Retribution (The Federation Reborn Book 3) (94 page)

“After a
full
checkup. Commander Fox was adamant about that. And I do mean full, sir; he ran the commodore through the wringer.”

“Good,” the admiral replied with a sniff. “Serves him right. What specialty is he?”

“Also Battle Fleet, but carriers, sir. He's taken an interest in
Collective Destiny
. I understand he's trying to get on board her now.”

“I bet security is in love with that. It explains the complaints at any rate,” the admiral said, shaking his head.

“Yes it does, sir. I've bucked it up to the Admiralty. For the moment no one in BUPERS has responded other than to have them run through medical, then the academy.”

“And I know they won't listen since those orders are coming from a commander or captain.”

“No, sir.”

“Well, the Veraxin may not want to listen to me, but this is my star system.”

“Yes, sir. Should I call her?”

“No, I'll set the commodore straight. I need to call Admiral Irons and see what I need to do about the Veraxin.”

Saul nodded as he made a note. “Aye aye, sir.”

:::{)(}:::

A few hours later Admiral Subert checked the time and then put an ansible call in to Admiral Irons.

“Phil? You usually pass on discussions. It's unusual for you to be waiting for me,” Admiral Irons said. “Problems?”

“You could say that. Apparently, I'm outranked again,” Admiral Subert said with a grimace.

“So, you've got the latest batch in from Bek. Any standouts? What about V'r'z'll?”

“Admiral V'r'z'll … is prickly.” Admiral Irons snorted. That was a definite case of the pot calling the kettle black. “She's … flexing her muscles politically and starting to give me problems I have to admit. I'm trying to handle it. According to what we've found out about her, she came up through ship command. She has little if any experience in staff, carrier, fortress, medical, or engineering commands. She's Battle Fleet through and through, which is good I suppose. She's going to need to be brought up to speed though. They sent her without implants or any of the training you sent, sir.”

“I wonder why. Not even ID implants?”

“No. I read Doctor Naroob's report. He tried to give her an ID implant when she came on board
Caroline
. He did the same with all the Bekians and Nuevo people. Some objected but didn't say why.”

“And now you've got me wondering why. We gave them implant ID tech when
Caroline
arrived the first time. Distributing—it shouldn't be that hard, and you'd think a priority for officers. I'll talk to Yorgi. Maybe he has some answers. In the meantime, sick medical on her, also the academy.”

“Yes, sir. Sir, Commodore X'll'rr has expressed concern about her command …”

“She doesn't even have the mission yet,” the fleet admiral said with a snort. “I'm not willing to turn it over to someone I don't know and definitely not to someone who has no experience or training in hyperspace combat—not when it is going to take time to make certain the new bug is up to speed. We'll see though.”

“Aye aye, sir.”

“And yes, I know you are concerned about her as well, her and the others. We'll work on that,” Admiral Irons stated.

Admiral Subert hesitated then nodded. “Aye aye, sir,” he finally said.

“I'm getting more downloads from Horatio,” Admiral Irons said as Sprite blinked onto his HUD and waved a file. “I'll see what's going on. Antigua out.”

:::{)(}:::

“Are they fracking
serious
?” Admiral Irons fumed after he read the latest report from Horatio. They'd used the Ansible's break bit to get the B102C download to stop. He had a copy of the report from Horatio courtesy of
Caroline
. But that was when the next headache had begun. No sooner had the break stopped the download when a fresh one came in, this one from Horatio himself. Apparently he'd been exiled to B102C to build the Harbor station there with a factory tender he'd built, the
Ilmarinen
. Some of his abrievated sitrep was still coming in. The low bandwidth was agonizing. “Horatio …,” he shook his head.

“It looks that way,” Sprite said. “I don't envy him. We didn't know the snake pit Bek was going to turn into.”

“Yes, Yorgi failed to mention it,” Admiral Irons snarled, clenching and unclenching his fists. “He said it would be tricky, but this is bullshit. They are disobeying my orders and hassling Horatio. Hell, they ran him out of the star system!” he shook his head.

“Stubborn,” Sprite said. “And apparently set in their ways. The question is, what do we do about it?”

“I can't just order them to comply obviously. They haven't been interested in listening to my other orders,” the admiral growled. “And their hardware is set to listen to them, not me.”

“True. Never give an order you know won't be obeyed. So …”

“So, I have to send someone. Yorgi is needed here. Remind me to have a chat with him and Secretary Sema,” he growled.

“We're not getting the full story,” Sprite warned, “Just one side.”

“And I am biased into believing Horatio? Is that what you're doing by playing devil's advocate, Captain?” the admiral demanded.

“It's part of my job,” the A.I. replied.

“Point,” the admiral growled as he paced. “We're going to have to send someone with the rank to deal with this and get them sorted out.”

“You are out. You are needed here. That leaves three candidates. Admiral Sienkov, he knows the players and the field they are on. Secretary Sema, or Admiral Subert. But Admiral Subert is needed where he is at. He also lacks the rank.”

“And I need Yorgi where he is, not burning time getting there and back,” the admiral sighed. “Damn it,” he growled.

“You don't want to send the secretary?”

“I know she's still setting up her command. I realize she's a bit underutilized at the moment but …”

“I think it would be a wise idea. Perhaps with Admiral Subert or another flag officer to help kick start things.”

“Subert …”

“Has been making noises about a new command off and on. Well, we have a couple Bekian flag officers in Pyrax now. We could turn command over to one of them, the senior-most officer. Then he'd be free. The problem is he's a rear admiral, only a step above Commodore Logan. They'd most likely still tell him to pound sand.”

“True. Or I could send the new officers they just shipped us backpacking orders to replace the current administration. Which is tempting, they need a good swift kick in the ass it seems. I want to find out what the
hell
is going on. Which means we need to sit them down and pick their brains before we go off half-cocked.”

“Yes, sir.”

“I'm glad Horatio is doing something … proactive, but he's sticking his neck out. I can't back him from here, so he damn well better be careful,” the admiral said. “But this changes our models. It throws our estimates of Bek's ability to help us by a year, at
least
a year. And if this trend continues …”

“At this point we're getting officers and enlisted out of them. I'm now wondering why,” Sprite stated carefully.

The admiral paused in his pacing to cock his head at her avatar. “Looking at it politically?” he asked finally.

Sprite nodded. “We'd have to ask, but I now think Admiral Sienkov was about to retire anyway, had no prospects for life after retirement, so chose the risk of coming here. He's building a new life here,” she said. “I'm wondering now about the other officers. We need to do some discrete inquiries. It wouldn't surprise me if they were on the out or were bucking the system in some way,” Sprite said.

The admiral nodded thoughtfully. “Another thing to find out,” he said in disgust as he flopped down into his chair.

“And unfortunately you have a full dance card right now Admiral,” Protector interjected. “So, if your consult is finished for the moment, I need to get you back on track.”

“Right,” the admiral exhaled noisily. He knew Bek wasn't over, but … he shook his head as his door opened. The Yeoman looked at him in apology as the two senators came into the room. He rose from his chair and extended his hand. “Senator Falconi,” a pleasure,” he said as they shook hands.

“For me as well, Mister President,” the senator said smoothly as they shook hands.

:::{)(}:::

“Still pissed, Admiral?” Proteus asked as the A.I. noted the admiral's vital signs.

“Still worked up at least. I need to get a good workout so I can get my mad out. What do you have? A distraction I hope?”

“Something like that,” the A.I. replied, putting his avatar image up on the admiral's desk.

“Okay,” the admiral drawled, drumming his fingers on the desktop. “Okay, I've got a few minutes,” he said when he checked the schedule. Shoot.”

“Thank you,” the A.I. replied. “This should be taken up with Commander Sindri, but as an Engineering A.I., I noted a few things. Shifting priorities,” the A.I. stated.

Admiral Irons cocked his head.

“Here in Antigua you've prioritized the small yard modules to build
Prowler
s and couriers. Mostly
Prowler
s. The production line is slow and limited since Commander Sindri has prioritized the capital ship line over it. In contrast, Pyrax is building
Dora
class modular freighters on the same line, as well as couriers.” The admiral nodded as the A.I. put up a helpful graphic. “Scaling up from there, there are four classes of destroyers in production. They share common parts, but also common roles. The
Arboth
are general purpose, but the
Nelson
,
Fletcher
, and
Shield Maiden
are all fleet defense.”

“We're phasing
the Nelson Flight IVs
out after this run,” the admiral rumbled. “Commander Gray's
Fletcher
and our
Shield Maiden
class are designs better suited for this environment. They share the same parts so it should be easy to convert the lines over. We've got them running convoy escort to train their crews.”

“Understood. A subtopic, consolidating the two fleet defense classes into one design should indeed streamline production, sir,” the A.I. stated. “In Pyrax they are building
Arboths
and
Nelsons
. They do not have the new designs in production.”

“Because of the keys and parts,” the admiral stated. “We have to ship them what they can't build themselves.”

“Understood. That explains the priority of building shipping and carriers in Pyrax.”

The admiral nodded. “Correct. They are building the three classes of fleet tenders:
Doras
,
Cervidae,
and
Liberty
class tenders. All of them are modular in design so we can adapt them to whatever use needed. They can build most of the ship's components without a lot of input from us. Just the hyperdrives at this point,” the admiral stated.

“So it maximizes their production ability. Understood.”

“You didn't know?” the admiral inquired, raising an eyebrow as he propped his head up with his hand. His index finger tapped his temple.

“It isn't mentioned in any of the production schedules or write-ups,” the A.I. stated. “It was inferred since you licensed the designs to be built by the civilian yards. I've been asked by several of my students,” the A.I. explained. He flashed a list of names in a window, but the admiral waved a hand to dismiss it.

“Ah,” the admiral said, nodding. Proteus was expanding he knew, but his primary purpose was to run his nanites and to be an engineering design aide. “How is that going by the way?”

“Interacting with students hasn't been easy for me. I obviously cannot control their behavior in class. It is not a job I am designed for. I am, as you say, making the most of it.”

The admiral nodded thoughtfully.

“Back to the subject at hand, the next lines up are the cruisers. Antigua is building the two classes,
North Hamptons
and
Resolutions
, on the line. However, Pyrax is building
North Hamptons
and factory ships. Or I should say, the basics of those ships—their frame, hull, sublight drive, and most of their interior. Both lines are then shipped here in the convoys for final fitting.”

“True,” the admiral said with a nod.

“It is a waste of time and resources to do so since Antigua is currently reaching saturation levels.”

The admiral frowned thoughtfully. He nodded after a moment.