Finally, the chairman sat back, and stared at Moore silently for a few moments. “Mr. Moore, Captain Lê said in his report that you compared your situation to a frog in a pot.” The chairman smiled for a brief moment. “I admit I was able to sympathize with the comment. We’ve all been in that situation, I think.” The chairman looked around the table, to nods from his fellow committee members. “Nevertheless, you’ve displayed an appalling level of bad judgement. Not for taking decisive steps. It might surprise you to learn that we are less concerned about the nuke and the bogus exercise than you’d expect.

“What we are especially concerned about is that you went rogue. There is a chain of command for a reason. A certain amount of informal information flow would have helped greatly, and might have, in fact, resulted in better support.”

The chairman stopped to shuffle his papers, and Moore felt the tiniest glimmer of hope. This didn’t feel like a firing squad, in the metaphorical sense. Something was going on. Or something had happened.

The chairman continued, “As it happens, more information has come in that tends to support your interpretation of the situation. As such, you are effectively the closest thing we have to an expert on this Ivan Pritchard. We cannot and will not put you in command of any Navy assets. This is very probably a career killer, Admiral.”

But. There was a huge but coming. He might just avoid prison. He might even avoid an old age spent in penury and disgrace.

“When this is over, unless you manage to pull a rabbit out of a hat and make it dance and sing, you’ll be quietly retired. And I stress the word quietly. Until then, you will be attached to a special group as an advisor. You will keep your nominal rank, but will have no direct authority. All tactical decisions will go through the officer in command. Is that clear?”

“Yes sir,” Admiral Moore answered. “If I may ask, sir, what has happened since I left Lagrange Four?”

Again the chairman smiled, this one showing no more humor than the first. “We have some information based on a third-party conversation with Pritchard. It turns out your instincts were correct. We are in the shit, and deep.”

* * *

Admiral Moore watched the video excerpt of the interview of Dr. Narang. The woman had an excellent memory, really a basic requirement for a doctor, and a fine level of attention to detail. And an eloquent manner of speaking. Her description of what they’d been told by Pritchard had Moore’s stomach dropping every third sentence. In the shit, indeed.

Interviewer: So you believe this entity is a significant threat.