Thursday, July 4th, 2261, 17:00. CNS Des Moines CNC

The Des Moines and her escorts were on red alert. Five minutes ago, a small Alliance attack wing consisting of three frigates and six destroyers jumped in near the planet they were orbing. Except now the Des Moines and her escorts were now rapidly burning away from the planet.

John was recalled to duty despite having just crawled into bed. A minor annoyance to be sure but assisting during the current crisis was the obvious thing to do. He was looking at where all of their friendly ships were and where the enemy was.

“We could converge and wipe them out,” Billy said as he looked at the central screen, “Look at that, they jumped in damn near in the middle of our wing.”

Beth shook her head, “Seems too easy. Plus jumping near us is relative in space. They were still well outside weapon ranges.”

“We’re not exactly in a hot war yet. So being the aggressor doesn’t make much sense at the moment. Plus, there’s this whole thing about our orders, which say to run instead of fight,” Hugo said from the far side of the room, “Lieutenant Lief, you're being quiet.”

“I agree with your sentiment,” John said while staring down at his terminal’s output, “Looking to see if I can verify anything about these ships.”

“Such as?” Billy asked.

“What Alliance fleet they are assigned to.”

“Why would that matter?” Second Lieutenant Eileen Cho said in a noticeably bitchy tone.

The room grew quiet for a moment, then all eyes shifted to John. The young lieutenant didn’t seem to care about the tone of the question. Nor did he show any sign of answering the question. John continued with his research.

A painfully awkward three minutes passed by with no one saying anything. John continued on with his work. His anti-social demeanor and laser focus on the task at hand did not help the mood of the room. That is until Beth blurted out a possible answer to the question lingering in the room.

“What if they are advanced scouts?”

John transferred his findings to the right side of the central holographic screen and pointed at it as he stood up, “We need to get the hell out of here. They are attached to the Alliance’s Third Fleet battlegroup, specifically their fast attack wing.”

Hugo spun about and looked up what is known about that battlegroup. He didn’t need to do that as John had already summarized it on the central screen. Billy leaned back in his chair.

“Fuck me. Eight pocket battleships?”

“The thirty battlecruisers they have is scarier to me,” Beth said innocently.

“Leaving sounds good,” Eileen said in a more humble and contrite manner.

Hugo opened a channel with the bridge, “Contacts are presumed to be a part of the Alliance fast attack fleet. Unsure if they are forward scouts or not but suggest the entire wing jump to slip space and retreat into Confederate space.”

Kory then responded, “What’s the likelihood of their fleet appearing?”

Hugo pointed to John, “Sir, it’s unlikely that the entirety of their fleet will appear here. They would absolutely know we’re here given the burns we’re doing. I’d say it’s as sure a bet as there could be that reinforcements are coming. Our current combat doctrine dictates a retreat, couple that with our current engine troubles that makes our situation here that much more precarious.”

Kory nodded, “Lieutenant Walsh, is that your assessment as well.”

Hugo leaned back in his chair, “It is. Half our fleet is over two days travel before arriving here. It’s not worth trying to fight them. It’ll get damn hairy for us if reinforcements jump in. This may also be their way of telling us to bugger off without actually pulling a trigger.”

“Very well, Petty Officer Brooks, contact the fleet and jump us into slip space when we clear the gravity well,” Kory paused as he looked at his terminal, “We will regroup at the Tau Ceti military outpost.”

02:15 Engineering

Engineering was bustling with work. Several crewmen were working on something at a feverish pitch. John looked up to watch them for a moment, but since he could see their terminals, he didn’t know what they were doing. His terminal beeped which helped him refocus his efforts.

“Fuck,” John said loudly.

Chief Engineer Aydin walked over to John and looked over his shoulder, “Interesting.”

“Not likely, sir. This attempt burns out the plasma relays.”

“True, the result is a rather explosive failure. But…” Deniz trailed off as he turned to point at Second Lieutenant Silva, “Ana, use the intermix ratios that John had but use your venting scheme.”

“Yes sir,” the bespectacled engineer said casually from across the room.

Deniz smiled, “You’ve got the imagination of an engineer, but your temperament is lacking for one.”

John chuckled to himself, “I’ve never claimed to be an engineer. Plenty of other things for sure, but never that.”

Ana jumped from her seat and danced awkwardly for a brief moment, “IT WORKS!”

“Yay!” John said sarcastically.

The chief engineer shook his head and smirked as he walked to a terminal. He reviewed the information from Ana’s simulation. While it did accomplish changing their signature it removed their stealth abilities. On the plus side there was no ship-ending explosion, so progress had in fact been made.

John stood up and looked at the other terminal, “Bit of a double-edged sword there eh? What if we cycled the exhaust through the core a second time?”

“That won’t work,” Ana said confidently, “Oooh, I think I know what will.”

John said quietly to the chief engineer, “I want to yell nerd at her so badly.”

Deniz laughed loudly but then quietly responded back, “She’s as good at fixing and building things as you are destroying them.”

“I know. Kinda frightening when you think about it,” John shrugged.

“Yup, take a look at these results sir,” Ana sent the newest simulation to the terminal.

The new results looked much more promising. Fewer emissions but the settings were noticeably more demanding on the engines. Deniz ran a simulation himself and nodded. They were on the right track finally. He smiled as he slapped John’s shoulder.

“You look like hell. How long have you been awake?”

John looked at his watch, “It’ll be twenty-four hours at 03:00. That all-hands call was timely.”

“Head to the mess and relax until the top of the hour. I’ll cover you down here.”

John stood up and smiled, “Thank you, sir.”

Ana got up from her seat and walked to the exit to cut off John’s exit. She awkwardly threw up her hand for a high-five. John suppressed the urge to yell “nerd” and just high-fived her as he walked out of engineering. She then walked over to Deniz.

“Sir, I think with this program we can reset the engine in just two cycles.”

“Good work,” Deniz smiled as he continued to update the simulation’s inputs.

“Sir, how did you know he’d be such a good engineer?”

“I didn’t. And I’m not convinced he’s a good engineer,” Deniz slid back in his chair after initiating another simulation, “But he’s a wicked smart bastard. He knows the exact tolerances that everything was built to, but he doesn’t know how much we can bend the rules by. I stand by my assessment that he’d be a bad engineer. But when you need someone innovative, I damn well want to have him nearby.”

Ana paused for a moment and then spoke quietly, “I’ve heard several other officers talk badly about him. I don’t understand it.”

The chief engineer grinned as he looked at her, “The elite among our crew has political, familial, or financial hooks in the upper echelons. John almost certainly has substantial reserves of money, due in part to his public investments and marriage. But he refuses to play the game the other families do. His former connections with Naval Intelligence also sour him to many.”

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“So, it is true then. He’s a bull in a China shop?”

“Of sorts,” Deniz nodded and whispered, “I’d strongly recommend keeping your mouth and opinions to yourself though lieutenant, “You don’t know who is listening.”

Ana’s eye’s bulged out with worry, “Yes sir. I’ll keep working on these simulations.”

03:30 CNS Des Moines – Stateroom

John was sitting next to Hugo in the opulent-looking room. John was too tired to feel out of place. Though he was wondering why he was there in the first place. He knew without a shred of doubt that the top two officers didn’t like him.

Hell, half the officers onboard probably had emotions that ranged from general loathing to outright disgust with him being one of them. It was doubtful that he could do anything to change their opinion of him. His stomach growled loudly causing John to refocus his thoughts on food.

It was as if his stomach could sense that food was near. The doors opened and three chef’s assistants walked in with their meal. John’s mouth was watering when his plate was set down in front of him. Pepperoni pizza, cheese sticks, and bacon-wrapped jalapeno poppers.

“You’re probably guessing why I asked you here?” Kory said with a smirk.

“Sure am, sir,” John answered bluntly as he tossed a popper in his mouth.

“Believe it or not, I need to know everyone’s capabilities onboard. That way in an emergency situation I know what they are capable of doing.”

John smirked, “Well, I doubt I’ll be wilting under pressure. But I’m not sure you are cleared to hear how far I have gone to accomplish missions in the past.”

“Bold words,” Kelly said as she sat down at the chair at the end of the table.

“Could you defeat their presumed attack squadron?” Kory asked directly.

“Yes, I believe I could. But I’d either be sent to the brig for the rest of my natural life or hung,” John absolutely devoured the piece of pizza he had picked up.

“How would you accomplish that and why would the Navy hang you?” Kory asked with a confused look on his face.

“I’d program the slipstream generators to create unstable vortexes,” John spoke in a calm and nonchalant manner that was bordering on disturbing, “Right on top of the enemy ships. We experimented with doing that after the Alliance seceded. All the powers, and pirates, agreed to not do that.”

Hugo laughed, “Let’s say you couldn’t commit war crimes. Unless I’m gravely mistaken that’s kind of presumed here.”

Kory nodded, “Before you move on from that. Could you actually do that?”

John nodded, “And survive? Likely, but doing so and not injuring your own ship is difficult. The downside is it usually results in significant damage to the ship.”

“I bet Deniz could solve that problem,” Kelly said, “Speaking of, where is he?”

Kory smiled, “John’s failure of sorts led to him working a double shift. He’s confident by the time we make port they will be able to hide once more. Importantly without needing a full core tune,” Kory then looked back at John, “With our stealth wing, how big of a squadron could you command a successful victory over?”

John took a deep breath, “A cruiser wing. The standard confederate battlecruiser squadron means you’ll be fighting two to three of them, ignoring their escorts. That’s too much for ships our size to handle. Our wing is just not set up, nor designed, to be a frontline attack squadron.”

Kory looked disappointed when he spoke, “I must admit, I figured your bravado would create a different answer.”

“Apologies to disappoint you, sir. While I don’t mind when my enemy acts like a donkey, I never predict they are one. And our ships are not designed to brawl or fight it out. We’re meant to be sneaky little shits and relay information to the big guns in our fleet. We point, they shoot.”

“Well, you subverted my expectations, so bravo to that. Would you ever pull that stunt on an enemy ship or fleet?”

“Yes,” John answered plainly before dipping a cheese stick in some marina sauce.

“Come again?” Kelly dropped her food on her plate and stared at John.

“There is a man so evil and despicable that deserves to be killed by any means. Though the likelihood of me needing to do that is remote,” John shrugged.

“You’d commit a war crime to kill one man?” Kelly could hardly believe what she was hearing.

“To kill him and end his experiments? If you saw what he had done, then you’d be willing to do the same.”

“If it’s all the same,” Hugo said light-heartedly, “I’d rather you not find yourself in a position to do just that.”

“Fair enough. If I’m honest I want to watch his life drain away as I strangle the asshole,” John said casually.

Kory leaned forward and was deep in thought for a moment, “Your CV is highly redacted. You weren’t a desk jockey with intelligence, were you?”

John shook his head briefly before focusing on eating a couple of poppers.

“Interesting, then unlike all of us you probably know what it feels like to actually kill someone,” Kory sipped on some coffee.

“Press a button, flip a switch here or there. Not hard to do sitting down at your desk,” John paused to eat the last bite of crust, “Way different than having your sights on someone and pressing the trigger or getting up close with the enemy and sliding a knife into someone’s back.”

“We’re talking about authorized kills, not straight-up murder, right?” Hugo asked.

Kelly laughed, “What’s the difference?”

John grinned.

Kory noticed John’s reaction, “What is the difference lieutenant?”

“Well, doing one gets you in front of a judge, the other doesn’t.”

Hugo set his coffee mug on the table, “You can’t be serious.”

“Does it really matter what the motivation is? At the end of the day, a person is dead. Either at the orders of someone else or for other personal reasons. Hell, sometimes for no reason at all. Dead is dead.”

“That’s the kind of answer you get from someone experienced in death,” Kelly said plainly, “The other rumors we heard were also true then.”

Hugo frowned, “What rumors?”

“Apologies my friend, but I had heard he had iced over a hundred people while in the academy.”

John shook his head as he looked at Hugo, “Not everyone I attacked died.”

“That wasn’t a denial though,” Hugo said.

“No, it was not. Anyone that threatened the lives of my friends or loved ones got put down like the dogs they were.”

The officers continued their conversation. Both Kelly and Kory enjoyed seeing Hugo look worried over what John was saying. The ease with which it was for John to have justified and compartmentalized his actions mystified his department head. For John’s part, the jalapeno poppers were excellent and were worth the price of admission alone.

04:15 CNS Des Moines – Rec Room

John was playing darts against Ana. She demanded the two play a game the second he had entered the room. Seeing as how he didn’t have any plans to do anything besides kill an hour there, he agreed.

He actually wanted to play cornhole, except Ana and most of the other officers onboard hated it. Plus a pair of enlisted crewmen were already playing a game. A couple of other officers, who John hadn’t met yet, were reading in the back corner of the room.

“Another triple twenty. What are you, a pro?” Ana said with disbelief.

John shrugged, “I’m the best”

“Ugh. That sounds so gross,” Ana proceeded to try and match John’s round but her three throws were errant.

“You know, my wife says that too.”

Ana rolled her eyes, “It’s amazing she can put up with that attitude.”

John threw three more twenties, “It really is. She’s a god damned saint for dealing with me.”

“How long have you been married?” Ana asked with a genuine curiosity before throwing her darts, “Damnit, I suck at this game.”

“Just about two years. We Will likely miss our anniversary this year if our deployment schedule goes as planned,” John smiled as he finished out the game with his last three throws, “Ooh perfect game. But we were both well aware that we’d most likely miss most of our anniversaries.”

Ana shook her head at her loss, “My fiancé and I have been waiting for two years to get married. If all goes to plan, it’ll happen in March back home.”

“Nothing ever does go to plan, does it?”

“Ain’t that the truth. By the way, the chief got your plan working even better than expected.”

John shrugged, “I wasn’t even close to being right though. You changed most of what I had written.”

“True, I helped quite a bit…”

“Look who’s humble-bragging now,” John said with a laugh.

“As I was saying, you got us on the right path, but like a few steps into it. He got us to the finish line.”

“He going to have the engineering grunts do the maintenance on the engine or have the station people do that?”

Ana laughed, “The chief is going to have the station crew do the work. But we won’t be leaving there until we are sure it is working as intended.”

“Saves a bit of labor for us I suppose. Given our experience, I don’t fault him for wanting to make sure.”

Billy walked into the room and waved to John and Ana. He walked over to where they were and hopped into the recliner and stretched out. He smiled as he looked up.

“Heard where we’re going?”

“Outer part of the Tau Ceti system, think it was a small military base or listening post.”

“What he said,” Ana gestured to John.

“You both would be wrong,” Billy said excitedly, “We are, in fact, going to Easter Station above Tau Ceti Minor. Would either of you care to guess what can be found in the largest station in Tau Ceti?”

“Look, I’ve gotten enough smugness from this asshole when he schooled me in darts,” Ana slapped John’s shoulder, “But since it’s the biggest station it must also have a civilian sector. That means plenty of food, drink, shopping, and all the creature comforts that we lack.”

“I mean we aren’t lacking that bad. We could be slumming it on an older ship,” John said.

“Ok first off, shut up,” Billy waved a finger at John, “Secondly, Ana you are correct. Also heard we’re going to have a week of leave.”

“A week?” Ana sounded shocked at the number.

“Christ, we’ve been barely out a month and we’re looking at a week off. That seems excessive,” John also sounded surprised.

“Don’t complain, it’ll be awesome.”

“You know what this means?” John asked.

“No,” Billy said flatly.

“It means we’re going to be out here longer than expected,” Ana was shaking her head.

“It’s what, early July now? That means our next leave would be around mid-September and a final leave at the start of November.”

“I’m still looking forward to a week off. It’s happening in the here and now,” Billy was unmoved by the inconvenient details.

The main viewscreen turned itself on and displayed one of the communications crewmen from the bridge. They were looking into the rec room, which caused all of the people in the room to look back at the petty officer.

“Uhm, is Lieutenant Lief there? Says he is but I don’t recognize him.”

“I am here petty officer. What can I do for you?”

“This is going to sound really weird sir…” Petty Officer Prince Minenhle sounded very unsure of himself.

“I mean, you’re going to have to tell me what sounds weird to you. Don’t have much to go on right now.”

“Right, that’s a fair point, sir. We’re getting a communication request from Manchester. But it’s not a channel we normally use.”

John looked confused, “Is it, my wife?”

“That would be a negative. It’s a royal channel…” the petty officer got cut off.

John stood up and walked nearer to the screen, “Tell that crazy bitch, or her insane fucking family to go fuck themselves. I do not want to talk to those assholes. You can literally quote me on that.”

“Woo boy. Wow, I’m really…” the petty officer was sounding even more unsure of himself after hearing the vitriolic statement from John, “How about I just say you don’t want to talk and just cut the line.”

John nodded. The screen was then shut off. As he turned, he saw Ana and Billy looking at each other, then at John. They both grinned evilly.

“Look, I’m really not in the mood for what y’all are scheming. You can ask later when I’ve cooled off.”

John’s walk to the exit was interrupted by Billy, “Where ya going?”

“I’d like to choke the life out of a certain someone but barring that I’m going to take a cold shower and then sleep it off.”

John waived to the room as he walked into the hallway. It had been a pretty good day. He helped push the engineering team in the right direction to solve their noisy engine problem. The top two officers of the ship seemed to be less hostile, or at least not as openly hostile, to him. Though that could have just been for appearances, and nothing really had changed.

But this princess bullshit was something that John genuinely hoped he could avoid. The royal family had leaked plans of a wedding and then tried to coerce the Navy into leaving him to their devices. Clearly ignoring this problem was not helping him in any way. Action would be taken sooner than later. But for now, a cold shower and rest were on the menu.