Moore set his jaw. “We don’t have to win, Commander. We just have to make sure that you don’t win. This is not a symmetrical situation. In the worst case, we will blow up our assets rather than surrendering them. And if we can hold you off until the UENN strike group that we both know is coming gets here, so much the better.”

“Destroying yourselves will remove this supposed alien threat. How is that a loss for us?”

“Which might or might not remove this supposed alien threat, Commander. Without anything left to study, you won’t know. And you’ll have a war on your hands in any case. You may have the advantage here, today, but you know as well as I do that the UENN has you outmatched overall.”

“I know no such thing, Admiral. That is your opinion only.”

“Have it your way, Commander. Your choices remain unchanged. As do ours.”

There were several seconds of silence. One of the monitoring techs commented, “Radio reflections from local dust, sir. It’s probably a tight-beam signal. They’re phoning home for orders.”

Moore nodded. “Noted. How long until reinforcements get here?”

“Three hours, sir. They’re on emergency deployment protocol, all personnel cocooned for high acceleration.”

Moore knew that particular tactic always resulted in a certain number of permanent disabilities. Those would be on the heads of the SSE military, and ultimately on whoever was responsible for this situation. He was keeping score, and if someone needed to pay, he’d make sure it happened.

A stab of pain in his jaw made him realize he was losing control of his reactions. Deliberately relaxing his features, Moore turned and addressed the room. “You have your orders. It is a given that we can’t blink in this scenario. You accepted the possibility of death when you signed up—”

A voice from the monitor interrupted Moore, causing him again to grit his teeth in irritation. Dammit, I’ve been working on that speech for years.

“As an alternative, Admiral, we would be satisfied with an embedded SSE observer.”

“That would not be a military decision, Commander, therefore it’s not one that I can make. You’d have to go through diplomatic channels on that.”

“So that is a no?”

“That’s a maybe, Commander. Convince my bosses.”

“Very well. We will spare you the embarrassment of defeat at this time, Admiral. But should the danger from this experiment of yours become intolerable to the people of the solar system, rest assured we will act decisively. Meanwhile, my people will talk to your people.”

Moore took a moment to roll his eyes. “Fine, Commander. Just make sure your lurking remains outside of our treaty zone. Out.”

Moore made a throat slash motion, and the technician ended the connection. It was a reprieve of sorts, but not a resolution by any stretch.

* * *