by Max Jager
"I'm afraid I have an engagement tonight with my fellow officers, but would tomorrow evening suit? Our second night under way?"
"Excellently, sir. You mean to leave immediately then?"
"There is not time to get moving like the present."
"I will inform the other captains to be ready to make sail as soon as you reach us." Markov was nodding as he spoke. "I assume you'll want to make best speed?"
"Indeed."
"Our lords and masters would like us to keep to 150 gravities, but we could probably justify running up to 175 without ruffling too many feathers. Especially if it means we have an escort."
"That's mighty accommodating of you. Thank you."
Markov gave him a smile. "Try not to get too bored at what must be a pittance for you."
–
The remains of another truly excellent meal, courtesy of Chief Steward Jennifer Weinstein lay before the assembled group of officers in the ward room aboard Mission. The Steward herself was silently circling the room, making sure every coffee cup was full and hot. She paused at her Captian's shoulder and poured smoothly into his cup to take it from half full to full and then disappeared.
Aaron looked around the table at the assembled senior officers. None of the assembled officers looked particularly happy but all were clearly resigned to their fate. "Well people, this could have gone better but Commodore Garcia was well within her rights to promise this convoy an escort from us. Unfortunately for you unlucky sods, she promised the convoy me, which means that I am the one who gets to relax and nursemaid a convoy, while further drilling my crew while you and your people will get to expedite your arrival at Ephesus. It is of the utmost importance we make our presence felt in the Ephesus region. To this end, Captain James will take Prince Richard, Courageous, Prince Edward, Lancelot, Roland, Parcifal, and Kay. Bartholomew when you arrive on station, I want you to break up the Task force into whatever packets you deem appropriate and begin standard anti-commerce raiding operations. I will leave the details to you and the other captains. Meanwhile, Indefatigable, Galahad, Gawain, and Mission will babysit this convoy and perform sweeping manoeuvres as we come through to see what you lot have shaken out to of the bushes. We need to make our presence felt people. Remember this is not a drill. It is not a live fire exercise. This is the real, death and dying included, thing. Stay sharp, stay focussed."
"I don't like it, my lord." Captain James' voice was smooth and modulated, his accent giving him away as having come from the upper crust of New Solarian society, as did his insistence on calling Aaron by his noble title and not his military one, though both were technically correct. "I know the mission was going to require us to split up anyway, but putting you days away rather than hours seems like a foolish decision. I know it can't be avoided, but still..." He trailed off with a frustrated exhalation. "I wish we were at a place where you could simply transfer your flag to one of the light cruisers and protect the convoy from there. I know it's not practical this early in building rapport with the crew but it doesn't mean I can't wish."
Beth shifted uneasily in her seat before speaking. "You're right Captain, under normal circumstances, given the promises made, that would be the correct course of action. But I can't see the admiralty endorsing a decision to distance Captain Hawthrone from Mission at this stage of development. Regardless of the competence of her other officers. It takes time for a crew to adjust to a captain and for that the captain has to be present."
The look of surprise on Coren' face was something Aaron wished he could forever capture. He just hoped none of the other officers noticed. They needed to present a front united regardless of what they felt internally.
"We are just going to have to deal with it gentlemen. If you're worried about the combat power of what you might encounter out there, Bartholomew, pair the Prince Regents together and keep Courageous closer to home. The Chivalrys are pretty tough customers and used to working together. I wouldn't worry too much if I were you." Aaron was projecting confidence to the room despite his own misgivings. "We are just going to have to make the best of a bad situation. We are all aware that there are very few things which are ideal in this situation. We are going to have to rely on one another and on our crews to be the best in the goddamn fleet. I know they are. They aren't handing out the latest and greatest toys to just anyone. Use the time you have in transit to drill, and drill hard. We need to be a well oiled machine at all times. Well, unless anyone has anything else to add, we should be getting back to our ships."
As the other officers filed out of the room, Coren remained where he was sitting at the table staring into space. He seemed to shake himself and then looked up to find himself alone in the room with Aaron and Beth both watching him without comment.
"Of all the things that could have gone wrong logistically, this must rank fairly high on the list of bad." His voice was quiet and subdued, as though giving voice to his thoughts would make them real. "I knew we were going to have to split up, but this... this is bad. Forthright doesn't really have a handle on then new weapons yet. Don't get me wrong, we aren't perfect either, but they are so much worse and managing their penetration aides and making use of the range. They have a tendency to rely on speed over all other considerations. That helps with penetration, but you're so much better off if the enemy can't even hit you. They are still thinking in terms of the conventional slugging match battle cruisers traditionally engage in rather than the lightning quick hit and fade war of attrition our new design calls for. It makes me nervous sending them out ahead."
Aaron fell heavily back into a seat at the table. "He has Yukiko and the Chivalry COs with him to remind him. Hopefully that will be enough. Besides, using battle cruisers as anti-commerce raiding vessels is a classic case of overkill. The kind of vessels usually used for commerce raiding should pose no serious threat to a Reprisal class, regardless of its commander."
"Usual commerce raiding shouldn't have caused the military casualties we've been experiencing. You've seen the numbers the same as I have. Destroyers are traditional for commerce raiding. Only a concentration of three or more destroyers should be able to take out a light cruiser. We've lost five, four of which were operating in pairs. That means an absolute minimum of five destroyer concentrations for commerce raiding. That is overkill as well." Coren didn't seem entirely convinced. "And then there are those crazy sensor readings from the survivors. More of those mysterious heavy cruisers you ran into at Amery. The one that nearly kicked the tar out of you. I know you were over matched, but still."
"We will deal with the problems as they come." Beth spoke for the first time since the other officers had left. "We can't go borrowing problems from the future, we have enough to deal with right here and now. Like how to keep our crew from going stir crazy on this milk run. I know that transit after we reach Ephesus is dangerous, but transit from here to New Amsterdam? That is going to be as boring as watching paint dry."
"Let's hope so." Aaron's response was dry. "If it isn't it means that enemy penetration has gotten much worse than we thought."
"There is only so much drilling we can do and not lose our edge because we know it's just a sim. We are going to need to innovate. A peace time edge is very different than a wartime edge." Coren sounded worried for the first time since Beth had decided that Aaron deserved to be where he was. "We've all been in combat before. But only a handful of us have been on the losing side. Our navy hasn't suffered real losses in almost a century. Most of our crew don't know what it's like to be on this end of things." Here he looked at Aaron.
It was Aaron's turn to stare into space as the other two looked on, waiting for him to speak. "Battle is panicked, even if it doesn't look like it on the outside. On the recordings, I know I look calm, but it's all an act. In reality, your mind races, trying to keep up with what you're seeing. It's an almost out of body experience. You see the flashes of light on the monitors, you see the missiles screaming toward you, and it all feels just like a simulation, until t
hey actually hit. Then there is fire, and blood. Death all around you. You're praying, hoping, that your missiles find a their target. And then the sudden relief when it's over. The silence which isn't silence at all. There is no way to explain it."
"Will we be ready?" Beth asked quietly.
"You can't be ready, not really. Right Coren?" Aaron looked over at his friend. "You remember Nelson, fighting her against the pirates, badly damaged as she was."
"Remember. Amery was so much worse though... right?"
"Amery was worse. We knew we would lose. At least with Nelson we had some hope. We were evenly matched." Aaron gave them a rueful smile. "I doubt we will face so desperate asituation as either of them on this deployment. At least not if we keep our heads about us. Besides, as Coren has said on multiple occasions we have advantages the enemy knows nothing about yet. We are going to be like the Forthright of God himself when we finally make enemy contact. They won't know what hit them."
