Chapter 63

"Shriek" returned to Mountserrat via cosmic.

McCock used the Barge to call upon Blue Hills. That family had moved back into their mansion and had begun the task of increasing agricultural production so as to gainfully utilise the evacuees. Coming down, McCock had seen what appeared to be surveyor parties in several widely separated areas laying out grids. McCock mentioned this to Blue Hills who enlightened him,

"The late Queen ordered my brother to accompany the Crown Prince into the hills and made the deliberate point to take the City Engineering Department with him. Since the Destruction, Willie has organised the laying out of cities in which the population will reside. His Majesty has managed to establish communications with most of the Manors and has sent out contact parties to those He knows of that he hasn't been able to raise.

The Lords in their Manors have become the local foci of governance and the King is gathering them in to once again form a government. There has been a surprising degree of cooperation with his ideas. My cynical senior wife puts that down to the presence of the armed forces scattered about who have remained loyal to the Crown. When the fleet was laid up, the Admiralty simply ordered the crews to separate areas of the continent with dependents; the Space Lords got the cooperation of that peerage who have lands to accept ships' companies. What has happened now is that each ship's company is in the process of construction of a town according to a single plan supplied by the Chief City Engineer; there is already a chain of command in place so organising it is not so difficult. For the rest, King Harold is using the half pay captains as the focus of government and all serving and ex service personnel are to contact the Senior Naval Person to be organised into a pseudo ship's company." Blue Hills laughed, "Harold already has to settle disputes — several villages and towns want the same name. I've got King William, Naseby and Mountserrat on my lands and there are another two to come" Blue Hills sighed, "it is going to be hard times but with luck, the Kingdom can survive as such; provided that no external element intervenes."

Here Blue Hills looked directly at McCock. McCock returned the 'look',

"Andrew, I've got one CVL, five light warships, four of which are museum pieces, and four MCs loaded with older generation MDMs, plus a captured BB, four CAs and two DDs. The captured ships are just manned and are capable of manoeuvring in company but the crews are still not conversant with the weapons systems. The lot of them are pre-nest designs with little emphasis given to missile combat — the things are probably designed for population suppression rather than fleet actions.

I can't protect myself let alone a planet with what I've got in the face of what's left of the Chencon fleet. It is now down to about four hundred and fifty of the line. The full Renmark Space Navy took out a hundred of the enemy when the Chencons hived off that small, by their standards, task force.

I've contacted Wamaranti, that's why I'm here, to tell you that his four loaded MCs will be here in about five days; he has to take his camouflage down. Ha! He disguised the squadron as an asteroid by covering himself in metallic mesh. Damned effective, I can tell you; "Shriek" didn't sound any alarm and, even knowing what I was looking at with Period, I still couldn't see anything but an asteroid.

Has anyone contacted Fernvale?"

"No. Harold decided that her force wouldn't make any difference and by leaving her out in the New Territories, we have access to processed materials. I don't know, come to think on it, if she is up to date on events. We, the Admiralty, that is, would have been dispatching routine intelligence updates but that has stopped. Satan's canines, there is so much to think about. You have to meet with Harold and get things sorted out. You are the one person in this part of the galaxy who has any idea of what is going on. Virginia is serving as his Naval Adviser; I'm better at managing my lands so I stay here and Virginia commutes using atmospheric craft."

"Suit. I'll com him and make arrangements. I'll keep you informed."

The men shook hands and McCock made his way back to the Barge aware of clusters of people in the distance who appeared to be looking towards the Barge. A thought sprung to the front of McCock's brain and he extracted his PDA and commed Blue Hills who promptly answered

"Aggy, what have you forgotten?"

"Do you have a planetary newsfax left?"

"No. We have local media but with the orbitals gone, we lost all that. Why? If you can help there, it would be of great benefit all round."

"I'll have a word with my people and get back to you. McCock clear."

McCock commed Sir Henry,

"Henry, it slipped my mind. Mountserrat has no planet wide coms."

"Commodore, it slipped mine as well. And before you ask, yes I can re-establish a simple net and can put in a com network as well. It will be primitive and a bit like the party line facilities of yore. I'll have a plan for you to discuss when you return."

"My ETA "Vector" is thirty five minutes, Henry."

"Not a problem, Commodore. I'll have it."

"Good. McCock clear."

Sir Henry was as good as his word. He was waiting for McCock in the Admiral's conference room.

"Commodore, here is what I suggest."

McCock looked at the holo as he helped himself to coffee. He took a taste, savoured it and saw Trojan's face in the serving hatch. In response to McCock's raised eyebrow, Trojan explained,

"Jamaican Blue."

McCock tilted his head interrogatingly, and Trojan continued,

"Commander Thoreau had a warehouse up in the High Mountains in what is now your lands as Marquis Montrose. It contains all sorts of high end... , well, ... ah, luxuries ... which he used to provide to the upper end of the Settlement market and there is a part of it containing your special coffee. After the break up of "The Queen's Own", the Commander employed me to work there. When the Commander heard about your new fleet, he sent me back to look after you. Baroness Merton-Avers has contacted me and the Commander appointed her and me as trustees of the corporation he established for your children which is his importing business and his assets which are in Crediton Suisse in Geneva. So if you want your coffee, you will have to be nice to me; with respect, Commodore. I do need to make a trip down there sometime to get some more and to make contact with Bill Watson who is the manager."