"And when will that be?"
"Expected him yesterday, truth be told. The captured ships must be more interesting than he thought."
I'd found what I wanted, looked at Lea, and jerked my head towards the door. She rose immediately, and left. He noticed the movement, and his eyes centered on me.
"What's a civilian doing on your bridge Commander?"
"This is Thorn, Admiral."
"Ah, the self-proclaimed Judge Thorn."
His voice had lightened now, his face amused. But it was transitory, and his face returned to its normal state. He looked around the bridge.
"Marines, arrest that man."
I raised an eyebrow at him, and smiled serenely. No-one moved to obey his order. My pad dinged to let me know something important had arrived, and I glanced at it. Lea had sent what I needed, and since she'd found it immediately, it must have been easy to find. As my smile broadened, she returned to her seat, and gave me a wink.
"Commander, you have a murderer on your bridge. You will order your marines to arrest him immediately."
"I will do no such thing Admiral."
I could see his temper about to explode, so decided to cut this short.
"If I may, Admiral?"
Cut off from exploding at someone, he took a moment to change gears.
"You have a suggestion to make Thorn? Like surrendering yourself?"
"Alas no Admiral. I merely inform you that tomorrow morning, you will be tried for treason, in front of a jury of your ship captains."
He snorted, and began to laugh. No-one laughed with him.
"You try me? Not going to happen."
"Admiral, you look tired, after your long journey here. Perhaps some fresh air might help you to sleep, in preparation for your ordeal tomorrow."
Suddenly he did look tired.
"Perhaps you're right. It has been a long journey, and I do need rest." He turned to the XO. "Commander, please have someone escort me to my stateroom."
He turned back to me, but whatever he intended to say, he thought better of saying it. He shambled off the bridge, with a crewman following after him. The XO look worriedly at Jen for a moment, and closed the coms down.
I popped my sight back up on the same screen, and we watched the Admiral walk the corridors until he came to a hatch.
"No Admiral, that’s the airlock, not your stateroom."
"Just need a little fresh air. Won't be long."
The hatch came open, he jumped in, and closed it behind him.
"Admiral? Please come out. Admiral?"
The last was a shout with a lot of desperation in it.
The outer door opened.
Explosive decompression pulled all the air out of the airlock, and pushed the Admiral out with it.
"Ah, fresh air at last."
He took one last breath of vacuum, smiled, and his body exploded.
Twenty Two
"Where the hell am I?"
"What can you see Admiral?"
"Nothing at all. Dirt. Sand. Dust. Where the hell am I?"
"In a desert. Isn't it obvious?"
"How the hell did I get here?"
"You didn’t."
"What the fuck are you talking about?"
"You're dead."
"I am not dead."
"A crewman watched you walk out an airlock. The lock cam recorded your body exploding. Everyone thinks you just killed yourself, instead of facing trial tomorrow. Obviously guilty reaction."
"Like hell I did."
"You did. You walked out an airlock into space. Except it wasn’t your body which exploded."
"I didn't explode!"
"No, obviously not. But I have access to some recently dead bodies, so I replaced you with one of those, and blew it up to make it look like explosive decompression. The exploded remains of a body floating away from the ship are never going to be looked at, where a frozen body would be recovered, and found not to be yours. We can't have them thinking you're still alive, can we?"
"You're mad!"
"Perhaps so. But I'm the one who decides if you really live or die."
"Live or die? What are you talking about?"
"This is a desert. There is no water for five day's walk in any direction. There is not even anything worth eating for five days in any direction."
"So?"
"So I'm going to leave you here. You can decide for yourself if you live or die."
"How do I decide that?"
"Confess your sins Admiral. Confess how you supported rapists and other scum, and covered up their crimes for them. Confess Admiral, and I'll give you enough water to survive long enough to find more. A week's walk in any direction, is all you need, to live out the remainder of your life."
"Take me back. Now."
"You’re dead Admiral. Suicide. Nothing to go back to. Live or die Admiral, your choice. A simple confession is all it takes."
"Over my dead body!"
"Already arranged Admiral. No-one can walk out of this desert from here, without carrying enough water for the journey. You're starting with none. All it takes is a little confession."
"Who the hell are you?"
I showed him my black cloak, and withered hand shape. He backed away from me quickly, and fell over the grave stone he hadn't realized was behind him.
His eyes read the inscription, and he began crawling backwards away from me. I returned my appearance to normal.
"I'll be listening Admiral. All I need is a confession. Water is your reward."
"Go to hell, you freak."
"Fine."
I left him there.
Twenty Three
"Where did you go?" asked Jen.
"Just a little chore to attend to. Why?"
"Our XO friend has reported the death of the Admiral, and we're being sent another replacement. Do me a favour, and not kill the next one?"
"Who me?"
"Yes you. I know damn well you suggested he kill himself. Are you doing that with anyone else?"
"Killing themselves?"
"Suggesting."
"First time. I was rather surprised it worked."
I wondered for a moment if she thought I was making Tasha sleep with me, but I dismissed it as not being Jen. If she thought it, she'd accuse me of it straight out.
"Well don’t use it again on my ship."
"Aye captain."
"Take your stupid grin off, and bring Captain Bentley back."
I gave her a friendly nod, and jumped.
I found all of them gathered in what was obviously a recreational room for the ship's crew.
"Ah, good, Thorn. I was about to call for you. We're finished."
"I came to get you anyway captain. The new Admiral arrived."
"Oh. Not too happy I wasn’t there?"
"To put it mildly. But that isn't the problem."
I had everyone's attention now.
"What is?"
"I told him I was putting him on trial for treason tomorrow, and he walked himself out an airlock."
"Ouch!" said someone.
"So the fleet doesn’t have a commander, and the Admiral was most unhappy to find Jen with the job."
"I'd better get back then. Will you do the honours please?"
I cast my eyes around the room, mentally including everyone, and in an instant, we were back on the flagship.
"Thank you Thorn. My people will have an appraisal to you in the morning. But between you and me, if I was a ship class down from where I am now, I'd be wanting one of those."
I nodded to him, and he left, presumably to take his bridge back. There was a general dispersal, quickly leaving just Jess and Tasha.
"You're getting good at moving people around," said Tasha. "Didn’t even have to touch us this time. And Bentley didn’t even blink this time. He must be getting used to being moved that way, even if as many times as I explained it to him, he doesn’t actually get it."
"What did you do to the Admiral, Thorn?" asked Jess, and
seemingly interrupting Tasha deliberately.
"Who me?"
They both groaned.
"Get us home," said Tasha. "I need a shower, and a proper sleep."
A blink later, we were on my bridge. Both the girls left in a hurry. I made myself comfortable, and thought about what to do next.
Casting my sight to the other side of the jump point proved easy enough, since I'd been there before. The jump point itself was clear. In the distance, I could see moving dots. I refocused on them, and found a half dozen of the same class of ship heading for the jump point. It didn’t look enough of a force to jump through and attack us again, but more likely was a defensive force to stop us jumping in.
Had our ships been in better shape, it's likely we could have taken back the next system already. But it seemed neither side had been prepared for what I’d done.
The station was still there, had a three ship patrol nearby, and had shuttle activity going to and from the planet. The planet itself was not much of a colony. It was located on good farming land, judging by the amount of crops in evidence, and there were several mining operations going on. As far as I could see, there were not more than a couple of hundred enemy troops on the ground, and what I’d seen of our marine's equipment, put ours at the advantage, even outnumbered.
Which made me wonder why we'd lost the station and planet in the first place. The planet and the people on it, looked like they'd just been abandoned. This led me to wondering if there were any plans for taking them back. I hit the coms button.
"Jen?"
"Yes Thorn?"
"Does this fleet have any troops?"
"Only us. Might be some odd squads on each ship, but I doubt any of them have a full team."
"Any coming?"
"I'll find out. Why?"
"Just curious if there are any plans to take back the next system. It's not overly well protected, with only several hundred troops on the ground. I've not looked at the station yet, but I assume if they had many more troops, they'd be on the ground."
"I'll find out," she repeated, and the com clicked off.
The more I thought about this war, the worse it made me feel. Something was definitely missing. What was obviously missing on our side of the jump point, was decent ships.
I went back to the ship graveyard, and spent the next few hours poking around the alien ships again. Other than damage from the hull ruptures, the ships looked basically intact. It had been opening the ships to space, which killed most of the crews. The hulls had holes, but the insides were mostly fine. Where they weren't, one of the others was.
Regardless of what the assessment was, we needed ships. I did some very specific intent changes to how I'd made Jen a new ship, started the process of copying these ones, and took myself back to my bridge.
"Jen wants you," said Tasha, and for once, it was me who jumped out of my skin.
She laughed, and dragged a finger down in the air, in the shape of a one.
Jen was on the main bridge.
"Are you visiting your beach every chance you get?"
Now why hadn't I thought of that?
"No, back looking at alien ships."
"Strangely fascinating are they?"
"No. Just pondering things."
"Well you were right."
"Was I. Good. What about?"
"There are no troops coming to take back either the planet, or the station."
"That’s not good."
"Bentley was told he had a crack marine unit, and all your new tech, and he was to use it the best he could, until the new Admiral arrives."
I sighed.
"Any idea who they're sending?"
"No, but most likely it's someone from one of the other block points."
"You mean someone expendable?"
"Probably."
"So there are no plans to retake the next system?"
"No. We don’t have the ships. There are two more cruisers coming, due tomorrow. And they're old ones, taken out of mothballs, and given crews scraped up from anywhere close to them. But that’s it."
"Remind me what a cruiser is?"
"Those alien ships are cruiser sized. Bentley has a battlecruiser, next step up, and we have two of them. Three of the others are cruisers, but the rest are destroyer and frigate sizes." She saw my face. "Frigate is the smallest here. This ship is about midway between destroyer and cruiser, both in terms of size, and firepower."
"So if six of their ships jump in here?"
"We'll have the edge in terms of ship mass and firepower, but not significantly. Depending on who they targeted, we could lose all the smaller ships taking them out. Why?"
"There are six on the way to the jump point, but I figured they were a defense force, not an attack."
"Probably true, but I'll warn Bentley all the same. If I was them, I’d want double that force at least, and that’s not taking into account you. So you’re probably right, it's just to keep us bottled up if we come through, and maybe turn us back. With the way our ships are at the moment, six of theirs nice and tight in to the jump point, would normally take us down, or force us back with heavy casualties."
"Have the high command actually given us any orders?"
"Hold here. That’s it. At least until an Admiral turns up."
"Hmmm. Any idea what the enemy want from the planet in the next system?"
"No. If you remember, we didn’t stop there at all last time we were here."
"I wonder who does know?"
Jen didn’t have an answer for me.
Twenty Four
"As the senior officer here, I'm taking command of this fleet. All captains will report to my ship the moment we arrive."
The command had come through to all ships, the moment the two replacement cruisers had come into scanner range. It hadn't occurred to anyone to check who was commanding each of them. Jen's reaction clued me in to something being wrong.
Bentley appeared on a screen.
"We have a problem," he said.
"How so?" I asked.
"Our new captain is senior to me, but hasn’t been on a ship in a decade."
"How did he get command now?" asked Jen.
"Probably knew in advance the ships were coming out of mothballs," said Jess, "and made sure he was close at hand to the person crewing them."
"Or maybe," added Lea, "he was the person crewing them."
"Very likely," said Bentley. "But if so, there's nothing we can do about it here. I'm appealing to the high command, to prevent him taking command of the fleet. He doesn’t have modern fleet handling experience, and he has no combat experience at all."
"Don’t they already know that?"
"Yes, but we don’t know what his orders were. He could be exceeding them."
"Or he might not be," added Jen. "Let's face it, the handling of this invasion by the higher ups has been a joke, and there's no reason to expect any better now."
"When did you become a pessimist?" asked Jess.
"Just being real. If it wasn’t for Thorn, we'd all be dead a few days ago now. And the enemy would be pushing towards the core worlds with almost no resistance. Why should we expect anything different now?"
A loud ding went off in my mind. Did someone actually want to be conquered? I didn’t say it though.
"Captain," I asked Bentley, "What would you do with the new cruisers when they get here?"
"Swap their crews with the destroyers and frigates. Put the two best destroyer captains on them, and mix up the crews so all the inexperienced, or just plain bad crew, are put with experienced people."
"Jen?"
"The same. There are some good people on the destroyers ready for promotion. And two of the frigate captains could move up."
"What do you expect the new bozo to do?"
Bentley looked troubled. Neither he nor Jen said anything.
"I'll say it then," said Tasha. "He'll want Bentley's ship, or at least, its sister ship."
"Townsend won't like t
hat anymore than I would," said Bentley, "but he's not senior enough to stop it. Technically I'm not either, but he's likely to go the path of least resistance."
I sighed.
"Let me see what I can do."
Bentley nodded, and cut the com.
I sat back, closed my eyes so no-one would interrupt me, and cast my sight to the ships approaching. I found a young commander in the captain's chair on one, and an older captain in the other. The latter was bellowing orders, and his crew were not happy. I went looking for personal files. It didn’t take long. I also found the files for the ship. When I opened my eyes, I looked at Jess, and she rose and left with a smile on her face.
This time I followed her. The first thing she pulled up was the new captain's orders. He'd been told to place himself under the command of the senior officer at the blockade point. Jess looked at me, and we both sighed. His personal files revealed nothing more than an obsessive belief in his own leadership, and a lot of anger at having been passed over for ship command. The log of his XO was full of frustration about having to suffer under a captain long past being put out to pasture. Of course, he had been, but those higher up had been allowing him to serve out his time on a desk, rather than beaching him abruptly.
Jess looked at me.
"What are you going to do?"
"Persuade him to do the right thing."
"And if he doesn’t?"
"Persuade him to do the right thing."
She looked at me funny, but didn’t say any more. I let her continue to look through files, while I observed this wannabe fleet commander. He seemed glued to the captain's chair, which didn’t suit my purposes, so while as far away as it was, I made an attempt to get him to move somewhere else.
At first, nothing happened. I tried suggesting he needed a nap before his meeting with the captains, he was hungry and needed food, thirsty, and even tried suggesting a ship inspection tour. Nothing worked. Then his age twigged on me, and I suggested he needed the facilities in a hurry.
He was out of his chair immediately, bellowing to the XO he had the bridge until he returned, and he hurried out towards his quarters.
Before going after him, I poked the short range scanners, causing a small fault, enough to short the whole module out, and cause them to stop displaying on the bridge. The XO received the report, bellowed for repairs, and seemed to forget he even needed them.
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