Excerpt from "The Fox Fleet"

Commander Descieux was on his barge making the trip at maximum speed to the Zutara. As soon as they were in range they had received a message that he was to report to the Commodore immediately with news of the situation. They had barely touched down when he was making his way to her cabin, his steward McPherson following behind trying hastily to straighten the feather on his Tricorne, and he was shown straight in on arrival. The Commodore was sitting behind her desk looking at the report that he had forwarded, and as he approach she looked at him over the top of her glasses.

“Well William, this is a very serious and potentially highly dangerous situation you have uncovered, tell me as much as you can” she said “I have instructed the Captains of the Falcon and the Zutara, as well as the Prince Michael which is passing through and the Speedy which is here with supplies and mail to report here at four bells, so I need to know the situation and have some kind of plan before they arrive”.

Descieux began explaining what he had uncovered from the captured pirates and their ship, and provided some of the papers that had been recovered for the Commodore to read thought. He explained too his dangerous plan to stop them. During this time she sat in silence, nodding her head from time to time, just a few times stopping him to ask for clarification or for something to be repeated. As soon as he had finished, the Commodore stood up and started pacing backwards and forwards behind her desk, and after a short contemplation began speaking.

“Well, clearly the situation is worse than I had thought, and the threat is very great, if that is, your evidence is correct. I will dispatch the Speedy to Admiral Hubbard as soon as possible to warn him of a threat to break the blockade, and inform him of the full situation. If I know Philip, and I should do, he will take measure to strengthen the blockade, and won't risk this being a false alarm. He may also dispatch us a couple of extra ships, there might just be time. We haven't always seen eye to eye, but they say blood is thicker than water, he won't want ours to be a suicidal last stand, which given our numbers verses the enemy it could well be.”

At this point there was a knock on the door and the Marine sentry entered “Sir, Captains Harrison, Hendon, Green and Whitaker have arrived”

“Send them in” replied the Commodore.

The 2 men and 2 women entered the room, which suddenly seemed a lot smaller. Commodore Lovegood turned to greet them, and William stood and saluted the two post Captains, and shook hands with the fellow Commanders. Whitaker and Harrison he obviously knew, he had had some dealing with Captain Rebecca Hendon back when a Midshipmen, with Harrison then a Commander in the same squadron. She was fairly short and dumpy, reminding William a little of his elder sister Charlotte, but with Brown rather than blonde hair. Tabitha Green he was unfamiliar with, she was young, fairly tall, and if he was honest with himself, quite beautiful (he quickly put this out of his mind, he could not allow himself to be unfaithful to Katherine, even just in thought), and like William, had her long ginger hair tied in a low ponytail. After the introductions, the Commodore invited them through to her dining room cum meeting room, where they sat in rank precedence at the head of the long table. She went through the situation again, occasionally stopping for Descieux to fill in details, before stopping and addressing William.

“Captain Descieux has come up with what I feel is an excellent if risky plan to deal with the situation, I will allow him to explain it.” “Go ahead Descieux” she added. He felt nervous at this, with a Commodore and two Post Captains, and him a mere Commander, only by courtesy referred to as Captain. When he had finished though, they all expressed their approval, and after a short time, the plan was finalized. William couldn't help notice that Green looked a little confused though, as she had noticed that the Speedy was not part of the plan. Her confusion was soon cleared up by the Commodore.

“Captain Green, I need you to travel as fast as possible to the Vala system and pass a brief report to high command on the situation, then on to the Lucidus system and deliver the message I shall prepare for Admiral Hubbard on-board the Betris, how soon can you depart?”

Green thought for a few moments, then replied “tomorrow at the latest, we still need to get some supplies and fuel on-board, and get our trim sorted out”.

“Very good, I'll send someone over with the message as soon as it's ready, then you may leave once you are in order.”

“Aye sir, I'll get back to the ship straight away and try and get things moving as quickly as possible.”

With this, she saluted the Commodore, the Captains and the Commanders, and left.

“The rest of you, return to your ships, it seems there is not a moment to be wasted.”



As William sat on the barge approaching the Sparrowhawk, he was going over the plan in his mind. The more he thought about it, the more suicidal it seemed. Was that the idea, to throw themselves in-front of the oncoming fleet and take out as many of them as possible whilst at the same time delaying them, giving Admiral Hubbard the chance to prepare his squadron to face the remaining enemy. He couldn't help think Bethanie was being far to optimistic thinking that reinforcement could arrive in time, or even that they would be sent in the first place. He didn't know Admiral Philip Hubbard that well, although he had served with other members of the family, including Lovegood, who like the Day's and the Wilson's had long established ties to the military, but he was sure he wasn't going to release some of his squadron from the blockade when they themselves were under threat, especially for what would be a long and costly journey. The plan was in motion now though, and there was no going back. As soon as he was on-board, Descieux called his senior officers to his cabin and began going over the preparations. They would have little time to get themselves in place before the lead ships came through. Two ships were expected, and the Sparrowhawk would have to take on them both and either capture or destroy them. If they could capture one, it would help to even the odds a little, no much, but a little, and with luck, and perhaps a little cunning, they might just make it when the rest arrived. Even this would be risky though, The Zutara and the Prince Michael would have to wait back at the outpost to make sure there was no attack there. As yet it was not certain if they would try this, or try to pass by un-noticed or at worst with little resistance. So much was uncertain.