This chapter is the reveal chapter. People find out a lot of stuff, not all of it good (though some of it is).
I had a hard time with writer's block on the surrender scene. It's supposed to be the epic climax to a bunch of chapters, but it's a hard scene for me to write.
If Abigail is OOC, I haven't read all the books, and don't really want to reread all of them before releasing this chapter, despite the fact that I read very fast.
Shannon says to her com officer, "Thank you, Aspen. Put me, Admiral Bellefeuille, and Captain Thorme on." Captain Thorme walks over to stand next to Shannon. The bridge holo display displays the three screens, using the RMN video conferencing software that was normally used for big meetings that someone didn't want to do in a conference room. Shannon checks her appearance nervously, and tries to just stay calm and confident, without any unnecessary flashbacks.
They nod, and Shannon watches as they get the screen set up quickly. Diana is on her shoulder, with one paw protectively on her neck, like she's protecting her.
"Good job, ma– milady." Admiral Bellefeuille says. Shannon smiles, and nods at her.
A clearly Solarian female voice replies, surprisingly not sounding like the arrogant Admiral Belmont, but instead sounding much more reasonable, "Hello, I'm Admiral Iolanthe Markellyn." While she looks a little nervous, Shannon suspects it's due to the shock of how bad her Solarian SDs are, compared to Shannon's fleet, as the old Scientist-class ships didn't even come close to what Shannon had developed for the second war, out at Bolthole, despite the recon drones reporting that at least half of them had laser point defense, compared to the average one in three.
"Hello there, Admiral Markellyn. I'm Fleet Admiral Shannon Foraker of the Elvanian System Defense Force." Admiral Markellyn still looks shocked at the fast response, with the FTL Hermes buoy. Then again, I was surprised too, when I first saw the Hermes buoy's bandwidth, and I was at least used to FTL tech existing, and the Manties always having better FTL tech then we ever did, Shannon thinks.
"I'm Captain Roger Thorme, Royal Manticorian Navy." Roger introduces himself, like the flag officers and their staffs had practiced before the battle.
Admiral Bellefeuille introduces herself, "I'm Rear Admiral Jennifer Bellefeuille, of the Republican Navy."
"We'll be sending boarding parties shortly, to take control of your fleet. My personnel have been instructed to exercise restraint if easily possible, but they've also been instructed to remember that their own security and the discharge of their orders takes precedence over all other considerations." Shannon says.
Captain Thorme says, "I hope no one on either side will cause any avoidable incidents, but I'm going to remind you formally, for the record, that under the Deneb Accords, the legal responsibility to avoid such incidents by prompt compliance with her instructions and those of her designated prize crews rests with your personnel, as the ones who have been permitted to surrender. Also, starting now, any database cores that have not been dumped will be left intact, or else the Fleet Admiral might just space you herself." While she appreciates him telling the SLN fleet to not dump their data cores, as she had wanted someone else to, she would have also appreciated him painting someone else as the boogeyman. Like maybe Admiral Bellefeuille. Or Fleet Admiral Harrington, who we know is showing up in a few days, Shannon thinks.
"We want the schematics of all the classes you brought with you, for search and rescue." Shannon says. Admiral Markellyn nods, and signals an officer in the background, in what appears to be a flag officer's skinsuit, to send the files to Admiral Foraker.
He appears to be scrolling through some files, and sending them at the com officer's console. Does that mean the com officer is a flag officer? Even Admiral Tourville's com officer, when we went to go hit Manticore, was a Lieutenant, though she might just be making Lieutenant Commander soon and sticking with him, if the grapevine is correct. I knew the rank inflation was bad, but at absolute StateSec worst, I thought it would be a very junior full Captain, as com officer, maybe a senior Commodore as the ops officer, not a flag officer in every low-level staff post. It's not a crazy major fleet, especially for Battle Fleet, Shannon thinks.
"Also, things are going to be a little rough for a while. We didn't completely anticipate how many SLN ships would be arriving at Elvana, you know." Shannon lies, trying to both spread fake intel to the SLN POWs and, more truthfully, warn them that the Grand Alliance wasn't completely prepared for this many POWs, at least not here. Their performance against the Moriarty system would have made our podlayers look good against the Manties, at least pre-Apollo, Shannon thinks.
He gets up from his seat, and nods at the screen, before turning to Admiral Markellyn and telling her. "We sent the files to the suspected flagship, ma'am." Admiral Markellyn nods in understanding.
Several minutes later (because the SLN com officer sent the files to the SD(P)s and not the Hermes buoy, and selected the wrong ship, at that), Shannon receives the files, and inspects them, before forwarding them to Eimear with a message, asking her to personally take the SLN flagship's formal surrender.
Shannon mutes the mike on her end, and turns on the wallpaper, before saying to her security team leader, a Lieutenant Colonel Sean Murphy, "Sean, I'm pretty safe here. Please pick some of your best people to protect my cousin, as she's going to take Admiral Markellyn's surrender, as Eimear's got a smaller security team."
He winces, as it's hard enough to keep Shannon protected, because she hasn't had to work with a security team, beyond a single (or maybe two) mostly ceremonial Marine sentry on occasion, since she was stolen by the PRH (except sometimes on her infrequent trips home), in 1900, as a Lieutenant in the SDF. I guess Her Grand Grace's argument makes sense, he thinks, Of course, if you give an inch, they take a mile, so I have to make sure she has some bodyguards, and doesn't go then put herself in the middle of the danger as a naval officer, as I could see her doing it.
"As your security team leader, I can't have you completely unprotected. Would it work for you if Major Madigan and his team stuck with you? Of course, you'd have to stay on Victory, because, as your security team lead, I take my duties seriously." Lieutenant Colonel Murphy replies, remembering to give Captain Madigan the courtesy promotion that had been traditional for a long time, because there were too many issues with having more than one captain on a naval ship.
Shannon quickly considers the response and nods, "Alright, just keep my cousin safe."
"I'll do my best, milady." he replies, saluting her.
As Eimear waits in the shuttle bay of RHNS Valkyrie, wearing her ESDF Commodore dress uniform on under her skinsuit, on request from her cousin, but with her RHN ribbons and medals from both wars, with her XO, Commander Kellen Rocheford, there to see her off, her XO says, "Safe stars, ma'am, and be careful."
"Thank you, Kellen. Good luck handling everything on-ship while I'm busy." she jokes at him.
"Thank you, ma'am. Just between us two, you know, you look good as a flag officer, you know, ma'am." he replies.
"You don't need to flatter me, Kellen." she says.
"It's true, ma'am."
"Really? Then, thanks again, Kellen." she says, smiling, just as the pinnace lands in the boat bay, before she walks on.
Eimear had known there was a lot of rank inflation in the SLN's Battle Fleet. When we threw over 300 SD(P)s at Manticore, we sent three senior flag officers, and could have gotten away with two, if Admiral Tourville didn't feel the need to grab Shannon (and she didn't feel the need to come along). When the SLN sends 200, they have how many?
She mentally calculates that, If the staff com officer is a flag officer, then the chief of staff has got to be, and then, if Admiral Hen– Gold Peak's reports from Spindle are remotely like what we're dealing with here, that means they have at least 6 staff officers, all at least a Commodore, for a force only around 60% of the size and not dealing with the donkey pods.
And they didn't even have missile pods.
Then, the voice of her cousin's senior bodyguard breaks her out of her thoughts, "Our ETA's five minutes, milady."
"Thank you, Sean. Do you want to go over our plan one more time?" she asks, mostly just to ease her nervousness at being in charge of this, despite the fact that they'd both been briefed on it. I heard that at Spindle, the senior RMN officer on the flag bridge, who accepted the SLN surrender for Admiral Gold Peak was a Lieutenant. Why am I having issues, as I'm an experienced Captain in even the RHN (let alone making flag rank in my kingdom's SDF), who's the flag captain to Admiral Bellefeuille herself?, she thinks.
"We, along with some of the Marines, using the SAR schematic, head to the flag bridge and accept the formal surrender of Admiral Markellyn, and her staff, milady. You pass me their swords, we head back to the pinnace with the swords, and some of the Marines guard the prisoners, as everyone else does SAR, or plays backup for us two. Then we wait in the pinnace, because while we are a little short on warm bodies to help with SAR, I'm not risking you getting hurt or killed by some stupid Sollie." Sean says.
"Who suggested the 'and we wait in the pinnace' part, by chance?" Eimear jokes, trying to hide her nerves.
"My idea, to keep you safe, and it was cleared by Her Grand Grace personally, so you can't just order me to let me let you override things. Plus, I don't want to be the guy who gets punished because your aunt was mad that I let you get hurt." Sean replies.
"Okay, I understand." She checks her many-functioned watch, a gift from Shannon when Eimear had made Captain in the SDF. While she couldn't have worn it in the People's Navy without putting her life at serious risk, due to it not fitting with her Dolist cover story, she had swapped her slightly above Dolist quality watch for it with the fall of the PRH, and hadn't looked back. I guess our ETA is probably two minutes now?, she thinks, as she watches out the window.
As the pinnace touches down in the boat bay in the best shape on SLNS Lise Meitner, Eimear and Sean look at everyone, and wait to crack the hatch until they've received confirmation from everybody that they are ready. Everyone nods, and the pilot cracks the hatch, and Eimear exits first, very closely followed by her new chief bodyguard, on loan from Shannon. They don't see any SLN officers in the boat bay, and the whole "getting people ready for the next steps" section of their checklist goes smoothly, to everyone's delight.
Eimear would normally go first around things like corners and through doors, as the senior officer, but she accepts letting Sean go first most of the time on this mission, as she doesn't really want to die, though he understands that he is to stand to the side and slightly behind her on the flag bridge. They make their way to the nearest turbolift silently, with Eimear and her security team (with the extra personnel from her cousin's detail) taking the lift, while the rest of the Marines, not only from their pinnace, but from the other one as well, that are heading up the lift shafts follow the cars up the shaft in their armor.
Sean gestures Eimear into the empty turbolift car, after it arrives, before following her in, as she checks her datapad for which deck has the flag bridge on it. Well, they did at least one rational thing by putting the flag deck on Deck 00, or our (and the RMN's) Axial One. Not that they did many others, though, Eimear thinks.
As the doors open on Deck 00, Sean steps out, followed by Eimear, and the rest of her bodyguards, and Sean and Eimear turn to the lieutenant waiting by the lift doors. The Sollie lieutenant appears to be on the older side for her rank, and she looks nervous in her dress uniform. Could be shock, could be danger, Sean figures, Hopefully, it's the former. At least, for now, it looks like it. The lieutenant salutes the pair of them, and Sean lets Eimear introduce herself. She says, "I'm Commodore Eimear Foraker, Elvanian System Defense Force, Duchess of Selenice."
"Lieutenant Colonel Sean Murphy, Elvanian Marines." he introduces himself.
"I'm Lieutenant Gwen Wakeman, ma'am. I'm Admiral Markellyn's flag lieutenant. She sent me to meet you." she says, as she salutes them, before she escorts them to the flag bridge. Sean is confirming that the route she's showing them matches up with the SAR schematics.
"And we take a left here." Gwen says, in case they weren't following her or looking at their schematics. No one else dares to say anything.
They wait outside the door to the flag bridge, as she slowly pulls out her com as everyone watches her, the Marines ready to stop her if she tries anything. She selects her CO, and hits the call button, and Admiral Markellyn answers immediately.
"Gwen?" Admiral Markellyn asks.
"You ready, ma'am?" she asks.
Her admiral's only reply is a nod, as she puts the com back in her pocket, though she knows what her admiral wants to say. Unlike many Admirals in Battle Fleet, Iolanthe Markellyn doesn't and has never used the behaviors of Admirals like Crandall and the others like her as good examples, and has been known as a good Admiral to serve under by quite a few people who served under her, despite many superiors not necessarily agreeing (and giving her their workload, so they could go on vacation for at least 6 to 8 months every T-year), and even assigning her to this mission to "teach her a lesson". Gwen knows that her Admiral wants to say something positive to her, but she can't say it, knowing that the Manties are listening.
The door opens, and the group walks in.
Eimear's memorized checklist says that she should introduce herself first, then let her chief bodyguard introduce himself, if he wants, then have the Sollies introduce themselves. The Sollies appear to have all changed from their skinsuits to their dress uniforms, complete with dress swords, like Eimear's checklist was written for.
"I'm Commodore Eimear Foraker of the Elvanian System Defense Force, and I'm Fleet Admiral Foraker's cousin." she says.
Sean declines to introduce himself, instead keeping an eye on any threats to Eimear, so Eimear prompts the Sollies, "And you all are?"
"Admiral Iolanthe Markellyn."
"Vice Admiral Selene Tower, her chief of staff."
"Rear Admiral Freya Forgrave, her ops officer."
"Rear Admiral Odin Holbach, her intel officer."
"Rear Admiral Helena Grippen, her astronavigation officer."
"Rear Admiral Liam Paulsen, her logistics officer."
"Commodore Yves Sharpey, her com officer."
Sean discreetly adds those names and positions to his file of notes, for Shannon.
After Sean looks at Admiral Markellyn, she unclips her dress sword and carefully passes it to Eimear, who accepts it and passes it to Sean. The rest of her staff follow her example, and Sean then passes the swords to a more junior Marine, to make it easier to protect Eimear.
Eimear pulls out her com, and sets it to transmit to the nearest Hermes buoy, and manages to connect with Shannon, on HMS Victory.
"Ma'am, I thought I'd show you the flag bridge on the SLN flagship." She sets her com to wide pickup and 360 degree views and her cousin smiles and nods at the success.
"Good job, Eimear. Thank you." Shannon says.
Once Eimear gets back to RHNS Valkyrie, she makes sure to arrange to have the swords sent to the Elvanian SDF headquarters at Victory Tower, so Shannon can sort out where the loot will go.
Meanwhile, Shannon is writing up the official reports, with Abigail watching over her shoulder, so she can learn how to write RHN reports.
"So, Abigail, because you seem to have gotten the hang of the basic mission report format, how would you feel about learning a technique I used to salvage my career many times under the People's Republic? I was taught it as a junior officer, and you should learn it, especially if you're going to be a long-term loaner to us." Shannon asks.
"Sure, ma'am." Abigail replies. Oh, good. It'll be nice to have someone who can "creatively edit" reports as needed, without being caught. And if we need to forge sensor data for the SLN now, to use like the RMN did at Spindle…
No, if she hasn't gotten any training on this type of stuff before now, she'll be too clumsy at doing the forging of tac data. She wasn't forged in the types of fires you were, for learning forging, and it's good that she wasn't, but that means she may need some extra training, Shannon thinks.
Shannon's next question is straight to the point, so she can plot out where Abigail is "How much experience do you have in doing 'creative editing' of reports?"
Abigail looks innocent and confused, "None, ma'am. Why are you asking? You know you aren't supposed to do that, ma'am."
Shannon looks almost as confused as her flag lieutenant was a second ago, as she asks, "You mean you didn't pick it up at the Academy? I picked it up myself, as a middie, in the SDF here. We were sent to deal with a resistance movement against the puppet government of Elvana, put in power by the Legislaturalists, who didn't like the Elvanian monarchy, for various political reasons. Then, I had to do it against StateSec a lot, especially after I got involved in some incidents that ended rather badly. If done right, the report can be believable, even when it bears only a vague resemblance to the truth."
"What? You mean you did it regularly, ma'am?"
"Oh, yes. How about you try an easy exercise I used to use as a junior officer, then. Set yourself up a destroyer sim, where you're in command of a destroyer division, against a single SLN destroyer. The point of this sim is not to see if you can beat the sim, it's to practice writing the reports afterwards. You need to keep the outcome the same, but rewrite things like the order you fired weapons, and when the SLN ship fired, and even the transponder codes for the SLN ship. Then, when you're done, give me the recording, and your rewritten report, and I'll try my best to pick it apart, before watching the recording."
"Yes,ma'am." Abigail replies, not sounding convinced.
Two days later…
A mixed group of RMN and Grayson and RHN ships drop out of hyperspace just outside the 12 minute limit of the Elvana system, on a least time course from Trevor's Star, and respond to the automated challenge correctly, before they are hailed by the SDF.'s using HMS Victory's Hermes buoy setup, which is rigged back to Shannon's Fleet Admiral office, in Elvana's capital.
"Hello there, this is Imperator. May we speak to Vice Admiral Shannon Foraker, please?" Captain Rafe Cardones asks, guessing, on orders from Honor, that Shannon wouldn't have been too much more senior in the ESDF than the RHN.
"I presume you mean our Grand Duchess of Elvana. Her Grand Grace is the Elvanian System Defense Force's Fleet Admiral. I'm Commodore Eimear Foraker," she realizes she should add her title at least as an afterthought, before explaining the rest of the situation, "I'm the Duchess of Selenice, though I haven't used my title in years, so you don't have to use my title when we're not at anything formal. I'm Shannon's cousin, and I'm helping her with her paperwork that was created by the SLN invasion. She has barely slept in the 3 days since the SLN fleet's surrender, until her mom, who's the Kingdom of Elvana's Princess Royal, and our aunt, who's the Queen, got her to go get some sleep by threatening to order her to do so, 3 hours ago. I'll wake her up if your CO wants, but may I just take a message for when she wakes up?" Eimear says this in her Elvanian accent, letting that received pronunciation show, unlike under the PN, where she and Shannon had both hid it under a faked Dolist accent to try to stay alive, and understanding her cousin's lack of explanation.
Honor steps into the pickup and looks confused, "You don't have to wake her up, but Shannon's a grand duchess? Her, I mean, you two's aunt's the Queen?"
Eimear nods, before explaining, "She's the worst at explaining it, because when she was stolen, SDF Intel had to create her a cover identity as a Dolist, to keep her safe, and while she's loosened up on revealing the details of her true past, she doesn't talk about it much, milady. I don't think she told anyone in the People's Navy until she told Admiral Tourville at one point…" Eimear trails off, with the bad memories and stories that came back, of her cousin's stories of the bastards that were most of StateSec and all of PubIn, and of her own bad experiences with the former.
It's silent for a second, as everyone processes what Eimear told them, and Eimear deals with her trauma. Mike looks equally confused, but Sonja explains, "The night Shannon found out Elvana was going to be invaded, she spilled the whole story to me, ma'am. She also said she didn't want to go super public on this, because of her disasters with the media. I felt that not going public on it would be the best way to not betray Shannon's trust in me on this." While nobody glares at Sonja, Honor and Mike would have liked a little more notice. Honor understands why Shannon might not have wanted to trust her with her past, but she hopes she can earn Shannon's trust to get some advance warning if anything else turns out like this.
"And you are, milady?" Eimear asks, looking at Sonja.
"Oh, sorry, I'm Admiral Sonja Hemphill, Baroness Low Dehli, though I don't really use the title, so you can skip the miladys. I run the RMN's R&D, and am working closely with Shannon." Sonja says.
"It's nice to actually meet you, ma'am. Shannon mentioned you to me, and I was the one that passed on Admiral Trenis's message, with the added message from Queen Cadhla, letting her know that Elvana had a SLN fleet headed at it."
"It's nice to meet you too, Y– I mean Eimear." Sonja replies, catching her mistake that was the result of attempting to force-train some social skills into her as a kid.
"I'm Vice Admiral Michelle Henke, Countess Gold Peak, though I go by Mike, and you don't have to use my title either. Can you explain the details of the SLN invasion, please, Eimear?" Mike asks, trying to use her childhood training on interacting with other nobility, to figure out what to do with Havenite nobles.
"The SLN showed up, and we managed to beat them, with no casualties for us, ma'am. They surrendered, apparently after the destroyal of the flagship SLNS Sophie Germain, and the death of Fleet Admiral Belmont, who, from what we've been able to tell, was incredibly stereotypical for a Battle Fleet Admiral, and was awful enough to be hated by even his staff. The second in command of the task force, Admiral Iolanthe Markellyn, seems to be around the sanest Sollie officer we've ever heard of." Eimear's com beeps in the urgent ringtone, and she answers it, briefly glaring at the person who dared to interrupt her conversation with several flag officers, and sounding annoyed, "Hello, Commodore Eimear Foraker, Duchess of Selenice, here. I'm in a conversation with Fleet Admiral Harrington herself, as well as a few other senior Mantie– oops, I mean Manticorian flag officers. What is it?"
She explains to Honor, "So sorry, ma'am." Honor nods in understanding.
Her aunt, wearing a blue blouse, with matching sapphire necklace, which goes with her blue eyes perfectly, says, "Our ONI tech nerds have been working on cracking the databases of Sophie Germain, and we just discovered some bad news, Eimear. I'll have Captain Hyland brief you on the details, as this is a developing situation, but, to sum it up, the League is sending a second wave at us, and is going to be sending an even bigger fleet at Haven, and maybe Manticore as well, within 6 months to a year."
"Is Captain Hyland Astrid's brother, Your Majesty? That name sounds familiar, just I've been off-world for so long." Eimear asks her aunt, trying to remember, and wishing the Manticorian officers were somewhere private, as both Eimear and her aunt preferred to be less formal in private.
Her aunt nods, before Honor replies, "And our Grand Alliance ONI has already confirmed the latter two attack plans, though the first one was new. Do you have any idea why the League wants Elvana so much?
Eimear explains, "It isn't just pure 'we get what we want' and 'you are neo-barbs'. Because that would require them to have even fewer brain cells than StateSec and PubIn, at their worst in their anti-Navy moods, and the average Sollie officer isn't quite as insane as the worst of those two agencies, according to Shannon, but the worst of the SLN isn't far away, she says. It's something else, that Admiral Stephanie Lockley, Marquess of Sarande, who's in charge of our NavInt, and busy with the captured hardware, will be briefing you flag officers and Shannon on personally later, though I can't mention anymore unless you're somewhere private, due to the implications it has for us."
"We're on the flag bridge of Imperator right now, and I guess the briefing can wait."
A few hours later…
Shannon wakes up, checking the time first. It's almost 1 pm. How did I sleep that long? I mean, I did sorta need the sleep, but seriously, there's got to be something important for me to deal with that's blown up because I slept, Shannon thinks, and then checks her datapad, and reads her cousin's message for her, before replying quickly, and getting ready to meet with Admiral Lockley.
She grabs a snack of a handful of trail mix, as she speedwalks to Admiral Lockley's office. Her door is open, and Admiral Lockley's yeoman waves her in.
"Hello, Stephanie. I was told you had something you wanted to talk with me about." The red haired woman nods.
"So, this started a few months back, when we detected an unusual gravitic signature, when playing around with some wormhole survey dispatch boats, loaned to us by the RHN, for training, milady. Normally, it'd have been hidden in the noise, but a few new technicians from the ESDF were being trained, and messed up the frequency dial, and while trying to teach the trainees, they picked up this." She showed Shannon an highly pixelated image of a glowing orange ring. Shannon squints at the image, and can only come up with one possible explanation for it, though she knows that if it was her idea, it'd have been discovered long ago.
"We enhanced it, and it came out like this, milady." Stephanie shows her a slightly less pixelated image of the orange ring.
"But if it were a wormhole, which is the only thing that I've heard of that has a gravitic signature like that, why didn't we find it earlier? And what is it really?" Shannon asks.
"It's a wormhole, milady. We were never looking for wormholes until now, minus a very brief search a few hundred years ago, when everyone was looking for them, when Manticore discovered its Junction, and it's far enough above the ecliptic, that no one tries to go into hyperspace there."
"Where does the wormhole bridge lead?" Shannon asks.
"One terminus leads into the Solarian League's Old League, near the center of the Core, to the planet Minerva, the other to Tambourin, and the scientists believe there are several more termini."
"So it's not a wormhole bridge. It's a Junction." Shannon says in a surprised whisper, and Stephanie nods.
Shannon's next question is, "Do you think the SLN knows?"
"When the dispatch boat made its transit, they came out close enough to the base at Minerva, that we estimated a 50% chance of detection, if they were paying attention, that is. I'd say there's a very high chance that they'd know there is a wormhole terminus there, especially given that now that we are at war with the League, we have a half squadron of battlecruisers there, as well as some CAs and CLs stationed there, officially on exercises, but rotating on and off station frequently to allow us to make sure the terminus is still in our hands. We didn't tell you, because we didn't want to put anything else on your plate, while dealing with the SLN invasion, milady."
"Who else knows in the Republic?"
"President Pritchart and CNO Theisman know, but we made very sure the Tambournian media didn't find out. The new CO of the system defenses, a Commodore Monet, knows, though was told to keep quiet on it, as we'd like to make sure we have things like transit control in place, and we'd like to not get invaded through the Minerva terminus, and we don't want to alert the SLN to try again, given how high the stakes are, with how close Tambourin is to Haven. I'll be briefing the arriving RMN flag officers, and asking them for tips and help for transit management, also, as we don't have much of a plan set up yet."
"Yes, you did the right thing, Stephanie. Thank you." Shannon says.
"You're welcome, milady."
Author's Notes:
This is basically a Zoom call, with Shannon and her flag captain on one screen, Admiral Bellefeuille on another, and Admiral Markellyn on another.
The wormhole description is from the photos we have of black holes.
If you think Shannon's bodyguards were too high-ranking, remember that these guys were pulled from the system defense force's Marines, and pre-assignment to Shannon, commanded good-sized forces. Just if they tried to surround Shannon with that much on a normal basis, she'd be annoyed enough with them, that, when she does go somewhere really dangerous, that's not on a GA ship, she'd not take any bodyguards.
As for why Admiral Markellyn isn't like Crandall, or Belmont, my headcanon is that Crandall and Filareta were somewhere near average in Battle Fleet, and once in a while, the SLN on purpose, didn't pick stupid flag officers (someone has to cover for the idiots that got their rank by being a member of a Battle Fleet family, and forge their reports that say they know what they're doing, you know). That's how Admiral Markellyn knew enough to know that she should just surrender promptly, once she got command of the task force, as she knew there was no chance of making it to energy range, or throwing enough missiles. As for why she treats her people respectfully, she has to cover for at least two idiot flag officers, besides her normal workload, at all times. People are a lot more efficient, when treated respectfully, and with the way she was raised not being the "all these people here are your slaves", she's declined to work with Manpower, and by being holed up in her office, with her staff, she wasn't sprayed with nanotech.
Also, she would have likely joined Frontier Fleet, if her family wasn't a Battle-Fleet-only-tech supplying family, because she prefered ship handing to flying a desk on some random ground base (which she ended up doing a lot, as the person who had to cover for higher ranking people like Belmont).
As for why I made her better than her CO, Weber started creating Havenite characters, that weren't Ransom-level awful, pretty early on (example: Thomas Theisman, Warner Caslet and Shannon Foraker).
The next chapter might take a while.