I'm sure she would be greatly honored if you
would permit her to accompany you in The ceremony."
163 "Morn knows your cousin very well!" agreed North, "I'm sure he'd
also be pleased. I'll speak to him about it, when I ask him to conduct
The Ceremonies tomorrow."
164 The next morning North visited Morn's office. Morn acted
quite surprised at the request, but North knew full well
that he probably knew that he had taken The Tests minutes after he'd
finished.
165 "I'll be overjoyed to perform The Ceremony," Morn agreed. "And your
wife's cousin taking The Bread And Wine with you will make it a double
joy. Of course it will have to be a public affair. I hope you don't
mind but it will help weld The Republic together."
166 "I don't mind at all!" North agreed.
167 "While you're here," remarked Morn, "there's a couple of other
things. I'm afraid it has been necessary to break up your crew. So
many of your Officers have been overdue for commands of their own. Your
#2 your #3, your Third and Second Engineers, all three of your
Communications Officers, two of your Navigators, one of your
Helm, all have been risen to Command Rank and given ships of their own.
They all requested not to be advanced,
but we just cannot hold back such deserving Officers any longer.
168 However, I have seen to it they are assigned to your squadron. Here
is your compliment, by the way forty battleships, thirty cruisers,
thirty heavy destroyers. In exchange we are getting five-hundred of The
Peepian destroyers, 250 of their cutters, and 250 system ships. They'll
be spread out as this chart shows.
169 This will in effect, spread The Peepians out into five systems
making it harder for The Goddens to attack us from that quadrant. Your
eventual goal when you have improved The Peepian's battle tactics, is
to have them switch over from defense to offense. Take