Admiral's Nemesis (A Spineward Sectors Novel: Book 11) Page 12

  “When I want policy advice, Captain, I have advisers for that sort of thing—and they are far better and more up to date than a ship’s captain, however talented he might be,” Isaak rebuked. “Continue the search.”

  “Aye aye, your Excellency,” Bluetooth said stiffening his face returning to a professional mask.

  Chapter 19: Gambit and The Future

  “Well that was definitely something else,” I said, taking deep, rapid breaths. In and out, in and out, in and…I released that last final pent up breath before calming down. We were alive. We’d made it!

  A previously stunned bridge broke out into spontaneous applause. I wasn’t the only one who was apparently surprised at our survival. No, not at our survival—at our open defiance of the very laws of physics.

  “I don’t know how you did it, Sir, but congratulations. We’re all alive,” Rick Jones said, stepping over to pump my hand up and down enthusiastically.

  Instinctively, I shook his hand with the political training of my youth taking over before the rest of my brain caught up to what I was doing. When it did, I gave the Ensign an odd look before shrugging it off and releasing his hand. I don’t think this Flag Lieutenant of mine, even though he was technically an Ensign, was going to work out for me long-term.

  A sensor sweep said it all. This was where we’d wanted to arrive: we were at the edge of Gambit Star System, with Gambit Station and its accompanying mining industry, factories and ship yard complex flashing brightly for us to see.

  As I watched a converted shuttle, part of a semi-independent wild cat mining operation scuttled from one asteroid to another, meanwhile a pair of ore barges made their slow and stately process back to the giant ore processor next to the factories. On the other side of the star system, an old retrofitted corvette patrolled between the border of the star system and the miners.

  “It’s looking even more developed than the last time we were here,” I observed idly.

  Captain Laurent nodded. “Yes it is, Admiral. Although I did mention the latest developments in my reports, I believe,” he said.

  I waved a hand in the air. “Yes of course, and the freighters with supplies forwarded their encrypted reports from Tracto as well. But there’s nothing quite like seeing something firsthand to give a man the full impact,” I said, feeling a swelling of pride at just how far this star system had developed since I’d decided to build a secret base out here, in this otherwise dead star system.

  There were no habitable planets and a relatively high radiation count compared to other inhabited star system, but it was nothing we couldn’t handle with the proper shielding, and the local mineral wealth was not to be dismissed—nor was all the system industry we’d built since then.

  “The only real drawback is that Gambit Station is no Wolf-9 Starbase,” I said, even as my eyes were inevitably drawn toward the repair slips in the shipyard complex.

  Battleships and Heavy Cruisers were being actively repaired—captures and spoils of war taken from our first initial clash with Task Force 3 of Janeski’s Reclamation Fleet—even as I watched.

  Of course, thoughts of the Imperial Fleet that had tried to covertly, or not so covertly, take over this Sector for the Empire of Man caused my mood to darken.

  “I’d like to get the remnants of that fleet in range of my broadside,” I mumbled angrily before reality set back in and I hastily decided against it. After all, right now most of my fleet was either in the repair yard or needed to be sent there as soon as a slip opened up. Maybe after I had those ships repaired and crewed back up…make that definitely after they were crewed and ready for combat.

  Then I was willing to take on anything the Empire still had in the Spine.

  Of course it was easy to be brave when you had as many battleships as I now had. “Enough wool gathering; take us in to Gambit and dock with the station, Captain. It’s time to begin planning our next steps.”

  Of course, before I could get to the planning phase of our next operation, I had to deal with the large backlog of electronic paperwork and reports waiting for me first.

  I grimaced. Paperwork…

  Chapter 20: The Paperwork

  Two days later I was still buried under a proverbial mountain of e-paperwork.

  I sat back in my chair with a groan and rubbed my aching head. It was proving impossible to go through literally months of backlog in just a few days, more's the pity.

  “Well, this blows,” I said, tossing a stylus onto the work desk. I could really use a break right about now and, considering I was the quote unquote leader of this operation, that’s exactly what I was going to do: take a break.

  Which was exactly what I was doing, up until Sean D'Argeant buzzed my coms notifying me someone on my preferred visitor's list had appeared without an appointment.

  “Let them in,” I said with a sigh, not really wanting to spend my sudden break time on something that would undoubtedly turn into yet more unexpected business. Just like my surprise visitor. My face turned gloomy.

  “Hello there, Jason,” Akantha swept into the room with a grin, and I had to suppress a frown.

  “Hello, yourself,” I hazarded, and then eventually added in the face of her sunny disposition, “what brings you into this neck of the woods?”

  Her lips pursed and she looked at me clearly having expected a different response before shrugging it off. “It’s time to get you out of this stuffy office,” she declared.

  “To what purpose?” I asked, drawing back instinctively. It's not that I didn’t trust her, just that I sensed something was off and that smile of hers did nothing to dispel my concern—quite the opposite in fact. Remember the last time she’d gone strange on me I’d been challenged in a duel to the death by her former suitor and my would be usurper Nikomedes—his death?

  Okay, so I didn’t trust her. Not deep down inside, anyway, but was that such a bad thing?

  “I think it would be obvious. The needs of our duty have drifted further and further apart of late, and I would remedy this,” Akantha said and held up a hand to forestall my protest.

  Of course I had been too surprised, was too surprised in fact, to do anything of the sort but she didn’t know that.

  “It’s no one’s fault…or rather, if it’s anyone’s fault, it's mine,” Akantha said seriously. “You’ve been busy saving your fleet and my world,” she waved hand in the air, “oh, more than just that of course but even if it is just an afterthought as you go about doing what you need to do in order to protect us all, it was still in service of my world, my Hold and myself.”

  “I suppose that’s true, from a certain point of view,” I allowed more cautiously than I would have preferred but there I was: overly cautious.

  “So guarded,” Akantha exclaimed unhappily. Some of the sunshine and happiness left her face and, strangely, the fact she wasn’t quite so cheerful actually seemed to improve my mood.

  “Well, what do you expect?” I demanded, upset with myself for taking pleasure in her unhappiness but unable to stop feeling the way I did.

  “If you would just—” she started irritably and then cut herself off. She took a calming breath, “I deserve that. Even so, I’m getting you out of this office for your own good,” she said defiantly.

  I leaned away from her and lifted an eyebrow. “After months away I’m far too busy catching up to do anything but—” I started seriously.

  “What utter nonsense,” she interrupted, “you can’t seriously be telling me you don’t have time to take a stroll?”

  “First, I don’t know where we’d be strolling and second, yes, that’s exactly what I am telling you,” I said shortly. “I’m literally buried here. It’s going to take me at least a week to dig back out. At least a week,” I repeated.

  She stopped and gave me an assessing look.

  “That’s what you have servants for, you know,” she then firmly informed me, “to help with the administrative load. My mother is the Mistress of a Hold. Do you think she takes car
e of everything herself? No,” she answered her own question without waiting for my response, “the same as myself. You just have to find able administrators, preferably ones you trust, and then give them the freedom to do the job.”

  “Sounds like a recipe for disaster,” I remarked skeptically. Especially since while my beloved sword-bearer might have a whole host of childhood friends, confidants and people she knew and trusted from her home polis of Argos, when it came to able non-combat personnel my circles of the same were rather light by comparison.

  “Messene seems to be doing just fine,” Akantha said, an edge in her voice, “and we both know how little time I am able to spend there.”

  “We do,” I agreed, looking at her evenly.

  She colored. “Some might not understand the sacrifices I make in order to stay by your side out here on the river of the stars,” Akantha said with some heat.

  “Especially since you seem to enjoy the call to battle so much?” I questioned leadingly.

  Akantha looked disgruntled. “Maybe to some I shirk my responsibilities with too light a heart, but I chose to look upon it as the god’s favor, calling me to a higher duty while at the same time allowing me to fight directly for my people…and myself,” she added that last part reluctantly.

  “Do I sense a bit of the glory hound, from a culture of would-be glory hounds, in there my Lady?” I flashed a smile.

  “Maybe so and maybe not,” Akantha sniffed before rounding back on me like a predator catching hold of her scent yet again. “But all of that is besides the point.”

  She leveled a finger at me and said, “You. Out of this office. Now.”

  “I live but to serve,” I mocked, not moving so much as an inch from my chair, “but as we can both see there is no one left to do this massive pile of paperwork backed up and—”

  “Oh, pooh,” she rolled her eyes, “I happen to know of a very underused Flag Lieutenant sitting outside your office in a chair, kicking his heels with nothing to do. From my conversations with your bodyguards it is the duty of such a Lieutenant to sift through such mounts of files and only pass along those few important things that slipped through to land on his desk.”

  “Yes the ‘unimportant’ things!” I exclaimed. “Someone has to go through it first before handing any of it off. And furthermore you would have me trust ‘Rick Jones’ to do it?!”

  “So get a chief of staff to sort it for you and if you distrust this Jones so much. Clap him in irons or release him from service in the process,” she said impatiently. “I hate to scold but either you trust a servant—a person—to do their job or you release them. Alternately, if they are too politically important to release then you shuffle them off to actually doing some minor unimportant jobs and replace them—even if without the official recognition, should politics demand such—with someone competent and trusted enough to get the job done while they are off fiddling in the corner. Surely I don’t have to teach you such elementary reasoning!”

  “But...but,” I protested not liking being dictated to but finding myself without a good excuse.

  “'But' me no butts,” Akantha said, “and get out of that chair.”

  Realizing when I was beat, even if not yet entirely willing to concede the field, I stood up. “A chief of staff,” I mumbled, recollections of my time with the two-faced spiteful Tremblay as my ‘First Officer’ back when I was essentially just captaining the Lucky Clover floating back into my mind.

  “How you have managed to run things without a proper group of servants and officials to help manage things is beyond me,” she continued. I opened my mouth to...I don't know...protest? “No I don’t want any explanations or worse yet excuses,” Akantha cut me off, “just get it done, Jason,” here she finally paused and added, “but after that, we have our walk.”

  “Oh, all right,” I conceded grumpily, giving up the ghost. I didn’t like it but she was right. So far I’d been using my Flag Captains and a few trusted individuals, when they were available, as well as whatever local command staff were on site but she was right. The Multi-Sector Patrol Fleet had grown and now it was time my Admiral’s Staff grew as well.

  “I’m glad you finally see things my way,” Akantha said.

  I nodded, not entirely trusting myself to speak as we swept out of my office, picked up my armsmen and then decanted to the nearest lift.

  “So what is it you wanted to talk about, my dear?” I asked, wondering what special pet project or special interest she was championing today.

  She eyed me sideways, “Do I need a reason to see my Protector?”

  “Generally; you don’t come and see me otherwise,” I nodded, and for a moment she looked almost sad.

  “Well this time there is no such reason. I simply wanted the pleasure of your company,” she said.

  “Your Confederation Standard has really gotten better since you first came here,” I commented. It was never wrong to throw out a compliment or two when it came to women—especially if the compliment was true.

  “Why, thank you,” she said, “what say we go through the arboretum?” she asked.

  I turned my hands upward in passive agreement. “Will we be meeting the babies there?” I asked, inwardly steeling myself for some more parent time. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the little tykes but just moments ago I was in full-on work mode and now I had to suddenly switch gears. Sometimes that was harder than others and right now she had me off-balance which made it harder. Especially since I didn’t want to be the type of father that allowed his frustrations at the job to impact his children.

  “No,” she said to my complete surprise, “no children, no hidden agendas, except those between a woman and a man. There are no battles looming in front of either of us, no hidden plots that I am aware of, no threats to our lives or way of existence. Just us.”

  I looked at her questioningly, “Meaning?”

  “Meaning there is time to simply be us,” she said irritably.

  “And what do we do?” I asked, completely off my stride and starting to feel befuddled.

  “We take a walk through the arboretum. Maybe share a bit of our day. Or, if that’s too upsetting, just silently spend some time together,” she said, reaching over and taking my hand.

  “That’s all?” I asked with surprise, glancing down at my hand now clasped in hers.

  “If you want, I’ll leave,” she said sadly.

  I stared at her. “No. No we can walk through the station’s hydroponics section,” I said reservedly. My wife, sometimes the strangest and most incomprehensible of creatures, I thought. And then because I appear to have become a complete workaholic, she actually gave some very good advice on who and how to pick for filling out my staff…in between walking me around the station and then eating at an open station café like we were on some kind of…date.

  Just plain weird, that’s what it was.

  Chapter 21: Isaak and his Frustrations

  “Remember, I want massive troop movements from Central and Aegis to liberate New Pacifica as well as major fleet movements to drive the Imperials out of Sector 26, now that the derelict ploy to strengthen our hand within the Sector and elevate the Sector Government above its enemies once and for all has failed,” Isaak said briskly as he strode down the hall followed by his advisers.

  “Approval ratings are sliding across the board and public support for this government is at an all-time low,” warned his new policy adviser, a former colleague that had replaced the last spineless weasel to hold the job, “it’s risky to call for new troop movements so soon after the last war.”

  “We won, didn’t we?” pointed out the Governor’s military adviser.

  “Another victory like that might break us, and if we go down it could take the entire Sector Government down with us,” warned the Policy Adviser, “after that goes inter-world trade, and I don’t know about you but I for one am not looking forward to the possibility of food riots.”

  “Surely you exaggerate,” the Military Adviser protest
ed.

  “Surely I don’t,” grunted Policy.

  The Military Adviser turned to the head of PR, and the former news anchor held up her hands to indicate she had no desire to take sides.

  “I don’t know about food riots, but the government is teetering on a PR precipice here. Policy is right in that polling shows the public won’t stand for another debacle like Easy Haven, and the fact that this isn’t the first time the Governor’s stubbed his toe in that particular Star System and the name recognition that gives Jane Z Public does nothing to help us,” she said flatly. “But he’s right that this administration has to do something and the usual PR stunts and economic stimulus packages just aren’t going to cut it. The public is rightly horrified at our losses and the Governor’s foes smell blood in the water.”

  “Our victory was not only unexpected, it was frankly amazing,” yelled the Military Adviser, “it’s amazing we won when, by all rights, we should have lost. We were outnumbered, outgunned, out-”

  “And our losses were just as amazing,” Policy cut in witheringly as they entered the conference room, “you say we flipped the odds and that’s great. But until and unless John Q Public feels the same way, we’re going to be stuck pushing a bolder uphill without any heavy machinery.”

  “Break it down for me without the hyperbole this time. What does that mean for us?” Isaak interjected, drawing attention back to himself where it belonged.

  “It means we can’t risk using the military to sway the public and domestic projects just aren’t going to cut the mustard. So unless you’re going to hand out universal tax cuts...” the former news anchor said with a snort.

  “While simultaneously solving all our Sector's economic woes,” added Policy.

  “Right, that too,” said PR, “basically the usual dog and pony shows aren’t going to fly. I still say we try but it looks like we can’t photo op our way out this one either.”