Victory Conditions (Vatta's War Series #5)

CHAPTER ONE Ky Vatta glanced around the table at the captains crowded into her office. It still felt a little unreal, but here they were, all waiting for her to say something: Argelos and Pettygrew, there from the beginning; Yamini, who had been Argelos' military adviser and who now captained the stealth observer they'd captured from the pirates; Ransome and Baskerville, the two surviving captains of Ransome's Rangers; Major Douglas of Mackensee Military Assistance Corporation, assigned as MMAC's liaison to her. His assistant, Master Sergeant Cally Pitt, seemed quite at ease standing in a corner. "Our main problem, as I see it, is that we're always reacting to Turek," Ky said. "We don't know much about him, what his goals arebesides killing people and getting powerand we can't understand any of the transmissions we've overheard. We've got to find a way to get better intel." "Mackensee might share data with you," Major Douglas said. "If you don't mind me butting in." He smiled at Ky. "I don't mind," Ky said. "Before we go into jump, would you like to ask them about that?" "You particularly want information about their language, any history anyone can dig up, is that right?" "Oh, I wouldn't mind knowing where they are right now, where they're going next, and in what force," Ky said, grinning. "If we knew that, we'd be hauling mass," Douglas said. "All of us. But I can ask if any of our linguists know the language. You gave them copies of the transmissions, right?" "I did, yes," Ky said. "And another thing . . . I know I need a staff structure. We talked about that before, but with over forty ships to command, I need something now, before we get to Cascadia." "Think any of those privateers will give you trouble?" Argelos asked. Ky was mildly amused to find that the former privateer no longer considered himself one of them. "I doubt it," Ky said. "Aunt Grace sent them; she'd have checked them out." "You don't just need a staff," Douglas said. "You need a combat control center. You can't command forty ships from the bridge on this oneit's too crowded, and it doesn't have the right communications setup. Your shipboard ansibles are an incredible advance, but they can't do everything and they are bulky." "My office" "Isn't adequate," Captain Yamini said. "I agree with Major Douglas. Running the additional communications cables in here would be next to impossible, and they must be shielded cables. You're talking over forty ships now, and maybe more if the Moscoe Confederation sends ships from Cascadia. That's a lot of equipment, not just for communications but also for scan, if you're to have the data you need during a battle. I don't know how you'd get one in this shipyou'd have to practically rebuild it, I'd thinkbut then you've told us it needs serious work anyway." "On our ships, the CCC is built in when the hulls are laid," Douglas put in. "But I understand that some systems have modular CCCs that can be retrofitted to vessels. We don't, but maybe they can do that at Cascadia." "Before we go FTL, we should ask Stella thaMoon, Elizabeth is the author of 'Victory Conditions (Vatta's War Series #5)', published 2008 under ISBN 9780345491619 and ISBN 0345491610.