He stepped out of the office for a few minutes and came back with uniforms and a duffel bag. The old coot… I mean the general must have been sure of himself if he’d already fabricated my uniforms.
“Put on the BDUs over the space suit, the rest can go in the bag. You can use my office, afterward there’s a shuttle outside ready to take you to your ship. Welcome to the Navy Admiral.”
That… was just crazy, I wished he’d stop calling me that. He ducked out before I could reply, and I mechanically changed my clothes. I had enough forethought to call Kristi, who was pissed off and wanted to go with, I wondered if my best friend was crazy. Then again she had to be a little off, because my quirks usually chased off most of the people that tried to get close to me. She’d never had a doubt about our friendship.
I decided screw it, I kind of wanted her there. Selfish maybe, but she wanted to go, and it wouldn’t hurt to have another scientist that was intimately familiar with the technology and designs along for the ride. I told her to put on her space suit and meet us on the roof. It probably broke some rules, but screw it, I was an Admiral. At least until the mission was over anyway.
I didn’t need to call Nathan to cancel my date, I was pretty sure he was in the shuttle outside. He was one of the four the General had set to guard me after all. I was also happy the Lieutenant hadn’t been named, I supposed I was their superior officer for the duration.
I put the rest of the uniforms in the duffel and headed for the door…
Chapter 12
“I can’t do that ma’am”
I probably looked like a kid playing dress up, but the Lieutenant flying the shuttle was pissing me off.
“I gave you an order, get this ship to the roof of my apartment. I’m bringing a scientist with us who has volunteered her expertise.”
Nathan and Bill weren’t helping, both of them were laughing at me with their eyes. Even the overly serious Elise looked amused, perhaps she’ll loosen up without that ass Ledner around. Barbara managed to keep a straight face though, but I could still feel her amusement.
The pilot said in a voice that didn’t sound sorry at all, “I’m sorry, I’m under orders to fly you directly to your ship ma’am.”
I asked, “Who’s orders? Do they outrank mine?”
He cringed a little, “Yes ma’am, the general was quite specific.”
I nodded, “Very well Lieutenant, when you fly you’ll take us straight there, in the meantime, just sit back and relax. Al, take control of the ship and fly us to my apartment building’s roof.”
Bill snorted with laughter, even Barbara was fighting a smile now, as the Lieutenant yelped when the shuttle took off on its own. A few seconds later we were settling down on the roof.
Kristi jumped in and I asked, “Are you sure you want to do this, it will be dangerous, we’re going to war.”
Kristi nodded, “Life is never boring with you around, I’m not getting left behind.”
I shook my head, she was nuts. But then, I was here too and in an Admiral’s uniform. Clearly I was the crazier of the two of us.
“Alright Lieutenant, take us directly to the ship.”
He was smart enough not to glare at me, and took the ship up into space. The ships going were stationed near the asteroid field, and it took us about a half a minute to get there. The Lieutenant was a cautious flyer. He put us down in the hanger without a bump.
“Thanks Lieutenant, nice flying.”
He replied, “Thank you ma’am. I’m to show you to your quarters before we go to the bridge and disembark for the rendezvous location.”
The six of us followed him through the ship to the officers’ quarters.
I said, “Miss Wilder will need quarters as well, and my soldiers.”
The Lieutenant said, “The room next door is open, and the special forces team has bunk space in the army room.”
I nodded, that was fine. I went into my quarters, it looked roomier than I’d expected, even if I designed the thing. Probably because there wasn’t much in it, just a bed, dresser, and end table. I dropped my duffel on the bed and went back out. We waited a moment for Kristi to do the same, and then all went up to the bridge.
Kristi was just in the space suit again, and she was getting a lot more looks this time since it was a full ship. People stared at me too, but I think that was because I was a young alien woman wearing an admiral’s star on my uniform. I had to admit, it was a lot nicer and roomier than my ship, although I hadn’t gone anywhere on mine since it was reconfigured.
A man turned around with a silver bird on his collar, I assumed he was the captain. He frowned as he took us all in.
“Who are you all, and why are you on my bridge.”
I raised an eyebrow, “Captain, surely you were expecting me?”
He looked me up and down with disapproval, “Yes, but I wasn’t expecting a young civilian woman in nothing but a ship suit, or four Army grunts, get them off my bridge.”
“Ma’am.”
He furrowed his brow, “What?”
I said politely, “Get them off my bridge… ma’am. Or do I not outrank you? They are with me, and go wherever I go.”
He shook his head, “You can’t be serious. You’re here to make sure that Knomen Admiral doesn’t get my men killed, that’s it. Did you actually think I’d put my men in your charge?”
Considering I knew when people told the truth, of course I did. The general was quite clear that I was to be in charge, not just puppet to trick the Knomen… who would see right through that sort of thing.
“As a matter of fact, you don’t have a choice Captain, that’s how it is. I don’t know where you got your information, or what you expected, but I am in charge, and if you pursue this course I’ll have you charged with insubordination, mutiny, conduct unbecoming an officer, and have you returned to Earth where you will face a court martial. I’ll remind you how serious those charges are since we are literally in a state of war per our responsibilities after joining the Knomen Empire.”
He growled, “Mutiny? Are you insane?”
I shrugged, “I am in command of this task force, you just told all your bridge officers I was just a puppet, and stopped just short of telling me to go play with my dolls. I’d say mutiny describes your actions perfectly, you are attempting to wrest control of this mission from me without cause and directly against your orders. You also keep forgetting the ma’am at the end of your sentences captain.”
I could feel his anger rising, and I was pretty sure he was xenophobic. I wasn’t going to be able to talk him into being reasonable. I thought he might even take a swing at me, but I wasn’t sure. He wanted to badly, but he was also a Captain in the Navy and held all the self-discipline that rank would imply.
“Barbara, please escort the captain to a shuttle, I want him off the ship. Al, send a copy of the conversation since we entered the bridge to General Denton.”
I had no idea what to do here and wondered if I’d overreacted. If I backed down I’d lose command, and the Knomen admiral would pick up on it and ask all the wrong questions. But if his crew was loyal and took his side, it could cause the same results to happen.
Barbara said, “Yes ma’am, my pleasure. Come along sir, Naughton with me, Alda and Smith stay with the Admiral.”
The Captain turned to one of his officers and opened his mouth.
I said in a soft deadly voice, “Don’t.”
He ignored my warning, and ordered his communications officer, “Call the marines, get this bimbo and her entourage off my ship.”
Bimbo? I thought I looked pretty good in the uniform… but more sophisticated and sexy rather than… bimbo.
The officer looked at me and I shook my head, I hated putting the other officers in that position, and I really wished he wouldn’t have done so. Now he really was guilty of mutiny, I was pretty sure during times of war he’d get shot or hung for that one.
Barbara said in a cold voice, “Sir, I’ll ask nicely one more time, plea
se accompany me to the shuttle. I will not ask a third time.”
The room seemed really tense for a moment, and then four marines came into the room with rifles. I wondered how they knew to come, since the communications officer hadn’t touched his console.
The Captain ordered, “Get these people off my ship now.”
The marines raised their rifles, but not at me which came as a pleasant surprise, the weapons pointed at the Captain. One of the Marines spoke.
“Sir, you’ll come with me now. I have orders from General Denton, you’re relieved of command and are to immediately desist, if you don’t I’ll shoot you… sir.”
The Captain stalked past me and off the bridge, the marines bracketed him as he walked down the hall.
“Barbara, you and Elise don’t need to follow.”
I took a deep breath and relaxed, and let my spots and purple eyes come out. I looked around the bridge and saw shock on a few faces, among a few other things, but no hate or disgust. I brought up the ship’s roster and memorized the names and faces of the bridge officers quickly, there were only a few officers on board. I also took a moment to look at the files of the other commanders for the other five ships.
I turned to the Communications officer, “Lieutenant Simpson, connect us to the bridges on the other five ships.”
I waited a moment until the view screen was filled with five other commanders before speaking.
“Alright, we need to get going or we’ll miss our rendezvous with the other races, and will be fined very heavily. I’ll get to know the rest of you on the way, it’s a three-day trip to the core side of the Knomen Empire’s border. Needless to say I’m in command of this ship now that the Captain has left us, in addition to the task force. I’ll be depending on the five of you, and my bridge crew for advice, but you will all be taking my orders, is that clear?”
I heard a yes ma’am from everyone.
“Very well, let’s get going. We want to end up a thousand light years on this side of the Leira system. Have your navigators sync the destination coordinates with Lt. Peters. Tammy, do you have a course laid in?”
Lt. Tammy Peters was my navigator and weapons officer. Lt. Jerry Simpson was on scanners and Comms, and Lt. Commander Barry Nichols was on Helm.
Lt. Peters replied, “Yes Ma’am, and all helms are synced for all six ships.”
I nodded, “Thank you Lieutenant.”
I felt satisfied and intensely relieved. No one else had objected to my being in command, but I wasn’t feeling nearly as confident as I hoped I appeared to be.
I nodded toward Barry, “Commander Nichols, get us moving, eighty percent power.”
I looked toward the screen, “Commanders, feel free to contact me if you have a question, otherwise we’ll speak later. Apollo out.”
Apparently I’d started something calling my ship Athena. The battlecruiser I was currently on was the Apollo. The five full commanders running the other ships were Cam Benson on the Ares, Amy Teller on the Artemis, Jerry Johnson on the Hermes, Ella Ayers on the Hades, and Paula Martinez on the Poseidon.
I sat down in the command chair and tried to look relaxed. Okay, it was more than that actually, I forced my body to relax. I didn’t know much about command, but I knew a nervous wreck wasn’t someone people followed with confidence. So while deep inside I wanted to go back to my room and hide there, and maybe have a few drinks with Kristi, instead I sat there as if racing toward battle wasn’t a big deal.
I considered talking to the bridge crew, but I dismissed it. I wasn’t here to be their friend, I had to win their confidence, not their approval. I had Kristi, Nathan, and to some extent Barbara, Bill, and Elise to chat with if I wanted. I really didn’t have much room to complain, they say command is lonely, but those four weren’t strictly in my command structure, and Kristi definitely wasn’t.
As long as I was stuck on the bridge for another five hours, I brought up the rest of the personnel records for my ship and memorized them all, and then read some military manuals. That wouldn’t turn me into a brilliant task force commander, but maybe it could help me not do anything too stupid or mess up protocols. Hopefully the general knew what he was talking about when he said I was a natural leader, I didn’t see it, but so far with the exception of the captain when we boarded, everyone was listening.
I could also tell the crew weren’t as resentful as I’d expected them to be, perhaps the Captain hadn’t been well respected?
While I was doing all that, it looked like Kristi was studying something on the spare science station. She seemed to know instinctively not to be chatty with me up here, which was a good thing.
The bridge was set up for three eight hour shifts. Eight to four was the first shift, then second shift was four to midnight, and third shift was midnight to eight. When the second shift arrived I turned over the ship to a lieutenant, and then returned to my previously assigned quarters for my bag before taking over the captain’s quarters. It was bigger and had a private dining area…
Chapter 13
“What do you think?” I asked Kristi while taking another bite of my steak.
Kristi frowned, “Slug fest.”
We were sitting in the conference room in the captain’s suite, and the other five commanders had shuttled over. We’d had to stop for a minute, but it wasn’t a large delay. Launching a shuttle in FTL was more than possible, but landing in one of the ships at FTL was a whole other story.
The General had mentioned writing the book on space battles, so we were all discussing it. If the Commanders were surprised that I’d involved a scientific genius, that looked more like a sexy model for space suits than anything else, they weren’t showing it.
Commander Paula Martinez had just gotten finished explaining a formation where we would approach in two rows of three, kind of a rectangle, with the Shield defense missiles arrayed in front of us.
Amy crinkled her eyes at Kristi and asked, “Why do you say that?”
Kristi explained, “Formations are meaningless when at the speed of FTL an enemy can get behind you in a couple of picoseconds. Speed, the defensive capability of each individual ship, and firepower. That’s what matters. Any kind of formation that works in a ground war, or even in air combat with jets, won’t work here. An enemy could fly around back and shoot before the defense missiles could respond. The Shield system should always be used as a globe formation around the ship or it will most likely fail.”
Commander Ella Ayers blew out a breath, “So you’re saying we should just slug out one on one? That seems like a… really bad idea.”
Kristi shook her head, “Defensively there is almost no choice, if you’re targeted it’s a single ship’s defense against what the enemy does. That still leaves a lot to do though offensively. Two or more ships can combine to attack a target. For instance, it would take five missiles to take out one of these ships, and all hitting within a second or two, or two Shield system missiles, or a particle beam hit followed by two or three missiles, or two particle beam hits at the same time followed by one or two missiles immediately after.
“But who knows how strong the enemy ships will be? Right now if our battle cruisers went up against each other, it would probably come down to who fired first considering they each have eight missile launchers and eight anti-mass particle beam weapons.”
Jerry asked with a raised eyebrow, “Probably?”
I smiled and got in the conversation, “Well consider if a missile hit while you’re in FTL and you change course before missile two through five hit. You’d outrun the blast wave. Really, at FTL, the missiles depend on the attacked ship not changing course too quickly. That’s what she was talking about with patterns, if we continually move and change direction randomly, the enemy computers will have a harder time hitting us with missiles.
“Of course, if we choose to fight at FTL, and get hit with a bunch of particle weapons and lose the shield before dropping below light speed, we’re dead that way. I sent a message to the Kno
men to get data on how the Seltan fight, surely they have readings of past battles. We might be able to figure out how to fight better once we see how they fight, and how strong their weapons are.”
Paula asked, “So what was the point of this conversation now?”
I raised an eyebrow.
She added grudgingly, “Ma’am.”
“I wanted to explain the difficulties, and why old tactics won’t work. Space battles can happen in FTL or normal space, and the different combinations of things that can kill us no matter what approach we use, make it extremely complicated. I wanted you all trying to think outside the box when the data gets here. For all we know the enemy doesn’t use the same weapons we do. Secondly, I wanted to get to know you all a little bit, before we get into battle. Any other questions? They don’t even have to relate to the upcoming battle.”
When it was silent for a few minutes I added what data I did have.
“Here is what we do know as of now, the Leiran system has one planet in the goldilocks zone with three moons. There are two gas giants, and one other rocky planet even further from the sun. The Leiran’s themselves are extremely peaceful, but will defend themselves.
“Unfortunately, they were overwhelmed by Seltan attack force of one thousand ships. The system is on the border of Empire territory, and from what I could glean, the empire has been very unfriendly neighbors with the Seltan Empire for a long time. They apparently clash every few decades but so far all-out war has been avoided.
“I don’t know if that’s changed, or if this is just an attempt to gobble a single system and go no farther. I suppose that’s as far as we can get without the rest of the data.”
We talked a bit longer, but didn’t really accomplish anything, except maybe I knew them and they knew me a little better, and Kristi and I had managed to open their eyes to the issues. I wondered though if there was anything that could be done strategically, or if it would just be a slug fest, I hoped so but I kind of doubted it. The fact the Knomen used their allies as the initial sledgehammer that broke both sides seemed to lend credence to the slug fest theory. Those with the strongest weapons and defenses wins, and does so quickly.
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