Edward could have never imagined that a ship completed only a few months after the Sheffield and about as compact as it, could top it so easily with its interior.
Everything inside spoke to how all of the world’s knowledge had now been collated into the design processes of the IFC’s newest ships. With that being especially true inside of the Vanguard’s flag bridge.
It was well lit without the lights being too bright inside with the bridge laid out in an opposing benches style, with the command console in the middle and a backup steering position situated at the rear of the room. At the front was a set of large screens, all currently turned off like everything else in the bridge. Each console looked advanced however, even without the lights on. Programmable screens filled them along with a few specialised displays in certain consoles for the communications, intelligence and sensors, navigation and engineering. Overall giving them a look like a fighter jet’s cockpit that had been merged with a Battlestar’s CIC console, and it was something Edward adored. Especially with a copy of the ship’s crest placed at the rear of the room along with the fleet’s insignia.
The ship’s crest was of an early style cuirassier with pistol out, charging forwards into the night. With the familiar fleet crest above it that of a fleet above an alien planet.
Though from the looks of the Theseus, one of the other ships put into the fleet, he did actually have a Battlestar in the fleet. Though how to utilise his fleet would be something to figure out later.
Right now, it was time to do a small briefing in front of his assembled staff.
Intermixed together were both new and old faces arrayed in front of him from both his personal and operational command staffs. It’d been quite a piece of work to find people for some of the positions, but there were some recommendations made which got everything done, despite some shortages. So, in the end stood ten people.
David’s pale face and brown hair was there, with the lieutenant commander fulfilling a suite of roles that he thought they were the only one that could do, including the Chief of Staff, Flag Secretary and the N1 personnel chief. David had never failed him, so he trusted his friend with all of the positions given to him.
Alex was also pulling double duty as Flag Lieutenant and the N6 in charge of command and control. Really they were also the only one he could trust to do the job.
Edward had managed to grab Harley and his squad from the Sheffield as well to run security for all of them and Elliot was of course here as the diplomatic attaché. Rounding out the obvious picks.
The one face in his personal staff that he hadn’t seen before was first class warrant officer Nayla Bauza, a dark skinned, grey eyed and fairly tall woman from Puerto Rico who was the Flag Mess Specialist. Edward wasn’t quite sure why he needed one but it was part of the standard structure and he’d been missing one for a while so command had shifted someone over to fill the gap.
In the N3 and N5 positions for operations and planning was captain Elizabeth Jennings from the destroyer Zulu. She was around average height with fairly light skin and auburn hair tied up into a bun. Her competency in organising the thorough orbital search had convinced him that she was the one for those positions. Though it was interesting to see that in her earlier records her name was rather different… But if she didn’t want to bring it up, he wasn’t going to ask about it.
Filling the N2 as the intelligence chief was commander Eli Webb. Another ex-member of the British space forces he had been one of the ones recommended to him to fill the position and their record did seem fairly impressive. He did certainly strike an impression with immaculate hair, dark skin and blue eyes along with one of the most impeccable accents he had ever heard. Well, not too special inside of the officer ranks of the British armed forces, though up to this point he had made a point to restrict talking to people with those accents given their propensity to be snobs or toffish.
Edward felt, considering that they would be going into poorly charged space with minimal infrastructure, he would need someone to manage the navigation of the fleet. So, lieutenant commander Erin Newman was recommended to him. Edward was slightly surprised to find that they were a non-binary Australian with short blond hair and a slim, feminine face. A combo he wasn’t quite expecting for some reason.
And finally, was commander Osada Shion as N4 who handled logistics. He was a Japanese officer but knew fluent English with a clean accent and was another recommendation. His mid length straight black hair neatly arranged under his cap.
All of them were now standing in front of him and it made him a little nervous if he was being honest with himself.
He cleared his throat and stood straight, breathing in before finally speaking. “Good morning, everyone. As you will all know I’m Rear Admiral Edward Fletcher and you are all now members of my staff. We will not be having a gentle introduction as we will be flying off soon on a combat assignment. Our mission will be to track down and destroy the pirates that are currently wreaking havoc on our convoys, while also looking out for anything that might indicate any more illicit activities going on in our solar systems. I’m not a man of many words, nor one who likes any of the stupid team building exercises some like to push onto their people. Instead, I prefer traditional exercises, drills, experience and time in the officer’s lounge. So henceforth we will all be going through the setup of this bridge before I then issue you all the detailed briefing. Got it?”
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
A flurry of nods and “Yes sirs” followed, though that was just what was expected anyway. He continued by running through everyone’s name and rank to each other, allowing each of them to come forwards as they were called, everyone eyeing each other when their time came. But it didn’t take too long to get through. But then came the next part.
“Lieutenant Taylor.”
“U- Yes sir!?”
“I presume you had a look through the technical documents as requested before we all came aboard?”
The mousy Texan engineer swallowed, fingers fidgeting a little, “Yes, sir. Why do you ask?”
“As you’ll be taking the lead on getting this all turned on and making sure nothing crashes.”
It wasn’t anything really that hard, all the complex systems had been booted up. Now it was simply a task of flipping a few buttons and making sure the setups were to everyone’s liking.
“I’ll make sure of that sir!”
Edward nodded, “Good, now, warrant officer Bauza and Mr Hill, you may take your leave and all of us will reconvene with you at lunch. Everyone else, go to your stations, Andrew will point you to them.”
A low chatter descended over the room as the staff looked around, reading the tags on the banks of consoles to each side of them, some spotting theirs quickly and able to get to them with no issue, some needing David to point them out. With a somewhat dejected Nayla sliding out of the room. They were concealing it well and they probably knew what was going to happen after the introductions were done, but Edward could still see it across her face.
Though he thought it was best not to dwell on it and simply talk to her later, though from Elliot following close behind her he could guess that he could do a good job of finding out what was wrong and occupying them with something to do. Now was the time to figure out this new command console and try to get to know some of his other staff members.
Said console was larger than the one on the Sheffield for sure, with it being more of a rectangle than a square with plenty of space on the table part for maps to be displayed on its inbuilt screen of laid on it. Along each side of it were the stations for him and David which were also far better furnished than any other he had seen before.
A seat was put onto rails to allow it to be slid back against the console banks to allow for a large amount of standing room, or for it to be pulled in to allow for use while under acceleration. A pivot on the chairs also allowing them to be turned so they could be used for when the ship was doing hard burns forwards or backwards. Along the length of the console was then a small desk to the left, the main set of control panels and screen in the middle, and then the phones plus nuclear master arm to the right. The inclusion of two phones was to allow one to be a conventional one, and another to be a backup, sound powered one, something he thought to be a nice piece of redundancy.
Overall, he thought it to be a rather well designed position, just like the rest of the ship, which just gave him thoughts about what part of it would break first…
He looked up for a moment, spotting David moving to his side of the station, his face blank before he spotted the layout of it, causing his eyebrow to raise.
“Two phones? What’s the point in that? Is one a line to the captain then?”
“No, it’s sound powered, so we can still communicate with the rest of the ship if the power goes out.”
David sniffed, “And I thought they wouldn’t have anything as simple as that aboard this thing… Anyway, sir everyone is at their stations.”
A slight smile came across Edward’s face. Oh, he was going to enjoy having him be formal now in the bridge…
“Right then. Taylor, is the power on?”
She looked at him with a look that suggested a level of exasperation creeping on her usually shy character, “Yes, it’s on, everyone just needs to boot up their stations.”
“Everyone boot up your stations then and I want a full check to see if there are any issues before we leave drydock.”
A series of nods from everyone followed as cascade of light and beeps followed from the consoles as the booted up, everyone quietly getting on with their work.
So good signs all around really.
----------------------------------------
He wasn’t going to lie to himself and say so far things hadn’t been awkward.
Edward was not used to having a staff around him larger than just David, Alex and Elliot and so far he’d been failing to break the ice.
A lot of people would say it would be good to have a strict, professional relationship with one’s subordinates. He, however, preferred to be able to have a drink with them and to know that they had his back.
Though doing that is difficult for someone who’s charisma needs eking out to appear. Though he was hoping that this may change over lunch as his staff gathered in the officer’s mess.
Yet again the place seemed to be well made with all the wood panelling fitting together seamlessly and feeling perfectly in place with everything else in the room.
And yet…
“Do you think I was too strict with them?”
David waved his hand as he sipped a cup of tea, “Nah, you were just following how they usually do it with your language but you were a little awkward.”
“Thanks for that…” He muttered, sipping his own tea.
The four of them, Alex, David, Elliot and Edward were all sat together on their own table next to the two other tables with the rest of the officers who were seemingly trying to start small talk between each other.
“Elliot?”
“Yeah?”
“Did you uhh, talk to the warrant officer?”
“Nayla?”
“Yeah, she looked a little… Disappointed.”
Elliot nodded, “She didn’t say much to me but I’ve gotten the impression that her specialisation wasn’t her first choice.”
“What stopped her from getting into her first choice then?” Asked David, “Failed a few tests?”
He shrugged “No clue, she didn’t tell me. But… I can’t help but feel for her.”
“She’s the sort who wants to shoot people then ey?”
“I-I guess?”
“Excellent! I’ll keep a close eye on her.”
Elliot looked to Alex and Edward.
“You’re not used to this yet?” Alex asked.
“Hey, uh- Can we… Sit, here?”
Everyone turned to see Amber and Elizabeth standing over the end of the table, Elizabeth seemingly exasperated as Amber’s fumbled request.
“Lieutenant, we are aboard a military vessel, not in a school.”
“Sorry Ma’am…”
“No, no, its alright, you can come sit and you don’t have to ask!” Edward said, waving at the two to sit down, “What brought you here then?”
“Uh-“ Amber stuttered, “I just liked talking to Alex aboard the Sheffield so I though to just move towards someone I know.”
“And you?”
“Me?” Elizabeth asked, “I’m going to be knee deep in what we’re about to get into, far more so than in the last operation we did together. So I want to get some more information to be able to better judge my decisions off of what your style will be.”
“Well then,” said Edward, “we’ve got a lot more tea in this pot.”