“Sir, we can’t just leave them behind!” Lieutenant Marshal exclaimed.

“Marshal!” Torrence snapped. “Control yourself.”

“Yes, sir. But, sir, I have friends in that sector.”

Ah, shit.

“I’m sorry, Lieutenant,” I said, meaning it with every ounce of my being.

“Thank you, sir,” she said forlornly.

“This is unprecedented,” Nico Medina said. The doctor looked stricken. “Why didn’t we think something like this could happen? Anderson Universal could have made contingencies for it in the lease.”

“They did,” I said, tiredly. “We have an out clause to aid and assist any Anderson Universal vessel in need. If Vela had been crippled and not destroyed, we could have overruled Archibald. As it stands, there are no Anderson ships left in that fleet.”

The room went silent.

“Is it just me, or does that seem very short-sighted?” Taylor, the tactical officer, asked.

“Not to mention idiotic,” Medina added.

Several heads nodded in unison.

“What do you intend to tell the fleet?” Torrence asked.

“I’m not sure telling the civilian population would be advisable,” Taylor offered.

“But the captains will need to be informed,” Torrence countered. “And then some of them may decide to tell their civilians. Ship to ship communication within each sector fleet is operational. Do we turn that off? Create a situation where the civilians know something is happening but are being kept in the dark?”

“We do have control over the ship to ship communication systems,” I said, thinking. “But I need to consider the full ramifications of keeping that operational. I’ll confer with the captains of our fleet first.”

“Let me take a look at the lease,” Taylor offered. “Maybe there’s an angle we can attack this at that we can’t yet see.”

“Good idea,” I said, standing from the briefing table. “Do that. The rest of you; this doesn’t leave the room. For now, only section heads are to be advised. Keep an eye on your teams and when with civilians. The moment word of this gets out; I want to know.”

A round of “Yes, sirs” followed and then I slipped out and headed to my ready room.

“Pavo,” I said, as the door slid shut behind me. “What’s the word in the habitats?”

There was too long a pause before the AI answered.

“All habitats are functioning nominally.”

I slowed as I approached my chair.

“Is everything all right?”

“With which system, Captain?”

“With you.” Never thought I’d say that before.

“I am functioning within acceptable parameters.”

I sat down in my seat.

“Does that bother you? The parameters, I mean.”

“I do not understand.”

I let out a sigh and leaned back in my seat.

“I’m constrained by parameters, too, it would seem. And I have to admit that they’re chafing. I merely wondered if your constraints chafed you.”

“I am not capable of feeling chafed, Captain.”

“Really?” I wasn’t so sure anymore.

“Really.”

I let out another sigh. “Fleet-wide hail, please. Request all captains reply only.”

“Understood.”

I tried to still my mind while I waited for the various vessels in the Sector Two Fleet to respond. No matter which way I looked at it, our hands were tied. But that did not mean the next few minutes were going to be easy.

I had an obligation to inform them. As I had an obligation to inform those fleets who had launched before us. And part of me thought, perhaps, one of the other Anderson vessels could come up with something. Fake a breakdown. Make the entire fleet have to wait for them. Give me an out clause in this damn lease.

But any response I would receive from Sectors Four and Three would take a day to reach me. They’d already met their first jump quota. They were well beyond normal hailing distance.

And if I were honest with myself, that’s exactly why I was pushing forward with this fleet-wide meeting. Maybe one of the captains could think of something I’d failed to see.

I didn’t hold out much hope of Taylor locating a heretofore unread clause in the lease. But I did hold out hopes someone like Corinthian’s short-tempered captain would think of something.

“All ships in the Sector Two Fleet have responded to hails and are waiting, Captain.”

Showtime.

“On screen.”

The screen hovering over my desk lit up with eight separate view panes, showing me the eight captain’s, including myself, in this fleet.

“Good evening, Captains,” I said. “This is John Jameson of the lead vessel Pavo. Thank you for responding so swiftly.”

“What’s so urgent we had to have a group meeting, Jameson?” Corinthian’s captain demanded.

“I was midway through a simulated golf match,” the captain of the Last Chance advised with glee.

“You and your pleasure cruiser,” Corinthian snapped.

“You’re just sour you didn’t sign on with Galactic Luxuries.”

“Not if I wanted to fly a real spaceship.”

“Gentleman,” I said with more patience than I was feeling. “There is a reason why I’ve hailed you all today and I would like to get on with it before last shift, please.”

“Then out with it, man,” Corinthian snapped. “Or would you like an engraved invitation?”

It astounded me, really, that this was what was left of humanity.

“We’ve lost Vela,” I said without any further preamble. They wanted it straight, they’d get it damn well straight as a plasma shot.

“What?” several captains said at once.

“Explain?” Corinthian demanded.

“Unscheduled solar flare on lift-off. Vela protected the rest of the Sector One Fleet by sacrificing itself, it seems.”

“What use is that?” Last Chance asked. “Without an AI lead vessel, they’re as good as dead in the water.”

“They assumed we’d wait for them, didn’t they?” Corinthian asked.

“A valid assumption,” I murmured.

“So, are we?” the Aspiration’s captain asked.

I took my time looking each captain in the eye on the various screens before me and said, “Not at present.”

Chaos bloomed across the space waves and I tried not to wince at the words and accusations being thrown around. Come on, I thought. Band together. Make me stop this ship. Come on.

“Why not?” Corinthian demanded when a pause in the muck slinging stopped briefly.

“It is outside my lease parameters,” I advised succinctly.

“And an Anderson controlled vessel wouldn’t dare break a contract,” Corinthian sneered.

“Would you?” I asked.

He made a disgruntled sound but didn’t answer. We all knew what was at stake. Not only our commissions but our pensions. To be released from duty now would mean arriving at our destination destitute. For ten thousand people, I could do it. I’d like to think I could do it.

But there was one more thing stopping me.

My duty. The duty I had to this ship and this fleet. To the role of captain. I’m not the youngest captain of the Sector Fleets, but I am the youngest at Anderson Universal. Because of my sense of honour. And a lead vessel needs a captain it can trust.

Or maybe, the scientists who’d thought up the AIs knew something the rest of us did not.

I tried not to shudder at that thought.

“You have to stop,” Last Chance said. “We can’t condemn them to death. How can you live with that?”

“I have no choice. I am under orders.”

“From your mayor?” one of the captains asked.

“From the leaseholder himself.”

“You went to the top,” Corinthian said, sounding surprised.

I didn’t say anything.

“So, that’s it?” Aspiration asked.

“It is for me,” I said.

“But it’s not right,” Last Chance said desperately.

“Ten thousand souls,” I said. Come on.

“I’ll stop,” Last Chance said.

That’s it.

“On your own?” Corinthian demanded. “You’re mad.”

“Stop with me.”

Corinthian looked away from the camera. Coward.

“I’ll stop if we all stop,” Aspiration said.

Everyone bar Corinthian slowly conceded.

“Corinthian?” I asked.

He looked at the lens reluctantly.

“You’ll stop if we all stop?” he asked.

“I would be obliged to maintain position with the fleet.”

“That’s what you wanted,” he said, shaking his head in disgust. I didn’t blame him. “Someone else to take the fall.” I didn’t hide the wince. “Because you’re too much of a coward to do it yourself.”

“They can’t fire us all!” Last Chance shouted.

“There are eight different companies within this fleet,” Corinthian said. “None of which will give a damn about a united mutiny.”

“This isn’t a mutiny!” Aspiration snapped.

“Isn’t it? I’m not sure my mayor would see it that way, and I’m damned sure my leaseholder wouldn’t. No,” Corinthian said, shaking his head. “I won’t do it.” He looked out of the screen as if looking right at me. “Let this be on the lead vessel’s head.”

I nodded in reply and reached forward, severing the link.

He was right, of course. And had my intention been for them to truly take the weight of responsibility from me, then I would have felt guilty. But I knew Corinthian’s captain too well. At least, I’d hoped I had. And he’d played his hand beautifully.

“Time to waypoint?” I asked the ceiling.

“Three days, ten hours and sixteen minutes.”

Less than four days for a civilian revolt to start.

“What now, Captain?” Pavo asked.

“Get my security chief.”

We needed to prep for an uprising.