Author's Notes: I know I said I'd try to reduce the number of letters, in the comments on Ao3. Oh, wait, there's another letter.
Don't worry, the number of letters should drop at least somewhat. Oh, and Shannon turns MacGyver briefly, as a side effect of having to run off again with a treecat.
The next day, Manticorian Orbit
Shannon sits down next to her new flag lieutenant and begins to pull out her new datapad from the bag of stuff she had had thrusted at her by Admiral Tourville just before leaving the spaceport, who had gotten it from someone else, likely last night, before thinking better of it and putting it back. I mean, I do need to get to know this new flag lieutenant I just got gifted, thinks Shannon.
"Miss Owens? I thought I'd talk with you some, to try to get to know you before we get to go run an operation. I presume Honor had someone tell you what I was involved in, before making flag rank." says Shannon.
"Yes, ma'am, she talked with me about it, and then explained about you saving Nimitz, and 'suggested' I take the job. Also, I know there wasn't anything personal, and that you were just following orders when you got involved in Stalking Horse and Dagger. Also, ma'am, did you just get adopted by a treecat?" Abigail replies. Okay, good, thinks Shannon.
"Yes, I did, Miss Owens. I don't really want to do media interviews about it, or about anything, for that matter, because they always end in disaster." Shannon explains.
"Ma'am, you don't have to call me Miss Owens, if you want. You can call me Abigail, you know." Abigail says, to try to make her Admiral more comfortable, as so many Havenites weren't a fan of aristocats. If she's saying this because she thinks I really am a Dolist, and is trying to make me less nervous… I do really need to explain my past at some point, and re-edit my file at some much later point. However, I'm a little too busy now, thinks Shannon.
"Thanks, Abigail." Shannon replies. Her treecat climbs down from her shoulder, and tries to sign to her. Oh, great, I didn't even think about this. I got us both skinsuits, and some celery for her, but that's as much prep as I got done. I don't even have a name for her, thinks Shannon.
"I'm sorry, I don't know treecat sign language, kitty." Shannon says, sounding apologetic. It would have been nice to have had a week to get used to getting adopted before leaving for home, thinks Shannon. Shannon looks at Abigail, mentally asking with her look "Do you know treecat sign language?". Abigail shakes her head, her long blonde hair swaying.
"I'm sorry, kitty. I only know a few signs." Abigail replies.
"Luckly, I'm good with tech. Can you hold a pencil, kitty?" Shannon grabs one from her bag, and the treecat holds it.
"Oh, good. I think I can code a datapad interface pretty fast, with a digital keyboard, and text-to-speech for you, kitty." Shannon says, sounding more relieved. The pinnace lands in the RMN SD's boat bay, and Shannon, treecat back on her shoulder, gets out and swims the tube to the honor guard welcoming her aboard, and is quickly followed by her flag lieutenant, with her armsman. Thankfully, nobody has shoved a microphone in my face yet, thinks Shannon.
"Permission to come aboard, ma'am?" she asks the officer of the deck, a young dark-skinned woman in Manticorian uniform.
"Permission granted ma'am." the woman replies.
"Thank you, Ashley." Shannon replies.
The SD(P)'s captain, a tall man, says, "Welcome aboard, ma'am. Would you like to see the flag bridge first, or your quarters first?"
"I think I'll go with the flag bridge first, thank you very much." she replies.
He leads the way, as Shannon, Rear Admiral Bellefeuille, her flag lieutenant, and my flag lieutenant follow. Our eyes sweep over the sensors, and displays, and at least Admiral Bellefeuille and I try to mentally compare them to our hardware, as well as captured hardware.
"Here's the tac console, ma'am." the captain points out while looking at Shannon. She looks over the tac officer's shoulder, trying not to scare the commander by watching him. He starts pretending to be a lot busier than he was earlier, likely to try avoiding any questions from Shannon, as she's a flag officer that, for being a Havenite, is known to be very good. She decides to let him know that, as a former experienced tac officer, she knows his game, and can play it too.
"Oh, hello there, Ken." I say. He looks startled at her comment.
"I just need to take a quick peek at some stuff, being a former tac officer…" She can feel the tech nerd side of herself turning on, where she zones out somewhat, and gets her hands deep into the hardware and settings. He gets up, and she lets her fingers fly over the console, and scroll though some menus, speed-reading them, though not editing anything.
Rear Admiral Bellefeuille, having known about my tech nerd side, hints to her, "Um, ma'am…" I sadly get up, and let the commander have his console back.
Shannon heads to her flag quarters and asks her treecat, "Just nod for yes, but, kitty, are you able to read?" The treecat's head nods.
Shannon continues, "And do you know how humans communicate via typing?" The treecat's head nods again. Oh, good. This will work great, Shannon thinks.
Shannon calls Abigail on her wristcom, which she somehow hasn't managed to lose yet, "Abigail, can you find me an extra datapad, and one of those ballpoint pens with the rubber tip? I think I can make a device to help the treecat communicate with us beyond yes/no answers.."
Abigail quickly returns with the datapad and pen, and Shannon thanks her. Shannon removes the ink tube and spring from the pen, and quickly codes up a digital keyboard with an attempt at text to speech.
"I'll show you how to use this, then you can give it a try." The treecat looks eager and excited, and she gets off Shannon's shoulder and onto the table by Shannon's arms, as Shannon demonstrates how to use the DIYed stylus on the keyboard, before handing it to her treecat. The treecat slowly types, before pressing the text-to-speech play button, "Thank you, Walks Through Mountains. I am called Keen Huntress by my people. What is my human name? Have you decided yet?"
"I haven't figured out one yet. Can I call you kitty for now? I promise I'll try to figure out a name for you." Shannon asks.
15 minutes of database searching later…
"May I call you Diana? She, according to the database, was a goddess of the hunt and of the moon." Keen Huntress nods.
"Hello, Diana." Shannon says.
Just over one full day later, with two flag officers and one treecat watching from the bridge, the mixed elements of her new fleet transit the Junction for Trevor's Star. They've just started work on an ops plan to defend the Elvana system against up to 250 SLN SDs. Trevor's Star Control routes the fleet on a least-time path to the hyper limit, and they, from there, transit up into hyper.
Just over a week and a half after they transit the Junction, Jennifer and Shannon watch as they come over the alpha wall back into n-space near Shannon's home system. Their ops plan has been finished, and tested by having both of then, and Abigail, and several other people who are known to be good at tactics, play the SLN Fleet CO, and try to take Elvana, by using a worst-case fleet of 250 Vega-class SDs, plus twice the book's amount of screening units, with every upgrade both Navies know of, plus 50%. Nobody can do it, though Shannon got closest when she was playing the SLN CO. Abigail did very well for her rank, but as a junior officer, she just doesn't have the experience quite yet to handle the whole fleet. However, she picked it up pretty quick for being so young, with a few tips from both Jennifer and Shannon.
Shannon stands over the tac officer's shoulder, after the com officer replies to the FTL challenge, watching for the morse-code styled pulses off the alpha wall on the sensor display, which were the bases of FTL communication. As the pulses get picked up by her flagship's gravitics sensors, she mentally keeps track of the message, which appears to be clear text, catching "Message beg–", the formal message starter, unlike the battle code, for a minute, before something else catches her blue eyes at the tac console, and she gets distracted. She notices Home Fleet's SD(P) and dozens of smaller units, mostly destroyers and light cruisers, moving into position. I haven't seen that formation in too many years. That's the Coronation Day Fleet Review formation… But we're where the royal yacht is… , she thinks for a moment, not daring to say a word, despite knowing that not everyone will catch it otherwise.
The com officer breaks the silence, "Message begins, milady." Shannon looks surprised. How did he know about my past?, she thinks. He continues, "From Home Fleet and the Royal Family: To Her Royal Highness, Grand Duchess of Elvana, Shannon Foraker, welcome home. We've missed you." Shannon can see everybody looking confused about her title, and even Mrs. Bellefeuille looks at her funny. The globe of SDF ships activates their impeller wedges as one, and holds formation on her new fleet, as it accelerates into Elvana orbit.
"Um, I didn't think my people were going to make this big of a fuss over it, but given that when I showed up last time, just after the war restarted, I told them to not go too overboard, and I still ended up with a massive reception committee that I didn't ask for at all, I guess I underestimated things somewhat. It's all true, don't worry." she attempts to explain. The hardest hit individuals appear to be the RMN officers, as they hadn't really gotten to know her well, and combined with the Manticorian respect for aristocats, it had surprised them more than Jennifer, who'd known about Shannon's talents for getting into things.
People still are a little shocked, before Shannon explains some more, "I was trying to not go public because, well, I'm not known to do great at these nasty things called press interviews, and a few other personal reasons, but I guess it's too late for that."
"Another message just came in, milady, It's from Home Fleet's current 2nd in command, like the first one. Message begins. To: Her Royal Highness, Grand Duchess of Elvana, Shannon Foraker. Yours is the honor, milady. Message ends, milady." Shannon remembers all those secret miladys in private instead of ma'ams, from when she was a very junior SDF officer, poised to have a stunning career, until she was stolen by the PRH, and dragged into what had felt like every one of the People's Republic of Haven's disasters, and smiles. Yours truly is the honor to protect this system, she lets herself think for a second.
Several hours later…
"Does everyone understand the ops plan?" Shannon asks, wearing her SDF uniform, with its Fleet Admiral insignia.
"Ma'am, when are we supposed to activate each type of missile, and how will your Dragonfly project tie into Moriarty?" a SDF Commodore, who, if Shannon remembers right, is going to be in charge of the SDs holding the Moriarty system.
"Dragonfly doesn't have the range to hit the SDs from as far out as the system defense pods do, and the normal podlayer MDMs are in the middle, but closer to the system defense missiles than the Dragonfly system. We'll launch the system defense pods first, then, when they get closer, the main salvos of pods laid from our podlayers, then the Dragonfly missiles. However, the gifted RMN pods with missiles will not work with the Moriarty system, but they'll launch with the system defense pods and through the whole time. Dragonfly will send and receive data from Moriarty, and that's where the LAC relay comes in. We can transmit to the missile easily, but getting the data back is the issue. The missiles will transmit to the modified LACs, the Cygnus-class ones, via com laser, and the Cygnus's FTL coms will send the data back to the sensors on the Moriarty SDs, which are called the Diamond-class." Shannon explains.
"Thank you, ma'am." the Commodore replies.
"Any more questions?" Shannon asks. Let's hope this first battle as a Fleet Admiral doesn't go too badly, as we're outnumbered in numbers, presuming we just count the SD(P)s, as the CLACs and screen have no business engaging SDs, if I can help it, roughly 4.5 to 1, she thinks for a second, before pushing it away mentally. Nobody raises their hands. Guess I must have done an okay job briefing everyone, she thinks, as a more positive counterpart to her earlier thoughts.
Shannon, sitting in her Fleet Admiral office, in her SDF uniform, her treecat on her lap, dictates softly, in her slightly accented soprano, to her datapad the new orders for the sensor crews, "When something with mil-spec impellers comes over the alpha wall, I want to hear about it. It's almost certainly either the SLN, or if not, then it's reinforcements from the RMN or RHN. In either case, I need to know immediately." She proofreads it, to catch any little typos, and sends it, before realizing that she needs to go get lunch, and presses the button on her desk to alert her SDF steward.
"I finally finished with my paperwork, Charlotte." she says. Even in the few hours she'd known Charlotte, she'd discovered the steward's skills at making sure her CO actually ate lunch without having to read Charlotte's file. It's not like I couldn't use a local steward who helped make sure I actually ate. God knows I've forgotten to eat because I'm busy too many times, and she cooks at least as well as my steward back at Bolthole, which is impressive, Shannon muses.
"Do you want your lunch now, milady?" Charlotte asks. It's taking me a bit to get used to the miladys, after not hearing them for so long, but I'm sure I'll get used to them, Shannon thinks.
"That sounds great, Charlotte." Shannon replies. Charlotte disappears for a minute, and returns with some seafood chowder and soda bread, which smelled just like it did when she was a kid, as well as some water. Charlotte neatens up her charge's desk, removing the snack bar wrappers that she had turned a disapproving eye to, as well as the rest of the trash that builds up when Shannon gets busy in a location for very long. Shannon digs into her lunch, while using a screen reader to read her non-critical reports on her earbuds, while eating, to speed up the process of getting back up to date, when her datapad buzzs with a new urgent email from her family. She pauses her screen reader, and stops eating her lunch, and pulls out her datapad again and reads it.
From: Her Majesty, Queen Cadhla Foraker
You are officially invited, in my name, to a party to celebrate the Grand Alliance, tonight at the Cainhorn Palace, at 5 pm.
If you forgot/didn't realize you would need formal outfits, military personnel have a few options.
First, if you're one of my nieces, just show up 45 minutes early, and we'll check your closets (that includes you, Shannon, even though you've been away for so long, don't worry), and we'll figure out something gorgeous together.
Second, if you're a female of noble or royal birth, you have the option to wear a tiara, regardless of marital status. Our traditions are apparently more inclusive on who can wear a tiara, compared to other worlds traditions, so we wanted to let you know. If you don't have one, that's fine as well.
Third, if you can't find a suitable formal outfit at the shops downtown, military personnel can wear a formal uniform, with beret, or tiara (if appropriate).
In the name of the Royal Family, we hope to see you there.
This is classic Auntie Kay. Mentioning what she wants me and Eimear and Orla to do in the mass email invite. Luckly, I've learned not to blush as bad as I used to when embarrassing events happened, Shannon thinks, before getting back to her lunch.
When evening falls, and Shannon is reminded by her flag lieutenant about the time, she puts her work down, and gets in the SDF aircar, with her flag lieutenant, Abigail's armsman, and her treecat, and has the driver take them to Cainhorn Palace's living quarters.
She gets out with Abigail, Mateo, and her treecat, and says, "Abigail, as according to the RMN, RHN, and Elvanian Foreign Offices, somehow, we're both princesses, which means you should put something in your hair, according to our traditions. Want to just borrow something from me?"
"Are you sure it won't give any bad impressions, or anything like that, ma'am?" I hope the press won't start guessing we're dating if I do that…, Abigail thinks.
"No, it won't. Nobles and above should wear at least a flower, according to our traditions, and I have just the piece that I think you'd like."
"Sure, if it's not too much to ask, ma'am." Abigail replies. As she says that, she thinks, Nothing in my 'Flag Lieutenant 101' briefing covered anything remotely like this. What do I do? Nothing in my Grayson Steadholder's Daughter classes covered this either.
"It's fine, Abigail. You're one of my staff officers, and a princess, so it'll be fine. I have a set of blue sapphire clips that look like vines, that would go great with your uniform, and I can help you get them in your hair. I'm going to be wearing a tiara tonight, and I have a lot of pieces to choose from, so it's fine." Shannon replies.
"Thank you, ma'am." Abigail says.
"You're welcome. You've been a great flag lieutenant so far. Just follow me." Shannon replies, as the two walk into the Palace, past the formally uniformed Royal Guards that are always on duty.
Shannon's Aunt is waiting inside, already dressed in a pastel purple dress, with a tiara. The tiara has purple stones set in some silvery colored metal, with small diamonds set in the metal frame.
"Shannon! We missed you!" Shannon's aunt exclaims, as she bear-hugs her niece, before whispering, "Is that a treecat on your shoulder?"
"Yes, it is. I basically got adopted by her, while trying to get a bodyguard for the Mesan nanotech, so we have this weird mental bond between us. I'm still getting used to the bond and her. She's attending the party, though, not on my shoulder, as it'd wreck my dresses, unless we put something in the shoulder, to protect it from her claws. Her name's Diana, as Diana was a goddess of the hunt, you know." Shannon explains.
"Who are these two?" Shannon's aunt asks.
"She's Abigail Hearns, Miss Owens. She's my new temporary flag lieutenant, and stands a good chance of ending up on my staff as an ops officer, once she's gotten another promotion. She's a princess of Grayson, according to the RMN, RHN, and Elvanian Foreign Offices, as a Steadholder's daughter. He's her bodyguard." Shannon explains, before turning to her flag lieutenant, and saying, "Here, Miss Owens, meet my Aunt, Queen Cadhla Foraker."
Abigail says, sounding a little shy, "It's nice to meet you, Your Majesty."
"It's nice to meet you, too, Miss Owens. I'm glad you're here."
"So, I told her, she could borrow the sapphire vine barrettes for her hair from my collection, so can I go grab those, before we get started making me look royal for the party?" Shannon asks.
"Sure, just be quick. Oh, and I forgot to tell you, but your mom and dad are on Aria, doing a visit, and can't make it tonight, because they didn't know you were coming. Orla's home, though."
"Thanks for telling me." Shannon replies, happy to hear an update, before she walks off, walking through the halls of the palace where she grew up, where she'd learned to walk, where she'd worn her aunt's jewels for dress up play, and so much more. She still remembers the way to her room, which is lit with the warm golden light of the sunset streaming through her window, with the room's walk-in closet and jewelry collection, and walks quickly there, before going to her jewelry collection, and finding the barrettes in their small velvet box, and walking back.
"Here's the barrettes, Abigail. Just give them back tomorrow, you don't need to hand them back at midnight tonight." she says, as she hands the box to Abigail, who puts them in her hair. Shannon gives her a thumb up and nods to show that she got them in right.
"Thank you, ma'am."
"You're welcome."
"Now, time to get you looking like the princess you are." the Queen says.
"So, can I do the red dress with cape, with the ruby tiara, necklace, and bracelet set that you gave me when I turned 13? This keeps me color coordinated, which I want to say, I remember being important." Shannon asks, as she goes through her closet with her aunt.
"Yes, and I'll help you with your makeup, because we're rushed." her aunt replies. Her aunt, the Queen, had helped teach her this type of stuff instead of her mom, HRH, The Princess Royal, Gracelyn Foraker, because while there were many things Gracelyn was good at, teaching this type of formal stuff wasn't her mom's strongest area.
"Thank you, Auntie." Shannon replies, sounding relieved, because, like her mom, makeup wasn't her strongest area either.
"No problem."
Shannon comes out of the bedroom with her dress, cape, heels and jewelry on, and holds still for her aunt to do her makeup, and walks into the wooden-floored grand ballroom, which is set up like it was last time she was home.
Rear Admiral Bellefeuille, who's wearing her uniform, smiles and says, "Ma'am, you look great! I never would have guessed you were a royal before earlier today, and you're doing great.", and attempts to do a shallow curtsy to Shannon.
Shannon slips into princess mode and says while smiling her 'royal smile', "Thank you, Mrs. Bellefeuille. Your hair looks nice."
A few minutes later, Orla walks out in her favorite green dress, with an emerald tiara, with Eimear, who's wearing a blue outfit, with sapphire jewelry, including a tiara. Mrs. Bellefeuille looks a little confused at Eimear wearing a tiara.
"You two look great! Ready for being royals at a ball, Eimear? Orla?" Shannon asks, trying to pull another surprise on Mrs. Bellefeuille. They nod at Shannon.
"Oh, I see. Eimear took the advice I gave her under the PRH, and didn't tell anyone about her past. For clarification, these are my cousins. Eimear is the Duchess of Selenice, and Orla's the Duchess of Rublik of the Tirana System. The Queen's our aunt." Shannon says, trying to explain things.
Mrs. Bellefeuille takes a second to process the info and fails to hide the temporarily confused look that people seem to give the cousins when they find out about their pasts, before saying hesitantly, "Um… hello, Lady Eimear and Lady Orla.", and attempts to curtsy to the two of them.
"Hello, Mrs. Bellefeuille." Eimear says with a smile, but sounding like many junior officers ended up sounding like when they had to talk to a flag officer. Shannon notices that Eimear has clasped both hands on her clutch tightly, to remind herself that she doesn't need to salute her CO, as this is a civilian event.
"It's nice to meet you, Mrs. Bellefeuille." Then, Shannon sees that the appetizers have arrived and walks gracefully with her cousins over towards them. Tonight seems to be going well, given everything, Shannon lets herself think, while delicately nibbling on a stuffed mushroom.
Notes:
Queen Cadhla is wearing the light purple gown from Frozen 2. I posted some fanart for Shannon and Cadhla on Ao3, go check it out. So far, I've just posted the grayscale art, before I add color, but I hope to add color and post that version at some point, when I have time. You might not get another chapter for a while, because I have a real life event that will fill up a lot of time for the next two weeks starting Monday, and I don't have any more prewritten chapters.