Definition of "starfleet"

I couldn't sense net-based operations behind the doors, but if the records were correct, Ell Control had once been the central operations focus for the starfleets of the Rebuilt Hegemony, and had hummed with activity.

1996, L[eland] E[xton] Modesitt Jr., Adiamante, New York, N.Y.: Tor Books, page 63