Omega Force: Rebellion (OF11), стр. 56

in an equatorial holding orbit. He rocketed up away from the planet off the southern pole, a maneuver only a ship like the Phoenix could do with her comparatively low mass and over-powered main drive. The picket ships tried to reposition themselves to intercept, but by the time they'd accelerated into a transfer orbit that would let them slingshot towards the Polar Regions, the Phoenix was already halfway to her mesh-out point.

What struck Jason as odd was that the ConFed had almost no presence there maintaining order, and on the surface, you couldn't really tell that they'd just been conquered. They'd watched some local media once when they'd first hit orbit over Eshquaria Prime and the fact a neighboring superpower had come in with warships and displaced their government was being treated like a general interest story. Maybe there was something in the Eshquarian cultural character that they simply didn't care about who was in charge as long as the trains ran on time, so to speak.

"The software should be easy," Kage said, breaking Jason out of his ruminations. "It's mostly just updating all the encryption protocols and tying the clean-side data bus into the ship so we can pipe down commands from the bridge."

"I want that isolated," Jason said. "And I mean discreet cabling and controls. I don't care if you tape it to the deck to route it, I don't want this box being tied into our MUX at any point."

"That's going to take—"

"It's non-negotiable," Jason cut off another round of complaining. "We have no idea what's in this box that could wreck our own systems."

"Wait, so you want discreet cabling and a standalone interface built?" Twingo asked.

"What part of this isn't sinking in with you two?" Jason asked. "The only thing I want tied into our systems is the final output of the box before it hits the high-gain amplifier on the way to the antennas. Got it?"

"Got it," Twingo said. "I'll get started right away."

"I liked it better when you didn't know anything about the ship or its parts," Kage grumbled and began pulling the access panels off the avionics box.

"When did you learn so much about the guts of this tub?" Crusher asked.

"I’m not a fucking idiot!" Jason snapped. "You all just insist on treating me like one. Do you really think that I'd own an interstellar warship for this long and not pick up a damn manual once in a while?"

"You want me to answer that honestly?"

"I have a better idea," Jason said, patting Crusher on the cheek and earning a snarl in return. "Your job is now to help Kage run the cabling and get it all hooked up. He's in charge. Whatever he needs, you get it for him."

"What?!"

"I live for these moments," Kage said, a huge smile splitting his wide mouth.

"How long does this last?" Crusher asked.

"Until the job is done, so get to work."

"It's good to see that you not only survived the demise of Crisstof Dalton, but advanced yourself within his First Daughter's new regime."

"I had wondered if you would recognize me, Councilman," Kellea said.

"Oh, yes, Admiral…my species is blessed with a very organized and accurate memory, but the incident with Crisstof's First Son trying to start a handful of civil wars within ConFed space is difficult to forget." Scleesz leaned back in his seat, pushing his plate away. "Excellent. Seeladas certainly hasn't skimped on the amenities aboard her warships."

"The Defiant is unique among the fleet," Kellea said. "She was commissioned by Crisstof to be his flagship and operate alone in hostile territory for long stretches of time. Since he was a man of excessive tastes, the ship he had built has far more luxurious appointments than any of our cruisers or destroyers. While we're speaking of the ship, I noticed you have been using one of our secure slip-com nodes quite a bit, but the address you've been talking to isn't one that we recognize as belonging to your government. I assume you're helping ConFed Intelligence track us?"

"I've not attempted to hide my activities aboard your ship, Admiral." Scleesz squirmed slightly in his seat, causing Kellea's eyes to narrow.

"Why am I going to one of the Pillar Worlds, Councilman?" she asked. "This doesn't have to go any further than this room, but what is Seeladas Dalton's deal with the Grand Adjudicators?"

"You know I can't—"

"Just tell me if I'm putting my ship at risk. Am I being setup to take a fall? Are our member worlds at risk? Please, Councilman…give me something to work with. I know that something is happening behind the scenes and it's making me nervous." Scleesz looked at her speculatively, still seeming to be afraid of something despite them being the only two in the room.

"What do you know of the recent political…shakeup, let's call it, within the ConFed's upper echelons?" he finally asked.

"Only that there's been a hard shift from maintaining the status quo of the Core Worlds skimming off the top, and the Pillar Worlds taking most of that, to an aggressive expansionist posture," she said. "One thing we've noticed is that for the first time in nearly five thousand years, the appointed Adjudicators are making decisions in lock-step and the Council seems content to not give any pushback."

"You've not heard anything about a newcomer wielding the real power of Miressa behind the scenes? No whispers of an alien from beyond this quadrant that's embedded itself into the power structure?"

"There have been some wild conspiracy theories," Kellea admitted. "The more creative one I heard was that the pru had built synth-based avatars and replaced the Adjudicators so that Khepri ruled the ConFed without ever bothering with the inconvenience of an election."

"That's so plausible I hope nobody ever takes that idea seriously," Scleesz said. "The biodrone tech Crisstof's idiot son had developed along with Khepri's AI tech would be a nightmare if merged. But Khepri is still the controlling center of interstellar commerce so, in a sense, they rule over the ConFed