Ashen Stars by Glynn Stewart

. “Your career to date has been, in every sense, safe ,” Giannovi told him. “I’ll grant that your exemplary Academy scores were when the First Admiral was merely an Admiral, but your every promotion since has been exactly in the middle of the zone. You made Captain at exactly the average age, and the only thing out of the ordinary was that you were immediately given command of a cruiser instead of commanding one of the destroyers first . “At no point in your career since First Admiral Gallant took control of the Confederacy has any ship you have served on been placed in significant danger,” she concluded. “While I doubt your mother has given any instructions to that effect at all, the Fleet has generally taken the attitude that letting the dictator’s son get killed qualifies as a really bad idea .” That, sadly, had been roughly what Isaac had expected . “What you are saying, Commander, is that you and the department heads see no reason to push the crew to one hundred percent of their capacity because you see no chance of this vessel being called into combat?” he asked . She shrugged . “The likelihood that the Confederacy Space Fleet will risk First Admiral Gallant’s only child in any material action is basically zero,” she admitted. “While I will admit that professional pride will keep this ship in some semblance of fighting form, there is no point to making her the premier ship in Battle Group Dante .” Isaac smiled thinly and looked at the display on his wall. Battle Group D