“Raven is ready for action in all aspects, ser.”
“Good.” They walked in silence for a moment. “O’Flannagain confirms the fighter wing as well,” Henry told his right-hand man. “That’s the news I wanted to give Admiral Hamilton. Nobody liked having half of the Initiative’s battlecruiser strength laid up like this.”
The Peacekeeper Initiative was only grudgingly operated by the United Planets Space Force, a sop to the consciences of the officers and spacers who’d committed genocide and collapsed a tyrannical interstellar order.
The Kenmiri Empire had much to answer for, but not least among its crimes was how the Empire’s worlds had been set up to fail without the Kenmiri. Their retreat to their inner worlds had left a chaotic disaster behind them, one that Henry and many other officers felt responsible for.
Henry himself had killed the last living Kenmorad, a realization that still haunted his dreams despite the best efforts of his therapists. The state of the worlds the Kenmiri had abandoned felt like it was his personal responsibility.
But the UPA wanted to reap the dividends of peace and focus on their own worlds. The Peacekeeper Initiative was busy in the stars of the Ra Sector, but Raven was one of only two battlecruisers in Admiral Sonia Hamilton’s command.
“She’s ready to get back into action and so are the crew, ser,” Iyotake assured him. “Any idea what the mission will be?”
“La-Tar, for certain,” Henry replied. “The Hierarchy has been quieter than we like. Until and unless Todorovich’s mission is successful, we have to assume they’re planning for a new invasion.”
“Do you think that mission will succeed?” his XO asked.
“If it was anyone else, I’d say not a chance in hell,” Henry admitted with a chuckle. “But it’s Todorovich. I give her better than even odds of actually sorting out a peace agreement.”
The ambassador’s absence bothered him in a way he couldn’t quite put his finger on. He’d got used to having the civilian around to bounce ideas and plans off of, in a way he couldn’t truly do even with Iyotake…and yet that still didn’t feel like it was all of it.
He shrugged mentally. It would sort itself out in his head eventually. He’d learned that over the years. He hadn’t made it past fifty as a wartime officer by dwelling in his own head.
“I want you to double-check with Song and Kuroda,” he told his XO. That was Commander Anna Song, his chief engineer, and Lieutenant Commander Kouseke Kuroda, his logistics officer. “Make sure we have everything we need aboard in terms of supplies, parts, et cetera, et cetera.
“I want to be able to move within twenty-four hours if the Admiral has orders for us.”
“I’m ninety percent certain we’re already there, but I’ll confirm with everyone,” Iyotake promised. “Anything else, ser?”
Henry chuckled.
“Nothing that comes to mind, though I’m sure you’re already on three other things I haven’t mentioned,” he said. Iyotake was a good XO. That meant he was on a list that Henry didn’t really want him to be on: the list of officers that were almost certainly going to get promoted off Raven in the next six months.
Henry had signed a lot of recommendations for early promotion since Raven had returned to Zion with a broken wing and a far-too-long casualty list. It was going to leave some serious holes in his crew—but neither his people nor the UPSF were served well by holding his officers back.
They reached the airlock leading into the main station of Zion’s Fleet Base Fallout and Iyotake stopped, snapping a sharp salute.
“I’ll get to work, then, ser,” the younger man promised. “Raven will be ready to deploy on our orders; you have my word.”
“That’s just doing your job, Lieutenant Colonel,” Henry pointed out. “It shouldn’t need your word.”
“Yes, ser, of course, ser,” Iyotake said crisply—but he was returning Henry’s grin. “Keep me updated on what the Admiral has to say, as appropriate.”
“I’ll fill you in when I get back,” the captain promised. “Into the belly of the beast I go.”
He respected Sonia Hamilton and he’d worked with her for years—she’d commanded the carrier a much-younger Henry had flown starfighters off of when the Kenmiri had first entered UPA space—but even he wasn’t going to pretend meeting with the woman was going to be easy.
Chapter Five
The Zion System was the far end of the United Planets Alliance in many ways. It was the closest territory to the former Kenmiri Empire that they officially claimed—and where humanity’s first encounter with the insectoid conquerors had been when they’d invaded the small religious colony out there.
Base Fallout had all of the repair yards and supply depots necessary to support the seventeen-year-long war against the Kenmiri, though most of them were mothballed now. A battlecruiser and a flotilla of destroyers were permanently based there under Vice Admiral Zhao Xinyi.
In one of the usual oddities of military bureaucracy, Base Fallout was also home to the Peacekeeper Initiative, under the command of Admiral Sonia Hamilton. Henry Wong was significantly junior to Zhao Xinyi, but he wasn’t in Base Fallout’s chain of command—and Admiral Xinyi wasn’t in the Initiative’s chain of command.
That made Henry Wong, as the senior Colonel, Admiral Hamilton’s second-in-command. He’d spent a large amount of his time while Raven was being refitted aboard the main station of Base Fallout, conferring with the Admiral.
Hamilton’s flag lieutenant had a black coffee waiting for him when he arrived, passing the steaming beverage across her desk.
“Did you get the latest updates on the agenda?” Lieutenant Jelena Kukk asked him. The swarthy young woman was half Henry’s age at most, and he had to wonder when junior officers had started being quite so young.
“I did,” he confirmed. They’d arrived in his internal network while he was in the elevator, and he’d skimmed them. “I’m noticing a complete lack of detail around this ‘Operation Yellow Bicycle.’”
The UPSF randomly generated operation names, which ended up with some very strange-looking combinations. Golden Lancelot had been the genocidal campaign against the Kenmiri. Hopefully, Yellow Bicycle would be somewhat less psyche-shattering for the officers and spacers who carried it out.
“I know the name and that’s it, ser,” Kukk admitted. “The Admiral got a drone update this morning from Earthward, so I’m guessing it’s to do with that, but…I’m not sure what official operation would be impacting us.”
“Me either,” Henry conceded, taking a large gulp of the coffee. “Am I the last?”
Hamilton tried to keep most of her meetings small enough to fit in the six-person breakout meeting room attached to her office on the base. It was almost impossible, though, for her to keep most of those meetings from filling that room.
“Admiral Xinyi got added to the meeting at the same time as the Operation Yellow Bicycle item got added to the agenda,” Kukk told him. “I’ll be holding down the fort until she gets here. Boss said to send you right in, though.”