"Commander Phon, it's good to see you again. I hear you've been trying to contact me," Newman's smug face joyfully disfigured my monitor. "My congratulations for coming out of retirement, or should I offer you my condolences?" He smiled as if enjoying his own barbed humor.

"Newman, what's going on and what's happened to Smith?"

Newman's smile dropped away. "He died. It was his Pelosism."

"I'd like a copy of the autopsy report."

Newman's expression grew defensive. "We didn't do one. There was no need."

"It's standard operating procedures when someone dies in a command position."

"There was no need and we were busy trying to keep the living alive."

I stared at him but aside from turning him over to the troopers, I could think of no way to force the truth out of him. Of course I had no idea what the truth was. Newman's rise to command might have simply been innocent opportunism, but I couldn't help but feel he was guilty of something. "My chief medical director will be in contact with your chief medical director. Please ensure his full cooperation."

For a moment, Newman looked taken aback. Something that might have been guilt or fear of discovery flickered behind his eyes before a greasy smile stole across his face. He leaned forward into the camera pickup with one eyebrow raised. "No offense...." His smile widened. "But who the Hell do you think you are?"

"Ah, one moment please." I blanked the monitor and pinged my communications officer.

"Yes, sir?"

"Please establish a connection with the command AI of the Thales."

A moment later she replied, "Connection established."

I inserted a data crystal into an I/O port. "Please transmit these security certificates to the Thales."

"Transmission complete."

A new interface appeared on my data panel.

COMMANDER KENNETH PHON
SECURITY CERTIFICATE REGISTERED
COMMAND LEVEL ACCESS GRANTED

I switched my com back over to Newman.

"What did you just do? My XO says the command AI was just activated."

I smiled back at him. "Let me present my orders from the Spartan Alliance Command. You'll find Director James Sharkey's authorization included.

"That's not possible! How did you go over my head?"

"Trust me, this wasn't my idea," I said. "Spartan Command insisted I take this assignment. But now that I've accepted the job, I must have your cooperation or I will have your command." Newman glared at me.

I'm calling a meeting of all commanders in half an hour. We only have a few days to save the human race. I don't know if you qualify, but I expect you to be there anyway.

* * *

I gave the commanders all the information Sharkey gave me and directed them to prepare their ships for what might possibly be their final battle. Considering the challenges ahead and the disasters caused by breaking up the fleet, the commanders passed a resolution reforming the United Solarian Fleet and appointed me its commander. I consulted Dr. Pathfinder, one of Shines Like the Sun's former Oracles and this time the results were less dire.

The Spartans, who had snatched up all the useful supplies from the outpost before we had arrived, even suddenly started sharing. In a few days our engineers, who had had plenty of experience with makeshift repairs, had used the space dock to overhaul nearly the entire fleet. Our only problem was, as usual, our food and oxygen supplies. We desperately needed to replenish our yeast and algae stocks and none were available at La Roca.

"Do you see any possibility of success in finding supplies in the surrounding systems," Maxwell practically begged Dr. Pathfinder, during our daily Commanders' conference.

"The passes are narrow and predators await us on all sides."

This had begun a daily ritual for the last two weeks. The answer had always been effectively the same.

"Well I don't care." Newman's avatar made a gesture as if slamming his fist down on a table. I heard the distant thud through the audio pickup. "If we wait any longer, we'll be even more certainly dead. We have to go."

I closed my eyes and wished I could tell him to go. In truth, I agreed with him. Our environmental systems would start collapsing in days if not hours.

"Surely we've faced worse than a bunch of primitives like these," he continued. "Now is not the time to start running or hiding. I mean we defeated the Cack Ruler!"

No one said anything.

After a while Solomon sighed. "Perhaps Sparta will come tomorrow.

* * *

The next day, the oracle's projections were particularly dire. Neman had been absent from the meeting and, before it had finished, Chris had dropped out as if suddenly called away. As I listened to the recitation of our failing supplies and environmental systems like a chanted dirge, the Fleet Alert Status suddenly jumped to Delta: danger likely. I had begun calling up my tactical screens when Chris sent out an alert.

"An advance force of Cack light cruisers have been spotted in the area."

"Where?"

"I'm sending the system coordinates out now. It seems that Newman decided to go out raiding after all and ran into them."

System information began to appear on my data panels and ship icons lay scattered all over the place.

"What's Newman's status," Abrams asked.

"He's lost fifty ships—"

"Fifty ships!" Maxwell shouted.

"—and the survivors are scattered over these systems."

A dozen systems lit up on the data panels.

"Dr. Pathfinder, please consult your kairograms now. Unless you see imminent disaster, we're leaving to rescue Newman's surviving ships. Commanders, have the SCs of our most intact ships prepare to boost in twenty minutes. Solomon, your ship is still in dock. I want you to take charge of the ships staying behind and try and guard our support craft."

Solomon gave me a resigned nod of his head. "That's all, people. Time to move."

* * *

The Cack ships turned out to be a forward operating group sent to support the locals in their fight against us. They appeared to be hoping to use them to clear the way for the invasion fleet and weren't prepared to face us directly. Newman stumbling across them had actually been fortuitous, though it had come at a high price.

We raced from system to system falling upon both Cack and local ships without mercy as we sought to gather up our lost ships. Chris was forced to carry the lion's share of the work as he cast his scout craft like a net across dozens of systems trying to ensure none of Cack LCs made it back to report on what had happened.

We found Newman surrounded by a mixed group of Cacks and locals ships. He was making his last stand in a dead-end system. We collected him and the other survivors and limped back to La Roca. When we arrived, we found Solomon's damaged flag ship surrounded by a handful of shiny new Spartan warships, sensor pods and fighter drones deployed and missiles ready to fire.

* * *

"Stand down! This is a direct order." I sent the message out on com laser while the rest of my fleet caught up to me and began forming up in a sphere around the Spartan ships.

A signal came to me from one of the new Spartan ships and I accepted it. Dexter's face appeared on my display.

"I do not accept orders from you, Martian."

"Dexter, you traitor, how dare you show you face here," Maxwell blurted out.

Dexter sniffed. "You're not a Spartan, I don't expect you to understand."

"I am a Spartan and I agree with him," Abrams said. What are you doing here?

"I am enforcing the law and arresting Commander Solomon for treason and piracy."

"On what grounds?" I demanded.

"On the grounds that I came here to collect the Spartan fleet for the defense of Sparta and Solomon here prevented me from doing my duty."

"It's no longer the Spartan fleet," Solomon replied defiantly. "It's now the United Solarian Fleet. You have no jurisdiction here."

"I have a commission from Sparta that says otherwise. If anyone tries to stop me, they'll be arrested too."

"I also have direct authority from Spartan command," I said. "I have signed orders from Director Sharkey to command these ships in defense against a pending Indweller attack. If you try to stop me, I won't bother with arresting you. I'll just blow you out of the system."

"You wouldn't dare."

I flash messaged my fleet tac officers. "Target the Spartan flag ship. If he does not stand down in thirty seconds, open fire."

"You wouldn't!"

I wasn't bluffing. I was so angry I hoped he try and call it though. At the ten second count he gave the order to stand down and their targeting systems switched off-line.

"I demand you give me access to the EPR transceivers on La Roca," Dexter snapped.

"Be my guest."

"We'll see how you feel about that after I get authorization to take command of these Spartan ships and arrest you."