“Due to your injuries, we’ve already fast-tracked your promotion to O-6,” he continued. “I have confirmed with the Joint Chiefs of Staff that I have the authority to sign off on your transfer to the Castle Federation Space Navy with full rank and seniority.”
“You’d be the only Senior Fleet Commander aboard, but, sadly, I have an opening for one,” Blair concluded. “You’re right, Kyle. We’re on the eve of war – there’s a team of five hundred analysts on the surface going over the data cores we pulled from that battlecruiser, and as many interrogating the prisoners.”
“By tomorrow morning, I hope to know just what the Commonwealth was up to,” he said quietly. “And then, I suspect, I will be taking Avalon to war.”
“I could use you at my side when I do.”
Kyle was silent for a long moment, regarding the Captain. He had never really thought about being a Navy officer. He’d enlisted in the Navy, originally, but the commission he’d been offered had been in the Space Force and he’d never looked back. He’d loved to fly, and he’d found a gift for tactics and command.
Now, though, he couldn’t fly. The Space Force was no longer where he could best serve his country – but that same gift for leadership and tactics could still serve. He would still, in the end, be in much the same service even if he wore a different uniform.
“It’s not how I planned to spend the rest of this tour,” he finally said.
“I wasn’t planning on losing Caroline,” Blair said bluntly. “Or any of the other people we lost. I blame the Commonwealth. I suggest we prepare to levy payment upon them.”
Kyle slowly nodded.
“Okay,” he said with a deep breath. “If you want one battered ex-starfighter pilot for your XO, skipper, you’ve got him.”
Hessian System
08:05 September 10, 2735 ESMDT
DSC-001 Avalon – CAG’s Office
When Michael Stanford heard rummaging coming from Kyle’s office when he walked by, he had a moment of hope that he’d dodged the bullet of being promoted to the slot. The sight of the other Wing Commander packing the handful of personal possessions he’d kept in the room into a stereotypically sterile cardboard box dashed that.
“Are you even supposed to be out of the infirmary yet?” he asked the younger man softly.
Kyle straightened and turned to face Michael with a familiar smile. He made a show of checking the time on a datapad sitting on the desk within his reach. He was dressed in full uniform, shipsuit and jacket, though there was something off about it Michael couldn’t put his finger on.
“As of about five minutes ago, I am cleared for light duty,” he replied. “Figured I’d spend it getting my things out of your way.”
“Its official then,” Michael said quietly. “I don’t want the job, boss.”
“You’ll make a damn fine CAG,” Kyle told him fiercely. “We both know it – you’ve been ready for the bump to Wing Commander for years.”
“I sure as hell don’t feel ready,” the junior, if older, man replied. He stepped into the office, his implant telling the ship to close the door behind him as he took a seat on the desk. “I was terrified going up against that battlecruiser,” he admitted.
“And?” Kyle put the box down on the desk and looked down at Michael. “So was everyone else. You took command when you needed to and led the strike.”
“Anyone could have.”
“No, not anyone,” Kyle told him. “And you did. I call that one hell of a trial by fire to prove you can do the job. Besides,” the big man shrugged, “I can’t anymore.”
Michael finally caught what was wrong with the uniform. Kyle’s space-black shipsuit and jacket weren’t piped along the seams with the blue of the Space Force – the uniform was piped in gold. The distinction was subtle, but his former boss wore the uniform of the Castle Federation Space Navy – and as he noticed the different coloring, he realized the insignia was different too.
Kyle had lost the gold wings of a senior pilot, but he’d gained a third gold circle where Michael’s new promotion gave the junior man two.
“I’m sorry, sir,” Michael said with a growing smile. “I missed your promotion, Senior Fleet Commander.”
The big officer shook his head.
“And here we see the perception we require of our senior officers,” he concluded. “The Captain asked me to step into Commander Kleiner’s slot. It seemed a better idea than retirement – and means I can keep an eye on our new CAG. Make sure you don’t get in too much trouble.”
“You know me, sir,” Michael replied. “If I get in enough trouble, do you think I can talk you into taking the second circle back?”
“You won’t get in that much trouble, Michael,” Kyle told him calmly. “You wouldn’t be letting me down – you’d be letting down your people.”
The new Wing Commander winced. That was a point that bore more than a little weight.
“When will the Captain tell everyone?”
“All of the senior officers will be at the briefing by the Hessian analysts at nine hundred hours,” Kyle told him. “We plan on telling everyone then. I wanted to let you know in advance – and the Captain asked me to tell you you’ll be formally confirmed as CAG at the same meeting.”
Wing Commander Michael Stanford, Commander Air Group of the Castle Federation Deep Space Carrier Avalon, nodded slowly as he swallowed hard.
“Thank you, sir,” he said softly. “Good luck, sir. I get the impression XOs need a lot of it.”
Kyle offered his hand and Michael took it in a firm handshake. His own frail hand disappeared into the new XO’s massive grip, but he drew strength from the confidence of his former commander.
“So do CAGs,” Kyle told him. “But you’ll need less than most – I’ve left you a damn good team.”
22
Hessian System
09:00 September 10, 2735 Earth Standard Meridian Date/Time
DSC-001 Avalon – Main Conference Room
Kyle joined Captain Blair in the main briefing room before any of the other officers arrived. A young woman in the uniform of a Hessian Security Service Colonel had taken a seat at the other end of the table from Avalon’s two senior officers, but she simply gave Kyle a silent nod.
He found himself paying more attention to the department heads as they arrived than he had for any of the previous meetings. Before, as CAG, he had been effectively ‘first among equals’ of the carrier’s department heads, reporting directly to the Captain. Now, as the ship’s Executive Officer, all of the department leads reported to him.
Stanford arrived first, the new CAG having only been a few minutes behind Kyle. The slim blond officer traded a calm nod with Kyle, but his eyes showed his discomfort with his new role.
Next in was the ship’s Operations Officer, Fleet Commander Rachel Armstrong. She was a tall and heavily built woman only a centimeter or so shorter than Kyle, with skin and hair as black as space. Armstrong would be Kyle’s main deputy in handling the administration of the ship, and she picked up on his new uniform and insignia almost instantly.
“Congratulations, sir,” she told him. “I look forward to working with you.”
“Thank you, Commander Armstrong,” Kyle replied. “I get the impression we’re going to be busy,” he added, glancing at the spook waiting patiently at the other end of the table.
Armstrong took her seat as Kelly Mason came in behind her. The voluptuous blond woman ran the carrier’s heavy weapons, and they’d worked together closely. Her gaze, he noted, was solely for Wing Commander Stanford, and Kyle smothered what he knew was a patronizing smile at the pair’s attempt to not be obvious.
Fleet Surgeon-Commander Pinochet entered alongside Fleet Commander Alistair Wong. The Chief Engineer, a stick-thin Asian man with a few centimeters of height on Kyle himself, took one look at the Hessian Colonel and promptly dropped into the chair next to Kyle – as far away from the spook as possible.
Last to arrive, technically late but by less than a minute, was Lieu
tenant-Commander Maria Pendez, the ship’s Navigator. A small woman with a reputation for breaking hearts among the Marines and Space Force officers who were her only available ‘prey,’ she was dark-eyed and dusky-skinned, with curves seemingly designed to disable male brains at fifteen meters.
Once she had taken her seat, the door slid shut behind her at a silent command from the Captain, and Blair rose to face his department heads.
“Good morning everyone,” he greeted them. “As I’m sure you can all guess from Colonel Karla Bach’s presence, we had a significant breakthrough on the cores pulled from the Commonwealth ship we engaged. She came up this morning with a briefing packet for me, and I’ve asked her to share it with everyone.”
“First, however, I’ll take advantage of having all of the department heads together to make two announcements that will be spread to the rest of the ship this afternoon:
“Firstly, I have confirmed Wing Commander Michael Stanford’s promotion with the Joint Chiefs,” Blair told everyone, gesturing slightly to Stanford. “They have agreed with my decision to place him in command of SFG-001, making him Avalon’s new Commander Air Group.”
A murmur of congratulations ran down the table, but as it died down Kyle noted that everyone was starting to look at him. Armstrong had noted the new uniform and insignia when she entered, and now the others were starting to notice it.
“Commander Stanford’s promotion is unfortunately necessary as Commander Roberts’ injuries have resulted in his medical grounding,” Blair explained, the words hammers on Kyle’s already taut nerves. “Since it is not to anyone’s benefit for an officer of Commander Roberts’ caliber to be sidelined, I consulted with Admiral Kane as soon as Dr. Pinochet made me aware of the situation.”
“As of yesterday afternoon, Kyle has formally transferred to the Federation Space Navy, with the rank of Senior Fleet Commander. I have, with Admiral Kane’s approval, offered the Commander the Executive Officer role aboard Avalon, and he has accepted.”
Blair gestured for Kyle to speak, and he rose to his feet, quickly consulting his datapad for the remarks he’d prepared.
“We all know each other by now,” he told them quietly. “While this wasn’t where I planned on ending up, I am pleased to be working with all of you. I intend to sit down with each of you over the next day or so to go over your departments’ status and needs.”
“As you’ll understand once Colonel Bach has completed her briefing, this is more important than you may think,” Blair added. “We are going to be operating on very strict time limits – if there is anything we need, let Commander Roberts know as soon as possible.”
Kyle glanced around the table, meeting each of his new subordinates’ gazes, and returned to his seat.
“Now,” Blair continued, “I think we should stop burning Colonel Bach’s time and let her get to her presentation.”
The Hessian Security Service Officer was on her feet before the Captain had finished speaking. Standing, Kyle realized she was an astonishingly short woman – barely five feet tall. Combined with a slim build and long blond hair, she managed to give off the twin impressions of both fragility and carefully restrained energy.
“Thank you, Captain,” she allowed. Touching a hidden key on the briefcase she’d put on the table, she linked it into the conference room’s systems and threw a holographic image of a Commonwealth battlecruiser into the air above the conference table.
“This, Ladies, Gentlemen, was the Commonwealth battlecruiser TCNS Achilles, commanded by Commodore Patrick Riley,” she said calmly. “Riley did not survive the destruction of his vessel at the hands of your starfighters. Neither did his Executive Officer, Tactical Officer, or Chief Engineer.”
“Those are the only four people aboard a Commonwealth vessel with the ability to initiate an emergency purge of the vessel’s data cores,” she explained. “With their death in the first pass, and the focus of lance fire on the rear of the ship, your SAR shuttles retrieved Achilles’ data cores intact, and unwiped.”
“We were provided some of the best slicing software available to both the Castle Federation and the Coraline Imperium, and our own people are extremely skilled and had built highly effective tools of their own. I won’t go into details,” Bach said dryly, “but the combination of these software suites allowed us to break the encryption on the core in less than five days. It might be a new record.”
Kyle shivered as he eyed the floating hologram of the starship that had nearly killed him.
“So what were they doing here?” he asked.
“It’s called Operation Puppeteer,” Bach answered. “Commonwealth Intelligence has never convinced their fleet commanders to stop using meaningful names, so that gives you an idea all on its own.”
The battlecruiser shrank and slid to one side of the table, with a second ship joining it. This ship was smaller, more box-like – the appearance of a relatively standard Alcubierre-Stetson drive star freighter.
Blinking highlights rapidly added themselves to the design. Massive, battlecruiser-sized, positron lances. Fighter style rotary missile launchers. Electromagnetic deflectors and anti-missile lasers.
“This is a Blackbeard-class Q-ship,” Bach told them. “Designed to be able to fool even a skilled boarding team. Alliance Joint Intelligence has suspected the existence of something like them for some time. Fitted with a collection of random starfighters acquired by a mix of means, they have faked being pirates all along the border. According to Achilles’ files, there were eight of them, backed up by an equal number of battlecruisers, causing very specifically located havoc.”
“The intention was to draw Alliance forces out of position – covering some systems, leaving others uncovered. Drawing down of the nodal force at Midori for pirate-hunting missions was a high priority.”
“But why?” Mason asked. “Drawing our forces out of position? Reducing the nodal fleets? The only reason they’d want to do that if is…”
The two starships vanished, replaced by a three dimensional image of the space recognized as the ‘border’ between the Alliance and the Commonwealth. Despite the Castle Federation and Coraline Imperium providing the bulk of the Alliance’s military might, neither actually directly bordered the Commonwealth. The ‘border’ consisted of a dozen systems like Hessian and Thorn, single-system polities with shaky economies and small fleets.
Three dimensional arrows marked fleet paths, moving out from four systems – the closest Commonwealth Navy bases – to half of the ‘border’ systems, and as many systems in the next layer.
“Is if they were about to launch a major assault,” Bach finished the sentence for Mason. “Ten days, ladies and gentlemen. In ten days, the Terran Commonwealth plans to once again attempt to conquer the systems of the Alliance.”
The room was dead silent for a long moment.
“Colonel Bach has provided a detailed briefing packet that I want each of you to review,” Blair said quietly, “but I think we all needed to see it like this.”
“I received confirmation just prior to this meeting that, based on this evidence, our Senate and the Coraline Imperator are activating Article One. A renewed Alliance High Command will be assembled over the coming weeks, but for the moment, our orders will continue to come from the Federation Joint Chiefs.”
“They are reviewing the full data download from Achilles, and will have to re-deploy all available assets to hold back this assault,” he continued. “We are one of those assets, and given the situation and the success of this ‘Operation Puppeteer,’ they will have no choice but to deploy us.”
“Review your department status with your subordinates and with the XO,” he ordered. “I expect to have movement orders inside of twelve hours – make damned sure that you’re ready to go.”
The room remained silent, but each of the department heads slowly nodded as Kyle looked around. Thirty years of peace were about to end in fire, but they’d all known it was possible. They’d all signed on knowing the Commonweal
th’s ambition to unify humanity would not wait forever.
It was time to learn whether they were truly worthy of their uniforms.
23
Hessian System
10:00 September 10, 2735 Earth Standard Meridian Date/Time
DSC-001 Avalon – Tactical Officer’s Day Office
Michael Stanford stopped Kelly in the corridor outside the conference room as the other officers dispersed to deal with clearing their departments for war.
“We need to talk,” he told her quietly.
“Now is hardly the time,” she replied sharply, glancing around the corridor to be sure no-one had heard.
“It’s important, Kelly,” he said. “In private.”
“Fine!” she agreed. “Meet me in my office in five minutes.”
The weight in his chest hardly lifted in those five minutes as he made his way through the ship by a circuitous route, though he knew his attempt to conceal what was going on barely rated as pro forma. Their relationship was an open secret – he knew Kyle knew about it.
He slipped through the door into Mason’s office and triggered the privacy lock exactly five minutes to the second later, and faced his exasperated looking lover across her desk.
“Michael, the pair of us now control this ship’s entire offensive capability between us,” she told him fiercely. “We both need to get on making sure our areas are ready, especially if we’re leaving tonight. What the hell is going on?”
“Exactly that,” he said softly, hating himself for every word that left his lips. “We now control this carrier’s firepower. I will be out in space with my pilots, and you’ll be back here with Avalon’s guns and missiles. If one of us makes a mistake, everyone else will pay for it.”
Kelly looked like she’d been punched in the gut. She knew exactly what he meant, but he had to say it – to clear the air to be sure she understood.
“We cannot afford to be emotionally compromised in the face of the enemy,” he finished quietly. “I… we…”
Avalon Trilogy: Castle Federation Books 1-3: Includes Space Carrier Avalon, Stellar Fox, and Battle Group Avalon Page 20