by Paul Phipps
Part of that resolution was the demand for the immediate arrest and prosecution of any and all members of the Terran Space Navy for crimes against humanity. That’s a very funny statement you must realize, since the IUR intended on killing every human on the planet in the name of Islam if they didn’t get their way.” Captain Llewellyn pointed out bluntly.
“Hmmm, Yes… I can see that.” The Prime Minister said slowly. The TSN personnel could see him in their mind’s eye as rubbing his balding head in bemusement.
An hour or so later found the two groups agreeing to a basic protocol for the “Good-Will visit” and the postponement of the visit by another fourteen days so that the Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister could brief Parliament and the King about the visit.
“A postponement works out well for me.” Captain Llewellyn told Ansel and Sarah after the meeting. I would like the time to work up the crew a bit.” He paused and then asked in a slightly wary tone, “Do you get a kick out of making your people take on unexpected duties and deal with situations out of the blue?”
Ansel chuckled at that and Sarah just smiled broadly. “Captain, we do and we don’t.” he said with a grin, “You’ve been conditioned for most of your life to having a daily routine and having the luxury of planning out your missions for days or weeks while Enroute to your area of operations.
In the Terran Space Navy you will find that that is also pretty much the norm too. But we all must be prepared to improvise and act on the spur of the moment. Consider what has happened to Admiral Webster and Seeker, they had decades to plan and build upon their plans and ideas for the Terran Space Navy.
If we had been able to follow their plan it would have been another four or five decades of building up our forces and manning all of our vessels before embarking upon the Colonization of the Earth Analogues. Then there was this business with the IUR, in itself that was minor or would have been if we had had more than four humans to work with that is!
Now we find out that the Quarn has been here for almost 60 years and its plan for assimilating the Human Race is well along and may still be unstoppable by us. So is it any wonder that as the two people most involved in recruiting and training new members of the TSN that we need to keep coming up with ways to encourage out-of-the-box thinking and dealing with unexpected events?”
“Thank you for explaining that.” The Captain said with a decisive nod of his head. “I see I have my work cut out for me.” And then with a predatory smile, “And for my crew… I do have leeway in appointing my officers don’t I?”
“Yes, you do. Just remember that Diana, your command A.I., still must approve of their appointments. So make sure that your potential officers acknowledge that their rank is a conditional one.”
“I’ll be sure to emphasize that.”
* * *
Back in London, Admiral Sir Jamesway had left Admiralty house and had gone to #10 Downing Street to meet with the Prime Minister and the other ministers. It was a political coup in many ways that the Terran Space Navy had asked permission to come visit. Now he had to explain about Command Chief Cavendish and Captain Llewellyn having been former members of the Royal Navy. Sarah he had already figured out had been recruited when the Belle had shown up off of the cost of Cornwall back in November.
And he had the sneaking suspicion that Captain Llewellyn was the former Rear Admiral Llewellyn of the Royal Navy that had sent in the notice that he would no longer need to receive the generous pension granted to him by the Royal Exchequer of England.
‘Damn it! That’s happening everywhere around the world.” He thought to himself. “Elderly professionals for the most part were reported as having been interested in the Terran Space Navy and then having put their affairs into order and just disappeared. And in most cases their Wives and children were gone too.
I wonder how many have joined up.” He finished his musing in a thoughtful way.
Once he was in the Cabinet room with the Prime Minister and his associates there was a flurry of questions. Mostly about the political effects and possible backlash from the large Asian minority that was quickly forcing their views on the rest of England. Finally there was the question that he had been awaiting.
“How do we handle the problem of allowing members of the Terran Space Navy onto England’s soil if we have a resolution ordering their arrests?”
“I suppose we could give them diplomatic Immunity.” The Minister of Defense said.
The Foreign Minister intercepted that suggestion quickly, “If they were a Nation we had relations with I would agree. But they aren’t, they are technically a non-governmental organization.”
“Yes, they are… They are an NGO with more military power than all of the nations of the planet put together. Have you ever seen pictures of how big some of their ships are!” The Minister of Defense said angrily. “Remember Iceland?” He added scathingly.
“Of course I do! And we are still trying to handle the diplomatic after effects of that visit. They were pretty blunt about what they would do the next time someone attempted to capture one of their people or their vessels.” The foreign Minister said wearily.
The ministers talked and talked but no one had any good answers for their questions and ideas were slim to none. Finally Admiral Jamesway was asked a question that he could answer.
“How big is this Huntress? If we were to have it land somewhere where would that be?”
“According to my sources in the American Defense Department a Terran Space Navy Star Fighter Carrier is approximately five miles by three miles and about two thick. The Huntress is supposed to be an advanced version of that one. So figure it is at least that large.” He said in some confidence.
There was quiet around the table as the various ministers looked outside for something to compare that size with or moved their lips as they did internal calculations. Finally a shaken Deputy Prime Minister said; “I’m having a bit of trouble comprehending that volume of metal just hanging in mid-air. Do we know how they are doing that?”
“No Sir, we don’t know how they are doing that. Defense Intelligence’s Boffins’ theorize anti-gravity of course. But since we don’t know what gravity is, that’s a pretty nebulous theory.”
“Well, it’s obvious that they do know what Gravity is and how to manipulate it. And now that we know it can be done it’s just a matter of time and funding to duplicate it ourselves.” The Minister for Research and development stated confidently.
“You’re probably correct sir.” Admiral Jamesway said, “The question of course is do we have the funding? And more importantly why do we need to do so?”
“Why? Because we need to have some sort of defense against them. That’s why!” Stated an angry Home Secretary in near disbelief.
“Really? And let me point out to you that I now have only twenty four commissioned vessels for the Royal Navy. I believe that we only have eight wings of aircraft of any type for the Royal Air Force.” He paused and then said scathingly, “I have it on good authority from Admiral Caparelli himself that the Terran Space Navy has at least three hundred and seventy nine Star Fighter Carriers and many thousands of smaller ones. And of course they have at least three of those huge five hundred mile long monsters we saw over Iceland.”
After a pause for comments that he didn’t receive, he continued, “Do you really think that we can defend ourselves from the Terran Space navy if they take a dislike to us? If so, please consider what happened to the Iranian Unified Republic and they did that with one auxiliary vessel.”
A more sober Cabinet went back to work after that exchange. There weren’t any agreements after another three hours of talking and with the announcement that the Cabinet would re-convene in two days to discuss the TSN further, they adjourned and each went their separate ways to meet with their own subordinates and hopefully some workable ideas would come forth.
Tuesday, February 16, 2027, Admiral Webster’s Weekly Staff Meeting
“Good morning, Ladies and Gent
lemen.” Admiral Webster opened the meeting with obvious good humor in his voice. “Looking over your weekly reports I can see that last week was very productive one for us. And with that, let’s see who will go first today?” He then gazed around at the various holographic displays of his senior officers and with a smile he said. “Lt. Tufuga, since you are with us again today, please start us off.”
“Certainly Admiral. The First battalion of the Terran Space Marines is now fully manned and companies are stationed on the Johnny Reb, Companion and Moon Base M1. The Second Battalion is now being formed up and Lt. Yuri Smedlov will be in charge of the first company there. I believe that we will have them stationed on the Huntress as she is almost done with her upgrade and our Navy compatriots are manning her with recruits directly out of Basic training.
Lt. Smedlov is a former Spetznaz Naval Commando from the Soviet Republics. He has thirty five years of service with them and like myself was recruited out of a ‘retirement home’. “
“Very good Lieutenant, and speaking of ‘retirement homes’ I believe you and Commander Webster have something cooked up with those.” The Admiral inquired.
“Ahhh, Yes Sir we do.” The Lieutenant paused and gave Ansel a fast look and with a nod to continue from Ansel did so. “I have taken the liberty of communicating with General Cappielo, The U.S. Marine Commandant, and the Veterans Administration. With their cooperation and assistance I and many of my personnel have been quietly visiting the VA homes and recuperation centers.
Because of those visits I am most pleased to say that we have recruited an additional four thousand three hundred and twelve former combat trained personnel. Most of them were Marines with the Army and Air Force veterans filling out the remainder. We are also fortunate to have recruited nearly two hundred former Special Operations personnel that were too badly damaged to continue in that trade. Most of them are former Navy Seals with a smattering of Delta Force veterans. All in all, I am most pleased to have them join us.” He finished up with a beaming smile.
“That’s excellent news Lieutenant , Keep up the good work!” The Admiral said, then seeing as there was nothing more he turned to Ansel and indicated he should begin.
“Good Morning Admiral,” Ansel began, “We have graduated another Nine thousand recruits from basic training. Three thousand are going to the Huntress first for a Good-Will tour of the British Isles and then as the first of her permanent crew. One Thousand are going to Galileo City to become the core of the TSN contingent there. The remainder will fill out the Companion’s and Johnny Reb’s complement along with the beginnings of the complement for the Lucky.
We also received four hundred thousand or so applications to join the TSN. Of those we accepted seventeen thousand two hundred and eighty four directly into Basic Training. Of the rest we accepted two hundred thousand nine thousand and seven into the just approved four year enlistment program.
The rest were rejected for one reason or another, however I think that after some soul searching many of those who were rejected will try again.”
Admiral Webster nodded his head as Ansel talked, once there was a pause he spoke up. “I need to emphasize to all of you that the recruits for the four year program are receiving the medical care and age reversing treatments as a part of their Service agreement with us.
They ARE NOT receiving the communication and advanced processing implants or any other TSN proprietary technology. This means that they probably serve mostly on the Cities. We aren’t going to use them as menials; for one thing it isn’t necessary, there are plenty of other positions that need filling and don’t require the full augmentation package.
What this short term enlistment is really intended to do is to give these people a better idea about what the Terran Space Navy is really about and for us in turn to find out their true character. Also this means that the Marines aren’t going to have any of them in their ranks either. A Terran Space Marine who can’t interface with his equipment is a poor Marine indeed”.
With a nod to Ansel to continue , the Admiral sat back in his chair to continue to listen to the weekly reports.
“Continuing then,” Ansel said with a slight grin, “I need to explain a little bit about the Huntress and our plans for her and the others to follow. What started out as a bit of personal bit of pique has rapidly become a new recruiting tool. Our new psych section of the TSN has evaluated the idea of using national pride as an instrument for enhancing recruiting from specific countries.
Using the Huntress to begin off with we are going to emphasize that her Captain is a former Royal Navy Officer and many of her Officers and crew are also. The theory here is that because we have shown favor and approval toward this particular national group other potential recruits in England will be interested enough to see what the Terran Space Navy is about. We will continue to enhance this interest by having a dedicated Public Relations section on board her sending out news releases and updates on The Huntress and her crews’ missions.
There will be a total of five vessels in this trial. So far we have identified a potential Chinese crew and a Russian Crew. If this idea is proven to be valid by increased recruiting from England then we will expand it further.”
Ansel paused briefly and with a resigned smile added, “There will also be a vessel with a decidedly Japanese flavor too. I have been approached by at least two hundred of our Japanese recruits at Camp Heinlein, interestingly enough each was on an individual basis, to build a” He paused again to control his expression, “To build a ‘Space Battleship Yamato’.” At which point there was a smattering of grins and chuckles from the rest.
“I received each request in a sober manner and looked upon the proposed merits of such a vessel and the impact that it might have upon the Japanese people. I conferred with Seeker and with the various fabricator A.I.’s that had ship design experience and we decided as a whole that the anime version of the Space Battleship Yamato was simply too small for the capabilities we need to have in our capital ships. But the idea of such a vessel expanded to a suitable size was quite doable. So with much input from our Japanese contingent we are going to develop and build a test bed vessel to examine the practicality of a Space Based Battleship.”
He paused again and then with a smile announced, “We are naming her the Musashi, we are also fortunate in that Rear Admiral Takeo Kurita’s great grandson who was also a Japanese Self Defense Force Captain has joined the TSN after his long career and retirement. I am hereby proposing that he be considered as a Captain Candidate for the Musashi.”
Captain Johansson was a bit bemused and then smiled as he remembered one of his academy history classes. “Takeo Kurita was the rear Admiral that commanded the Battleship squadron that the Yamato and Musashi were a part of during many of the most famous engagements of the Second World War. He was a most formidable opponent of the United States Navy.”
“That’s a good memory you have there, Gunnar.” Ansel said approvingly, “Now Hiroshi Kurita is a member of the Terran Space Navy serving on the Johnny Reb. I would like you to take him under your wing, make sure he is fully qualified to command a TSN Battleship and then send him back to Camp Heinlein when he meets your qualifications.”
“So how long do I have to get him up to speed?” Gunnar asked.
“It’s going to take some time I believe, Maybe six months before the Musashi is ready for her trials.” Admiral Webster interjected. “She really is a radical direction for the Terran Space Navy, We are going to literally have to develop some new technologies to get her working the way we want to. Also she is a bit bigger than a Star Fighter Carrier.”
“How much bigger Admiral?” Commander Fuller inquired.
“As currently designed, the Musashi will be around twenty one miles in length and around ten miles in width. She will definitely be a Battleship but with Carrier capabilities for her squadrons of Fighter and other support vessels.”
“But what is her purpose?” Commander Fuller pressed.
“He
r purpose? She and her potential sisters are going to become the core vessels of our fleets. The Quarn aren’t our only potential enemies. And we still need to be on guard for them here and in the Alternate universes that hold the analogues of Earth that we want to colonize.”
Finally Admiral Webster brought that line of discussion to a halt and directed the staff meeting back to order and directed Captain Johansson to begin his brief.
“Admiral I am pleased to report that Johnny Reb is now fully manned including four companies of Marines. During this week we will be operating on Mars setting up a dedicated training range and a firing range for testing out our weapons. We are also going to equip the forward Martian Lagrange point as a space based firing range for our space based weapon systems.
Next on my list are the Garbage and Oil production vessels. All of them are operating normally and I have transferred several of our men to each vessel to act as our on-board representatives. This will enable the Johnny Reb to concentrate on her other duties. The current utilization is at eighty-four percent of capacity overall and the spot market price for crude oil has dropped to eighty-one dollars a barrel. This appears to be a good stable number for now. All of the Oil producing countries have accepted that, some grudgingly, but they have accepted it.
