“Yup,” echoed Jesse. “Of course, they probably flew into the sea while on ‘hard ride’ autopilot, but thinking about it is still not pleasant. Even in the world we came from, there are places where, if someone goes down, you don’t bother looking very long. That’s just the way it is—and will be for us.”
Mike felt his own expression tighten at Simpson and Jesse’s matter-of-fact assessment of the risks involved. He’d suspected it was coming, of course. And the fact that Simpson had been the first to actually suggest it didn’t mean Mike was blind to the logic. It was just that the up-timers were already so thinly spread. The thought of sending his people into Wismar and all of the horrors of a 17th-century siege was not one that he wanted to contemplate.
But that was cowardice speaking, he told himself coldly. That was the fear of a man who was unwilling, when it came down to it, to pay the price his own beliefs demanded. Or even worse, of a man who was willing to let someone else’s people pay for his beliefs.
He looked down at his hands for a moment, then drew a deep breath and raised his eyes once more.
“If Gustavus takes personal command in Luebeck and we assume responsibility for covering Wismar until he can reinforce it, it sounds like anything we commit will have to be more on the naval side. I think that means one of your people appropriately ought to be in charge, with the Air Force in a supporting role.” He saw Jesse nodding out of the corner of his eye, and felt a moment’s relief that whatever else he was facing Mike wouldn’t have to play referee in some petty interservice brawl. “So who do you recommend, Admiral?”
Simpson’s jaw clenched, and he turned to look out the dockyard window, as if this part of the decision was one he, too, would have preferred to pass to someone else. He stared out the window for several seconds, then turned back to Mike.
“Lieutenant Wild is already at Luebeck to set up the commo station with the Swedish encampment there. Once that’s done, he’s supposed to move on to do the same thing at Wismar. He’s got a couple of petty officers with him, but his primary function is to coordinate communications. That’s going to be just as important as anything else, and we’re going to need a reliable commo link with anyone we send to Wismar. We’re going to need it pretty badly, in fact, so I don’t want to pull him off that. And, frankly, I’m not sure he’d be the right person for a combat assignment, anyway.” His nostrils flared, and he turned his head to look directly at Eddie at last. “I think Lieutenant Cantrell is probably the best available choice.”
“Eddie? I mean,” Mike corrected himself almost instantly as he saw Eddie flush, “Lieutenant Cantrell?”
“He’s here in Magdeburg, closer to Wismar than anyone back in Grantville, so we can get him there that much quicker. And we’re going to have to establish the support infrastructure in Wismar now, before the city gets itself invested.”
“What infrastructure do you have in mind?” Mike asked just a bit warily.
“Colonel Wood will have to assign some Air Force personnel for his end of things. The Navy will cooperate with them fully, of course. Speaking for the Navy itself . . .” He paused for a moment, thinking. “At the very least, we’re going to need refueling facilities in the city. We can stow extra ammunition aboard the ironclads and probably even tow some supplies with us on barges, but I’m not about to put half of our total armored combat strength out at the end of a supply line that may or may not be there when it arrives. I want technical support personnel, fuel, and spare parts in place in either Wismar or Luebeck before we get there. Fuel, at least, in both, preferably. Most of that sort of thing is going to have to come from right here at Magdeburg, down the Elbe and through one or the other of the canals. Fortunately, the advance warning we’ve gotten from your wife’s reports gives us a few days to work with. The enemy won’t be expecting that. If we use both tugs, we can get anything here in Magdeburg to Lauenburg and through the Stecknitz to Luebeck within forty-eight hours. But it’s going to take longer to get anything to Wismar, because the Swedes still haven’t finished rebuilding the stretch from Lake Schwerin to the coast. That means we’re going to have to move fast to get what we need into position, and Lieutenant Cantrell is very well versed in what we have here and how it all goes together.