This Corner of the Universe (27 page)

Another
thought popped into Heskan’s head.  “Sir, what about the inquiry?”  It was
standard procedure for any captain who lost his command to stand before a Board
of Inquiry regardless of circumstances.

“I
have my orders to take you to Anthe and that’s what I’m going to do,
Lieutenant.  We’ll send word of the incident here but if everything is as you
say it is, I suspect the inquiry will be cursory and you’ll be cleared for
command before we reach Kite.”

Durmont
slowed his speech down as if he were explaining to a small child.  “There
simply isn’t time for anything else, Lieutenant.  Second Fleet has already
fought a second, major engagement with the Hollies and the last we heard, a
third task force was heading into battle in a few weeks.”

War
in space was brutally efficient.  Even the largest battles fought were frequently
won or lost within a matter of hours and results were usually decisive, with
one side holding the system and the other side routed and desperately limping toward
the nearest tunnel point to escape.  Depending on how the upcoming battles
went, it was highly possible that by the time Task Group 3.1 assembled, it could
be conducting the desperate defense of a Brevic provincial system in the
Republic’s western territory.

“As
it is,” Durmont continued, “the yards at Anthe are rushing the completion of
the two Buckler-class escorts under construction.  Kite will be functional but
fresh from the yard and without any trials.  Even her crew will be a skeletal
pish-posh of ratings stripped from other ships in the squadron.”  Durmont’s expression
turned into a sneer and he continued, “As your squadron commander, I’m telling
you now that I won’t accept these as excuses for substandard performance.  I
expect you to have your ship at peak efficiency by the time we reach the
western border.”

On
the standard Brevic Republic star charts, the coreward direction of the chart
always was at the top and the rimward portion at the bottom. The term “coreward”
became increasingly replaced with “north” over time and “rimward” was
colloquially substituted with “south.”  Consequently, the spinward and trailing
directions of the map often got the “east” and “west” labels.  With the Hollaran
Commonwealth situated to the trailing side of Brevic stellar cartography, the
volatile boundary of the disputed zone was often called the “Western Border.”

Durmont
waved his hand in the air dismissively.  “I still need to inspect your ship but
from what I’ve seen, you are authorized to scuttle her once we’ve transferred your
surviving crew to Repulse along with the ship’s complete holo-log of the action
you fought.”

As
the captain of
Anelace
, Heskan technically did not need Durmont’s
permission but decided not to argue the point.  He also did not miss the slight
emphasis on the word “surviving.”  It was still Brevic tradition that
Anelace’s
honored dead would be with her when she died.  He nodded in understanding,
trying hard not to resent the casualness of Durmont’s words.  “What will happen
to my crew?” he asked.  He desperately wanted them on his new command.  They
had bonded immensely over the past months and had their esprit de corps
tempered in the battles over the past hours.

Durmont
shrugged, “We can arrange for a transport to meet us in Narvi and then I
suppose they’ll be given new assignments.”

I
have to phrase this carefully or he’ll never go for it
.  “It’s a shame we can’t roll
them into the pending crew of Kite.  It would mean less strain for the other
ships in the squadron,” Heskan mused.  “Of course, it’d be a gutsy decision to
make that call if Headquarters hasn’t already approved it.”  Trying not to
oversell his idea, he trailed off, “However, it’s not like they aren’t
available now that Anelace is lost…”

Durmont’s
eyebrows arched upward.  “You’d want them despite what happened here?”

Heskan
started to answer but then stopped, confused by the question. 
Why the hell
wouldn’t I want my crew with me? 
Then the realization hit him like an
iridium round. 
Of course!  If the positions were reversed, he’d blame his
crew for the loss of the ship.  He still doesn’t understand what we
accomplished here and not knowing the full story, he’d be looking for
scapegoats
.  Heskan nodded gravely and tried to sound as if he were making
a great sacrifice.  “If it serves the best interests of the Fleet, sir.”

Durmont
dipped his head in approval but his voice still held condescension.  “I’m proud
of you, son.  Of course I’ll do my best to make sure your record stays as
unblemished as possible over this nasty business.  Naturally, with Derringer,
HQ might begin to believe they see a trend of misfortune following you.”

Heskan
bit his lip hard. 
Had to get that dig in there, didn’t you?

Durmont
continued, “We’ll finish up with Anelace and once you come aboard Repulse we
have work to do.  Some of my CortRon will rendezvous with us at Anthe and the
rest at Titan.  I want you to look over the organization chart of the
squadron.  Commander Durmont, out.”

“Should
be any second now,” Jackamore said as the group watched the view screen from
one of
Repulse’s
briefing rooms.

“She
sure was a sturdy gal,” Truesworth reminisced.  “I can’t believe how bad she
looks right now.”

Heskan
cleared his throat.  “Every ship faces her end.  Ana got the honor of facing it
while protecting the lives of civilians.”

“And
her crew,” Vernay added somberly.

A
brilliant flash on the view screen illuminated the room as
Anelace
transformed into a ball of white light.  The light died quickly and all that
remained were hundreds of thousands of pieces pushing outward in an ever-expanding
field of fragments.

Goodbye,
Ana, and thank you for protecting us
.
 
May Mike Riedel captain you in the afterlife.
  His eyes lingered on the
view and then he turned his attention to the men and women seated around the
conference table.

“What’s
going to happen to the RALF, sir?” Selvaggio asked as she subtly tried to wipe
her eyes.

“Mr.
Timofei said they had secured it as best they could before coming over to
Repulse.  He thinks Renard is going to be unhappy they were ordered to leave it
but he assured me that he’d make it clear Anelace saved the station and their
lives.”  Heskan looked back to the screen.  “Ultimately, Renard will probably
have to pay some escorts-for-hire to accompany one of their tugs back here to
pull the RALF out.”

Truesworth
spoke up next.  “But won’t any remaining pirates board the RALF when we leave?”

Heskan
shrugged helplessly.  “It’s possible but even if they manage to gain access,
they won’t find anything of value.  Anything that was deemed potentially
helpful to a pirate presence here was launched into Skathi Three’s gravity
well.”

“And
they won’t be getting away, Jack,” Vernay added.  “Skathi is closed to all
traffic and Commander Durmont’s already said he’ll recommend that the next
Narvi station commander place a corvette at the Skathi tunnel point to catch
anyone diving out from that system.  And there’s nothing in the Skoll system or
beyond.”

Heskan
nodded his agreement.  “They’re trapped here without supplies.   General
consensus is they’ll probably beg Renard for passage back to Narvi when their
tug returns, if they’re still alive.” 
It‘s worse than being trapped on a
lifeboat in the middle of an ocean,
Heskan thought. 
Then again, they
deserve it.

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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