"But you were there when it counted, Jan. I still can't believe you pulled it off. You got them before they overflew the planet."
"We got 'em, Sammy, but it cost us. I hope the ghosts of the dead rest easy knowing we accomplished our mission."
"We'll cover Kodu, Jan. Get the rest of your people home and out of those ships before something lets go.
"Thanks, Sammy. Childers out."
It was hours before the surviving ships of Task Force 32 got everyone off the three drifting battleships. Hours more before the surviving ships got their own damage patched up enough to limp back to the planet. Stable orbits were established, station-keeping was set on the computers, and Jan gave orders to begin evacuating the surviving ships of Task Force 32.
Bill was talking to his staff in the Intelligence Division headquarters.
"We've had a major fleet engagement in this system in which Commonwealth ships were lost. There will be a Board of Inquiry. Our job is to secure all the evidence.
"I want forensic copies of every ship's computer systems, the computer systems and message accounts of every flag-rank officer on Kodu Fleet Base, the communications log of Kodu Fleet Base, and the plotting system in Planetary CIC.
"We need to make sure the Board of Inquiry has all the evidence related to this event so they can undertake an informed investigation.
"Remember, 'No' is not an acceptable answer. Under section 1702 of Navy regulations, we have the authority to demand all these items. I have already spoken to the commanding officer of the MPs on base, and he concurs. He's prepared to lock people up if he has to, to keep them out of your way. So if you get any pushback, let me know, or contact him directly.
"Get to it."
As crammed shuttles ferried crews down to Kodu Fleet Base, they came back up with small forensic teams. Bill accompanied one of the teams up to orbit.
The one going to Zenobia.
Jan was on the flag bridge of Zenobia, overseeing the evacuation of Task Force 32 when Bill walked on to the flag bridge.
"Admiral Childers," Bill said.
"Admiral Campbell."
"We're pulling forensic copies of all ships' plotting, navigation and combat systems for the Board of Inquiry."
"Excellent, Admiral. You won't get any pushback here. I'll issue fleet orders clearing your way."
"I would appreciate that, Admiral."
Jan transmitted the orders, then turned to Bill.
"If you would accompany me, please, Admiral," Jan said.
They went to Jan's office adjoining her cabin. When they got inside, with the door closed, Bill held her.
"Are you OK, Hon?" Bill asked.
"I'm uninjured. I'm really pissed. And I'm depressed as hell. Those bastards at Sigurdsen set me up so all my options were bad. We lost over five thousand people, Bill. Five thousand people. Because Graham and his staff are too stupid to pour piss out of a boot."
"I know. That's one reason I'm making sure we're sweeping widely enough with our evidence collection. I also sent an encrypted message directly to Admiral Durand. They'll be doing the same thing at Sigurdsen. Those guys are going to try to make it someone else's fault, you know, and you're the logical target."
"I know. This may be the end of the road for me, Bill. If this sort of thing happens again, if I get that kind of orders again, that stupid, I'm gonna tell them to shove 'em right up their ass. Maybe it's better to just leave now, under my own steam. But I won't ever let my people be slaughtered because of someone else's stupidity again. I've got my eighteen in. Three-fourths retirement. That's looking pretty good right now."
"Well, let's just see what happens. You're going to be grounded until the Board of Inquiry publishes their findings anyway. That's likely to take a year. Then you can decide what you want to do."
"Fair enough."
Jan heaved a huge sigh, pulled him tighter for a moment, then let him go.
"Oh, well. Time to get back to the office. Evacuation's going pretty well. I won't be more than another six or eight hours."
She looked up at him.
"And thanks for coming up. I really needed that."
"Captain sent me up to tell you it's time, Admiral," Dougherty said.
"Coming, Senior Chief."
Jan had had one bag of her and Bill's things taken to the shuttle for the trip down. For this last trip, the shuttle was only about half full. Jan, Senior Captain Moon, their immediate staffs, and a couple dozen chiefs and senior chiefs who had ensured everybody got off.
It was up to the assessment teams now.
The assessment teams took a quick initial assessment to triage the ships of Task Force 32. Then they started in-depth assessments of the less damaged ships. The goal was to get at least some of the ships in good enough shape for the trip back to Sigurdsen, so they could be worked on there. The more damaged ships would be brought up to spacing condition on Kodu, and head back to Sigurdsen for more work later. There was just too much work across the sixteen ships to be done with Kodu's smaller repair facilities and crews.
The assessments of the three battleships that had suffered major engineering failures would have to wait. They drifted on through the system.
A month had gone by when messages came back from Sigurdsen via fast courier ship.
Jan had been relieved of duty and recalled. She was to return to Sigurdsen as and when possible, on the first available CSF ship.
Bill got a message, too. It was directly from Durand, it was encrypted, and it was short:
COLLECTION IN PROCESS HERE.
RETURN TO SIGFB WHEN DONE THERE.
BRING EVIDENCE WITH YOU.
It was also at the end of that first month that the repair crews released the five surviving battleships of Task Force 32 for return to Sigurdsen for final repairs.
At home, Jan and Bill compared their orders.
"Well, Durand is locking up the evidence at that end. And he wants me to bring the evidence from here whenever the collection is done. And we're finished," Bill said.
"What about the Julius Caesar, Napoleon Bonaparte, and Genghis Khan?"
"Oh, we've been out there and collected them, too, believe it or not.
"Really?"
"Oh, yes. We shanghaied an assessment crew to take a team out there to them. That pesky regulation 1702 again. They couldn't power up the systems, so they just pulled the memory modules and made forensic copies with the equipment they brought along, then reinstalled them."
"In zero-g?" Jan asked.
"Yup."
"Wow."
"Boards of Inquiry do not like excuses. Anyway, we're all wound up, and I'll have it all assembled and ready to go in the next day or two. Then there's your orders. You know what they're trying to do, right?"
"Of course. Have me come back as baggage on a light cruiser or something, in disgrace," Jan said.
"Yup. So don't do it. The repair teams have the five surviving battleships all ready to go back to Sigurdsen, so go back with them."
"But I'm not in command anymore."
"No, but that means Sven MacAllen is. And if I know his flag captain, he'd better play nice or he's gonna be walking home."
"Wouldn't come to that. Sven and I get along. He's good people."
"So he's supposed to take the five battleships back for the rest of their repairs anyway, according to the repair guys. You should ride home on Boadicea. In the Admiral's cabin, which will be empty otherwise. Show back up at Sigurdsen with the remains of your riven squadron, five limping ships, the direct result of the stupidity at NOC. The crews are all supposed to head back, too. Pack 'em in to the deckheads, and drop nineteen thousand spacers, who among them know every man, woman, and child on base, onto Sigurdsen. People who were there and can tell the story of what really happened."
"Oh, you're bad. I like you."
Bill laughed.
"They're still going to call me in and read me the riot act, though," Jan said
"No, they're not. What's your first st
op back at Sigurdsen?"
"Tactical Division?"
"Nope. Judge Advocate General."
"Get a lawyer first?" Jan asked.
"Absolutely. Straight from the ship. Before you even go home. And the lawyers they assign to flag rank are the nastiest ones. They keep those guys chained to their desks when they're in the office. With choke collars."
Jan laughed.
"Then you go check in with Tactical Division. With your lawyer along," Bill said.
"The CNO is still going to call me in."
"Your lawyer will tell you to ignore it. Don't obey any orders or honor any requests that don't come through your chain of command. And don't go to any meeting with anyone without your lawyer present."
"Really?"
"Really. All that time you spent running around the galaxy, I spent at Sigurdsen. I've seen this sort of thing before, and I know how the place operates."
"Wow. So I can just bottle them up."
"Yup. And if they complain, your lawyer will send them a nasty note about the penalties for interfering with a material witness to a Board of Inquiry, and still tell you to ignore them."
"I never would have thought of any of that."
"Different kind of battle, different kind of tactics. Oh, and one more thing. The Board of Inquiry for ships lost in battle is always presided over by the head of the Tactical Division, per the regulations. And Admiral Stepic retired. So who's the head of Tactical Division these days?"
Jan's eyes widened and her jaw went slack.
"Yup. It's Admiral Xi. And if you don't think she has an axe to grind with the people who sent those orders out, then you don't know Jeannie Xi half as well as I thought you did."
"She'll recuse herself."
"She can't. The head of the Tactical Division is president of the board. Period. The theory is that if they can't be impartial, they shouldn't be head of the Tactical Division. And besides, she won't want to. I'll bet you money she's looking forward to it."
It all went down as Bill had recommended. Admiral MacAllen was taking the five battleships back to Sigurdsen. The crews of the other three battleships all needed to get back as well, and their squadron mates on the five survivors were happy to make room for them, even to the extent of some hot-bunking below decks. Admiral MacAllen said 'Of course' to her request to ride back on the flag deck of Boadicea, as he did to Bill's request to do the same. Bill gave up his separate cabin, since Jan wasn't working on the way home and they needed the space for officers from the three crippled battleships.
About an hour after they came aboard, the door buzzer sounded. It was Senior Chief Dougherty.
"Admiral, Ma'am, we're having a bit of a remembrance in the Chief's Mess tonight for friends we lost on Kodu, and we were wondering if you would please attend, you and Admiral Campbell."
"But, Senior Chief, they were lost under my command."
"Wasn't you, Ma'am, it was those Sigurdsen bastards and their stupid exercises. We all know that, Admiral. Trust me, we all know that. But we think it would be honoring our dead for you to be there, Ma'am. You're one of us, and Admiral Campbell, well, he sorted of married into the family. We wouldn't want to leave either of you out."
"Thank you, Senior Chief. We'll be there."
"Thank you, Ma'am."
They exchanged salutes, and Jan closed the door as Dougherty turned away. Jan turned to Bill, fell into his arms, and dissolved into tears.
They understood.
Paradiso lost four heavy cruisers, four light cruisers, four destroyers, and almost 10,000 spacers, while TF32 lost two heavy cruisers, three light cruisers, and more than 5,000 spacers. Additionally, damage to CSS Napoleon Bonaparte was so severe she was scrapped rather than repaired, CSS Julius Caesar and CSS Genghis Khan were so badly damaged they required major refits, and all the remaining ships of TF32 required repairs, some extensive.
TF32 was disbanded. The protection of Kodu fell to Sammy Heyerdahl and TF41, who inherited TF32's destroyers.
There would be a Board of Inquiry, of course. It would be held at Sigurdsen Fleet Base, on Jablonka.
The Navy brass that had ordered the naval exercises around Kodu-5 considered charges against Jan for negligent and unsafe shiphandling and violating CSF spacing regulations, among others, resulting in the loss of six ships, damage to eighteen others, and the deaths of over five thousand Navy personnel, but the consideration of those charges would have to wait for the Board of Inquiry's findings.
Aftermath
The crossing to Sigurdsen for the most part was uneventful. There were a couple of minor engineering failures, as one might expect if Zenobia were a new-build ship, due to the stresses all the systems had endured during the crash hyperspace transition within the hard system periphery of Kodu. The assessment and repairs had been thorough, however, and no major failures occurred.
Jan and Bill spent a lot of time in their cabin, where Jan picked Bill's brain for more information on how the Navy legal system in general and boards of inquiry in particular worked at Sigurdsen. They plotted and planned.
They also spent a lot of time together, just cuddled up on the double bed.
When the squadron arrived in Jablonka orbit, Jan received a message that she should report to the CNO's office immediately upon returning to Sigurdsen. In response, she forwarded the message to the Judge Advocate General's office requesting legal representation, to which she received a positive reply. Her attorney would be Senior Captain Mitch Forsythe, a career military defense counsel.
When Jan and Bill got off the shuttle at Sigurdsen, there were two ground cars waiting for them, and a senior captain with Legal Division patches was having a discussion with a pair of MPs. Having apparently resolved the issue to their mutual satisfaction, the MPs got in their ground car and drove off, while the senior captain approached Jan and Bill.
"Admiral Childers, I'm Senior Captain Mitch Forsythe."
"Pleased to meet you Captain," Jan said.
They shook hands, and then Forsythe turned to Bill.
"And you must be Admiral Campbell."
"That's correct, Captain. Pleased to meet you," Bill said.
They shook hands, and then Bill continued.
"Was that a little misunderstanding we saw getting off the shuttle?"
"Indeed it was, Sir, but I think I have it straightened away for the moment. Contacting JAG from orbit was well considered, Admiral Childers. We should probably continue this conversation in the comfort and privacy of my office. Admiral Campbell, could we drop you somewhere on the way?"
Bill took the hint and allowed himself to be dropped off at Intelligence Division headquarters, where he had a meeting with Admiral Durand, who was currently the head of Intelligence Division, Admiral Birken having retired a year prior.
Jan went on to the Legal Division building, and followed Forsythe to his office. Once behind closed doors, he explained the process and his role.
"Admiral, I am a career defense counsel. I have represented service members as clients in various cases like courts martial, suspensions, demotions and the like for almost twenty years. I like to think I'm pretty good at it. That is up to you to judge, however, and if at any time you are dissatisfied with my performance, you can request a replacement from the Judge Advocate General's office.
"One thing you need to understand from the beginning, and Admiral Graham should already know, is that, in the context of the Board of Inquiry that will inevitably result from the loss of ships in Kodu, you are not a defendant, you are a material witness. Depending on the outcome of the board, you may later become a defendant in one or more separate proceedings, but all such considerations are estopped by the Board of Inquiry."
"Estopped?" Jan asked.
"It's a fancy way of saying put on hold, Admiral. You see, since there has been no finding of any kind, and the facts are therefore currently unclear, there can be no offense with which you can be charged. Once the Board of Inquiry has made its determination of what happened, then
one might find that one or more offenses have occurred, for which you or others may be charged.
"So you are not, strictly speaking, a defendant in the upcoming proceedings, you are a witness. Admiral Graham's attempt to interview you is thus a serious breach of process. I will send the CNO's office a strongly worded letter about their attempt this morning to interfere with a material witness to a Board of Inquiry, which is what that clumsy attempt to take you into custody in fact was. And I will copy the commandant of the MPs here at Sigurdsen on that letter in an effort to forestall any further attempts to harass you.
"Since a Board of Inquiry regarding a loss of ships in action is called by the Defense Minister, the president of the board is delegated higher authority than the CNO with regard to board proceedings. If they persist, I will petition the president to refer disciplinary action against Admiral Graham to the Defense Minister. This rarely happens, and I suspect my letter will be sufficient.
"Now to some specifics. You should report in to your local commander, which, since you have been removed from operational command, is your specialty commander, the head of the Tactical Division. Since the head of the Tactical Division, per regulations, presides over the Board of Inquiry in which you are a material witness, the conversation should be the military equivalent of 'Hi, here I am,' followed immediately by, 'See you later.' There can be no substantive discussion between you and the president of the Board of Inquiry with a proceeding pending, lest the proceeding be compromised in some way.
"I will accompany you to that meeting, and to any other meeting you have on Sigurdsen with anyone outside of a strictly social context. Any request for such a meeting should be run past me, but I will tell you that I generally advise against any such meetings. And if anyone brings up any issues that are before the board at a social event, you are to say nothing, and notify me immediately. The best thing would be to simply leave immediately, and call me. I will give you a private number where you can reach me at any time, day or night.
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