Starlight

Ch2:Dark Treading

"Power?  The power that your brother showed you is a mere taste of what exists.  I can show you true power.  The power I wield can re-arrange the cosmos, change reality, and bend all others to your will."

    "Will it even shut you up?"

    "Only if you muster the desire to do what must be done.  Right and wrong are for those too weak to seek our strength."

                                Unidentified Speaker & Giovanni Richson, 2389

Citadel; Auxilary Bridge, 15:15 FT

    "Confirmed sir, we've lost track of the Kep Salu II.  Judging from her engine exaust, we likely managed to wound her enough to force her to vacate the area."

    Piedion winced, knowing Lord Dominatus had slowly been growing so furious as to be able to eat rusted barbed wire.  Now, he'd be murderous.  So, damage control time.  "What about the ship we were forced away from?  Has it escaped?"  He had a good idea of what Dominatus was about to do to him, and there wasn't a thing he could do about it.

    The tactical commander nodded.  "We lost track of them nearly 30 minutes ago during a particularly heavy exchange of fire.  They either cloaked, or somehow escaped."  He frowned, turning back to his small department of men.  It was obvious he was annoyed at his failure, though he didn't think of the possibility that Dominatus might be angry with him as well.

    "My lord..."  Piedion swallowed the rising bile in his throat as he turned to face the dark lord. His failure would most likely be his death.  At least he had the courage to say what had to be said.  He walked slowly over to the small science station seat Dominatus had commandeered, bowing before him in fear and worry.  "I take personal responsibility for the loss of both ships, and the damage to the Citadel.  Do with me as you would."

    Dominatus leaned forward, putting his hand under Piedion's chin and raising his gaze to meet the dark lord's.  His hooded face was hidden, but his eyes glittered in the dark as he made his decision known.  "You shall... be promoted."  Everyone stopped what they were doing, and the air stilled. Promotion was most assuredly not the normal punishment for the type of failure Piedon was caught in.

    "Say what?"  Piedion had to take a quadruple-take, not quite sure he had heard Dominatus right.  He had expected a personal execution or a major punishment, not a promotion.

    "To Captain, for your responsible, thought out actions, despite the fact that they failed. You claimed responsibility when you needed to, demonstrated resiliance against a foe few have beaten with anything less than an armada, in fact doing far more damage to him than any one single ship has ever done before, and you were a far more capible commander in the situation than I could have ever hoped to have been."  Dominatus rose, pulling Piedion gently up by the arm.  "I'll have to go through the expense of getting formal command training for you, as long as you do not get as hide-bound as the last masters of this vessel."

    "Sir!?  I did horribly, the ship escaped!  It should have been reduced to free-floating atoms!  With the firepower of this ship, it should have been wiped from the universe!  Yet, it still lives.  I have failed you, sir."  Piedion continued, still in shock from the pronoucement... 

    "This was your first time commanding.  You had no training, no prior experience, yet you adapted and compensated for one of the most impressive tacticians to have ever existed, and escaped with the ship still intact, more or less.  You actually intimidated him, the last time I fought him, it took nearly ripping his ship apart to force him away, you, however, were far more subtle and wise in you attack, faring far better."  Dominatus took a cap from behind his cloak, nearly identical to those of the dead previous commanders of the Citadel.  "You have earned it, stop trying to wriggle out of command.  Whether you like it or not, you're stuck with your situation."

    Piedion took the offered cap nervously, feeling the burden of command start to press down on him as he settled the cap deeply onto his head.  "I take it that you know more about how the Captain fights than you admit?  I must know everything about my opposition if I am to succeed in the role you have given me."  Piedion sighed for a moment, before stepping over to the helm console, studying the local star-charts, making up his mind as for the course of action for his first true order as commander of the Citadel.  His walk was nevous at first, but slowly growing in confidence as he began to realize how much power had just been bestowed upon him.

    "Another time.  There are too many innocents that need not hear the tales.  I'd end up hurting someone...  Especially incompetent people!"  Dominatus's angry finish made several controllers jump in fear.  Piedion and Dominatus both took note of the ones who were jumpy, to check on their performance at a future date. Dominatus let the shout stew for a moment, before swirling around, heading for the door.  "I assume you have a course of action for your first orders, already?'

    "Of course.  We're going back for repairs.  At the very least, the blast marks need to be scoured from the hull.  Several of his stunts... were rather... spectacular, for lack of a better word.  Possibly insane could qualify though.  Then again, insanity could be considered the mark of a great captian, couldn't it?"  Piedion turned to Dominatus who was most of the way to the door.  He thought for a moment, watching the nearly inperceptable nod of his dark lord's head; before taking his course of action all the way through.  'Helm, set a course for the new Kalida Shipyards, best possible speed."

    "The new shipyards at Kalida?"  Dominatus looked perplexed, but he let Piedion work how he saw best; for now. 

    "Can you think of a better way to test their readiness?  If they can't accomodate us, you can always... persuade.., them to get back on track.  And we can always go to the Black Isles if they are not ready." Piedion looked for a command spot at long last, having been flitting around the stations during the battle.  He was already trying to settle his command style; though not his tactics.  He was promising himself to remain utterly unpredictable, to save himself from an ignonimous death at the hands of Dominatus.

    "Course laid in, the main drives are warming up.  We're ready to go at your command."  The primary helmsman looked back for orders, as a sick whine began in the ship. He adjusted a few settings to take burdens off of damaged components, and re-warmed the drives, adjusting for the lost power.

    "Helm, take us forth to conquer!" Piedion stood back, watching and holding on against the slight lurch as the stars bent before the Citadel's jump to hyper-speeds.  He smiled in a way that left people shivering, as he stepped back to let the bridge crew work, and then turned to an aft station.  He was going to figure out exactly what happened one way or another.

Kalida System; Kalida Prime Shipyards; 19:05 FT

    In the two weeks since the utter destruction of the Great Kalida Massacare, as the Ohansu Empire was calling the Kalida Raid, something huge had sprung up between Kalida, and it's parent planet, Kalida Prime.  In the L5 point between the gas giant, and the small little world, a great metal skeleton had come forth, having already been on the way at the disaster that had been brought by the Alliance. A shipyard, mighty indeed, soon to be the rival of the secret yards, hidden away at the home of the Black Fleet... 

    The girders were filled with a massive new starbase forming at the heart, the nerve center for the base, was under construction, and from it radiated the massive drydocks for new Citadel class ships planned, the already massive Devestator fleet, and all the other ships of the Ohansu Empire that the Alliance had not yet seen. Lift tubes, power lines, and other support structures crowded space among the girders, but all were over-shadowed...

    The limping Citadel had arrived, flanked by a fleet of 30 Devesators, in tactical manuvering formations.  The dark ship angled around, coming to the underside of the complex, hesitant at picking out one of the completed berths.  Things were about to get changed around,

    "Kalida Shipyards ahead, and to ventral, Captain."  The helmsmen and operations officers carefully watched their targets, hoping that things would not quite be painful.  Well, at the least, not very painful.  They just had to make sure not to run into anything, which was easier said than done with a 30 Kilometer long ship.

    "Excellent. Put us at station-keeping, and inform the dockmaster of what we will be doing.  Tell him to prepare for post-battle maintnence, and a flying refit.  I don't care how you get him to let us in, even threaten Lord Dominatus's wrath upon him if it takes it, but I want results."  Piedion prowled the re-sealed bridge, walking over the buckles in the deck plating.  It would take at least a week with the full Kalida crew working on the Citadel to get most of the repairs done, but he could wait that long.  Piedion prowled among the crew, watching carefully to make sure his will was done as he moved.  "Helm, ease us forward at 1 KPM.  Give the dockmaster something serious to think upon."

    Dominatus stalked into the aft section of the bridge, watching his aide work.  "Ah, Kalida; the home of inefficiency and blundering since before 2400.  I hope you are ready to be down the dockmasters throat, young captain.  Things might have changed, but it is unlikely."  The dark lord cleared his throat slightly, as he moved to the patched and cracked windows.  They fogged occasionally, from his breath as he watched the slow procession of the docks.

    "A possibility, an unlikely one, since they'll likely be threatened with your wrath for failure, but then again, I had to consider the ship's condition, the fuel left, and how much hassle I was willing to face. The first two won the battle."  Piedion called up a status report on the ship, downloading it to a datapad, and passing it to his master.  "The last master of this ship...would find it hard to be called 'economical'. This was the only truely expedient location, once I looked over things."

    Dominatus nodded, finding no fault in Piedion's logic.  "Wise strategy and thinking, but you had no need to get my approval.  I will only start asking you to do such if you repeatedly fail.  Though I have heard odd things."  Dominatus turned from his fogging the window to fix Captain Piedion with a piercing gaze.  "What has been this I have heard of you giving your departments free reign?"

    Piedion watched the approach carefully for a moment more, before leaning on a rebuilt window strut near his lord on the port side. He gave a slight smile, and his answer.  "Why micromanage what you do not know, dismaying your lord and pissing off your subordinates, giving yourself a migrane with an ulcer and a nervous tic, and generally wasting everyone's time, when you  can leave it to those who have been trained for the job?  The department heads will likely be able to run their own departments more efficiently, with a little communication through myself, and if they can't, well, I can always refer the erring officers to your rather viscious self."

    Dominatus chuckled slightly, enjoying the praise of his dark side. His judgement in making Piedion captain of the Citadel was reaffirmed, in fact, he suspected Piedion was the best choice he had ever made, for an aide, and a captain.  "So, you intend to increase my workload?  Don't let them get too much reign, freedom in too great of an amount is dangerous. Don't ever forget that fact.  That is why we destroyed the Federation.  Freedom can be anarchy."

    "You don't have to tell me twice, your overlordship."  Piedion nodded mirthfully as the Citadel began to nudge into a docking frame.  He could afford to relax now, his job was done for a bit.  "You know, Lord Dominatus, you're not so bad for a supposedly evil overlord."

    "Say that when you see me on a bad day."

TBC