Epilogue

Lieutenant-Colonel Wilhelm Koenig sat his teacup down and looked out his office window at his flotilla of 21 Archerfish-class PC's. That was all that were here at the School, of course; around Confederacy space were other flotillas, kicking Sa'arm butt and finally having an impact on the speed of their advance. They hadn't stopped them, at least not yet, for that might take over a hundred more Archerfish along with hundreds of thousands more Marines, many more carriers, more cruisers, more destroyers and more corvettes. It might also take weapons and warships as yet undesigned. But they were having an impact.

One impact was the forcing of Sa'arm worlds to spend more of their scarce resources providing themselves with enhanced protection. Reports were coming back both from PC's and from regular fleets of encountering systems where Liber Class fighters and Lima Class attack fighters were beginning to be seen in greater numbers, supported by Lares Class carriers — the fighters being strictly intra-system ships, and the Lares little better than a barge. He considered it a good trade off, although he doubted that the Sa'arm would necessarily agree: Every scrap of resources spent protecting their investments in their hive spheres was that much less they could invest in the massive ships.

As Marcie had projected a year previously, the little missile boats were insanely easy to mass produce. The Richard O'Kane PC School at Atlantisat and a second PC school at Azahar were churning out PC commanders and Executive Officers by the score, and yet were having trouble keeping up with industrial production.

His erstwhile Executive Officer had taken his own PC, the Barb, on three war patrols and was now commander of a flotilla based near Demeter. The rest of the Lieutenant-Colonel's former crew were scattered through the PC fleet, although his former Chief of the Boat was now senior NCO at the School with him. Admiral Bernard "Battling" Bickerson was the commander of all PC's, and had switched his home colony to Atlantis. The Admiral's former aide Yohko Tanaka was now skipper of her own PC, the Trigger, out of Borneo. And Marcie? Apparently she was still creating new and fun ways to give tradition-bound officers in all the Services a severe case of fits, and still preferring to run around "doe-naked" rather than wear a stuffy old uniform.

He looked at the clock and realized it was time. The latest graduating class was awaiting his review. He shrugged on his jacket and did it up, donned his black Sam Browne belt and firmly placed the wedge cap atop his closely-shorn head. Staring at the result in the mirror, he carefully brushed the Gold Gallantry Cross and Gold Distinguished Service Star, the medals he'd been awarded after his historic cruise on the Archerfish. He paused to give the official mascot of the PC Command School, a short-haired calico kitten that the young daughter of one of his instructors had named Catfish, a scratch between its ears, and strode out the door to the parade square.