Welkins fixed Kaiden with a weltering glare. He was, by all accounts, a man of mercurial moods who demanded exacting performance from the officers under him. He also had famously little patience for the aristocracy. In Cinnibar society, and the RCN more particularly, advancement was often more a mater of interest than of skill or talent. That didn't mean that the RCN was full of incompetents, the academy weeded most of those out and space travel was far to dangerous an occupation for fools to survive long even if they did make it, but it did mean that those officers who advanced fastest tended to be those whose families or networks were in a position to do favors for others. No Captain wanted his name attached to a fool or a coward though which prevented outright nepotism and the accompanying disastrous results. Interest also meant that those who came to the RCN from more unconventional routes, middle class families or masters who won commissions for services rendered, often struggled to advance. The only option in that case was to impress your commanders sufficiently that they felt your performance reflected well on them, in turn you could do favors for others and slowly build interest of your own. Welkins had been a master gunner before he had been jumped to midshipman during one of the previous wars with the Alliance. He had risen high in the RCN but his progress had been slow, and though he would probably die an admiral it didn't stop him from resenting wealthier better connected fellows who seemed to fly up through the ranks. Sabatine herself did not have much in the way of interest, her brothers and sisters did what they could and clients of the family were still happy to do what they could despite the fact that her older brother made it clear that his younger siblings could starve for all he cared. It wasn't perhaps a fair system, but the universe wasn't fair and this system had preserved the RCN and the Republic for over three centuries  and it was difficult to argue with its results. After a long moment Welkins turned from Kaiden and back to Sabatine.

"See that the good Lieutenant here is introduced to Captain Micha. Give him my compliments and he and all his officers are to dine with me tonight at the Armory," Welkins instructed, giving Sabatine a long glance.

"Though if you don't mind some advice Lieutenant, consider a shower first."

The walk to the Vicount was conducted in tense silence. The spacers, picking up on the chill between the officer, forwent their normal banter and followed along. RCS Vicount sat in one of the five artificial embayments which had been constructed by sending pilings of concrete out into ocean. The embayments were not necessary for fear of tides, Herculaneum lacking a moon, but they mounted gantries and cranes to ease in the loading supplies and munitions onto vessels in harbor. The Vickie was a cylindrical metal tube about eighty meters long from stem to stern slightly tapered and rounded at bow and stern. Three rings were spaced more or less evenly around her, to which the masts and rigging were attacked, although the rig was down when the ship was planet side. Two outrigger pontoons flanked her, each connected by four oleo struts. The pontoons actually mounted the high drive motors which would power the ship while it was in space, though theses were secure in their fairings for the moment. A quarter of the way-along the length of the ship was a metal bulge that concealed her twin eight inch plasma cannons, again secured while in port. There was a second set of guns the same distance from her stern so they could be fired in syncopation without tearing the ship apart, but those were underwater at present. Though the guns were devastating at close range, their primary purpose was defensive, intended to nudge incoming missiles away from the hull as they closed. Missiles were the real killers in any fleet action, large masses of metal propelled by twin high drive units till they reached burn out and separated into three segments to spread the foot print. The missiles were unguided beyond their intial launch trajectories, as any electronics capable of making course corrections at 0.6 light speed would require the same amount of engery again to alter their courses and make them trivially vulnerable to plasma cannon fire. The Vickie had two missile tubes, one shuttered and one open for maintenance at the moment. Techs could be seen crawling in the tube as they inspected its inner workings. Larger ships, like the Caddy, had eight tubes and could volley every two minutes or so. A battleship of the RCN Celcius class could mount up to sixty tubes and level a ship killing fusillade that would be all but impossible for any single ship to avoid. Even so a single missile hit from the Vickie could gut a battleship as tons of steal sublimated into energy at the incredible speeds of a full speed impact.

"I'll let you report to Captain Micha sir," Sabatine said as they walked up the gangway and into the ship. Two spacers stood the picket, each had a slung sub machine gun though it was doubtful they knew more than which end to point at the enemy. One of them, Sabatine noted, wasn't even loaded. That actually made her feel better as it decreased her chances of death when the sailor dropped the weapon in his haste to jump up when he saw officers approaching.

"Ma'am... Sir," the spacer stammered, hastily sweeping a dice game away beneath a crate. Though the man recognized Sabatine, Kaiden was new to him.

"Carry on Howarth," Sabatine told him. Officially she was the senior ships officer present until Kaiden read his orders to Captain Micha. Howarth looked at the filthy shore party with some amusement, though he mostly kept it from his face.

"Where is the Captain currently Howarth?" Sabatine asked. The man shared a glance with his mate before responding.

"He uhh, should be on the bridge ma'am, I believe he is teaching the middies about... something at present," Howarth informed her.

"Very good spacer," she told him and turned to Kaiden.

"You'll find the captain on the bridge sir," she said in the same cooly neutral tone.

"If you've no objections I'm going to avail myself of that shower the Commodore suggested."