I leaned back in my chair chuckling while most of my commanders stewed in the remains of their indignation. After a brief moment, the audio and visual signal came on with only the lead delegate present.

"I apologize for our negotiator's remarks." The delegate said with a slight tremble. "I assure you it was not our intention to threaten you, but to welcome you to our colonies. If you will come to Red Rock, we will supply your ships with all the resources they need. In the meantime, I have ordered the system's director to extend full hospitality to your ships and crew.

* * *

The authorities from Red Rock made good on their promise and our crews were welcomed at the spaceport like long lost friends. They even released some supplies and sent technical experts to help repair our ships. When they answered our questions about the surrounding systems with updated navigational databases and system-by-system security reports, the commanders decided to invite them to participate in a planning session.

The commanders linked into v-space chatting amiably on the command channel. Abrams leaned back in his chair at the virtual conference table, looking relaxed. He even chuckled at something Maxwell said when he leaned over and whispered in Abram's ear. Solomon looked at ease and well rested as did the other commanders waiting for the Red Rock delegation to link in.

Chris's avatar slid into a chair next to me. "Think we'll make it back in time for the ZGB championships?"

"Is the regular season over?" I honestly had no idea the championships had even started. On the few occasions we had seeded our EPR transceivers from the gate communication network, I'd been too busy with fleet headaches to worry about local events back home. With a twinge of guilt, I suddenly remembered my promise to keep in touch with Dr. Powers, then pushed the thought aside.

"Because Mars made the finals again this year, a bunch of Earth teams are complaining the Martian team had an unfair advantage from Mar's reduced gravity," Chris continued. "Of course it's ridiculous. Everyone knows it's actually a hindrance in training for zero-G ball, including them, but those whiners will try—"

A chime sounded and the com officer announced to the room, "The delegation from Red Rock is ready to join you."

I gave Chris an apologetic look. "Link them in."

The delegation's avatars appeared in the virtual conference space and a sigh of disappointment hissed across the private command channel as everyone saw Phineas among the delegation.

I began the meeting. "Thank you for joining us, ladies and gentlemen. The fleet commanders have been discussing how best to proceed, whether we should continue by way of the transit system or obtain jump ships to carry the fleet. Either way, your knowledge and assistance would be most helpful. What would you advise?"

Before anyone else could speak, Phineas rose. Placing both hands to his heart, he smiled apologetically to the rest of the conference. "Let me begin by first offering my deepest personal apology for our little misunderstanding. I assure you I had no intention of threatening you. Instead, I merely sought to assure you that though we had a good relationship with our alien neighbors we would of course, if forced to choose, prefer to side with you our fellow humans over From the Stars.

Here he paused and looked at us as if expecting some sort of reassurance. I glanced at my fellow commanders sitting in stony faced silence before I replied. "And do you have some advice that might help us?"

Lifting his hands, Phineas broke into an unexpected prayer. "Great Maker who guides His children, guide my words right now. Speak your wisdom to them through me so that in helping them I might be blessed as well and lead them away from disaster lest I be blamed." He paused, lowering his hands and smiled down on us as if expecting some sort of reaction on our part.

We just stared wordlessly at him.

Phineas' smile faded and stood straighter, tugging down his tunic. "I think it goes without saying that it would be best for Red Rock to let you find your own way there. The expense of ferrying the entire fleet by jumpship will be enormous, yet that is my recommendation. Though you have an alliance with The Learned Ones, you have angered the rest of From the Stars by seizing their ships. To get from Legion to Red Rock, you will have to pass through nearly every system of From the Stars."

"That's not impossible," Abrams said.

"Certainly not for the fleet that has faced the Ruler of the Indweller's and his massive armada, still From the Stars know how to defend their transit stations and have even held off the Indwellers' ships. If you go that way, I suggest you transit your ships backwards because they will have ships waiting in ambush at each station.

"But why squander your resources and damage your ships further when you can lie back in ease and be carried to Red Rock? From there it is an easy journey to New Home and from there you can go anywhere you like in the Solarian Sphere."

I surveyed my fellow commanders' expressions and several nodded thoughtfully. I questioned the other delegates and, though less enthusiastic, they agreed with Phineas. The head delegate assured me that if the commanders wished to go by jumpship, they would take our logistics people back with them to Red Rock to coordinate the effort.

"Thank you for your time and your comments," I said, wrapping up the meeting. "I think the fleet commanders have enough information to reach a decision now. We'll let you know as soon as we've decided."

Once the delegation logged out, I turned to the other commanders. "So, what do you think?"

"I think that Phineas is a conceited little twit," Abrams said.

"I wonder if he's hoping for a bribe to talk Red Rock into supplying the ships?" Maxwell said.

Chris rotated the 3d projection of From the Stars' systems looking first at Legion then at Red Rock on opposite sides of their lumpy sphere of control. "He's already taking money from From the Stars. I bet their paying him to keep us from wading through their systems and smashing their stuff."

"That may not be far from the truth," Solomon stared at some search read-outs. "I've done some data mining of the local branches of the converse. It seems Red Rock is under tremendous pressure from both the aliens and some of the Solarian companies we represent to stop our raiding. They may even be helping to fund our removal."

"I don't know why that can't just jump us back to Sol, or wherever," Maxwell added with a quick glance at the Spartan sitting next to him. "Operationally, distance is not a factor and one destination is no more expensive than another."

"Operationally, no." I said, remembering a lecture I had nearly slept through in the academy, or at least the heated discussions afterwards. "Legally, the transport special interests have paid lots of money to the transport commission to carve up the shipping lanes and limit competition. They say they need the individual monopolies to cover their huge operational costs and risk assessments. New Home may be the closest any ships traveling to Red Rock can legally take us to where we want to go."

"Maybe we should just commandeer their ships," Chris suggested.

"If we were talking about Cack ships, I'd consider it. However we don't need to antagonize any more Solarian authorities."

"It might be hard to find a Cack ship since they've begun pulling out of Solarian systems." Newman said, reading his data feeds as he spoke. "All the infotainers are predicting war and all non-defense stocks are tanking, though your father's stock is doing pretty well." He said the last with a trace of a knowing smile.

A cold shock ran through me. The last thing I needed was even the suggestion whispered about the converse that I had engineered this disaster to drive up TLS stocks. I quickly changed the subject hoping no one else would even think of this. "All of this still leaves us with a decision to make. How do the commanders wish to proceed?"

Abrams spoke first. "If there is any chance of going by jumpship, we need to pursue it."

"Agreed," Maxwell chimed in.

Chris nodded. "Fighting our way through is always an option if things don't work out." He smiled. "We have nothing to lose by trying the easier route."

"The problem is finding enough ships," Solomon said.

"I can't see how they'd be able to find enough jump ships to do more than ferry a few wings at a time between Legion and Red Rock," Newman added.

"No," I said. "We've already decided the fleet must not be broken up. I recommend we accept their offer, on the condition they transport the fleet intact. In the meantime, I suggest they provide the fleet with a minimum of financial support if they don't want us raiding their neighbor's ships.

* * *

In the end, the commanders agreed to send representatives back to Red Rock with the returning delegation to hammer out the agreement and coordinate the fleet's need for jump ships. Red Rock released funds for the fleet's maintenance and with nothing much for the crews to do, the ship commanders approved a generous leave rotation. The crews all breathed a sigh of relief and enjoyed being back on a human world again. With the ability to reconnect with family and friends through the converse, it was almost like home.

As I sat in my cabin looking over months of unanswered messages in one of my old com accounts feeling overwhelmed, I just closed the data feed. Instead, I re-opened my star charts and browsed through all the systems nearby. Red Rock sat at the outer-most edge of the sphere of human worlds. That sphere extended out fifty light years from Sol in all directions. Along its edge hundreds of habitable and largely unoccupied worlds lay scattered. Flipping through the fleet status reports with their green ready icons, I realized a surprising truth, that most new colonies spend hundreds of trillions of terra before setting out and weren't half as well equipped as our fleet. If we were to select one or more systems and set up a colony, we would instantly be the third most powerful political entity in the human sphere after the Solar Federation and the Spartan Alliance.

The more I thought about it, the more excited I became. I recorded a message to Dr. Hindmost and attached my personal kairogram. "Please review this data for the possibility of the fleet establishing a new colony world."

The timing couldn't be more perfect, I thought. I leaned back in my chair, staring up at the glowing smart paint on my ceiling. If war was likely between the Solarians and the Cacks, the Solarians could use the resources of another colony. With a few jumpships they could establish a colony off of the transit network, set up a few orbital shipyards and begin cranking out warships. The Cacks wouldn't even suspect the colony's existence until the jumpships began unloading entire wings of battle cruisers.

An urgent message tone interrupted my musings and I acknowledged the com officer. "What do you need, coms."

"Sir, a delegation from Black Mesa would like to speak with you about the fleet's attacks on their neighbors."

"Attacks? We didn't authorize any attacks. What are they talking about?"

"They're claiming that our ships attacked some of their allies as we were pulling out of Black Mesa."

I started to explain that the people from Black Mesa must be mistaken when, with a nausea-inducing sense of falling, I remembered a passing comment about losses from raids from Fleet Sub-Commander Newman's status report. It had been soon after Smith had turned his fleet over to Newman. I had assumed at the time that our ships had been the victim of raiders, not the raiders themselves.

"OK." I cleared my throat. "Link them in."

"They would prefer to not discuss this over the transit's open network and they are not within com laser range."

"Where are they?"

"Back in the last system. They say they will only transit here with your personal guarantee of protection and, even then, they don't intend to leave the area of the gate."

If their accusations were true, I couldn't exactly blame them. "Very well, please tell them we will meet them at the transit station and ask Commander Brennon to boost for the gate as soon as possible.