Admiral's Gambit (A Spineward Sectors Novel:)

by Luke Sky Wachter

  The next thing I noticed was Commodore Colin LeGodat and his escort of Confederation Marines. Five in number, their presence was dwarfed by the horde behind me.

  LeGodat came to attention and snapped off a salute. If anything, he was more imposing in person than on a vid-screen. Light skin tone like an Imperial, but lacking their distinctive facial features. He was black haired with a sharp pointed nose I wished I owned, middle aged and appeared every bit as professional in person as he did over the comm.

  “You seem somewhat taller in person than on the vid,” I observed, doing my best to return his salute. Even I could tell I needed more practice, and I made a mental note to work on it in front of the mirror until I had it down cold.

  Adjusting his stance, LeGodat looked more at ease but still very much at attention as he placed his hands behind his back. “Don’t take this the wrong way Admiral, but you came across as both taller and older on the holo,” he returned seriously.

  I couldn't help but give a wide smile. “Some recent reconstructive work down in medical after yet another minor scuffle was not entirely to my satisfaction,” I said truthfully.

  The Commodore seemed to give himself a small shake. “My office is this way, Sir. If it please the Admiral,” he motioned, sounding perfectly official.

  “Very much so,” I replied with a measured nod and gestured for him to lead the way.

  Side by side with our respective guards following along behind, we proceeded to a personnel lift. I noted that while his men seemed to be in a newer and superior model of battle suit than our old provincial power armor, it was still a far cry from the Imperial suits my men had faced on Cornwallis' Strike Cruiser. Or at least, they appeared to be. It was important to not make too many snap judgments based on appearance alone, especially now.

  Only half of the light sources in the lift were functioning, which gave the process of moving through the station inside what was essentially a small metal box an eerie feeling, especially when combined with a vague sensation of sideways motion as the lift operated.

  With a shared glance and by silent mutual consent, we kept off of the important topics of the day.

  “I trust your patrol along the border went well,” inquired LeGodat politely.

  “As well as can be expected when you’ve only got a Battleship that moves at about half the top speed of a pirate Corvette, with far less maneuverability as well,” I said with a scowl.

  “A fruitless endeavor, then,” Colin LeGodat concluded, not looking surprised.

  “We had our share of early successes and took a pair of prizes, but after that it was mostly a case of driving them off simply due to our presence,” I said with a dismissive gesture.

  The Commodore raised an eyebrow at this information. Not wanting to answer anymore probing questions, I decided to go on the offensive and turn the tables.

  “I see that you're still making use of one of the Constructor ships that stayed in system,” I said.

  “The other two left within weeks of your departure, however this one was slated to go out to a world on the border. Between that and some…political turmoil back on its home world, the Captain and the Majority Shareholder both agreed it was more prudent to accept work here at cost instead,” said LeGodat with a shrug, “essentially, wages for the crew, work force, and the materials to keep them busy."

  I pursed my lips and wondered where he was getting the money to pay for a Constructor ship, even at cost. I figured he would have just conscripted them to the cause for as long as they chose to sit in-system. There wasn’t time for more dialogue, because the door chimed and the lift slowed to a halt.

  Stepping out of the lift was like stepping out of a dimly lit cave and into the light of the modern space-age world.

  “Wolf-9’s Command and Control Center,” LeGodat said, raising an arm by way of explanation to indicate an area that put the Clover’s Flag Bridge to shame. At least four times the size and with much more space between individual consoles, the bridge of the Wolf-9 Star Base, except for a few missing seat covers here and there exposing the metal frames underneath, made me green with envy. If I had this kind of space on the Clover…well, I don’t know what I’d have done with it, although Spalding would have probably had some ideas about what it was good for. The thought of Spalding, lost to the Clover the last time our ship had been in this system and fought the Imperials was enough to dampen my mood.

  More somber than before, I stepped off the lift and followed LeGodat into the Star Base Commander’s office. With a gesture, LeGodat motioned for his Marines to stay outside, and after a moment’s hesitation that I tried to cover with a cough, I motioned for my Lancers to do the same.

  “Normally this would have been an Admiral’s office, back when Wolf-9 was a major frontier Star Base,” explained LeGodat as he went behind the desk. He placed a hand on the back of a char, motioning me to take a seat before sitting down himself.

  I narrowed my eyes, following suit.

  “Before going any further, I need you to look me in the eyes and tell me one thing,” LeGodat said, leaning forward.

  “Of course,” I replied evenly, my posture unconsciously stiffening as my Royal training kicking in. I needed LeGodat right now, possibly more than he needed me. He had to stay on my side, the Confederation side. If he abandoned the leaky Confederation ship I’d been raving about to everyone I came across (including, or maybe especially those trying to shut me down or kill me) I was a lot closer to finished than ever before. Because unlike me, LeGodat was an actual, honest-to-Murphy trained Fleet Officer, Confederation reserve or not.

  Was this the moment of truth, when my greatest bluff was successfully called, or would I be able to scam my way into one more roll of the dice? If it was just me, I would be willing to walk away, but every native living on Tracto VI, not to mention the various Belter families in orbit depended on me.

  “Just how serious are you about maintaining Fleet independence from the 25th Sector Provisional Assembly, Admiral Yagar and his Sector Guard,” he demanded intensely. “I have to know how far you’re willing to go with this if I’m going to back your play.”

  Momentarily taken aback, I struggled to keep any expression off my face. I’d been expecting a question more along the lines of, 'how long do you think you can keep up this charade you’ve got going on,' or 'do you honestly think anyone actually believes you’re a real admiral, boy?' Instead, this professional fleet officer wanted to know how far I was willing to go to maintain the independence of the Confederation Multi-Sector Patrol Fleet and by extension, LeGodat and his Star Base, in the face of Yagar and his attempted power grab. High Commander Yagar, indeed.

  I slowly bared my teeth in a savage smile and decided to go with a line I’d used on Tremblay more than once. "Commodore LeGodat,” I said locking his eyes with my own, “in the entire time you’ve known me, what exactly leads you to believe that I’m a man who likes to bluff?” I then laced my fingers together, placed them behind my head and leaned back in the chair. I do believe at that particular moment I presented the very picture of a senior officer, confident in his ability to handle anything that came his way.

  If I only felt the same way on the inside. Fortunately, I was the only person who knew how much of a fraud I really was. Who was I to talk strategy with military professionals like LeGodat when I barely knew the first thing about fleet operations? Fortunately, in this room there was only myself and the Commodore.

  He held my gaze and gave a slow nod before looking down at his console and tapping on a touch screen for a few moments. “That’s what I needed to know,” he said, then pointed to the wall directly behind me. “This is the current disposition of forces within Easy Haven. As you can see, Rear Admiral Yagar held the balance of power so long as we were unable to link up. But now that you’re behind our defensive lines, the balance has shifted.”

  I nodded slowly, after turning around to take in the picture on the holo-screen. I noted with only a mild streak of envy that even th
e screen in his station’s ready room was larger than the one in my Battleship.

  “That only holds true as long as the Lucky Clover stays close to the Wolf-9 Star Base,” I pointed out just like any other naval idiot could have. I then felt compelled to add, “However, we have commitments in the Tracto System which if unfulfilled will eventually lead to planetary genocide, courtesy of our insect neighbors, and thus we cannot stay here indefinitely.”

  LeGodat slowly smiled. “I have factored that into my own planning, Sir,” he said, looking entirely too confident for my taste, but then he was the only professional in the room. Perhaps he had reason to feel confident.

  “Go on,” I leaned forward and waved my hand to encourage him.

  “As you no doubt saw when you point transferred into Easy Haven, our defenses were still in the process of being reactivated,” he stated.

  “Yes,” I agreed.

  “And I presume you also noticed that we have three Destroyers being worked up in our recently reactivated and expanded repair yard?” The Commodore's eyes were steel in that moment as he searched my expression.

  “We did,” I said, starting to get a little irritated, “and the Heavy Cruiser which is also unrepaired and just sitting there, until you have the facilities to fix her up.”

  LeGodat closed his eyes and let out a sigh of relief before pointing to the screen. “If that’s what you saw, then hopefully it’s the exact same thing the Rear Admiral and his Captains have been seeing,” he breathed, sounding pleased.

  “I take it all is not as it appears,” I prompted tentatively, taking a second look at the holo.

  “Oh, all three Destroyers and the Heavy Cruiser are just as ineffective as if they were still in mothballs or, in the cruiser’s case, falling apart and filled with pirate trash,” he said fiercely, “however, while two of the Destroyers are still in need of a major workup before we can even think about moving them, the Triceptor as well as the Heavy Cruiser, which we have renamed the Little Gift are both at varying levels of readiness.”

  I sat bolt upright in my chair, losing whatever remained of my casual pose. “You’ve got a Destroyer and Heavy Cruiser combat ready?!”

  The newly minted Commodore made a 'slow down' motion. “The Destroyer is ready for her final workup trials, all she needs is a crew. The Little Gift, on the other hand,” he waggled his hand back and forth, “we managed to get one broadside installed and her engines working before the Sector Guard showed up. I made the executive decision to keep the side with the newly repaired and installed broadside facing the Star Base. So hopefully they haven’t spotted it yet. We might be limping around for a while, but when it comes to ships and hardware, Easy Haven still has teeth,” LeGodat said baring his for emphasis.

  “There’s a reason you’re still hiding your real strength,” I said with narrowed eyes, as I thought through the implications of this new information. It wasn’t a complete game-changer, but with surprise and enough luck it might be close enough for government work.

  The Acting System Commander looked frustrated. “Real strength,” he said questioningly, but he was speaking rhetorically, “except for a handful of defensive turrets that we’ve been keeping cold and inactive as a surprise for anyone who tries to take the system, you’ve seen the entirety of our ‘strength,” he finished sounding disgusted.

  “Elaborate,” I instructed, allowing a touch of stiffness to creep into my voice.

  “We’ve got the ships and fixed defensive positions, but no one to man them,” he said bitterly, “as it is, I’ve picked up a few dozen volunteers off various passing merchant ships seeking a temporary safe harbor in this galaxy gone mad. But what I need isn’t an additional fifty recruits, however willing they are to be of service. We need over five thousand, and that’s just to run everything that’s been reactivated and taken out of mothballs as of this moment,” he said flatly.

  “Five thousand,” I exclaimed.

  “And that’s only for skeleton crews,” he warned, sounding as professional as ever but looking quite grim.

  “Skeleton crews,” I echoed, experiencing a form of sticker shock I was certain must be unique to Admirals and commanders of fleets, “just how many men do you have on your various crew rosters as of right this minute,” I demanded, springing to my feet and starting to pace the floor.

  “I have somewhere around 450, if you factor in all the new recruits,” he muttered, staring at the table, which I noted with some satisfaction was a standard metal and plastic construction, unlike my very fine wooden desk, “and that includes the nearly two hundred men you left here the last time you passed through Easy Haven,” at my blank look he frowned and added, “to man the Dungeon ship holding the Imperials.”

  I was completely stunned. I knew going into this that the personnel situation for the Wolf-9 base had to be tight but…this was outrageous!

  “How have you managed to hold things together with so few men and personnel,” I asked shaking my head. This man, right here, was a real fleet officer. It was just too bad I couldn’t figure out a way to permanently add him to the roster of my own ship, maybe even as its captain. If only he wasn’t needed so badly right where he already was, we could use a lot more of this kind of can-do attitude onboard my Flagship.

  LeGodat shrugged, “A good poker face, as well as borrowing heavily from the constructor ships. As you know a single, fully staffed Constructor carries a standard work force of somewhere around 20,000 skilled workers. If I wasn’t able to borrow and use them for various system maintenance tasks, I don’t think we could have managed it. I’m just thankful we haven’t had to pull very many of our own people away from shipboard duty to oversee the reactivation of the repair yard and its upgrade into a full service shipyard facility capable of building new ships,” he said gesturing toward the holo-screen, “although I don’t really know it’s even possible to have pulled away enough men from their duties, even if we’d taken the whole personnel roster and thrown it at the repair and reactivation efforts, to have done a fraction of what they have,” he finished, breathing hard.

  “I think it’s safe to say quite a lot’s been taking place in Easy Haven since the last time I was here,” I acknowledged absently, my mind racing with a whole new set of plots and schemes at this brand new set of information. “Perhaps there’s a way to turn this to our advantage,” I muttered.

  “If you have any inkling, even the barest glimmer of a plan, I am all ears,” LeGodat said, perking up for just about the first time since we got into the whole issue of crew rosters and personnel.

  For half a second I was tempted to foist off the thousands of supposed disaffected Parliamentarians currently waiting to board my ship. But I knew better, and the impulse died an angry death. I trusted my current crew to hold steady, but handing so many Parliamentarians over to LeGodat when he had so few was just asking for the Caprian SDF to sail in and take over the place lock, stock and two smoking barrels worth.

  That wouldn’t do anyone except King James any good. I wasn’t very interested in doing His Royal Majesty any good turns right at the moment, not when he was trying to pull a fast one and essentially yank my ship right out from under me.

  “I’d need to keep everyone in Engineering, the Armory, all my Lancers of course and… the gunnery deck,” I mused out loud, “my bridge crew needs to stay, as well. Although I suppose a few trained sensor operators could be spared for a training cadre,” I slowly tapped my chin as I thought through the implications. I’d be taking a huge gamble, but if I could secure a fully-functional, permanent base of operations where I could refit and resupply, it all might be worth it.

  “Well, there’s nothing for it,” I muttered to myself as I frowned at the table in thought.

  “You actually do have a plan? I hope it doesn’t involve those thousands of Caprian ‘reinforcements’ that’ve been waiting in system for over a month now,” LeGodat said forcefully, “Your own government doesn’t trust them, that was made very clear by Marine Colonel,
SDF, Wainwright. I don’t want men of that sort manning my ships and fixed defenses.”

  “I’ll ask for volunteers from among my current crew,” I said sharply, irritated that he was pointing out something I myself didn’t want to have to deal with. The lucky blighter was just fortunate I saw more advantage, or rather less disadvantage, to myself if I took those Parliamentary rejects onto my ship instead of assigning them to his organization.

  “Hopefully we can get you a few thousand ‘volunteers’ to help turn your paper tigers into full-fledged fighting machines,” I said speaking through my teeth, as the implications for the Lucky Clover and myself personally raced through my head. If I went through and actually did this, I was going to be dancing on the head of a pin. The slightest misstep and it could be curtains for my illusory command. Like a grand mountebank of old, if they ever once pulled back the curtain and observed the man behind the mask, I would never survive the experience.

  On the other hand, with LeGodat in a secure position, if I fell to Parliamentary or Caprian Royal intrigues, he would still be around to potentially ride in and save the day on Tracto, thus removing me from my unenviable status as that planetary system’s last and only hope.

  “If I’m able to do this thing for you,” I said evenly, meeting and holding his gaze with mine, “I’ll need your personal guarantee of a few things in return, should anything untoward happen to me later on.”

  “Anything within the bounds of duty or reason,” LeGodat said cautiously. Smart man, this one, he hardly knew me and already he was hedging his promises. This was a Commodore who might actually go far in this galaxy gone mad.

  Sitting back down, we put our heads together and carefully went over what I was going to need from him if this little gambit of ours was going to succeed. There were a few areas he wasn’t too thrilled with, but in the end he saw things my way. If only the same could be said of everyone else in the system.

  Plans hashed and rehashed, it was time to return to my ship. I just had to hope Tremblay hadn’t given away the store while I’d been away. Although with Akantha ensconced on the bridge and manning the till, such an occurrence would likely have to be over her dead body. An idea, the mere thought of which set my blood to boiling.