The humanoid, endogenous Setsi was actually a projected avatar. The Vruahn that had been instrumental in providing material support during the Phage War had made it clear his species didn't desire contact with humanity. Something had changed and that usually wasn't a good thing when talking about such an ancient, powerful race.
"On the contrary." Setsi moved across Jackson's quarters. "I am here to commend you. We observed you closely via the stasis pod we'd left with you, and I must tell you, we have been impressed with your actions."
"So you knew we'd kept the Cube, huh?" Jackson chuckled. "Of course you did. I suppose its sentience was also thanks to you?"
"No," Setsi said. "The intelligence that emerged was as much a shock to us as it must have been to you. We were initially going to remove it from the power grid but, as an experiment, we allowed it to remain and grow. It was enlightening to see both its development and your reaction to it.
"Many assumed you would bend its knowledge towards the creation of weapons, each more powerful than the last. And while you did enhance your fleet of ships, you also used it to expand your knowledge of the universe. In fact, most of the Cube's time was spent on matters that had nothing to do with martial pursuits but to attain pure knowledge. In our culture, there is no more noble a reason for an action."
"You're pissed we blew it up?" Jackson asked bluntly. "It was quite a unique creature."
"Of that there is no doubt. But when you discovered what secrets the machine might hold, what terror it could once again unleash, you made the only choice a rational being could. I witnessed your conversations with it, Jackson Wolfe. You did not callously sentence it to death … that it weighed heavily on your conscience was quite obvious to us. We also saw that you showed the Darshik mercy when it was obvious they were no longer a threat in their home system. These actions have made us reevaluate your species and realize that your potential for growth may exceed our original assumptions."
"So what happens next?" Jackson asked. "I can't imagine you projected your image across billions of light years to give me an atta boy."
"Not quite," Setsi said. "While your growth has been impressive, there are dangers still ahead for you. A divided species can never fully be taken seriously by the more mature beings of the galactic community."
"Ah," Jackson said, understanding that the Vruahn was talking about the ESA. "That's a little above my paygrade."
"Not for long," Setsi said cryptically. "It seems we both have much work to do. We now realize that leaving so many of the Phage dormant but intact was an unacceptable risk. I will have my hands full tracking them down and destroying them. In the meantime, I would like it very much if we could remain in contact with each other."
"There are probably rules against this sort of thing," Jackson said lamely.
"Those have never been much of an obstacle for you before, have they," Setsi said with what Jackson thought could be interpreted as a smile. "Now, if you'll excuse me—"
"Setsi … you're not restarting your human clone program to find these Phage units, are you?" Jackson asked.
"There is no need," Setsi's fading image said. "We don't need warriors for this endeavor, and my people are long overdue for having to clean up a mess of our own making. Farewell, Captain."
"Why do I have a feeling this is going to fuck up my retirement?" Jackson flopped back onto his rack and stared at the ceiling. After a moment, he rolled over and decided he needed a few more hours of sleep before getting back to work.
"Nemesis, New Sierra Orbital Control … we have you on approach. Stand by for orbital insertion instructions. Welcome home."
And with that, the officers of the TFS Nemesis knew that they likely wouldn't be facing charges for taking off without official CENTCOM orders. Once the Prowlers had made it back with news of what happened in the Darshik home system, a series of events kicked off that saw Jackson Wolfe go from rogue starship captain to a hero of the people … again. Once the Ushin had traveled to that system upon the request of CENTCOM, they found the pathetic cluster of damaged cruisers full of crews on the verge of death from starvation and exposure due to reactor containment breaches.
The Darshik were welcomed home by the Ushin and given medical treatment, something that greatly comforted Jackson. Barrett had spared what could have still legally been considered a group of combatant ships, and with those actions he had helped to begin the healing process from wounds that were generations deep. Barrett himself had been relieved of command of the Aludra Star for his role in the unsanctioned mission, but Jackson used every political connection he had to bring pressure to bear on CENTCOM. Michael Barrett was the future; he was the past. In the end, he got his way, and Captain Barrett was named as the replacement commanding officer for the TFS Nemesis, effectively immediately after she was repaired.
Idris Accari was promoted to full commander even though he wasn't technically eligible for it due to time in grade, but Jackson knew when to strike while the iron was hot. There was a short time immediately after the successful completion of a dramatic mission with political implications within which he could request virtually anything and not be denied. Accari would remain aboard the Nemesis as the new executive officer and continue his apprenticeship so he could one day become the captain that Jackson expected him to be.
As with all things political, there was nothing gained without something given. Jackson Wolfe had to agree to something he'd dreaded since the first time he'd taken an antique destroyer up against a Phage Super Alpha and won: He would assume the rank of rear admiral and commit to Starfleet for at least five more years. Admiral Wolfe was now Black Fleet Chief of Combat Operations and would be in charge of overall tactics and execution. While he took his new post with a certain bemusement, Jillian Wolfe's enthusiasm for his decision to remain in Fleet assuaged his fears that he had made yet another career misstep.
While the Nemesis was making the long flight back to the DeLonges System, the Ushin had come through with their end of the original agreement. The United Terran Federation had expanded by twenty-five new star systems for a total of thirty-one new habitable worlds and an unfathomable amount of new resources. They'd also bent their own manufacturing power to rebuilding lost infrastructure for their new human allies. New shipyards, raw ore processing plants, and fissile enrichment platforms were built to CENTCOM spec and hauled in piece by piece by Ushin cargo ships.
Perhaps the most dramatic shakeup of all was the United Terran Federation Parliament voting unanimously to seize all Tsuyo Corporation assets and haul the entire board of directors in for a series of hearings that would lead to criminal charges. Tsuyo had always played behind the scenes and tiptoed right up to the line of acceptable behavior at times, but when it was discovered they had actively given the ESA highly classified intelligence—who in turn gave it to the Darshik—not even the most loyal paid stooge in Parliament would defend them.
Tsuyo directors were apparently not at all confident that the Federation could survive their war with the Darshik and had been making overtures to the Eastern Star Alliance in a move that was akin to a parasite leaving a dying host for a fresh one. What they didn't know was that the ruthless ESA leadership had made a side deal with the Darshik to ensure that their worlds were spared when the Specter came back to Terran space with his promised "weapon of ultimate power."
"You heard about what the Prowlers found out in that Phage boneyard, didn't you?" Pike asked, slurring his words slightly.
"I hadn't," Jackson said. "Have the Vruahn started their cleanup?"
"Huh? Oh … yeah, there was that," Pike said, leaning over closer to Wolfe, knocking his glass off the arm of his chair. He pressed ahead without even noticing. "You wanna know why that Specter ship was so hard to knock down? The fucker was almost solid armor. It was the size of your ship but had no crew aboard and all the critical systems were safe behind meters and meters of solid alloy. His RDS was actually more powerful than yours, but the ship outweighed the Nemesis by a factor of
five."
"Another drone?" Jackson frowned. "So that son of a bitch is still out there somewhere?"
"Nope." Pike had the smile of a drunk man with a secret so good he was bursting at the seams to tell it. "The dumbass had his brain in a jar and connected to the ship. Apparently the Ushin are a lot further ahead of us when it comes to interfacing their brains directly to computers to control shit. The Specter was literally the ship. He'd go through new iterations as better tech became available, but the one we tangled with in the Juwel System was the last to require an actual crew."
"And when he got his latest one he nuked all his followers and set off on the final phase of trying to replace the Phage core mind," Jackson said, everything making sense now if in a horrifying way. "Holy shit."
"Yeah … that's why he kicked your ass a few times," Pike went on, oblivious to Jackson's evil glare. "He didn't have to pass orders on to a crew who then had to take action. If he thought it, the ship did it."
"So how're you and Celesta doing now that you officially work together?" Jackson asked, wanting a subject change before the bourbon made him do something stupid like take a swing at a full agent.
"We don't," Pike corrected. "Admiral Wright is the new head of CIS Fleet Operations … she'll run the Prowler program and all the other secret shit nobody even knows about. Well … she'll know about it, I guess—"
"You're rambling."
"—since it wouldn't make any sense for her to be in charge and then … what the fuck was I talking about?"
"Relationships in the workplace," Jackson prompted.
"Oh, right," Pike said. Jackson rolled his eyes at the lightweight. "Anyway, once she left Starfleet over that Darshik bullshit the CIS snapped her up. And since Colonel Pike doesn't work with Fleet OPS, there shall be no conflict of interest with his continued bedding of Admiral Wright."
"Classy," Jackson said disgustedly. "So that's as far as it's going?"
"For now," Pike said. "We're comfortable with it and when she wants something more, I'll be here."
"Well … here's to friends and to continued luck despite really bad decisions," Jackson said, raising his glass. He had to wait until Pike fished his glass from under his chair, refilled it, and then clinked his hard enough to slosh the expensive bourbon all over his hand. Jackson just rolled his eyes again and took a sip. The house he'd bought outside of the capital on New Sierra had an impressive .045 square kilometers of land—or eleven acres for Earthers—and had a beautiful pond with a dock that was perfect for sitting and watching the sunset … or drinking with a CIS agent who didn't know his limits.
Jackson raised his glass again in a silent toast to lost crew and friends, thinking briefly of Daya Singh and Jasper Chambliss. He knew these peaceful moments would be fleeting before too long. The ESA was out there and had once again been stung and embarrassed. It wouldn't be long before they made a move on what they assumed was a weakened Federation and a spent Starfleet. The thought of more fighting, especially with other humans, was a dismal prospect, but the laughter of his twins as they ran through the grass behind him hardened his resolve.
They would come … but he would be ready.
Also by Joshua Dalzele
Thank you for reading Destroyer,
Book Three of the Expansion Wars Trilogy.
The story will continue with:
The Unification Wars Trilogy
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Afterword
From the Author:
And with that we conclude Jackson Wolfe's story arc … sort of. In the next (and likely final) trilogy Jackson will assume more of a mentor role and it'll be time for the younger officers to step up and take their places. In the spirit of full disclosure, I had fully intended to kill him at the end of this book but once the scene had been written and I looked at it with fresh eyes his death felt cheap and unnecessary.
This book was a bit more of a struggle than the other Black Fleet stories in that halfway through it, I wasn't at all happy with the direction it took and I had to strip a lot out and do more rewrites than normal. I wanted to pay homage to "Warship" with Jackson's last mission, but I didn't want him to come off as such a loose cannon that he was putting lives at risk because he thought he knew so much better than his superiors. What I found was that it was a much more narrow line to walk than I assumed when the outline for this book was drafted two years ago.
I'm definitely going to miss this character being so much of the focus in these stories, and that's why I think it's definitely time to let him fade back. Jackson Wolfe is so different than my other protagonist, Jason Burke, and that made him a welcome challenge since the beginning of this series. My editor left a few notes in the first revision of this book asking if it would be a good idea for Jackson to congratulate someone at a certain point or give them an 'atta boy at another and it made me stop and really think of why I didn't put the line of dialogue there in the first place. In the end I left them out because Jackson is not the type of officer that pats people on the back for doing their job, no matter how exemplarily they did it. You saved the day with a well-placed missile shot? That's your job … get ready for the next one.
It was that stiff-backed stoicism that made Jackson so interesting for me … since he can be as outwardly expressive as a plank of wood it's difficult to delve into his thoughts via dialogue, but too much narration turns into pages of navel-gazing. In the end I'm happy how I've left him. He has a home, a family, and a purpose that allows him to continue doing what he's good at: getting the best out of people in spite of themselves.
I hope you've enjoyed this addition to the series and the trilogy as a whole. Thanks for taking the ride with me.
Cheers!
Josh
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