Druid ran a hand over his face. He could tell already that this was going to be one very long day. Blast the Admiral for running off and dumping this mess right in his lap!
He activated his com-link. “Cancel my appointments for the rest of the day,” he sighed to his Chief of Staff, “something…no, several somethings have come up.”
Chapter 14: Arrive at Core-World for MDL meeting
“That’s a lot of ships,” Captain Laurent said, his voice sounding a little shaky to my mind.
“An entire Sector is a big place. If you can rally it together,” I said archly, “and here we don’t just have the assembled might of one Sector, but two of them united in the certain knowledge that the droids are coming for them. And still they only are able to rally together eight Battleships for the common defense.”
“Eight Battleships doesn’t look that small to me,” Laurent said gesturing to the entire Fleet assembled by the Mutual Defense League.
I paused and then nodded.
“It’s going to be a chore and a half getting the warships of a dozen and a half worlds working together as one big happy Fleet,” I said as I considered the difficulties that lay ahead for the Fleet Commander, “but with this level of firepower I think we just might have a chance and,” I added, “more contingents have arrived even since we’ve been in system. They were only Corvettes and Destroyers from some of the smaller worlds but even so, it’s not outside of the realm of possibility that more ships of the wall could arrive.”
“Eight Battleships, eighteen Cruisers of various sizes, half again as many Destroyers and almost double that in Corvettes, armed merchant freighters, and assorted other lighter warships,” Laurent said, verbally running down the list of ships shown on the main screen as if I were somehow unaware of the numbers.
“Your point?” I asked looking down at him.
“That’s a lot of ships,” he replied simply.
“Something of which I am well aware,” I said with a frown.
Laurent sighed and then shook his head reluctantly. “I expected a smaller Fleet, one where we would make up a significant fraction of its strength,” he said, looking like a man about to deliver bad news.
I didn’t like where he was going.
“But with two full squadrons of Battleships and a full-fledged fleet of lesser ships, I’m not so sure that they’ll let you take command as easy as all that. I don’t care what Kong Pao has promised, Confederation Admiral or not there are just too many powerful interests here for things to go smoothly,” he continued unhappily. “I hope I’m wrong, but…” he trailed off.
I drew in air through one nostril, starting to feel my temper rise and then I snorted. “You could be right…heck, you probably are right—almost certainly,” I said trailing off before giving a rueful smile, “and I’m not saying I won’t put myself forward as Fleet Commander if they asked me to do it. But, that said, the important thing here isn’t my ego, or any other ego for that matter. The point is to stop the Droids from conquering more worlds and, if possible, crush their fleet and liberate the millions now laboring under Droid Rule.”
“You’re taking this a lot better than I thought you would, if I may say so, sir,” Laurent said.
“I believe you just did say it,” I smirked, “but semantics aside, we’re here to save lives and I’m not about to let anything come in between us and that goal if I can help it.”
Laurent gave me a long look, tinged with something I couldn’t describe. It went on longer than I expected until I intuited what he was so hung up on.
“We’re going to have to deal with politicians and their ingratitude and broken promises wherever we go. I won’t forget them, or allow them to push us around any longer, no matter how important they think they are. But you’ll notice that while I refused to give into their high handed demands back at Mu-Heracles, I didn’t stop you from covertly assisting their SDF forces in driving those Droids out of their star system. I am determined to be principled, yet practical.”
Laurent pursed his lips and nodded. “I couldn’t have stood by while those artificials destroyed that system, not if there was something I could have done about it.”
“And did I stop you?” I inquired mildly.
The Captain chuckled. “No, I guess you didn’t,” he agreed ruefully.
I laughed along with him and then turned deathly serious. “Just remember, Captain,” I said, my countenance taking on a grim demeanor, “that there is more than one way to skin a cat. And if I find any ungrateful dictatorships willfully endangering their people, leaving them open to conquest and machine rule….” I trailed off with a significant look in his direction.
The Flag Captain looked appalled.
“Being willing to do anything to save a Star System cuts both ways,” I said into the unhappy silence, “it doesn’t just mean accepting otherwise unacceptable levels of humiliation, lack of cooperation, and danger because of intractable System Officials.”
“We can’t just throw away the rule of law, sir!” Laurent declared with passion. “Otherwise we’d be no better than the pirates we’re fighting!”
“The law provides many pathways that we can, and will, stay within,” I said sympathetically before deliberately hardening my voice. “For instance, the ability to take charge of local System and Sector forces for joint defense against invasion, as well as the ability to declare Martial Law. But even disregarding those entirely legal options—in fact, some would argue they are not just options, but requirements for our position—there is one key difference between our organization and pirates.” I leaned in towards the other man, “We aren’t going around preying on civilians, taking civilian-owned goods for our own and selling the crews as slaves in black ports. Nor do pirates come running every time a world or group of worlds come begging for help.”
“You’re walking a thin line there, sir,” Laurent, said looking me square in the eye. “Very thin; you need to be careful you don’t fall over the wrong side of it, Admiral.”
“So long as the leaders of the Spine put their people first, there won’t be an issue,” I said dismissively. “That line’s only applicable if and when they put other things, like protecting their positions by screwing us over, above the needs of their people.”
“You know where I stand, Admiral,” Laurent said firmly, “I’m here to fight the good fight and protect our homes.”
“As am I, Captain,” I agreed, knowing it was true, but also knowing that it was just that over time my idea of the good fight had changed. Well, not so much ‘changed’ as ‘grown.’ I was still willing to throw myself on a grenade for the people; it was simply that I was tired of taking the grenades tossed at me by the various local rulers. At this point I was just about ready to declare the move and say that ‘fighting the good’ fight meant throwing those grenades right back at those rulers twice as fast and twice as hard. If they happened to die in the resulting explosion instead of me, then that was just their cost of doing business. As they say, ‘let he who is without sin cast the first stone, because that very same stone on the return throw could knock your head off.’
I could almost feel the skeptical look aimed at my back as I turned away, but I deliberately ignored it. Looking out at the dead system that used to be Sector 24’s Sector Central, before the Droid’s smashed through it, my face hardened. This is why we fight, I reminded myself, to stop things like this from happening throughout the rest of human space.
If I had to curb stomp a few faithless System Officers along the way in order to stop this from happening again…
“Sir, I have a communication from the Battleship Bellicose; you are being invited to the Grand Council Meeting later on this afternoon,” reported the Operator manning the Communication’s Console.
“Tell them I’ll be there,” I assured the Operator.
“Aye sir,” replied the man at Communications.
The blast doors leading onto the bridge cycled open and Kong Pao came striding in.
“Admiral, I was hoping we could talk,” said the Representative.
“Of course,” I said smoothly, shooting Laurent a knowing look before motioning the Sector Judge over to the ready room.
Entering the room, I motioned for Kong Pao to take a seat while I walked around the table and sat down in my chair.
“What’s on your mind?” I inquired, not wanting to give away the advantage by bruiting about my suspicions.
The Sector Judge cleared his throat. “I wanted to speak with you and tell you that if you haven’t already, you are about to get an invitation to a Grand Council meeting of all the joint forces from two Sectors,” he said.
I nodded, “I’ve already received the invitation and am looking forward to meeting the others. Was there anything else?”
A brief, distressed expression flitted across his face before settling on what looked like a fairly genuine smile. “There will be a number of Captains, Commanders and Admirals from various worlds in our beleaguered Sectors. To have so many powerful ships committed to a mutual defense is heartening to say the least,” he said with passion.
“It’s heartening that they recognize the need for a unified fleet working as one, instead of every world for itself, to defeat the Droid threat,” I hinted.
The unhappiness in his affect returned before smoothing back over. “I will do everything I can in order to put you forward as the best, least controversial, Fleet Commander we could possibly have at this time of dire threat,” Kong Pao said with a deep bow that hid his face from my sharp look.
“Didn’t you request the MSP put aside our own vital commitments in Sector 25 in order to come and lead your forces to victory against the Droids, or am I misremembering our conversations?” I asked quietly.
“Never doubt how much we need you, Admiral Montagne,” the Ambassador from the Mutual Defense League said quickly.
“And yet, after a multi-week odyssey—one that included fighting our way through multiple droid invasion forces to get to this meeting—I am faced with what some would call severe scorn and ingratitude from planetary leaders along the way. But now that we’ve held up our end of the bargain and are finally here, you begin waffling on our prior agreements,” I said, giving him a stern level look, “or do I have you wrong?”
“I was given the job of getting whatever military support as I could and as many warships. I did this to the best of my abilities. Now that this duty is completed, I will turn all my efforts and all my powers to fulfilling the promises I have made on behalf of my world and the League,” the Representative said with another deep bow, “you have my word on it.”
“Your word,” I repeated, my face remaining carefully neutral. It seemed that I had the word of a politician. What could possibly go wrong with that? “Then I suppose that will have to be good enough for now, as neither I nor my men are willing to turn our backs on the innocent people of these Sectors. I would just remind you that we have acted only in good faith and, to this point, completely on your behalf.”
“That is something I swear is recognized and appreciated,” said the Representative in what should have been a soothing reassurance, and yet the more he bowed and attempted to sooth my worries, the less I found myself reassured, “and in addition to that which I have personally promised to do which is within my sole power and authority, I will work tirelessly to present your case as the rightful Supreme Admiral of the Mutual Defense League Fleet.”
“Supreme Admiral? No, Judge Kong,” I said shaking my head, “I am merely a Vice Admiral in the Confederation Fleet.”
His disappointment was back in full force, as I would expect from anyone whose normal job—that of a Sector Judge—relied upon the authority vested in him by the Confederation. With him being a Judge, I didn’t even need to point out that I ‘supposedly’ had the full rights and authority under Confederation Law to take control of the defense of these two Sectors.
Of course, that right and authority to do anything mattered very little, unless you had the power to back it up—another reason I wasn’t pressing the point.
“Everything within my power shall be done,” repeated the Judge.
“The Multi-Sector Patrol Fleet appreciates your efforts, I’m sure,” I murmured.
“You can rely on me,” swore the Representative.
Chapter 15: Meetings in Ernest
Walking into another battleship, especially one of a different design from the Dreadnaught Class, was eye opening. Seeing the various crewmembers going about their tasks had me looking up and down corridors and taking notes.
But, being led to what looked like a converted Mess Hall and then forced to wait as half a dozen other Captains, Commodore and Admirals were introduced and then seated before me, was irksome.
I firmly reminded myself that one of the greatest risks a Commander or politician for that matter could make was to buy into his own propaganda. My saying I was a Confederation Admiral was one thing, but showing up with a less powerful taskforce than this dozen other Fleet leaders with Battleships at their beck and call, or at least appearing less powerful was another, and it was that particular ‘other’ which had me placed at the end of the line. I gave a shark-like smile as I considered just how much of a surprise the Furious Phoenix would be to anyone expecting to deal with a ‘mere’ cruiser.
Well, in all honestly, I suppose I wasn’t the end of the line. I was actually somewhere toward the front, but as far as I could tell the officers behind me were of junior rank and probably the semi-independent commanders of lighter units, or groups of lighter units.
“Now entering is Admiral Block! Master and Commander of the Lee Dong Defense Fleet and Battleship, Jiāozhàn,” the announcer, whoever he was, said stoutly as a portly looking, dark-skinned man with epicanthic folds strode importantly through the doors.
“Don’t see many Hard-Rad survivors these days, I mean not mixing it up with us regular folk,” muttered Commander in an elaborate SDF uniform several places behind me.
“Block’s from a small ethnic minority on his home world—or, rather, home system; Hard-Rad’s mostly hang out with Belters and such,” muttered his neighbor.
“I heard he’s famous back home…or infamous, take your pick. They say the Jiāozhàn had a major drive core leak and every officer on board her died before making it back home. He alone survived because Hard-Rad’s can eat radiation doses for breakfast that would kill the rest of us,” whispered a third, “the story I got is that, under their ranking system, he was automatically promoted to ship commander. That was the start of his career.”
“Yeah, well—” the first man cut back in right before the door swung open once again and it was my turn to be announced.
“Vice Admiral Montagne, of the Multi-Sector Patrol Fleet in command of the Cruiser, Furious Phoenix!” declared the Announcer in an almost bored voice.
An ensign appeared at my elbow and gestured me toward a seat at the table.
A quick sweep of the room revealed that all the other Admirals had an Aid or high-ranking Officer at their elbow—generally a chief of staff or flagship captain as best I could tell.
I snorted wryly; it seemed the political games had begun before I even boarded my shuttle, as I’d been instructed not to bring an assistant to the meeting because of limited seating with so many ship and fleet commanders present.
I smoothly took the indicated seat, my features schooling themselves into an impassive, royal mask. Seeing the name holders in front of the seats—one of them listing the owner as High Captain—it seemed that Combat power was the deciding factor on your perceived importance here. Which was fine, and happened to be the way I would have wanted this meeting run even, except for one quibbling minor little detail, that I seemed to have been relegated to the second tier.
“Looks rather young,” a portly Admiral with red cheeks and a jovial attitude about him guffawed to another Officer offset to the side of me, “they say he’s all the way from 25, but I’ve never heard of him—or the Multi-Sector P
atrol Fleet.”
A sharp glance indicated he was indeed talking about me.
“We had a unit it in before the collapse,” replied his seat mate, whose name tag called him a Grand Admiral, and either ignoring or indifferent to the fact I was staring at the two of them while they spoke about me, “it was a stopgap organization placed under Imperial Admiral Janeski, set up by the Confederated Empire right after they started yanking the Rim Fleet. We pulled out, of course, as soon as things went to Hades and no one could raise the Imperial Admiral. I’ve no idea who this young officer is. Maybe he’s Janeski’s representative, come to get us to send ships back for his fleet?”
I could feel my pupils contract and then dilate as the fact that these Officers thought the most likely scenario revolved around me being here as Janeski’s representative or sort of stooge or proxy.
I hid the flash of anger behind a royal mask, reminding myself that they knew almost nothing about what had taken place when they yanked their ships out of the MSP except that I was here. The fact that I was highly insulted to be thought of as answering to Rear Admiral Janeski—especially after the way he’d up and abandoned everyone on the Clover and then set my own Security Officer out to assassinate me—had to take second seat to reality.
But for the men at hand, aside from the way they were insulting me by talking about me as if I weren’t even present, they weren’t doing anything worthy of my upset. From their perspective, they were making the most logical assumptions they could.
I still wanted to set them straight about my relation to the good Imperial Admiral—the same one who had helped bombard my home world earlier on in his life, insulted me almost daily when I’d been his figurehead, and then tried to have me killed—but I held my piece…for the moment.
More officers were announced and then escorted to their seats before an imposing man in a well decorated SDF uniform.
Admiral Invincible (A Spineward Sectors Novel: Book 7) Page 15