A/N: Thank you to bemeka for reviewing the story, its nice to see someone giving some positive feedback. Oh and seeing as I didn't say this initially, I don't own this universe I just play in it, and the only character I own is Macleod and any of his crew who may make an appearance.
Oh and while the basic storyline will be set during The Short Victorious War I will probably be mucking around with some of the events that will be encounter within the story, but the basic plotline will be cannon.
Story:
Nike's ward room was filled with men and women wearing the black and gold of the Royal Manticoran Navy. Amongst this sea of gold braid and scarlet shoulder flashes were the occasional bright patches of white signifying the berets of starship commanders as the assembled CO's, each of them a Flag Captain of one of Vice Admiral Sir Yancey Parks Task Force Flag Officers, whom had gathered in HMS Nike immenseward room to officially welcome the powerful Battlecruiser to the Task Force.
Captain Lady Dame Honor Harrington was mingling with her peers and, much to her surprise, enjoying herself. She had spent some of her time talking to Rear Admiral Sarnow, who much to her pleasure had introduced her personally to Rear Admiral Konstanzakis CO of Superdreadnought Squadron 8, and Rear Admiral Kostmeyer CO of Battle Squadron 9. She had enjoyed speaking to the two senior officers, especially as they, like her, had been through the horrifying gauntlet of space combat, and had spoken nothing but praise over her actions at Yetsin and Basilisk.
But there was only one blight on the evening so far, Captain Angus Macleod had yet to arrive, and Honor was scared that she had been snubbed by the Heavy Cruiser Captain. It was only Nimitz's admonishing little 'bleeks' and purrs that stopped her from feeling sorry for herself.
Pulling herself out of her self imposed depression she realised that the dinner wasn't due to actually start for another fifteen minutes, so he wasn't technically late, so she wasn't sure why she was so concerned. Then she heard Mac's voice from beside her say.
"Excuse me ma'am but flight control report that Shadow's actual, is approaching the docking bay, and you did ask me to remind you when they were making their final approach."
"Thank you Mac, please tell Commander Henke to hold the fort here while I go and meet in Captain Macleod."
"Of course ma'am, I have already signalled the Bosun to get a greeting party ready."
Smiling in thanks to her faithful steward Honor, with the ever present Nimitz again on her shoulder, moved out of the wardroom to the nearest elevator to head to Nike's large docking bay where the shuttles that had brought TF Hancock's Flag Officer's and Flag Captains to the party were kept while their passengers were aboard Nike.
As she was standing in the elevator, two things occurred to Honor, firstly that the small smile that she was wearing that evening had gotten ever so slightly larger as she heard that Captain Macleod was arriving, and secondly, she was extremely glad that she had gone to Mike and asked for help to make herself look good, she had absolutely no experience when it came to makeup and other 'girly' things, so she went to the one person that would be able to help her, and not make her feel like an ass at the same time.
It had nothing to do with the dashing young Captain that was landing in Nike's docking bay; it was that she had to look her best as Admiral Sarnow's Flag Captain. With that thought she subconsciously checked her dress uniform for any flaws, touched her dress sword and tired to ignore Nimitz's amused "bleeks"; sometimes the little devil was far too perceptive.
--
Captain (Junior Grade) Lord Angus Macleod, Duke Blackguard, sat in his seat next to his Executive Officer Lieutenant Commander George Trent, a heavy featured man from Gryphon, and gave a half grimace half smile at the upcoming dinner.
"Something on your mind Skipper?" asked George, noting the strange expression on his Captain's face, but having served with him for several years; he had a pretty good idea what was bothering the man.
Snorting Angus turned to his friend and said "I am I really that obvious? Wait don't you answer that" he continued noticing the smile starting to form on George's face "I suppose its…this" he indicated the shining medals glinting on the breast of his dress uniform tunic. "The people here are just going to see these and not what lies behind them, they weren't at Basilisk, and some of them won't even have the clearance to access my after action report. They won't understand what happened out there, out of all the people at this dinner only you, and perhaps Lady Harrington, will understand."
George nodded his head and in a rare display of public contact between a junior officer to a senior one, he squeezed his Captain's shoulder, but soon true to his nature a smile flickered across his face and he said, "So this nervousness and other strange feelings are all to do with those medals on your chest and have nothing to do with the rather lovely Lady Harrington?"
The glare that Angus sent his way caused the Commander to burst into raucous laughter, the noise probably had the pilots wondering if the Captain and the Exec had gotten the party started early.
But he couldn't hold the glare for long, and soon a smile graced Angus's face too, with an Exec like George there was no way not to smile when he started to laugh, it was just infections. But anyone who took him for a fool soon found themselves in a very dangerous situation; the man could kill you with just about anything close to hand, a result of the Naval Intelligence Training that had been literally beaten into him, the same training that one then Lieutenant Junior Grade Angus Macleod had undergone as well.
Hearing the tone that indicated they were coming in to dock both officers with the ease of long practice checked their uniforms and stood in one fluid motion. Sending one final half grin half glare at his Exec's still smiling face Captain Lord Angus Macleod settled the white beret of a starship commander on his head and assumed his command mask, he had to make an impression after all.
--
Honor was standing in Nike's large docking bay fighting the urge to fidget, the only time she had been this nervous was when Admiral Sarnow had transferred his Flag to her vessel, but that time hadn't included the butterflies that were trying to engage each other in LAC combat in her stomach, and she decided to put off analysing that situation for when there would be no witnesses.
The sharp trill of the Bosun's side party brought her out of her internal musings as she saw Angus, and a man who could only be his Executive Officer, 'swim' through to Nike's internal gravity. He saluted the smartly turned out Lieutenant and Honor heard his deep, melodious and cultured voice say "Permission to come aboard?"
The response of "Permission granted Sir" echoed in the cavernous docking bay, as the Marine attendants snapped to attention and brought their pulsar rifles smartly to their shoulders.
Honor stepped forward after returning Angus's salute, and held out her hand with a smile, and said "Welcome aboard Nike your Grace, not to sound vain at all, but what do you think of her?"
Angus smiled at Honor while taking her hand and replied by saying "Fishing for compliments already Dame Honor? Very well, in all seriousness, I am very impressed with Nike, certainly from the little I saw when I was coming in she appears to be a truly magnificent warship."
Honor couldn't help but preen, ever so slightly of course, under the praise that was being given out about her latest command. She looked across at the man standing at Angus's shoulder and quirked her eyebrow, indicating that she was wondering who he was, and why Angus had not introduced him.
"Oh him, well if I have to introduce him as well" said Angus, his face completely serious but his tawny gold eyes dancing with mirth, glanced at the Lieutenant Commander standing at his side.
"It's always such a pleasure to go places with you Captain Macleod; you are always so eloquent and polite." George's tone was dry but with an edge of clear humour in its edge.
Angus snorted in response, and Honor's eyebrow rose towards her hairline, here were obviously two officers that had served with each other long enough that they were comfortable in each other's company, no matter their difference in rank.
"I see" came her response, in her usual soft soprano, but Honor's eyes glinted slightly with suppressed mirth, she could see that she would immediately switch her conversation to these two officers if the conversation around the table this evening turned out to be as boring as she thought that it could be.
Angus openly laughed at this, further darkening the expression on his XO's face, taking pity on his friend he decided to introduce him properly, lest he find that 'someone' had spat in his morning coffee.
"All joking aside, Dame Honor please allow me to introduce Lieutenant Commander George Trent, my Executive Officer. Not only is he my XO, he is also one of my closest friends. George I believe that you already know the name of our host?"
George smiled, his pretend irritation with his CO long forgotten, he offered a smart salute to the senior Captain and took her offered hand, giving a polite greeting to the one he received he stepped back and let the two Captains talk amongst themselves, when they got to the dining room he would let them talk to the other CO's and he would socialise with the other executive officers and staff officers that would be in attendance.
George then did what all good XO's were able to do, pretend that they could neither see or hear anything that was said between their Captain and a senior officer that was speaking to them. So he took up position behind the two Captains and entered the lift to take them to Nike's dining hall.
"So is there anyone attending tonight that I will need to watch what I say around Honor? I would hate to tarnish your welcome party with some ill considered remark that would ruin one of the higher powers supper." The last part was said in such a way that it left everyone understanding that a superior had to earn Captain Macleod's respect, it was not given freely.
"Well that would ruin the surprise Angus; I wouldn't want to make this experience too easy on you now would I?" Glancing at the other Captain out of the corner of her eye she smiled as his eyes narrowed slightly in mock annoyance, but the small smile tucking at his lips let her know that he found the situation as humorous as she did.
--
The trio entered the large, for a warship, dining hall to the sight of Mike doing two things, Mike conducting the proceedings, introducing officers to each other that hadn't met each other yet, and also doing the incredibly important service of keeping every officer's glass full of whatever they were drinking at the time.
George immediately moved away to talk to some of the junior officers that were in attendance, most of them staff officers to the various Admirals that had gathered to welcome Nike to the Task Force.
Honor, however, introduced Angus to Rear Admiral Konstanzakis and the three of them had a very pleasing conversation, reminiscing about their academy days, and at how little it had changed between in the years. But all too soon, the conversation had to come to the end because, true to his efficient nature, Chief MacGuiness came into the room and announced the "Ladies and Gentlemen, Sir's and Ma'am's I am pleased to announce that dinner is served."
The assembled Flag Captains, Executive Officers, Staff Officers and Flag Officers themselves moved almost as one towards the dining hall, the delicious smells having teased their nostrils for some time had allowed them to work up quite an appetite.
There was, of course, a definite seating arrangement at this table, and to any uneducated observer it would have appeared to make no sense whatsoever, but to the men and women of the Royal Manticoran Navy, it made perfect sense.
Honor was seated at the head of the table, for no matter the rank of anyone else aboard Nike, Honor Harrington was still her Captain, which meant that Nike was her ship. Vice Admiral Sir Yancey Parks was seated at her right hand side, as Task Force CO that was both his right and his privilege, next to him, much to his chagrin, was Rear Admiral Mark Sarnow, who appeared to have no problem with the seating plan, which only annoyed the Vice Admiral further.
However seated on Honor's left was Captain Junior Grade Angus Macleod, who though at the moment was not an official part of the Naval forces guarding Hancock, was an invited guest of the ships CO, and as such was seated accordingly. From there on it was a relatively simple seating plan, consisting of people being seated according to rank, with Flag Captains seated near their Flag Officers.
The conversation flowed and, Honor thought, people seemed to be sincerely enjoying themselves, well everyone that wasn't Sir Yancey Parks. He had the unfortunate honour to be squeezed between the two officers that he liked the least that served under his command, but he was conversing, albeit reluctantly with Rear Admiral Sarnow, as he had deemed him the lesser of the two evils.
Which left Honor, and by extension Nimitz, who was perched in his own high chair directly to Honor's left, sharing her table space, to converse with Angus, who appeared to be as interesting dining companion as he had been a drinking one.
Their conversation covered many topics, all of them interesting to the pair of them, as they quickly covered most of the background information that would move them from acquaintances, to friends, a stage the pair of them thought they were at already, to eventual firm friends.
Currently they were discussing their homeworlds; Honor had been delighted to discover that Angus had spent a considerable amount of time on her own home planet of Sphinx, sadly she could not say the same for his, in fact knowing the basics of the planet was about as much as she knew of the place, forcing Angus to regale her with descriptions of his beloved planet, a planet she was rapidly coming to the conclusion that she would like to visit at some stage.
"Titan is a strong world Honor, a world that has bred strong people, many of whom enter the Queen's service. Sadly though my home is not to everyone's tastes, certain people who prefer the hedonistic pleasures and soft comforts of Manticore are, unfortunately, often out of sorts on Titan. Titan's geography is similar to your own home in the Copper Walls on Sphinx, except instead of it being in one section it is spread all over the planet. Soaring mountains capped with snow and deep valleys with rivers running through them are the norm for us."
He took a small sip of his wine, a truly excellent merlot picked out for the occasion by Chief MacGuiness; he savoured the rich, smooth flavour before continuing.
"The people of Titan are almost exclusively from the Old Earth cultures of Scotland and Germany, making them a blend of Celt and Saxon that made them exceptionally hardy and perfectly formed for the weather of Titan, whose winters can sometimes make those of Gryphon seem rather mild."
Honor winced at that statement, although still smiling, it was well known that Gryphon's winters were some of the harshest to be found in the whole Star Kingdom, as such Titan's must be truly devastating if one was unprepared for them. Honor quickly brought her attention back to the man sitting on her left, as she realised that he was still speaking.
"That being said Honor, if you get the chance to go on one ski trip in your lifetime, there is no other place I would be able to recommend that would be better than Titan, and the view from the top of the mountains is simply breathtaking."
Honor smiled, something that she was doing a lot of when Angus was around, here was someone she could definitely identify with, someone who liked doing things, who didn't just like sitting in a resort or a hotel but actually liked going out and experiencing the world, defiantly her type of man. Her eyes widened in surprise, where had that thought come from, she was certainly glad that Angus was responding to a question from his left, so he wasn't looking at her when she had that little revelation.
Unfortunately, even though Angus himself had missed Honor's revelation Nimitz hadn't, his small furry head had whipped round to look at his person and Honor had met his forest green gaze with no small amount of nervousness, nervousness she had never really felt around the cat before.
The furry head moved between her and the object of her thoughts and she felt him, through their link, thinking for lack of a better work. Then Honor felt, once again, Angus Macleod's emotions only this time it wasn't Nimitz sensing someone's feelings he was most likely literally searching through Angus's head, it was just that Honor didn't know exactly how he was doing it.
Her attention was drawn back to Nimitz as he turned to face her, and his emotions bubbled across her own and she identified three specific ones that overruled all the others, firstly there was approval of Angus, and Honor was surprised at how relived she was at discovering that, secondly there was acceptance of the attraction, that for all intents and purposes was mutual. Thirdly however was the amusement that came with the understanding that even though Honor had a decent idea of both her and Angus's feelings she was still nervous about the whole thing.
It was just after desert had been cleared away when Admiral Sarnow turned to Sir Yancey Parks and asked a question, the other Admiral waited for a moment and then resignedly nodded his head, the junior officer then stood up and began speaking in his usual deep voice.
"Ladies and Gentlemen may I have your attention. Now that we have been indulged by the excellent supplies provided by Nike's kitchens I would like to say a few words. Firstly can you put your hands together and as we officially welcome HMS Nike to the Fifth Battle Cruiser Squadron, and to our Task Force here at Hancock Station, welcome Nike."
The assembled officers gave, the slightly embarrassed Honor, who was still smiling, a great round of applause, letting her know that she, and her command, was well and truly welcomed amongst them. Glancing to her left she caught sight of Angus's smile, combined with the slight nod of his head and the emotions provided by Nimitz, Honor felt her flush intensify just a little, and this time it had nothing to do with embarrassment, but a deeper more personal emotion.
But her feelings were put to the back of her mind as the Admiral began to talk again "Ladies and Gentlemen we also have the opportunity to welcome another comrade to our midst, Captain Macleod and the Shadow fresh from service with O.N.I. have decided to do some real Naval work, welcome Captain, and consider yourself read in, report to Commodore Van Slyke by oh nine hundred to receive your tasking orders."
Angus nodded his head to the murmured welcome from the other officers and the polite applause that followed before adding an "Aye aye Admiral."
It was then that Honor noticed that an immaculately dressed man wearing the uniform of a Commander, sitting next to Commodore Van Slyke appeared to take an interest in Angus, weighing him up with a calculating eye, and Honor recognised it as someone who was going to try to curry favour with the person they were looking at. The strange thing was that there was a sense of familiarity about him that Honor could not place, yet at the same time she was sure that she hadn't met him before in her life, and not having the opportunity to talk to him this evening she wasn't even sure what his name was.
Soon after this the dinner began to end, with individual officers reporting back to their vessels, some of them staying longer for a stiff brandy before returning to the harsh reality of Naval duty.
Once she was alone Honor was allowed to fully examine her thoughts, and feelings, for the evening. She was beyond pleased that the dinner had gone so well no tempers had frayed and, thankfully, politics had remained out of the majority of conversation.
Which left her to think about Angus, something that she was doing quite a bit lately, she wasn't sure why but he had easily bypassed the defences that she had put in place after Pavel Young's attempted rape while she had been a Midshipwoman on Saganami Island.
Sighing Honor came to the conclusion that she didn't know what to do in this situation unsealing her mess dress uniform tunic she draped it on the back of the nearest chair and flopped down onto her couch. After some lengthy consideration she came to the final conclusion that she would leave things as they are and let everything progress naturally.
Then from across her emotional link with Nimitz she felt his amusement at her situation "Yes it's all well and good for you to sit there snickering Stinker but we mere mortals don't immediately know whether we are compatible with someone, not being empathic like you 'cats."
Nimitz padded into her field of view, although padded was the wrong word, it was the most aristocratic walk anyone could manage while moving on four legs, it was his way of letting Honor know that yes tree cats were superior to humans.
This lead to only one course of action in Honor's mind, it was the most mature, tactically available and immediately ready offensive that was ready to her, she threw a pillow at the fuzzy devil.
--
Honor accepted friendly handshake in the spirit that it was offered and grinned at the figure of Lieutenant Commander George Trent who had met her in the neatly ordered area of HMS Shadow's docking bay, this was not Honor's first visit to the Star-Knight class Heavy Cruiser, nor was it her tenth, she had been aboard on an off for the last two months after having acquired Angus as a sparring partner, which was the reason that she had her uniform on but her gi in a hanger over her arm.
Honor's beloved Coup de vitesse was not among Angus Macleod's array of skills, although he understood the basics he was no master, he was however a master in another form of martial art that of kali, an extremely brutal form of combat that had been brought from Old Earth when the first of the colony ships had left. Today was an exciting day for Honor, in all their previous sparring sessions they had concentrated on the coup, which pleased Honor no end as she was able to throw around her much larger and densely muscled opponent, but today they were going to match her mastery of coup de vitesse against Angus's mastery of kali.
"Well George where is he? Hiding from getting another pasting?" teased Honor, bringing up the memory of actually having to go and find Angus for their second sparring session, as he had conveniently decided that he was going to assist in Engineering that day, and just happen to forget the meeting time, and to tell anyone where he was. It had nothing to do with the bruises that must have covered him after the first session, although it had taken Honor five minutes to realise that he was actually teasing her a little bit, trying to get a rise out of her, and as such she had gotten her first look at the real Angus Macleod.
"Actually milady he isn't, he's already in the gym warming up I believe. Although I'm not sure the Marines that were seconded into helping him do so are considering it a warm up. I'd recommend going down now and watching it might save you some bruises later, and it's a hell of a good show, if you don't mind me saying."
Honor's interest was raised at what the chirpy Lieutenant Commander said, and so with a polite nod and a motion of her hand, Captain of the List and Lieutenant Commander made their way to the elevator that would take them to the appropriate deck which housed Shadow's gym, and her Captain.
--
Walking through the long corridors of HMS Shadow Honor had a sense of déjà vu in regards to her first visit to the powerful Heavy Cruiser, the memory brought a smile to her face.
Honor had come aboard the Shadow at twelve thirty hours to meet Angus for lunch, and to say that she was a little nervous would be an understatement, this would be the first time that she had been truly out of her comfort zone around the junior Captain, they'd had lunch together several times, but always with at least one other officer present, they had even been joined by Admiral Sarnow, twice. But this would be the first time that Honor had shared a meal with Angus Macleod, and it be only the two of them, it didn't help that Honor was coming to lunch aboard the Shadow combine lunch with her first visit, not a good idea in hindsight, she thought to herself.
She 'swam' aboard Shadow's gravity and came to attention as the immaculately turned out side party came to attention, complete with Marine honour guard, as the twittering of the bosun's pipes met her ears. Her nervousness abated a little bit as Paul's voice came back to her "Don't worry Honor, Angus likes you well enough that he isn't going to shaft or nub you the minute you get to is ship that's not his style. But a little trick that we've picked up, that is me and Mike, when dealing with our dear Captain Macleod, if you have a full side party plus Marines to greet you then you'll be fine, if not he's going to be a right bastard and I'd run if I encountered that."
She saluted the young Lieutenant that had the duty of welcoming her to the ship "Permission to come aboard Lieutenant?"
"Permission granted Ma'am"
Angus had stepped forward to meet her then returning her salute and shook her hand "Welcome aboard Shadow Dame Honor hopefully we'll be able to impress you with her as you impressed me with Nike."
Honor grinned at that and said "If you do that then we'll both be happy Captains, something that both our crews can aspire too" they both had a small chuckle at that, and from there the day had gone very well indeed.
Although not a Captain of the List, and therefore not senior enough to warrant a steward of his own, Angus had a brilliant mess staff, that had turned out a desert that had filled even Honor's prodigious metabolism, but it was the tour that came after word that was the real treat.
Honor had been privileged to see some of the 'improvements' that O.N.I. had added to the Stark-Knight design to make them more deadly, and for once the egg heads in the padded rooms had done their job well.
As Honor examined several of the modifications she whistled lowly, imagining the havoc anyone could wield with this particular arsenal at their disposal. There was 'Pigmented Camouflage': Which was an electrified camouflage that dampened the impeller signature of the vessel it was attached to, allowing it to appear as nothing more than a micron sized distortion on any sensor web. It also had the side effect of changing the colour of the vessel from whit, in the RMN's case, to midnight black, colour change was easy to do, all you had to do was use pigmented paint and an eclectic charge, but why it happened in this case was something else entirely.
The Second modification that caught her eye was something called 'Magnetic Thermonuclear Drive': A drive that had been nicknamed 'The Silent Drive', both as a reference to the actual specs of the drive and out of an almost religious cult following that a popular Old Earth had among techies in the RMN. This drive allowed the use of one hundred percent impeller drive, unfortunately without defensive sidewalls, without appearing on sensor webs.
Some other modifications including the addition of two new missiles to Shadow's armament the Night Hammer, and the Strike Ferret. The Night Hammer was an impeller driven missile that ran at over two hundred percent more power than a regular missile, making it hellishly fast, far faster than any point defence was 'supposed' to be able to track. Unfortunately seeing as they were untested they were only available in limited quantity, mostly onboard O.N.I. ships and former ships like Shadow.
The Strike Ferret however is a personalised 'ship killer' it carries one and a half times the payload of a normal missile, but has the option of having a programmed flight plan laid into the firing solution, or can even be controlled by the ships Tac officer.
All in all Honor thought that Shadow may only be a heavy cruiser, but she could pack on hell of a punch, something that would shock the hell out of any ship unlucky enough to come up against her in combat.
--
Honor entered the now familiar place of Shadow's gym and stopped her eyed widening in surprise as she saw Angus Macleod. But this was Angus Macleod as she had never seen him before, instead of the plain black gi that he usual wore during their sessions, he was wearing a black tank top with loos black combat pants, and he looked gorgeous.
He was kicking men around as though they were soccer balls, throwing in devastating kicks, punches, twists and a variety of strikes that made Honor's head spin, suddenly he held up a hand and they all stood up, some more gingerly than others and bowed to their Captain, and Honor realised that these were the Marines that George had told her about, suddenly the idea of having kali face off against the coup didn't seem like a good idea.
"Ah Dame Honor, ready for our match I see" Angus deep powerful voice cut through her musings like a treecat through a celery patch, he made his way over and she shook his hand, feeling the steely rock hard power in his grip and she felt her pulse quicken and her face flush.
Pulling herself together, and praying that Angus didn't notice, and ignoring Nimitz who was shaking Angus's hand now Honor said "Very impressive Your Grace, but I hope you're not too tired, I'd hate to have an unfair advantage over you."
Angus smiled, and Honor felt her knees weaken slightly, what was wrong with her, "I wouldn't worry Milady, I was just warming up. I hope George hasn't let the cat, sorry Nimitz, out of the bag by spoiling my challenge for you?"
At her raised eyebrow he continued "I propose a wager Dame Honor, should you agree we shall have ourselves a little challenge. If you throw me at least ten times you can ask me one question of any nature and i will answer, even if it is one about my slightly grey O.N.I. past" Honor's eyebrow rose rather here was a rare opportunity to find out more about the elusive Captain.
"But if I knock you down at least ten times, I get to ask you for one boon to be redeemed at any time. Agreed?"
Honor smiled brightly and said "You're on Angus, hope you have your answer ready as I'm not loosing this fight."
Angus just smiled in return and his golden eyes danced like the devil as he said "In your own words Honor Harrington, less talk, and lets be about it."
AN: Thank you to bemeka for reviewing, so far you are the only one please continue to do so as i enjoy feedback. Sorry for the late update though RL has been tough what with Uni, travelling and other commitments it's been hard finding the time to right, any way here is CH2, hope you enjoy. Everyone else please read and review. Cheers TBK
