Against the Tide tcw-3

by John Ringo

  “How the hell do they keep it dry on the ship?” the engineer asked.

  “I don’t think they do very well,” Evan said. “Probably they keep them well covered but the humidity has got to affect them.”

  “It’ll do the same to ours,” Ennesby pointed out.

  “Only if we use ballistas,” Mayerle replied, looking distant. “We’ve put in a big order for tubing and pumping apparatus for the refrigeration, right?”

  “Yeah,” the engineer sighed. “You wouldn’t believe what it cost.”

  “Hmmm…”

  “What are you thinking?” Ennesby asked.

  “I’m wondering what the max pressure is that Mother will let us get away with,” Evan said, looking off into the distance.

  * * *

  “Welcome to Pressure 101,” Herzer said, grinning at the mixed group of NCOs and officers in the small room. It was the ground floor of a two-story “temporary” facility that had been thrown up by the base engineers in about two days. The walls were still seeping sap and the floor was decidedly uneven. Herzer was pretty sure that it was going to leak like a sieve in the first rain. But it was home.

  “Most of you know me but I’ll introduce myself anyway. I’m Cap…”

  “Bite your tongue!” Chief Brooks called from near the back of the room.

  “Make that Major Herzer Herrick,” Herzer said. “I’ve been tasked with setting up a basic training facility for sailors and marines. And I, in turn, tasked all of you.” He grinned at the room again and it was clear that the humor stopped at his eyes. “And we are going to create such a facility and it is going to work and we have exactly one week before the first class arrives. So it behooves us to get to work as soon as possible.

  “Now before we go on, let me make something clear. I know diddly about sailing. But I am a product of, and have been an instructor at, the only professional military school in Norau. And the basics are the same. You have to take kids who don’t know jack and who have never had to obey an order and teach them to obey first and ask questions later. You do that by stripping away everything that they knew of civilian life. At the same time you build a new structure around them, a structure of honor and discipline. You test them as hard as you possibly can so that when they’re out with the fleet and their ship gets dragoned or a kraken comes to visit they obey their orders instinctively.

  “At the same time, you want to encourage initiative. It’s a fine line. Some of the kids, and you’ve all known them, come up with a wild idea that is just flat wrong. Some of them, on the other hand, do the right thing almost instinctively. One of the things we’re going to be looking for is kids to fast-track. So there will have to be honest individual evaluations that are as objective as possible.

  “The bottom line is that when they go out to the fleet, they’re not going to have to be shown the simplest tasks; they’re already going to have learned those.

  “Right now I’m looking at the following pattern. First week will be basic in-process and familiarization. Then four weeks of basic seamanship training and rigorous physical training. Then the last week they’ll sail with a skeleton crew of trained personnel and specialists. By then they need to have been taught all the basic skills of a seaman, how to climb ropes, how to tie knots, how to raise and lower sails, what have you.

  “You are going to come up with the list,” he said, looking around the room. “We need a comprehensive training schedule by the end of the week. Everything that you have to teach the newcomers when they come onboard. After that they’ll go to an advanced training course for four to six weeks. Some of you will be assisting in setting that up as well.”

  “Question?” one of the lieutenants said.

  “Go.”

  “You said ‘physical training,’ ” the lieutenant said uneasily. “I know something about the Blood Lords…”

  “We’re not training Blood Lords,” Herzer said with a feral grin. “We’re training sailors. If we were training Blood Lords we’d be having ruck marches and ruck runs every day. Since we’re training sailors… One of the first tasks of the first class will be to raise ‘The Mast.’ And, yes, that’s capital letters. They’ll assemble and raise a complete mainmast from stores. Crosstrees, sails, rigging, the whole bit. Then each morning, they will run The Mast. I think that will do for physical exercise, don’t you?”

  There were chuckles in the room and Herzer noticed that Brooks looked grim.

  “And, yes, we’re going to have to go up it, too,” Herzer said. “At least to prove we can. The point here is to have every graduate of this training program know that, at bottom, they are a sailor. They’ll have at least a brief cruise and learn to handle seasickness and to work while they’re sick as a dog. They’ll act as deck apes for the cruise so that whatever they end up as, deck apes, cooks, clerks or the band, they’ll know the basics of being a sailor. The point here is to establish a unifying bond in the Navy.”

  He looked around at the sea of faces and shook his head.

  “Last point, and I wish I didn’t have cover it but I do. Units like this, since females were permitted in the force and probably before, have had a problem with sexual harassment. They have ranged the gamut from male on female to female on female. The problem is that the trainers will be in complete control of the trainees’ lives and that will make some of the trainers tend to… use that power. It will also cause some of the trainees to attempt to mitigate the power by using sex as a bribe.” He looked around again and saw the expressions of surprise and even contempt.

  “Deal with it. Those are the facts of life. And don’t tell me that it hasn’t happened on shipboard, either. I’ve read the reports. The short and sweet is that if it happens under my watch, I will make whoever is the one in the position of power regret the day that they were born,” he continued, his scarred face hard and cold. “With power comes responsibility. I’ve had the displeasure of dealing with that sort of thing before and believe me, there is no justification for the empowered. None. Zero. Zip. Keep your dick in your pants. By the same token, an accusation is not proof. Investigations into accusations, though, are time consuming and leave nothing but shit in their wake. Bottom line: don’t put yourself into a position to be accused. If you’re counseling a person, make sure that there is a witness present. Ensign Van Krief and I will be writing that portion of the orders. That’s all I’ve got. Any questions, comments, concerns?”

  “This isn’t going to help with the upcoming battle,” Chief Brooks said.

  “No, but you’re assuming that we’re going to seize control of the sea-lanes in one battle,” Herzer said. “Let’s just say that Duke Edmund takes a longer view of things. Training is one of the fundamentals of any military force. The more you train, the less you bleed. So we are going to train them as hard as they can stand. Because when it comes to actually doing the job, it just gets harder.”

  Chapter Twelve

  “Good lord, I thought training was hard,” Tao said as Van Krief walked in the room. The ensign was just shrugging out of his undress uniform.

  “I suppose I should have knocked,” Van Krief said, grinning.

  “What? You have time to knock?” Tao said.

  “I haven’t seen you in a week,” Van Krief said, stripping off her own tunic. “What have they got you doing?”

  “Edmund set me loose on the marines,” Tao admitted. “We’ve been practicing boarding and repelling techniques. Herzer was right, they’re woefully undertrained. They march pretty, but they don’t have a frigging clue what to do with their pigstickers. What about you?”

  “Pretty much the same, but training trainers.” Van Krief chuckled. “You should have seen their faces when I used the term ‘lesson plan.’ ‘Wass thet?’ ”

  Tao belly laughed and nodded his head. “Training schedule? What’s a training schedule? Plan our training? You’re joking, right? They’ve got a manual of instruction, I’ll give them that. I finally convinced the company commanders to use Gunny’s techniq
ue.”

  “Oooh, they must think you’re a right bastard,” Van Krief said, pulling on a fresh uniform.

  “Training’s sergeant’s work,” Tao said, grinning evilly. “So each Friday we have a test. We tell them what the test will be. And we set aside sergeant’s time for them to train their troops.”

  “Has it worked?” Van Krief asked.

  “Getting there,” Tao admitted, finally dressed. “Last week was the first time we’d tried it. Only one squad took me seriously. They got released to go down to town; the rest of them kept testing and training and training and testing until nearly midnight. Better than a GI party, I tell ya. This week I notice they’re spending a lot more time training and less time sitting on their ass in the barracks. We’ll see on Friday.”

  “Why are you getting all spiffy?” Van Krief asked.

  “Oh, gotta look spiffy,” Tao said, blousing his boots and tugging them into position. “Part of the Blood Lord tradition. Bastards in combat and the best dressed troops around if they’re not actively training. I just got done proving to the whole NCO group of the marines that even together they couldn’t take me down. Now I’m going to look better than all of them for the rest of the day. Give ’em something to think about.”

  “You are vicious,” Van Krief grinned.

  “So, you getting anywhere with Herzer, yet?” Tao asked. “Speaking of vicious.”

  “Bite your tongue,” the ensign growled. “He’s my boss. No-go time.”

  “Well, maybe somebody will get smart and separate you enough that you can get a leg over.” Tao grinned, ducking out the door as a boot hit it.

  “Don’t I just wish,” Van Krief said as she belted her tunic. “Don’t I just wish.”

  * * *

  “It is wishful thinking to believe we can win a decisive battle on present terms, Admiral,” General Babak said. The operations officer was looking particularly pale this morning. “The correlation of forces…”

  “Correlation of forces is often a term for either cowardice or lack of imagination,” Edmund replied, bluntly. “I’ll agree that we’re holding the shitty end of the stick at present. But the way to fix that is to turn the stick around.”

  “We’re outmanned,” General Piet pointed out. “They took relatively few casualties in the battle and we’re short on personnel. Among other things, even though we’ve gotten dragons sufficient to fill out the fleet, many of the dragon-riders are unwilling to perform sea duty.”

  “Then they can be grounded until there are more dragons,” Edmund said. “And we’ll find recruits to fly the dragons. Yes, training them is going to be a bear. That’s G-3’s job to figure out.”

  “We don’t have the trainers,” Babak snapped. “Or the facilities. We’re going full out working up the dragons with trained Naval riders and one carrier!”

  “General, in a few weeks time, minimum, New Destiny is going to punch their fleet again,” Edmund replied, mildly. “What would you have us do? Sit on our asses in harbor and let the dragons that we have cover us? There are other harbors, other seaside towns. And the point to all of this is to stop their invasion force. We cannot do that from the harbor.” He looked around at them and shook his head.

  “You gentlemen are starting to learn why being a general is not all it’s cracked up to be. The enemy is called the enemy for a reason. They don’t stand up to be shot. They are working just as hard to make sure we cannot fight as we are working to figure out a way to fight. Or supposed to be working. General Babak, has your department been working on battle plans?”

  “There are, at most, three carriers against six,” Babak said, pointedly. “And they have those damned anti-dragon frigates. We’ve been looking at any number of scenarios. None of them bear any hope of success.”

  Edmund closed his eyes and shook his head, solemnly.

  “General, let me ask you something. Have you ever read any military histories?”

  “Well…” the general said, inhaling. “No. But the point isÑ”

  “The point, General, is that military history is replete with examples of inferior forces defeating, or at least stopping, superior forces.” Edmund steepled his fingers and rested them on his chin, his eyes closed. “General, you and your plans people come over to my quarters this evening. We’re going to have a little chat.” He opened his eyes again and shrugged. “If I have to learn you all one by one I will. General Hanour, your estimate on the point at which New Destiny will be ready to sail again.”

  “Well, technically, they could sail at any moment,” the intelligence officer said. “But we estimate they won’t do so for at least another two weeks. That is when all their ships will be done with storm repairs.”

  “Mr. Ennesby, when will the carriers be completed with their refit?”

  The shipyard engineer had not previously been invited to staff meetings. But since the staff did not have a representative from Buships, to Edmund’s secret delight, he’d pressed Ennesby into service.

  “Six days at present rate,” Ennesby said, looking at his notes. “But there’s another day to load the stores that had to be removed.”

  “And the dreadnoughts?”

  “More like nine days,” Ennesby said with a shrug. “More work to do and there’s a shortage of materials and trained personnel to work with what we’ve got. But since we’re not refitting their holds, just surface work, they can crew and load while we’re doing the final work.”

  “Those ships don’t even have crews,” the G-1 almost wailed. “Or captains. Or petty officers.”

  “Find them,” Edmund said. “Strip the merchant ships if necessary. I don’t care if you use a press-gang. Find them. We’re going to sail shorthanded. That’s a given. We’re still going to come out of the battle with at least a draw, probably a win. I know that because I don’t lose battles. Ever. And get it through your heads that you’re not going to lose them either.”

  * * *

  As the staff filed out Edmund continued looking at his briefing papers, only looking up when General Babak cleared his throat.

  “Yes, General?” Edmund said, mildly.

  “Admiral, I don’t think I can do this job,” Babak said, bluntly. “I didn’t want it in the first place. I’m a sailor. I can command a ship, but you were right, I don’t know the first damned thing about running a war. I want to demote to captain. The Corvallis’ XO is green as they come and there’s nobody else around that knows ships as well as I do.”

  Edmund leaned back and rubbed his head with his hand, sighing.

  “Request denied,” he said and raised his hand to forestall the immediate response. “Can you command a ship? Sure. You’re a good sailor. Okay. But I’ve met your deputy. And he’s no more trained for this than you are. I don’t put that on your shoulders, I put it on Bob Houser’s and to an extent Sheida’s. You guys should have been being trained in the theory at least before now. But the bottom line is that there’s nobody to replace you where you are. And you have at least gotten a grasp of what your job is. If I replaced you, your replacement would have to be told what operations are. You think you’re the lone ranger? I want a field command again. Not this… ‘North Atlantis Command’ nightmare. I want a regiment, maybe a battalion. I want to interact with soldiers and deal with their problems and train them up. And then use them in battle. It’s what I really love, not this…” He gestured at the paperwork in front of him. “Not this crap. But we go where we have to go and do what we have to do because that is what being in the military is about. And I said, ‘if I have to learn you one by one’ and I meant it. One of the things is, there used to be a term called ‘thinking outside the box.’ You know what I mean?”

  “No,” Babak said, sitting down.

  “Okay, in brief, what’s your current plan for a battle?”

  “We locate the enemy fleet, move in range, launch dragons and hope we can keep their dragons off of ours.”

  “Have you been looking at Vickie Toweeoo’s Silverdrake plan?” />
  “Quite a bit,” Babak said. “The problem is, if we put Silverdrake on the carriers, we lose space for Powells and our total bomb-load will drop by a huge fraction.”

  “Why are you basing them on the carriers?” Edmund asked.

  Babak shrugged and smiled.

  “Dragon. Carrier,” he said, gesturing with one hand and then the other then putting both together. “Dragon-carrier. That’s what they’re for.”

  “Uh, huh,” Edmund grunted. “Been talking to Vickie?”

  “No, sir,” Babak admitted. “I didn’t know you knew her.”

  “We’ve met,” Edmund replied. “What do you know about Silverdrake?”

  “They’re smaller than Powells, lighter, faster, more maneuverable and don’t have much endurance,” the G-3 replied.

  “More maneuverable,” Edmund pointed out. “How fast do you think the shipyards, hell, not even the shipyards, the ships’ crews, could put some sort of landing platform on the back of the ballista frigates?”

  “You’re thinking of sending them out on the frigates?”

  “I don’t know,” Edmund replied. “But it’s one possible answer. They don’t eat as much as the Powells but they’re going to cut into the frigates’ stores some. On the other hand, we’re going to be sending out supplemental resupply ships with the fleet this time. Okay, the Powells take off and they attack the fleet. How?”

  “Each division will be assigned a carrier to attack,” Babak said. “We’ll probably have them go in high to avoid the ballista ships.”

  “Why attack the carriers?” Edmund asked.

  “They’re the main threat from the fleet,” Babak pointed out.

  “Which are hard to destroy in the face of the anti-dragon frigates,” Edmund said, calmly. “You see what I’m driving at. Check your assumptions. Does taking out the carriers first work better than taking out the frigates? Do we carry enough bomb-load to fight a prolonged battle? Why have all the dragons scattered over the fleet? Why not concentrate the whole force on individual ships? Is there some way for the mer, delphinos or selkie to attack? Is there some optimum formation for our ships whereby they can give cover to the carriers, and each other? Circles? Squares? Staggered lines? What happens if they punch their invasion fleet at the same time as their main fleet? These are questions that your staff should be asking each other and you should be asking them. And then you get the answers, or the best guesses you can come up with.”