John Ringo - Against the Tide

“Which reduces the volume of material they need,” Edmund said, nodding. “And you can keep your beer cold.”

“That too,” Chang grinned.

“What else?”

“You remember the flamethrowers we had on the Richard ?” Shar asked.

“I was never there when they were used,” Edmund said, -shrugging.

“Well, wooden boats are a fire trap,” Shar replied, shuddering. “When that jellied gasoline gets started, its almost impossible to stop. Evan developed an automated extinguishing system that uses a foam that puts the fire right out. Also hooks to the fire-fighting pumps. The Hazhir also has underwater ‘wings’ mounted on it. It’s an old racing trick; it keeps your ship from drifting to leeward. We’ve redesigned the catapult so the dragons actually take off faster but don’t have so much of a jolt at the start. And we’ve got a new arrester system so they can land better. Natural gas stoves so we can have fires during a storm and don’t have to eat cold food, bleed-off vents from the refrigerators that help keep the quarters cooler in the heat, plenty of little innovations that make the ship work, and fight, better.”

“Why don’t all the carriers, hell, all the ships, have some of that?” Edmund asked.

“Buships hasn’t ‘approved’ the changes,” Shar snarled. “In fact, when we sent them reports on what we were doing, they told us to rip them all out as ‘unauthorized modifications.’ ”

“I take it you told them to stick it where the sun doesn’t shine,” Edmund grinned.

“No, we told them there was currently a lack of dockyard space and as soon as we could schedule the work we’d remove all the ‘unauthorized modifications.’ Of course, the Blackbeard dockyards can’t even handle a carrier and we could have done it all with the crew. Which they pointed out. So I sent another excuse. And they found fault with that one. So I sent another memo. And so on and so on.”

“Well, I’ll send the next one,” Edmund replied. “Telling them that I intend to ‘upgrade’ all the carriers presently here to match the Hazhir . If we have time.”

“Will we?”

“I don’t know,” Edmund sighed. “You think the Hazhir can take on six carriers?”

“No,” Shar said, sighing. “Even with me in command.”

“Well, you might have to find out,” Talbot replied. “The Hazhir is going to be the only carrier we have for a while. The Hazhir should be here in no more than three more days. When it gets in I want Evan to get with the guys over at the dockyard and start setting up to convert the fleet carriers to the Hazhir ’s configuration.”

“You’re going to get a lot of complaints,” Chang pointed out.

“Let ’em,” Edmund replied. “As long as they do it. And if they don’t, well, we need workers in the yards. We may convert these ‘dreadnoughts’ in the meantime. Or we might use them for something else.”

“You’ve got that look in your eye,” Shar said, chuckling. “How much time do you spend thinking about how to mess with New Destiny?”

“How much time does a teenage boy spend thinking about sex?” Edmund replied with a grin.

“You summoned me, O mightiness,” Herzer said, walking in Edmund’s tent. “By the way, you look awful. How much sleep are you getting?”

“I can sleep when I’m dead,” Edmund growled. “Why are you so chipper? Finally laid Van Krief?”

“No,” Herzer said. “But I have been working with the marines. You know they don’t have any formal training facility?”

“Yes, I do,” Edmund replied. “That’s what I wanted to see you about. There’s not a single training facility in the entire navy.”

“None at all?” Herzer asked. “How do they learn their jobs? I mean, how do the officers learn anything?”

“By and large, they haven’t.” Edmund sighed, throwing his pen down on the desk where it promptly squirted ink all over the papers. “Shit. I barely know where to start with this damned place. Incompetents are mixed in with really good people. Trahn in G-4 is sharp as hell, but of course his boss was an idiot. I talked with Babak the G-3. You are hereby frocked major and appointed G-3 schools. One of the mostly completed dreadnoughts is being permanently moored for the time being; you can use that for skills training. We’ve got personnel that want to be sailors, they just don’t know what they fuck they are doing and all the training so far has been on-the-job. Find some facilities. Right now all I’ve got for you is the dreadnought, but scrounge up some trainers. Start a basic training facility for the seamen. Military lifestyle, basic seamanship, fire-fighting, water survival at a minimum. By the time they’re trained in basics you’ll need to have found advanced instructors. G-1 has a list of ‘specialties.’ You’ll have to find trainers for those schools as well. For the time being, from here on out, anyone who wants to be an officer has to have served at least one deployment with the fleet or have prior experience. Verifiable prior experience. And then they go to O course where they learn everything about being an officer on a ship. I have no idea what that means, but figure it out.”

Herzer opened his mouth to ask where in the hell he was supposed to find instructors but closed it. Edmund clearly didn’t have time to deal with pro forma protests.

“I want Van Krief,” was all he said.

“You’ve got her,” Edmund replied. “Find somebody to ramrod it for you by the time the fleet is ready to sail. Shar’s going to be in command but I want you out there, too. Oh, and a training facility for the marines as well.”

“I’ll need personnel from the fleet,” Herzer pointed out. “And they’re not going to want to release them. I’ll need good personnel from the fleet. And dragon-rider training as well, don’t forget that. And there should be personnel designated to handle the dragons; the riders have got enough on their plate. This is going to have to come under the Navy manning table. Bupers is going to have to approve the slots.”

“Come up with a list,” Edmund sighed. “I’ll handle Bupers. You just get the school started. Get going.”

“Hey, Shar,” Evan Mayerle said as he walked into the cramped office. “You wanted to see me?”

Shar’s desk was just about covered in paper and he was -reading a memo with a furious expression. It was clear that he was in dire need of killing someone. But he smiled at the engineer and waved to the sole spindly chair.

Evan Mayerle was of medium height, a brown-haired young man with bright blue eyes that were almost perpetually looking at something invisible. That was because he usually had his mind on three or more items other than whatever conversation he was engaged in. Chang knew that so he waved to get his attention.

“Focus for a minute,” the admiral said. “You’ve got a job in front of you.”

“I was thinking about the mess system on the Hazhir ,” Evan replied. “I think we can rearrange it so thatÑ”

“Evan,” Chang said with a chuckle. “Focus.”

“Oh, right,” Evan said, looking at him and widening his eyes. “You called me here, didn’t you?”

“Right,” Shar replied. “Look, Edmund wants all the carriers upgraded to match the Hazhir . The shipyards can work on that while they’re doing the repair damage, right?”

“I suppose,” Evan temporized. “But putting in the refrigeration system will require tearing out some deck. Nothing that can’t be fixed but it’s at least a three-day job.”

“Get with the shipyard. Show them the changes. They already have the word that they’re going to be doing it. Expedite it. Focus on that , not more changes. We need them turned around fast .”