NFOF-10 Nessun-Honour of Meihomei's Imperial Kagome Navy

"Last day?"   "Last day. I'll miss this place..."   "Your position?"   "No, this building, so solid, so dependable. A relic of a bygone age."   "Hmm, I'll grant you that, not that much granite construction going on."   "Have you decided what you'll do, once I'm no longer needing a minder?"   "You'll always need a minder, I just won't have your authority to make people go out of the way."   "Both our Merits are frighteningly good at that, I don't remember the last time they needed any help. I had people moving out of my way, at Lai Dang, of all places."   "Your reputation preceded you there."   "And my successor's. Come on, we have to welcome her in today."   "Oh?"   "We read each other's orders, and then she asks Mariwolfe to get all the locks changed, remember? You did it for my predecessor..."   "Your predecessor's last day was almost 30 years ago, I can't say I remember it that clearly."   "His departure was also a bit more ignominous."   "There is that, a fond send-off tends to differ in tone."  

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  "Attention to orders!"   "For Honour! Meihomei's honour!" Valias replied, her traditional response as a retiring flag officer, with the addition, that by retiring at the top level, her lines were altered. No other officer got to remind everyone else, on their last day, of just how symbolically important they were.   "We salute you, orders have been brought!" Whoever had wrote this ceremony thought I was a bird brain, Maelle thought. In fact, the ceremony was mostly written to attempt at flattering the departing officer, as a way of softening the blow of losing command, but trying, possibly failing, at preventing the new officers from sounding incompetent.   "I have yours, long have I kept in my heart the thought of who would succeed me, and what they would need to succeed, as such, I have shared with Meihomei a list of requirements that made OPM blanch. Then they sent me your file. You are a priestess, a devotee of Duty, with a strong Physical presence. I congradulated them for finding someone to match my requirements, and then sent them to double-check, for I had not expected them to succeed."   "I am honoured, and carry Meihomei's words for you in secret. Let everyone avert their eyes, while I give you your orders in private." Maelle handed a formal letter, in a thick envelope marked with the Seal of Kagomei, in black wax with emerald green glass dust, with velvet ribbons.   "I will read them when I am ready, I've yours with me." Valias handed a smaller, though no less richly appointed letter, with the same seal.      

From: Kagomine Palace at Megamisama, Meihomei's Royal, Official, Desk, by her instruction, and at her pleasure.     To: officer Maëlle Comma, NFOF-09 Nessun 6FLT.     At my request and invitation, please join me for a cruise on the good ship EMS Ambulon to celebrate that most worthy ship's 420th arnd, and receive it's first plank. You are to disvest yourself of command of sixth fleet, and transfer it to interim Nessun Andei Dandelion, until such time I confirm his assignment or replacement.

— Letter of Orders from Meihomei to Maelle Comma, Megamisama 8-8-816.

    "What's with Meihomei handing me the plank from Ambulon?"     "It's a symbol of being the plank owner of third fleet."     "Do we really still have the first plank from the wet dock that Ambulon was launched from?"     "No, not for lack of trying, but the tradition of even keeping that plank is younger than Ambulon. You're getting the certificate that says so, along with the pseudo-attempt at a plank. Some yadda-yadda, we hadn't started saving planks on ship launches before there was a Kagomei, so here's the closest we can do, a 720 arnds old plank, from the drydock that hosted Ambulon's twenty-fifth refit, on her hundred arnday."   "The plank's a hundred years younger than the ship?"   "Keep your voice down, but the country's four years younger than the ship! Most cities in Kagomei are younger than that ship, except Innu and Megamisama, and Megamisama was a village of 200 at the time!" She looked out through the window, at the metropolis of 12 million. Innu of course had had so many disasters happen to it that it had lost a staggering 3 million deaths to them, and would be the second city in Kagomei, instead of twelfth, if not for that.   "Sorry, yeah, I guess I'm over reacting, huh?"   "Just a tad, I guess you forgot you had to hand off sixth, before you could take the job?"   "Uh, yeah, why? I mean Sixth is about four times more ships than Third, why do I got to trade it in, can't I just run both, it's barely a rounding error."   "Because it's not the number of ships, it's the responsabilities. You're the plank owner for the Academy, Megamisama Docks, Tonspier Bridge, you'd be plank owner for Meihomei's Own if Meihomei hadn't bought military hardware on her own, personal, rather than civilian budget. And don't ask how a dock can have a plank owner, it's symbolic, you make command decisions for that dock like you own it."   "But there's so few?"   "I had to draw down third, because we were standing up Sixth, Seventh and Eight, It's normally only 25% understrength, if you exclude the ground things. But there's some creative accounting going on, in any case."   "Why do you say that?"   "The Academy is one third of a division in personnel size, and Megamisama Drydocks, and Tonspier Bridge Lock facility are each bigger than the academy. Going by the 'one division's a fleet', they'd be a fleet by themselves."   "And whoever called Meihomei's Own a Fleet Element was a genius."   "We lost a lot when we lost Marhamat."   "Oh, that's when he was still Telbun, right?"   "Yeah, years before Tadros here got the job."   "A job I no longer have, and I could jump for joy."   "Where you two headed?"   "The beach at Lai Dang, and we're not coming back for a month at least."   "I hope you packed enough bathing suits for a whole month, Tadros."   "You're going together?"   "Hmm, yes." Valias, it didn't seem possible, she had never seemed particularly... emotional to Maelle, but she was blushing. "Hannabrid trip, if you must know."   "What, you two are finally tying the knot?"   "Yeah." Valias looked down at her feet.   "Woot! Congradts! Betting you won't need that many bathing suits then, I suspect she'll keep you too busy to put clothes on in the morning."   "What?"   Maelle couldn't resist. "Well, it's that I'd do." And the fifty-year old winked to the two septuagenarians.  

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  "Well..."   "Well, what?"   "Are you going to admit it?"   "Admit what?"   "That she was right! I haven't even gotten to my third pair!"   "I don't see that she needs the validation, she didn't seem to doubt that it would happen in the least."