The Last Battleship: A Military Sci-Fi Series by Joshua T. Calvert

Author:Joshua T. Calvert [Calvert, Joshua T.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-06-30T16:00:00+00:00

13

“How are you going to tell him, Konrad?” Silly asked next to him in the shuttle. Her blue parade uniform with its colorful insignia and gold buttons was held together tightly at the collar with a stylized cross, the only sign of Harbingen they were displaying that evening just like him and his delegation. For festivities aboard ship, they normally donned the steel-gray uniforms of the Harbinger Colonial Fleet, but it was no longer formally recognized, so he had ordered them to switch to the official Fleet colors. The production 3-D printers had had their hands full converting the patterns assigned to them as reservists into solid, ironed fabric. Silly appeared uncomfortable in her getup, like a teenager condemned to wear a scratchy wool sweater when visiting family. And that’s how the others seemed to feel, too. Borowski looked as if he had bitten into a lemon and Colonel Meyer’s jaw muscles were tensing steadily. The aging Marine clearly hated every ounce of his white uniform. The Black Legion, the undisputed elite of armed Fleet personnel before Harbingen’s demise, had been notorious not only for its harsh drill and love of implants, then banned on most Core Worlds and now on all, but also for its namesake black uniforms.

Chief Murphy acted as if none of this was any of his business, which was almost never the case with the usually gruff and painfully honest engineer, and was a red flag. Only his son, Nicholas, seemed composed and little challenged by dressing in what was perceived as a foreign uniform. His boy was not only a rule follower but also extremely pragmatic within that rule circle, which made him a perfect officer. Konrad could always be counted on as a commander not to overstep the bounds of his authority, while at the same time not giving in to them and able to improvise and listen to his subordinates within his scope of action.

“Captain?”

Konrad shook his head and inhaled before turning to Silly. The shuttle had just accelerated and went into a long, gradual turn that brought them under the Oberon and on course to the Caesar, which was only one of the tiny twinkling lights in the shining panorama of the stars.

“Sorry. What did you say?”

“How are you going to tell him? The admiral, I mean,” his XO repeated, adjusting the cross covering her top uniform button. It was just one of many gestures among his officers that showed a degree of uncertainty that was not common among them. The perceived triumph of what they thought was a paved path toward their reintegration into Fleet as a flagship had given way to the typical wariness that every team experienced before the end of the game, when the lead was razor thin and only a few minutes remained on the clock.

“I will present the new performance data according to the chief’s calculations and probably impress him with it. He has seen our overhaul work, but not what it really means for the Oberon’s combat readiness,” he explained.

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