Homebound Sector, Haven System, Ariea, Valkar, Eagle’s Talon
Alise Cortana knew that she would be reassigned following Secretary Gives’ assassination, but it came as a surprise when she was ordered to report to General Clarke’s office. It was rare for the General to see anyone personally these days. Rumor in the fleet was that his health was failing him in his old age. Command was pushing him to select a successor, but he refused to hand the position over to Admiral Reeter and Admiral Gives had already refused such a promotion twice, so his options were surprisingly few.
Still, it seemed odd to Cortana. Why would the highest-ranking officer in the fleet care about such a small matter as a Marine Corporal’s reassignment? Perhaps something was wrong. No, she tried to calm herself, this would probably be nothing more than a formal commemoration of her service to Secretary Gives.
That was probably all, even if the thought rendered her squeamish. The Secretary was dead, and as the head of his personal security detail, that blame was on her. She was lucky to be meeting with Clarke. It could be worse… a lot worse. The damned Fleet Admiral could be involved. Her mouth dried at the thought, making it hard to swallow. Perhaps he was involved. Maybe that was why she’d been summoned to the high command building.
No, that was paranoia talking. She would have heard if Admiral Gives had made landfall. The whole town went rigid when he was in-system. She had no cause to worry about him… Right?
She began pacing, trying not to trip over the set of wooden chairs in front of the desk. Her restlessness churned up the dust from the antiquated bookshelves and display cases. Ariea’s autumn sun filtered warmly into the room, its rays catching the dust as it danced through the air. In another situation, this would have been a cozy space, but now she only felt trapped. Starting to pick at her carefully ironed dress uniform, the quaint surroundings of General Clarke’s office did nothing to calm her nerves. What if this was nothing more than a trick? Maybe the Fleet Admiral was just borrowing the General’s office.
The door creaked open, and she involuntarily breathed a sigh of relief when she saw the sterling haired General Clarke step into the room, leaning steadily on his cane. Dark rings circled his wrinkled eyes.
He closed the door gently behind him and hardly spared Cortana a glance as she reverted to attention. “I had a feeling you’d be early, Corporal.” He shuffled slowly to his desk and sat down, leaning the ivory cane up beside him. He gestured for the Marine to take one of the seats on the other side of his carefully arranged desk.
Planetary gravity was doing him no favors. Clarke knew how old, how weak he must look hobbling on that cane, and he absolutely despised it. People accused him of getting soft, but they were fools. It was merely easy to look preferable to the alternatives when one of them was the Steel Prince.
He picked up the glass data pad on the desk and tapped in his credentials. “Corporal Cortana, your record is quite impressive.” He’d gone through the file himself, “Two thousand hours logged on away missions, and you commanded a security unit in the military capital for ten months. You have never missed a shift and came out of training with near-perfect scores. There isn’t a single black mark on your record.” She was a talented, and more importantly, dedicated Marine. She was exactly what he’d been looking for. “I called you here today to discuss your reassignment.”
Her palms began to sweat. She wiped them nervously onto her black dress pants. This was not how this was supposed to work. Something was wrong. With her qualifications, she should have been handed her papers and been on her way. “General, may I ask why you thought this necessary? Is there something wrong?” Was she being held accountable for the Secretary’s death?
General Clarke took note of her concern. It was the mark of a good soldier. She would be perfect for the job. “Your new assignment is somewhat irregular.” He had picked it himself. “I feel you may have questions surrounding the reasons.” He was giving her a very important task. One that would determine the fate of worlds.
But even with the perfect candidate in front of him, he had to be subtle. This objective could not be handled brashly. It had to be handled by means of ignorance. Even the Sergeant herself had to be oblivious of her mission until the very end.
“You are being promoted to Sergeant and reassigned to UCSC-14, Battleship Singularity.” A name she would likely recognize. “You will be in charge of assigning and leading away missions with the ship’s Marine company. Your direct superior there will be Lieutenant Colonel Pflum.” General Clarke scrolled further down the file on his tablet. “The specifics of your assignment will be given to you upon your arrival to the ship.” Getting her into position was the hardest part of this operation, but this reassignment finally gave him the necessary means.
“The Singularity?” He had to be fucking kidding. She recognized the name. Of course she did, after months of working with the Secretary. “You’re assigning me to Admiral Gives’ ship?” Unbelievable. Absolutely unbelievable.
“Yes,” the General confirmed, not an ounce of hesitation in his mind.
“You can’t be serious!” That was the worst assignment she could possibly have drawn! “For the sake of the stars, I just got the man’s brother killed. You can’t assign me there!” That was a death sentence!
Clarke steepled his bony hands and rested his chin upon them. “Admiral Gives is fair. He will not hold that against you.”
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.
“Oh really?” Fair was not a term she’d heard used to describe Admiral Gives. “Last I checked, he had reputation for shooting soldiers he didn’t like in the back.”
“That incident has been far over glorified.”
There was no worse officer in the fleet to serve under. “You do know why they call him the Steel Prince, don’t you?” she cried. “He doesn’t feel emotion. When his soldiers die, when he kills, he feels absolutely nothing. The power of royalty, and the emotional capacitance of steel. Combine that with his intelligence and a warship, and you get the perfect killing machine.” He was Command’s favorite tool, and the most hated member of the human race. That was, if he was still human, and some people weren’t so sure about that.
It seemed that Johnathan Gives’ opinion of his older brother had rubbed off on Cortana. Good. As far as Clarke was concerned, that alone made her twice as qualified for the task at hand. “I think you’ll find that there is more to the Prince than his legend portrays.”
He’s not going to alter the reassignment orders, Cortana realized. She was doomed. “Why that ship? Out of every ship in the fleet?” Was there any real explanation, or was this the Fleet Admiral’s bidding? “Admiral Gives is a maniac, and the Singularity is a dead-end assignment.” Going there was the end of her career. The crew was full of delinquents and malcontents who were kept in line by the threat of their commanding officer.
“The Singularity was the only ship with that position available. It is a good fit for your skillset. Both you and the ship will benefit,” Clarke explained, knowing full well that was not the actual reason. Simply, the success of this clandestine operation hinged on her obliviousness.
“I would be fine with a demotion,” Cortana told him. That ship was the absolute last place she wanted to be. “It would be more prestigious to be a Cadet on the Olympia. Admiral Reeter is at least human.” Reeter was a respectable man, ambitious, but innovative. He commanded the most powerful ship in the fleet.
The fleet’s two most respected Admirals were dangerously different. That was true to an extent that Cortana was not aware of, but General Clarke could see her point. “A duty rotation on the Singularity may not be as glamorous as it once was, but I think it may surprise you,” he stated. “Most crewmen stationed temporarily aboard the Singularity request to be transferred there permanently.” As a dedicated Marine, Cortana would similarly request to stay if it was necessary for the mission. He was certain of that, and the more she protested, the clearer it became that she was the perfect candidate.
“That ship is a joke.” Her fingernails dug into her palm as she fought to contain her frustration. She was a good soldier. She didn’t deserve this.
“I am aware of the Singularity’s reputation, but I assure you she is a highly capable ship.” Rumors spread of Admiral Gives only bolstered his feared reputation, but his ship suffered from rumors of the opposite variety: those that demeaned her. However, that was nothing more than a clever ploy by a very clever man. “Do not make the mistake of underestimating her.”
Clarke’s seriousness did earn a moment of hesitation, but Cortana knew what she had heard, what she had been told since basic training. The former fleet flagship was a worn-out garbage scow the size of an asteroid. “There’s no way that thing’s battle-ready.” The fleet’s original flagship was practically ancient. Technology had evolved far since the War. The Singularity had been built without a wholly integrated computer system. That rendered her slow and stupid without the best tactician the fleet had to offer. Only the Steel Prince kept the ship relevant at all in the modern era.
Well-played, Admiral, General Clarke mused. This was all very clever from a tactical point of view. Even Command’s soldiers believed that the ship was useless. But what is your end game? The worlds had forgotten the strength of the ship that had once been poised to crush their beating hearts. But what was the point in letting the worlds forget?
“Admiral Gives is no fool, Corporal.” He was far from it. “The Singularity is more than fit for a fight. He was free to choose any ship in the fleet as his command, the Flagship Olympia included. There is a reason he stayed with the Singularity.” One that the rest of humanity had forgotten.
“That ship is half a century old.” Its old structure had to be weakened by fatigue.
“Machines do not age, Corporal.” It was a simple fact the worlds overlooked. “The Singularity is still the same ship that turned the tide of an unwinnable war fifty years ago.” She was old for a warship, but she’d survived the most tumultuous years of human history. That spoke to a strength that was too-often overlooked. “I think you’ll find that Admiral Gives and the Singularity aren’t quite what they appear.”
Clarke focused again on the soldier in front of him. “People make assumptions, Corporal. Not all of them are correct.” They presumed him weak and old. They presumed when they caught and killed his spies, that he hadn’t intended it. But he had merely wanted the New Era to know he was watching. The life of a spy was worth the message. Spies were replaceable. “They assume the Fleet Admiral is loyal to some great cause, do they not?”
He was an unquestioning dog of war: loyal to death, blood and power, a bullet in Command’s arsenal. “He obeys Command.” They all obeyed Command.
“Remember this, Corporal. Admiral Gives is loyal to no one.” He was as unpredictable as they came. “That is what makes him dangerous, and that is what makes him necessary.” Clarke had his own plans for the man. The old Singularity was useful in her own right, but Gives was the key, and leaving the pair of them together was no longer an option. “The worlds fear him.” They feared him more than they hated each other. “And right now, that makes him the most important man alive.” It made him the only person in the worlds who could stop the coming civil war before it engulfed them all.
The inhabited planets were headed for a tailspin of indiscriminate violence. New powers would rise and fall in the span of the coming weeks, and the very fate of humanity was hanging in the balance. Clarke had seen this cycle rise and fall over and over again, sometimes silent, sometimes violent. He knew how to play the game. Humanity always tended toward its own self-destruction, but if they were going to survive, then the current order of the worlds had to remain. The worlds could not be allowed to fall to chaos, and they could not be pushed by inhuman hands.
Humanity desperately needed a monster to fight, one powerful enough to unite them, and they needed a leader they feared enough to respect. Clarke knew exactly where to find both, but people had to play their parts, and they had to stop breaking the rules. In this cycle of violence, the other roles had already been cast. Only Admiral Gives refused to play his part, but this was the game of the worlds, and General Clarke fully intended to force him, one way or another. Failure was not an option. It would cost them the very fabric of what it meant to be human.