Three

"Exiting the lane," the pilot's voice was droll, as if taking a ship out of faster than light travel was an everyday occurrence for him. Kon reflected that it probably was and that the rote familiarization with an extraordinary task could degrade it into the simply ordinary. The pilot's lack of excitement did nothing to temper his own, he bounced on the balls of his feet as he watched the line of monitors show them emerging from the space lane.

His few annoyances with Jason Thierry had dissolved when the man had invited him to the bridge to watch them come out of the lane. The noble wasn't here himself, but Kon didn't mind as he got to watch through the viewscreens, an event that relatively few got to watch.

Static snapped away and a faded blue star appeared, lines of red energy crossing over its surface in violent rippling waves, a burts of power surging from the star to lance into the cold, dead space. Dozens of small ships flew around the star, harvesting the energy that was exploding outward. Kon's breath froze as he stared at the massive operation floating above the star. Dozens of stations were perched millions of kilometers away, no more than specks against the backdrop of the massive blue star.

Kon ripped his eyes away from that to the other equally impressive sight. Thousands of ships, millions of tons of steel, floated in the abyss. The screens populated for a brief moment with the names of the ship before one of the ship's officers swiped them away.

Most of the ships were small, nothing larger than a shuttle, ferrying people back and forth from the capital ships which were perched in silence. There were only a dozen of those, all of them kilometers long, bulbous with weapons emplacements. Not a single one was of the same design or even era. Some of the designs of the ship were so archaic that Kon had seen them in old drama holos being used to indicate the ancient age of something.

"Whoa," Kon breathed as he finally saw the centerpiece of it all. It was the largest thing in the area aside from the pulsating star. A behemoth that even if every single one of the ships combined would still struggle to match its size.

"First time seeing a dreadnought?" the pilot asked, a thin smile on the young man's face as he looked at his guest. Kon could only nod stupidly as he realized he was only still seeing a portion of the ship.

"That is the Authority of Man, when the Admiralty wants something seen to, and seen thoroughly, they send her. She was seized from Lumien dockyards a century ago, a daring raid by Knight Porthmus's Chapterhouse. It's how they earned the right to become an Order, by yielding her to the Admiralty rather than keeping her for themselves. As if they could man her," the pilot's last sentence was said as a scoff that was reinforced by him shaking his head.

Kon's opinion of the man dipped further. He remembered Mathis's words about the divide between fleet and the Knights and it seemed that it went even further than Kon had thought.

"At ease Mr. Hanna, I want none of that on my bridge," a stern voice chimed softly. Kon turned his head to look at Captain Mayweather, the older man looked at him with periwinkle blue eyes that sparkled with mirth.

"You must forgive Mr. Hanna, he takes our rivalry with the Knight Captains quite strongly and it seems to reflect in his personal ideology of who can operate what ship," Mayweather said as he walked over to them.

The Captain of the Shadow of Steel walked over with a strolling gait that Kon was beginning to associate with lifelong spacers. Those who grew up on gravity, like himself, walked differently than those who had spent it in artificial gravity, which had occasion to turn off. Mayweather was long and lean with a trimmed white goatee. His pale gray uniform was perfectly pressed with only the duo of gold bars on his collar to denote his rank.

"The prejudice has some basis in fact, but greatly overblown. Most Knight Captains have command of much smaller ships. Ships they've earned through strength of arms. Taken in boarding actions or from dockyards like the dreadnought was. They are often support craft, corvettes, picket ships, heavy freighters, or even light frigates. The Admiralty has command of the ships of the line, cruisers, carriers, battleships, assault frigates, and dreadnoughts," Mayweather explained patiently.

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"What about the noble houses?" Kon asked. Mayweather cocked his head, confusion crossing his face.

"My apologies sir, I grew up in a colony away from mainstream human politics. More worried about how the crops were growing than on the differences in who commands which ship," Kon quickly explained, painting a thick layer of humility in his voice as he looked at the old man. Mayweather smiled like a grandfather, straightening up.

"Colonies," Mayweather said with a derisive snort, shaking his head. He threaded his fingers in front of his belt and adopted a more lecturing tone.

"When we fled our homeworld we had no worldships. Our fleet was a ragged, embarrassing mess of ships that frankly, I don't know how we survived the first lane excursion. When we arrived as refugees into the greater universe, many looked down upon us. Our ways were strange, we had no homeworld, and our technology was inferior." A vicious smile crossed Mayweather's face.

"They should have exterminated us when they had the chance. We showed them what we were. Bloodsoaked ships joined our fleet at great cost. Modern warships that our scientists were able to reverse engineer and jump start our own industry. The first of those pirate Captains took on titles. For generations their ships were passed down to their children. Oaths were sworn, to never raise our hands against our fellow man, to always return to defend the home fleet, oaths of this nature prevented us from exterminating ourselves."

Kon nodded along. He knew this history, even if what they were taught was slightly more poetic than simply calling them pirate captains.

"Now, the first world ship was taken by force of arms. A now extinct race whose homeworld was collapsing. They tried to…obtain our ships through force of arms. They failed and we returned the favor. With the first Worldship, Oasis, we had our first problem. A ship large enough to hold the entire diaspora, it was hard to say who should command her. The shift in power amongst the noble pirate captains would be too extreme. So the first of the governors was raised. A position that can not own or command warships. It was a delicate peace, but it lasted." Mayweather stopped to glance over at the screens, a brief smile lighting on his face before vanishing like a mirage.

"With what we learned about the Oasis and her technology we were able to gather our resources for nearly a century to commission a second worldship. Bastion. A second governor was raised. Now security was an issue, who could be trusted to command the guard of the worldships? The pirate captains, our proto-nobles, didn't trust each other. So the Admiralty was established. At the same time your own Orders were becoming established, the Knightly orders became our ground forces. Those Orders made their home on the Worldships, a guard from potential invasion from disgruntled captains while the Admiralty established itself." Mayweather caught himself and shook his head, a wry grin tugging on his face.

"I digress. You have stumbled upon a passion of mine. Your question was about the noble families. After the establishment of the Admiralty, over several centuries, the majority of taken ships, earned through blood or treasure, were yielded to the Admiralty. They established laws that only Captains who've finished their academies can Captain a ship who wishes to resupply from one of the Worldships. It has essentially made it so that the noble families own warships, but rarely can they command them themselves. They now sponsor candidates who are given officer positions to train for eventual command."

"Thank you sir," Kon said, bowing his head quickly, earning another smile from the grandfatherly officer.

"What's happening out here?" Kon asked when the Captain didn't leave immediately.

"Some type of harvesting I assume. Lord Thierry owns some of the stations out here, but I recognize others belonging to both noble houses or the Admiralty. Likely a fuel procession effort. It's not something I was briefed on. What we are here for is the dissolution and sale of assets of your Chapterhouse," Mayweather said. Kon felt that spike of ice in his gut at the words. So much unknown lay ahead of him that he could scarcely comprehend it.

"I've only seen a dissolution of a Chapterhouse twice before this, and neither of them were anywhere near the scale of yours. It's a truly momentous occasion. Over the next few days more ships will arrive as Lords and other Chapterhouses will arrive in neutral territory under the guns of the Authority of Man to begin the process of liquidation. I am sure that your contract will quickly be snapped up, even if your education is strangely lacking," Mayweather said, patting him on his shoulder as he turned to leave.

The pilot peered back over at Kon the moment the old man had turned his back. His young face was lit by the blue light of his station, giving him a false pigmentation similar to Ulmna.

"The Captain is a good man, though a bit long winded on history lectures. Now, would you like to see how a competent pilot docks with the greatest warship in the galaxy?" Mr. Hanna said in a much more subdued whisper than his earlier comment. Kon nodded, eager to see every function of the ship and its crew.

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