Chapter 29

Sally and Nan were bustling about the Captain's Cabin, tidying up. McCock had finished his ablutions and was adjusting his waist band attachments; the insistent beeping of his PDA sounded. McCock extracted the instrument as he moved into his office examining its face and it told him this was a com on the FTL link to Mountserrat and very few people had his private com link.

"Good morning, McCock."

"Aggy, good morning to you, Uncle Gus. Trudie included your com in a list of contact numbers. Your information was that this PDA linked to the Settlement exchange and having a spare moment I thought I'd fiddle."

McCock just snorted at the thought of Uncle Gus fiddling.

"Now I have you, Aggy. Thank you for the information; it was helpful in explaining the increased activity of the Chencon consul with the Sol embassy going about normally. Spoke with Elizabeth today and we will link with the Lord Protector later. That is a point I will raise; my inability to com to Renmark except through Elizabeth."

"Uncle Gus, you will just have to trust your allies a bit more. For purely technical reasons we were not able to join you to Renmark. You are on the wrong galactic arm."

"And thank you, I am happy being here; it's further away from Sol. Your assessment of the situation, please."

"Well, ascribing the worst possible motives to Chencon, I consider destruction of Mountserrat for control of the Junction and the Perseus arm trade as being a probability. How much of the kingdom they would plan on destroying I cannot assess. Without Settlement and the Mountserrat orbitals, there is no kingdom. Even with what reinforcements Renmark and Amiranti can spare us, that size fleet as appears to be assembling can't be stopped from doing whatever it wants to do. Even with all fleets combined and that would be risky under our present circumstances, I think we could only give them a black eye and not stop them. If they are reinforced with Harbourian fleet, we won't even blacken their eye. We need more time to produce missiles and CVs but our experience here locally is that idiots in the bureaucracy seem to take this as an opportunity to increase their power bases. It is not looking good on this side of the fence, Sir."

"Reiperbahn agrees with you and he is recommending pulling all our units back into Home Fleet for the defence of our Empire. We do have an obstacle defence not many know about, and that is an extremely turbulent hyperspace above the Empire. It is why my ancestor decided this was the place for him; we can only be attacked from the disc. It's also why the wormhole stops short of Amiranti. If Chencon controls the Junction, we wither on the vine. Harbouria has always desired a foothold on Orion arm and that makes Renmark attractive to them. Thank you Aggy, please do keep us informed. Augustus, clear."

Sally had waited by his desk while Nan had departed, pecking McCock on a cheek. She elevated an eyebrow,

"Uncle Gus touching base" she was informed, "and why are you waiting for me?" She held up his skinsuit as Evan Evans appeared.

"Good morning Commodore; I see your PS has got you organised for me. I do have to concede an advantage though."

"Any smart comment from you, my lad, and the Boss won't be the only one with a black eye."

"I am suitably chastened, my lady. Boss, we have combined things. The three of us are going on check rides in the barge whilst we go on an inspection tour of GmBH holdings. Your skin suit, Sir. Yours too, Sally."

McCock and Sally retreated into the living quarters to don their new dark gray 'skinnies'. McCock noted on the right breast a new patch which he studied closely and identified as being the "Queen's Honour" and the number "451" beneath. He looked at Sally.

"Came through two months ago with Cowboy's PMV, but we've been a bit busy of late and it wasn't until MFH drew our attention to it. DSO to you and MCs to the Flock. There is a strong rumour going around there are peerages in the offing, officially for Gorgipest's recovery but the same rumour says for New Liege."

McCock studied Sally closely and then reached for his PDA entering a code and when linked another,

"Sorry to trouble you, but there is a whisper about peerages for New Liege. I would rather there be silence about the perpetrators of that raid."

The female voice replied,

"My sources tell me that is still held very tight even in the Service and the politicians remain ignorant but you can't stop speculation."

"I would suggest that Abe be instructed to heavily play the 'nobody knows' theme on Sol. The only solid evidence presented to date is that still of what might be a Snipe and bits of metal which might be from seventy year old missiles etc etc."

"Agree, we need every bit of propaganda we can get. I'll com him now. Clear."

"Still have friends in high places, Aggy?"

"Mutual advantage, Sally," McCock said sadly, "Mutual advantage, only."

Entering the barge through No 5 hatch on "Trader", the party was greeted by Alan, Harryoh, and Felix. They seated themselves in the comfortable suite in the forward compartment just aft of the pilot's cockpit.