Spineward Sectors 6: Admiral's Spine

by Luke Sky Wachter

  “I’m afraid it isn’t that easy,” Mom sighed, “she has a lot of resentment over the way I stayed to raise you and fostered her out. Even though it was her choice to leave and stay with the Three-Feathers my staying with you hurt her.”

  “How is that my fault?” I frowned sourly. “I mean I feel for her and all, but I don’t even really remember her. She must have left when I was very young.”

  “It’s not your fault in the least,” she replied firmly, “I just want you to understand that for her things aren’t as straightforward as they should be.”

  “Oh, trust me; I understand that,” I said darkly, since dealing with biased discrimination from family members was nothing new to me, “what I’m having trouble with is growing up an only child and then finding out I have a sister and a whole other side of the family she went to live with. Sweet Murphy, Mom; you told me we were all alone—I mean, other than the Royal Family.”

  “I know, dear,” mom said looking at me sympathetically, “I didn’t want to lie to you so I just never brought it up and let you draw your own conclusions. That part of my life was closed to me but it wasn’t closed to your sister, and while you needed to grow up on Capria and I needed to be with you, Crystal was resentful of everything—especially you. I felt she didn’t need to grow up in that environment. At the time I figured it was all for the best to have her raised away but lately I’ve been questioning that,” Mom gave herself a shake. “But enough about that; it’s been too long since I saw my boy. How are you?”

  The way she was talking around the subject I knew what she wasn’t saying was that my sister was probably safer raised away from Capria, and I suppressed a wince. I didn’t like the thought that Crystal being raised without mom in her life was somehow my fault.

  “I’m doing better than could be expected actually,” I finally said, pushing aside my feelings of guilt, in exchange for a faint glimmering of pride at my accomplishments. I was an Admiral, a real Admiral, who had just saved a Star System and I had a fleet; that wasn’t something you sneered at. Men too stupid to see all the headaches and near death experiences would be ignorantly envious of me, I thought with pride and satisfaction.

  “I’ve had the chance to spend some time with Akantha,” she said smiling at me out of the corner of mouth, “she tells me great things.”

  I colored, wondering what they could have possibly said to each other and then had to fight it as my mood started to darken.

  “I barely saw you for a few hours after over a year apart, and then you flitted down to the surface,” I said, and to my dismay there was a definite whine to my voice.

  “I needed to spend some time getting to know your new family,” Elaina replied.

  “What about the weeks you spent together on the Phoenix, wasn’t that enough? Did you really have to take off as soon as I cleared sickbay?” I protested.

  “Akantha and I had time together, yes, but I didn’t say I needed to get to know your wife better; I said your ‘new family’,” she said and then turned to me with a glint entering her eye. “I know your feelings were hurt when I went down without you, but I want you to remember that I love you both equally.”

  That took me a moment to process.

  “Besides,” she continued, “I’m here now and I’m eager to hear about all your adventures while we’ve been apart. So tell me all about it,” Elaina said with a smile—a smile that brought attention to one very significant change to her features.

  “Mother, how could you?!” I exclaimed feeling betrayed. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t noticed it before. I was blind not to see it first thing.

  “What?” Elaina said drawing back and looking alarmed.

  “What have you done?” I demanded, thrusting a finger at her face.

  “I’m not sure what you mean,” she said, a hand going to her throat.

  “You got your nose fixed!” I accused pointing at the cute button nose. “You said we were going to fix them together." A crushing sense of disappointment swept through me, and I actually wondered if I could ever forgive her betrayal.

  From the instant relief that swept across her face she must have been expecting something else to come out of my mouth, which only made me even hotter.

  “Is this how a Prince behaves?” she said severely, just like she had when I was younger and didn’t want to do something onerous.

  I don’t care, I silently fumed and if it was more the silent angry mutterings of a thwarted child than the reasoned thoughts of an adult. Well…the promise had been made to a child and reaffirmed all while I was growing up, and oh how it stung.

  From the way she was looking at me with a lifted eyebrow and tapping foot you’d never know she was a chef in the palace instead of a duchess or queen and just as clearly I was in the wrong and expected to fix it.

  “Sorry, Mom,” I finally muttered, silently vowing that since she’d got her nose changed already I would no longer consider myself bound to wait for her. Why, if I decided to, I could get my nose fixed that very day!

  Sadly, it just didn’t feel the same.

  Seeing me losing myself in thought, Elaina cleared her throat. “You were about to tell me your many adventures,” she prompted.

  “I’m sure you’ve heard them all before,” I grumbled.

  “Not from you,” she said, and just like that something inside me eased.

  I then proceeded to blab all about it.

  Chapter 15: The Recruits

  “What a forsaken star system this is,” Commodore Druid observed from his position in the command chair of the bridge.

  “We passed through here more than once in the Lucky Clover,” Lisa Steiner replied, “but it was crawling with Pirates the first time, so I’d keep a close look out.”

  “Yes I’ve read the after action reports, such as they are and what little there is of them,” Druid said with censure in his voice at the condition of said reports. “So we’ll keep a sharp look out while inside AZT.”

  “That’s all anyone could ask,” the Warrant Officer, who used to be a Com-Tech, and was now a recruiting Officer responded as diplomatically as possible.

  “Are you enjoying your time on the Pennant Ship?” Druid asked as the officers and bridge crew continued to scan the system and build up the tactical plot.

  “It’s very different,” she said with a smile, “in a good way.”

  “I understand there was something of a personality clash on your previous ship,” the Commodore said casually.

  Lisa hesitated and then blanked her face into a professional mask. “I’m sure it’s nothing that time and experience can’t handle,” she said evenly.

  “What is your professional opinion of Captain Striker?” the Commodore asked, all pretense that this was some kind of informal question between officers vanishing.

  “I…don’t think it would be appropriate for me to comment on my commanding officer,” the young Warrant Officer said firmly.

  The Commodore leaned forward and opened his mouth but before he could reply there was a stir in the sensor section.

  “Contact,” reported the Junior Lieutenant in charge of sensors, “multiple contacts near the debris field. Re-tasking sensors and working on achieving good resolution now.”

  “What have we got, Sensors?” Druid said turning away, the conversation of moments before dropped and apparently forgotten in the heat of the moment.

  “I’ve got two contacts, sir. One is stationary in a holding pattern around the largest sensor return in the debris, and the other is on what appears to be a slow looping orbit around the extreme edge of the field. I’m also getting multiple returns from what I assume are shuttles, judging from the small drive fields evidenced so far. Can’t give you class or tonnage just yet, Commodore,” reported the Sensor Lieutenant.

  “Let me know as soon as you have something more,” Druid replied tersely.

  “Should we begin heading into the system or do you want to recharge our engines for another jump, sir?” asked the sh
ip’s First Officer.

  “Hold where we are and have the transports begin charging their jump engines; you can never be too careful,” the Commodore ordered. “And let’s have the other corvettes in the screen brought to full readiness and start scanning our immediate area, I want to make sure nothing sneaks up on us.”

  “Yes, Sir,” said the First Officer turning to relay the orders.

  The Junior Lieutenant at Sensors turned and reported, “We’ve got good resolution on the large stationary contact, sir. It looks like we’ve stumbled across the Constructor ship, New Dream, and the smaller contact seems to be a corvette.”

  The tension in the bridge suddenly reduced.

  “Any sign of other escorts?” Druid asked his expression easing fractionally, “Laying doggo, perhaps?”

  There was a pause. “There’s nothing on our screens, Commodore,” the Junior Lieutenant said formally.

  “Keep looking then,” Druid replied.

  “Something wrong, sir?” asked the First Officer.

  Druid looked over at the other man. “One Corvette to escort a Constructor ship seems a little light,” he replied and then turned to Lisa, “what do you think?”

  She was floored. It was one thing to be a fly on the wall during a bridge encounter, but another thing entirely to be put on the spot like this. For a handful of seconds she floundered but under the weight of the Commodore’s steady, understanding gaze she managed to settle her flutters.

  “There were no escorts the last time we met her,” she squeaked, realizing in that instant that she wasn’t nearly as settled as she’d thought and her face flamed, “I mean, the last time we met her—for the recruit transfer.”

  “Yes but this system has been known for its pirate activity,” Druid pointed out. “Who would send a Constructor all the way out here with only one ship for an escort? What if the pirates came back?”

  Steiner shrugged helplessly; she didn’t have any answers. “All I received the last time we met was orders to head to this system when we had another load of recruits and we would receive further instructions. I thought maybe we’d find a com-buoy with downloadable instructions for the next leg of our journey. There was no indication we’d be meeting the New Dream again.”

  “Alright,” Commodore Druid said with a nod, “open a channel to the Constructor. I think it’s time we find out what’s what.”

  The reply when it came, having temporary duty at the communication console while on the Pennant ship, was just the flip of a few switches to send it over to the Commodore.

  “On your personal screen, Commodore,” Lisa stated.

  “Throw it up on the main screen instead, Comm.,” Druid replied.

  “This is Jacob Marley of the New Dream; who is this?” asked the overtly suspicious man on the other end of the com-channel.

  Druid leaned back in his chair and then looked at Steiner. “Did you send over our contact details and identifiers in the hail?” he asked, the faintest hint of censure in his voice.

  “All standard identifiers were included in the hail using the same protocols as the last time we met them,” she reported confidently. “New Dream should have been able to decode our basic ident without any trouble and know who we are without any trouble at all,” the former Com-Tech said, her brow wrinkling.

  Druid nodded and turned back to the screen. “New message,” he said to her. When she indicated she was ready, he nodded, “This is Commodore Druid of the long range patrol and recruiting drive; we’ve met before. Can you tell us the condition of things in this system?” then motioned the message was complete.

  Dutifully, the Warrant at Comm. made sure it was sent.

  “Now I remember you,” the Owner said dismissively, as if being the commanding officer of half a dozen ships—three of them warships—was a relatively unimportant matter. “Things in this system are fine,” when he said this, the man looked anything but fine or happy, but then he frowned at the screen suspiciously, “so shove off.”

  “Your defensive screen seems a little light; are you sure that you don’t want us to hang around for a bit, perhaps until reinforcements arrive?" Druid asked through gritted teeth and then remarked out loud, “It’s a good thing the response time is so long or else I might be tempted to say something regrettable.”

  Steiner covered her mouth with a hand to hide the smile that threatened.

  “Commander Spalding, in his wisdom, only allocated us one Corvette for an escort,” the Minority-Owner said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “But there’s no need for your group to hang around and linger. This is a Constructor and the day we can’t build whatever we need is the day I set the fusion cores to overload. We’ve got a few hidden surprises for any of the rabble that thinks the Dream is nothing but a sweet prize for the taking.”

  “If you’re sure,” Druid responded, “just remember that if there’s anything we can do just let us know.”

  “Get out of this system and take your blasted recruits with you,” Marley said bombastically. “We’re done playing personnel liner over here—thank you and good night.”

  The channel went dead. “They’ve cut the connection on their end, Sir,” reported Steiner.

  Druid’s face was an iron mask. “Did we get the data packet we expected from them?” he asked in a deceptively calm voice.

  The Warrant Officer cleared her throat. “No, Commodore Druid, they have sent us no such packet,” she said, feeling embarrassed.

  “Hail them again,” he said no hint of what he was thinking evident on his face—thoughts that were self-evident to anyone with half a brain, “get us that packet.”

  “Aye, sir,” she said in a small voice and keyed in another hail along with a text request for the data packet.

  Time passed as the message travelled across cold space from the lead corvette of the recruiting escort, the Pennant Ship, to the Constructor, New Dream, and then back again.

  Frowning direly, the Minority-Owner Jacob Marley appeared back on the screen.

  “My Comm. Officer tells me that we’ve got a data packet with orders you’ve been waiting for. You should have just said so before. Anyway, here it is,” he gestured to someone off the screen and then turned back, “Marley out,” he said and the screen went blank.

  “My…what a pleasant sort,” Druid said dryly and several of the bridge crew barked a laugh. He then turned to Lisa Steiner, “As soon as you’ve run the decryption program shoot the files over to my personal screen.”

  “Right away, Sir,” the diminutive, former com-tech said crisply.

  Several minutes passed as the Commodore read the orders.

  “It seems we’re needed in Tracto,” he said straightening in his chair.

  “Sir?” asked the First Officer and Lisa was glad the man had asked, because she wouldn’t have been forward enough to question the Commodore. But she was just as interested in hearing their new orders as anyone present.

  “It turns out there’s been a big battle and…” he paused for effect before continuing casually, “the Admiral’s going to need every man jack he can get his hands on to crew the new hulls. Apparently a pair of damaged corvettes, making their way back to Gambit Station, were instructed to make a detour here to AZT to drop off our orders to be held by the Constructor until our arrival.”

  “That’s great news, sir!” exclaimed the First Officer.

  “Navigator, calculate a course to Tracto and then relay the instructions to the rest of the convoy; we have our orders,” Druid instructed.

  “Aye,” the Navigator acknowledged.

  “Carry on then,” Druid said standing up and walking off the bridge, “First Officer, you have the conn.”

  “I have the conn, Sir,” the First Officer said gravely.

  Lisa Steiner closed her eyes with gratitude and offered up a silent prayer to the universe. After weeks and months of endless PR tours and recruiting drives on individual planets along the border, searching for skilled professionals or at least recent universit
y graduates the necessary degrees that could be more easily trained or cross trained onto ship’s systems as crews, they were finally going to report back to the Admiral!

  Chapter 16: Casting Off

  “Excellent work, people,” I said, escorting the recruiting team into the conference room, “it’s fortunate that you arrived here when you did; we were scheduled to leave for Gambit later today.”

  “Fortuitous timing, sir,” Commodore Druid said more than a little stiffly.

  “I wasn’t sure if you’d get the message before we left,” I lied. In truth I’d been morally certain they’d never get back before the Armor Prince left. Not that their arrival was a bad thing—far from it! “I sent a pair of corvettes on their way to Gambit with orders to stop at AZT but didn’t expect too much. I have to say, you lot are a sight for sore eyes.”

  Commodore Druid stirred uneasily. “Thank you, Admiral,” he said turning to gesture toward his team, mostly the Captains of the various ships and Warrant Officer Steiner. “My team has done a stellar job of finding warm bodies and recruiting them for the Fleet,” he glance over at me, “that said, these recruits are so green there’s still sap beading off them. Most of them have degrees of one sort or another but they haven’t had time for any kind of real experience as ship’s crews. They’re going to need a significant amount of training before they’ll even be minimally qualified.”

  “Needs must when the devil drives, Commodore,” I said, getting serious, my good mood of moments before fading slightly. “We won the battle for Tracto; smashing the Bugs and capturing, destroying, or running off the ships of the pirate fleet assembled by Jean Luc. But we can’t rest on our laurels. The Multi-Sector Patrol Fleet is about to enter the most dangerous period since its inception—even more so than when I originally assumed active command.”

  Druid’s brows furrowed. “The Bugs have been annihilated and the pirates swept off the stage. They won’t be a credible threat for some time after the drubbing they’ve taken here at the Omicron, at least I can’t imagine they will be,” the Commodore said with a frown. “Who’s left, Admiral, the Sector Fleet? We should have at least a little breathing space before they can muster up a significant threat level, unless several of the Core Worlds decide to get up off their duffs and actively start trying to cause trouble with their Defense Fleets, I must be missing something.”