Mission's Edge Read online

  Aaron paused just outside of the door to the drawing room and looked at the majordomo. "How is she this morning?"

  He responded slowly, as though measuring his words. "She is stronger. I think having you around has been good. Having a purpose has given her something to push against. It's sad that you will be leaving us. The whole staff will miss you."

  "In some ways I wish I could stay. I have seen her improving over the course of being here, but the Navy needs me."

  "We understand, sir. We know that the Navy's need must come first, but we still wish for her sake that you could stay."

  The majordomo went ahead of Aaron and announced him in the blue, white, and gold decorated drawing room.

  Following him in Aaron crossed the floor of the room and sat before his mother. He smiled at his mother and spoke, "Good morning, mum. How are you this morning?"

  "I am well, considering my eldest son is about throw himself headlong into the cauldron of war." His mother was a woman grown old before her years. Where she was once of just over average height, full of strength and grace; she was now bent and stooped. Her dark, auburn hair was now completely white and she looked particularly frail, sitting alone in this grand room. Losing her husband three years earlier had not been kind to her. Soon after, she had contracted a strange illness none of the doctors appeared to be able to diagnose or treat. Slowly but surely, her life had leached out of her.

  "It is not my choice alone which sends me back out mum, but the choice of the command staff at the Admiralty House and the need of my Emperor which compels me to go. If there were some other way, I would take it." Aaron's love and compassion for his mother, despite their differences, never wavered. "Andrew and Marissa will be coming to live on the Capital while I am away. Andrew is looking at setting up an office here anyway and this is good opportunity to do so. You should use this opportunity to get to know Marissa. I'm sure if you gave her a chance you would love her."

  "Andrew married her against my will and below his station. While it is undeniable that she was the one who put an end to his foolishness, I still think he would have been better suited to marry one of Lady Chant's daughters." Aaron looked away from his mother as she finished speaking. His mother's reply did not surprise Aaron, as it was an old one, but it picked at a not yet fully healed wound. When she spoke again, there was compassion in her voice. "Oh Aaron, even if you won't say it, I know that you were hurt when Victoria died, we all were. Her death was tragic and senseless. But you can't allow that to ruin the rest of your life. She was a lovely girl, full of life and love and she would want you to return to being who you are, not this serious, pale shadow of yourself."

  "You're right about Victoria, but you're wrong about Marissa. Neither Guinevere nor Elizabeth would have been a good match for Andrew. Their mercurial natures would have driven him to distraction. What he needed was a calm, steady hand to temper his own impulsiveness. While Gwen and Liz are both brilliant, neither of them are business people or engineers. Marissa on the other hand is both. But even more important than that, Andrew loves her and she loves him back. They are happy and you should be happy for them. What's more, they are likely the place you will first receive grandchildren from. With me going back on deployment the only women I am likely to meet will be in my chain of command. I'm strictly forbidden from being involved with any of them. She is a lovely woman, worthy of your love."

  "I will try."

  "That's all I can ask. You said you had something you needed to discuss with me? I need to be on a shuttle heading to the Anvil by 1200."

  "It is actually continuation of the previous conversation. It is time for you to give some thought to the transmission of the family name. I know you hate to admit it, but your are not just Captain Aaron Hawthrone of the Royal Navy. Since your father's death, you are also the Lord Aaron Hawthrone the 23rd Marquis Eagles Reach. Your brother makes a perfectly acceptable heir for the interim, but he is not a political or interpersonal animal. While you may have always spurned the title and the trappings of your position, you have also always had a keen sense of duty. You know as well as I do that your brother is even less comfortable with his social rank than you are. Your love for him should compel you to at least look to continuing your line to spare him the pain of being forced into a role that does not suit him. I know since your father's death that I have not been the best or most loving mother. I know that I have failed Andrew. Everything you have said about Marissa is true. But as much as the two of you are a product of the way your father raised you, I am product of the way I was raised. And at this moment, what you need more than anything else is someone who understands the upper echelons of society and the maintenance of dynasty. Aaron, for the sake of the family, if not for yourself, you need to move past Victoria's death. You need to start looking to the family again. Please." His mother had never been one to waste words. Her very eloquence spoke of the passion her breeding refused to allow her to display outwardly.

  "I will consider it. But as I said earlier, the only people I will be meeting will be under my command or commanding me. I am strictly forbidden to form liaisons within my chain of command for very real and important reasons."

  "Then let me pass on your contact information to some likely young ladies. They will write you letters and you can see which of them strikes your fancy."

  "I'm afraid mother, that I too am too much a product of my training and education. I doubt I will find one of the daughters of your friends to be the woman for me. Most of them are examples of what I find wrong with our nobility. They are vapid and care more for parties and appearance than the responsibilities of their station. I would prefer to let things happen naturally. We will see."

  "That's all I ask."

  Stooping to kiss her on the cheek and give her a brief hug, Aaron felt how truly frail she had become. Once a powerful woman, she was now a ghost of her former self. "I love you, mum. Stay strong. I do want you to hold my children."

  "I know, Aaron. I love you too. Be careful. Stay out of action if you can."

  "I will see you soon." With that Aaron rose and left, walking back through the now empty house. As he arrived at the door, one of the footmen stepped forward, offering him his cap and coat.

  "We will miss you while you are deployed, sir. She just isn't the same when you are away."

  "I'll be back as soon as I can. Take special care of her for me, won't you?"

  "Of course, sir. Be safe."

  With that, Aaron left the home of his childhood and stepped back into his role as a Captain in the Emperor's Navy.

  –

  Aaron smiled at Coren as they walked toward each other, Coren with his deployment bag slung over his shoulder. He snapped to attention and threw Aaron a crisp salute. "Good morning, Skipper. I heard from my mother that you had a meeting at the Mews this morning. I was worried she would keep you forever. What did she want?"

  "To underscore the fact that I am now the Marquis Eagles Reach as well as Captain Hawthrone and to tell me that I need to begin the quest to find a wife all over again." Aaron slightly acidic reply didn't reflect how his meeting with his mother had actually gone.

  "I'm sorry, Aaron. I miss her too."

  Victoria Chant had been Coren' twin sister. The three of them, along with Erik Thurgood had grown up together, getting into trouble and generally making a nuisance of themselves to their mothers, much to all of their fathers' amusement. Over time it had become apparent that Aaron and Victoria were closer with each other than the others and what had started as childhood friendship had blossomed into love by the time they reached their early twenties. With Aaron on deployment so regularly, their relationship had developed more slowly after that and so it hadn't been until three and half years ago that Aaron had finally proposed. Three months later, she had been killed in the same air car accident that had killed Aaron's father. On their way to meeting him, when he was arriving for leave, the driver of a transport vehicle had fallen asleep and lost control of his vehicle and hit
the air car in which Ian Hawthrone, Victoria Chant and their driver had been in. All four involved in the accident were dead and Aaron had lost at once his father and his fiancé. Coren had also lost his twin sister. Both had buried themselves in their work in the Navy as form of coping, or at least Aaron had until his mother demanded his presence on the Capital planet on a regular basis.

  "She would want you to be happy. Don't push or rush things, but at the same time, don't be miserable for her sake. She loved you as deeply as you loved her, and that means you want the best for someone, even if that means they move on. Her memory will always be with you."

  "I know. But it's hard." His hand flicked in gesture of dismissal and began to move in the direction of their departure gate bringing Coren with him. "But now on to more pressing matters. We have a ship to get to. Do you have any ideas of how you are going fuse your department together?"

  "I was thinking of an all department contest in fire control and accuracy. The prize will be first choice of watch assignment." Coren became more animated as he warmed to his subject. "It will also help the crews get used to the new hardware and software. And me as well, for that matter. It looks almost too good to be true. Fire control over those enormous distances will change the shape of modern missile combat."

  "It will change tactical appreciations as well." Aaron's response fed off Coren' enthusiasm. "If we can strike at an enemy from outside its protectors range and then use our speed to get away, it puts far more targets within our operational envelope. Which is something we will all have to get used to. It will also make it more and more important for Reprisal class ships to work in concert with consorts and other Reprisals.I can only imagine what sort of risks we will be taking, at least initially, in order to find the limits of our operational posture."

  As they moved together toward across the concourse, they picked up members of their crew as they went. They met Erik and Eva half way up, arguing over the ethical use of a particular technique in a pointed bout of savatte, the martial art both practised with some vigour. Aaron himself preferred the escrima he had learned from a very capable marine non-com while he was on his midshipmen deployment. The non-com had taken it upon himself to turn the slightly incompetent fighter that Aaron had been into one capable of defending himself against most physical threats. Aaron had been badly in need of discipline. What he was not aware of at the time was that the XO had decided that despite his ego and lack of focus, as an officer, he was worth saving. The XO had therefore set out to find a mentor for the young midshipman and had turned to the senior non-com for the job. Sergeant-Major Ivan Kovaskovich was a career marine, who must have been what God had in mind when he created marines. He had with the utmost care and ferocity, set about first damaging Aaron's ego with a well placed subordinate and then set about rebuilding him, piece by piece with discipline in his heart.

  When the four of them arrived at the shuttle port, they found waiting for them at the departure gate the rest of the officers who would be travelling out to Anvil with them. Commander Beth Darnelle looked up from her auto-reader at their approach and rose to her feet with the rest of the officers, coming to attention with a salute as Aaron's party came to a halt. Aaron returned the salute crisply smiling at the people. "Well, here we all are, ready to go. Our entire marine compliment is already on board Mission so we will not be joined on this journey by Major Jason Rimaldi. For those of you who do not already know, this is Surgeon Commander Evelyn Chandler. She will be our senior medical officer. I expect you all to welcome her with open arms. Be as you were."

  "Sir, do you mind if I ask a personal question?" Lieutenant Commander Barden spoke hesitantly.

  "You most certainly can ask, but I won't promise to answer."

  "Well, it's two questions really, sir. Why did you leave the service and why did you come back?"

  "That is a pair of complicated questions. Why did I leave? The first one has one main answer, my mother's health is failing. As she weakens, she needs more and more care. She wanted me to be there with her and for her in this difficult time. She is also of the opinion that I needed to take my filial responsibilities more seriously. I was told by the Admiralty that if I ever wanted to take a break, that this would be the time to do so and that my commission would be waiting for me should I ever find myself able to return. Why did I come back? I was recalled by the admiralty. When this whole thing kicked off, they recalled all the reserve officers to active duty, myself among them. I received orders from the government. I don't know about you, but when my Emperor and his deputies require something of me, I provide it. I go where they send me and perform the duties they give me. Why did I come back? Because my Emperor and my people require my service and I will be damned if they don't get it." Aaron watched the faces of the officers as he spoke. Many of them, who had been guarded at first filled with understanding as he went.

  Lieutenant Commander Barden's voice was full of respect when next he spoke. "Well Captain Eagles Reach, I for one am glad you're back. Your reputation precedes you."

  "Thank you, Commander. Though, if you must address me by title, I prefer Hawthrone to Eagles Reach. Though both are technically correct, but the former is much less weighty." Aaron's voice was genial as he spoke.

  "Of course, sir."

  The group then slowly returned to previous conversational groups. Aaron walked slowly over to where Darnelle sat with her auto-reader. Coren, Eva, and Erik had busied themselves with chatter among the other officers.

  "What can you tell me about the situation up on the Anvil with Mission?" Aaron asked.

  "Well sir, she is almost ready. If work stays apace, she will be ready to depart for her shakedown cruise tomorrow. We really should have been aboard her a week ago, but for a variety of reasons, I hadn't gone up and when this all kicked off and everything got shuffled around things were delayed again for obvious reasons. But she is now fully crewed and ready roll almost immediately." Darnelle's response was slightly cold, if with complete respect. "She should be ready for your commands."

  "You were involved in picking the crew, were you not? What is her crew like?"

  "She has, in my opinion, one of the best crews in the navy. The admiralty doesn't just put anybody on one of these ships, but Mission in particular got the cream of the crop." Her voice was ever so slightly defensive and possessive. "Your senior non-com is Senior-Chief Petty Officer Jennifer Smithers. She served aboard Agamemnon as gunnery chief. The Marine gunny is Sergeant-Major Ivan Kovaskovich. They deserve a good captain."

  "I recognise that this is not what you expected to happen. I apologize for the touchy position my recall has put you in. I recognise it's difficult for you. But if this ship and its crew are going to survive this war and do the jobs we are going to do the jobs we are given to do, we will need to work together. I would like to think that I deserve this command, that I have proven my worth to the navy enough that I have the acknowledged right to be here." Here Aaron paused in order to allow what he said next carry more weight. "But whether I have or not, I am in command of this ship by order of the Admiralty. I will therefore discharge my duty to the best of my ability. Now, you have a choice. You can either choose now to help me do that, or you can choose to stand aside and simply let me get on with the business. The option that is not open to you is for you to hinder me in the discharge of my duty."

  Her eyes narrowed. "Are you suggesting that I will not do my duty, sir?"

  "No." Aaron's voice carried a note of finality which brooked no argument. "I am suggesting that while I have never been where you are, I can imagine what I would feel like in your place. And I know what options would be going through my mind. I know my own failings and therefore can understand the failings others. I have had a chance to peruse your file. From it, I can glean that you are a gifted officer, a capable and competent tactician, and a peerless strategist. You are good at interacting with your subordinates and your commanding officers. They have written you glowing reviews. What I have seen from you so far is a b
arely competent officer, who behaves surly with her commanding officers, and fails to properly engage with her new subordinates. This is what I would classify as standing to the side and letting me get on with the business. I would love to be able to work with the officer whose file I read. She sounds to me like someone I could connect with and work well alongside. But if I have to, I will work around you."

  "I'm not sure what to say. I suppose I could say that everything is okay and that I am willing to get totally behind you and push. But the fact is that you are sitting in a seat that was originally supposed to be mine." Her face was hard and angry and her voice filled with bitterness. "You're skill is well known, but I'm not certain that you will do a better job of this than I will. I will obey all lawful commands given to me. I will faithfully discharge my duties. But you cannot expect me to be happy about it."

  "I can work with that. I hope to win you over, but I can work with that." Aaron shook his head sadly. "I just thought we should get that cleared up before we get into a real sticky situation."

  As Aaron finished speaking, the departure tone sounded. They all began to move through the gate and out on to the apron towards the shuttle. They boarded as was tradition in ascending seniority, with Lieutenant James Spindren leading.