“As our anticipated departure date has been brought forward sir, I wonder if it might be appropriate for you to journey to the Jovian system on Tourmaline? We are, after all, the largest and most capable ship in your command.”
“Oh,” said Courage in surprise. “Well, that is arguably true, but I should get to Jupiter as soon as possible, and Valiant will be sailing in only twelve hours.”
“I'm certain Valiant is a most excellent ship sir,” said Wentzel nonchalantly, “but she is older than us, and she does not have the new Occular-7 multi control Holotank fitted. And as you are aware sir, the Occular-7 is a quantum leap forward in battlefield control technology, providing much needed real-time information to commanders quicker and more efficiently.”
“Err...yes.” He couldn’t think of anything else to say. The man’s patronising fawning was utterly repulsive.
“If you would find it useful, I have produced a detailed proposal that I can send to you…”
“Err…yes Captain. Thank you. I will give your report my utmost attention,” he held up his hand to forestall Wentzel from any more cringe-inducing statements. “At this precise instant, however, I need to meet with my aide, who I have learned has just arrived.”
“Of course, Admiral. If there is any…”
It took several more minutes to disengage from Wentzel’s cloying grasp. It was with some relief that he got back to his cabin on Valiant. He had no sooner arrived than the door alarm gave a ping. He punched ‘accept’ and two uniformed individuals, both with Commander’s tabs on their shoulders, stepped carefully in. They automatically lined up in front of his desk and saluted.
They presented quite a contrast. The man was a stranger to Courage. He was young, whipcord thin, with a healthy crop of extremely wavy hair. His eyes were wide apart, indicating both intelligence and imagination, and there was an ambitious air about his demeanour. At first glance it would have been easy to have him pegged as a ‘fast-track’ political appointee, possibly the scion of some well-connected family, serving his obligatory stint in the Confederation navy before being whisked up the ladder to something more lucrative, like the diplomatic corps, or even political office. However, there were little hints that the well-manicured professional image might be a facade. The way he held himself suggested a definite pride in the uniform he wore.
The female figure was definitely familiar. She was pushing middle age and, at first glance, seemed to be remarkable only for being unremarkable. A closer examination showed that every single one of her features was just a little off the norm. She was rather taller than average, and her body form a bit more thickset. Her hair was both a little lighter and a little longer than was currently fashionable. Her complexion was slightly rougher than usual, her gait more measured than was common, her features just a tiny bit lopsided. A casual observer might call her hard-faced, but the more discerning would have realised that was a consequence only of a wary look about her jaw and her eyes. Her uniform was a lighter shade than standard issue, suggesting long service, an observation confirmed by a plethora of service medals on her chest. Her name was Commander Sally Cromarty, she was very experienced and extremely determined, and Courage considered her to be one of the finest staff officers in the entire Confederation.
“Ah. Excellent! Welcome back Sally, it’s good to see you again.”
Sally Cromarty gave a tight smile and lowered her arm. The man, looking uncomfortable, continued to stand stiffly at attention. With a mutter under his breath Courage scrambled to his feet and returned the salute.
“And that’s the last time you do that in this office, when we are alone,” said Courage, holding out his hand. “Who might you be?”
“Err, yes sir,” said the Commander, shaking the proffered palm uncertainly. “Commander Thom Prince sir. I’ve been assigned as your aide.”
“Oh. I thought Sally – that is Commander Cromarty – was to be my aide?”
“She is sir,” said Prince.
Cromarty gave a polite cough. “Confederation naval HQ considered that the Jovian fleet was large enough to warrant two aides, so that you would be better able to control it.”
Courage grimaced. Of course. The Confederation navy might dither with strategy but they were absolutely red-hot on protocol. Probably there was an office somewhere dedicated to refining an algorithm that counted up ships, drones, crew, and a hundred other factors, and then used them to work out the rank of commanders, the number of aides and even how much office space they should be allocated.
“I see,” he said eventually. “Well, welcome aboard. I hope you will find your time under my command both instructive and enjoyable. Commander Cromarty has been my aide before. I’m sure she will be able to fill you in on how I like to operate.”
“Sir, Commander Cromarty and I arrived together on the same shuttle five days ago. We have used the time to discuss both past campaigns and this new assignment.”
“Oh good. Yes, good. That saves us some time.” Courage motioned to his subordinates. “At ease Commanders. Err…speak freely.”
Cromarty sat down immediately, Prince after a slight hesitation. He was obviously unused to this level of informality. Courage tried to think of something to say.
“So, what are your first impressions?”
Prince shifted in his seat. Cromarty cleared her throat. “The intelligence pack we were given was rather sparse,” she said carefully.
Courage picked up one of the vidscrolls cluttering his desk. “Yes. That’s why I’ve been concentrating on studying the economics, geography and demographics of the Jovian system. It’s about the only thing I can be reasonably sure won’t have altered by the time I get there. I don’t even have the full order of battle for the Jovian fleet yet.”
Prince coughed. “We have a complete roster sir. It was given to us to pass onto you.”
“What’s the matter with electronic transfer?”
Cromarty brought out the offending intelligence pack. “Security insisted on a physical transfer sir.”
Courage scanned the vidscroll. “It's a little worrying that the Virtue Strategy Board is loath to give out details of the fleet to its own commander.”
Prince grimaced. “Security must have a reason to be cautious, sir.”
Cromarty cocked her head. “It wouldn’t surprise me if the Trigs knew more about this operation than we do.”
Courage looked up, and Prince blinked. Sally was right of course, but it wasn’t done to say it out loud. Courage hoped she was ok. It had been a while since Mathilde.
“Have you two studied this in detail?” he asked instead.
“Yes sir,” said Prince.
“I will look into in more completely later, but can you give me a precis?”
Prince exchanged a glance with Cromarty, and then began. “As far as I can judge, when - and if - all of the promised vessels are fully concentrated, we will have about 2000 combat ready drones. That’s a considerable number, but it includes a higher proportion of older designs than is normal.”
“A higher proportion of lighter ones too,” interjected Cromarty.
Courage rubbed his jaw thoughtfully. “What about the ground based squadrons on the Jovian satellite bases?”
Prince’s face wrinkled. “Including the independent local defence forces, the Ganymede bases can muster somewhat over 300 drones, mostly older types like ‘Scythes’ and ‘Strikemasters’. Persephone can field about half that. Callisto’s contribution is negligible – they have about a dozen or so reconnaissance drones and a few trainers.”
Courage thrust out his lower lip. “Still, an extra 500 or so drones – that’s a pretty substantial addition to our strength. It’s the equivalent of having another large Fleet Depot ship.”
Cromarty gave a humourless grin. “Assuming, of course, that they can be got ready in time.”
“Say again?”
“The actual garrison complements were much lower only a few weeks ago sir. They have been reinforced in dribs and drab
s over the last few weeks. A couple of transports dropped off a large shipment of modern boxed up drones and link stations just two days ago, but it will take some time to get them fully operational.”
“It just gets better and better. Do we have an exact timeline on when they will be up to speed?”
“Two months, minimum.”
“Two months!”
“It could be longer. They’re starting from scratch on this set up sir. And techies are thin on the ground out here.”
Courage scratched his chin. “Hmm. Another factor we shall have to take into account.” He picked up another vidscroll and began to peruse it. “I don’t suppose the crews are going to be up to much either, stuck out here in the Jovian system for years on end.”
“I took the liberty of skimming through their service records sir. The majority of them have particularly long service records – pre-war regular navy - recruited when we had the time to train link warriors properly.”
Courage looked a question.
“There’s a chronic shortage of experienced link warriors,” explained Prince. “We are struggling to meet the needs of the expanded fleet program.”
“I know that,” said Courage. “That’s why, like many senior officers, I successfully lobbied to have the training programs expanded in tandem with new construction.”
“Yes sir, but what the official reports skip over is that to meet the new targets a lot of corners were cut on the training programs.”
Courage grimaced. “I suppose I shouldn’t be disappointed by that, but I am.” He made a few entries on his perscomp. “Well, that’s going to be a problem for the future. At least we don’t have too many absolute rookies. As for the warriors at the Jovian bases, at least they’ll have plenty of flight hours, even if they have hardly any combat experience.”
“That would be a pretty fair summation admiral,” said Cromarty.
There was a pause while everyone digested the information. Prince cleared his throat. “There is another point regarding personnel sir. I recall reading in the assignment pack that Coordinator Wentworth mentioned that the advent of the war had caused the reallocation of resources from quiet sectors like Jupiter? Well naturally sir, resources will have included Human resources. The best of the regulars will have been reassigned.”
“Ah,” said Courage. It was a factor he hadn’t considered. "How much of all this is common knowledge?"
Prince grimaced. "Amongst the general population, very little. The opposition is bound to know though. Counter-intelligence suspects Ganymede is rife with Trig spies."
Cromarty thumbed through vidscrolls. “I don’t see how it would be possible for them to know less about us than we know about them. As far as I can see, we have no idea at all what force they will employ and only an approximate date of when it will arrive.”
“If it arrives at all,” added Prince. “Intelligence isn't even certain there will be an attack.” Cromarty gave a snort of exasperation. Prince spread his arms. "Well it's very difficult to get information out of the League."
“True,” said Courage. “But that doesn’t help us here and now.”
He paused and perused the vidscrolls, trying to pick out patterns. “I think I can characterise this is as a lot of guesswork over very little hard fact. However, I think we can safely assume that if the Trigs do attack the force they deploy will be larger and more powerful than us.”
Cromarty leant back. “So we are fighting against the odds again? How utterly unsurprising.”
Was there a hint of reproach mixed in with the sarcasm? He supposed he had been very selfish dragging her into this. He sauntered over to his old-fashioned bookshelf and checked some volumes that obviously needed no adjustment.
“It’s hardly surprising,” Prince intervened. “The war is intensifying. Over half the middle solar system is an active war zone now. Confederation forces are heavily stretched. Every command is screaming for resources.”
Courage considered. This Commander Prince seemed to be well up on affairs.
“Well,” he said after a pause, “this one is going to be tight.”
Cromarty looked decidedly disgusted. “It’s worse than that sir. This is a shambles. It’s downright unfair to ask the navy to take this on. It’s not fair to this fleet and it’s not fair to you.”
Courage adjusted his bookcase again. “You know I’m a student of military history Sally. I can’t, off hand, think of any battle or campaign where the commander had all the troops, equipment and resources they would have liked to have. Wars are fought with what is available, not with what is ideal. We shall just have to manage.”
“But every possible combination works to our disadvantage here sir,” protested Cromarty. “If this is a raid, we risk getting crushed. If it’s the prelude to a major invasion, we will certainly be getting crushed!”
Courage sighed. “Your logic is flawless Commander, but fortunately logic isn’t the ultimate arbiter. There are other factors.”
Prince looked puzzled. Cromarty looked at him closely.
“Do you have a plan sir?” she said at last.
Courage could not restrain a smile. He had been right to insist on Sally Cromarty as his aide after all. “I have the beginning of one. Just the beginning you understand – at the moment it’s little more than a collection of ideas. There is still a lot of work to be done.” His mouth twitched. “And I suppose we had better make a start.”
He hauled himself up. His subordinates picked up the change of pace and came to attention. Courage faced them. “Commander Prince? I want every scrap of information we have on current and possible future Triangle fleet deployments – facts, suppositions and conjecture. Pump VSB for all they have. Get as much as you can directly from Intelligence, but I’ll settle for anything. And raw data too. We’ll sieve it out ourselves.”
He turned to Cromarty. “Now Sally. Get in touch with every vessel that has been assigned to us. I want a full and completed inventory from every one. And I mean everything, from personnel rosters and equipment to status of repairs and stores.”
“Might I suggest a personal assessment from each Captain too?”
Courage’s heart sank. He caught Cromarty’s little smile, and mostly managed to hide his distaste, but only ‘mostly’. He noticed her lips widen just a fraction in reaction.
“Good idea,” he somehow managed. “You go over them and remove all the padding and self-serving justifications before passing them onto me though.”
Cromarty had time for one broad grin before she saw Courage’s glare. “Yes sir.”
Prince broke in. “Sir, would it not be advisable to press VSB for more resources? I mean, as in more ships and squadrons?”
Courage frowned. “I have been informed that extra vessels may be available ‘if the situation develops’.”
“That probably means when it will be too late,” said Cromarty.
“VSB say they have nothing more to give, and frankly I believe them,” responded Courage. “I’ve been checking current Fleet dispositions. They are scraping the bottom of the barrel as it is. I don’t think there is much chance of us getting anything else of substantial value. In any case, we can hardly base our strategy on what might become available. We shall have to draw up plans based on what we have.”
“If we don’t ask we certainly won’t get,” Prince pointed out.
“If we don’t ask they might even think we have too much and take some off us,” Cromarty said pragmatically.
Courage was nonplussed. “Very well, go ahead and ask. But we will assume that what we have is all we are going to get.”
“Should I get reports from the Jovian military bases too?” said Prince.
“Certainly, and from the dockyards at Ganymede, Persephone and even Callisto as well. We may need to make some emergency adjustments to the ships we do have.”
Prince accepted this last statement blandly, but Cromarty blanched slightly.
“Something the matter Sally?”
&n
bsp; “No, sir, it’s just that I remember the last time you made some ‘emergency adjustments’.”
“And?”
Cromarty shifted slightly. “They were very…extensive sir.”
“Yes, well, it was necessary then, and I suspect it will be even more necessary now. However, you will have Commander Prince here to help you out.”
Cromarty smiled. “Yes sir.”
He found himself smiling too. Prince looked nonplussed.
“Thank you Commanders. That will be all.”
The two saluted. Prince turned to leave. Cromarty stood still. “Permission to speak with you privately sir?”
“Certainly Commander Cromarty.” He motioned to Prince. “Commander Prince? Thank you.”
Prince saluted again, and left.
“What is it Sally?” Courage said quietly when they were alone.
“Sir, I wanted to personally thank you for requesting me as your aide.”
“It was an easy decision Sally. You’re good at your job.”
“Thank you sir, but the Admiralty does not share your opinion. They’ve had me beached for most of the past year, doing admin work in Fleet HQ.”
“Yes, well, I’ve not had much to do myself since the court-martial.” He shuddered at the memory. “At least the press seems to have lost interest.”
“Ah. Well, I did have one reporter buttonhole me when I left home last week. Asking inane questions about working with you, was I sorry about what happened, would we do better this time…that kind of thing.”
Courage looked at her. She looked terribly vulnerable. He shifted slightly.
“Tell me the truth Sally. No, better than that. Tell yourself the truth. Were the decisions we made the right ones? Leave aside the personal consequences of what happened – I’m sure neither of us would have wanted to go through that – but the actual decisions themselves. Did we make the right choices then, knowing what we did?”
“Yes,” admitted Cromarty, in a small voice. “We did. It’s just…well…I know it’s wrong to second-guess yourself, but it’s very hard not to when things turn out so badly.”
The Jovian Sweep (Asteroid Scrabble Book 1) Page 9