The Ascent

Chapter 5

Our ships gathered in orbit about a planet whose name we never bothered to learn. We had to stay in high orbit to avoid the expanding cloud of debris which had once been a space station. As we waited for our raiding ships to return from the far corners of the star system, the planetary officials below offered us all the wealth they could scrape up with frantic pleas to not bombard them. We had no intention of attacking the planet, but we still accepted their tribute.

Back on Flower of Dirt, the Fleet Commanders found a room in which to hold a conference on inter-fleet cooperation. The after-action reports showed that, despite a lack of planning, the ships within each fleet coordinated their actions fairly well. Ships of different fleets, however, sometimes chased the same target and more than once nearly attacked each other. The situation in the space station had been even worse.

Moony's troops, caught in a dispute over supplies with Arden and Ormond's troops actually fired upon them. Only the arrival of Phil's troops under Force Leader Kouvaras's command had prevented numerous deaths.

"What this all means," Commander Sherman summed up, "is that we need to integrate our command and control structure across all the fleets."

Sherman was a late-middle-aged man with short iron-gray hair and a face that looked as if it had been carved out of meteoric iron by a bored technician with an industrial laser. He loved the art of war and was said to only smile just before he ordered an attack. He had fought in a number of bug wars before the colonies declared their independence and put him in charge of their defense. After retiring with full honors, he convinced the government of New Sparta that the growing problem of piracy needed his personal attention. Then, pursued by accusations of brutality and murder, he ended up fleeing a warrant for his arrest.

"With you in charge of it all, no doubt." Moony munched on a cracker with some sort of Cack food smeared across it. He leaned back in his chair and propped his feet on the table.

Sherman's face hardened. "I am the most experienced and the most senior officer here. But we can vote on that later. At the very least we should coordinate the C&Cs so we can tell the difference between friend and foe."

Moony ignored Sherman's piercing look and smeared more of the fishy smelling spread on another cracker. "What about Innman here? He's got more history with Sunshine—even escorted the bug to his home world."

"I said we will discuss that later."

Commander Solomon leaned over to Phil and muttered. "I hate to say it, but Moony's got a point."

Phil shrugged.

"Well, however you structure the organization, you can leave me out." Moony flicked a crumb at Sherman. "Universal Security has been detailed to take Doggedly's wife home."

"Wife?" I leaned over to Phil. "What does she have to do with anything?"

Solomon leaned over from Phil's other side to look at me. "Doggedly sent her to negotiate the contract with Shines Like the Sun. She also brought the credits to pay us."

"Most likely a payoff to keep us from invading." Arden gave Ormond a dark look.

Several commanders exchanged nervous glances. We'd all heard rumors that Sunshine had bigger plans in mind. The system we had attacked was on the edge of Bright Fortune's territory. We had circled around Unbounded space and had paused between those two territories and the territory of That Which Overturns, the latter of which led towards the Cack homeworld. Everyone from the fleet commanders to the lowest ranked spacer was quietly trying to guess which way we would move.

"I've heard Bright Fortune has fled his system with nearly his entire fleet," Sherman rumbled.

"Do you think Shines Like the Sun will finally try to get his revenge?" Innman asked. Ormond sipped his drink then said, "Bright Fortune is claiming Shines Like the Sun has designs on the Moiarchy."