by Peter Rhodan
On the day the Thister was due to pull out on the ship’s next patrol duty, Gizel was passing down the corridor from the bridge after coming off watch. She was hailed by Lieutenant Halfron and asked to come directly to his office. She had spent the watch at Tactical, where she had been given a chance to show Lieutenant Mizach from A Watch just how much she didn’t know about operating the Tactical station aboard a destroyer. In fairness, she thought she had done rather better than the Lieutenant had expected for a first-timer. She certainly didn’t think she had performed badly enough to rate a hauling over the coals from the XO, so she was feeling both surprised and wary when she entered his office and saluted.
“Take a seat, Midshipman.”
Halfron ordered after answering her salute somewhat negligently, with a half-wave somewhere need his temple. While she seated herself on the chair positioned in front of his desk he returned to the screen he had been studying before she entered, and made no further comment for a few moments. Just as Gizel was starting to think he was being deliberately annoying, he looked up and asked.
“What do you know about the Mark Fifteen Fire Control system?”
The subject of the question was so totally unexpected that she blinked, and it was a moment before she collected her wits.
“I was run through the standard training course on the Mark Fifteen in my last semester sir, they were only about to start coming into service at that point.”
Halfron nodded. “Good. We’re slated to be re-equipped with them after this deployment, and that makes you the only person on this ship who is qualified on them.”
He smiled slightly at this comment, then leaned back in his chair and rested his hands on the desk in front of him, and made a small waving motion.
“So, Midshipman, Your Imperial Highness. You want to be the boarding officer?”
Gizel took her time to reply, not wanting to seem too keen.
“Sir. After reviewing the files of all the ship’s officers, it appeared to me that after you and the Captain, I am the only other officer with actual boarding experience. Besides having the requisite skill set.”
Halfron smiled. “Therefore making you the obvious choice. Yes. Neither the Captain nor I noticed that lack of experience until you brought it up. In normal circumstances, a disposable middy would be the ideal choice for the role. Which you most certainly are not, disposable, I mean. Neither the Captain nor I wish to find ourselves standing in front of the Emperor explaining what we thought we were doing letting you lead a boarding mission that got destroyed, or worse, resulted in you being captured and held hostage.”
A valid point there, to be sure, Gizel thought to herself. She wouldn’t want to be standing in front of her father in those circumstances either. On the other hand, he would expect her to pull her weight while on board.
“I think you will find that my father would be completely understanding of you assigning me to a duty that I am the best-qualified person to be performing.”
Halfron grimaced. “Facing him is not a duty I would look forward to. At least not in that situation!” he paused. “You really engaged three pirates, killing all three?”
“Yes sir. I was wearing Nordland power armor, which is a bit better than our Marine armor, and they just had light armor. It wasn’t much of a fair fight. Sir”
Halfron nodded. “My first training chief told me that if you were in a fair fight then you didn’t deserve to win.”
Gizel nodded. “Mine told me that if you weren’t cheating, you weren’t trying hard enough.”
They shared a grin over their shared similar memories of the tough, chief petty officers, who oversaw the training of the future Navy officer corps. Not that there weren’t a few ex-chiefs undergoing officer training alongside what they clearly regarded as callow youths. The Empire had long had a policy of offering Officer training to outstanding Chiefs, a policy only a few other nations followed.
Halfron lost the grin after a moment and stared at her for a time, obviously weighing up the pros and cons.
“You are not a normal midshipman, regardless of what we pretend.”
She had to nod agreement in response.
“Yes sir. I know sir,” she answered carefully.
It was annoying but she could not hide from who she was. Not that she would really want to hide, but it was annoying at times. There were downsides to being an Imperial Princess, but the perks more than made up for it she knew. She was getting much better at picking up on those that only saw her as a source of advantage, and those that saw her as a real human. The question was should she try and spin more words to convince him, or just keep her mouth shut? Hmm. She could of course try using her Imperial rank, but that would be tantamount to failure, besides being disruptive on the normal chain of command. Wait him out.
Finally, he nodded.
“There would be strict conditions and procedures you would be required to follow.”
“Sir?”
She enquired, keeping her features calm, despite her heart leaping with the joy at this indication she had won.
“One. You are never to be the first, or even the second person to board any ship, even some old scow we are merely checking for contraband. A Marine will always be first to board, and one of your Imperial Security chaps will always precede you aboard any ship. Do you understand?”
“Aye, sir.”
“Good. Second. If your shuttle comes under fire you will immediately abort the mission and return to the Thister at the best speed possible, allowing for evasive maneuvers. Do you understand? You are never to attempt to board while under fire. Never.”
“Sir. Yes Sir!”
She tried to sound perfectly agreeable.
“Thirdly. Your armor will be marked up as a Marine, not an officer, and your Imperial Security team’s armor will be marked up similarly so that in the event of a disaster you will claim to be a Marine and hide in plain sight. Do you follow?”
“Yes Sir. I understand completely.”
“Good. Now go and get your armor sorted, and that of your Security detachment. Once you have done that I suggest you get all the rest you can because your next watch starts in six hours. Is there anything else Midshipman?”
Gizel resisted the temptation to smile at the XO. “No sir. I will head down to Marine country, with your permission?”
She cocked her head.
“Dismissed, Midshipman.”
Halfron replied, and he saluted in response to her snappy best parade manner with a stifled grin. Watching the Imperial Princess bounce out of his office he decided life aboard the Thister was clearly going to be a whole lot more interesting with the latest addition to their crew!
Chapter 16
To the back of beyond
At 0450 hours SST or Space Standard Time, the Thister pulled out of the dock on Krestar Station. Gizel was not on the duty watch as they headed for the warp point that was furthest from the station, trailing the G-type star by nearly 5AU. The Captain had set the departure time so that getting out of the station and through the busy shipping lanes of the Kobar system was the responsibility of the A watch. As compensation, and because of the travel time involved, her B watch would be the ones on the bridge when the ship was timed to jump out of the system.
Four hours after leaving dock Gizel was called to the State Room where the officers ate and found herself surrounded by the rest of the ship’s officers, apart from the XO. The Captain strode in and someone called out “Attention on deck!” and on this command, they all arose from the table and stood at attention.
“At ease,” Deltron ordered, and moved to the head of the table as everyone sat down again.
Deltron reached the head of the table and paused until all his officers were settled, then a star map sprang into view just behind him.
“Okay people, here is our patrol ground for the next twelve weeks. It appears there have been some pirate sightings in the area out toward the rim, and two ships have disappeared there recently. One in
the Bamma system here” and he pointed at a system that was now lit up in red. “And the other over here in the Jersey system.” The system he was now pointing to also turned red. He paused for a moment.
“On top of that, there have been a couple of other disappearances in that area with several ships failing to arrive at their destination. Whatever happened to them occurred out of sight of any observers, so they may or may not be related, but my guess is that they were pirate fodder as well”
He let everyone consider this and study the map for a moment. The jump lines between the systems were clear enough and Gizel quickly saw that although the two systems were many systems apart in direct light-years, they were only two jumps apart.
“The Bamma system government has requested aid from Brython, but as their system is actually in our zone the Brythons are happy for us to tackle the problem from that end. They are, however, sending a corvette, probably one of those new very fast Lancer class ships, into the area from the other side and we intend to meet up here.” He pointed at the system that fell between the two afflicted systems. “If no pirates have been found by either of our ships at that point, we may jointly explore several of the officially empty systems in that general area looking for the bad guys.”
Lieutenant Tremaine raised a hand then spoke at the Captain’s nod.
“No word on the ship type or weapons?”
The Captain shook his head. “Nothing was actually seen by the local system guard ships, but I should point out that neither system has anything in the way of serious warships. I think the Bamma Coast Guard has two armed shuttles for customs work. I doubt Jersey has anything much better, and it's likely they could be even less capable. Nor can we expect very extensive arrays of sensor buoys. Neither system is affluent, as they are too far away from any of the major trade routes, and they both have only very small populations. In fact, Jersey was only cleared for settling by the Commission a few years back, although it is a terrestrial world.”
The Terraforming Commission was a multi-polity body that oversaw the development of planets suitable for human habitation. It had been started two centuries back by Brython and Nordland and over the ensuing decades, most of the major powers had become members. The Commission’s task was to study any potential colony planets and approve them for human settlement. There had been numerous failures of colonies in the early years as worlds were settled that were either unsuitable or not fully checked out. The resulting failures had caused the deaths of thousands of would-be colonists. The Terraforming Commission was one of the very few effective multi-polity bodies in the settled part of the galaxy.
Not that there wasn’t the occasional wildcat operation that settled a newly discovered planet without telling anyone, relying on possession to make good their claim. Most exploration these days was done by private ships rather than government-backed scientific expeditions. Not that there weren’t scientific expeditions, but the distances and the negotiations required to cross other polity’s space made them rare and infrequent. Private explorers could do well if they discovered a system with a planet suitable for terraforming. There were always those willing to pay to get their own world.
“The system where we will hopefully meet the Brython ship is listed as Holdfast but is not shown as possessing even a mining station.” he paused. “Which may just reflect that our information is out of date.”
He looked around the room.
“Any questions?”
When no one raised a hand or commented he nodded. Gizel knew that the area inhabited or at least visited by humans in this region of the galaxy was continually expanding along most of the edges as people struck out to find their fortunes.
“Very well. It seems a pretty straightforward operation. Hopefully, once get into the region we can get some better intel on what is going on and what sort of ship the pirates are running. Now, let’s eat!”
Whereupon the mess crew appeared bearing the entrée of this, the first full-scale formal dinner the Captain had held since Gizel had come aboard the ship. Later she found out that they rarely held formal dinners like that, usually only at the commencement of a cruise like they had this time.
Nobody seemed keen to say anything and Gizel thought it all seemed rather uncomplicated, even if they were sailing off into the back of nowhere. At least she seemed to have escaped doing the political/social round that her brother seemed to spend a lot of his time engaged in, although she supposed they would trot her out at any planet they called at. Her brother’s term of service was more than half finished now and as Crown Prince, he would not be allowed to re-enlist for active service, although he would continue to hold seniority on the reserve list, just in case of war.
Gizel rather saw her future as being in Naval Intelligence, especially if she could arrange to be assigned to a certain tramp spacer captained by a particular Brython officer she had not forgotten. Sailing around known space with that interesting crew would be great, not that she’d ever be allowed to do it, but a girl could always dream, especially of certain dimples!
During the days in port, she had met her fellow B Watch shipmates, even though she had not gotten to know them all that well. While the ship was safely docked in port, half the watch would be on leave at any one time, so it had taken a while for her to finally meet everyone. The bridge was usually manned by a minimum crew, which comprised one of the two deck lieutenants in each watch, one ensign, and one rating. The personnel on duty each watch were rotated during their stay in port, and the roster was continued at the next port they called at so that in theory everyone got the same amount of shore leave over the long term.
The eight hours sitting on the bridge could be extremely slow as there was not much to do while in port. It consisted mostly of monitoring the communications and updating who was exiting and returning to the ship. The actual physical checking in of people coming onto and leaving the ship was done by the boat bay people as they were stationed at the boarding point, and the information was then relayed to the bridge.
In her case, being the newbie midshipman, both lieutenants and all three ensigns kept her busy when she was rostered on. She ran simulations in the tactical plot, did sensor exercises learning to judge the type of ship at range from their engine signature, and studied various communication protocols in the real space situation of a busy fleet base. Ensign Kilman worked Gizel very hard on improving her navigation skills, with some success. It was all interesting but extremely tiring. She quickly realized that there was a distinct difference between Naval College training and working on a real ship.
When at Action Stations, the Captain and A watch would man the bridge while the XO and B watch would man the auxiliary control point in the rear half of the ship that duplicated the bridge controls in case of a hit on the bridge. The C Watch personnel under the command of the Engineer were allocated to damage control, as well as being the relieving crew for both the other watches in the event of a prolonged period at Action Stations. Each deck watch had two engineering officers and four ratings assigned to it, although these people spent their time in the power plant and engine spaces. There was a chief petty officer and two ratings in the boat bay on each watch, and a technician petty officer and three ratings in charge of maintaining the weapons systems. Each watch also had an environmental petty officer and a technical rating on duty.
Then there was the general service crew. This included the chief engineer, who was the senior engineering officer aboard, a senior engineering petty officer, six ratings, an electronic engineering ensign, along with an electronic engineering rating. There was also a senior cook and two mess attendants, the bosun, purser, marine commander, and up to twelve marines, although the Thister only carried eight, due to manpower shortages. Compared to the huge crew her brother’s ship had carried, the Thister seemed almost under crewed to Gizel.
B Watch was under the command of Lieutenant Miecah Lars, a tall thin blonde woman in her mid-twenties who always maintained a cool professional attitude to
all those on her Watch. Officers and crew alike were always addressed correctly with no familiarity and Gizel rarely saw her smile. Alic Tremaine was much friendlier, although he clearly had difficulty treating his Imperial Midshipman as just another Middy. He was a commoner and Gizel suspected he was from a very poor family who lived on the minor world of Calista, and it was obvious he had never had any close dealings with the upper classes, especially the Imperial Family. He was only of medium height, with brown hair and green eyes and the slightly dark skin tone most Imperial citizens sported.
The rest of her Watch consisted of Ensign Irma Kilman who was on Navigation, Able Spacer Jonah Morthon on Communications, and Ensign Allan Griffen who was on Sensors. Ensign Kilman was reserved and was perhaps waiting to see how Gizel performed under pressure. She was slightly shorter than Gizel but shapelier, and she sported the usual brown hair with green eyes. She was the most experienced Ensign on the ship and was probably due to take her Lieutenant’s exam after this cruise. Allan Griffen was friendly and quickly transitioned to calling her just Desnoute rather than more formal Midshipman Desnoute all the others initially used. He had been with the ship since graduating from the Naval College the previous year and had been promoted to Ensign three months earlier, after serving the fairly average time of nine months as a midshipman.
B Watch was technically the XO’s watch, with the Engineer being the senior officer on duty during C watch. In practice, except during drills, the Captain and the XO tended to operate on similar shift times, roughly coinciding with A Watch, so most of the time when Gizel was on the Bridge neither was in evidence. The XO tended to hang around for a while after the shift change but she rarely saw the Captain. The only time all three senior officers were supposed to be on duty together was when the ship was at Action Stations.
