When the four of us returned to Judge, Leanne informed me we had enough of the first orders on board to feed the team several times over, and so I issued invitations to dinner to them and the squadron leaders, and had Leanne coordinate with the butlers for preparation.
I had enough time beforehand to spend some time in my ready room, where I found a whole series of emails thanking me for making rift travel possible between ships and stations, and even between locations on planets. Dreamwalker and Chaos sent separate ones, but were both thanking me for the link between their ships, which now allowed them to ‘visit’ with each other whenever they could, without anyone knowing. Chaos was a little overenthusiastic about it, and the implications were almost blush worthy.
A lot of the married ship captains had sent thanks, as now they could walk home for dinner when not actively on Imperium business. And some of Arthur’s people were very appreciative of their squeezes being more available now, and from memory, that included a number of colonels and admirals.
The thing was, I had no idea why they were thanking me. Until I finally caught up, and found a message from Syrinx saying she’d taken her little band of trainee rift mages on the road, where they practiced putting in rifts where people wanted them. When people asked who to thank, they’d all been saying me. Gee, thanks.
The last message was from Jane, saying she was thinking of setting up a new rift hub for the military, so all of the capital ships were accessible from one place. She’d let me know if they needed my help to set it up. I really hoped not. The last thing I wanted was to be roped into doing mundane magic.
What I really needed was a good battle to make us unavailable for anything else. However, nothing was forthcoming for the moment, although the Rawtenuga were moving new fleets up into this area still, and it was only a matter of time. What I didn’t understand was why we hadn't been called home yet, as the Ralnor and Keerah were still fighting daily battles that we knew about, but with a few exceptions, they were handling them themselves.
One thing I did find out was the Claymore Task Force now had a rift mage, and was doing our role of using a directed rift to demolish Trixone fleets with, and then taking the fighters the conventional way. What I didn’t understand was why they were doing that, and we were stuck out here.
To my surprise, none of the pilots turned up for dinner, with one of the squadron leaders responding at the last moment they were attending a mandatory dinner on Haven instead. The rest of my ships jumped back in just before dinner time, and I met the team in the living room, and led them directly to the dining room, where Serena and a much smaller table waited, with the normal large one pushed against one wall.
Leanne obviously needed some coaching about menus. We had wyvern barbeque with Chinese fried rice and green vegetables no-one recognized, which turned out to be from the planet below. Followed by American ice cream and Australian chocolate for dessert, and a Ralnor port actually in our coffee. Oddly, it all worked. And the coffee was in fact a great deal better tasting that way.
Strangely, although no-one said anything, everyone had eaten everything. Even Metunga.
Fourteen
Our pilots didn’t come back.
Even before going to bed, I’d been informed Eagle Wing had been reassigned. Jill and I joked about it after everyone else had gone to bed. Here we had brand new ships designed as carriers, and we no longer had anything to carry.
I found Serena already asleep in my bed, which presumably meant it was now officially our bed. We still hadn’t talked about anything, but it looked like she’d decided we were a couple now. Just to confirm it, I found all her stuff behind the wardrobe doors, with what little I had moved to one end, making the other end hers.
As I looked down at her sleeping, I suddenly wondered if she’d had another vision, and was moving our relationship on faster as a result. That was a scary thought. She’d never discussed her visions, and had never wanted to, so she could be keeping anything from me in that regard. On the other hand, I’m not sure I’d want to know what she saw on a regular basis. Which was probably why a lot of seers, and every oracle I’d heard of, remained single most of their lives.
Sleep came quickly, dreams I didn’t remember, and there were not even any fighters on board when I woke up. I didn’t find out until after training and breakfast with everyone on Judge, that Eagle Wing was now assigned to the Galactica Task Force, which was now working with the Claymore force. That put the Imperator’s father in command of practically all of our active fighter pilots.
Galactica, and her two sister ships from before the time line shift, had been reinforced with the two upgraded similar shaped, but after the time line, cousins. The five ships couldn’t launch Excaliburs, but between them they had more than enough space for Eagle Wing to park, and jump in to and out from. The same information included the two Scimitar class getting an additional newly activated squadron each, which brought them up to the limit of their accommodation, rather than parking space.
I suspected Eagle had convinced the Imperator his fighter pilots were wasted out here, and suggested they gather them all together. Nor did I know if this was a reaction to pilots acting as troops.
I didn’t know if they had a rift mage yet, and suspected they didn’t. But probably would have soon. I’d just have to wait for reports now, to see if it proved to be a good idea or not. It probably was. If anything, the Imperium was still figuring out how best to use fighter pilots, without treating them like cannon fodder.
Diplomat was still here, and my squadron was ordered to remain where we were in support of what was proving to be a very valuable diplomatic and trade mission. I had authorization to seal off jump points across the entire area to keep the local cluster clear of Rawtenuga. And was warned to expect one of our civilian traders later on in the day.
My first order of business for the day was checking in with Red Flower, who wasn’t available, but I was informed discussions about financial systems were in progress on Diplomat, and I’d be advised when Red Flower was available. I passed on the news an actual Imperium trader was expected later on in the day, although I had no details, so we’d need docking issues resolved by then.
This all reminded me to ask Leanne how she’d paid for vegetables from the planet. She reminded me all Imperium ships had a small stash of diamonds on board to use as barter, and she’d used several of these. She pointed out the rats wanted diamonds, particularly our industrial ones, especially because they were perfect. This ran counter to everything I knew about diamond values, which wasn’t much, but it might provide a means of credit conversion in the short term, with diamonds providing a middle exchange between different currencies. Fortunately, not my problem to figure out.
I’d just started looking at where we needed to close jump points in the local cluster, when Leanne interrupted me with an order to report to Admiral Jedburgh. So I tasked Jill with figuring out what needed doing, and if I wasn’t back when the team had a plan in place, to begin the work without me. Gitte and Haynes were perfectly capable of closing jump points, after all. And for now, protection of Diplomat didn’t need the whole squadron.
It only took a few minutes to reach the admiral’s ready room, where I found Syrinx and Tanith waiting.
“Here he is,” said Jedburgh, looking at Syrinx. He turned to me. “Commander, when you’re finished with mage duties, return here. I’ve new orders for you.”