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John couldn't help but smile at the question being issued. "Yes well, this system was taken over only a few months ago. For all intents and purposes the military has exercised control over both civil and military affairs, in what you can I suppose call an interregnum of sorts. I won't sugar coat it, it is on the borders of legality, or just plain illegal, but needs overrode and overtook such concerns. I could have anyone on this planet arrested and detained without trial, all in the name of security in what is still very much a war zone on the edge of the Bretonian sphere of influence, not even a jump-gate to connect us, but of course, I would not do that. I am sure you will have many more questions, but save them all for tonight. You are dismissed." And with that, John ordered Elizabeth on her way.

If one spent some time below the room Elizabeth was spending the day in, one could hear constant footsteps going in circles. Was she overthinking it again?

Not at all. If one entered, albeit she had locked the door and for a good reason, one could see her spend most of the day dancing around with a hat stand. She knew very well what her answer was, but didn't want herself to appear rash or uncalculated. Instead she completely forgot about all the gruesome events that had just taken place, if only for the day, and danced, inebriated with the apparent success of her plans. But who was the hat stand replacing?

That will stay a mystery.

"I have thought it over", said Elizabeth when she came back to the messroom, a bit tired from all the dancing, where Redmond was gentlemanly already waiting for her. "And my answer is yes."

Elizabeth wasted no time in giving her answer to John, it was to be expected, her young age, her desire to succeed, and above else, her desire to exceed all weighed in her decision. John had expected the result, and he had already arranged for one of the sections of Plan E to be completed. "Very good, Captain." This time John was not jesting, and he handed Elizabeth a small package containing evidence of her new rank. "I have a private table on the floor above, I expect you will be joining me, for a more detailed discussion?" John asked rhetorically if the Captain would join him, as it was essentially an order. The floor above the general officers mess was considerably more luxurious, with grand pianos, cabinets filled with Gallic wine and all the trappings of a fine French restaurant, the chef a Gaul no less. It was a left over from the previous owners, but it proved useful in entertaining guests of the admiralty.

Why was this man walking her through the villa so often? Was he showing her its grandeur? The majesty of his holdings -- perhaps to court her with that, if he could not with his face? Or maybe it was symbolism: Elizabeth was being walked around, to remind her that she was a subordinate? Or was he merely not dedicating enough attention to the organization of the whole thing? Yes, she was overthinking again. Trying to still look serious, she followed Redmond where he led.

The Admiral had taken Elizabeth as far as the entrance to the banquet hall, but in a twist of events, he did not enter the hall, instead walking beyond the entrance further down the hall. At the end of the corridor was a rather unsuspecting doorway, a sturdy metallic door that looked better placed on the bridge of a spaceship, it was clear from the lack of blemish on the door that it was a recent installation. John moved within the door frame and placed his left hand on the door itself, and his right on the frame. Within a moment his hands were outlined by a reddish light, and the door sprung open. On the other side of the door was a small hallway not a meter wide, the end of which was what looked like a transportation device.

John took Elizabeth to the small transportation device, which resembled a rocket in shape, though one that looked marginally more comfortable. The transport required the occupants to strap themselves to a seat not reminiscent of old earth age rocket ships, after which they were elevated to their destination with considerable G-force. With a thump the transport set off -vertically it felt - and within a minute they were at their destination. "I recommend using the dinning facilities after this, not before" John quipped to Elizabeth, joking that he had once lost his lunch when he was forced to us the transport mid-dinner.

"I suppose you were expecting that I take you to dinner, and you could enjoy one of the perks of being an upper ranking officer? Well, there is time for that, and if you are hungry something may be arranged, but for now, we have more pressing issues I wish to discuss. I need you working, your House needs you working." John was unforgiving of Elizabeth, who had barely just accepted the Admiralty offer, an offer presented to her mere hours ago.

John, unstrapping himself from the chair, exited the transport to what looked like a stereotypical command post. The postwas lined with windows, and you could make out a mountain peak in the distance. It would seem that the post was as high as a mountain, and was embedded in the highest peak. The Chateaux itself was not at ground level, requiring a shuttle to enter, but this post was as high as one could get.

The room was empty except for two staff, monitoring the data arriving by the minute and making sure no attention was required at a strategic level.

John took a step to the central display, and gestured to bring up what resembled a map. "Do you recognise this old thing? It's Bretonia, or what's left of it. This is not your every day map however." John pulled up a system, Dublin. Opening up the system revealed no ordinary map, but virtual displays of the systems traffic, at least the traffic known. "You see these red dots? They came from Edinburgh, and they're on intercept course for a convoy. How do we know? We spotted them via a sensor placement hidden in the field they left." John seemingly abandoned the board for a moment and looked at Elizabeth. "What do you think we should do about this attack wing? About half a dozen fighters, possibly a bomber to boot" John's eyes widened, as if he was expecting a response, without hesitation.

Now this is worth her time, Elizabeth thought. But she wasn't militarily educated, and that was an issue. She has reached her position thanks to connections and hard work, but a military career had never even crossed her mind. Elizabeth gave herself the education needed to be a politician or a manager, as she had intended to eventually, in at least a decade, climb the ladder in one of the several independent clans of the Zoner planet. She preferred to avoid being judged by someone with actual expertise in military matters, and thought to resolve the trouble with a strategic approach rather than tactical, trusting her political instincts to let others build her walls for her.

"Nothing. Let the Mollies do it. Well, at least until you bring the Essex there, then you'll be able to overwhelm the Athos. Otherwise it may very likely ambush whatever small squadron we send."

John listened to the answer provided by Elizabeth and prepared his response. "Well, I am not sure if it is by coincidence, but you have achieved the absolute correct answer. However, you made the decision for the wrong reason. This is a matter of intelligence, and how you use it. if you note, I mentioned a sensor detected the patrol making its way to commercial shipping targets, now, as it is well known, these sensors are only worth a damn if they stay hidden. Should we ambush the attack force, the enemy will notice that something is wrong, and take counter measures. The sensor will be found, and removed before any further attacks are made. This is an issue, because who is to say that the next attack won't be twice as large, thrice as large? It could even contain a capital class ship, and do extreme damage to our commercial operations in Dublin. Without the sensor, we wont be able to see this attack coming."

As John speaks, the attack group had already engaged the commercial target, and casualties were mounting. "I am sure the crew of the ships in this convoy, and the companies that own them, and the families of the people who have died as I speak, would spit in the face of the Admiralty, if they knew, that we knew. But unfortunately, for the greater good, there are times we must not act as if we know. This lesson as learnt a long time ago, during an ancient conflict on Earth. We had cracked the so called Enigma codes of the enemy, but we could not act on half of the information we decoded, as they would simply change the code and we would be back to square one. If you are to join the Admiralty, you must know that decisions must be made, hard decisions, decisions that will haunt you. So yes, the correct answer to my question was, do nothing."

John returned the screen to an overview of Bretonia, and turned back to face Elizabeth. "Now that we have gotten warmed up, let us talk of more pressing issue. On my plate I have several items that need to be addressed. Firstly, I am in the process of working with a certain Meallan Dagon, now managing production at Aland shipyard. I have set him on a task to create for us a DT-fuel based engine, utilizing our relatively good relations with Rheinland, and the resources we now hold on this planet will find a large market in Rheinland. Meallan made contact with Kruger, but we have political issues to resolve with Rheinland, namely the fuel itself, it is a restricted good, and we need to make it unrestricted. We should also see about hammering a supply deal for Deuterium, so we can begin large scale exports to Rheinland." John turns to a communicator, and taps in the relevant codes to bring up his line with Meallan, "You have my permission to work on this in my stead. Liaise with Meallan and put on your diplomacy hat, or strong-arm someone from the foreign office to start up a conversation with the Rheinlanders, see if we can't get this off the ground. If you have any questions I will answer them, and once you feel comfortable, get back to me and we can talk about other tasks. This task should be right up your alley, nothing too military."

"Nothing too military". He was onto her. It was obvious now to Elizabeth that Redmond wasn't, in fact, her friend, that he was doing this out of necessity rather than willingness and that he was very likely forced by Steiner. He would never appoint someone who he knows lacks military skill. But at least Steiner was still watching her back, that was good. But if she fails, and New Holland was the most difficult region of Bretonia currently, the Steiners would have no arguments left to keep propping her up. She will play cautiously, she decided, and try to use what resources she has to appease the populace.

"Can our companies not simply apply for a license themselves? Is that expensive there? I know it's rather cheap in Bretonia."

"This is a military project, and DT Fuel I am told is sensitive. Anyway, we have a military engineer working on the engines under our pay and purview. This is not a simple license, it is completely illegal, written in the Rheinland legal Codex that only Kruger may haul this fuel. This is ongoing, we need to push Rheinland diplomatically, which I feel is a good first assignment for the person responsible for that treaty that does not exist. I should hope that it does not take your full attention to get the ball rolling, and we can turn to more intense assignments on the military side of things." John hoped his explanation would satisfy the inquisitive Captain. "I think perhaps we should be looking to upgrade your battlecruiser to better cope with the assignments I will be giving you. There is a BMM complex in Omega-3 that has some technology I would like to install on the H.M.S Fascinating, when you are ready to move out, take her there for refit."

Redmond is surely being snide about her fighting abilities, she thought.

"A refit? Do you think the Fascinating has been underperforming?"

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