by Britt Ringel
He cleared his throat before resuming. “As you all know, I’ve been assigned to take command of the destroyer escort, Kite.”
The destroyer was approximately four times the size of Anelace but still a small fish in the big pond of Black Space ships in the fleet. As a dedicated destroyer escort, her mission was simple: protect the capital ships at all costs. Oftentimes, Heskan reflected, that cost included forsaking their own defense to prevent hits to their consort. It was an ugly job that historically saw some of the highest attrition rates in warfare but a necessary one that preserved the capital ships to use their might to win battles.
“I’m also sure you’ve all heard the news that we’re in a shooting war with the Hollies and it’s no secret where Kite is headed.” The looks in the eyes of his officers and senior enlisted confirmed they knew Kite would not be spared from a battle-time role in the coming war just because she had yet to go through her preliminary trials.
“What you may not know is that each of you has a choice. You can either be transferred temporarily to Hulda in the Narvi system while Brevic Personnel Center figures out where to assign you...” Heskan noted the looks of frustration and displeasure from his officers and was impressed with their self-discipline to not express their discontent vocally.
“That’s a load of crap.” Chief Brown had no such restraint.
Heskan suppressed his smile at Brown’s candor. “Or, you can join me on Kite. I can’t guarantee you your old jobs but I promise that I’ll do what I can to make sure your positions are commensurate with others of your rank on a Brevic destroyer.”
Heskan felt a rush of pride and more than a little gratitude when he saw smiles erupt on the faces of his crew. He held up his hand. “You don’t have to answer right now. You have four days to make an informed decision while we tunnel to Narvi. I wish I could tell you that things on Kite will be easy compared to Ana but the fact is we’ve—” he unconsciously used the word “we’ve” “—drawn one of the toughest jobs with a ship that’s not even out of the shipyard yet and we’ll only have a crew that’s been hastily thrown together. It’s no way to start a war.”
“Beggin’ your pardon, Capt’n, but after everythin’ we accomplished with little Ana, that sounds like a regular picnic.”
Watch for
No Way To Start A War
Coming Fall 2013
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