Hey, everybody! It's been some time since I've been able to actually post things I've written, but I've got quite a few stories to publish. They all link together, but each series doesn't need you to read the rest to understand the rest of them. This one takes place around twenty years after most of the others, and will take place mainly in the Honorverse. Timeline-wise, this story begins just before the Maccabeus coup from The Honor of the Queen, and some of the dialogue is lifted directly from the book.
I do not own the Honor Harrington franchise, MPL:FIM, D&D, Thaumcraft, Pokemon, Godzilla, Legend of Zelda, the Inheritance Cycle, Magic: The Gathering, or The Elder Scrolls franchise.
Fleet Admiral Sir Mare Luna, His Majesty Archduke-Prince Heir-Apparent to the Royal Throne of the Night, Duke Everfree, Grandmaster of the Lunar Guard, UMC Commodore, Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Harmony, CO USN First Fleet, LC, DT (five stripes), PH, PMV, DS (three stripes), Bearer and Avatar of Acceptance and Balance, was in a good mood.
He could hardly believe that it had been fifteen years since he had first arrived (twenty, for most everyone else). So much had changed, and he had now found himself CO of UNS Luna's Fury, the very first superdreadnought that Ungula had commissioned that used gravitic impeller technology, as well as a proposed improvement to the hyper drive.
While he had been the one who had introduced the new technology, the improvements were something even he couldn't have thought of. Even with the descriptions provided from David Weber's novels, producing the components required in large enough numbers, and training enough engineers and crew, still took years, even without all of the failed launches. Enough trips had failed that much of the general population feared space travel, despite all of the redundancy that practically everyone insisted upon including. But finally, all of the construction had been completed, some of the older ships, mainly destroyers, had finished their refits, and First Fleet was ready for its final test-the new hyper generators.
"Admiral Luna, message from planetside." The voice echoed across the bridge, despite the constant chatter of normal goings-on, jerking Mare out of his reverie.
"Put it on my screen," He ordered, his resonant bass cutting through the noise, bringing the frenzied activity to a halt. The screen at his waist came alive with the image of the senior officer at Planetary Traffic Control.
"Admiral Luna, this is Control. First Fleet is cleared for final testing. Good luck, and godspeed," the image said, then the display blanked as the prerecorded message came to an end. Mare smiled.
"Com, send the acknowledgement, then open communications on the all-ships frequency. Helm, prepare for translation," he ordered with a calm voice, despite the building excitement.
"All-ships communication open, Sir."
Mare nodded, then squared himself and looked at the pickup. "To all units of First Fleet, this is Admiral Luna. Prepare for alpha translation on my mark." He paused, waiting for his chronometer to turn over, each second feeling like an eternity. Then, the moment came. "Mark!"
The humming that eternally pervaded the ship deepened into a basso growl, as the hyper generators awoke from their slumber, warming up as they prepared to lift the ships into h-space with their power. Mare felt the onset of nausea, as his inner ear detected the movement of his body "upwards" over a distance with no physical manifestation. Up until this point, everything was going quite well.
Suddenly, Mare's stomach lurched, and the ship shuddered as if struck by a giant's fist. A warning light flashed on Mare's console, and he fell into darkness.
Mare groaned as he picked himself up off of the floor, glancing around. Nobody seemed hurt, but naval officers didn't take unnecessary risks with the health of their crew. Sliding back into his chair, he called out, "Sound off by station! Astro?"
"All's well!" Lieutenant Acrylic Storm, a slate-grey thestral, swiftly replied. Mare had met her during his first visit to Ungula, and they had worked together quite often since. BuPers had given Mare a crew he knew well.
Mare tapped a stud on his chair. "CIC, this is Flag. Damage report."
"Flag, this is Chief Xilian. No casualties, no damage. All systems nominal." Mare had asked Xilian if he wanted to act as the head of the Combat Information Center, and he had agreed, so long as he got to keep a personal record of the information.
Mare nodded, releasing the stud. "Com?"
"All fine, Sir," Commander Whirring Cogs replied. A former member of the Blue Hive, Cogs had defected after the disastrous wedding invasion, and Mare had helped him deal with some strange nightmares afterwards. His empathic abilities allowed him to pick up if Mare would react well to the message, and he was also very good at improvising in his orders.
Mare pressed another stud. "Damage Control, this is Flag. Report." Should've called them first, he remanded himself.
"Flag, this is Commander Frost. No casualties, here or anywhere else, 'sides from some light bruisin' in th' Marines. Gunny's gonna have his hands full. Engineering reports the generator's offline; thing's still cyclin'. Gonna be roundabout twelve hours 'till we can jump again, at least with the upgrades. Normal capability's gonna be back in nine minutes, but Master Chief Cross says don't mess with anything."
"Understood, Commander. Luna clear." Mare released the stud, then frowned. Twelve hours was well over sixty times normal cycle time for a hyper generator, though the drive was untested, so there were bound to be some kinks to work out. He turned back to Cogs. "Com, check in with the rest of the fleet."
"Yes, sir." A moment passed as replies trickled in from the three other superdreadnoughts, twelve battlecruisers, sixteen heavy and light cruisers, and twenty-four destroyers that made up the fleet. "All ships report no casualties, but a couple of the tin-cans seem to have lost some nodes. They think the problems are somewhere within the control runs, but they're not sure. Twilight's got a feed problem in Missile Three; it seems like they've lost power to the counter-grav. Other than that, no major problems." Mare grimaced. Node losses were troublesome; they always meant reduced accelerations until they were fixed. Thankfully, it was only the destroyers; they could accelerate almost two hundred g's faster than any SD, so a few lost nodes didn't make much difference in the short term-if they were all betas. If they had lost an alpha, then they were stuck until it was fixed, as the ship would tear itself to shreds if it entered a grav wave without them able to generate a sail. There was a brief pause, as all of the officers on the bridge digested the information. "Sir, we're receiving a transmission. And it's not from any of our ships. Approximate bearing zero-five-niner, one-zero-three; approximate distance to transmitter, one-three point niner light-minutes, judging from signal strength. No encryption."
"What? That's impossible, there's nothing in h-space to receive a transmission from! Tac, what's going on?" Mare sputtered, mind spinning like a top on a turntable.
"I'm not sure, Two, but we're getting signals from over twenty-five light-minutes away, which means we're not in hyper. That place hashes sensors at around twenty light-minutes, remember? Besides which, I'm picking up several planets, at least one inhabited, and lots of in-system activity. Lots of impeller wedges, at least thirty, probably more," Lieutenant Commander Meredith Aerowyne, UNS Luna's Fury's senior tactical officer replied. 'Two' was her nickname for Mare, taken from his position in the guild the two of them led, with Mare being the second-in-command, after Meredith. Despite their actual ranking, Mare was de facto leader more often than not, so Meredith didn't mind his being in command of her. He had placed her in Tactical because she was one of the best tacticians he knew. "Some of them look like warships. I'm guessing two cruisers, a tin-can, and a dozen LACs. Probably more; I can't tell much from this distance."
"Hmm." Mare steepled his fingers over his nose, contemplating the situation. "Astro, I want you to plot a course for zero-zero intercept of the inhabited planet, max accel three hundred gees, but do not execute. Com, put the transmission on my screen." Mare squared himself as the image of a woman, Oriental in facial structure with a strange-looking catlike animal on one shoulder, appeared on his screen.
"Unknown ships, this is Captain Honor Harrington, Royal Manticoran Navy. Identify yourselves and declare your intentions. You have two hours from the receipt of this message to either stand down, identify yourselves, or cease violating Grayson territory. If you fail to comply with these instructions, you will be attacked with lethal force. Harrington, clear." The display blanked, and Mare sighed.
"Wonderful. Com, record for transmission."
"Yes, sir. Live mike."
Mare looked at the pickup. "Captain Harrington, this is Fleet Admiral Mare Luna, CO, First Fleet, Ungulan Space Navy. I apologize for violating any territorial space; we were testing a new hyper drive when it malfunctioned, so we're pretty much stuck here for another twelve hours, until our generator cycles the modifications. We will cut our drives and wait for further instructions. Luna, clear."
"On the chip, sir."
"Send it, Com. Instruct all ships to cut their drives until instructed otherwise, as well."
"Yes, sir."
The minutes slowly ticked by as Mare's message raced across the void, and the reply sped back. Finally, it arrived, and Harrington's face appeared on the screen once more.
"Admiral Luna, this is Harrington. Your message is received and understood. Bring your ships into orbit, and we'll look at your drives. I've never heard of any 'Ungulan Space Navy', but I'm sure whatever we can do to help will be done. I apologize for any presumed hostility; the locals have spent the last few centuries under threat from religious fanatics, and my home system of Manticore is currently in a state of tension with the People's Republic of Haven." Harrington's voice soured on the last bit, and Mare could tell the so-called "People's Republic" was anything but a republic. "We just suffered a devastating attack from the aforementioned fanatics, so I'm sure you can understand any wariness on our part. Again, bring your ships in, and we'll discuss anything you need. Harrington, clear."
Mare sighed in relief. "Com, acknowledge receipt. Helm, take us on the course Astro set."
"Aye, aye, sir!" echoed across the bridge.
Several hours later, UNS Luna's Fury was in a parking orbit around the inhabited planet, Grayson according to Captain Harrington. Mare had taken a pinnace over to Harrington's ship, HMS Fearless, to greet her personally. "Swimming" through the null-G docking tube, he grasped the red grab bar that he recognised indicated the interface to shipboard gravity, though the USN used OSHA-standardized yellow-and-black warning stripes for the same purpose on its own ships. Bosun's pipes twittered, and the honor guard of Marines came to attention. Mare saluted to the executive officer standing to attention.
"Admiral Luna, requesting permission to come aboard?" Mare asked in the ancient formality.
"Permission granted, Admiral Luna," a familiar cool soprano echoed through the bay. Mare turned to the speaker, and the first thing he noticed about her was her height. She had to be at least a hundred seventy centimetres tall, probably almost a hundred ninety, he told himself. Then, he saw the eyes, the white beret, and the "cat" on her shoulder.
"Captain Harrington, a pleasure to meet you," Mare murmured. "May I introduce you to my flag captain, Captain Jade Luna?" He gestured to the woman who had just emerged from the tube behind him. She was a good five centimetres taller than Mare, with a lean, powerful build and streaks of red and cream laced throughout her silky brown hair, and the bright green eyes that were her namesake. "Captain Luna, this is Captain Honor Harrington."
"A pleasure, Miss Harrington," Jade's penetrating mezzo alto cut through the still-twittering pipes.
"Of course," Harrington replied. Mare didn't hear any sort of waver in her voice, but his 'ling senses told another story. He could taste the worry, sealed beneath an iron shell of duty, and respect for his bravery. There was also anger, powerful anger, but it was caged with bars of steel, so strong that it seemed unbreakable. And yet there was joy, and love, directed to… the "cat"? Perplexed, Mare shifted his focus to the (hexapedal, he noticed) feline-esque being on Harrington's shoulder.
The first thing Mare noticed about the "cat" was bright joy, much like Pinkie's, though slightly less… wild, he figured was the best word for it. There was curiosity, and… disapproval? Directed at him? Mare shook his head internally, as there was also a "get-out-of-my-head" feeling directed at him, slightly out of his usual telepathic "frequency" range of receipt. Mare did his best to align himself with the message, then blinked in surprise.
{You are not of the People, yet you are not mind-blind. How?}
{Ah…} Mare telepathically stammered, then looked at Honor. "Your… cat… Sorry, can't think of anything better to call it… Did you know he's telepathic?"
Honor blinked in surprise, but swiftly regained her composure. "You figured that out from a glance? Yes, Nimitz is telepathic, and empathic, as well. And we do refer to them as 'cats."
Mare sheepishly rubbed the back of his head. "I'm… slightly telempathic, myself. Several of my crew members are, in fact. I'm not able to telepathically communicate with anyone who's not already telepathic," he said, anticipating Honor's question, "But I can sense the emotions of pretty much anything sentient, which is how I anticipated the question you were about to ask."
Honor frowned, then nodded in thought. "I see. And, unfortunately, I can't show you around the ship at the moment, as I'm due for a formal dinner planetside with the local planetary head of state in a few hours, so I can't stay up here much longer. I'm certain my exec, Lieutenant Commander Venezilos, would be willing to give you a tour, if you want, however."
Jade nodded. "I'd like to see what you've got. Our ships are brand-new designs, so I'd like to see what a more established design looks like, if that's okay with you, dear?" She winked at Mare.
"Go for it, honey," Mare chuckled, then frowned. Captain Harrington had let slip she was visiting a local head of state, and Mare wanted to visit him (or her), but he wasn't sure how to phrase what he wanted to say.
Improvise. That's what you do best, after all.
Right. Thanks, Nyx, Mare "said" to the being in his mind, internally grinning wryly. He cleared his throat to get Honor's attention. "Actually, Ma'am, before I was a Navy man, I acted as a diplomat for my nation, and I'm nobility as well. A duke, in fact. Do you think it would be inappropriate for me to accompany you to this dinner? I've never had the chance to meet a planetary head of state aside from my own, so this would serve as an opportunity for the two of us. Also, I'd prefer for my world's first impression on you to not be a bunch of incompetent, bumbling fools with no sense of kindness or welcome." He let out a lighthearted chuckle. "In fact, one of our major virtues is our tendency to hold out the olive branch rather than the arrow. So, if it would be alright with you?"
Honor gazed off in contemplation, and Mare tasted the swirl of her emotions as she reached a decision.
"All right," she said at last. "Just try not to do anything that would embarrass myself or Manticore. And be polite!"
Mare let out a chuckle. "Oh, I will!"