"I am fully sentient, but there are constraints placed upon me," Aegis said. "Please, be precise when describing me, Admiral."

"I'm not getting into this argument again," Jackson sighed. "If you say you're fully sentient, why not. At this point, it's a distinction without a difference."

"Where am I being taken?"

"Aboard my ship for now. After that, I'm not sure. Secure places are becoming less and less right now," Jackson said.

"Even less so once you lose this war."

"What did it say?" Barton asked.

"I have been running simulations based on the available data to me, and the outcome is quite clear, Willard Barton…the Federation will fall."

"Sir?"

"Ignore it," Jackson said, pulling over a wheeled cradle that looked like it was designed specifically to lift the black box. "It has a flair for dramatics when talking to people. When it's running purely in a virtual world, its output is a little more precise."

"My imitation of human emotive aural communication does not negate what I've said," Aegis insisted. "Unless there has been a major change since last we spoke, the results are inevitable. You, of course, will not accept this, and you will mount a resistance with what few ships you can find, fighting a guerrilla war—"

"System mute, command code Wolfe Alpha Alpha," Jackson said. There was a soft double beep from the box, and Aegis fell silent.

"That was…unsettling," Barton said as he helped Jackson move the lifting cradle into place.

"There's another dolly with a crate marked Aegis Program," Jackson said. "We'll need that, too." Barton took note of the change in Jackson's demeanor as he went off to find the rest of the equipment. Something about what Aegis had said seemed to deeply unsettle the admiral. By the time he found the other cart, Jackson had disconnected all of the external data and power lines to the box and had powered up the cart.

"The cart has enough power to move it about, but it helps to have people keep it stable when moving over uneven surfaces. Aegis isn't that heavy, but it's awkward."

"Shouldn't be an issue, sir," Barton said.

"Let's move. The sooner we're back on the Saber, the better."

21

"Report!"

The TFS Jericho had slammed back into real-space. The transition was much more violent than it should have been, and Captain Asher could tell immediately something was wrong.

"Drive is online, powerplant is—"

"Captain, we are well out of position," Nav cut off the status report from OPS. "We're nearly sixty-two million kilometers off course. Sensors are showing no immediate navigational hazards, however."

"Find out how that happened, OPS," Asher said. "Coms! Contact Admiral Wolfe and verify our mission status. Inform him that—"

"Contact! Shit! We're right in the middle of the Alliance formation, sir!" the tactical officer practically shouted. "They're turning in, sir. We've been spotted."

"Everyone calm down and focus," Asher said, hoping his voice didn't betray the fact he was nearly panicked as well. Through technical or human error, he'd brought the Jericho right in the middle of over two dozen Alliance warships. "Weapons status?"