“She’s older than I am, but one of Home Fleet’s golden girls,” he continued. “Four years as XO, a carrier before Sunset and now Sunset.”
“Why’s she not a Captain?” Stanford asked. A successful three to four year stint as XO was usually enough to get a Captain’s gold planet.
“A… vicious personal assessment from the carrier Captain,” Avalon’s Captain answered softly. “Reading between the lines, she refused to sleep with the creep, so he tried to sabotage her career. Command gave her a second chance on Sunset, whose Captain isn’t interested in women and has given her a rave review.”
“That sounds like a fantastic recipe for a chip on her shoulder, boss,” the CAG replied.
“My problem, not yours, Vice Commodore,” Kyle told him, somewhat repressively. “What’s our status?”
“Without a senior Navy officer aboard, there hasn’t been much synthesis of data on the ship except by the yard dogs,” Stanford warned. “My understanding is that everything is basically complete and they’re just doing testing, but Hammond spent three hours ranting about the flight deck when he came aboard yesterday.”
With a smile on his face, Kyle checked the records. The Flight Group’s senior Non-Commissioned Officer, the man in charge of everything about the flight deck itself after the CAG, was indeed Marshall Hammond – now Master Chief Petty Officer Hammond.
“I’m glad we got Hammond,” he allowed. “Other than his complaints about the flight deck, how’s the Flight Group?”
“I’ve only got half our fighters aboard, and a quarters of my flight crews,” Stanford observed. “What flight crews I have are imbalanced – I’ve more engineers than gunners or pilots, though that’s working out as we need to go over every bird with a fine toothed comb.”
“Think you’ll have any issues being ready to launch in eight days?”
“Nah,” the CAG replied with a cheeriness Kyle suspected Stanford had learned from him. “Should have everything and everyone aboard in three. If I can’t whip them into basic shape in five days, I wasn’t paying attention in New Amazon.”
4
Castle System, Castle Federation
13:20 December 7, 2735 Earth Standard Meridian Date/Time
DSC-078 Avalon, Main Flight Deck
The two women who stepped out of the shuttle onto the bare metal of Avalon’s flight deck were a study in contrasts. Both wore the blue-piped black dress uniform of the Castle Federation Space Navy and carried standard issue duffels, but otherwise they had almost nothing in common.
Leading the way, looking fully recovered from her injuries in the Battle of Tranquility, was Kyle’s new Chief Navigator, also his former Chief Navigator: Fleet Commander Maria Pendez. She was a petite dark-haired woman with faintly dusky skin and curves that Kyle had seen shutdown men’s brains.
She was also a large part of the reason the Castle Federation had won the Battle of Tranquility, having navigated the ship into an insanely close emergence from FTL. Her promotion had been won the hard way.
Following Pendez, with an iron-straight back and flint-hard eyes, was Senior Fleet Commander Mira Solace. Solace was a tall woman with midnight-dark skin, only a few centimeters short of Kyle’s own towering height, but slim and athletic with it. Her pitch black hair was cropped short to her scalp, and dark brown eyes gazed at Kyle levelly. She wasn’t pretty or feminine in the same way as Pendez was, but she was… statuesque.
“Welcome aboard, Commander Pendez, Senior Fleet Commander Solace,” Kyle greeted them warmly, extending his hand to first Pendez and then Solace. Pendez shook his hand warmly, gifting her Captain with a bright smile.
Solace’s handshake was more perfunctory, her eyes continuing to measure him.
“It’s a pleasure to be aboard, sir,” Pendez told him. “She puts the old Avalon to shame, doesn’t she?” she asked, glancing around the immense flight deck. Six hundred meters long and a hundred meters across, the deck couldn’t, quite, swallow the entire old Avalon. It was more than sufficient to make the thirty meter long shuttle look like a toy.
“She does,” Kyle agreed. “Clinkscales, Keller, take care of the Commanders’ bags, will you?” he directed the two spacers he’d corralled up on his way to the deck.
“Uniform of the day is shipsuits until further notice,” he continued. “We should have the entire crew aboard within a day or two, but I’m not insisting on jackets until the commissioning.”
The two spacers stepped forward to take the officers’ bags.
“We can show you to your quarters,” Clinkscales offered, glancing at Pendez and Solace.
Solace had yet to say a word, and Pendez glanced quickly back at her superior officer over her shoulder, then met Kyle’s gaze levelly.
“Lead on, Spacer,” she told Clinkscales.
“I’ll carry my own bag, thank you, Spacer,” Solace then told Keller. “I do have a small container aboard the shuttle, I would appreciate it if you would see it transported to my quarters.”
“Of course, ma’am,” Keller replied crisply. She disappeared into the shuttle as Pendez and Clinkscales headed deeper into the ship – leaving Kyle alone in the cavernous flight deck with his new XO.
“Commander Solace,” he said cheerfully, with his widest and brightest grin. “You have no idea how glad I am to see you.”
“Sir?” the tall woman replied hesitantly.
“Have you been a keel-plate owner on a capital ship before?” Kyle asked. ‘Keel-plate owners’ were the first crew ever assigned to a starship – the ones who commissioned her, and to whom fell the duty of making her reputation and traditions.
“I haven’t, sir,” Solace replied, her voice still even.
“I was on Alamo,” the Captain told her. “It’s a lot of work, and there’s more on us and the CAG than anyone who isn’t in one of our offices will ever guess. You, Vice Commodore Stanford, and I are going to have our work cut out for us over the next few days.”
At that, Keller emerged from the shuttle behind Solace, tugging a good sized cargo container. Kyle looked it over with a practiced eye, judging it in less than a second and confirming it well within tolerance for a senior officer, if more than most might have allowed themselves to take aboard a starship.
“I’ve been on Home Fleet duty for a while,” Solace said quietly, a small flush lightening her cheeks. “The comforts of home are…”
“Available, and hardly a detriment,” Kyle accepted, his cheer completely unfeigned. The instant of humanity from the woman helped – he’d been worried someone had slipped him a robot for a moment.
“Get yourself settled in,” he ordered. “There’s no rush – while I’m not joking about the workload waiting for you, it can all wait a few hours. Meet me in my office once you’re settled.”
“Thank you, sir,” Solace told him quietly. “I look forward to it.”
The moment of humanity was gone. Once again, his XO was a beautiful statue carved of onyx stone, and not a drop of warmth escaped.
He was going to have to work on that.
20:00 December 7, 2735 ESMDT
DSC-078 Avalon, Captain’s Office
By the time Solace buzzed for admittance to Kyle’s office that evening, he’d managed to make time to re-read her personnel jacket. He’d made a snap judgment on his first read of the file, and re-reading it after meeting the woman reinforced it. JD-Personnel had even added a code to one of the evaluations that he was familiar with – one that agreed with his opinion.
“Come in,” he ordered with a sigh. Solace’s last Captain had been married and gay. The Captain prior to that, however…
He gestured the statuesque black woman to the chair in front of his desk and stepped over to the side of his office. A command from his implant slid opened an alcove probably intended for a filing cabinet or some such mundanity. Kyle had better uses for it.
“Beer, Commander?” he asked.
“I don’t drink alcohol, sir,” she replied crisply as she took a seat.
“Water is fine.”
Fortunately, he’d installed a hot beverage dispenser on top of the mini-fridge. Its line to the ship’s water supply was sufficient to produce a glass of chilled water. He passed it to Solace, and took a cup of tea for himself before taking his own seat, facing his new executive officer across the desk.
“Get your quarters setup to your satisfaction?” he asked after a moment. She’d taken longer than he’d expected to come by his office, though he wouldn’t have had time to review her file again if she hadn’t.
“I… wanted to get to straight to work, sir,” she replied, and he leaned back in his chair regarding her carefully. “I had a discussion with Commander Sadik in engineering with regards to some of the supplies we were short and raised that with Commander Hellet on the station. He seemed unimpressed, so we may need to escalate to get the parts we need.”
Kyle raised his hand to cut her off before she continued. Apparently, some ground rules were going to be needed.
“Commander Hellet’s lack of enthusiasm, Commander Solace, was likely due to the fact that he and I had an identical conversation this morning,” he said dryly. “Your enthusiasm is laudable, but if you were that eager to get to work, you should have been here, not in engineering.”
“Sir, I…”
“I am aware, Commander Solace,” Kyle told her quietly, “that you were sent aboard this ship to help balance my own lack of experience. For that matter, I expect your experience to be an immense asset to this vessel.
“But a ship of war has one Captain. You have managed to make us both look like fools to the Merlin Yards, and while I have no objection to being the fool when I must, I prefer to be warned in advance. Do I make myself clear, Commander Solace?”
The statue was back. The woman could have been carved of black granite for all the emotion or humanity she showed as she met his gaze.
“You do, sir.”
“Good. We have worse problems than looking like fools to Commander Hellet, so unless there’s something else, the matter is dropped,” he told her calmly, waiting for a moment for her to respond.
The statue was silent, hardly looking like a senior officer who’d just been upbraided for being an idiot.
“I have reviewed your file,” he continued. “I presume you’ve seen Captain Haliburt’s evaluation report?”
She nodded, once.
“Good,” Kyle said after a moment. He smiled, a cheer the woman clearly didn’t return. “Do you know what a JD-Personnel Administrative Code Seven Three is, Commander Solace?”
She blinked, a moment of confusion returning humanity to her face.
“I don’t believe I’ve encountered that one, sir,” she admitted.
“It was part of the briefing when an officer under my command was being considered for promotion,” he told her. “It’s not one they like to publicize. Code Seven Three, Commander, means that JD-Personnel has assessed an evaluation report as being materially prejudiced.
“Captain Haliburt’s report states that you are difficult to work with, arrogant, and many other minor and major complaints,” he continued. The statue returned, and he barely suppressed a shiver at the thought of just how much pain it would take for someone to master that degree of control.
“His report is also marked with Code Seven Three,” Kyle concluded. “The Joint Department of Personnel advises me that his report is prejudicial against you. Seven Three is generally used when we feel a senior is attempting to damage a junior’s career.
“I don’t always trust JD-Personnel’s judgment, but I also have Captain Botteril’s report,” he told her. “Jowan, as compared to Captain Haliburt, states: ‘Commander Solace is the epitome of professionalism. Her skills, integrity, and heart rank her among the best officers this Navy has.’”
Finally, the woman relaxed, a flush crossing her cheeks as she heard his words.
“Unlike Captain Haliburt, I have served with Jowan Botteril,” Kyle finished. “I know which of these reports I trust, Commander Solace. Unless there’s some reason I should distrust Captain Botteril?”
With a sigh, Solace released some of the tension locking her ebony skin together, and she graced him with a hint of a smile.
“Not that I am aware of, Captain Roberts.”
“Good,” he told her cheerfully. “Now, since you appear to have volunteered yourself to deal with Merlin Yards, I spent today going over our main positron lance batteries, and am utterly unimpressed with some of their work. I’m going to need you to…”
The woman sitting across from him was still stiff. Still cold. But she leaned forward as he spoke, and he had a spark of hope rise in him. He didn’t need her to like him. He needed her to work with him.
5
Castle System, Castle Federation
11:30 December 9, 2735 Earth Standard Meridian Date/Time
DSC-078 Avalon, Bridge
“All right Commander Pendez. Take us out – nice and slow now,” Kyle ordered softly, watching through both the bridge screens and his neural implant as the last of the umbilicals and gantries finished retracting from Avalon’s hull.
They had enough crew aboard that he had a full bridge shift gathered around him. Solace had taken one of the observer seats at the back of the bridge and was watching everything with a silent, measuring gaze.
Flipping open another mental window, he turned his attention to the faded brown skin and shaved head of his Chief Engineer. He wasn’t sure how he’d managed to get Senior Fleet Commander Alistair Wong back after the other man’s promotion, but he wasn’t complaining.
“How’s she looking, Commander Wong?” he asked, and the Engineer grinned broadly.
“Everything is clean and shiny down here,” Wong reported crisply. “All primary zero point cells are online. Mass manipulators are showing green across the board. Can’t tell you more without putting her through her paces, Captain.”
“That’s what we’re here for,” Kyle replied cheerfully, watching carefully as Pendez fired the immense ship’s maneuvering thrusters. Thanks to the ship’s dozens of mass manipulators of every size, it took far less thrust to move her than it should, but even so no one wanted to fire off her main antimatter engines remotely near a space station.
The Merlin Dry Dock slowly retreated from around the ship, still filling the entire view to the fore but no longer surrounding her on all sides. The station, one of six, was easily ten kilometers long and six high, holding bays designed to build, refit, and repair the immense starships that fuelled both the Federation’s economy and its war machine.
Avalon moved slowly, but even under the light thrusters she would use this close to Merlin she felt more responsive and lighter on her feet than the last of her name. The Stetson Stabilizers that made Alcubierre drive FTL safe were limited by volume, not mass, and the old Avalon had been wrapped in a layer of neutronium armor. With new stabilizers, the new Avalon was over three times the size of her predecessor – but without the obsolete neutronium armor she only massed twice as much.
“Merlin Yards report us clear of the safety zone,” Pendez told him crisply. “They have cleared us to initiate main drive.”
“Then rotate us and make your course for the testing area, Commander,” Kyle replied. “Let’s see what this young lady can do. Take us to seventy gravities to start. Nice and slow still.”
“Yes, sir,” she replied.
The image of the world around them spun as the thrusters rotated the massive ship in space, aligning her with the testing area a full light hour clear of the yards. Then, with a rumble that rippled through the entire ship, the massive hydrogen-antimatter rockets at the rear of the ship flared to life.
Mass manipulators throughout the ship reduced her mass related to the exhaust blasted into space. More mass manipulators offset the acceleration – and yet more mass manipulators increased the mass of the superheated gas blazing out.
The combination of the thr
ee sets of manipulators brought the fuel usage down to almost zero. Seventy gravities was ‘Tier One Acceleration,’ most commonly used by civilian starships as it used almost no fuel.
It was still blisteringly fast by any absolute standard, and Kyle watched the Merlin yards rapidly drop behind them with a small smile. A ship, an engine and open space – what more was there to ask for?
“Well, Wong?” he asked the engineer after they’d been running for a full minute.
“What?” the engineer asked. “You mean we’re moving? I could barely tell. Are we going to actually test the ship sometime today?”
“I’ll take that as a ‘the ship is fine,’ shall I?” Kyle asked, his smile broadening. He turned back to Pendez. “Commander, take us up to two hundred gravities. Let’s test her at flank speed.”
“JD-Ships rates our flank speed at two thirty five,” Pendez pointed out.
“And I suspect they underrated her,” Kyle agreed brightly. “Let’s take her to two hundred to start, shall we?”
He didn’t feel a thing. If he hadn’t been watching the dry dock on the screen and tracking the ship’s speed, he wouldn’t have realized they’d just nearly tripled their acceleration. He let the ship run for about thirty seconds and caught Wong’s faked impatience in his window.
Kyle shook his head at the engineer.
“Behave, Alistair,” he murmured. “Let’s not act like children in the candy store, shall we?”
Wong looked mildly abashed, but smiled cheerfully. “She’s just purring down here, Captain.”
“I get the hint, Commander Wong,” Kyle agreed, loudly enough for everyone on the bridge to hear him. “Commander Pendez – take us to two hundred and thirty five gravities please. Hold that for sixty seconds, then begin incrementing by one gravity every ten seconds until Senior Fleet Commander Wong tells us to hold.
“Wong,” he turned back to the engineer. “Watch your scopes carefully. As soon as we clear the Tier Two plateau, let Pendez know.”
Avalon Trilogy: Castle Federation Books 1-3: Includes Space Carrier Avalon, Stellar Fox, and Battle Group Avalon Page 36
