STORM FROM THE SHADOWS – snippet 22:
A face appeared on the small com display by Terekhov's knee. It was a dark-complexioned face, with a strong nose and chin and thinning hair, and Terekhov's eyes widened in surprise as he saw it.
"This is Admiral Khumalo," the owner of that face said. "I am approaching Monica with a relief force. If Captain Terekhov is available, I need to speak to him immediately."
"Available," Terekhov thought with a sort of lunatic glee as the first ouriders of almost unimaginable relief crashed through him. Now, there's a word choice for you! He probably thinks it would have been bad for morale to say "if he's still alive," instead.
"Put me through, Amal," he said.
"Aye, aye, Sir." Nagchaudhuri punched in another command. "Live mike, Sir."
"Terekhov here, Admiral Khumalo," Terekhov said into his com pickup. "It's good to see you, Sir."
Their relative positions put Hexapuma and Khumalo's flagship the better part of thirty light-minutes apart, and even with a grav-pulse com, that imposed a transmission delay of over twenty-seven seconds. Terekhov waited patiently for fifty-four seconds, and then Khumalo's eyes sharpened.
"I don't doubt that it is, Captain," he said. "May I assume there's a reason your ships are sitting where they are?"
"Yes, Sir, there is. We found it necessary to remain close enough to Eroica Station to keep an eye on the evidence and, ah, present President Tyler with an argument sufficient to prevent any hastiness on the part of his surviving navy."
"'Surviving navy'?" Khumalo repeated the better part of a minute later. "It would appear you've been quite busy out here, Captain Terekhov." His smile was decidedly on the wintry side.
Terekhov thought about replying, then thought better of it and simply sat there, waiting.
"May I assume you've already written up your reports on this . . . incident?" Khumalo asked after several more moments.
"Yes, Sir. I have."
"Good. Let me have them now then, if you would. I should have ample time to review them, since my astrogator makes it roughly seven and a half hours for us to reach your current position. At that time, please be prepared to come aboard Hercules."
"Of course, Sir."
"In that case, Captain, I'll see you then, when we don't have to worry about transmission lag. Khumalo, clear."
* * * * * * * * * *
Seven hours and forty-five minutes later, Aivars Terekhov's pinnace drifted out of Hexapuma's boat bay on reaction thrusters, rolled on gyros, reoriented itself, and accelerated smoothly towards HMS Hercules. The trip was short enough that there was no point bringing up the small craft's impeller wedge, and Terekhov sat back in his comfortable seat, watching the view screen on the forward bulkhead as the superdreadnought grew steadily larger.
Khumalo must have pulled out of the Spindle System literally within hours of the arrival of Terekhov's dispatch informing him of his plans. In fact, Terekhov was frankly astonished that the rear admiral had obviously responded so promptly and decisively. It was clear he hadn't waited to call in a single additional ship; he must have simply ordered every hyper-capable hull in the star system to rendezvous with his flagship and headed straight for Monica.
His scratch-built force was even more lopsided and ill-balanced than Terekhov's "squadron" had been. Aside from Hercules — which, for all her impressively massive tonnage was still one of the only two or three sadly obsolescent Samothrace-class ships lingering on in commission as little more than depot ships on distant stations — it consisted solely of the light cruisers Devastation and Intrepid, and the three destroyers Victorious, Ironside, and Domino. Aside from Victorious, not a one of them was less than twenty T-years old, although that still made them considerably more modern and lethal than anything Monica had possessed before the sudden and mysterious infusion of modern battlecruisers.
The other four "superdreadnought-range" hyper footprints had belonged to the ammunition ships Petard and Holocaust and the repair ships Ericsson and White. Terekhov was relieved to see all of them, but especially the two repair ships, given the state of his own command.
Not that it's likely to be "my command" much longer, he reflected as the pinnace sped towards Hercules.
All of his reports had been burst-transmitted to Hercules within minutes of his conversation with Khumalo, but so far, the rear admiral hadn't said another word to him. Under the circumstances, Terekhov found that more than a bit ominous. There were several reasons Khumalo might have hastened off to Monica, and one of the ones that came most forcibly to mind, given the admiral's lack of combat experience and general "by The Book" attitude, was a desire to sit on Terekhov before he got the Star Kingdom into even worse trouble. In fact, Terekhov wouldn't blame him a bit if that was the reason he was here. Augustus Khumalo hadn't been assigned to the Talbott Cluster because of his brilliant combat record and demonstrated capacity to think outside the box. The real reason he'd been sent to Talbott by the High Ridge Government were his connections to the Conservative Party . . . and the fact that no one in High Ridge's cabinet had ever dreamed Talbott might turn into a critical flashpoint. They'd wanted a reliable administrator for a post of decidedly secondary importance, not a warrior, and that was precisely what Khumalo had given them.
And the truth was that Terekhov could see any number of perfectly good and valid reasons for Khumalo to repudiate Terekhov's own actions, and not just from the personal perspective of the admiral's career. Stopping whatever plot had been set in motion by the provider of those battlecruisers had been absolutely essential, but avoiding an open conflict with the Solarian League was equally vital. That was the entire reason Terekhov had set himself up to be publicly disavowed by the Star Kingdom as a sacrifice to placate the Solarians. If Khumalo was as politically aware as Terekhov suspected he was, then the admiral would no doubt recognize the advantages in disavowing him immediately. Khumalo could always stay exactly where he was, maintaining the status quo in Monica until the more powerful relief force which had undoubtedly been dispatched directly from Manticore arrived, on the grounds that the situation, while not of his own or the Star Kingdom's official making, still had to be stabilized until an impartial investigation could get to the bottom of what had really happened. If it should happen that the Queen and the Grantville Government chose not to disavow Terekhov after all of the reports were in, there would always be time for Khumalo's repudiation to be withdrawn.
And besides all of those perfectly good and logical reasons of state, Terekhov thought with a sour grin, on a personal level, he's got to be totally and completely pissed off with me for putting him in this situation in the first place! I know I'd be royally pissed at me if I were him, anyway.
He glanced at the time display ticking steadily down in one corner of the visiual display and shrugged mentally. Another eighteen minutes, and he'd have the chance to observe Rear Admiral Augustus Khumalo's reaction firsthand.
It promised to be an interesting experience.
Yes an interesting experence… have to wait to monday for it sigh.
I believe “Queen and Grantville government” should be Queen and High Ridge government.
@Alejo: No. The High-Ride-Government disappeared with the successful “Operation Thunderstorm” of Haven (in fact, this is a point, for which Elizabeth III should send some flowers to Eloise Pritchard, as a ‘Thank you, you gave me the chance to change my government to reliable people, finally’ but imho, I doubt, she would agree with me in this point … ;) ), which took place well before the departure of HMS Hexapuma to Talbott.
Flowers for Elizabeth?
Great idea… we had to call “Fleurop”
Ok, so where the heck does Grantville fit into this universe? Isn’t White Haven the prime minister after High Ridge? Would this not make it “Queen and White Haven Government”. My point wasn’t to put High Ridge in there. It was to get Grantville out of there since I think it was an error. I’ve never seen it anywhere in the Honorverse books.
Hamish Alexander-Harrington is First Lord of Admiralty “Earl White Haven”.
His brother, William? is Prime Minister “Baron Grantville”
Scott Powers
William Alexander (Hamish’s younger brother) is Baron Grantville (and has been for a long time); Elizabeth created a title for him prior to Hamish’s father’s death. This was semi-necessary because while Hamish’s father was alive, or after Raoul Alexander-Harrington was born, Willie didn’t hold the White Haven cadet seat in Lords.
He was the #2 guy in the Cromarty government, and so was Elizabeth’s choice to head a new government when Duke Cromarty was assasinated; she didn’t get her wish until the High Ridge government fell. Hamish Alexander, Earl White Haven is First Space Lord (civillian head of the millitary, roughly equivalent to Secretary of Defense). Caparelli is back as First Lord of the Admirality (roughly equivalent to chairman of the Joint Chiefs).
Look at “Shadow of Saganami”, Chapter 55
Here’s the quote:
“What sort of raw meat do you people feed your cruiser captains, Hamish?” Queen Elizabeth III of Manticore inquired acidly.
“With all due respect, Your Majesty,” First Lord of Admiralty Hamish Alexander, Admiral of the Green (retired) and thirteenth Earl of White Haven, said with unusual formality to the woman he’d known since she was an infant, “that’s not really fair.”
“On the contrary, Ham,” his brother, William Alexander, Lord Alexander, the recently created Baron of Grantville and Prime Minister of the Star Kingdom of Manticore, said tartly, “I think Elizabeth has an excellent point. We already have one war, and it’s not going all that well. Do we really need to provoke another one with the Solarian League?”
End Quote
So, William Alexander is the successor of High Ridge. And you are right; it’s a kind of kindness to Eric Flint, to get Grantville in the Honorverse.
Curse you Eric Flint for that excellent job of cutting the snipit write at an interesting portion…
Karsten:
Interesting. Can’t believe I missed that. Weird. Sure threw me off for a second, I must say. Thanks for clearing that up for me.
We know this all ends for a short time very well before the BOM and I am looking forward to seeing it play out. If I could just wait untill the book comes out, it would be a really good read that I could look forward to….. Just can’t stay away from these snippets… I wonder what that says about my personality. I seem to be just fine staying away from the other two snippets going on in this group just fine. But this particular book, well it is a year away almost…. I can’t seem to wait….. Monday will be here soon enough. You guys have a great weekend !!!! :-)
Amazon lists it as 3/3/09, that’s less than 7 months.
That “Grantville Government chose not to disavow Terekhov” really surprised me. I was sure it was a mistake until I read the comments. Pretty sneaky. I never noticed that when I read shadow of Saganami even though I read 1632 first.
While I am a little disappointed that “STORM FROM THE SHADOWS” or “1635 THE DREESON INCIDENT” will not be published before my trip to Italy in October, at least I will have the Grantville Gazette Vol 19 to read on the flight. Assuming of course that I can resist the urge to read it before I leave. By the way, I really love your e-books. I can load up several on my laptop and have them waiting for those long boring hours at the airport and on the flights without carrying around any additional weight or bulk. What more could I possibly ask for. They (ebooks) are environmentally friendly (no trees chopped down, no fuel and pollution for shipping or going to buy them), convenient (buy from home), add no weight to my luggage, and cost less to boot. I hope they are as profitable for you as well since I am converting all my subscriptions and book purchases to electronic format as quickly as possible.
Best Regards,
Kurt
@Kurt Winn:
The e-ARC of 1635: The dreeson incident is available at webscription.net
7 Months is still a long way away….