Chapter 93

"Ms Ember, prepare for crash departure, please. I've activated the recall. And close up the EW. I'll be up shortly."

"Captain on the bridge."

"Carry on, OW ... Dell, what are you doing here?"

"We decided to keep our hands in and are the JOWs. I'm the most experienced here on the EW suite so here I am..."

Dorothy interrupted,

"Boss, clearances?"

"Tell them it's a readiness exercise to the hyper towards Mountserrat via the soulant departure point."

"On it."

"Thanks Dorothy. Dell, I'm glad you are here, I'm a bit rusty and you can look over my shoulder."

"Boss, this is my station..."

"Ahh, yes, my apologies, Ms Comminantes, I'll have to stop doing this. What we are doing is going to meet those Chencon merchies and offer assistance. There are going to be some other assets coming behind us – probably some days behind. I want scouts up into the hyper stat from here with one staying overhead in the halo and the other locating those ships somewhere on the direct Mountserrat track. The UVAs up in hard space are monitoring their progress so we should be able to locate them quickly. Also I want breadcrumbs for the others to follow; we'll deploy a scout at the Falklands' beacon and then another above in the halo and a third to act as guide for the others."

"Suits. Before you go bother someone else, what freqs are we using?"

"Ah, I'll get back to you on that."

Clare beat a retreat in the face of Dell's knowing smirk. She moved to the "wing" of the bridge and quietly linked to Harold's PDA.

"Clare?"

"Signals? Can you have the Admiralty send me a sigs order so we are all on the same page and I'll want your encryption; unless you want us talking in clear?"

"I think not. I'll get Admiralty to contact you."

"Suits. Gillard clear."

Clare placed herself in the command chair dealing with problems as they arose and listened to the reports as the crew returned to man their stations.

Clare's PDA buzzed and she did not recognise the link.

"Captain Gillard."

"Admiral Troubridge, Captain, I'm sending a signals' liaison officer up with the sigs order. You'll be able to put him somewhere?"

"Certainly, Admiral."

"Thank you. Troubridge clear."

'Sneaky sod.'

{Yes. Do we bite him?}

'Better not.'... "Mr Morgan, an Admiralty signals liaion officer is coming up with the sigs order. Have him bunk in the guest's cabin and advise the gangway."

"Aye aye, Ma'am. I'll have gangway escort him here."

"Ma'am, the last of the crew are aboard and the liason officer is in the orbital making her way here. We've got clearances and all panels are green except for the airbridge. Engine room answering and power plant available stat."

"Very good, Mr Morgan. Cast off as soon as the LO is aboard and the airbridge away."

"Aye aye Ma'am ... Ms Ember, single up please..." and over the tannoy, " ... Do you hear there, man stations for leaving harbour; do you hear there, man stations for leaving harbour."

"Single up, aye Sir." The thuds of the two midship magnetoclamps on the port side retracting into their housings were felt rather than heard.

<The LO and his gear are aboard.>

'Thank you'... 'Very good.'

"Airbridge clear and hatch sealed. Hull integrity checked and ... all panels green" PO Wendy Masterton reported.

"Very good P O. Ms Ember notify departure. Quartermaster, take us out."

Voices acknowledged the orders; the fore and aft magnetoclamps let go and housed.

"Movements, "Sundowner", departing this time for exercise area."

""Sundowner", clear to harbour exit at fifty knots, two fifty grav to golf three and then gate seven. Remain this frequency and call golf three."

"Fifty knots to exit, two fifty gravs to golf three and call, then gate seven. "Sundowner"."

""Sundowner"."

AB Nanette S.Downer led the mature tall woman in RN uniform onto the bridge,

'Pommy bird on the bridge.'

'That's not quite the way to announce our illustrious visitor, m'girl' Morg rebuked her.

Nanette snapped to attention and executed as smart a hand salute as would be seen on any parade ground, held it while announcing

"Royal Navy Admiralty Signals' Liason Officer on the bridge, Sah."

'I stand chastised Nanette.' "Very good, thank you AB, dismiss." 'and leave her behind.'

Nanette broke the salute, "Sah" 'not my type', smartly about turned and marched off but spoilt the effect by swirling her arse as she departed – a giggle was heard as she went down the passage.

The woman approached Clare and snapped her flat hand to the brim of her cap in salute,

"Permission to come on the bridge, Captain."

"Granted" and Clare returned the salute both breaking the gesture at the same time.

"Lieutenant Phillipa Battenberg, Ma'am, my orders and the signals order for this exercise" handing over two chips to the accompaniment of a stifled snort from TJ as he gazed steadfastly at his console,

'Lieutenant? Try Commodore! I met her at the Army Navy and she was wearing Mess Dress with the broad band on her shoulder tabs. She was at the Golf Club when Morg and I were visiting and I'm told she plays a mean club. Besides she's a Hanover group mutie – distantly related to Harold.'

'Could we block her?'

'Harold is a mutie?'

{Only if we bite her.}

'Harold is only a mutant as far as norms are because of the regen treatment.'

The puzzled look on the LSO's face deepened as she saw heads turn from one person to another as if listening.

{She is wondering about your sanity}

'That suits, we do the same' from Morg 'we've got a ship here to get to space, back to work people.'

""Sundowner" Golf three."

""Sundowner, continue departure, call when at gate seven and you are clear to translate."

""Sundowner" gate seven."

"Commodore, we are translating in about twenty minutes. Do you wish to go to your cabin?"

"TJ spotted me? The ear buds? It wouldn't do to have the Chief Signals' Officer seen swanning off; my rank is in the orders so we weren't trying to hoodwink you, Captain, and if its okay by you, I'd prefer the company on the bridge."

"Suits. Join TJ until we translate and then I'll introduce you to my people."

"Thank you, Ma'am ... Move over TJ ... Mr, ah, Cahlewis (as she read the tag), Phillipa Battenberg; Phip, please; after all "Sundowner" is just a cuddly merchantman, isn't she?"

The grin accompanying that last was sardonic if the observer was kind.

"Cedric. Hi. I'm EW. Dorothy Ember over there is Apprentice Pilot and Wendy Masterton holds her hand on Coms. Wave to the Commodore, girls..."

They did and got one back.

" ... This one is Dell Comminantes."

Cedric was fiddling with his console as he was speaking and then began locking down his concentration. After several minutes, he waved a finger across Battenberg at TJ,

"TJ?"

TJ changed his console setting to EW and selected the n space scout com.

"Yah ... I think ... carrier wave. From the hyper scout?"

"Yah ... Ma'am, hyper scout is picking up the emergency frequency, carrier wave only and its coming down the Mountserrat track."

"Our friends?"

"Dunno Boss. Hold on, I'll cut back to the UVAs and see what they've got ... Yah. Emergency Beacon. From... "Morning Mist" ... registered as cargo liner, Chen Space Navigation, fifty five k tonnes. Last vids don't show any external problem ... and "Morning Cloud" the same."

"Very well, continue probing please EW."

"Ah, Cedric, would you mind explaining the set up?"

'Boss?'

'Use your discretion.'

Cedric nodded as if communing with himself.

"Phip, we have these reconnaissance vehicles, glorified missiles really, which come to think of it we use as a light escort screen. Our boss is paranoid (with a smirk towards Clare who chose to treat the comment with the truth it deserved) and intensely dislikes being ambushed – doesn't think they play fair, after all, as you pointed out, we're just a cuddly merchie. So the Boss makes me deploy a scout into hyper to snoop around. The down link is resolved by running another scout in n space that we can talk to. Both scouts have active and passive detection gear and are stealthed."

"You must have a bucket load of the things," Battenberg observed "those things are fuel and maintenance hogs – or rather ours are."

Cedric called,

"How many of the scouts have we got in total, these days? Last I heard we had fifteen."

"Orville scrounged another eight when we were in 'Pest – he's got them in storage in the after poop compartment so don't ask for them in a hurry." Wendy informed him.

"Bloody pack rat, that man of yours - but I'm not complaining. I've always got eight on demand."

"Twelve" Clare broke in "Orville sent me a memo this morning; the Engineers rearranged the magazine while we were alongside."

"May his lecherous talents be preserved for ever – I shall burn incense at the Saint Luke shrine in gratitude. Does that mean we've got a total of twenty three including eleven in reserve?"

Wendy nodded – which Phip saw, fortunately,

'You got it.'

"Suits. Phip, we got twelve to play with. They are in a automatic deploy magazine just aft of the boat bay ramp. To recover them we've got to open the boat bay and bring 'em through the force field. They get routine maintenance in the bay and then get returned to the magazine through an internal hatch."