The politically required parties added a degree of glitz and glamor to the life of a mercenary fleet commander, but even those were merely more decorative meetings in Kira’s mind. Her meeting aboard the battle station Green Ward the next day was more typical.
She’d traded the dark jewel-green jacket of her dress uniform for a plainer black jacket. Konrad and Zoric wore the same outfit—though only Zoric had insignia, wearing the stylized golden rocket that was the near-universal marker of a ship Captain.
The Redward Royal Fleet officers they were meeting were similarly dressed, though their uniforms had a profusion of insignia. In theory, at least, only two of the six officers didn’t match or exceed Kira’s rank.
On the other hand, no one in the room was going to pretend that Kira didn’t stand on the same level as an RRF Vice Admiral these days, let alone the two Commodores or the Rear Admiral in the room.
Kira didn’t know any of the RRF officers in the room well, though Vice Admiral Saga Idowu was known to her by reputation and role. The dark-skinned woman ran the Redward military shipyards—Konrad knew her significantly better than Kira did, as he’d been working through recurring contracts with the yards.
“Commodore, Captain, Commander,” Idowu greeted them as an aide poured coffee for everyone.
A sniff confirmed that it wasn’t Astonishing Orange, Kira’s preferred purchasable Redward coffee brand, but it also wasn’t Redward Premium Choice, the planet’s main export brand.
While Premium Choice was drinkable to most people, Kira had been spoiled since arriving in Redward, and the export brand was mediocre at best by the system’s standards. Whatever variety Idowu was serving was decent, though not fantastic.
“I wanted to touch base, first and foremost, and get your impression of the new Parakeet-class ships,” Idowu told Kira after everyone had started their coffees. “You have a quarter of them and, from what I understand, they have now seen action under your command?”
“Action might be stretching it,” Kira admitted with a chuckle. “Captains Michel and McCaig ran down a pirate near New Ontario, but they had her so outclassed, it barely qualified as a fight.
“That is a recommendation all on its own, I suppose.” She paused thoughtfully. “The ships are maneuverable and their sensors and targeting systems are good. We didn’t have to test their defenses, but their optical systems were enough to disable a freighter at a hundred thousand kilometers with a single shot.
“My comparison point is such that most Syntactic Cluster ships come up short, Admiral Idowu,” she warned. “But the Parakeets are much less so than most things I’ve seen out here. An Apollo ship has better miniaturization, which allows them to simply pack more into the same volume.
“Without the ability to include that extra Harrington coil or to put in that heavier plasma cannon, I’d say the Parakeets are as good as you’re getting out here.”
At least one of the Commodores—Kira’s headware said her name was Rachel Ermacora—looked positively mutinous at Kira’s comments but remained silent at a sharp look from her superior.
“I appreciate your bluntness, Commodore,” Idowu said with a chuckle of her own. “Part of the sale agreement, of course, was that your Captains would provide their impressions and sensor records.”
She left that hanging and Kira swallowed a grouchy response.
“Of course,” she finally said. “I will make certain that Captains Michel and McCaig pass on their reports to your people.”
“That is all we ask,” the Admiral said with a slight nod. “We’ve already begun construction on the second wave of Parakeets, but we’re still early enough that changes can be made.”
Konrad coughed next to Kira and she managed not to twist in her seat to look questioningly at her partner. There was clearly something he was prodding the Admiral on.
“In terms of general background information for you to be aware of as part of your defensive contract, Commodore, we are expanding the yards underneath the Green Ward,” Idowu told her.
The Green Ward was one of several massive asteroid fortresses that orbited Redward. Most inhabited systems had defensive stations of a similar ilk, vastly outmatching any nova ship that could be deployed by a comparable power.
Attacking an inhabited star system was a long way to commit suicide. Nova warships fought over trade-route stops, the mapped points that were safe to nova to, not star systems.
Most relevant to Kira, though, and likely the reason Konrad was poking the RRF Admiral, was that the Green Ward yards contained the three slips where the RRF was building their new capital ships. As part of the deal that had seen her keep Deception, Konrad Bueller had helped the RRF’s engineers develop a 12X class one nova drive.
A class one nova drive couldn’t be smaller than one thousand cubic meters—and the standard unit was a 10X unit, creating a ten-kilocubic ship. No one in the Rim, so far as Kira knew, had managed to build a class one that was larger than ten thousand cubic meters.
Redward hadn’t even been up to that size when Konrad had got involved—but he’d changed all of that, allowing them to build a ten-thousand-cubic-meter 12X nova drive. And with that drive, a one-hundred-and-twenty-thousand-cubic-meter capital ship.
Three had been under construction for well over a year. They still had nearly a year left, but one of those slips was supposed to be used to build Kira a new carrier when it was ready.
“You’re building new one-twenty yards?” she asked.
Redward already had smaller yards, currently building less-rushed versions of the Baron-class cruisers that had defeated the Bengalissimo and Equilibrium fleets. Without an active blockade, there was no reason to accept the outright dangerous pace that had built the first generation of those light cruisers.
“We are,” Idowu confirmed. “Making sure that those yards remain protected will be a key strategic and operational objective if this system comes under attack, hence briefing you on them. While the Green Ward is capable of withstanding most threats, a surprise nova-fighter strike remains a concern.”
All of which was true, Kira reflected, but didn’t cover what she was thinking of. Konrad had almost certainly been involved in the process of laying out the new building slips and new ship designs—and he had clearly been thinking of accelerating Memorial Force’s access to a new carrier.
Raccoon’s limitations were very much holding the organization back at the moment, and all of Kira’s officers were daydreaming of the day they would have a real carrier again.
So, she smiled at Admiral Idowu.
“Forgive my forwardness, Admiral, but the Redward yards are committed to providing Memorial Force with a one-hundred-and-twenty-kilocubic fleet carrier,” she said. “Given this expansion of the yards, I expect that one of those slips will be put at our disposal for that project?”
There was a long silence as the RRF officers traded looks, then Idowu sighed and took a long swallow of her coffee.
“I am not aware of the exact details of the agreement between yourself and Their Majesties on that point,” she noted. “The specification that I was advised of was that we would build you a carrier, at cost, once our own capital-ship needs are met.
“We currently have no one-twenty kilocubic ships in commission, so it is impossible to claim that our capital-ship needs have been met,” Idowu concluded. “These new yards have already been flagged for the construction of two new battlecruisers and a fleet carrier for the Redward Royal Fleet.
“Once our first wave of construction is done and we have commissioned capital ships of our own, then—and only then—will we be able to spare heavy construction yards for the construction of capital ships for sale, even to valued and close friends such as Memorial Force.”
There was a long pause, long enough to make it clear that Idowu had hoped to brush over that aspect of the situation.
“Which does bring us to the main point of this meeting, of course,” she noted with what Kira suspected was false calm. “While most of our current construction is spoken for, we will have both seventy-five-kilocubic and thirty-kilocubic slips coming up available in the next six months, and you are on the very short list of organizations we are authorized to sell warships to…”
* * *
“That void-frozen lying chunk of iced waste.”
Kira had felt Konrad seethe the whole way back to the shuttle, but it wasn’t until they were back on their own spacecraft that the engineer let loose.
“Bueller?” Zoric asked carefully.
“I helped them design the new yards, even make some refinements on the battlecruiser and carrier designs,” Konrad told the two women. “I’m sure you both figured that. I’ve been doing contract work on the side for the yards whenever we’re in-system.
“I kind of felt like I owed them that, after I drafted the plans that got so many workers killed.”
Kira squeezed his arm. The rushed construction program that had put three Baron-class cruisers into commission for the war against Bengal had been hard on her lover. He’d worked with Redward’s shipbuilding leaders and workers to assemble a plan that maximized efficiency…at a conscious sacrifice of worker safety.
No one had worked on those ships without knowing that was the deal, but Konrad had been the one making the final calls—and hundreds of workers had died to build those ships.
She wasn’t sure he’d ever forgive himself for that.
“But…the big yards, I pushed back a bit,” Konrad said. “I know we’re a bit trapped here until we get that carrier, so I thought I’d got a commitment that we’d get a shot at one of those slips.”
“And?” Kira asked.
“Idowu is very careful in her damn phrasing,” the engineer snapped. “When we’ve met our own needs. Gods. That…”
“Breathe, Konrad,” Kira said with a long sigh.
“After everything we’ve done for them, they pull that on us?” Zoric demanded. “‘Just for your information, we have new yards that could get you what we promised but we’re not making them available to you?’”
Both of Kira’s main subordinates were apparently spitting nails. Kira didn’t even disagree with them, but there was only so much they could do.
“Yeah, that was…frustrating of them,” Kira admitted. She’d barely managed to keep her own focus on the meeting after that. “We did get them to commit to putting one of the seventy-five-kilocubic yards at our disposal.”
“In six months,” Zoric murmured. “So, what, we get a light carrier in eighteen months and a fleet carrier in three years?”
“It could be worse,” Kira said. “Who else is going to sell a mercenary company anything they regard as a modern fleet carrier at all?”
“Hell, with three years to play with, we could go right to Sol and have the Federation build us something that’s utterly obsolete trash by their standards—and still be back here before we get the ship Redward promised us!” Zoric snapped.
Kira raised an eyebrow at her Flag Captain.
“SolFed doesn’t build armed ships for anybody,” she pointed out.
The Solar Federation was the stars closest to humanity’s home system, one of the few multi-system powers in existence and the unquestioned primarch of human space. Given that SolFed was fifteen hundred light-years away, Zoric was exaggerating how quickly they could get there.
“It would take us longer to find someone willing to sell us their surplus closer to the Core than it would take us to wait on Redward,” she told her people quietly. “Let’s not leap to suggestions that we know are almost impossible.
“Yes, that meeting was a bit of a knife in the back,” she agreed. “But Redward, overall, has treated us pretty well. They’re still definitely selling us a modern—by their standards, anyway—fleet carrier. At cost.
“We can wait a couple of years for an at-cost carrier.”
“You’ve been on our flight decks, boss,” Zoric countered. “We have a contract that lets us purchase class two drives from Redward, but we have nowhere to put the drives, let alone the nova fighters.
“We’re making it work, but we’re pushing the limits.”
“I know,” Kira replied. “But the truth of the matter is that no one else is going to sell us a real carrier, people. And the Redward retainer is covering all of our ongoing operating costs, including all of our salaries.”
She gestured at the three of them.
“Raccoon isn’t a good carrier.” That was just a statement of fact. “But we have four ships, and Redward is happy to pay for their crews and maintenance for now. The Syntactic Cluster is probably safe, but us being here helps keep it safe.
“Admiral Idowu might have been less than straightforward with us—and believe me, I’m going to make sure the right people hear about that!—but Larry and Sonia have played fair with us all along.
“So, we can wait for now.”
Kira smiled thinly.
“Unless one of you knows someone with a better offer, anyway?”