New Frontiers (Expansion Wars Trilogy, Book 1) (3 page)

“Short and to the point,” Celesta said once it was clear there wasn’t any more to the message. “Coms! Send a flash message to the rest of the convoy that we will proceed with our original deployment plan. Nav, make sure you’re coordinating with the
Amsterdam
to ensure we’re well out of the way once they—”

“New message coming in from the
John Arden
,” the com officer interrupted. “It’s flagged as urgent, ma’am … they want us to veer off and allow them to make orbit first. The ambassador doesn’t want the
Icarus
or the
Amsterdam
moving into orbit until his landing craft has departed for the surface.”

“Interesting,” Celesta said with an arched eyebrow, her voice steady and measured. “Did they give a particular reason for deviating from the established protocols other than the whims of their VIP?”

“No, ma’am.”

“Very well.” She stood stiffly. “Nav! I need a flightpath correction immediately for a braking maneuver that will move us off course and allow the
Amsterdam
room to also decel and veer off to clear the way for the
John Arden
.”

“Aye, ma’am,” the nav specialist said. “Sending new course to the helm now.”

“So much for sticking to the plan,” Barrett mumbled as he ran through a series of checks from his own station to make sure there weren’t any issues with the new course.

****

The next two weeks were uneventful. Mind-numbingly uneventful, if Celesta was being honest with herself. After they’d finally made it to the planet and assumed their orbit at an altitude of thirty-seven thousand kilometers, far above and slightly behind the other ships in the Terran convoy, it had been made clear to them that only a small delegation from the
John Arden
would actually be participating in the meetings with the aliens. This had been bitterly disappointing to many of the officers on her staff who had wrongfully assumed they’d be rotated down to the surface to look around and maybe even be one of the first humans to get a glimpse of the new species.

Instead the crew of the
Icarus
sat on overwatch patrol above the
Amsterdam
,
John Arden,
and the two supply frigates while the alien ships were in a similar formation on the opposite side of the planet. Celesta was grateful the RDS had decided to cooperate and the gravity-warping drive allowed the
Starwolf
-class destroyer to easily keep pace with the other ships without overflying them at such a high altitude. 

“How goes the watch, Ensign Accari?” she asked as she walked onto the bridge thirty minutes before first watch began.

“All quiet, Captain,” Accari said. “Some standard com traffic from the
Amsterdam
that I’ve had routed to your inbox, but nothing flagged as priority. I’ve heard that you’ll be asked to attend a dinner aboard her as the admiral is getting bored with racing around this planet.”

“Mr. Accari,” Celesta began sternly. “You are now an officer and a gentleman. It is beneath you to insinuate that the admiral is anything but in complete control of the situation. A young officer with a bright career ahead of him would also be careful about letting slip just how much inside information he was getting through an infatuated young woman who happened to be the admiral’s aide.”

“Yes, ma’am. My apologies, ma’am,” Accari said, recognizing his captain’s peculiar sense of humor and not sounding the least bit contrite. Ensign Idris Accari, formerly Specialist Second Class Accari, had been the first watch nav station operator on the
Ares
under Captain Jackson Wolfe. Jackson had recognized early how sharp the young man was, and in one of his last actions before he’d officially retired from Fleet he had lobbied to get Accari a commission, dependent upon him completing Officer Candidate Training (OCT) as well as the subsequent command schools. Accari had breezed through them without trouble and had been one of the few selected from his class of enlisted candidates for a commission. Those that didn’t receive a direct commission were given the option to return to the enlisted ranks or go through the Academy. Since the Academy was typically a five-year stint, most just went back to their previous commands.

Celesta Wright, having been Accari’s superior on the
Ares
, made sure she was kept aware of his progress every step of the way through his training. The file entry for his rank change had barely cleared Admin when she submitted her request to have him transferred to the
Icarus
. After training he’d been serving as her first watch OPS officer since and, like when he was at the nav station, he seemed to have a knack for the OPS position, instinctively knowing what information needed to flow up to the captain and what could be pushed back or rerouted. Celesta wished that she was still in contact with Jackson Wolfe if for no other reason than to let him know how his protégée was excelling, but it was like he’d just disappeared without a trace.

“But while we’re discussing what you may or may not have heard through your backchannel sources, Ensign, what else might I find interesting?” she asked while he vacated the command chair.

“The negotiations aren’t going well,” Accari said seriously. “Apparently this new species, they call themselves Ushin, are either masters of the runaround, are hiding something, or the communication methods R&S devised aren’t as flawless as they claimed. These are some of the things the admiral would like to discuss with you in person.”

“I see,” Celesta said neutrally. “While I thank you for your trust in me, Ensign, I feel I would be remiss if I didn’t offer some warning to you.”

“Ma’am?”

“Even on the bridge of a Fleet destroyer, that is some fairly sensitive information you’re bandying about,” Celesta went on. “My office is always available and just remember, there are ears everywhere and not all of them friendly.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Accari was no wilting flower. He accepted the criticism like the professional he was and offered neither an excuse nor an apology. Celesta found it refreshing and hoped that she’d be able to mentor him around all the pitfalls many officers fell prey to that tended to stunt their careers. More and more, Ensign Accari showed himself to have the raw talent and grit to command a starship of his own someday, and it’d be a shame if that potential was cut short because he was trying to pass on a bit of intel to his captain and the wrong people overheard him.

She’d only just begun to get herself organized when a sharp, staccato alarm began chirping from the com station behind her. That particular alarm meant that a com drone had appeared in local space and was broadcasting a general alert for any Terran ship within range and could mean anything from a threat detected in the area to a recall order. She resisted the urge to get up and check on the message herself while her com officer decrypted whatever data the drone was sending.

“Captain, authenticated emergency message from CENTCOM,” the second watch com officer called out. “Your eyes only, ma’am. Where would you like it routed?”

“I’ll take it in my office, Lieutenant Moll.” Celesta stood calmly despite her rising anxiety. “Mr. Accari, you have the bridge until Commander Barrett arrives.”

“I have the bridge, aye,” Accari said.

It took Celesta less than a minute to go the short distance to her office on the command deck, lock the hatch, and validate her credentials so the computer would allow her access to the secure servers. When she began reading the flash message header she could only shake her head in amazement, unsure what it meant for her immediate mission and Starfleet as a whole. By the time the accompanying video was done, her mouth hung open in shock.

“Have Commander Barrett report to my office,” she said conversationally. The computer beeped twice in acknowledgement that she’d been heard and understood. Barrett must have been close by because there was a loud, single knock on the hatchway a few seconds later. She rose to unlock it and let her XO in, motioning to one of the seats in front of her desk before reclaiming her own.

“You’ll need to be aware of this,” she said, spinning the monitor around and restarted the video without explanation.

“This is Fleet Admiral Pitt, speaking on behalf of CENTCOM Chief of Staff Marcum during his absence on an undisclosed, classified mission.

“I am not a politician nor do I claim to be particularly eloquent, so I’ll just come out and say what’s happening here on New Sierra: The Terran Confederacy has been dissolved and is no longer the governing body controlling the worlds outside of the Eastern Star Alliance. The decision was made to permanently disband the Confederacy after no accords could be reached within the remainder of the Senate and the absence of our duly elected President, Caleb McKellar.

“I will not bore any of you with the details because, honestly, there aren’t any. Delegations from each enclave will begin arriving on New Sierra in the following months to decide what should happen next. As of right now, each enclave is responsible for governance on their member worlds, but
all
Fleet ships will now report directly to CENTCOM and will ignore any and all orders from local authorities no matter how mundane. I expect this to be sorted quickly and I
will not
tolerate any of my ships exchanging fire with each other due to planetary governments deciding it’s time to settle some old scores. I have the newest warships here at my disposal and I will not hesitate to use them should I hear of any extracurricular activities from my deployed units.

“For now, follow the chain of command, continue on your missions, and if any of you are religious … pray that when the delegations meet here on New Sierra in the coming months this can be quickly resolved. I shouldn’t have to say this but I will: This brief is classified at the highest level. Pitt out.”

“What in the fuck?” Barrett blurted. “I know there was a bit of chaos after the war and the loss of Haven, but dissolving the Confederacy? This is lunacy!”

“Calm yourself, Commander,” Celesta said. “You need to read between the lines. This has been in the works since the Asianic Union and Warsaw Alliance broke off and closed their borders, though I will admit to some surprise that they made the announcement this early. It was supposed to be accompanying the restructuring agreement between the enclaves. Someone at CENTCOM must have found out that wasn’t supposed to and forced Admiral Pitt to release that cryptic order.”

“How could you possibly know all of that, ma’am?” Barrett asked before his eyes widened in realization. “Never mind … Pike let you know, didn’t he?”

“Agent Pike of the Confederate Intelligence Section did
not
send me an unauthorized transmission of the classified internal, behind the scenes political wrangling at work, Commander,” Celesta said primly. “However, senior aide to the Honorable Augustus Wellington, a Mr. Aston Lynch, did happen to mention it to me at the reception on the planet before we departed.”

“Those are the same person,” Barrett rolled his eyes.

“He claims otherwise,” Celesta shrugged. “I don’t pretend to understand it but he’s quite adamant that he is not Aston Lynch when he is Pike.”

Pike, the only name he’d ever given, was an operative in the Confederate Intelligence Section (CIS). He wasn’t just an operative but a full-blown agent and had been instrumental in assisting Jackson Wolfe during the Phage War by feeding him critical intel on some of the internal wrangling happening on the Confederate capital world. One of his disguises was a man named Aston Lynch, aide to the powerful Chairman of Fleet Operations, Senator Augustus Wellington. He’d originally been placed on Wellington’s staff by the Director of the CIS to dig up some dirt to be used as leverage if needed, but the senator was no fool and he’d somehow figured out who Pike was.

Rather than lodge a protest or make a scene, he somehow managed to get Pike permanently assigned to him. Celesta never got the details on that, but she suspected Wellington threatened to expose the fact that the Director was infiltrating the staffs of elected officials with his own operatives and offered to keep quiet in exchange for Pike. Since then the slippery agent worked to make sure there wasn’t anything that happened within the Confederacy that Wellington didn’t know about.

“That still doesn’t make any—” Barrett was cut off by the computer chirping, followed by the first watch com officer’s voice.

“Captain, priority Two-Alpha channel request coming in from the
Amsterdam
,” she said.

“Put it through, Lieutenant.”

“Aye aye, ma’am.”

Celesta pulled her monitor back around and put her finger to her lips, indicating to Barrett to remain silent before hitting the accept icon flashing on the screen.  

“We’ve got a situation, Captain Wright,” Admiral Marcum said harshly.

“Yes, Admiral,” she nodded. “I just finished going through the video—”

“Shut up and listen, Captain!” Marcum snapped, startling Celesta. Barrett’s eyes widened but he maintained his composure and didn’t utter a sound. “This has nothing to do with those bullshit games the politicians are playing on New Sierra. There’s been a development along the Frontier. Something has been … detected … in the Xi’an System.”