Ivan Kal - Olympus

Bethany and Adrian were speechless, they couldn’t have known how their scores measured up to others who weren’t at the Academy.

“As for your assignment. Both of you are going to be posted at the same ship, at least for a little while, the ships name is Athena. Most of the ship’s crew is currently on leave, and had transported out to Mars, the ship is going through upgrades and there isn’t much to do, so Adrian you will to assume position as the acting Ship Master, and Bethany as the acting High Prime. When the Athena’s Ship Master and High Prime return, Adrian you will assume the position of Low Prime, while you Bethany will transfer to Neith, which should be arriving at the same time for its scheduled upgrades, its crew, like that of Athena will be going on leave, and you will assume the position as Ship Master. This is so that you may gain some experience commanding a real ship, though there won’t be much to do.” Laura finished with a grin.

Stunned once more the only thing Bethany and Adrian could do was to stare at Laura. A moment later the name of the ship they were posted on clicked with something Adrian learned years ago.

“Athena?” Adrian asked. “Isn’t that…”

“Yes.” Laura responded. “We have high hopes for the two of you. And now I believe it is time you go and report to your new posts.”

With one last smile she sent them off. After they left her offices Bethany turned on Adrian.

“You know the Fleets Master?” She asked in whisper.

“Yes.” Adrian said.

“Care to elaborate?” Bethany asked.

“It’s complicated.” Adrian said. Bethany just kept looking at him until he relented. “She kind off adopted me.” He said finally.

“Adopted you.” Bethany looked at him strangely, and then a look passed over her face that Adrian knew very well.

“No! She never favored me! I didn’t even know her before I was invited to join the Academy.” Adrian said quickly.

Bethany looked shamefaced. “Sorry.” She said.

“It’s ok.”

“What was it that she said to you at the end, something about the ship? Do you know it?” She asked.

“I know of it.” Adrian said.

Again she looked at him funny.

“You seem to know an awful lot.” She said. But this time it was in a playful tone.

“Yeah.” Adrian said a little embarrassed. “Athena and Neith are warships.”

It took Adrian a few steps to realize that Bethany wasn’t walking with him, he turned and saw her staring at him incredulously. “Warships!” She yelled.

Adrian shushed her, and walked to her.

“Warships?” She asked in a whisper.

“Yes, they were built a few years ago, so that we may have something to protect ourselves with. Just in case.”

Bethany’s incredulous expression soon turned to excited.

“We are going to serve on a warship.” She said smiling brightly.

“Yes.” Adrian said. He turned and led the way to the where the ship was docked, Bethany following excitedly.

March 2103

“Are you sure this will work?” President Lucas Von Holt of Concordis asked Admiral Jan Weiss. They were in Berlin, inside his office. The rest of the room was filled with the other leaders of Concordis. The representatives of the council of three, Maria Hughes, Emerson Tully and Yuri Petrov , the Minister of the Economy Amelia Turner, the Minister of Foreign Affairs Boris Vitkovic and the Minister of Defense Victor Ross.

“Our plan is solid.” Admiral Weiss said.

President Von Holt sighed. “Are we absolutely sure that there is no other alternative?” He asked the room.

“We have tried everything in our power, but the bastard won’t budge.” Minister of Foreign Affairs Vitkovic said tiredly.

“He is right Mr. President. Tomas Klein won’t change his mind, he will never sell us his technology. And we can’t keep going like this. He keeps us under his control, we are too dependent on them, and we can’t afford to stop doing business with Olympus.” Minister of the Economy Turner said.

“Could we find another solution maybe? Sometime in the future? Olympus had always dealt fairly with us, none of you showed me any proof that they plan on changing that.” President Von Holt said.

“It doesn’t matter, they are dealing fairly with us yes, but they keep all the power. Each year they are gaining more and more of a technological edge on us. If they shared their technology we could have brought an end to most of our problems, overpopulation, hunger, disease.” Minister of Defense Ross said.

“Tomas Klein offered to use their technology for us.” President said.

“Yes, but with Olympus in charge, they want to keep all the control, we wouldn’t be allowed anywhere near their technology, and in the end they would be seen as the saviors by the people.” Minister of Economy Turner said.

“Mr. President it is our belief that he wants to control the entire world, every move he made since even before Olympus was created suggests that, as his final goal.” Minister of Foreign Affairs Vitkovic said.

“Well if that is the case, why are we not under Olympus rule?” President asked.

“We don’t know sir. But the truth is that we are even now in his power, and we can’t afford not to act. If we are to regain our self-sufficiency we must do this now.” Admiral Weiss said.

“Are you 100% sure that your plan will work as you presented?” President asked.

“Yes sir. Olympus has no assets to prevent it, and if everything goes according to plan, we will come out as heroes. Even if they suspect something they won’t be able to act, public opinion will be on our side, we have news stories ready to go live.” Admiral Weiss said confidently.

“It’s the “if everything goes according to plan” part that has me worried.” President said, he looked across the room at the council representatives. “Are you all in agreement? Are we going through with this?” He asked.

The three looked at each other and then each said a clear “Yes.”

President Lucas Von Holt took a deep breath and closed his eyes.

“Very well then.” He opened his eyes and looked at the people around him. “Put your plan into action, and hope to god that it works, because if you fail that will be the end of Concordis.”

Seven days later

Captain Reginald Smith sat in the command chair aboard the bridge of Concordis military vessel Bismarck, the bridge was almost an exact copy of a navy carrier bridge, with a few stations removed and a few added, a bit larger perhaps, and of course without any windows, there was a big screen mounted inside the front wall, it could show the images from the outside of the ship, the ship had some of the more advanced optical cameras and telescopes created. The Bismarck was the first of her kind, a herald of a new age, the age of spaceflight. Captain Smith had been serving or commanded a naval vessel for the most of his life, and when plans for the Bismarck came, he was on the very short list of its potential captains. She and her two sister ships were ugly ships by any criteria, but then, they didn’t need to be pretty. They were there to protect Concordis interests in space. The weaponry of the ship was crude by some standards and yet in a way sophisticated. There were many ideas about weapons in space, but with no experience they had decided on a more proven concepts. Rocket propelled missiles where a simple solution, they were guided and each had 50 kilotons of explosive. They weren’t the biggest they could make but the brass decided that it was enough. Their range was just around 150.000 km at their max effective range. Those who served aboard them had taken to calling the ship a missile boat, which they were in a way. They handled like pigs, and looked like uneven grey boxes. There were many antennae on the hull, sensors, communication relays and such, though those were concentrated on the bottom of the ship towards the end and their drives were improvement on those that were used almost a century ago to get a man on the moon.