Davra Andraste did not want to be part of this shindig. Unfortunately, she was the guest of honor. They had converted the mess hall of the CNV Endeavour into a banquet hall. Navy stewards had brought all the requisite items for such a party. Bottles of champagne chilled in bowls of ice with crystal glasses waiting nearby. Streamers reeled from one end of the room to the other. On one side of the hall, above a raised platform, hung a sign reading “Congratulations, Captain Andraste.”
Every time Davra saw it, she felt her cheeks flush. She had technically been captain for months now. However, the promotion came in the field, not from Command. If it didn’t come with paperwork attached, tradition dictated, it didn’t happen. Thus, the rules of the military stated, however unwritten.
The unwritten rules also stated that captains had to have a party upon officially receiving the rank. When the paperwork came through, party planning began immediately. In case anybody wanted to dispute this, the order came down from Fleet Admiral Eileen Burke. Not only had Burke been a part of Davra’s career since the beginning, but she now ran the entire Navy.
Well, according to the Compact Assembly on Tian, Burke was Navy Chief of Staff. According to Earth, Burke collaborated with coup plotters. Never mind that members of the Compact had lawfully chosen the entire Assembly, including the delegates from the United Nations in Exile. Up until they fled Earth, they had been the delegates reporting to the Assembly in Quantonesia. It hadn’t been their fault that the Assembly decided to impeach the president of the Compact from the safety of another planet twelve light-years from Earth.
The whole mess gave Davra a headache, one she would have to deal with as captain of the Endeavour.
A pair of hands slipped around her waist from behind. “You look stressed,” a familiar male voice whispered in her ear. The warm breath sent a thrill through her body. “As captain, you can order me to help you with that stress. Not only will you feel better, it’ll go a long way towards interbranch relations.”
Davra laughed as she turned around. She found herself nose to nose with a Tianese man. “Eric Yuwono, you’re incorrigible.” She kissed him hard. “And I’m ordering you to be strip-searched in my quarters later. Don’t disappoint me, O–5.”
Yuwono kissed her back. “Yes, sir, Captain, sir.”
She was able to relax now. Most of the senior staff were present, as were some of the so-called “Children of Amargosa,” including Eric. JT Austin, the Earth man who had gone native on Amargosa, had come with his Gelt wife Tishla. Ellie Nardino had also come, still on Aphrodite after all this time. Rumor had it the woman had been contracted to program mechs for the provisional core world government now in place on the jungle planet. She did not see Mitsuko, who probably got sucked into some damn royal thing or another. The woman must have been miserable.
One face did surprise her. Tianese, not unlike Eric Yuwono, she looked older, having skipped a few rejuves in her late thirties and early forties. Suicide, nonetheless, could not stay away from Davra’s official first command. The woman crossed the room with a champagne glass in her hand.
“So,” she said, “it is true. You were on track to make captain by twenty-five. And with a year to spare.”
“Is that why I feel like I’m forty?” said Davra, looking at the makeshift stage with dread. “I hated the award ceremony at the end of the liberation.” She frowned. “Of course, I’d just undergone rejuvenation and was still feeling the effects of radiation sickness. So, why do I feel like I did back then tonight?”
“Because you hate undue attention. You’ve been like that since I’ve known you. You cringed every time somebody called you the brains of the outfit, but you know what, Davra Andraste? It’s about time somebody gave your rank befitting your intelligence. Only now, you’re the one that has to deal with the rule breakers instead of being a rule breaker yourself. Think you can handle that?”
“They made me a full commander only a year ago. I’d say Admiral Burke has been getting even since then.”
“Well, if anyone deserves it, it’s you. Congratulations.”
Davra felt her cheeks warm again. Suicide had never embarrassed her like this. At least, it was for a good cause.
Before she could cross the room to one of her other friends, a man in the Navy dress uniform approached her. Although rejuvenated at the usual age of twenty-five, he had the bearing and expression of somebody much older. He also seemed to look at her like she was a kid. Silver clusters adorned his collar, marking him as a full commander.
“Captain Andraste?” He offered his hand. “Commander Bart Fuller. I’m your new first officer.”
Davra took the offered hand and sized up the newcomer. “Welcome aboard the Endeavour.”
Fuller looked around the room as though we were studying the entire ship from where he stood. “I can really make something of the ship. She’s a really amazing first command.”
Something in his tone suggested that he did not mean her first command. “Well, you have more experience than me, so I would not be surprised if you get a ship just like this in the next couple of years.”
Fuller had that look one gave a child who said something rather precocious. “Of course. I plan to brief the senior staff at 0800 hours tomorrow morning. Does that work for you, Captain?”
Oh, you do? she said silently, not really caring if it showed on her face or not. “Briefing is at 0730, and in my ready room. I expect my officers to be prompt. Will that be a problem for you, Commander Fuller?”
He smiled, filling it with as much condescension as he could. “Of course. Captain.” He moved off.
“Fucking nub,” said JT Austin, standing right behind her.
Davra felt herself light up when she saw JT and his wife, Tishla. “JT, Tish.” She wrapped both of them in a hug. Then she looked down at Tishla’s belly. “I’d ask why you’re not pregnant yet, but I keep forgetting human-Gelt hybrids aren’t possible yet.”
“Are you kidding?” said Tishla. “I can’t even figure out how to get rejuvenation to work on our own genome.” She poked her husband in the belly. “Besides, I have to balance feeding this one with keeping his girlish figure intact.”
He waved his hand in an effeminate manner. “Well, shucks. When you’re married to such a good cook…” He looked off in the direction of Commander Fuller. The older man was moving around the room and shaking hands like he owned the place. “That man is a nub if I ever saw one.”
“What does that mean, anyway?” asked Tishla.
JT shook his head. “‛Nominally Useless Being.’ What we call overprivileged officers, usually appointed. Clearly, they haven’t given this idiot time under Captain Durant on the Cygnus. Otherwise, he would know his place.”
“You know my history, Davra,” said Tishla. “If you want to sneak off and get drunk somewhere, I have plenty of booze. Former head of state vs. captain of the ship.”
“No,” said Davra. “It’s harder. But I just may take you up on that.”
A murmur swept through the crowd. Davra found her attention drawn to the makeshift stage. An attractive redheaded woman made her way toward it. If one looked closely, they could see signs of rejuvenation under her ears and on her neck. She had rejuvenated in her thirties, but Davra knew her to be over a hundred and twenty. If her bearing and demeanor did not attract attention, the five stars on her collar did.
“And now my head goes into the guillotine,” Davra whispered to Tishla. “It doesn’t get any easier, does it?”
“Been out of the job three years,” said Tishla, “and still follows me around.”
The redhead raised her champagne glass and tapped a spoon against it. “Ladies and gentlemen, we are here today to honor an extraordinary young woman. I first met her a decade ago when we liberated Amargosa. During the occupation, she survived not one but two fusion blasts. She spent three weeks as a captive aboard a Realm colony ship, then faced down a human warlord who tried to wreck the entire liberation effort. Since that time, whether she’s realized it or not, she’d been on a fast track to become captain. Many said she would become captain of her own ship by twenty-five. She has met that mark by just under a year. I would like to call Captain Davra Andraste to the stage.”
JT gave her a gentle shove. She moved slowly toward Burke and the stage. As she passed her engineer, Duffy, and his wife, a Gelt woman named Shrian, she heard Duffy whisper, “Go get ‘em, Dabby.”
The use of her nickname, one only Eric Yuwono used these days, one that her father had called her, should have annoyed her. Instead, it put a smile on her face, for which she was grateful to Duffy. She reached the stage and stepped up. As she reached Burke, the room broke out in applause.
Burke raised her hands to quiet the room. “When Amargosa fell to the Realm…”
Thankfully, Burke did not say Gelt. Not all Gelt fell under their enemy’s rule these days. Some even listed the Compact citizenship on their virtual passports.
“…our dear friend Suicide found five teenagers who had to grow up literally overnight to deal with the loss of their homeworld.” She looked around. “They added a sixth during the liberation, but the original five Children of Amargosa are all here today to honor one of their own. The sixth, whom we still call ‘Lieutenant Yamato,’ goes by Princess Consort Mitsuko these days, and she sent along something to read before I perform my duty.” She held up her left palm, and a proclamation from the Court of Bonaparte appeared in blue holographic writing between her and Davra. “Whereas Brevet Captain Andraste has performed her duties admirably since her involuntary induction into the armed forces of the Compact ten standard years ago, and whereas, while serving her Compact with distinction and honor, has rendered services invaluable to the Kingdom of Bonaparte, both as a core world of the Compact and as a member of the Foundation, and whereas Brevet Captain Andraste has gone over and above fighting at the side of Her Royal Highness and her comrades in both the Foundation and the Compact, on behalf of my husband, Edward I, King of the Arcologies and Planetary Leader of the Kingdom of Bonaparte, do bestow the title of Knight of the Throne of Napoleon, the honorary rank of Captain in the Foundation Fleet, and the status of Friend of the Court. Signed Her Royal Highness, Princess Consort Mitsuko, Consort of the King, Commander of the Household Guards, Commander, Compact Navy (retired.)”
Davra marveled over what a mouthful some staffer had written for her friend, Mitsuko. Knowing their missing friend, she would have simply shoved a bottle of Cabo Wabo at Davra, informed her she was now Lady Davra and drafted her into Bonaparte’s Household Guards, the planetary defense forces of the former core world, and then ordered her to get massively shitfaced.
As another wave of applause died down, Burke continued. “Brevet Captain Andraste, if you’ll give me the onyx eagles on your collar.”
Davra reached up and removed the temporary rank symbols, the ones that marked her as commander of the Endeavour but also screamed “fake captain” ever since she took over for the late Captain Darnell. Burke reached into her pocket and produced two silver eagles, permanent tokens of her new rank.
“Davra,” she said as she pinned the new insignia onto Davra’s collar, “even your friends here and Princess Mitsuko have called you the ‘brains of the outfit’ since the beginning. We always knew you would be a captain by thirty.”
“But hopefully not fleet admiral by forty,” Davra interrupted to scattered laughter.
“The night is young,” said Burke, “and we’re at war with both aliens and ourselves. But you have, at every turn, even when going outside the normal grain…”
You mean when I disobeyed orders.
“…have exceeded our wildest expectations. Many of us in Command said you would make captain by twenty-five. At first, it was a joke based on your rapid rise through the ranks. Yet, here you are, twenty-four years old and master of our most advanced starship.” She finished affixing the last rank pin to Davra’s collar. “So, as your senior-most commander, your mentor, and your friend, I salute you, Captain Davra Samantha Andraste. You are now officially a captain in the Compact Navy and commander of the CNV Endeavour. I’m almost jealous. It reminds me of the day I took command of the Hancock during the Polygamy Wars.”
The room broke out into enthusiastic applause, this time almost deafening. Davra’s cheeks burned now, but she couldn’t stop smiling. Mitsuko could not make it, but her other mentor, Suicide, applauded quietly. Duffy, a big goofy man only a year older than her, looked more like a soccer hooligan after his team scored the winning goal. He even scooped little Shrian, his wife, into a bear hug that made the girl disappear. JT and Tishla were more polite in their applause, but Tishla, herself Gelt but a bit taller than Shrian, held up another token of Mitsuko’s presence: A bottle of Cabo Wabo, golden, which meant it truly was the last bottle distilled on Earth.
In the back of the room, Eric Yuwono did not clap. He did, however, beam at her, clearly wanting to congratulate her in more intimate ways. He would have to leave in the morning, so briefing tomorrow morning would include a lot of coffee. One of her former captains warned her she would become addicted to the stuff before long.
Fuller, however, disturbed her. The man stood to one side with a smirk on his face. He did not seem to believe that he would second a twenty-five-year-old. They would have to have a talk the next day.
After she and Eric engaged in conduct unbecoming the officers they were. Did Cybercommand have those traditions?
Pre-order soon!