The Vanguard Vixen

Catching Up (One)

Admiral Nora, calm as ever, had not taken any drastic measures, only having collected the entire crew to the centre of the deck where they could be monitored. She had invited their captain, also her former subordinate, to a personal chat on the Victoria.

The 'silent room' on the Victoria was an acoustically clean room containing no parallel or reflective surfaces—it absorbed sound with ninety-nine percent efficiency. Because of the conductive nature of water and metal, conversations aboard submarines were always vulnerable to interception by nearby eavesdroppers or suction microphones attached to the outside hull. The silent room was in effect, a tiny chamber inside the submarine from which absolutely no sound could escape. All conversations inside this insulated room were entirely secure. As someone who had seen the Vanguard intelligence community—the planet's best manufacturers of hypersensitive listening devices, Nora was well aware that there were very few places on Earth where one could have a truly secure conversation. The silent room was apparently one of those places.

Instantly upon entering, Luke had been unsettled by the apparent lack of a floor. The floor was a taut wire mesh strung across the room, rubberized and stiff beneath the feet. A few feet below, a forest of foam needles pointed upward ominously. All the walls and the ceiling of the 'silent room' were completely covered with these foam spires, jutting inward from all directions. His ears felt as if they had been stuffed with cotton, and only his breath was audible inside his head. Just to be sure he of what the Admiral had described the room as he called out, and the effect was that of speaking into a pillow. The walls absorbed every reverberation, making the only perceivable vibrations those inside his head.

Luke felt the familiar bump of his pistol, which hadn't been taken from him, on his waist. If it came to it, he would have to use it.

A small table stood on long metal slits that descended through the mesh, with a single seat under it. The Admiral pulled out the seat and motioned for him to take it. He did. He knew firsthand. When Nora Merkel was being nice, which was most of the time, it was better you enjoyed it. Because when she wasn't being nice...

She stood with her back to him, and he would have enjoyed the view if it wasn't for how severe the situation was. She didn't say a thing for a minute. And then two...five...ten, all of which was making Luke more terrified than he was before. He had been worried about the interrogation, but the silence was torture.

"Nora?" He asked.

She turned and faced him.
"I was wondering how long you were going to stay silent. And it's Admiral Nora." She said sternly.

"Admiral Nora," Luke repeated.

And then she smiled.

"I'm just kidding." She laughed. "Of course, you can call me Nora, we're still friends Luke."

"Yeah. You almost had me there." Luke breathed, releasing a sigh. 

Luke had served under Nora from the beginning when she had first been a mere captain. She had kept her crew throughout her promotions, right up until she became the first female Fleet Admiral in London.

And the world.

London, unlike the Vanguard which was comprised of several 'united states' that had been brought under one ruler, was made up of provinces. During the long decades of war that cast the world into the control of dictators, the most powerful province had shown the most capability and capacity to rule. And so London had become the general name for the entire continent. Vanguard had a president, and London had a king. 

The province had exerted its laws on the rest, including the hereditary leadership laws, which meant London was to be led by a royal family. There was however one common thing about London and Vanguard rulers. Once the army turned against you, it was over. So both dictators did well to check and balance their forces, especially the highest-ranked officials. The king of London had almost lost his throne a few years ago though, to the woman standing before Luke.

Luke remembered the particulars of that time. After all, he had been there.

The king, eager to show off a new fraction of the power of his navy, and to remind his enemies of its strength, had sent Admiral Nora on a trip around London. She travelled with a fleet of over fifty warships around London, stopping to march battalions of land forces through every province. The people were scared alright, but not of the king. Of the Admiral. Here was a woman, born in the powerful German province, beautiful, and smart enough to climb her way to the highest position attainable in the land that wasn't the throne itself. She was always calm and collected, speaking to the masses in the firm accent native to her home. They didn't see another powerful piece added to the board of the king, they saw the most powerful piece on the board, one that had only been a pawn once, but was now one step away from being queen. And they wanted her to be queen.

Luke had been in the room when the Admiral had shown then the course they would set, sailing from the original London province down south and around, and then back up, past the starting point, to make her final stop in her home province.

 
As she made her way across the territory, rumours started flying about. Rumours grew into factions of believers, people who looked at the Admiral as their saviour. By the time she made the journey back, on her way to the German province, the king couldn't deny it himself. If he let her reach her people, an uprising would surface. It would have been easy to squash one province causing trouble, but this one had power and resources that rivalled the capital itself. So he had intervened.

Nora and her fleet were ordered to return home, on the base of treason. And when the ships of her fleet were searched, foreign weapons and narcotics, both of which had been made illegal in London, were 'found.' It so happened that the ships that carried these items were the crews that Nora had been with from the beginning, and they were to be executed. The king didn't bother his admiral, of course, she was too precious. The same valuable nature meant he agreed not to execute the crew, but only exiled them. The admiral was then to officially swear her allegiance to the king.

Looking at her now, she had moved to an even higher rank in the world, which he hadn't thought possible.

"Well," she asked. "What have you been up to?"

Luke forgot his nervousness and started talking, to a long-lost friend. He told her of his escapades on the Vanguard oceans, his battles with the sea pirates, and the once too often dramatic exchanges with Hus first officer, Kai.

Nora listened, putting away all the ranks and titles, and as a friend, noticed Luke had said several things, but had not once mentioned
his daughter. Of course, he wouldn't. He would try to keep her as far away from the world as possible.

"It was her you were trying to call."