Tag looked at Admiral Dorg and said, “You are now the overall commander of all Stars Realm Armed Forces and will report directly to me.”
Dorg started to protest but then remembered what Kosiev had said. “I doubt that I’m qualified for this position, but I will do my best.”
“Kosiev said the exact same thing when he was chosen. It might interest you to know that our SFT group has said that the best possible future for us is with you and me working together. I also agree with them.” Tag then looked at Mikado and Chen and said, “We are dividing our forces into two fleets. Each of you will command one of those fleets and will work with each other such that your two commands can smoothly work together in joint maneuvers. Admiral Mikado is second in command to Admiral Dorg and will have the responsibility of developing fleet strategy prior to any conflict to present to Admiral Dorg. Obviously, Admiral Chen will assist in the preparation of that strategy but Mikado has the accountability of producing the plan. Both of you will call Cade McAllister and discuss the last battle with the intent of developing an answer to the Plant’s new screens, piloted missile, and frequency generating ships. You may leave now and begin that process. I also expect an organization chart of the command structure for each of your fleets of 20,000 ships turned in to Admiral Dorg for his approval within forty eight hours.” The two officers looked at each other then stood, saluted Tag and hurriedly left the room.
“Tgon-Gee, your race has not presented an officer to have a general command position of one of our fleets. I’m concerned that we may be overlooking someone that could help us. Is there a general command officer you would like to suggest to the group?”
Tgon-Gee looked around the room and said, “Unfortunately, my race has always been aggressive and rewarded those commanders that had individual success over group coordination. We are ill prepared to lead large numbers. Our forces will be more successful if commanded by someone that can get groups to work together. However, one of our naval officers has shown an aptitude to have the skills you want.”
“Who is that?” Tag asked.
“He is graduating from the fleet academy in fifteen days. His instructors have ranked him number one in his class even ahead of his human classmates. You actually know him, Mr. Gardner.”
Tag raised his eyebrows and tilted his head to the side, “When have we met?”
Tgon-Gee said, “He was the warrior that our Queen gave the choice during her challenge on Glod. He chose her to rule our people.”
Tag’s face showed his amazement. “He chose to enter the academy when he was already one of your planet’s greatest hero’s.”
“He is currently our most loved hero and yes, he did. He felt he was not qualified to lead in the new navy. He wanted to prepare himself to offer the most he could to serve our Queen. It appears he tried very hard and was successful. Our people still sing about his action during the challenge and he could have any position he wanted on Glod but he wanted to fight for our Queen and felt the navy was the best way. He was a dreadnaught commander during the conflict with the Alliance but said he knew he was not qualified to fight on an equal footing with humans. He came to the academy to improve his skills.”
“Did he get into any fights during his training?” Dorg asked knowing how the Glod loved a fight.
Tgon-Gee looked at Dorg and after a slight pause said, “Who, other than Mr. Gardner, would take on a Glod Martial Arts Champion? Would you?”
Dorg smiled and said, “Point well taken.”
While Dorg and Tgon-Gee were addressing each other Tag closed his eyes and thought, “Danielle.”
“Yes Dear.” She replied in his mind.
“The Glod that chose you during the challenge on Glod is graduating from the fleet academy in fifteen days. What did you sense about him during the challenge?”
“Really, I’m not surprised. I could see that he was looking for meaning in his life during that conflict. He’s much more than he appears, Tag. His mind is as sharp as his fighting skills.”
“Thanks, Danielle.”
Tag opened his eyes and said, “What is his name?”
Tgon-Gee said, “Ron-Dar.”
“He will report to my flagship immediately after graduation and assume command of my ship. My ship will be ready in twenty two days and she will be called Retribution. Notify Ron-Dar of his new assignment.”
Admiral Dorg looked at Tgon-Gee and they both knew that whoever commanded Retribution would be on a promotion fast track. Tgon-Gee felt his pride grow for the new ships captain coming from his race. “I’ll notify him immediately,” Dorg said.
Terl looked at Tag and said, “I have six officers that I think fleet academy will help to develop the skills they need to be fleet commanders. I think Ron-Dar had a good idea. Perhaps all of our future Admirals should go thru the Academy.”
Tag looked at them and said, “It would certainly cause a lot of our current captains to attend. Are we agreed that any future Admirals will come from academy graduates?” Everyone in the room nodded. “That’s how we will do it from now on and the Queen will make that part of her decrees. We are also stopping the production of Megaships until we can agree on whether or not they can be modified to handle the new plant technology. We also need to train and develop our existing crews to work together. Throwing thousands of ships into fleets just prevents them from learning ship coordination. Our fleets will be built with squadrons that have trained together and know how to work together. We will build ships as we have crews graduating to man them. The production facilities will be used to manufacture the armaments our ships need to fight. Admiral Dorg, our highest priority is to develop new weapons to counteract the plants new ships and missiles. Please plan to meet with me in forty eight hours with your junior officers to plan where we go from here.” Tag stood and everyone stood with him.
Dorg said, “Yes Mr. Gardner, I’ll see you in two rotations.” After Tag had left, Dorg turned to Tgon-Gee and said, “What do you think about all this.”
Tgon-Gee said, “Remember, you always want to be on Death Incarnates side in any struggle. Now he’s back and our future is better for it.” Dorg just stood and wondered what would happen next.
Admirals Mikado and Chen had left Cade McAllister’s office and left instructions as to the need for new weapon development and scheduled a return visit with the top command staff in five days. That was twelve hours earlier and now Cade was viewing videos of the new Algean ships with one of his top engineers, Anita Lea. They watched as the primaries went thru three screens but were stopped short of penetrating the inner two. “They have really strengthened their screens in these new ships,” Cade commented.
“Yes, they have but they are actually at a bigger risk than their old Heavy ships,” Anita responded.
“Why do you think that?”
“They’re not as big and more of their surface is covered in missile and beam ports which require their magazines to be close together on the surface. One hit and the whole thing should go up.”
They both thought in silence and then Cade said, “So we don’t have to have hornets hitting the ship in multiple locations to knock it out of action.”
“It sure looks that way,” Anita said. “One hit on one of those missile ports should do it, especially since they’re anti-matter. The anti-matter missiles are eight times larger than their old ones because of the addition of two more engines and a pilot. They almost qualify to be a ship except for lacking multiple reactors and screens. The majority of the hull space of the smaller new Algean ships surface is covered with their launching ports.”