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From: Fleet Intelligence, Junior Commodore Wilhelmina Zhuravlyov commanding

To: Grand Supreme Admiral of the Fleet Arthur Thatcher

Subject: Visit of the Anglic Union Squadron

Admiral:

My tasks in the Exercise being pre-determined, I have had the needed time to assemble observations on the Anglic Union ships.

Anglic Union officers clearly had no idea how matters are done in a first, second, or even third-rate navy. It was explained to them, several times, that they needed to make an appropriate donative in exchange for having a position of respect in the fleet action. They had no interest in offering even a nominal sum.

To judge from this squadron, Anglic Union ships have remarkably eccentric designs. Oblate ellipsoidal hulls have been obsolete since early in the First Empire, but they seemed quite attached to them. Their observed maximum accelerations were quite low. In those accelerations their beta drives were kept very low on their power curves, indicating that their crews have no confidence in drive stability at higher power levels. Their four ships emerged from the warp point in very close proximity, much closer together than our safety regulations permit, indicating a lack of basic hyperspace navigation skills. On emergence from the warp point, they brought up their screens extremely quickly, far more rapidly than is specified in the orthodox powering-up sequence.

The Union ships were assigned to the asteroid search module, and quietly given the set of correct answers. All they had to do was to fly a pinnace or drone to the indicated locations, take an image of each, and be done. On one hand, in this well-known foolproof training demonstration, they failed to find several asteroids, despite knowing exactly where they are. On the other hand, they claimed to have located a considerable number of smaller rocks that were not on the answer sheet, and supplied images and mineral analyses of each rock. Fortunately we have a supply of Junior Ensigns who earned positions on punishment details, so I assigned the lot of them to validate the claims. The claims were valid.

Each of their officers at the banquet was assigned one or two ‘friends’ to sit next to them and report what they said. Their officers were without exception remarkably naive about how things should be done in a quality navy. They were quite fond of defending the primitive designs of their ships. A curious observation was reported by Junior Ensign Fifth Class Ekaterina Barterello. As is well known, the Union ships arrived several days before they were told to appear. They were supposed to arrive after the first exercise was under way, so that we could report that the Union barbarians could not adhere to simple schedules. They instead arrived early. Barterello asked how they did this. The bizarre claimed answer is that at several points in their travels they moved from system to nearby system using real-space faster-than-light movement, based on using their beta drives.