that hadn't even started yet had probably already been lost. He didn't believe it.

"The Federation has been mortally wounded, Barrett," Marcum said, sounding very tired as he slouched in his chair. "When the two enclaves split off to form the ESA, they left behind a time bomb within the new Federation's power structure. They kept a mature espionage apparatus on the capital world and managed to turn key people to make sure they could help steer us towards our own demise.

"I'm making it sound a lot more dramatic than it is. Being a goddamn politician makes me always think there's a camera recording every fucking word I utter. The truth is, the Alliance managed to compromise just the right politicians and bureaucrats they needed to make sure they matched every move we made."

"The system was built with a fatal flaw, it seems," Barrett said. "I wonder if—"

"Captain Barrett to the bridge! Emergency alert incoming!"

Marcum was surprisingly spry for a man of sixty-eight, beating Essa and Barrett to the hatch and running with them to the bridge. Barrett waved to the two Marine sentries, clearing his two guests, and walked onto the bridge.

"Report!"

"We've just received word from multiple ships. There's been an attack on Brabus," Lieutenant Commander Ayko Hori reported. She was the Nemesis's newly appointed executive officer, but the assignment was so new she was still serving as the first watch OPS officer until the ship went back to port to pick up her new one. At the moment, she sat in the command chair as an ensign from CIC was being mentored at the OPS station.

"Brabus? Where the hell is that?"

"It's one of the planets the Ushin gave us," Marcum said. "It's where our newest Fleet training facility is…where we're getting all our Mickey crews up to speed."

"Commander?" Barrett asked his XO.

"Initial reports said it was a nuclear strike, but spectral analysis indicates it was probably a kinetic hit from a ship just outside the inner system," Hori said. "Either way, the Blake Training Complex no longer exists."

"We're fucked," Marcum said wearily, sinking into one of the bridge station seats. "How the hell did they find out our crews were there doing final quals?"

"It seems the rot within the Federation is absolute, sir," Essa said bitterly.

"Without those crews…" Barrett trailed off.

"The Mickey's are just hunks of ballast floating in space," Marcum said. "Assuming they didn't find the staging area. Hell, I don't even know where that is, but I'll bet that psychopath, Makov, does."