"These are already tested, Captain." Tanaka argued. "Just not installed. At the time, it was more important to allow you and your crews as much time with the new ships as possible so all the software, wiring, and control subsystems for the new hardware is already installed on the Ares. We will simply be plugging in the new boxes and providing your crew minimal training on their operation."

"Very well." Jackson still wasn't convinced. "Coordinate your efforts with Chief Engineer Singh. I will authorize no changes to this ship until he clears them."

"Of course, Captain." Tanaka bowed his head slightly. "If you will excuse me."

The civilian doctor walked out of the cargo hold, punching an authorization code into the pad by the hatch to gain entry to the ship. It was entirely likely the scientist, who had been instrumental in the design of the Starwolf-class ships, had a higher level of access to the ship's systems than he did.

"Excuse me, Captain Wolfe?"

Jackson turned as another civilian that had been aboard Tanaka's shuttle approached him. "Dr. Allrest?"

"Yes, sir." Allrest looked around nervously.

"What can I do for you, Doctor?"

"Is there somewhere we might speak in private?" Allrest asked.

Jackson gestured for the doctor to follow him over to the office, just behind the dockmaster's control room.

"I've come here to give you this," Allrest said once Jackson secured the hatch, handing him a generic looking data card.

"Couldn't this have simply been transmitted, Doctor?" Jackson asked. "Take this in the spirit in which it's intended, but you're a little too important to risk losing in a freak shuttle accident because you were personally ferrying a data card up here."

"My com transmissions are being closely monitored," Allrest said. "I also couldn't risk giving you this while on the surface of Haven, since the CIS has ears everywhere."

Jackson looked down at the data card, now intrigued. "What's on this?"

"The truth about the Phage," Allrest said simply. "And more. I went through great trouble and copied this information at great risk to myself and family, so please take it seriously. I convinced Dr. Tanaka to bring me up under the guise of wanting to see the Ares in person so I could get it into your hands. There has been much information on the Phage suppressed as well as secret strategies to deal with the problem that I feel will only draw resources away from the war effort."

"I'm not sure what to say to this," Jackson said. "If what you're saying is accurate, I would assume we now share the risk equally for processing this information. Why trust me?"

"I don't think there is anyone else I can trust, Captain," Allrest said. "You've already proven yourself a man unafraid to make the ultimate sacrifice. Please... just look over the information, and do what you feel you must. Now, I need to get back to the shuttle before it departs."

"Perhaps I should have an orderly give you a tour of the ship, and you can catch the last shuttle back to Jericho," Jackson suggested. "A tour of the cargo dock control room won't be very convincing if someone is aboard these shuttles that can report on your actions."

"Yes, of course." Allrest nodded emphatically. "Thank you again, Captain."

Jackson escorted the scientist over to where an enlisted spacer from the com department met them and began a quick walking tour of the destroyer. The young spacer, taking his job very seriously, was gesturing expansively to parts of the ship as they walked down the main starboard access tube, completely oblivious to the fact his charge wasn't paying him the least bit of attention.

"All shuttles have cleared our orbital path, and the dock master is reporting all cargo has been secured," Lieutenant Davis said as Jackson walked back onto the bridge.

He'd secured the data card Eugene Allrest had given him in his personal vault but had yet to view its contents.

"Very good, Lieutenant," he said as he sat down. "Tell Engineering to begin prestart on the main engines. Coms! Signal the Icarus to prepare to get underway."

"Aye, sir."

It was only twenty minutes later when Engineering reported the plasma chambers on the main engines were hot, and the com officer verified the Icarus was ready to fly. Jackson ordered the formation to break orbit and set a course for the DeLonges jump point, the most direct route to the star system in which the New Sierra Shipyards orbited one of the two inhabited planets in that star system.

As the Ares accelerated to transition velocity, Jackson was painfully aware he was also flying toward a potential showdown with a sizable armada of Fourth Fleet ships-with nothing more than two destroyers. He could only hope that the New American captains wouldn't actually fire on a pair of Terran ships.

Chapter 11.

"So what has Dr. Tanaka been installing on my ship?" Jackson asked as he picked at the remains of his dinner.

It had been three days since they transitioned out of the Alpha Centauri System, and the warp flight routine was already starting to drag.

"Currently we're installing the control systems for a new type of sensor," Daya said. "It will work in concert with our radar, LIDAR, and optical sensors to give us a better picture of what's in a system. You want the details or the broad strokes?"

"Aim for somewhere in between those two." Although Jackson had studied engineering at the Academy, Daya's technical explanations usually went a bit over his head.

"Well, the long and short of it is that it can detect gravitational waves of objects in a system." Daya tossed his napkin onto the tray in front of him. "No matter how stealthy a ship is, or how dark it's running, everything that has mass will cause ripples."

"How the hell can something be sensitive enough to detect that while being bolted to a starship underway?" Jackson asked skeptically.

"Because it isn't," Daya said. "To set up the system, you deploy a series of twelve satellites that will fly themselves into a formation and deploy a laser interferometer network that can detect gravimetric waves on any axis. The data is then routed back to the Ares where the computers we're installing now will interpret it and update the tactical computers."

"Clever," Jackson conceded. "They've been using a similar method to map deep space anomalies for centuries. I wasn't aware they could be sensitive enough to detect something as small as a ship so close to a star's influence."

"The latest and greatest from the Tsuyo think tanks," Daya said. "Dr. Tanaka seems to think this is a great advantage, but I'm not so sure. At best, it will give us marginally more warning than our conventional sensors."

"Why do you say that?"

"Gravity waves move at the speed of light, the same as radio waves," Daya said. "Theoretically, in a best case scenario, it will be twice as fast as radar and slightly slower than an optical sensor."

"Yes," Jackson said slowly, "but a radar can't resolve a target at long range with a single pulse, and the degree of coverage we have with the optical sensors is woefully limited. If this gives us at least a warning on what direction we should be looking in, it might not be a total waste. But deploying and collecting twelve individual satellites isn't exactly practical in most applications."

"I told him that," Daya said. "But he lives in a bubble. Real-world applications seem to be a bit of a mystery to him. There's also a new instrument that can more accurately measure the energy output of an object like a Phage ship and a couple other little tweaks and upgrades to the existing systems."

"Begin putting together a training package for my operators," Jackson said. "I want it to be only on switchology. We don't have time for them to learn the theory of operation on a bunch of brand new systems. They're already overwhelmed just operating the new class of ship. Get the raw materials to Lieutenant Davis by end of first watch tomorrow."

"Yes, sir." Daya tossed his captain a mocking salute.

Fortunately, they were eating in the Captain's Mess alone, so he didn't have to reprimand his friend. Again. The pair sat in silence for a few moments before Jackson gave voice to something that had been bothering him since he'd taken command of the Ares.

"Are you as underwhelmed with the level of Tsuyo tech on the Ares as I am?"

Daya's eyebrows shot up to his hairline. "You can't be serious. This ship is generations ahead of the old Raptor-class-"

"True, it is," Jackson said slowly. "But there aren't really any major advancements, nothing different. This ship boasts the best from Tsuyo R&D, but there isn't anything that isn't just a smaller, more efficient version of what we had on the Blue Jacket. In some cases, that's not even a good thing. The main engines are more powerful, but their total plasma capacity is decreased from the older MPDs, and they don't respond as quickly. The lasers take less power, but the practical range of the projectors is still so pitiful they're not really useful for anything other than point defense. The list goes on, but the point is that I was expecting something revolutionary in either propulsion or weapons. A smaller fusion warhead with a hardened nosecone was about the best we got."

"I've never looked at it that way," Daya said after a few seconds of silence. "I've been so enamored with smaller reactors, smaller warp components, and improved gravimetric generators, that I didn't really look at them as the same thing we already had."

"It's just something that's been bothering me since Tanaka told me that humans didn't actually invent the warp drive." Jackson waved the thought aside.

"That's something else I was unaware of." Daya now looked quite distressed. "I was taught that the first generation warp drive was a Tsuyo invention from the mid-twenty first century."

"According to the doctor, they found a crashed alien ship in the Solar System and adapted the technology." Jackson idly spun his water glass. "I suppose that's what bothers me: even though everything on this ship is more advanced, it's essentially the same technology, the same science from four hundred years ago."

"Where are you going with this, Jack?"

"I don't know." He let the water glass drop with a thunk. "But after four years of living in fear of the Phage and waiting for Tsuyo to open their toy chest and give us a game changer... to find out that there might not be anything like that, it makes one think that maybe humans shouldn't be out here in the first place. Maybe our colonization is a mistake that the cosmos is just getting around to correcting."

"I think maybe you should start drinking again if these are the types of thoughts filling your head," Daya said with some heat. "Do you hear yourself? So you're ready to throw in the towel because you were praying for some miracle weapon that doesn't exist? Grow up. We will win as we always do: through sheer determination and will. Now if you'll excuse me, Captain, I need to see to the new tactical systems being installed on this warship."

Jackson felt his neck and cheeks flush as Daya stormed out of the Captain's Mess. He was supposed to be a pillar for the crew, even those who were personal friends like Commander Singh. Now the engineer would have his captain's doubts bouncing around in his head, and he would likely now look at Jackson's orders through that filter.

He sighed as he pushed himself up out of his seat and headed toward the bridge. Only a few more hours left on first watch, and then he could escape to his quarters and try to get some sleep.

The flight from Haven to New Sierra was just over seventeen days, without pushing the ships too hard. For most of the crew, it was simply the boring routine of trying to stay busy. Any and all preventative maintenance that could be done while underway was accomplished. Junior crewmembers were subjected to as much training as their supervisors could manage, and under the stern gaze of Master Chief Green, the ship was cleaned until it gleamed.

For some, however, the days were filled with trying to develop a strategy that would allow them to secure the release of the Black Fleet ships being held at the shipyard with a minimal loss of life and material. Jackson would prefer zero on both accounts, but Lieutenant Commander Amiri Essa assured him that was a completely unrealistic goal.

While the NOVA team leader technically fell under Jackson's authority while aboard the Ares, as soon as they disembarked to execute their role in the mission, he would no longer have any say over how the group of elite troops would accomplish their goals.

"Lieutenant Commander, I want to stress that the shipyard is not necessarily a hostile environment," Jackson said as everyone filed into the briefing room. "We want to get the Seventh Fleet crews released and those ships secured, but I'd like to avoid civilian casualties or needless deaths of Fleet personnel."

"Captain Wolfe, I can assure you that there will be no needless deaths," Amiri Essa said in his quiet, measured voice. "However, we may have greatly differing opinions on needless.' Those ships are vital to the defense of no less than four Frontier planets. I will not risk mission failure or the loss of critical team members. If the civilian contractors and Fleet personnel stay out of our way, no harm will come to them."

The answer wasn't exactly what Jackson had wanted to hear, but he understood the Lieutenant Commander's point of view. He might have a similar dilemma himself if the Fourth Fleet captains in that system pressed him once the Ares transitioned into the DeLonges System.

Others were now packing into the secure briefing room, so he let the matter drop. He'd voiced his concerns, but the NOVA team was made up of professionals that would follow their orders how they saw fit. His input on their end of the operation was not necessary or likely even wanted.

Once the planning session started, it rolled along quickly, and the strategies for the mission were finalized and the details locked down. Of course, it could all change in an instant when they transitioned in and the conditions they were planning for according to the latest intelligence were completely different. They planned for as many contingencies as they practically could, but there was simply no way to be absolutely certain until they laid eyes on the objective.

"If there's nothing else, I believe we have as airtight a plan as possible given the circumstances. I'm not going to mince words." Jackson leaned back in his seat. "The idea of fighting against other humans right now in light of what's happening, or about to happen, along the Frontier is as horrific for me as I'm sure it is for each of you. But without those ships, we won't be able to hold the next system the Phage decide they want. Let's get ready to execute this mission to the best of our abilities. I want to get in and get out without being drawn into a shooting battle with Fourth Fleet. Are there any questions?" Jackson looked around and didn't see any raised hands.

"Then I'll expect zero missteps on this one. Dismissed."

"Two minutes to transition, Captain."

"Coms, alert Flight OPS that they'll be launching within ten minutes," Commander Celesta Wright said.

"Aye, ma'am," the coms officer said. "Flight OPS indicates they're standing by."

The Icarus was due to transition into the system as close to simultaneously with the Ares as they could manage but approaching from a slightly oblique angle from the normal jump point. Both destroyers would go to maximum acceleration into the system, broadcasting loud and proud with active radar and transponders. Then their stealthy payloads would sneak out of the launch bays and utilize the momentum provided by the larger ships to make their respective approaches unpowered.

Despite her fears and self-doubt, Celesta surprised herself by how easily she adapted to being in command of a ship. Although "Captain" was a strictly honorary title, as her transfer didn't include a promotion, she was certainly enjoying being called "Captain Wright."

Her joy was tempered by the circumstances somewhat, however, as she liked Captain Levitt on a personal level, and the only reason she was there was because he had failed so spectacularly. It reminded her that getting a starship safely from one point to another was one thing, but commanding one under combat conditions was something completely different. Her own baptism by fire was fast approaching.

"Stand by for warp transition!" the specialist at the nav station called loudly, his announcement triggering three short klaxon blasts ship-wide that alerted the crew to prepare for transition turbulence.

The Icarus shuddered as the warp fields collapsed, and they were dropped back into normal space.

"OPS, locate the Ares," Celesta said sharply. "Tactical, full active scan of the system."

"Ares has transitioned in approximately twenty-seven thousand kilometers off our port side," the OPS officer reported.

"Very good. Notify Engineering I want the main engines up immediately," Celesta said. "Coms, tell Flight OPS to stand by for our signal. Activate our IFF transponder, and ignore all com requests from any Fourth Fleet ships, New Sierra Shipyards, or either of the planets in this system. Understood?"

"Understood, ma'am," the coms officer said.

"Engineering says ninety-seconds until main engines are available," OPS reported.

"The Ares has gone to full power, ma'am," the tactical officer said. "She's approaching maximum acceleration along the predesignated course."

"Thank you, Lieutenant Holt. Helm! As soon as you have engines available, you're clear to begin accelerating on your own course."

"Aye aye, ma'am," the helmswoman said.

Celesta's voice was calm and controlled, but inside her head was a profanity laced tirade as she berated herself. She'd neglected to order the engines started the moment they transitioned from warp, a command only the CO can give.

"Main engines available, all ahead full," the helmswoman called out even as the subtle vibration of the mains running up to full power hummed beneath Celesta's feet.

She was beginning to agree with Captain Wolfe that the new ships were just too soft. She'd flown in luxury starliners that were less comfortable than this new class of warship.

Celesta consulted her status board. "OPS, please ensure the Icarus is configured properly for intersystem flight."

"Aye aye, ma'am." The OPS officer flashed her a slightly guilty look.

A moment later, the warp drive nacelles retracted back into the hull. Apparently she wasn't the only one feeling the jitters. This crew had already been kicked in the teeth once when their captain abandoned the Atlas during the second battle for Xi'an.

"Coms, put me through on the ship-wide." She stood and moving in between the OPS and Tactical stations.

"Ship-wide keyed to your voice, ma'am," the coms officer said.

"Attention crew, this is the Captain." She hesitated slightly, wishing she'd put a little more thought into her remarks first. "I'm flying you into a situation I wouldn't wish on any crew. For the first time in over two hundred years, there may be shots fired in anger between two groups of humans. I also know that you have some lingering doubts from your last combat engagement.

"I will make you no promises save one: no matter what happens, we will do our duty. We will not abandon the Ares. Nor will we leave our fellow Seventh Fleet spacers stranded. Let's settle down, do our jobs, and make sure at the end of this mission, the Icarus has earned her wings. CO out." She turned and made a slashing motion across her throat while every pair of eyes on the bridge was riveted on her.

"Ship-wide channel closed, Captain," the coms officer said.

"OPS, when will we be cleared to release our payload?" Celesta asked, all business again after her impromptu pep talk.

"The Icarus is just now clearing the debris belt, ma'am. We're ready when the confirmation signal comes in from the Ares."