by R. A. Ender
“He is a great young man, Sara,” He started with a big smile. “He passed my test. I’d marry him if I were you!”
And with that, Sara turned and gave Mato a friendly dirty look. “I’ve been meaning to speak to you about that but you’ve been so busy. Do you know what this man of yours did?” She asked the group but indicating toward Etu, Mato’s wife.
“We were walking together when Mato passed us. Well, without an invitation,” and Sara paused to playfully smack Mato on the arm. “Without an invitation, he turned back to walk alongside us, identified Claudius as an Engineer, and pressed him into service replacing a shield generator that had partially melted from a battle! I couldn’t believe he took that time together away from me. I was so mad!”
“I needed to test him out,” Mato said with a wicked smile. “The Captain told me to make sure I made the fleet one hundred percent always. I need to know what kind of engineers are working in the fleet. He was amazing!”
And before Etu could admonish her husband, Mato added. “Plus, I don’t recall him complaining. In fact, as I recall, he loved the chance to work on a modern shield generator.”
Sara began nodding. “He did love it, but I would have preferred a nice dinner in the observation deck over a small access crawl space. Don’t worry Mato, next time you have a physical, that exercise requirement is going to be extra hard. You wait!”
And they all gave a general laugh of amusement. It was great to have the whole crew together. It used to be a weekly event to sit together and eat on Nundina, as they had no use for a market day while on the ship. It was always a great time! Mato and Richard sat at the two ends of the table, while the sides were filled with the senior female officers who outnumbered the men two to one. This was a very unusual situation in the fleet. Typically men outnumbered woman on board ship and that was reflected in the senior staff. But, Richard had managed to pick his senior staff many years ago from those he had served with and considered the best, and they had stuck together ever since. It was almost twenty years since they had all joined to lead the crew of the Sir Winston Churchill. No one ever talked about leaving.
As the laughter died, the soft sound of footsteps was heard from the hallway of the Captain’s study. Everyone turned to watch. Longus walked around the corner, which surprised no one. The smile on his face was unexpected, to say the least. He gave a wink of his eye toward the group and walked without further delay to the lift door, which parted to let him in and closed before he turned around again.
Robin felt that the wink had been directed at her, though she couldn’t be certain. She had a deep, sinking and dreadful feeling that Longus was still in command and had managed to wiggle his way out of trouble again.
I really hope not! Robin thought to herself. But if he has, I need to find out what is wrong with Richard. It is not like him at all to appear so weak.
Indicating with her head toward the Captain’s study, Robin spoke to Mato. “Let’s get in there and see what’s happened.” Mato nodded agreement and both of them walked across the deck and entered the study.
They found Richard staring intently at his pad and ignoring them completely. Robin could clearly see from his face that he was not at all happy and was not looking forward to discussing this unpleasant subject again with her.
It was nice then that Mato started the conversation and chose a different subject.
“Richard, have you seen the latest file I sent you?” Mato asked seeming completely oblivious to any other subject.
Richard maintained his gaze for a moment on the pad, before lifting his eyes toward Mato and nodding an acknowledgment.
“It is a very good option. I don’t think the IAE will expect it and it should result in a decisive strike against their resupply efforts.” Mato continued. At this point, Robin popped an eye over at Mato, as she was completely unaware of what he was talking about. A quick wince of his eyes let her know to just go along with him for now.
When it came to Richard, Robin was second only to Mato in terms of length of service together. He had always been much better at relating to him than anyone else in the senior staff. Possibly a function of them both being men and of having shared so many battles together. It is generally agreed that a ship operates best when the brains of the ship, the Captain, and the body of the ship, the Chief Engineer, get along really well. Only then does the brain know exactly what the body is capable of, and the body delivers when the brain asks.
And again, in this case, it seemed to work. Richard’s face suddenly softened and lightened as the discussion turned to strategy.
“I was quite interested in that strategic idea. Have you told Robin about it yet?” Richard asked despite obviously catching her look and knowing that she unaware.
Mato shook his head “no”, and Richard turned his attention to Robin and began to explain the file information.
“By Mato’s calculations, despite our missing most of the supply fleet, we still have a crack at dealing that decisive blow with a minimum of risk.”
“The supply fleet was running for Tionaga because it is the closest secure Olympus jump gate in the Old Colony Region. From that gate, they can resupply all their conquered worlds.”
“Intelligence from Watabaeg has clearly said that Tionaga near space was conquered with minimal effort and that the garrison fleet has remained in the system. Tionaga has continued to resist the siege, but IAE seems happy with system control for now.”
“The IAE fleet is, as far as we can tell, split into four main forces, right? One of them is continuing to garrison and siege Tionaga. That fleet is also well positioned to jump toward Lochalsh whenever the IAE decides to invade. Another force is a garrison at New Rome to avoid its recapture and also maintain a significant force near the two Vev’tev worlds in case they decide to act. A third force is the various garrisons on New Desh, Prosth, and Gogamac. Finally, the fourth is hunting for us, and is from our sources, though we have yet to see it, the largest of the four forces.
“The best news is that our presence seems to ensure that the IAE can’t make any more aggressive moves. We need to be destroyed before they have sufficient force to capture another world. As long as we exist, all the other Confederate worlds are safe, including New Earth.”
Richard took a breath and a quick sip of calda from a mug on his desk. From his reaction, it was clear the calda was quite cold. Putting the mug back down, he continued.
“The disposition of forces is good. If that fourth force is tracking us, they will be behind us by a couple of days, at best. Our last confirmed location was the asteroid belt. They will have to investigate that. This means that none of the forces are present at Tionaga, or heading to protect the supply fleet.”
“And this is where Mato’s idea comes in. He checked all the sensor logs and we know the exact hyperspace speed that the supply fleet is traveling at. We know from IAE methods that they are unlikely to exit hyperspace before they arrive at their destination. With a small calculation, we can jump the fleet anytime in the next two weeks, and ensure that we exit hyperspace at the Tionagan drop out point within an hour of the supply fleets arrival. Before it arrives, we can chase the garrison away or destroy it. Our intelligence from Watabaeg is very strong for this system so I’m confident we can avoid even minor losses. Once the garrison is handled, we can position ourselves to quickly disable, capture or destroy the entire supply fleet, and temporarily free Tionaga, though I think it is unwise to try and hold that world.”
Mato now jumped in. “I could actually calculate a smaller window for hyperspace exit, but we will probably need an hour at least to handle the garrison force. My hope, long term, is that we can get some intelligence from Tionaga that part of that fleet has pulled away to recon Lochalsh. After we hit their supply run, they must consider securing Lochalsh. They need to shorten their supply lines. If that happens we can jump the whole fleet and challenge any IAE ships left at Tionaga. Freeing a second world which has been able to stand on its own so fa
r would be another big victory.”
Robin nodded halfheartedly, not forgetting that she really wanted to discuss Longus. As interesting as the strategy discussion was, aside from the chance to overtake the supply fleet, it wasn’t news. And in any event, it would all be discussed again tonight at the daily strategy briefing with the other fleet division commanders.
“You don’t approve, Robin?” Richard asked nicely but wincing ever so slightly as he realized he had given her an opening to discuss Longus again.
“It is all fine but we can’t make good tactical decisions without discussing the status of Longus,” Robin said simply.
Richard paused, and took a deep breath. Robin now knew that she would not be happy with what was going to be said next. If she had had any real doubt after the command deck wink, that doubt evaporated as she watched Richard build the courage to tell them.
“For now, in the interest of keeping the fleet united and strong, Fleet Admiral Longus will remain in command of his ship and his fleet division. The ships and commanders in his fleet division will remain the same.”
Richard quickly pointed his finger at Robin. “In return, Longus will be issuing a personal and public statement to all of his men that he should not have reacted. That he would not accept similar behavior from his people, and I should not accept it from him. He will say that he has apologized and I have forgiven him, which I have.” Richard emphasized, only now dropping his hand from its pointing position at Robin.
“That said,” he continued, “I am not a fool. I will be watching Longus carefully and he needs to follow orders. His personal promise to me was that he will save all verbal command challenges to our strategy sessions, and I will never hear it on the comms ever again.”
Looking straight at Robin, Richard asked, “Does this satisfy you? If not, say everything you have to say now because I don’t want to hear this subject discussed ever again.” With that, Richard sat back in his chair to await the response.
Robin’s head swirled with all the ideas she had been musing about since they had cleared the battle zone. She wanted to tell him how stupid his decision was, how weak it made him appear, how risky it was to leave a man like Longus in command. But now that she was put on the spot, her mind seemed to settle on two points she felt still needed to be said.
“It is your call, so I’m satisfied. But, my problems are that I’m worried this makes you look very weak and will be seen as a sign of poor leadership. If this idea takes hold, it is going to be increasingly difficult for you to follow your chosen strategy which doesn’t exactly appeal to the emotions the men are feeling. My other problem is that I don’t trust Longus and I think leaving him is more dangerous to fleet strength than throwing him in the brig would be. That’s my thoughts. I follow you no matter what, you know that.”
Richard nodded the whole time she was talking, which was both reassuring and frustrating to her. If he understands my points, why does his brain not arrive at the same conclusion?
“I’ve weighed the risk of keeping him versus replacing him. If I had done it earlier, I think we would have survived. Now, we are too close to some decisive battles. If we destroy this supply fleet, I expect the IAE to put all their effort into drawing us into a fight or finding us and forcing a fight. I hope to avoid both. We need to fight the IAE on our terms, in a place of our choosing. I need the best commanders at their best to make that happen. Longus, despite all his failings, is commanding the best and strongest fleet division and has consistently maintained a combat performance well above the fleet average, including my own fleet division. I need him to stay there because any major change will weaken us all.”
“As for weakness, I think my reputation can afford small signs of weakness if the men wish to view it that way. You also know that my command style has always been able to easily absorb insubordination. I believe speaking your mind has a more positive result in terms of performance and loyalty than forcing everyone to walk in lockstep.”
Before Robin could interject, Richard continued on with a final point. “Finally, I am not without sympathy for Longus’ position. I understand the fundamental strategic view he has and the many successes we may have obtained had we followed his suggestions. I hold true to my strategy because it has a proven history and the risk of failure is too great. We don’t get any second chances in this war. I am also sympathetic to his view of the chain of command. If either of you had been interested to know why I am the senior commanding officer, it is because I was promoted to the rank of Fleet Admiral two months before Longus’ was promoted. Since my promotion, I have taught at the Academy and been in command of a floating officers training school. Since his promotion, he has been, in all but the official title, the Fleet Admiral of the Western Fleet. It is by the smallest of fortunes that I am in Command. We could easily have arrived at Augustus and been placed under the command of Fleet Admiral Longus. In that situation, I likely would not have agreed with his war strategy and would have pushed very hard against it. So, I am sympathetic.”
“Look,” Robin started to say. “I appreciate your sympathy for Longus. But, you fail to mention that your battle experience including commanding fleets in battle greatly out numbers Longus’ total of none. There is a reason that you have been given the task of training every officer for three years before they can command a single crew member in the fleet. It is a responsibility given to you by the CAC because they know you are the best. I have no doubt that if the CAC reappeared from hyperspace tomorrow, they would assign you to command of the fleet, not Longus.”
Robin paused for a moment as she thought about how best to say how she felt. Richard was her longest and dearest friend and her commanding officer. But, she needed to speak her mind.
“I am afraid. I hate to say it because I always want to project confidence to the crew. But, I am afraid. I’m not usually scared because I always know that you are standing beside me. You’ve always been stronger, the rock solid part of our crew. That is why our ship has been the best in the fleet. The confidence you have is felt by everyone and it makes them the best they can be. When I see you not pursuing a strategy, but recoiling from a fear, it worries me deeply. I think you are afraid, I think you fear to fail. I think that fear is coloring every decision you make. Longus is only the most visible manifestation. If you are afraid, that fear will eventually spread down to every man and woman under your command. It will be an illness that infects the entire fleet. I don’t know how you can change from fear to confidence, but I hope to hades you can. I need that back, so I won’t be afraid.”
And with that Robin gave a small halfhearted smile and lowered her eyes a bit. Richard didn’t react, as usual. But Robin knew that her words would make him think. She hoped they would lead to a positive change. The more she thought about what she had said, the more she knew she had been right. His confidence is gone, he is afraid.
I’ve never seen him afraid before, she said to herself. I wonder why?
CHAPTER 35
Heather was sitting on the side of her bed. Her head was looking at her feet which were hanging, not quite touching the floor. She watched as they swung a bit from the movement of her rubbing her big toes up and down.
I am so nervous! What if he says no? What if he is insulted that I asked him? Heather’s mind raced. She had been thinking of a big move that would utterly change their entire future. She had been thinking about it every day since Richard freed New Earth and she had finally decided it was time. But the thought still scared her.
With her thoughts about to re-argue the pros and cons for the hundredth time, she made a decision to take her mind off of the big decision and recheck the video conference setup she had already adjusted and prepared three times this evening. But it was something she wanted to have perfect and it gave her mind something to occupy itself with.
Hopping down from the bed, Heather walked over to her main video conference display. It was set into the wall opposite the end of the bed, a large display, which she usual
ly used for watching plays. In the past few months, she had begun to use it when she spoke with Richard. Though business calls didn’t need a big screen, she enjoyed seeing Richard larger than life. It was very nice to see his always smiling face up on the big screen.
The real trick, though, was adjusting the video recording position. At first, she had not really bothered, but after a couple of interrupted conversations by complaints about not being able to see each other, Heather had always prepared carefully ahead of time. At first, she just sat in a chair on which the recorder was focused. That had been a lot of fun, but very confining. Since then, she had usually chosen to focus on the end of the bed. That shot allowed them to begin the conversation with her sitting, seductively. Eventually, it also allowed her to move up into the bed itself and lie a variety of ways. At the end of the day, they had been friends for a long time. Other than business, they didn’t have a whole lot to talk about socially. These calls were about intimacy, passion and as much titillation as was possible in a video call that spanned the depths of space.
Fortunately, being the commander of the fleet offered Richard the chance to customize his communication times, which still relied on direct communication links with New Earth as the bulk of the TeleGod network was controlled by the IAE.
At first, Heather had struggled with what she was going to wear. She had been single for a long time and she had kept herself professionally busy for even longer. That meant her collection of intimate clothing was limited. She had been reluctant to visit the base boutique shop as she was anything but anonymous. She had finally managed the courage one day and was surprised how nice and inviting the sales lady had been. She had told her that the selection was somewhat limited as the demand for lingerie had simply exploded after the liberation of the planet. A lot of couples, too worried about the future to think about love or children, had suddenly regained their zest for life. That news alone had made Heather happy she had visited. It also motivated her to check in with the base medical department and confirmed that they were seeing a mini baby boom. That news she had sent out as a means of encouraging the troops.
