All That Glitters Ch. 46

"To the fleet I say, take pride in a job well done.

"Dostier, out."

Dostier waited the few minutes after her brief speech till first bell was sounded, then gave Capt. Noor a salute and walked down the ramp into NS Styles Dixon and ordered Lt.(N) Nyalla to head for the Punarjanm system. It was time for her to once again assume her position as commander of the Punarjanm Defence Force.

Central Control, Liramor-23, The Piscium System

Unexpected FTL event in the Navy lane," SOps announced as Fiona was making her way up to Central Command for the morning brief.

"IFF indicates the NS Dewfall," the voice of the Comms O came next.

"Liramor Control, this is NS Dewfall, Capt. Henadi Noor commanding, requesting parking orbit, over."

"Control roger. We are sending a track. Be advised that we are an active mining platform and deviating from the track could be dangerous, over."

"Dewfall, roger. We see the track. We are twenty-two minutes from the parking orbit. Capt. Noor's compliments to the VAdm, she wishes to speak with her at her convenience, over."

"Dewfall, VAdm. Marsh speaking. If Capt. Noor can get here, she can attend the morning brief, over." Fiona said as she came into Central Command.

"Dewfall, roger. The Captain and her senior staff will attend the morning brief, you need not send a runner, she knows the way, over."

That got a bark of a laugh from Fiona. "Control, roger. Looking forward to the captain's attendance. Control, out."

Fiona walked into her office, blacked out the windows and slipped into her spare Navy jumpsuit, which she always kept for such emergencies. She stepped out of the office and into the Conference Room indicating to SOPs that he had command until the brief was over.

Sitting in her spot at the table, she quickly reviewed the dispatches from the Liramor Mining Company, Liramor Holdings, UDC HQ Terra, Navy Command, and a personal message from President Holloway, expressing his thanks for the work of her team in their planning for OP Sandcastle. He indicated that several of her personnel were up for awards for their work.

As she read, people began to file in for the brief. It was starting to get tight around the table. She would soon have to restrict participation to only the most senior staff.

Henadi came in with her staff and Fiona rose to give her a hug.

"Damn, Henadi. It is so good to see you again and to know that you and the Dewfall are part of my fleet," Fiona told her.

"Oh, I see. It's not just me, it's the ship that gets you all hot and bothered," Henadi quipped, getting a laugh from Fiona.

"Well, I won't refute that statement," Fiona returned, getting laughter around the table.

"Henadi!" Noor turned to see Fayad, with his arms held open. She gave him a heart-felt hug.

"It is so good to see you again, Fayad. How is my namesake doing?" she asked.

"Very well, she will be pleased to see you and to speak with you. She is starting to talk now, in sixteen different languages!" That got a raised eyebrow from Henadi.

"Alright, you two, time for the brief," Fiona said, as Capt. Pétillante, closed the door and activated the privacy light.

Fiona welcomed Capt. Noor and the Dewfall to her command and then informed the group in the brief that they would be splitting up in future. The senior staff of Liramor-23 and the senior commanders of the Liramor Defence Force only would be in this brief, while the senior staff of her military command would be in the Navy brief immediately after in Navy Command.

She quickly ran through the information for the day, including the fact that the start of the enlargement of Liramor-23 would begin that day. The station was due to increase in size by an additional three hundred meters. William Baker, Chief of Maintenance for Liramor-23, showed and explained the plans for the improved station.

"How long will this take, Bill," Fiona asked after his explanation.

"We anticipate working to much the same schedule as the previous expansion, Dir. Marsh," Baker informed her. "However, we have to wait for Liramor-31 to come into the system before we can remove the ore ovens, which will go to Liramor-31.

"After the ore ovens are removed, we can use those spaces for additional large ships berths and for other uses, including the Political Theater," Baker stated.

The Political Theater, as it was being referred to by the miners, was a large area set aside for political debate and was intended to be used as an extension of the Interspecies Embassy. It would be built in the form of an amphitheatre, with the podium at the bottom and seating arrangements for up to four hundred participants. Fiona doubted that they would need that kind of space but she had been surprised before by the Interspecies Community.

"We can anticipate finishing the exterior extension in nine months. Liramor-31 is anticipated to arrive at around the same time. The ore ovens will be moved as soon as 31 arrives, allowing us to finish upgrading the central ring approximately three months after. So, by this time next year, we should be mostly complete," Baker ended.

"Thanks for the update, Bill. We'll post the new schematics to the public bulletin board for all to see," Fiona ordered.

"Once Liramor-31 comes into the system," Fiona continued, "the ships of the Piscium Defence Force will operate out of Liramor-31's Navy Control. That will provide us with a little more room here for Sector Fifty-Nine Command, which will be increased at that time. We will have nine Senior Officers and a staff of forty-eight to assist in running the sector. Until then, we will have to manage on our own.

"Dispatches from the Navy have indicated that the promised ships for the Sector Fifty-Nine fleet will start arriving over the next three months. I don't want them to sit around. I need them out there in the Greater Community, conducting patrols and collaborating with their counterparts in the Greater Community. We will have to indicate which ships will go to which member race and determine how they want us to conduct patrols in their area of space.

"Henadi, as the captain of my flagship, you will be responsible for touching base with the ambassadors and laying down the rules and regulations of how our ships will function in each of their areas of control. Some of them will want us to assist in customs issues, et al. You know the navies patrol patterns and objectives better than I do, so you are the best candidate to explain those to the ambassadors.

"If you have any issues, refer them to me and I will ensure they get resolved before we conduct our patrols," Fiona finished, getting a nod from Henadi.

"Commodore Whatt, I could use your expertise on this issue as well, however, I do not want to become too reliant on you as I will lose you to Liramor-31 once it arrives in system, whenever that will be." Fiona got a nod and an 'Aye Ma'am' from Whatt.

Fiona then ran through the sections asking if they had any issues to bring forward and then dismissed the brief. She and the Navy personnel then walked over to Navy Control and ran through a more secure version of the morning brief and introduced Henadi's senior personnel to those in Navy Command.

"This will be your working office while you are on the station," Fiona advised them. "Anything that you need, Navy wise, will be conducted from here.

"We have a Procurement Officer, a Navy Captain who works for Cmdre. Whatt. We will eventually have a Rear Admiral in charge of procurement for Sector Fifty-Nine, but that will not be until Liramor-31 arrives in system as we simply do not have accommodations for the Sector Senior Staff at this time. That will change with the move of the Piscium Defence Force to Liramor-31, and the expansion of this station which will start today.

"That means, unfortunately, that the ship crews will have to mostly remain on their ships. We shall have to make arrangements with the closest local Union systems, in Sector Forty-Two, and Sector Forty-Three, to allow our ships to come in for some R&R.

"You will be happy to know that we have a Campus of Malton University here on Liramor-23 so any of you who have degrees to complete, or who are planning to take courses to advance your careers, will have the ability to do so under direct supervision. That will be a big plus to our personnel," Fiona explained.

"As stated earlier, our ships will be conducting patrols in the regions of space belonging to our neighbours. That means we will have to maintain good relations with those same neighbours. We need to speak to our people about race relations issues now occurring around the Union. We cannot have some idiot saying something offensive while in the presence of a member of another race, especially if we are in their area of space.

"Most of the people here at the Interspecies Embassy, are rather broad minded and have their own history of integration into the Greater Community as a reference for this issue. However, if we are in contact with the average individual of a member race, insensitive remarks could cause us problems. We need to set a standard that will be followed by all ship's crews, regardless of rank, with consequences under Navy law. I suggest we use the 'Against the prejudices to good order and deportment' side of the law for this one. We will need the assistance of the JAG for this, as it will become a Navy-wide issue.

"Capt. Noor, I believe that you had a Captain JAG on the Dewfall, do you still have him/her?" Fiona asked.

"Capt. Lorain Bouchelle, originally of the JAG office in Sector Forty-Two but left on my ship as VAdm. Hittu thought you might like to have her at your disposal as you have no JAG at this time. You can transfer her to the staff here on the station," Henadi suggested, getting a nod of agreement from Fiona.

"OK. One of the things we are currently active with is the integration of member races on the various ships of the fleet. We currently have 800 Asocans integrated between the two fleets and one civilian ship, The Wanderer. That ship is training the members that will crew the Asoc's new imperial ship the 'Tarl Asoc'. The Tarl will not be ready before this time next year, so those crew will be with the Wanderer for an extended period of time.

"We will have two ships per month coming out of Pallanders-4, assigned to this Sector for the next three years. The first of those ships will go to the Asocans. In six months time, we will have Pallanders-6 in system, and the engineers that are currently part of the support team for the current crisis on Liramor Prime will be slowly transferred to our shipyard.

"In case you are not aware, just before the Second Battle of Liramor-23, the NS Churchill was discovered to have been fraudulently serviced by the chartered refit company, something we only discovered by chance. A look by Navy engineers on Navy ships that had been serviced by this company showed a lot of fraudulent work. The Navy went to court and seized the assets of the company.

"In the meantime, said company also worked on many private vessels. The SSP Winston came into the Piscium system out of control and we nearly had to fire on it to prevent it from hitting the platform. When we discovered that the Winston had been refit by the same company, we put out a Notice to Spacemen aimed at all ships that had been refit by this company.

"Long story shortened, over fifty ships from more than fourteen companies on Liramor Prime have been serviced by this company in the last five years. That has sparked the requirement of the use of the Mutual Support Agreement, the Greater Community is sending its engineers to work on those ships and others. This will eventually be a win-win for everyone, as the member races wind up with early training on our shipbuilding and refit techniques for their engineers, the various companies on Liramor Prime get out of a serious jam, Pallanders gets new work cages, and a workforce of trained engineers to use for the next year, without severe changes to Pallanders current schedule of builds.

"The Mutual Support Pact saves our collective asses and gives the Greater Community a chance to look like the good guy to Union citizens. On this one, we come out ahead. However, that will not always be the case.

"After the Asocan ships, the next two ships off the line are specifically made for the Byandi. As they need to have water for their use, they cannot serve on our ships without some difficulty. So we will need to integrate our crews into their first two ships. We need to figure out how to do this without taking too many crew from our ships. That will be something for the captains to figure out. We will need to cover all positions, including the captains positions.

"I suggest, strongly, that if you have Commanders who have been to Senior Officers Staff School, they be the ones who function as the Captains on the two Byandi training ships. If they haven't earned it already, I will award them their Command Stars for this work. I want names to be sent to me soonest on all positions that you are willing to give up for several months. These people will need to be experienced as they will be imparting that experience to the Byandi on their own ships.

"In return, the Byandi are looking at imparting their water conservation methods to Union scientists. This will allow us to make better use of water resources on space stations and ships. For the Byandi, water is life, and a necessary requirement. They literally live in it.

"For humans, we don't have the same need for water that the Byandi do, however, water to humans is also life. Without it, we cannot survive. Any new methods of water conservation for use in space would be welcome.

"As more and more ships come into the system, destined for the Sector's Fleet, they will have to take on the role of trainers for the member races who have contracted with Pallanders and the Navy. Which means all member races with the exception of the Djinaëte, who build their own ships, and the Maha-Rrin, who are not yet officially recognized by the Union.

"Speaking of the Maha-Rrin, a delegation will arrive here on Liramor-23 to see the Interspecies Embassy. They will also likely attend the next Denders Summit, which is scheduled for next month.

"The last Denders Summit, which was in July of last year, was in response to the presentation of Ambassadorial Credentials to the Union. This time, the summit is because of the opening of the new Business Consulate at the Johal Compound not far from Denders Resort.

"What that means for us is that our ships will likely function as a taxi service for the member races that cannot make arrangements with the Djinaëte. While the Djinaëte have ships, they don't have as many ships available for public use as the member races would like, which is principally why they are contracting with Pallanders and the Navy. The member races wish to have their own vessels and control over their own space.

"Pallanaders-4, in conjunction with Pallanders-6 when it comes online, will be responsible for supplying up to one hundred Naval vessels for the fleets of the member races. That will be ten ships apiece. By that time, it is hoped that the member races will be well on their way to building their own orbital shipyards.

"Pallanders-6 will also provide for commercial vessels for the member races, which will make things very busy here in this system. The security of Pallanders-6 will also be part of the Sector's responsibility. Whatever ships are designated for that task will be temporarily under the command of Cmdre. Whatt, as part of the Piscium Defence Force. I will not take ships from Cmdre. Whatt for Pallanders-6 as he has a large enough task working in defence of this system.

"The company of Clark and Samson, has just contracted with Pallanders for a new, very large, supply vessel on the scale of The Wanderer." That brought some comments from the group. "They will be building an initial run of ten vessels for the House of Ur Trading Company, which is run by the House of Ur here on Liramor-23. They will dedicate one of these ships to each of the other member races. At three to three-and-a-half billion credits each, the ships will cost double what a normal large supply ship will cost to build. But the vast distances and types of trade that they have already contracted for will mean the House of Ur will pay off these vessels with three to four runs into each of the member race's space.

"Eventually, they intend to allow for their design to be purchased by the member races, but not before the House of Ur can earn back the cost of the vessels. From what I have seen of their plans, they look good.

"What does that mean for this platform? It means we will effectively be the center of Interspecies trade. We will likely have a first look at many of the items that will be moving back and forth between the Greater Community and the Union. That will mean our personnel will be able to buy all manner of goods here on the expanded Concourse. That will keep some of our people very happy."

That comment got a chuckle from the group.

"Finally, the stand-up of Sector Fifty-Nine will take a little longer than expected due to the fact that we do not currently have the room on the platform to put all the senior staff. Normally, a new Sector can be stood up and ready for action within six months.

"We need to be ready for action almost immediately, as the member race's area of space is effectively unpatrolled. Fortunately, only the Djinaëte have FTL capability out there. What that means is that most trade, customs, and Navy vessels are essentially sub-light vessels limited to their respective star systems, as will be the commercial vessels that we will be patrolling for.

"The advent of FTL Navy vessels will be a game changer for the member races. The advent of FTL commercial vessels even more so. Before we have those commercial vessels in place, we need to establish proper patrol procedures for our and their Naval vessels. That means we teach them the proper way to do patrols and establish protocols for each of the member races in dealing with their own FTL ships.

"Something that is coming down the pipeline, now that the ICS systems are being built into every new or refit ship that is coming out, is the advent of a new space flight directive. There will now be a requirement to implement a flight plan for all future space flights. The exception to this will be Navy vessels, who have free rein in their patrol areas.

"However, when a Navy vessel comes into port at any planet in the Union, and soon any planet in the Greater Community, it will have to file a flight plan with its approximate time of arrival.

"Before you say that we cannot implement this prior to every vessel in space receiving the ICS, look at how flight plans are conducted for airships on most planets. They are sent from the point of origin to the final destination by the local air authority.

"The same will happen for space flights. If you do not have an ICS antenna, you will file a plan with the local Planetary Authority, who will advise the destination planet of your approximate time of arrival. That is expected to happen by the end of this year, however, Liramor Prime is already insisting on this for ships coming into their space and, because Liramor-23 is owned by Liramor Holdings on Liramor Prime, that means all ships coming to Liramor-23, Liramor-31, or Pallanders-6, will have to file flight plans as well, regardless if they are coming from within the Union or from within the Greater Community. That includes Djinaëte vessels. A Notice to Spacemen has already been issued and ships not conforming to this requirement will be considered hostile.

"I have already informed the Interspecies Embassy of this but the only people that need be concerned about it are the Djinaëte. By the time the other races have their new ships, this protocol will be established everywhere within the Interspecies Community.