“Negative,” she told them. “We’ll establish a holding pattern at one thousand kilometers and wait for landing vectors.”
“We’ll have you aboard shortly, Echo Leader. Kodiak Actual sends his regards, ma’am. Welcome to Kodiak.”
“Thanks, Kodiak Control,” she replied. Through her neural implant, she was already flagging her companion ships and advising them of the holding pattern. “Will stand by for landing clearance.”
#
Kodiak’s bridge was silent as Kyle strode onto it, his CAG and XO trailing behind him. With the advent of neural link networks, the rumor mill aboard a starship had become literally as fast as a thought. No one was going to be in mid-conversation when the new Captain entered the bridge; they’d all had far too much warning.
The bridge itself, like that of most modern warships, was extremely plain. While there were displays at every station, they were a backup tool more than anything else. The ship was run in the network maintained between the computers and the brain implants of every crew member.
Technically, Kyle could run his ship from anywhere in the galaxy within ten thousand kilometers of a quantum entanglement array. In practice, putting everyone in the same room always worked better.
He walked up to his command chair and stood next to it as he removed a sheet of parchment from inside his jacket. Under it was a chip that he slotted into its place on the command chair, but tradition required the parchment.
“Bosun, please report.”
That worthy could have been Taggart’s older brother, a stocky man with white hair instead of blond, and appeared at Kyle’s shoulder instantly.
“Sir.”
“Please record for the log,” he instructed. The computer should do so automatically—and broadcast his words shipwide, for that matter—but human verification of this step was both traditional and important.
“To Captain Kyle Roberts from Admiral Mohammed Kane, Joint Department of Space Personnel, September eleventh, year two thousand seven hundred thirty six Earth Standard.
“Upon receipt of these orders, you are hereby directed and required to proceed to the Castle System and report aboard the Deep Space Carrier Kodiak, hull number DSC Zero Five Two, there to take upon yourself the duties and responsibilities of commanding officer of said vessel in the service of the Castle Federation.
“Fail not in this charge at your peril.”
A soft bleeping noise from the command chair informed everyone that the ship’s computers had scanned his order chip and confirmed the transfer of command. A wave of not-quite relaxation swept through the bridge as Kyle took formal responsibility for their lives and mission.
“I assume command, Senior Fleet Commander,” he told Taggart.
“I stand relieved, Captain Roberts,” the older man replied. “May I say, sir, that it is a privilege to serve under an officer of your reputation?”
“It is an equal privilege to command officers of your and Vice Commodore Song’s reputations,” Kyle told him. “We’ve got quite a bit of work still to do and not a lot of time. Shall we get to that tour?”
#
Chapter 5
Castle System
12:00 September 12, 2736 Earth Standard Meridian Date/Time
Gawain Orbit, DSC-052 Kodiak
Kyle found himself surprisingly grateful that Wing Commander Williams had managed to get her wing aboard in time to attend the officers’ meeting Taggart had called to introduce the new Captain. Without the presence of the dark-haired pilot, he’d have been facing a room full of strangers.
Not that one familiar face made that much difference. The long table was full of new ones, starting with his two senior officers Taggart and Song next to him, followed by Song’s other four Wing Commanders and Taggart’s senior subordinates: the ship’s chief engineer tactical officer, navigator and operations officer
Nine O-5s, two O-6s, and him. The twelve men and women in the room were responsible for enough firepower to sear a world clean of life—but the final authority was his.
“All right, people,” he said once they’d all settled. “I’m not going to pretend that any of you except Commander Williams are more to me than a face and an implant file yet, but we’ll have a lot of time to correct that as we proceed on our mission.”
“Do we know what that mission is going to be?” Commander Archie Sterling asked. Kodiak’s tactical officer was probably the oldest person in the room, a portly bald reservist recalled to the colors after war had been declared. Both of his eyes were artificial, a consequence of the action that had seen him retire to the Reserve, but his mind was still sharp and his record was glowing.
“We’re heading Rimward on a purely Federation op,” Kyle told them. “Several systems out there have activated the protection clauses of our trade agreements with them. Kodiak and Alexander are being sent to respond to that request.”
“That seems…well, a low-priority assignment,” Commander Maral Houshian, the carrier’s navigator. Houshian was a frail-looking woman with night-black skin and a shaved head, a native of the Federation’s Ankara Protectorate.
“Frankly, it is,” Kyle agreed calmly. “But nonetheless, we promised these systems protection—and as the media happily likes to quote me from before Tranquility, there may yet come a day when the Federation must break its word from the necessity of war—but that day has not yet come.
“And it will not on my watch,” he told them. The words felt more pretentious today than they had when he’d been taking a half-crippled carrier on a suicide mission, but if the media was going to keep quoting his damned speech, he’d use it to his advantage.
“The downside, of course, is that we will be operating well outside our normal bases and supply lines,” he continued after a moment. “Commander Trent, do you have any concerns about Kodiak’s ability to function on her own resources?”
Commander Ivy Trent was his Chief Engineer, and her long pause before responding did not fill him with faith. The nature of their mission was news, but that wasn’t a question the redheaded engineer should have had to think about.
“Naw,” she finally drawled slowly. “The fabricators have all checked out. So long as we have the parts, we can build anything you want, skipper. We do have the parts, don’t we, Commander Tsien?”
Kyle kept his gaze on Trent for several seconds after she’d tossed the verbal hot potato over to Kodiak’s Operations Officer. Logistics and inventory fell under Lieutenant Commander Tsien Tao-ling’s purview, but he would have expected the engineer to be able to answer questions about his ship’s long-term sustainability.
He already suspected he and Trent were going to have some long conversations.
“JD-Logistics gave me a heads-up that we were heading on a long tour three days ago,” Tsien told the rest of the senior staff in a soft rumble. He was a massive man, easily equal to his Captain in size, with faded brown skin and close-cropped bronze hair. “Lieutenant Commander Mathieson aboard Alexander and I have managed to arrange most of the supplies and parts we’ll need.
“Our biggest issue is Wing Commander Williams’ bombers,” he continued. “I was only advised they were coming aboard this morning. While I’m advised we’re getting torpedoes for them, spare and replacement parts for the bombers or their torpedoes appears to have slipped everyone’s mind.”
Given certain parts—the exotic-matter cores necessary to build the mass manipulators that a modern starship used for everything from artificial gravity to compensating for acceleration to out-speeding light, primarily—the fabricators Trent had mentioned could build anything the carrier needed, including new bombers and fighters.
Without the right parts and designs, however, it became much more difficult.
“Do you need me to drop a bag of hammers on anyone?” Kyle asked cheerfully. “We have a forty-eight-hour deadline to ship out, and I do not want to be explaining to the Senate why we’re late.”
Tsien shook his head.
“We’ve already arranged a shipment
,” he confirmed. “It’ll be later than I’d like, but we’ll have enough parts, food and everything else for a six-month journey.”
“I appreciate your foresight,” Vice Commodore Song told the big man. “I should have thought of that, but I’m not used to having more than one type of starfighter aboard.”
“We’ll have to get used to it,” Kyle pointed out. “I’ve seen the bombers in action, people. If the Terrans had sprung them on us without warning, the surprise and their effectiveness could have carried Marshal Walkingstick all the way to Castle and Coraline.
“I’d rather any unexpected changes in the balance of power go in our favor,” he concluded. “Wing Commander Williams’s people are our first field test of the concept, but we’re hopefully going up against a lower tier of opposition on this operation.
“That said, if you have any clever ideas on how best to integrate Kodiak, Alexander, the Falcons and the Vultures, don’t hesitate to run them up the flagpole,” he told them. “A lot of very clever people have been writing the rulebook on the new bombers, but we’ve only had the idea for a few months. Every set of eyes on the things is a bonus right now.”
He’d known about the bombers for longer than anyone else, but exactly how was classified. So far as he was aware, even Williams didn’t know where the Alliance had acquired the bomber schematics.
#
Entering his new office, Kyle glanced around, mentally measuring for the beer fridge he’d need to install. It had come with him on his shuttle, along with a pallet full of Castle microbrewery beers that would go into general cold storage.
He didn’t like the beer the Navy served, and he’d found beer was a fantastic icebreaker.
“Have a seat,” he told Song and Taggart, shedding his uniform jacket onto the back of his own chair as he ran through the implant menus necessary to authorize himself on the office’s electronic systems.
“I presume both of you have updated readiness reports on the computers?” he asked as he took his own seat. The chairs across the desk from him had been pushed next to each other for cleaning and he half-expected his two senior officers to move them apart.
They didn’t, which suggested either a high level of comfort with each other or a high level of discomfort with him. If it was the latter, he definitely needed that beer fridge.
“We do,” Taggart answered for both of them. “We didn’t know who was taking command, but we knew someone would be, after all.”
“We didn’t expect the Stellar Fox himself,” Song added, and Kyle grimaced.
“For the record, while I will use that name and the reputation that goes with it, I don’t particularly like being called that,” he pointed out. “Someone once said that heroes happen when other people fuck up. A lot of people fucked up for the situation at Tranquility to end up how it did, and we had a lot of bad luck.
“I’d rather not have assumed command of Avalon because the entire bridge crew was killed, after all. A feeling I understand that Captain Sarka likely shares,” he said with a chuckle.
“I’ll review your reports to make sure I’m familiar with Kodiak’s status, but I wanted to be clear from the beginning where we all stood. I am Kodiak’s Captain, but I’m also going to be commanding the task group we’re taking out to Antioch and its surrounding systems.
“I have no staff for that purpose and will be handling much of it myself, as well as diplomatic responsibilities once we reach our area of operations,” he told them. “I expect to need to lean on both of you even more than usual to help me keep Kodiak fully functional.
“Do either of you have any major concerns that may get in the way of our operations that couldn’t be raised in front of the other officers?”
The two exchanged an unreadable glance, then shrugged in almost-perfect unison.
“I’m not entirely enthused with being saddled with the bombers,” Song admitted. “Williams’s record is mixed, but I’d be pleased to have her as a squadron commander, and while she’s junior for Wing Commander, I’ve no concerns with her there either.
“The Vultures, however… They’re an untested concept that has never seen action. I’m not even entirely sure what to do with them.”
“We’ll learn,” Kyle told her. “I’ve seen the Terran version in action; when and why is classified, but I can tell you that much. They’re not unstoppable and I’m sure we’re going to discover their vulnerabilities, but they are a very powerful addition to our arsenal. Williams has been working with the concept for several months now; use her knowledge, but don’t hesitate to wring her and her people dry in simulations, either.
“The Terrans have the same tech. We need our doctrine to be better.”
“We’ll make it work, sir,” Song said with a nod, then glanced at Taggart, wordlessly passing the torch of the conversation. The two seemed to work together very well, and Kyle made a mental note to check how long they’d served together. That smooth a machine in his senior staff would be useful.
“My only concern with Kodiak is that, frankly, she’s an old ship,” the XO said. “Our deflectors have been upgraded and we’re flying modern fighters, but her beams are weak and our mass manipulators and engines are below grade.
“We’re less maneuverable and less deadly than a modern ship,” he pointed out. “A Sanctuary-class carrier can handle herself if something gets in close, but we’re in serious danger if even a pirate ship gets into lance range.”
“We’ll outgun and out-accelerate any ship the pirates are likely to have,” Kyle replied. “And in the worst-case scenarios, we’ll have Alexander to deal with anyone who gets impertinent.
“But you’re right,” he allowed. “We’ll be relying on SFG-122 for our main striking force, so I’ll need you and Vice Commodore Song to cooperate extremely closely.
“I haven’t seen anything yet to suggest that will be a problem.”
#
“Wing Commander, please have a seat,” Vice Commodore Song instructed as Michelle stepped into her office. “Are your people settled?”
“The space set aside for us will work well,” she replied. “Kodiak isn’t set up to split into five wings, but the Chiefs have done a good job of making it work.”
“If you haven’t learned yet that the Chiefs run the Space Force as thoroughly as they do the Navy, let that be a lesson to you,” Song said with a gentle smile. “You’re right, an Ursine-class traditionally only carries four Wings, but I agree that keeping the bombers in their own unit makes the most sense.
“Not, of course, that my opinion was asked.”
“The doctrine we were drafting called for the bombers to be deployed in full wings of six squadrons apiece, the same as the starfighters,” Michelle pointed out. “Every carrier will have one once the Vulture goes to mass production.”
“But we’re the lucky ones to play guinea pig,” Song replied. “They don’t even look like Federation fighters.”
Michelle considered for a moment, then shrugged.
“They aren’t Federation fighters, ma’am,” she admitted. “The new Vultures JD-Tech is working on will be, incorporating our designs and combat experience, but these ones…the Vulture-A prototypes…” She shook her head.
“They’re Terran to the bone, ma’am,” Michelle told her new boss. “I don’t know where the schematics came from or how we acquired them, but the Vulture-A is a Terran design with a Castle Federation Space Force logo painted on the side.”
“Huh.” Song paused, seeming to process the new data. “That makes a surprising amount of sense, Wing Commander, though it leaves more questions open. Do you know where the skipper would have run into Terran bombers?”
“No, ma’am,” Michelle admitted. “The combat data we were given to review was sanitized; I don’t know which ship of ours was there or even where the battle was. We only have data on one engagement, though, so I suppose Roberts was there.”
“You served with him before, correct?”
“On the first Avalon,” t
he junior officer confirmed. “I was at Tranquility with him as well.”
“Did he actually ram a battleship?” Song asked.
“It wasn’t planned,” Michelle told her. “We rode the needle and emerged in combat range of the Commonwealth fleet…except we came out even closer than we intended. It was a fluke, they dodged the same way Avalon did, but she was one of the first carriers, built with the neutronium armor to stand off mass driver rounds.”
“So she punched clean through,” Song concluded. “I’d wondered; even with his reputation, that seemed like a damn-fool stunt.”
“Don’t misestimate him, ma’am. He played chicken with the Commonwealth follow-up force entirely intentionally,” Michelle pointed out.
“It’s hard to read a man with his reputation,” the Vice Commodore said slowly. “Officers called things like ‘the Stellar Fox’ tend to be glory hounds, but he doesn’t feel like the type.”
“He isn’t, ma’am. I’m not quite sure what he is,” Michelle admitted, “but he isn’t a glory hound or a rules-stickler. He’s a fighter first, I think.”
“And that’s what we need,” Song concluded. “Thank you, Wing Commander, you’ve given me food for thought.”
“My job is to back you up, ma’am.”
“So it is,” the older woman said with a smile. “Which means, Commander, that you and I are going to go over some exercises to set up some worst-case scenarios for your pilots. We’ll test them hard—because the harder we test them, the easier they’ll find the enemy!”
#
Chapter 6
Castle System
16:00 September 12, 2736 Earth Standard Meridian Date/Time
Gawain Orbit, DSC-052 Kodiak
The installation of his beer fridge interrupted Kyle’s review of the readiness reports his senior officers had prepared, a trio of ratings under the command of a grouchy-looking Chief carting the multipurpose appliance in.
Rimward Stars (Castle Federation Book 5) Page 4
