Constitution: Book 1 of the Legacy Fleet Trilogy by Nick Webb

aides.
    “Several ships q-jumped into orbit around Jupiter. Complete communications blackout on all the moons and orbital platforms. And ten minutes ago a cargo freighter imaged the ships en route to Earth at incredible speeds.”
    “How incredible?”
    Yarbrough turned her head to flash him a pained glance. “They’ll be here within the hour.”
    Granger’s mouth hung open. “But that puts their speed at around—”
    “Nearly point five c, yes, I know,” Yarbrough replied. They were nearly to the Lunar Base Command Center, and officers were streaming through the halls, reporting to their duty stations.
    “But isn’t that impossible?” said one of her aides, a young lieutenant.
    “Kid, nothing’s impossible when it comes to the Swarm—”
    “We don’t know it’s the Swarm, Captain Granger,” interrupted Yarbrough.
    “Care to take any guesses as to who else it might be, Admiral?” he said icily. He knew it was politically correct to think the Swarm threat was finished, but he couldn’t believe her intransigence on the issue when an entire fleet was bearing down on Earth.
    “CENTCOM isn’t sure. We knew there was a threat out in the Veracruz Sector and sent scouts to investigate.”
    “And?” he said, as they rounded the corner into the Command Center.
    Yarbrough demurred. “And, well, we lost contact with them.” She saluted the commanding officer of Lunar Base, Rear Admiral Tully. “What’s the latest, Sheldon?”
    “ETA fifty-five minutes. The cargo freighter managed to image most of their fleet in decent detail. We’re looking at six to eight large carriers or cruisers.”
    “Origin?”
    Admiral Tully shrugged. “Not any design I’ve ever seen. Certainly not Swarm.”
    Yarbrough cast a glance back at Granger. “See?”
    “We know next to nothing about the latest Swarm technology, Admiral. It’s reckless to assume it’s not them just because it doesn’t look like their ships from seventy-five years ago.”
    “Are they aggressive?” said Yarbrough, turning back to Admiral Tully.
    “Still no long range comm signals out of Jupiter. Ganymede Station is silent, as is Callisto Depot. Hell, the only way we knew they showed up was from an old scientific satellite in high-Jupiter geosynchronous orbit that was out of range of whatever jamming signal they’ve got going on.”
    “What do our defenses look like here?” asked Granger.
    “Lunar Base is no sitting duck, Captain. Plus we’ve got a dozen ships sitting out there in honor of the Constitution’ s decommissioning. The Qantas , the Clyburne , the Petain . If this is Swarm, and if they’re anything like the ships from last time, they don’t stand a chance against us.” Admiral Tully smiled smugly.
    Commander Proctor stepped forward. “We already know these are not the ships from last time. They’ve evolved. Or improved. Or whatever it is they do.”
    Yarbrough took a deep breath. “Mobilize the ships that are here. Get me on the horn to all the captains—I’m taking temporary command of the portion of the fleet that is here and will run battle operations from this Command Center, with your consent, Admiral.” She nodded to Sheldon Tully—not that she needed his permission, since she outranked him by a star, but they were old friends. “Get all the civilians off the base and loaded back on to the transports immediately,” she said to her aide. “Captain Granger, I want the Constitution to escort them back to Earth—”
    “What?”
    “You heard me. The Vice President is here, not to mention the dozens of senators, congresspeople, and governors. And don’t forget about the kids. We can’t have them in a combat situation.”
    “If that fleet makes it past Lunar Base, there might not be an Earth to go back to. Keep the Constitution with the fleet.”
    “No. We can’t afford to lose such a significant portion of the civilian government if we fail here. No, get to Earth, and report in to Admiral Zingano at CENTCOM.