The Guard had taken control of the Space Force HQ communications facilities. Outgoing FTL transmissions were shut down for the time being. The transmission logs seemed to show that Hiakawa had failed to call for help from any other fleet: a serious mistake on his part and a stroke of good luck for DeChastelaine. Hiakawa himself, now under careful Guard monitoring, was unrepentant and wasn’t holding anything back during his interrogations. DeChastelaine had watched part of the recorded interrogation session and had felt grudging admiration for Hiakawa’s lack of fear in the face of a certain death sentence. The vetting of the other admirals was proceeding. Some were very much a part of the coup conspiracy, and while others were not, that didn’t mean their positions in the hierarchy were secure. DeChastelaine had already made up his mind to ruthlessly cut out the deadwood. The first task was to find a new Chief of Space Force Operations. An exhausted-looking Hood had found one. “The Superintendent of the Academy?”
