Federation Reborn 1: Battle Lines (13 page)

Nuevo Madrid, Dead Drop, Garth, New Horizon … he shook his head again. “Who would want this job,” he muttered looking away.

“You didn't want the top spot. Neither did I at first. That shouldn't be held against you. You eventually stepped up to the plate.”

“Yes, eventually, when I wasn't given a choice. But I left the department rudderless for years,” Monty sighed in disgust.

“And that isn't on you,” Horatio said gruffly. “I should have done something or the admiral should have. The focus …,” he shook his head again. “Again, you were learning the job, and I didn't give you more direction. Again on me.” He sighed heavily.

“Don't tell me you are going to resign too?” Doctor Thornby asked, aghast. Matilda looked at him with narrowed eyes.

“No,” Horatio said, settling himself. He shook his head to emphasize that. “We're needed. What is done is done, however; we can't go back and undo it. We have to move on. Hang in there,” he said, patting Monty on the shoulder in sympathy. “And good luck in your next posting. We'll miss you here,” he said gruffly.

“You watch your own asses,” Monty said. “This isn't over; I know it.”

“Yeah well, he's not going to like what he just started,” Matilda said. “Canning
four
department heads in one day is going to shake things up but it's …,” she frowned when Horatio shot her a shut up look. “It's not good,” she finally finished lamely. She had her assistant handling some of her workload. She had to go back soon though to lend a hand. She was getting a bit old to be pulling all-nighters though she thought with a mental grimace. She didn't understand what the hurry was.

“We're still officers, and we need to support the man and his policies no matter our personal feelings. If you can't, you owe it to him and the navy to request a transfer,” Horatio stated.

Matilda gaped at him. Her entire
life
was in Pyrax. She wasn't sure where she'd go. He nodded though, cold sober. She frowned thoughtfully. With Thistle her granddaughter off to college, she wasn't certain what to do. Come to think of it … her granddaughter had started to make noises about going to college in Antigua, right? She frowned thoughtfully. The admiral was setting up another branch of the academy there as well as expanding on the college programs.

Doctor Thornby frowned, looking at Horatio. He shrugged her gaze off. “Think about it,” he said to her in passing as he left.

---<>---<>---

Two long-delayed
Nelson
class destroyers had finally been completed in Pyrax just before Admiral Irons' trip to Lemnos. Both ships were modified Flight V and had finished their working-up exercises by the time the rear admiral had arrived. Up until his arrival, they had been on picket duty at the B101a1 jump point with a dozen corvettes, frigates, and two orbital fortresses. Now they were en route to the base at top speed.

Dunatis
and
Miyoshi
seemed to be in a race to see who could get to the fuel farm and annex first to get a jump on their orders. Both ships had the basic canned AI Commander Sprite had created and sent to Pyrax until they could get a refit in Agnosta. They were not scheduled for refit cycle for five years however, so they would have to make do with what they had for the time being.

The admiral changed things immediately. With his first orders, the two
Nelsons
and
Fuentes
had been pulled from their previous duties and relegated to convoy escort duty due to their defensive design. All of the
Arboth
class destroyers were to be pulled off of escort duty and assigned to picket or raids after a single shakedown cruise.

The initial shake-up and swap around would take a few weeks to be completed, but when it was finished, it would free up some firepower.

He also made changes to the convoy set up. The convoy escorts would only run between Agnosta and Briev. Two groups, ships form up in Agnosta or Briev and wait for escort to do turnaround.

Admiral Subert also ordered a small permanent picket station placed in B-452C. A frigate was dispatched to relieve the
Admiral Neal McCoy
while another frigate, the
Commander Wat'l'clock
, was ordered to the Briev star system to picket there.

Orders flew to move ships around the various pickets and to dispatch ships to cover Agnosta. Two additional yearling
Horseshoe Crab
class frigates had been dispatched to short jump to B101a1 to keep an eye on that star system. They would sit under blackout conditions watching the star system from well outside the Pyrax jump point. Eventually he planned to replace them with a tin can and later a light cruiser when he had them available. For now they would have to do.

The admiral's firing of Harris, Monty, and Decius put everyone on notice that a “new sheriff was in town.” His initial blizzard of orders had everyone who wasn't ducking and covering their own posteriors scrambling for days. Many departments were up around the clock dealing with the megabytes of orders the admiral had dumped onto them. With the holes in their command chain, chaos reigned.

Chapter 7

Admiral Irons received word of the shake-ups in Pyrax command through the ansible. He'd expected as much though hadn't expected Phil to cut in so deep so quickly. He was certainly shaking things up. Hopefully for the better but only time would tell. He was pretty sure Phil would realize he'd overdone it when things started to bite him in the ass.

Sprite had forwarded each request for transfer to his inbox, and he'd signed off on them immediately. Monty was already packing his bags as were other officers that had been canned. He wasn't certain what to do with the officer though so the initial orders for transfer and movement were open-ended.

The admiral refused to intercede however; he had to draw the line firmly when Horatio called and explained the situation.

“Admiral, I know everyone has their own command style. I get that. But this is ripe for major headaches,” Horatio warned.

John frowned thoughtfully as he listened. What Horatio was saying was true, but he had to take a hands-off approach. He couldn't micromanage; he had to trust in Phil to see the problem he was creating and head it off.

“Sorry, Horatio, but you know better than to try something like this. It is not my area of operation. He is your commanding officer. He has to establish his authority in the only way he knows how. Just grit your teeth and bear it or put in for a transfer. That is all I can tell you,” he advised.

“Thank you, sir. Sorry to bother you, sir.”

“Understood. Hang in there. Antigua out.”

The flag officer sat back and mused about changes the rear admiral had made. He approved of some of them. Decius was good, but his cycle of hibernation was a serious problem for the navy, one they could ill afford. Since the commander had set up his department as a personal fief that made it so he had to have the final authority on every decision, the hibernations had caused a serious bottleneck. No, he'd find another place for the Centilian even if he had to stick him in a college administration or as a professor
teaching
administration. He rubbed his bearded jaw thoughtfully. No wait, didn't he resign? He frowned and checked the status. Yes, yes he did. “Damn,” the admiral murmured, “so much for that.”

He wasn't sure about the wisdom of losing Monty and his experience though. That was a problem; one Phil was going to find out soon enough. The hole in his command structure would bite him in the ass, of that he was sure. On the other hand, Irons admitted he needed a better intel officer, and he wanted to look in Antigua. Lake was fine, but she was rather narrowly focused on the prisoners.

He ordered Sprite to process orders for Monty to report to Antigua for reassignment. Monty would undoubtedly be smarting over his firing, but the man was a professional. He'd damn well better learn to handle it.

He did approve of moving the
Nelsons
to convoy escort duty; they were much more suited to that than the
Arboths
. They had been laid as modified Flight V versions; he hadn't had access to the Flight VI designs in the Lemnos database. Unfortunately, the design changes between flights were so radical there was no way they could upgrade the ships during their refit cycles. It would cost as much as a full ship. No, they'd have to serve as they were and get what refits they could during the usual refit cycle. Which reminded him, he made a note to have Sprite do something about their AI cores the next time they were in port.

That opened a can of worms with
Fuentes
though he noted. Vargess was still in command of the ship while also acting as his operations officer. He toyed with the idea of exempting the ship from the order before he shook his head. Captain Vargess was overdue for a new command anyway. He sighed. “Commander, cut orders for Captain Vargess to be transferred to staff as Antigua operations officer. Find out if his XO can take the ship if we don't have someone to take her.”

“You could put Commander Samuels in command, sir. Have them swap?” Sprite suggested.

“No,” the admiral said, shaking his head. “Naomi is doing fine on
Maine
. I don't want to mess that up. Besides, being transferred from command of a battle cruiser to a destroyer on escort duty is a major disservice to her. It amounts to demotion and slap in the face. She hasn't warranted such treatment.”

“But she is junior, sir. A bit too junior to handle a BC,” Sprite reminded him.

“True, but we'll leave that alone. Besides, I want Vargess to land full force on the staff position. Lieutenant Turner has been doing okay, but he needs backing. It's high time we stop having the man divide his attention between the roles. He's a good ship handler, but it can wait.”

“He's not going to like it.”

“Tough. He's in the navy; he'll serve where he is needed. But you can soften it by hinting about a possible cruiser command later if you like,” he said with a shrug.

“Done,” Sprite replied, cutting the orders. “And done. What about the changes to the convoys? Do you approve of them? It seems Admiral Subert is stepping outside of his area of operations in making them.”

The admiral grunted. Phil was stepping outside his AO, but he wasn't ready to slap the man down. Not when the changes made sense. “No, I'm in agreement so we'll let it stand.”

“Aye, sir.”

Phil's streamlining of the convoy escorts was also approved of. Having them do the turnaround in Briev saved time since Triang was defended. They didn't need to escort them all the way in. Briev didn't have a port to resupply from, but they could do that in Agnosta just fine.

Moving some of the Agnosta picket out in a forward deployment of B-452C he wasn't comfortable with. The small ships wouldn't be much of a deterrent to a large raiding force. Nor could they warn Agnosta quickly since their small size and small hyperdrive meant the larger ships could theoretically outrun them in hyper even if they had a head start. He frowned thoughtfully, toying with the idea of countermanding the order before he finally left it alone. He did make a note to keep an eye on the situation however.

He also approved the transfer of
Bounty
to Admiral White's command. They'd have to get the orders to catch up with the ship though since she was in transit playing shepherd to a convoy of fat freighters. Fortunately, the ansibles were helping out there.

Bounty
was due into Triang with a convoy of personnel and ship components. Her orders had been for her to do a turnaround in the system; instead, she'd drop the sheep off under the protection of the picket there, refuel, and then head back to Briev and then on to B-452C and then Kathy's World and finally Protodon.

Ian would definitely approve he thought wryly. The man wanted action; he wanted to go on the offense. He'd get his chance the admiral thought as he played with his lips.

He wasn't comfortable about leaving
Bounty
out in the cold though. If White didn't take Protodon,
Bounty
could walk into a system expecting it to be in friendly control. Then again, the ship had proven she could look after herself. Ian knew what he was doing.

Admiral Irons was still getting used to being in command, not just of the navy but also the Federation. Sprite was calling it Interim Federation Acting President for the time being, at least until something catchier came along to yank his chain with he thought with a pang. She knew he was uncomfortable with the whole idea. He was saddled with it until he could arrange galaxy-wide elections to get it off his shoulders. That could take decades, possibly a century if he was unlucky he thought gloomily.

“Some people want power. They think of the thrill not the responsibility. They are idiots,” he murmured out loud.

“I wouldn't know sir, I am still too new,” Protector said mildly. Irons snorted.