"Couldn't happen to a nicer fellow," Turner said.
"And with the Becker example, I think a lot of other unsavory fellows are going to be keeping their heads down now," Desai said.
"Well, that was the whole idea behind Galactic Mail in the first place," Jan said.
"It was a great idea," Desai said.
"It was Bill's idea," Jan said.
Turner laughed.
"And yours. And Durand's," Turner said. "Really, Jan. You do need to give Miriam and I some credit for having heads on our shoulders."
Fifteen Years On
Jan and Bill were sitting on the porch, looking out over Galactic Mail's massive headquarters operation on Doma: the complex of headquarters buildings, research buildings, subdivisions, and warehouses, the acres of pads for shuttle operations, the terminal of the high-speed transit line from Nadezhda, dozens of small people-movers snaking through the site, all under lights at this time of the evening.
"Fifteen years. Do you believe it?" Jan asked.
"It's gone pretty fast. But the fourth shareholders meeting is later this year, isn't it?"
"Yes. Every time the shareholders meeting looms, I wonder whether it's time for me to step down. Whether I've still got it for another five years or not."
"You're in the middle of your second term, so it's not time for the board to act on a chief executive yet," Bill said.
"No, but I can retire anytime I want. The question always is, Is now the time? Have I done enough? Will it endure?"
They watched as a heavy cargo shuttle lifted off, burdened with a full rack of sixteen of the big containers, arranged in a four-by-four block. The whole assembly was as tall as a five-story building. It inched aloft, then sped up as it gained altitude, heading for the big transfer station in orbit.
"How long has it been now since Galactic Mail has been challenged?"
"Twelve years," Jan said. "There were those attempted attacks during the first shareholders meeting, thinking to capitalize on my absence. And then that one attempt on Dorset, one of the New Colonies, three years later."
"That was a piracy attempt."
"Yep. We took them all out in Dorset, then sent out a couple hundred survey drones to scan every system within a hundred light-years. Found their base and sent a half dozen warhead missiles and a couple of hunting parties of weapons drones. Cleaned them out."
"And now we proactively scan systems routinely, just to head that sort of thing off," Bill said.
"Yep. But that was the last one. Since then, nothing."
"Most planets don't even maintain a navy anymore."
"Two thousand New Colonies, and not one of them with a navy. That's amazing. And very gratifying," Jan said.
"And a lot of the Outer Colonies don't maintain a navy anymore either. As of our last tally, it's just twenty-seven Outer Colony planets with a navy, and they're mostly ceremonial at this point. Neither does the Commonwealth or Earth, for that matter. Have a navy, I mean."
"The Commonwealth government itself is mostly ceremonial at this point. It's almost forty-six years since I became a citizen of the Commonwealth and joined the Navy, and ultimately I was the undoing of both."
Jan picked up her tea, sipped at it, set it back down.
"I can't believe I'm pushing sixty," Jan said.
"What about me? I'm dragging it along behind me."
Jan chuckled.
"Maybe it's time," Jan said. "You know Peggy and Max are going to leave. They're going to head for the New Colonies. I think they're trying to find the right time to tell us. But with her finishing residency, and him finishing up his doctorate in agriculture, they're loose. I think they're gonna bolt."
"We could steal a march on 'em. 'Hey, kids, we're going to the New Colonies. Want to come along?'"
Jan laughed.
"I like that. Serve 'em right."
"I'm serious," Bill said.
Jan turned from the view of Galactic Mail and looked Bill in the eye.
"So am I."
"Where would we go?"
"What about Horizon? I have friends there," Jan said.
"You have friends everywhere."
"Maybe so. But I've been corresponding with some people there, for years now, since the beginning. They send me pictures, tell me how things are going. It sounds like a nice place."
The ground car pulled up in front of the big farmhouse. The car was a tall four-wheel-drive diesel beast with a winch on the front and jerry cans on the back, the minimum vehicle for a doctor in a colony where the rural roads were at best passable and at worst impossible.
It was Sunday, and half a dozen children from ten to fifteen years old were playing ball in the big side yard between the house and the barns. The slight prevailing breeze was from the direction of the house, not the barns, and the air was thick with the smell of apple pies cooling and beef stew in the pot.
Two men sitting on the porch watched the car pull up, then stood to greet their visitors. Peggy and Max got out of the front of the car and Bill and Jan got out of the back. They walked up to the house as the two men came down the stairs.
"Afternoon, Admiral. Welcome to our farm," said Ashok Gonzalez.
"Hi, Ashok. Call me Jan."
Five Hundred Years On
Most everyone knows that on the fringe of the Milky Way galaxy lies a planet, called Earth, from which the human race began its journey to the stars. Few people now, though, know that a mere sixty light-years from Earth lies a planet called Jablonka. Once the capital of a nation called the Commonwealth of Free Planets, it played a crucial role in the colonization of the galaxy. For it was here the hyperspace manifold was first calculated, and from here the technology spread.
Compared to the hubs of galactic commerce and power, Jablonka is a sleepy backwater now, far removed from its glory days of five centuries ago. But there is one memento of its historic role.
On Jablonka, in its ancient capital city of Jezgra, is a large park. Once the central fleet base of the Commonwealth Space Force, it is now a quiet refuge in the planet’s capital city. A plaza, still called the Navy Mall, runs through the middle of the park, and in the center of the plaza stands a statue.
It is the statue of a middle-aged woman, in an old-style military uniform, her hands held cupped before her. Above her hands floats a three-dimensional holographic projection of the Milky Way galaxy.
The inscription reads:
JAN CHILDERS
SHE GAVE US
THE STARS
Appendix
Inhabited systems mentioned (capital city)
Earth (New York City)
Members of the Commonwealth of Free Planets:
Anders
Bahay (Kabisera)
Bliss
Boomgaard
Calumet
Courtney
Hutan
Jablonka (Jezgra)
Kodu
Meili
Mountainhome
Natchez
Pahaadon
Parchman
Saarestik
Shaanti
The Yards [Doma]
Valore
Waldheim
Outer Colonies
Alpen
Arramond
Becker
Brunswick
Coronet (Jewel)
Drake
Epsley
Feirm
Ferrano
Grocny
Guernsey
Lautada
Melody
Mon Mari
New Carolina
Nymph
Oerwoud
Paradiso (Corazon)
Refugio
Samara
Seacrest
Stadt (Dorf)
Svobodo
Tenerife
Villam
Wolsey
New Colonies
Dorset
Horizon
New Earth
Notes on Navigational Notation
The Commonw
ealth Space Force uses the following standards with respect to navigational bearings and distances.
Navigational bearing and distance are specified as:
rotation mark/minus elevation (on point) (at distance)
All such references are with respect to a point, a baseline, and a plane.
If no point is specified, the point is the ship, the baseline is the long axis of the ship projected through the bows, and the plane is defined by the plane of the ship with the command cylinder(s) considered to be 'up'.
If another ship is specified as the point, such as 'on the enemy', the point is the enemy ship, the baseline is the vector of the enemy ship's velocity, and the plane is the plane of the ecliptic.
If a planet is specified as the point, the point is the planet, the baseline is a line from the planet to the sun, and the plane is the plane of the ecliptic.
If a sun is specified as the point, the point is the sun, the baseline is a line from the sun to the primary inhabited planet, and the plane is the ecliptic.
If the galactic center is specified as the point, the point is the galactic center, the line is the line from the galactic center to the ship, and the plane is the plane of the galactic lens.
Bearing angles are always specified as 'number-number-number'. Designations such as 'ninety-three' and 'one-eighty' are not permitted. These are correctly specified as 'zero-nine-three' and 'one-eight-zero'. An exception occurs for 'zero-zero-zero', which may be stated simply as 'zero', such as in 'zero mark zero' or 'zero mark one-eight-zero'.
rotation is specified as 'number-number-number' in degrees clockwise from the projection of the baseline onto the plane when viewed from above. Leading zeroes are included, not dropped. number-number-number runs from zero-zero-zero to three-six-zero.
If the point is the ship, 'above' means from above the ship with the command cylinder(s) considered to be 'up'.
If the point is an enemy ship, a planet, or the sun, 'above' means from the north side of the solar system as determined by the right-hand rule: with the fingers of the right hand in the direction of orbit of the planets, the thumb points north.
If the point is the galactic center, 'above' means from the north side of the galaxy, as determined by the right hand rule applied to the rotation of the stars about the galactic center.
elevation is specified as 'mark/minus number-number-number' in degrees up/down from the plane. 'mark' is used for bearings above the plane, and 'minus' is used for bearings below the plane. 'Above' is defined as for rotation. Leading zeroes are included, not dropped. number-number-number runs from zero-zero-zero to one-eight-zero.
distance is specified in light-units, most frequently in light-seconds.
CSF ships mentioned, by class
First ship in class is underlined
Cruiser Destroyers (CD)
CSS Athena
CSS Devi
CSS Enki
CSS Freyja (Doma)
CSS Hera
CSS Isis
CSS Ninhursag
CSS Odin
CSS Osiris
CSS Shangdi
CSS Shiva
CSS Thor
CSS Tian
Battleships (BB)
CSS Amazon
CSS Artemisia
CSS Boadicea
CSS Cleopatra
CSS Jean d'Arc
CSS Kriegsmädchen
CSS Lakshmibai
CSS Tomoe
CSS Zenobia
CSS Alexander
CSS Genghis Khan
CSS Georgy Zhukov
CSS Julius Caesar
CSS Napoleon Bonaparte
CSS Sun Tzu
CSS Zheng He
Heavy Cruisers (BC)
CSS Aluna Kamau
CSS Donal McNee
CSS Gerald Ansen
CSS Guadalupe Rivera
CSS Hu Mingli
CSS Ikaika Kalani
CSS Jane Paxton
CSS Jacques Cotillard
CSS Manfred Koch
CSS Matheus Oliveira
CSS Mineko Kusunoki
CSS Nils Isacsson
CSS Patryk Mazur
CSS Roman Chrzanowski
CSS Sania Mehta
CSS Willard Dempsey
Light Cruisers (CC)
CSS Aquitaine
CSS Caribbean
CSS Catalonia
CSS Great Plains
CSS Gujarat
CSS Kansai
CSS Midwest
CSS Provence
CSS Schwarzwald
CSS Sichuan
CSS Tuscany
Destroyers (DD)
CSS Brenau
CSS Clermont (DD-ST)
CSS Emery
CSS Hamilton
CSS Howard
CSS Maryville
CSS Middlebury
CSS Pomona
Galactic Mail ships mentioned, by class
Cruiser Destroyers (CD)
GMS Defense
GMS Gallant
GMS Oathkeeper
GMS Peacemaker
GMS Promise
GMS Valiant
CSF ship capabilities, by class
Cruiser Destroyers (CD)
Classes: Shiva
Crew Complement: 600
Maximum Acceleration: 2.6 gravities
Guns, number: 4
Guns, type: 'battleship-grade', 'super-heavy'
Guns, range: 12 light-seconds
Battleships (BB)
Classes: Cleopatra, Alexander
Crew Complement: 2400
Maximum Acceleration: 1.1 gravities
Guns, number: 6
Guns, type: 'battleship-grade', 'super-heavy'
Guns, range: 10 light-seconds
Heavy Cruisers (BC)
Classes: Gerald Ansen
Crew Complement: 1200
Maximum Acceleration: 1.4 gravities
Guns, number: 3
Guns, type: 'heavy'
Guns, range: 7 light-seconds
Light Cruisers (CC)
Classes: Tuscany
Crew Complement: 800
Maximum Acceleration: 1.7 gravities
Guns, number: 3
Guns, type: 'medium'
Guns, range: 5 light-seconds
Destroyers (DD)
Crew Complement: 400
Maximum Acceleration: 2.1 gravities
Guns, number: 3
Guns, type: 'light'
Guns, range: 3 light-seconds
Major Awards and Decorations to Jan Childers
The Commonwealth Charter Medallion
Battle of Kodu
CSF Combat Medal, with three clusters
Battle of Parchman
Battle of Feirm
Battle of Kodu
Battle of Earth
CSF Science Medal, with cluster
Calculation of the system periphery; hyperspace modulation
Calculation of the inner and outer system envelopes
Distinguished Service Medal, with three clusters
Battle of Valore
Battle of Saarestik
Battle of Calumet
Battle of Feirm
Victorious Action ribbon, with one gold and one silver star
Battle of Valore
Battle of Parchman
Battle of Saarestik
Battle of Pahaadon
Battle of Feirm
Battle of Kodu
Battle of Earth
Theater of Service Ribbons
Valore
Parchman
Saarestik
Pahaadon
Calumet
Bahay
Waldheim (with star)
Courtney
Natchez
Meili
Bliss
Hutan
Mountainhome
Shaanti
Kodu
Jablonka
The Earth Medal
Acronyms and Terms
AAR –
After Action Report.
AO – Area of operations.
ATO – Assistant Tactical Officer.
ATS – Advanced Tactics School.
below decks – cylinders on a ship containing enlisted quarters and mechanical areas such as propulsion, weapons control, etc.
blue team – defender in a war game exercise.
BMS – Brunswick Merchant Ship.
bogey – an unidentified contact, such as on radar.
BSF – Becker Space Force.
BSN – Brunswick Space Navy.
BTS – Basic Tactics School.
building book – designing a book of maneuvers.
bulkhead – wall on a spaceship.
CCM – CSF decoration, Commonwealth Charter Medallion.
CCS – ship prefix, Commonwealth Colony Ship.
CFP – Commonwealth of Free Planets.
CIC – Combat Information Center.
Class 1 secured facility – the highest rated facility for the use or discussion of classified materials.
CM – CSF decoration, Combat Medal.
CNO – Chief of Naval Operations.
Commonwealth – Commonwealth of Free Planets.
CPS – ship prefix, Commonwealth Passenger Ship.
CSF – Commonwealth Space Force.
CSL – Commonwealth Star Lines, commercial passenger company.
CSS – ship prefix, Commonwealth Space Ship.
deadhead – make a trip aboard ship while not serving; guest; ferry.
deck – floor in a spaceship.
CHILDERS_Absurd Proposals Page 30
