This is the third story in the series started with 'Bridge Building' and continued with 'Bridge Maintenance'. In some sense, it's a bit of a Shadow of Saganami to the 'Bridge' universe, but it also concludes the 'Bridge' series (and, incidentally, tries to wrap up the main plot line of the novels as of 1922 PD).
As always, the Honorverse is property of David Weber. I'm just playing in his sandbox. Any inconsistencies with the canon universe prior to the events of 'Bridge Building' or the previous stories in this series are my fault.
Prologue: January 1927 PDMars orbit, Sol system
Vice-Admiral Rajiv Thenuwara of the Solarian Union Navy was his title now. His name and rank were unchanged from five years ago, when he'd been one of the younger three-star officers in the Solarian League Navy. And it had not been unexpected; he was a scion of one of the most powerful families of the fleet, and more than capable. And unlike his aunt, he'd been disinclined to cause problems. But he had done well once he'd realized his aunt had a method to her madness, which was why he – and almost all of the Thenuwara clan – had followed her into the new SUN with their ranks intact.
That wasn't true for very many in the SUN outside of what had once been his aunt's SLN 34th Fleet. The leadership of the new SUN were determined that the rank inflation and extreme levels of nepotism and patronage that had been endemic to the SLN would not take root in the new Navy they were building. Fortunately there was very little argument that both the Secretary of the Navy (Rajiv's grandfather) and the commander of Home Fleet (Rajiv's aunt Indira) were easily the most qualified people available for their jobs. In fact, the only reason why Fleet Admiral Indira Thenuwara-Richt was not uniformed head of the SUN was because she was needed even more in a combat role.
Still, he had been a bit surprised to get this assignment, but it wasn't the first time he'd received an unexpected command in the short time he'd been an SUN officer. His command for the past two years had been a step down from his SLN SD squadron in the terms most SLN officers would have seen things two or three years ago. By now, most one-time SLN officers serving in anyone's navy understood a modern BC squadron could destroy several times its tonnage in unmodified Scientists or Vegas, even if it had felt more than a little wrong for a former Battle Fleet Vice-Admiral to be commanding a battle cruiser squadron. But he hadn't expected to get a squadron of Admiral-class SD(P)s this soon. There weren't a lot of them yet, and wouldn't be for another year; the yards at Sanderson had limited capacity, and the first Admiral laid down at GIT's main yards back at Sol had followed the first laid down at Sanderson by over twelve months.
In two years, the SUN might have enough modern wallers for a star nation of its size and wealth. The Solarian Union's fifteen deep core systems, centered on Sol, made it one of the richest star nations in human space, but the SLN's hardware had been terribly obsolete when the Solarian Union splintered off from it. The Admirals were the SUN's first native-built attempt to correct it (at least as far as ships of the wall went). They'd been based on the Princedom of Sanderson's SD(P) designs, but that design had been revised and upgraded considerably for SLN production, and revised and upgraded again when Solarian Union took control of that production and allied itself with the Star Empire of Manticore. Which meant that although the Admirals had their origins in a rather crude SD(P) design, they nonetheless had first-line Alliance compensators, three-stage fusion-powered missiles, and the FTL fire control system called Apollo. All of which meant that the four squadrons of them the SUN had – including his – were capable of standing up against the most modern ships of the wall, unlike anything else in the SUN's inventory.
And that lack of numbers meant it was somewhat surprising that he was heading out to Rivendell to join Wes Marrone's Alliance 3rd Fleet. Maintaining the pretense that it was a mere 'task force' had been absurd for years. When it had started as a scratch-built three-squadron force to move against the Princedom of Sanderson, it was reasonable. Now, with his squadron pushing 3rd Fleet's wall of battle to nearly 80 ships, things were different. It still was far from the largest fleet in the Grand Alliance, but it was easily the most polyglot; every alliance member with ships of the wall that were good enough to contribute had at least a squadron of SD(P)s. Haven, as by far the largest navy in the Grand Alliance (unless the SUN's vast 'reserve' of obsolete SLN ships – which armies of construction workers were busy stripping of usable components before breaking down what was left for scrap - counted), contributed two. As did Rivendell, since they provided the home port and the fleet's commanding admiral. Until now, though, the SUN had not felt it could spare any of its wall of battle.
It was true that the 32 Admirals weren't the SUN's only podlayers, but the 28 Prince of Sandersons were are far less refined design, and in more settled times Rajiv doubted the SUN would have built the Frankenstein class at all. Which was a DN(P) designed for minimum construction time using mostly cannibalized SLN SD parts with just enough new-built and imported components to make a capable modern waller, if on the small side. The SUN wasn't about to pretend a 6.8 MT ship was an SD, at any rate; it was smaller than Rivendell's Aes Sedai class DN(P). And the Atlas conversions weren't even podlayers – 32 Vega-class SD(P)s had 2/3 of their broadside missile armament removed in favor of additional fire control, defensive systems, and hard points for mounting missile pods. The most powerful argument for building either class had been the speed they could be built, but committing them to battle against modern wallers would not be suicidal, especially given superior numbers. In fact, against an opponent that lacked Apollo, the Frankenstiens especially would be quite capable. A fact which the SUN had taken great pains to conceal.
Still, none of the Atlases, Frankenstiens, or Prince of Sandersons were expected to remain in service more than ten years. As soon as the SUN had a hundred modern SD(P)s – Admirals or some successor class – the intent was to begin phasing out all of its remaining older wallers. And the SUN currently planned on building a 300-ship wall of battle; enough to establish itself as clearly a first-rank power, but not one pursuing Battle Fleet-style useless expansion.
For now, though, they were an upstart star nation with a few dozen podlayers – something increasingly common these days – albeit one with far more upside potential than most. The Solarian Union was likely to end up the richest star nation in human space at least for a time when the League finished collapsing. The trend lines said Manticore and Haven would pass them eventually, but that would be far down the road, especially if the rapid growth the Union's economy had experienced since leaving the League persisted beyond a handful of years. There was certainly far less room for growth in the Union than in relatively undeveloped star systems like Manticore's acquisitions in Silesia and Talbott or most of the Republic of Haven, but League regulations had stifled a lot of innovation.
Solarian Union Navy HQ, Earth
Aravind Thenuwara had been retired from the SLN for twenty years when he'd been asked to become the civilian head of the new Solarian Union Navy. When he'd provisionally accepted the job, there was still some uncertainty about what his title would end up as, since he had no intention of running for office himself, and it seemed likely the Solarian Union would adopt a parliamentary model for its government. Traditionally the 'cabinet' officials in that type of government would be sitting MPs. But it had been worked out.
He had not liked the proposal that he'd received two months ago. It had in all probability come from Cachat, for all that the man was no military strategist. Almost certainly out of Torch, at any rate. But it made too much sense not to go forward with it.
Osgiliath orbit, Rivendell System, aboard RNSAllriane Cett
Until eight years ago, David Michaels had considered it extremely likely that he would follow his mother as the commanding officer of the Frontier Fleet Rivendell detachment. Admiral Caitlin Michaels had followed her father in that position, and in fact the job had become virtually a Michaels' family sinecure over the last T-century. But eight years ago then-Commander David Michaels had received his first independent command, and as a consequence had the outer-ring briefing on White City. Which had led him to believe that even if there was still an SLN by the time he earned a third star in any navy, the odds that he'd still be serving in the SLN then were very poor.
His mother had made it quite clear that she had no intention of letting the SLN's institutional nepotism creep into the Rivendell Navy when it incorporated her Frontier Fleet detachment as part of Rivendell's secession from the League. She'd made it equally clear to her son that she expected David to be her successor anyway. But he'd spent a fair amount of the years between his first cruiser and the present day in one staff posting or another, and both he and the Rivendell Navy's personnel department had agreed that he needed another field command before promotion to flag rank. He'd been hoping for a Wizard-class BC (the Rivendell Navy's version of the RMN's Nike class). He would have been more than happy with a Dragon – even if it was nominally a CA, one of them massed nearly eight times the light cruiser his previous command had been. He hadn't expected a brand new Allomancer-class SD(P).
But the Rivendell Navy was growing fast. Five years ago, it had less than fifty of the wall in service. Now, it had over one hundred, and plans were in place to double that number again. His Allrianne Cett was actually one of the last Allomancers laid down in General Dynamics' yards, and the last intended to be Rivendell-flagged. The class had mostly been an updating of the Grayson Navy's Harrington II class with the best ideas from the Grand Alliance members outside of Manticore and Grayson. Designing a true 4th-generation SD(P) had figured to be a long process, and the alliance needed a standard design to build in the meantime. They'd eventually came up with something, though, and as with the Allomancer class, the first units had been laid down at General Dynamics' yards. In less than a year, the Paladin class (and its close cousins in other allied Navies) would become the most formidable ships of the wall in space. At least, unless the Mesans shocked everyone again.
Almost every power with a wall of battle at all either had pod-layers now, or at least had them under construction. Even the hidebound rump of the Solarian League had awarded Technodyne a contract to build a hundred SD(P)s. Mannerheim, only six months removed from secession, went public with their SD(P)s shortly after that. By all evidence, what Technodyne was willing to sell to the SLN with was not quite as good as GIT's Admirals would have been if the Solarian Union had not joined the Grand Alliance and they had made no further advances after laying down the ships. Neither of which, fortunately – since the SUN's SD(P)s were on Michaels' side now – was true.
[break]
"Midshipman McKeon to join the ship's company." The young man said. There were five other new graduates from the Jeri Michaels Academy in the party, but McKeon was the only one not wearing the green and brown of the Rivendell Navy. Manticore's allies had sent cadets to Saganami Island for two decades. He was one of the first to choose to go in the other direction, when the RMN had started looking for volunteers four T-years ago. He did want to serve. He could do without the obvious questions. And the elves would not ask them. His fellow Manticorans, their long-time Grayson allies, and even Beowulfers and Mayans would.
Yes, he was the late Admiral McKeon's son. No, his parents had never married. In fact, his mother had declined to tell his father that he'd even existed until after he'd returned from Hades. He'd seen his father only a handful of times after that. Not due to any ill feeling, but simply because his father's duties in the Navy often kept him out of the Manticore system entirely and rarely brought him to Sphinx when they did. Whereas his mother was a Forestry Service ranger who had neglected to tell the naval officer she'd ended up spending much of a vacation on Manticore with that she had an obscure medical condition that prevented her from using standard contraceptive implants. And until he'd seen her in person at his father's funeral, he'd never really realized how much his mother looked like Honor Harrington. Oh, she wasn't quite as tall, and decades working in the Sphinx bush had a very different effect on her appearance than decades working on starships and space stations. But both were tall, athletic, about half old earth Oriental, had the same heavy world genetic alterations, and both had even been adopted by treecats.
The latter point was fairly important to Karl, because his mother's Aragorn was one of the few bonded treecats who had taken a mate. And Aragorn's daughter Eowyn – who was a good fifteen years older than Karl – had chosen to bond with him.
[break]
Charity Mackenzie looked up when the door to the midshipmen's berth opened. Most of Allriane Cett's middies had elected to take the last shuttle that would get them to the station in time. With the exception of Karl McKeon, they all were from the Rivendell Republic, and three of them were from the capital planet itself. Which meant they had family and friends (other than their fellow cadets) in-system, and so wanted to enjoy their freedom as long as they could. Mackenzie, though, wore the blue on blue of the Grayson Space Navy. Her grandfather had been a late convert to supporting Protector Benjamin's reforms, and it had taken more than a little effort to win his official approval to join the navy. He'd been, somewhat reluctantly, convinced to support Steadholder Harrington. And even Abigail Hearns, Rachel Mayhew, and the common-born girls Steadholder Burdette had rounded up. Even a few from his own stedding, eventually. But his own granddaughter was another matter.
She'd eventually convinced him, though. That in defiance of all laws of probability she had three older brothers born before Alison Harrington had discovered the cause of Grayson's skewed birth rate helped. As did the undeniable contributions of women both foreign and Grayson-born to the GSN over the last twenty-odd years. But Steadholder Mackenzie was convinced that if neither Abigail Hearns nor anyone else had become the first Grayson-born woman in the GSN by the time his granddaughter had been of age to join, Charity would have gone ahead anyway, with or without his approval.
[break]
"I'm afraid this is going to be almost as unfamiliar to me as it is to you." Lt. Jessica Falk told the assembled midshipmen. "The SLN never had a midshipman's cruise in the sense that the RMN has always had or that the GSN has had since becoming allied with Manticore. While the Rivendell Navy does now, prior to our secession from the League only a handful of officers went directly from the Academy into the Rivendell Navy. Most of our officers have traditionally come from the SLN, with most of junior officers promoted from the SLN's enlisted. And although I received my commission after the secession, that's true for me as well."
In fact, Falk had been sent to OCS after the battle of Osiglith Station. She'd realized the offer was going to come by the time she started writing her after-action report. Improvising an interface between the prototype research versions of the Spider Sense drones and a the fire control of the fleet defending the Rivendell system in less than half an hour was not something she intended to do again, but there were very few in any navy who could have done it once. She'd thought about turning down the commission she'd been offered along with a medal, but the end had found she couldn't pass it up. Even if that meant her first assignment as an officer put her in charge of midshipmen.
Darius System
"I don't like the way trend lines are going, father." Colin Detweiller noted. "The League is falling apart in a considerably more orderly fashion than we'd hoped. Manticore has very nearly replaced everything we destroyed in Oyster Bay. And reverse-engineering the elves' spider detection mechanism has not come along as quickly as we'd like; we still don't have a drone-sized engineering sample, let alone a production model."
"And the Factor governments are getting nervous." Aldona Asimnova said. "No one's saying anything directly yet, but it's clear without a signal victory soon, some of them will activate their own contingency plans, cut us loose, and deny having ever been part of the probably mythical Mesan Alignment. Or even worse, go over to Manticore entirely."
"… and of course, we can't really stop them if they do." Daniel said. "Certainly we can't move against Mannerheim." Mannerheim had chosen Kanzen Heavy Industries' SD(P) for their navy, not Technodyne's or another alignment-controlled company. And there was no rational way to argue against that choice; KHI had managed to crack some design problems that had frustrated the Alignment's people for years. Of course, handing over the final plans to the Mannerheim Navy meant the Alignment had those plans now. But that had been embarrassing, and it would be years before an Alignment-built conventional SD(P) could match KHI's product, let alone Manticore's.