Badger (32 page)

Isaac exchanged a thoughtful look with his spouse. Then he grinned. “Probably before they figure out the weapons are in the wrong spot, if that’s what you’re asking.”

Jacob shook his head, trying to hide a smile of his own. He looked over at Laurie, who was still studying the images of the simulation. She started to switch back through the various situations the High Admiral had given him, a speculative look on her face. “Laurie. What do you think about the squadron’s combat effectiveness? I know Isaac here’s in heaven, but I need someone sane to balance him out.”

She answered without abandoning her examination of the projections. “That depends. If any one of them was caught alone, they’d be in trouble. Especially if the Odurans figure out where each version is weak and focus on exploiting the flaw.” The ships in the projection had almost reached their starting positions where the computer would display their capabilities and designations. At that point Jacob would have no way to avoid her questions.

“As a formation, though…
Setter
could soften up an enemy task force from range, while
Beagle
and
Wolfhound
engage enemies at mid-distance. Anybody who breaks through all that would have to get through
Feist
, and I’m betting those lances will carve straight through most ships.” The simulation came to a halt, and she straightened up. “As long as we keep all four together, they’re going to be a tough nut to crack. I almost feel sorry for the Odurans who face them.”

Isaac rolled his eyes. “Glad to hear you’re on my side with this one, honey.” Laurie shot an outraged glare at Isaac, and her cheeks went red. For his part, Isaac looked as if his brain had caught up with his tongue and he was now seriously regretting his words. Jacob spoke up before Laurie could lay into Isaac; even before their marriage, she never had appreciated it when he was overly affectionate in front of other officers.

“What has you so interested in my simulations, Laurie? You seem to be almost as obsessed with them as Al-shira thinks I am.” The distraction was enough to spare Isaac Laurie’s immediate wrath, and the Gunnery officer gave Jacob a look of gratitude. Laurie either ignored it or didn’t notice as she turned her attention to Jacob.

“I was curious as to the choices for your stress tests, Jacob.” Laurie touched a control and restored the projections to the original circumstances, with the ships in their starting formations. “I can understand wanting to put versions of the ships through their paces, but the situation is a bit stacked against them. Why in the world would you have picked the Battle of Terragin for a stress test?”

Jacob’s embarrassment came to a skittering stop. “The battle of what? What are you talking about?”

She gestured to the simulation. “The Battle of Terragin. It was one of the worst defeats the Royal Fleet suffered in the past fifty years. The ship models are all updated—and the projected stats for the new
Hunter
class destroyers look accurate, by the way—but that doesn’t change the basic layout.”

He looked from her to the simulation, and then back again. “You mean this was an actual battle? This was something that happened?”

Laurie looked baffled. “Well, yeah. It’s not a very widely known battle, even as disasters go—ninety percent casualties against Telosian pirates are something nobody brags too much about—but I scored high in most of the history classes, Hull. I know what I’m talking about.”

Isaac winced. “Ouch, Jacob. Even I’ve heard of that one. You must have really wanted to put my designs through the wringer, huh?”

Jacob walked over to the controls and switched it to the next simulation. “Did you recognize this one too?”

She nodded. “The Battle of Turngate. Not a very good one either. I don’t know if anyone got home from that one. We only knew about it because some of the prisoners got traded back by the League.”

Suspicion was roaring in Jacob’s mind, and he switched to the next one. “How about this one?”

From her expression, Laurie was starting to get a bit put out by the questions. “What is this, some kind of test?” He gave her a stern look, and she sighed. “Yes, sir. The Battle of Jefferson. That one goes back nearly to the start of the Royal Fleet. Again, pretty much a disaster.” She grimaced. “Not that it could have been much else. The only ships there were modified merchantmen against cruisers. Not even a genius could win that one. Or any of these battles, really.”

Then Laurie caught sight of his expression, and her face grew a bit alarmed. “Hull? What’s going on?”

Jacob forced himself to stay calm. Anger leeched into his voice, making his words cold and harsh. “It’s nothing, Laurie.” Her face showed her skepticism clearly, and he relented slightly. “These are the same simulations Admiral Nivrosky put me through on
Badger
. The only thing I changed was to add Isaac’s designs into the mix.”

Realization dawned on her face, and Isaac whistled. Jacob glanced at the Gunnery officer, who was studying the simulation with more interest this time. “That can’t have been easy, Jacob. He was setting you up to fail, and hard. Didn’t he tell you about any of this?”

Not trusting his voice any further, Jacob shook his head. Isaac grunted and walked over to the simulation controls. He started the battle moving with a touch and watched as the ships moved through the commands Jacob had entered previously. Before the battle had reached a tipping point, Isaac spoke again. “So my ships. When you stuck them in there, what happened?”

The question broke through the maelstrom of rage building inside Jacob. He forced his hands to unclench. “I started winning. For the first time, actually. Every other run was a defeat.”

Isaac nodded with satisfaction. In the simulation, the Odurans were being driven away from the convoy; their attempt to destroy the Celostian flagship had ended in disaster for once, and it looked like they would be in full retreat soon enough. “I wonder if the good old High Admiral would like to see some of those results. It might give him a little something to think about.” The Gunnery officer glanced back at Jacob and grinned. “Might lead to an interesting conversation at the very least.”

Jacob jerked his head in a nod. “You’re right about that, Isaac.” Then he gave his friends a forced smile. “For now, I think I’ve let you two slack off enough. Get back to your work, and maybe that will get us to the High Admiral sooner than we think.”

Isaac chuckled and tossed a casual salute before he headed for the door. Laurie moved as if to join him before pausing beside Jacob. She spoke quickly, and with a low voice. “Don’t do anything stupid, Hull. The Admiral does what he does for a reason. Remember that.”

Then she, too, saluted and followed her husband, leaving Jacob alone with the simulation. He watched the holographic ships whirl and explode, and wondered what great reason the High Admiral could have had for assigning him an impossible task—and how in the world he was going to ask the question calmly once he met Nivrosky again.

Jacob was still brooding over the situation when another knock sounded at his door. He looked up to find Al-shira standing there, a reader in her hand. Putting aside his dark thoughts, Jacob forced a smile. “Commander Al-shira. What brings you here?”

Al-shira entered the small office and saluted, a gesture he returned. She tapped the reader in her hands. “I know I’ve already sent Isaac down to bother you, but a new batch of messages from Central Command came in after he left. I thought you would want to look over them.”

Jacob nodded, and she held the reader out to him. “Thank you, Commander.” He entered his command code, and messages began to pop up on the screen. “All right. Mostly standard stuff. A few changes in message handling protocol.” He frowned slightly. “Telosians are gearing up for something big. Maybe the Oduran League has convinced them to come along for the most recent crusade against us?”

Al-shira nodded. “Maybe. Or they could have heard you were here and decided to get revenge for Admiral Dianton.” Jacob snorted. The Telosians had been outraged by his actions, but even they wouldn’t have set aside their clan differences for long enough to only come after him. Perhaps they had sided with the League out of dislike for him and a desire for protection, but an all-out assault against a well defended territory was not their style. He clicked to the next message and grimaced.

He looked up and caught Al-shira watching him. She raised a questioning eyebrow, and he reluctantly tapped the reader. “More reports on the debates back in Celostia. Apparently my appearance in the court martial has given quite a few of the Representatives something to speak about. I had hoped they would have forgotten about it by now.”

She grinned at him. “What’s this? The great Jacob Hull regrets his boldness? Perish the thought!” Al-shira shook her head. “Sorry,
Captain
, but the fact is they’ll be talking about you for a while. You attacked the Federalists and the Independents in practically the same breath, and neither party will forget you did it.” Her grin turned predatory as she tilted her head. “And don’t think you can downplay it to me. I came straight from there, and the Lower Seats were still mentioning you when I left, let alone the Representatives.”

The disgruntled feeling in his stomach intensified slightly. “You don’t think they’ll push for me to be recalled, do you? So far the project’s been going very well, but if I’m replaced everything could get tangled up in whatever plans the new guy has.”

Al-shira sighed and rolled her eyes. “Such concern for your career! No,
captain
, they aren’t going to recall you. You’re another talking point they can parrot as long as you are out here on the Frontier, and the government has made sure your objective here isn’t the focal point of the news right now. They’ll debate you and beat the voters over the head with their rhetoric about how dangerous you are as long as you’re here, safe and nonthreatening.” She grimaced. “What you should really worry about is how they’ll react to these destroyers rolling out of the yards and into active service under your command.”

Jacob blinked. “You really think Admiral Nivrosky will give me command of the squadron again? Even after what happened…” His words trailed off as guilt assailed him. Al-shira watched for a moment, and then reached out to lay a hand on his shoulder.

“Yes, I do. Alan Nivrosky might not be the friendliest man in the universe, but he knows a good officer when he sees one. The longer he has you on the sidelines, the worse off the entire Navy is, and the instant we have this squadron together, he’ll want to use you.” Al-shira turned and threw up her hands. “Which is, of course, when the House and the Council will be clamoring for your dismissal, but you have High Seat Smithson’s ear somehow too, so you’ll have to do something suitably heroic before they try to court martial you for stepping on a fly.”

“Heroic, huh?” Jacob smirked and started to tab through the remainder of the announcements. There was little else that caught his attention, other than the occasional mention of Reefhome or himself. “And how am I supposed to manage that? Set off for Telos or the League on my own and come back with a golden fleece or something? You’re kind of setting mission parameters a bit high for me, Commander.”

“I remain confident you will surpass them anyway,
captain
.” She turned back and gave him a smile. “After all, that’s what Captain Jacob Hull has always done, hasn’t he sir?”

Jacob chuckled and picked up the reader again, selecting the next set of documents. “Yes, ma’am, as ordered. Wouldn’t want to get punched, after all.” Al-shira laughed as well, and he decided yet again he liked the sound. It had been a good day so far, and he hoped it would continue that way for a while yet.

An hour later, Jacob was inspecting one of the railgun decks on the
Beagle
. He had only taken a few moments to admire the work done to restore the deck to a functional state when his communication stub chirped at him. Jacob blinked, drawing his head back to stare at the nub for a moment. Slightly embarrassed, Jacob nodded in approval to the various workers who were standing nearby, unobtrusively watching his inspection of their work. “Good job, everyone. If you will all excuse me.”

Jacob stepped away and activated the nub. “Captain Hull speaking.”

Isaac’s voice came through the link. “Jacob, we’ve got another incoming ship. It’s a passenger boat, and it claims to be filled with Celostian crews for the squadron. They’re headed for docking hatch Beta Four as we speak.”

The words brought a frown to Jacob’s face. “You’re not pulling my leg, are you Isaac? We aren’t even close to operational yet, and nobody back home seemed to think much of us anyway.”

“Oh come on, Jacob, would I joke about something like this?” Jacob let a moment of silence answer the question for him, and he could almost see Isaac flush bright red in chagrin. “Okay, okay, so I would, but this time I’m not. I swear.”

“Isaac, I promise you, if you
are
messing with me, I’m going to bust you back down to ensign and give the
Beagle
’s guns to someone else.” He made sure the appropriate level of threat entered his voice, and the resulting change in Isaac’s tone showed him it had been effective.

“Hey, don’t shoot the messenger. I thought you should know before they arrived. Or I guess Laurie actually made the suggestion, but I listened.”

Jacob smiled at the petulant sound in Isaac’s voice. “I guess you should get some credit for that at least, Lieutenant Bellworth. Did Laurie say who was onboard?”

“They apparently didn’t give up many details, but from the passenger report we should have at least enough people to crew all four destroyers. Maybe somebody has managed to convince the brass back home you’re serious about these things.”

“I’ll have somebody to thank once we’re done here. Thanks for the heads up, Isaac. Jacob out.” He closed the communication link and turned to the nearest worker. “Mr. Allanis, is it? Could you give me directions to docking hatch Beta Four? I believe I have some friends to greet.”