The Mech Touch novel Chapter 897

A familiar spy soon found Ves and Ketis wandering away from their comrades. She did not seem pleased that Ves brought an extra person along.

"Mr. Larkinson, I expressly told you that we only have need of you." Miss Calabast frowned and shot Ketis a dismissive look. "This lady here needs to go."

"She’s not going anywhere unless the Starlight Megalodon kicks her out." Ves stated firmly. "You can trust her to keep her mouth shut if that’s what you’re worried about. I still want to bring her along if possible."

"It won’t work. We worked hard to provide you with a way in, but we have no solution for Miss Ketis here."

Ves shrugged. "As I said, we’ll let the Megalodon issue her verdict."

While Calabast became a bit peeved at his insistence, Ves stood his ground. Eventually she just gave up and turned around to guide Ves and Ketis away from the Flagrant Swordmaidens.

In truth, Ves trusted Miss Calabast up to a point. In lieu of an escape route, he decided to bring some extra insurance instead. While Ketis might not be the brightest bulb in the shed right now, her swordsmanship and combat prowess was no joke. If Ves ever fell out with Calabast and her operatives, Ketis instantly became his sharpest weapon.

After a few minutes of walking wherein Miss Calabast frequently turned her head and deployed some sort of scanner to see if anyone was following them, she finally explained some of the background and their upcoming involvement.

"Now that you’ve become more familiar with the Starlight Megalodon, you know how difficult it is to gain access to the Starlight Megalodon. From what little we found, long ago, the executive officer staged a mutiny. Another source says the captain became mad and turned against his own crew. A third source states the admiral wanted to kill off all the enlisted spacers. We’re not sure what actually happened."

"How do you know all this?" Ves frowned.

"Some of us already managed to get inside."

"What?! How did you manage to pass the recruitment test?!"

Ves stared at Miss Calabast, wondering if she was a groomed elite from the galactic center. Unfortunately, while she looked pretty, she didn’t exhibit the stature and snobbiness of a privileged citizen from the greatest and most prosperous region of the galaxy. In fact, Ves couldn’t distinguish anything from her accent or mannerisms except they reminded him of a Vesian.

As if.

"I’m getting to that point." Calabast calmly spoke. "First, you should understand that a battleship is a massive vessel that is as large as a decent-sized city. Up to a hundred-thousand if not millions of spacers serve aboard a typical CFA battleship depending on her ship class and mission. The Starlight Megalodon definitely leans towards the higher end because of all the activities she’s expected to perform. It’s as if she’s an independent mini-state that moves in space."

"So what does that have to do with you passing the recruitment test?"

"Patience, Ves. First, when you think about a giant battleship carrying hundreds of thousands of spacers, how easy do you think it is to command them all?"

Ves became blank for a moment. The thought of managing such a sprawling amount of subordinates truly intimidated him. It wouldn’t be easy to lead so many men and women!

"I don’t know how. I guess it’s really hard?"

"Heh. That’s an understatement." Miss Calabast grinned. "There is a strong respect for hierarchy and seniority within the CFA. They’re rather rigid when it comes to obeying their superiors, but that’s also why it works out for them, no matter how big they build their ships. The command structure of the Starlight Megalodon is divided into many different departments that often compete against each other for attention and resources. The captain, executive officer and whoever else is up top gets to wrangle these departments on a daily basis. It’s already hard enough to keep them in line when times are good, so how do you expect them to get along when stranded on Aeon Corona VII for a couple of decades?"

Ves could easily imagine the divergences. "Some departments become incredibly critical to the survival of the stranded spacers while other departments are made completely irrelevant. For example, the department in charge of cultivating food has become essential, and the department in charge of navigation has become powerless."

"Exactly. Because the CFA isn’t exactly fast to change things up, the survivors of the Starlight Megalodon stuck to the same rigid rank and command structure. You can imagine that after twenty or thirty years or so, the officers and spacers of the neglected departments begin to nurse a grudge. This is especially so when the spacers assigned to critical departments begin to throw their weight around and demand an increasing amount of tribute from the others."

"And is this the source of the mutiny?"

Calabast shook her head. "Not quite, but it led to some of the reasons why the conflict boiled over. Another pressure point is that the admiral of the war fleet led by the Starlight Megalodon enjoyed an awkward position. He was in charge of the fleet, and obviously outranked the captain. However, in the CFA’s hierarchy, the captain is the master of his or her own ship. It isn’t proper for a flag officer to micromanage the ship and do the job that captains are supposed to do. The admiral is supposed to command the fleet, something which he can’t do when the Starlight Megalodon separated from the war fleet and dropped out of FTL."

"So the admiral that adopted the Starlight Megalodon as his flagship became a king without a country?"

"Exactly. As soon as the Starlight Megalodon crash landed on the planet, a power struggle began that lasted for decades. At first, the captain and admiral agreed to share responsibilities. In simple terms a Brighter like you can understand, the captain adopted the role of prime minister who ran the state and set policy as the head of government. The admiral saw himself as the president and took on a more ephemeral role as the head of state. He was hands-off when it came to leading the survivors but commanded immense respect and served as a figurehead of ultimate CFA authority."

Ves already saw the flaws in that kind of arrangement. "Let me guess. The admiral thought he was the big chief and thought he was in charge, while the captain did all the actual work but felt unappreciated that there was a useless ponce doing nothing useful except to order him around. Do I have it right?"

"Mr. Larkinson, what an astute political prediction. You should get into politics!" Miss Calabast mockingly praised.