by Chris Hechtl
“Sorry I asked,” he muttered. “I'm for bed,” he said.
“We need to work on carriers. They'll need more fighters and bombers,” Lewis warned.
“Work on shipping them out. Or, see if we can divert them from Finagle or one of the satraps in Sigma. Send them direct to Garth. Just make sure the good duchess knows to keep her grimy paws to herself,” Theo growled.
“To be honest, I've read the reports from my people. She's turned over a new leaf it seems. She's even forwarded fighters and material she's hoarded for decades and not the crap either,” the countess said as she got up and stretched, then paced the room.
“Well, there is a first for everything I suppose,” Ahab muttered. “She's more of a pirate than I ever was!”
That earned a tired chuckle from the group.
“She's doing it to keep the fighting from spilling over onto her doorstep. And, I suppose your little discussion with the prime minister didn't hurt,” Malwin said.
The countess turned to him and raised an eyebrow in mild inquiry. He snorted. “I have my sources too you know,” he drawled. She nodded once.
“Point. I'm off to bed. I've got a meeting with my people over the Xi reports in the morning,” the countess said as she headed for the door. “I suggest you all do the same,” she said.
“Just as soon as I make sure we've got those ships off and running smoothly,” Malwin grumbled as Theo got up. “Headed off?”
“Head, yes.”
Malwin frowned but then realization dawned as Theo headed not for the exit but for a different door. He snorted when the other man entered and didn't quite close the door. He heard the familiar sounds of a bladder unloading and snorted.
“And on that note, I think I'll toddle off. Let me know how it goes,” Ahab said. He patted Lewis on the shoulder in passing. “Coming?”
“In a moment,” he said with a nod.
“I'm going,” Malwin said, rising and chasing his coffee cup down then setting it down on the desk. “Write up the fighter request—ordinance, the works. Run it through your staff and fighter command to see what we've missed.”
“Aye aye, sir,” Lewis said, making a note on his tablet as Theo came out of the head wiping his hands on a disposable towel. “If there isn't anything else …”
“Go on,” Malwin said by way of dismissal. “My wife is going to be ticked that I'm out as it is.”
“I know. I wanted to talk to you about that, but I suppose it can keep for another day. Tomorrow?” Theo said. Malwin barely suppressed a yawn and nodded.
“Tomorrow is another day indeed. Night.”
:::{)(}:::
The following morning Malwin looked up as a familiar face came into his office. His yeoman blinked and then paled slightly. “Sorry, sir, I thought you were done and well …,” he indicated the minister of war.
“I'll definitely consider my options carefully, Contessa; don't you worry. And I know where my duties ultimately lie. Please pass on my assurances there. The minister is here, so I'll discuss it with him in a moment. Yes, good day,” he said as he cut the channel and hung up.
“Politics?” Theo asked as he took an indicated seat.
“Yes. I'll tell you about it in a moment,” Malwin said. “Jeff, I told you to knock first. And next time check the switchboard to see if I'm on the phone.”
“Yes, sir. Sorry, sir. It won't happen again.”
“It better not,” the praetor growled. He looked at his guest. “Can we get you anything, sir?” he asked in a more polite tone of voice.
“No, I'm good,” Theo replied with a flick of his hand.
“I'm okay for the moment too. We'll let you know if we need anything, Jeff.”
“Very good, sir,” the yeoman said as he withdrew.
Once he was gone, Malwin sat back and shook his head.
“Fun day?”
“Only the usual.”
“Contessa?”
“She's … a pain in the ass.”
“Ah. That Contessa,” Theo replied with a small chuckle as he sat back. “Better you than me. She knows better than to try lording it up with me.”
“Lucky you,” Malwin replied sourly.
“Too late,” Malwin murmured.
Theo just shook his head.
“You heard about Wrong way Wong and Courageous?”
Rear Admiral Nioma “Wrong way Wong” was one of the gray admirals near retirement. He was a member of the Wong clan and had risen through the ranks of the fighter pilots to eventually take on carrier command. He was well respected in the fighter community.
“No. Now what? He's been rather quiet; I wondered when he'd get into this.”
“He is insisting on the honor of combat. I got the message this morning. Apparently, Skull Squadron put a petition together. Enough of them signed it for him to feel comfortable bidding to go to Dead Drop.”
“Well, it's about time! Why the bid though?”
“They are supposedly an elite unit. They can pretty much pick and choose their missions.”
“True,” Theo grumbled. “But they want in. That's a good sign.”
“It is. And I keep reminding myself not to be giddy over the idea of deploying them.”
“Why?”
“They may have some of the best and strongest fighters in our inventory; I think half of the squadron is made up of E class fighters …”
The minister of war's eyes brightened at that reminder. He suddenly remembered seeing the flights of Eliminator, Executor, and Emperor Class fighters during air shows in the past. Skull Squadron ignored the other E class fighters in favor of those three. It made sense; it reduced their logistics issues and kept some conformity in the wing. Malwin put a restraining hand up though, stopping him from saying anything. The minister's eyes darkened somewhat.
“But, they are in a carrier. The carrier itself is vulnerable to enemy action.”
“Still, one of the biggest problems is finding a way to offset the enemy's advantages in hardware. Using them would go a long way to blunt their attack. It could give them pause and buy us more time.”
“Agreed. As I said though, as long as the carrier is intact. She hasn't been deployed outside of Horath in what, seventy, no, eighty years?”
“They received the latest refits, right?”
“Yes, but we still haven't gotten around to learning how to do a full refit on the hyperdrive or hyper sensors themselves. We're taking them on faith for something that big.”
“Oh.”
“I was also made aware that their loss would be detrimental to morale,” the praetor said.
Theo stilled. “By whom?” he finally asked.
“The emperor's staff a moment before you came in. That was who I was talking to.”
“Ah. Trust him to find out.”
“It wasn't exactly a secret. I've been so caught up in trying to get the other reinforcements moving I missed the chatter apparently.”
“Well, at least they are having an upsurge in patriotism. Unless …,” Theo grimaced as a sudden thought occurred to him.
“What?”
“Nothing hopefully, but I realized once they are outside this system they are outside the emperor and our control. Which means they could go anywhere.”
“Ah,” Malwin replied with a nod as he caught on. “You think they might desert?”
“It's a possibility. They have families here though. Ties.”
“That hasn't stopped some from doing it in the past,” Malwin stated. “Our people have a rather overabundance of self-interest,” he said dryly.
“True. I'll do some digging.”
“I will as well. But I'm going to sign off on the movement.”
“I will as well. You better facilitate it. Get them underway quickly before certain parties can dig in their heels and really pitch a snit.”
“Yeah, don't remind me,” Malwin said dryly.
“How goes your protégée?” Theo asked.
“How … which one?” Malwi
n asked, eyes narrowed in sudden wariness.
“Peace,” Theo replied. “I'm talking about a certain female member of the Varbossa clan. There has been a lot of talk about how you gush all about her. I understand you slipped her onto the next promotions list.”
“And I got a thank you from the Varbossa family. They said they owe me one. I intend to collect on it, but I didn't do it for them. And she hasn't gotten her star yet,” Malwin said. “As far as I know, she's fine—overworked but fine.”
Theo coughed delicately in his hand.
“No, I'm not seeing her on the side if you think that's what this is about,” Malwin growled.
“I wasn't going to bring it up but there has been talk in certain circles too. And I understand your wife has been making inquiries. She's also been sniffing around to find a way to pass on a message to the young woman to back off on her end I gather.”
“Frack,” Malwin muttered. “She always is the jealous type.”
“Possessive. She wants to hang onto power and prestige.”
“Well, one of them. My clan is rather tarnished at the moment. Yours too if I remember correctly,” Malwin said, giving his superior a look.
“Point. So if it isn't …?”
“It isn't. She's just damn good at engineering, and we need that. We need to find ways to redress the balance. We're in a crack, so any tool I can find and use I will.”
“She's that good?”
“She's the one that suggested sending some of the Gather Fleet to Garth. She's also streamlined a lot of the refit process. Her section is the model for everyone else in the yards. And on top of that, she's involved heavily in the R&D Departments. She's a synergist. Think of Vinatelli but in uniform and female.”
Theo frowned and then nodded slowly. “So, you are nurturing her for the good of the service.”
“Yes. And the empire. She's not quite politically tone deaf but she has a tendency to bull through issues with a single-minded intensity when she knows she is right and sees a fix for a problem. It is maddening to see her jump from one project to the next. Admittedly, she does it when one bogs down, but wow.”
“Multitasking too. Huh,” Theo murmured.
“Right. She works on designs for fighters and small craft and right up to our super dreadnoughts. I've done some digging; a lot of our advances in production can be traced to her. I'd send her to El Dorado, or hell, a tour of the industrial plants outside of Horath to get her to rethink them, but I don't want to burn the time and lose her services here.”
“Ah. No, not when we've got the enemy bearing down on us.”
“Right. Exactly my point,” Malwin said with a nod.
“Still, I'd find a way to distance your actions a bit. Preferably before your wife or someone in her family does something we'd both regret. You know, like have someone kill the competition?” Malwin grimaced suddenly and fiercely. “We don't need or want a clan war between families.”
“I know. I'll talk to her. Try to reason with her.”
“Good luck with that,” Theo drawled.
“I was going to have another sit down with Elvira.”
“On a first name basis now?” Theo asked.
“You know what I mean. Sometimes …,” Malwin shook his head. “When I go in there with her, I pick up on her enthusiasm. She sees the problems, but she finds ways to work around them or solve them. Usually with the stuff we've got and we aren't seeing at the time.”
“I see.”
“I really hate to give her a star and pull her away from doing that but she needs the rank to get others to start listening to her more. And we're deficient in engineering. We've got plenty of shooters but not enough people who can build. Not at least like we should.”
“Okay. You sold me.”
“No, no I haven't. But, I suggest instead of me having a sit down with her, you take a couple hours out of your busy schedule and do so.”
“What, and get me in trouble with my wife too?” Theo asked. Both men chuckled.
:::{)(}:::
Catherine was still unhappy about the political situation, but she had one spot of good news on the horizon. Her work on Admiral Wong had paid off; the old dinosaur had been fired up by patriotism and had decided to throw his hat into the ring. That was great. Cyrano could really use Skull Squadron to offset the Federation's advantages in fighters and bombers.
And she hadn't had to sleep with the old dinosaur, which was always a plus. It had taken a little bit of a whisper campaign, some strokes to his ego, then a blow to his patriotism when she had shown him images of the enemy fighters in action. That had stoked his sense of competition and full patriotism going enough for him to commit to action just as she'd hoped.
Courageous was a full fleet carrier. She wouldn't go alone either, she'd take her supports and escorts with her. And, she would spark a competition between the other elite fighter units. She could well imagine they would start to talk among themselves about how Skull Squadron got dibs. Some might not want leftovers but others would want to share in the glory too.
That was the good news. The problems in the palace were the most serious detriment to her plans. Everything filtered down from there, and for some it was politics as usual. She was tempted to throw in with those trying to do some good but she didn't want her father seeing it and doing anything stupid. No, she had to bide her time and do what she could from where she was on the sidelines without rocking the boat any further than she already had.
:::{)(}:::
Elvira rubbed her brow as she considered the latest problem. The ship architects were right … and they were wrong. They wanted everything nice, neat, and orderly, and that wasn't how refitting a ship worked. Refits were messy. You had to pick through repairs the crew had made, sometimes without a manual or the person who did the repair on hand. Tearing it out and running problems down were normal. It was nice to see things on a computer screen, but rarely did it work in practice.
That was why she had started to listen to those doing the actual work and picking their brains before she tackled a problem. It was how she had streamlined some of the bottlenecks in the process, though the latest one wasn't going to have an easy fix. Far from it. It was also going to involve decisions far above her pay grade she had to admit.
“Ma'am, you have a visitor,” a PO said over the intercom.
“Where is Kathy?” she asked before she hit the button and repeated the question.
“On a lunch break. The admiral is going in now,” was all the warning the PO gave her before her door opened.
Hastily she rushed to her feet as she looked at the clock. He was a few minutes early. She kicked herself mentally; she'd totally lost track of the time. She didn't even have time to finger comb her hair and felt dreadfully embarrassed as a man entered her cluttered office. But it wasn't the admiral she was expecting.
“Admiral Rico!” she said, eyes wide as she came to attention.
“Am I disturbing you, Captain?” Theo asked mildly.
“Not at all, sir. I was expecting Admiral Cartwright though …?”
“He asked me to sit in. I understand you've been helping him conceptualize problems,” the admiral stated. “Do you mind?” he asked, indicating the one guest chair that didn't have samples of some sort piled on it.
“Oh … yeah, um, sorry about the mess …”
“You've been working. I get it. Malwin said you are something of a techno nerd. I see he wasn't kidding,” he said, looking around the office. There were a few images of people but most of the walls were covered in diagrams and printouts or 3D models. There were shelves everywhere with more printed parts, plus bins with stuff. A 3D printer was working in an open closet.
“Sorry,” she murmured, using her foot to sweep aside a scale model of a wiring jig as she shut the closet door. “Better?” she asked as the noise from the printer was muffled.
“I don't know how you can stand it.”
“I installed filters for the smell. Sorry if …”
/>
“No, the noise.”
“Oh. I … sorta forgot. I came charging in here with an idea and well …,” she shrugged helplessly. “How can I help you, sir?” she asked, clearing clutter from her desk.
He snorted as she swept some of the detritus from her lunch into the overflowing waste basket. “It's okay,” he soothed her. “What are you working on?” he asked, clearly interested in what she had to say.
“Well, I was working with electricians to replace electrical data communication lines with fiber optics,” she stated slowly. He nodded and made a go on motion with one hand. “The fiber optics aren't that hard to produce, but we've had issues with the electronic side for years.” He grimaced and nodded.
“That is why a lot of the ships the Gather Fleet brings in are stripped. We've used them for parts but turned many of those ships into hangar queens.” He nodded again. “But, that wasn't enough so some went to using old-fashioned technology that could be reliably produced. Part of the problem we've had is the stupid stuff in the old ships. Signal amplifiers fail over time. A signal amplifier takes the weak signal generated by the transmitter and punches it up so it can overcome the resistance in the wires to get the signal to the receiver, sometimes through kilometers of wiring,” she explained. He nodded. He'd had some time in the fleet so he knew a little bit about the subject. “Wires tend to crack and break. Fittings too, and sometimes they become loose and can cause noise bleed, which can disrupt a signal.” She continued and then grimaced.
“What?”
“One of the worst I've been told is trying to run down an intermittent issue. They can come up at the damnedest times. You don't want that, particularly in a warship.”
“Definitely not in hyper,” Theo replied. He shivered ever so slightly and wondered how many of their ships were lost to something so simple as a broken wire.
“Exactly!” She nodded eagerly, eyes bright. “One of the worst is a split in the wire.” She went over to a display she had and put it on her desk in front of them. She pointed to a wire at the bottom. “It looks like an ordinary wire, right? If you hook up the probes, it says it’s fine.” She demonstrated that with the multimeter built into the display. “But, if you bend it …,” she proceeded to bend the wire. The signal was instantly lost. “See? There is no break in the sheathing, but there is in the wire itself. It causes an intermittent contact. Whenever the wire stretches or is bent, it breaks the contact. These sorts of things are a stone-cold bitch to run down. We've run into our share in the yard,” she said with a shake of her head. “And I admit, they happen in ODN too. If someone tries to bend or stretch a cable more than they should, we run into this. Sometimes it isn't caught until the ship leaves port.”