Betrayal of the Federation

by K M Dean

  Anne replied, “zero nine hundred in the morning. I have a lot to go over with you and it will take some time.”

  “That’s good Anne, see you tomorrow.”

  He then then pinged Commander Jenson and asked him to meet him in his ready room. He had sent Commander Jenson a list of positions that needed to be filled. He had also asked him to bring a list of officers he believed might be able to step into some of these new positions.

  Half an hour later Lieutenant Mendoza pinged Admiral Andersons TUI. “Admiral, Commander Jenson is here.”

  “Please send him in Lori.”

  Jenson said with a smile, “I wondered how long it was going to take you to decide to do this. You’ve needed a real staff for months.”

  “I know Wayne, I just never saw myself as someone that needed a team. I don’t think I realized how much the job has grown. Now that Admiral Miller is full time Chairman of the War council, all this mess has fallen to me. And there is no doubt I do need the help. Especially as much as I hate paperwork. This is what Admiral Miller has suggested we do.”

  “I have made a few changes that I thought would help. It will probably change again. This is bare bones. We will build from here.”

  Chapter Six

  Makeup of the Joint Chiefs of staff

  Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

  Deputy Chief, Federation Navy Operations

  Deputy Chief, Federation Navy and Marine Financial Management, Military Pay, Compensation

  and Policy

  Deputy Chief, Federation Weapon and Vessel development and standardization

  Deputy Chief, Federation Navy and Marine Personnel, Diversity and Inclusion

  Deputy Chief, Federation Navy and Marine logistics and supply

  Deputy Chief, Federation Navy and Marine Physical Readiness, Total personnel Fitness, training

  and readiness

  Deputy Chief, Federation Marine Corps. Chief of Operations

  “Sir,” said Jenson, I have some suggestions. Captain Carl Durand has asked for a noncombat assignment. He took some savage physical injuries during the battle for Grenushania. He should be able to handle Navy Operations.”

  Admiral Anderson said. “Wayne, I knew Carl got banged up pretty bad, but I didn’t know he wanted to leave his command.”

  “Admiral, it is not so much that he wants to leave his command as it is that he realizes he has lost a step. He doesn’t want to leave the Federation Navy, but for the good of the service he believes he should step down as Captain of a fighting vessel. He is afraid he is going to be retired. He doesn’t want that. I believe taking on the office of Deputy Chief Naval Operations would be an excellent fit and would extend the usefulness of a first-rate officer.”

  “All right Wayne let’s get him over here. Don’t tell him what it is about. If he likes the idea I will give him a bump up to Rear Admiral and move him to my staff as Deputy Chief of Naval operations. How about the rest of these positions, any suggestions?”

  “I have a list of officers Admiral Miller moved to Gamma Remidian from Titan. Why don’t I get them in to see you tomorrow and you can find out who you like and what they are good at. I will get Captain Durand over here as soon as possible.”

  An hour later Lori Mendoza pinged Admiral Anderson on his TUI. “Admiral, Captain Carl Durand is here to see you.”

  Captain Durand was the Captain of the destroyer Tecumseh that had taken some hard hits at Grenushania.

  “Please send him in Lori.”

  As Captain Durand entered his office, Admiral Anderson said. “Carl, have a seat. Sorry I haven’t had any time to see how you and the Tecumseh were doing.”

  Captain Durand replied, “Admiral, the Tecumseh is fine. The shipyard took great care of us and she is ready to fight at your command.”

  Admiral Anderson replied. “How about you Carl? I heard you got beat up pretty bad yourself. How are you doing?”

  “I’m Okay Admiral.” Replied Captain Durand. “The medical people got me back in one piece.”

  Admiral Anderson could see the sadness in Captain Durand’s his eyes. There is nothing worse than being told you aren’t good enough for the job anymore. And that is what he thought was coming.

  Captain Durand said, “Why do you ask?”

  Admiral Anderson said, “Carl, I need some help. With Admiral Miller heading up the War Council, all his work has fallen to me. I am not certain how he managed, but it is too big a job for me to handle alone. I know you would prefer to stay with your command, but I need someone I can trust to head up the new office of Deputy Chief of Federation Navy Operations. You would be a member of my staff. You would be responsible for Manpower, Personnel, Training and Education. It is not a combat job, but it is an important one. You would answer directly to me. What do you think?”

  Captain Durand said, with a smile, “Hell Admiral, I thought you were going to fire me.”

  “Not hardly Carl, we need good people in the Federation Navy. And not just in combat. There are plenty of jobs that are critical to the Federation Navy and Marine Corps. This is one of them.”

  Captain Durand replied, “Admiral, I would be honored to be a member of your staff.”

  “Carl, do you have anyone in mind to replace you on the Tecumseh?” Asked Admiral Anderson.

  “Yes sir, My Exec, Commander Ne'Flav Deruno. He is a Rheaganese. I admit I had some reservations when he came aboard, but he is an excellent Exec, a fine officer and an outstanding tactician. He is long overdue for a ship of his own.”

  Admiral Anderson pinged Lieutenant Mendoza on his TUI. “Lori, have orders cut for Commander Ne’Flav Dermo promoting him to Captain and transferring command of the Tecumseh from Captain Carl Durand to Captain Dermo. Also have orders cut for Captain Carl Durand promoting him to Rear Admiral and transferring him to Deputy Chief, Federation Navy Operations. As soon as the orders have been cut, bring them to me for my signature.”

  As soon as Lori had put the orders on his desk, Admiral Anderson signed them and gave copies to Carl. “Congratulations Carl. I look forward to having you aboard. Go say your goodbyes and give Captain Dermo his ship. Get back here ready to go to work in the morning.”

  “Aye Sir,” replied Admiral Durand, “I will see you first thing tomorrow.”

  After Captain Durand left Admiral Anderson said, “Lori, call Rick Hill and arrange for some office space on Gamma Remidian Station. We will require offices for seven officers plus their aides, assorted secretaries, and at least one conference room. Tell him to be sure we have plenty of room to add offices. I have a feeling this organization may grow quickly. All the office space needs to be in Navy country. Then call Federation Naval Security and advise them we need to make certain those offices are secure.”

  Lieutenant Mendoza said. “Yes Sir. I will take care of it right now.”

  Admiral Anderson gave General Terry Giles a ping on his TUI.[8] He answered right away. “Good afternoon Admiral, how can I help you?”

  Admiral Anderson said, “Terry, I need an officer to serve on my Joint Chiefs of staff. I would like for you to take the job. It wouldn’t change things that much. You would still be in command of the Marine Corps, but we need to formalize the command structure. The way things are now everything must go through me. Under the new organizational chart, you would have direct access to the people who can answer your questions. You would be the Deputy Chief, Federation Marine Corps.”

  General Giles said, “I would need to stay on planet John, this is where I am needed most of the time.”

  Admiral Anderson replied, “that’s fine Terry. No need for you to have to come to Apsis Prime Station unless it’s something big. Most of what we will be doing can be handled on our TUI’s.”

  “All right Admiral, I’m on board with that.”

  “Thanks Terry. I’ll give you a shout when it’s all set up.”

  Later that evening, Captain Jenson had the records of several officers who had served on Titan Station. None of them had been re
assigned after the abrupt move from Titan station to Apsis Prime Station. Admiral Anderson took some time and went over their records to see what he had to work with.

  Lieutenant Mendoza pinged his TUI at precisely zero nine hundred the next morning. “Admiral, Captain Hiller to see you Sir.”

  “Thank you, Lieutenant, send her in please.”

  Anne said, “Good morning Sir. We have a lot to cover so I will get right to it.”

  “Over the last several months we have been able to restore all the ships that returned from the Psi Unica System. As you know, the Excelsior was badly damaged. We repaired her, but she is not a good candidate for the new upgrades we have developed. We are in the process of replacing the Excelsior with one of the new Command Ships.”

  “This is a new ship design we have developed over the last several months, based in part, on what we learned from the captured Jian Command ship and adding some new Krayari technology.”

  Captain Hiller inserted a data cube in to the waiting A.V. system. As it loaded she said, “we are calling this class of ships the Devastator. They were being developed even as we were building the Ultron ships. The latest Ultron ships were built so they could be retrofitted to the new technology. Unfortunately, the Excelsior was not one of those ships.”

  A delta shaped ship appeared on the A.V. screen on the partition behind Anne’s head. After looking at the ship for a moment Admiral Anderson realized it was more of an arrowhead shape than a delta.

  Anne continued. “As you know our current designs had a major weakness. We couldn’t provide enough protection for the engines. Technically there is no real way to shield the engines. That is the reason for the adapted delta design. With the adapted delta form hull we’re able to place a great deal more point defense on the trailing edge of the ship giving the engines more protection. In addition, thanks to the Jian ship that was recovered from Grenushania, we have substantially updated some of our technology. The major strides have been made in weapons and shielding. We were also able to get a lot of insight in to the operating procedures and capabilities of the Jian Navy”.

  “Krayari engineers have been a welcome addition to our Technical Department. They have developed some new technology we will want to expand for our own use. One of the things the Krayari have developed is an electronic interrupter. It only works on an unshielded ship. It is a targeted EMP device that can shut down several unshielded ships at once. We have not had any success getting it to work on shielded ships.”

  “The Krayari delivered some antimatter generated lasers that are decades ahead of what we had. They also have developed an AMEP[9] engine. These AMEP engines are a hybrid of the SEP[10] engines developed in the late twentieth and early twenty first century. The limitation of the SEP engines was that they depended on a very good solar source for electrical power or very powerful fusion reactors. The SEP engines were limited in systems with restricted or weak solar energy. The new AMEP engines are designed to use antimatter, so they are available at any time. The antimatter generators are much smaller with far greater output.”

  “The Krayari have also perfected large scale electrostatic Hall thrusters. The thrusters receive their electric power from the antimatter generators. The thruster traps electrons from the antimatter generators in a magnetic field and uses them to ionize the onboard propellant. The inert gas xenon is used as the propellant because it is readily available nearly everywhere. The ionized xenon is projected as an exhaust plume of plasma that accelerates the spacecraft forward.

  Because of these AMEP thrusters our engine efficiency goes from about twenty five percent to just over eighty percent. They deliver sub light speeds of point five zero. That is fifty percent of the speed of light compared to our current twenty five percent.

  “We have also developed what we are calling “monitor boats. They are a small ship with excellent stealth capability. Their purpose is to covertly observe and report. They have some of the most sophisticated passive sensors and scanners we have ever deployed. Sensors that are powerful while being covert.”

  “The Monitors are lightly armed with four AMEP powered torpedoes. The captains involved in the program insisted that they have some means of defense. Hopefully they will never have to fire them. The torpedoes can only be fired if the ship drop stealth. Their stealth and their new passive scanners and sensors are their best weapons. They are small, designed for a crew of six. The plan is to have each crew person serve eight-hour stints on duty and sixteen hours off. The ships are equipped with the finest replicators available. They also have world class entertainment systems. For a small ship, they have very comfortable crew mini staterooms. The idea is that with short tours of duty and ample time for sleeping and entertainment time the crew will be more able to avoid “cabin fever” over extended periods of reconnoitering. they can sit for days in a system, undetected, collecting data. They are also capable of FTL flight.”

  When Anne had finished her briefing, Admiral Anderson said, “Anne, this is a lot to digest. Leave me your data and I will go through it over the next few days. I have some other irons in the fire right now, but we should meet when the new ships dock, so I can get a look and you can answer any questions I have. Do you have an ETA for the new ships yet?”

  “No Admiral, they are still in testing, but it shouldn’t be more than a week. I will give you a heads up when I hear.”

  “Alright, thanks Anne. I have another question for you.”

  “Yes Sir?” Asked Commander Hiller.

  “I would like to ask you to come aboard the Joint Chiefs of staff as my Deputy Chief, Federation Navy Weapon and Vessel development and standardization. It is pretty much the same thing you have been doing, but it would give you a bit more control over the general direction our development is going. What do you say?”

  Anne replied, “We have needed something like this for a while. But I don’t want to give up what I am doing to sit in an office.”

  “Anne, I don’t want you sitting in an office, I want you doing what you do best. We need someone to coordinate all the information so there is no duplication of effort. I shouldn’t have to get involved except in top level decisions. No one knows what we are doing better than you. I realize it may take more of your time, but we need this. And you will have a staff to do the heavy lifting. I need you for this because I don’t have that kind of time anymore.”

  “Alright Admiral, I will take it on. I will start choosing a staff over the next few days.”

  “Thanks Anne, I do appreciate your stepping up.”

  Captain Jenson had the officers Admiral Anderson needed to interview waiting. After Commander Hiller had left Admiral Anderson had Lieutenant Mendoza send Janet Fofana in to his ready room.

  Commander Fofana stepped in through the hatch, came to attention and said, “Commander Fofana reporting as ordered Sir.”

  Admiral Anderson said, “At ease Commander, have a seat.”

  She replied, “Thank you sir.”

  Even sitting, Commander Fofana seemed to be at attention. She was an attractive woman. She had beautiful brown eyes, dark hair and dark skin like fine chocolate.

  Admiral Anderson said, “Relax Commander, this is just an informal interview. I have some positions I need to fill, and I realize you have had little or nothing to do since you got here. Tell me a little about yourself and what you have been doing at Titan.”

  Commander Fofana began to relax a little. She said, “Admiral, I was the head of our human resources department on Earth, and I continued that at Titan Station. My primary responsibility was to be certain the right people were going to the right places. Cooks to ships Galleys, Engineers and technicians to Engineering. That sort of thing. I was also in charge of our diversity program. Making certain that the right person for the job actually got the job regardless of race, religion or gender.”

  “Commander Fofana, did you like that part of the job? Working with the diverse culture Earth enjoys?”

  “Yes Admiral, I did. My Mother w
as Black, and my Father was Italian, so diversity was something I had always dealt with.”

  “How do you feel you would handle that job in the Federation Navy? We are not just dealing with gender, race or religion, but entirely new sets of species?”

  “I think I would handle it fine,” she replied. “I enjoy meeting new people and I find it stimulating to meet the diverse species and races we are seeing every day now.”

  “Janet, tell me a little about your personal life. What do you do here on the station, have you been to the planet, Apsis Prime, what do you do in your spare time. Hobbies and that sort of thing?”

  She began by saying, “I have been to Apsis Prime. It is a wonderful planet. I love to travel and see the sights. The people are delightful as well. I get to the surface as often as possible and I have become friends with some Rheaganese families. I am also an avid amateur photographer.”

  “Alright Janet, one last question. If you had a choice, would you prefer to stay here on Apsis Prime Station, or return to Earth or Titan Station.”

  “Admiral, I would much rather stay here, I have several friends here, and my family back on Earth is all gone now. Yes, I would prefer to stay here, but I also want to work. I don’t function well without a purpose to my life.”

  “Thank you, Commander. I think that is all I need for now. We will be in touch over the next few days.”

  “Aye Sir, thank you for considering me.” She came to attention, then made a crisp about face and marched out. Admiral Anderson made a couple of notes on his I-Net pad and then asked Lieutenant Mendoza to send in the next candidate.

  The next officer was Commander Easton Humphries. Humphries had been an accountant before he joined the SOL/FED Navy. He had been appointed to Admiral Millers staff as a financial consultant. It wasn’t clear exactly what he had done for Admiral Miller. Admiral Anderson pinged Admiral Miller on his FTL Communicator. John explained what he was doing and asked for any recommendations. He also asked what Commander Humphries did for him back in “The Project”.