Galactic Rim Chronicles: SCS Liberty

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Chapter One

 

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Commander Charles Lee watched the three destroyers on the main screen, as in almost perfect synchronicity, activated their jump drives, and disappeared into another dimension. He was alone, in what he had termed the heart of the Citadel, a command and control centre that had normally would have been installed in a small space station.

Or, more precisely, a small space station had been requisitioned, and a series of tubes was welded together around it, clever planning and tweaking had grown a starship out of it, at a rather affordable cost.

Behind the command centre, was the actual bridge of SCS Liberty, that controlled and supervised the functioning of the warship.

The Liberty had been recommissioned as a general purpose frigate in the Solomani Confederation Navy, after a major overhaul that had updated it's electronics to latest standards, appropriate for a modern large combatant.

 

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The sensor and remote operations workstations were forward of the admiral's chair that he currently occupied. The two midshipmen assigned to the Liberty for on the job training were seated there, and carefully guiding the two drones that he had ordered to be launched, one of which had provided the live feed of the jump operation of the destroyer division, at the hundred diameter border.

Lurking over his shoulder, was the political officer that had been appointed to look after the ideological purity pf the Liberty's crew, including it's captain. Lauren Colbert would have been a pretty blonde, if it weren't for that constant dour expression that she took little effort to repress.

The Liberty wasn't a major posting, but neither as it an unimportant one, as he had reluctantly come to conclude, following the interview with his patron, Rear Admiral Jonathan Costa.

Costa was an up and comer in the Confederation Navy, in command of one of the Fleet Squadrons expected to form the core of either the Sector battle fleet, or one of the combined fleets, that would have been responsible for herding the local member navy combat units towards the enemy, by giving them a veteran formation to organize around.

 

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"I would have really liked a destroyer command," Lee stated, on being given the good news that he had been granted the captain's chair of a frigate.

"You would qualify, except for the results of your psychological evaluation," confided Costa, as he interfaced with his desktop computer, and presumably, viewed those results.

"And ... ?"

"You're not aggressive enough."

"I flew fighters, that's an aggressive profession," Lee retorted.

"Also, too cerebral."

"And that's bad?"

"It could be, for a destroyer captain," explained Costa.