Time Commander (The First Admiral Series) Read Free Page B

Fleet filtered into the bright, glaring lights of the War Room. As the Staff Officers filtered into the War Room they saluted the Supreme Commander of the Universal Alliance Fleet by snapping their booted heels together.
    With a brief nod, Billy Caudwell acknowledged their salutes and waited for the entire Staff to gather. Some took their seats around the large War Table and began either working on documents they had brought, or talking to other Staff Officers who had already arrived. Others made their way to the Synthesiser to collect some of their preferred beverages before either taking their seats or forming small standing groups nearby.
    Whilst he waited, Billy considered the seriousness of the situation. The Third Fleet was quite badly exposed out on the Terganian Frontier. When the planet Targus, and its neighbouring systems, had joined the Alliance, it had been for military protection from the Ganthorans and for the trade links. The change in military presence from the local forces to the Universal Alliance Fleet often encouraged a more powerful neighbour to attempt to seize some of the Alliance’s new territory. The Ganthorans were a species with a known hunger for new conquests, and a great deal of the Terganian frontier was disputed territory.
    With resources already badly stretched, Billy had decided to send Third Fleet to the Ganthoran and Terganian frontier. Third Fleet were an experienced and battle-hardened command led by a tough, no-nonsense Skaylar by the name of Fursus Parbe’an. First Admiral Billy Caudwell had taken the calculated risk and sent the under-strength Third Fleet to the Tergalian frontier. Billy knew that frontier deployments were always risky situations. Hoping that the bluff would work, Billy had requested the Universal Alliance Diplomatic Department to make the strongest overtures and offers of friendship to the Ganthoran Government. At the last report from the Diplomatic Department, the Ganthorans had yet to respond to any of their messages and approaches.
    Since sending Parbe’an to the Terganian frontier, the Ganthorans had probed and explored the newly-established defensive perimeter. Now it appeared that their Frontier General had found some weakness that he felt he could exploit. Whatever he felt he had discovered must have been interesting, since he was now staking his entire force on pushing the Alliance back from its new frontier. Billy Caudwell was concerned that if Parbe’an had to abandon Tergus, the Ganthorans might take brutal revenge on the population. That, plus the damage done to the reputation of the Alliance Fleet might make existing members nervous enough to leave the Alliance. It was, potentially, a very bad situation. Billy Caudwell knew that at some point there was inevitably going to be military defeats for the Alliance Fleet, but he simply could not afford to sustain one right now, and certainly not on the Tergalian frontier.
    As First Admiral Billy Caudwell contemplated the likely effect on the Universal Alliance of a reversal on the Tergalian frontier, the Alliance Fleets Chief of Staff bustled quickly into the War Room.
    “Sorry sir.” The Chief of Staff Marrhus Lokkrien apologised with the regulation snap of his heels. “Just picking up the Briefing from Intelligence.”
    “ In your own time, Marrhus. Call them to order when you’re ready.”
    Chief of Staff, Second Admiral Marrhus Lokkrien was a Bardomil by birth, but an Alliance soldier by loyalty.
    Marrhus Lokkrien stood over six feet tall and had the pale grey skin and green almond-shaped eyes of his species. His straight black hair stood over a rather unnervingly scarred face. Marrhus Lokkrien had seen a great deal of combat experience in his life and his face bore testimony to his courage and good fortune.
    Billy relied a great deal upon Lokkrien for advice and support, although with the ultimate responsible lying with Billy, their conversations could become quite heated and animated. That was the