Chapter 73: The New Commander

“Captain Parker,” A voice growled out. “Dare I ask why you are in port today?”

“Corsica ended its last patrol yesterday. The orders we received just before leaving Crucibleat were to visit several nearby systems and look for signs of Sa’arm incursions. We found none, although there was one system that my officers and I believe would be quite interesting to them. We left a warning buoy in the system as a way to provide advanced warning should an incursion occur. Our final orders were to visit the Sector Naval Command base at Yularaat. After that we were to return here and I was to give my crew three days of leave,” I replied.

“Why did you not return earlier?” the voice asked.

“The only way we could have returned earlier would have required shorting the time spent scanning each system,” I said. “A quick visit might have later left us unprepared.”

“Do you have time to meet with me?” the voice asked again.

“I’m currently in the administration building for Beacon,” I said. “I need to meet a couple of my crew. If you want to meet immediately I’d ask that you come here.”

“I should insist that you come to me, but I have Sergeant Griffiths using the main administration building to process all of the trainees I brought with me. Meeting at your ship’s administration building would avoid the madness going on at my office,” the man said. “I’ll teleport over.”

“I’ll give you priority,” I said.

There was a chime. I sighed and leaned back.

“Who was that?” Lenore asked.

I held Angelique close. “If you remember, when we were on Glowworm we were told that this planet was planned as a marine training and staging base. Corsica and Ipanema are only here to be scout ships, while everyone else who is brought here is supposed to become a marine. The voice was of Colonel Steven Stiles. He is the commander of the marine base, and therefore of the planet.”

“So he’s your boss?” Lenore asked.

“I’m not sure of that,” the Colonel’s voice called out from the doorway to the teleportal.

I turned to look at the doorway. The man entering had an erect posture. His black hair was cut very short and he radiated confidence. The uniform he wore was covered with a surprising number of medals that clearly came from an Earth military. They seemed as much a part of him as the cold stare in his eyes.

I struggled to my feet. Angelique seemed to realize that this man was important. She squirmed out of my arms and then ran around to the table to stand in front of the Colonel. “Don’t take away my father!” she pleaded.

The colonel stopped and looked at the four-year-old. He then glanced over at me. “She can’t be your daughter.”

“She is the daughter of my oldest concubine,” I said. “And she’s been with me for some time.”

“I heard you arrived here just a month ago. So you would have been picked up two months ago,” the Colonel said.

Lenore sighed. “I met Mark more than a year ago. I was working as a waitress in a restaurant. Mark and his friends were eating dinner on the patio of the restaurant. There was a pickup and I was outside serving them. I panicked, but Mark and his friends offered me hope.”

“How?” the Colonel asked.

“By asking if I would be willing to become his. I moved in with Ashley’s family the next day and rarely left Mark’s side when he was outside of school,” Lenore said.

“School?” the Colonel asked. He turned to look at me.

“Based on my age I should be a sophomore in high school right now. Although had I remained on Earth I would have been taking university classes. The principal of my school felt I was disruptive and had me take a test to graduate early,” I said.

“Interesting,” the Colonel said. “Can I sit down?”

I pointed to the chair that Jackie had sat in. The Colonel sat down and looked at me. “I guess I should formally introduce myself. I’m Colonel Steven Stiles. Back on Earth I was Major Steven Stiles, I was in charge of training on the M1-Abrams tank at Fort Benning.”

I nodded. “It will be good to have you here. I am Lieutenant Mark Parker, Captain of Corsica. Sadly, my military experience is limited to the time I have accumulated since my pickup.”

“Is that really all your experience?” Colonel Stiles asked.

“I knew a few retired military. When I realized what the President’s announcement meant I got with a few of them and asked for some training in self-defense. I get a feeling that one of them tried to prepare me for command,” I said.

“Oh? How?” Colonel Stiles asked.

“He was a retired Sergeant or Sergeant-Major. I was never quite sure what his rank had been,” I said. “And as he trained my friends and me I got a feeling that he knew far more than he was telling us.”

“Interesting,” Colonel Stiles said. “Most of the general-grade officers who knew about the pickup system were extremely careful who was informed about them. I knew only that they occurred. I seemed to lose about ten percent of every class sent through the training program to pickups. Usually they were the better ones.”

I nodded. “The CAP system does appear to have been set up to take many of the best and brightest. However, now our primary focus needs to be on protecting the Confederacy. For me, that is by scouting the nearby systems and making sure that we hold off their advance.”

“You don’t think we can stop them?” Colonel Stiles asked.

“Our ships are better than theirs,” I said. “At least on a ton for ton basis. However, there is an old saying that quantity has a quality all its own. They outnumber us and their ships are larger due to their crew requirements.”

“How bad is it? You’ve had one encounter according the reports I read last night,” the Colonel said.

“If we had stayed to fight, we would have been outnumbered by at least four to one. And that’s just the smaller ships. There were probably two other small ships and then the carrier. We did get a damaging hit on the one enemy ship, but I felt there was no way to fight that many. Especially with my crew being so green,” I said.

“That is one of my chief concerns,” Colonel Stiles said. “I have strict orders not to interfere in the staffing and command of Corsica and Ipanema. However, I really would prefer that we have some way of providing some experienced crew to your ship.”

“Admiral Redmill mentioned that most ships are only surviving a few months,” I said. “There aren’t that many experienced crewmen available. Even the two I received in transfers have limited time on ships.”

“You added two crew in transfers?” Colonel Stiles asked. “When? I did not see that in the reports.”

“It should have been in the most recent one. While I was at Yularaat I transferred out two crewmen who would not accept my authority. I received two young women who had not adjusted well to being part of a crew on a ship. They need training in the systems on a Patrician, but they hopefully can adjust,” I said.

“Why would your ship be different?” Colonel Stiles asked.