The king and Admiral Seaver of Sixth Battle-Group, were doing a walk through of Phoenix today. Since I'm the only military person assigned to the ship right now, I am having to follow as one of his entourage. I hate feeling like a glory-chaser. Joseph's little game was announced to Sixth fleet a month ago, and would be taking place just over two weeks from today.

"Marshall, is the location you were, still on the ship?"

"Yes, Sire. I was in the quantum chamber, where the A.I. Is physically located. I was attempting to reboot it at the time of the Mass Vent."

He nodded, and continued to walk, asking questions about some of Joseph's design changes to the ship. He got rid of elevators in favor of tubes he had shifted the gravity away from. Even the king remarked that this system was faster, and made sense for emergencies.

Having never dealt with artificial gravity before, Joseph was rather quick picking up on how to manipulate the generators to get what he wanted.

We stepped out of the hallway through the open airlock, that normally we would have to wait to cycle, and onto the deck of the port runway.

One of his redesigned fighters sat in the middle of the runway for the king's inspection.

"This is the design your ship created?"

"Yes, sire. He used footage of the battle in which he was born to redesign the original fighters. The gentleman standing by it has been the test pilot, he has never been assigned ship duty, his career has been dock protection. We asked for him today so that he might answer any questions you have with the new design."

"What's your name pilot?"

"Ensign Zircon Stevenson, Sire."

"If you were to compare the two fighters, you prefer this one?"

"No question sir. The controls are more intuitive, she is faster, lighter, stronger, able to hold more munitions, and agility can't even be compared to the current model sire. The war-game this ship requested will definitely show the value of these fighters."

"You do know that the ship will not have a crew aboard."

"Sire, I believed the same way you did. If you think the lack of crew is a detriment to this ship, you will be educated otherwise." The pilot was extremely confident in his statement.

"Would you be kind enough, to enlighten me." The King doesn't like to be out of the loop.

"Sire, Joseph, the Phoenix A.I., seems excessively defensive, but effectively, he has turned this ship into a scary mobile fortress. I've flown against him in one of the old fighters, and if he is capable of doing the same thing he did in the simulation, Sixth, with the old fighters, don't stand a chance. He will make them look like rookies in training, who don't yet know the right end of a rifle."

"Those are some pretty strong words, Pilot." The Sixth group Admiral, Duane Seaver, said.

"Admiral, I wish your battlegroup the best of luck, but know, that if this scout goes against this dock, the dock will loose, hands down."

"This dock is almost as strongly guarded as my own home." The King said.

"Which makes Phoenix the best location for your daughter, Sire." The pilot answered with so much conviction the Sixth Admiral looked to be beginning to question if he really wanted to do this.

"Well, she will be on board for the game. Sixth's win condition is to capture her." Admiral Seaver confirms.

"Dear gods, help protect the Sixth." I mumbled, but it wasn't lost on the king.

"What do you mean by that?"

"Sire, the 'born of fire' phrase on the Phoenix bow is not a joke. And I can confirm how protective the ship can be. If you want sixth to have a slight chance, you will not have her aboard." I say. Admiral Seaver seems pissed at the comment.

"Marshall, you seem exceptionally confident in this ship as well; part of me understands it, it protected you, but why are you confident he will keep her safe." His question was an unmistakable order; this ship wasn't currently assigned to a battlegroup, so I didn't have an admiral to protect me from this man's wrath.

"Allow me to answer that." I heard Joseph's voice come from behind me. I turned to see a man of about twenty five, wearing an unembellished uniform. A quick glance above him showed a small version of the fighter, with a projector on its underside.

"Who are you?" The King asked, and his guards lifted their weapons.

"Sire, this is Joseph, the Phoenix A.I." I respond. The weapons lower, and the admiral looks him over.

"If the princess is aboard during our little skirmish, Admiral, it will force me to go all out, instead of using the simulation as training for myself. I will end up taking risks that in normal training I would not."

Joseph's image stops, but the bearing and demeanor the image conveyed made it obvious that he didn't consider the admiral any form of threat.

"Sire, I would like to request something." Joseph continued without waiting for a response. "If I loose, the Admiral here receives credit for the fighter redesign publicly, and they get named after him. If I win, the Marshall here is promoted to be my captain."

"Joseph! Do not presume to bargain with...." The king's hand went up to stop me mid sentence."

"I heard about you turning your guns on the last three candidates we presented. But our Space Corps has never had a woman be a ship captain. They are too soft." The King said.

Joseph got a slight grin on his face at the comment, it wasn't a happy looking face, then faced the admiral.

"Admiral Seaver. I request the transfer of one Danielle Tauron to be interim captain aboard my vessel during the duration of the games. She is to be transferred immediately, and will be transferred back after the review of the games. I promise to obey every command she gives during the games, without fail, even if I know it will cause me to loose." He turns back to the King. "Sire, I have studied every person aboard his fleet. And I will tell you that she is the third best strategist in his fleet. I'll let him try to figure out who the other two are that I'm letting him keep." The image turns and faces Admiral Seaver before continuing, "but surely he can manage to find the best strategists in his fleet, knowing that neither of them are officers; or male. They have both been in his fleet for at least two years. Surely his ship captains know their crew good enough to know talent when they see it."

"You would listen to a woman, even if it would make you loose?" The admiral says.

"If I knew how the princess thought, I would have her as captain, and Dani as executive officer, since the princess has to be aboard anyway. But I've watched your fleet, I've found your weaknesses. And every time one of your weaknesses shows up in a battle, there are six women that shore it up. Without orders from their captains. It's almost as though your captain's know their victories are because of these women, but don't understand how, or why. Private Tauron has only been in your fleet for eight months, and has been busted in rank from corporal to private because of insubordinate behavior. I want her."

"Deal." The admiral said. "You can have the private. They are fodder pilots anyway."

The pilot off to the side stiffened, and the lights on my indicator shifted to a pale pink. It's the first time I had seen even a hint of red in his lighting schemes.

"Admiral, that comment, right there, just made you loose any hope of this being training. I will, with her on my bridge, humiliate you so badly that the Admiralty board will force you to resign." Joseph flicked off, and the mini-fighter zoomed off.

"Admiral Seaver," the King said. "I think you just pissed him off. You made a comment like that aboard a ship that is already known to have protective instincts. I order her transfer immediately. She is to be aboard this ship before the time to serve the next meal aboard her current ship. Leave now." This was the coldest voice I had ever heard the King use. This made even his angry tone sound jovial. The admiral turned and left.