Why was Dahak's Command Deck unoccupied during the mutiny?

The beginning chapter in Mutineer's Moon opens with Captain Druaga alone on the command deck while the mutiny explodes through the ship. But Dahak was a military vessel, and as such, should have had a duty watch on the command deck and in other locations as well (Engineering etc) And yet Druaga is alone and is forced to implement Condition Red Two, Internal to chase the rest of the crew completely out of Dahak's interior spaces.

Anyone have any suggestions as to why this might be? Artistic license, or something else?

Mycall4me wrote:The beginning chapter in Mutineer's Moon opens with Captain Druaga alone on the command deck while the mutiny explodes through the ship. But Dahak was a military vessel, and as such, should have had a duty watch on the command deck and in other locations as well (Engineering etc) And yet Druaga is alone and is forced to implement Condition Red Two, Internal to chase the rest of the crew completely out of Dahak's interior spaces.

Anyone have any suggestions as to why this might be? Artistic license, or something else?

Anu was chief engineer, so that would explain how he took care of engineering. And as chief engineer, he would have access to every other area and system on the ship, so he could plan accordingly.
As Dahak explains to Colin when they first meet, they were stopped in the Sol system because of a fake drive failure Anu had created. Maybe the ship being stopped for repairs could explain people not being on the bridge? But yeah, there still should have been a watch.
There's not really anything that explains it.

I have to admit that it hadn't occurred to me to think about it until now, but it is a good question.

However, there's actually an even better one - and it implies the answer to the first: Why have a bridge at all?

Given the level of computer support available and the degree of cybernetic enhancement practiced, there's actually no reason whatsoever for the bridge officers to be gathered in the same compartment. Not when they going to be communicating via their implants anyway. Even across Dahak's diameter communication delays will be unnoticeable to crew members and of no importance in obtaining human responses to the data coming from the computers. It's likely that full integration with the system requires circuitry embedded in the command couches, but those could be located in quarters or in small groups convenient to people's quarters or most favoured recreational spots - and need not be dedicated to a specific function, either, so it wouldn't matter who sat where.

It's not unlikely that the bridge existed at all owing to that long-standing human devotion to illogical modes of operation called "tradition": the Imperium started out building their ships with command decks because they needed to, and once their tech developed to the point where there wasn't any point to it, kept on doing it anyway because ships have command decks, so there!

If so, there probably was no reason for duty officers to actually be on the bridge when the ship was at anchor watch, since they wouldn't need the full cybernetic integration normal for manoeuvring or combat. And for any emergency other that the one that actually occurred, they'd have had hours to get there.

UncleFrank wrote:

Mycall4me wrote:The beginning chapter in Mutineer's Moon opens with Captain Druaga alone on the command deck while the mutiny explodes through the ship. But Dahak was a military vessel, and as such, should have had a duty watch on the command deck and in other locations as well (Engineering etc) And yet Druaga is alone and is forced to implement Condition Red Two, Internal to chase the rest of the crew completely out of Dahak's interior spaces.

Anyone have any suggestions as to why this might be? Artistic license, or something else?

Anu was chief engineer, so that would explain how he took care of engineering. And as chief engineer, he would have access to every other area and system on the ship, so he could plan accordingly.
As Dahak explains to Colin when they first meet, they were stopped in the Sol system because of a fake drive failure Anu had created. Maybe the ship being stopped for repairs could explain people not being on the bridge? But yeah, there still should have been a watch.
There's not really anything that explains it.

Mycall4me wrote:The beginning chapter in Mutineer's Moon opens with Captain Druaga alone on the command deck while the mutiny explodes through the ship. But Dahak was a military vessel, and as such, should have had a duty watch on the command deck and in other locations as well (Engineering etc) And yet Druaga is alone and is forced to implement Condition Red Two, Internal to chase the rest of the crew completely out of Dahak's interior spaces.

Anyone have any suggestions as to why this might be? Artistic license, or something else?

Good question! Quit drinking coffee I see.

I hadn't thought of that before but now that you asked, they were on watch duty for a thousand years weren't they?

Most of them thought the enemy was made up and they were less than likely they would need to go to general quarters in a hurry...
People get lazy and people make excuses that it was only a minute.

C. O. Thompson wrote:

Mycall4me wrote:The beginning chapter in Mutineer's Moon opens with Captain Druaga alone on the command deck while the mutiny explodes through the ship. But Dahak was a military vessel, and as such, should have had a duty watch on the command deck and in other locations as well (Engineering etc) And yet Druaga is alone and is forced to implement Condition Red Two, Internal to chase the rest of the crew completely out of Dahak's interior spaces.

Anyone have any suggestions as to why this might be? Artistic license, or something else?

Good question! Quit drinking coffee I see.

I hadn't thought of that before but now that you asked, they were on watch duty for a thousand years weren't they?

Most of them thought the enemy was made up and they were less than likely they would need to go to general quarters in a hurry...
People get lazy and people make excuses that it was only a minute.

Yèah, but here's thi thing, the 4th Imperium was a military based empire. They were organized into being prepared for the eventual coming of the Achultani. Remember when Colin went through a military tribunal about how Horus and the other Nergal mutineers were guilty of desertion and mutiny in the face of the enemy? (That may not be exactly how he wordrd it, but his intent was there) A military orginization would NEVER have left a duty station like the command deck unmanned. Even if it was only a skeleton watch.

And coffee, or the lack of it had nothing to do with the question. It was just a re read of Empire From The Ashes (not sure how many times I've done so, though) and the question just percolated to the forefront of my brain.

BTW I originally read Mutineer's Moon when it was first released lo these many moons ago. I had recently found this author, (a David Weber) who had co written a book with Steve White and thought it might be worth a look. (It was)

Have to admit hadn't thought of this either and it is a good question

The only answer possibilities I can think of are
1. That Anu indicated to the Captain that the issue that caused them to drop out of FTL was due to an problem with the command decks (as later doesn't Colin sit next to a holographic 1st officer who is on the second command deck) and they had to be placed in a reduce status.

2. Whilst in "hiding" there was a duty watch but they didn't need to be in the command deck for routine operations as we see later that as far the Imperium knew they would have plenty of warning for any FTL approaching vessel, so would have time to get there, linked to this as a security measure only certain functions could be undertaken in certain areas of the ship.

3. The duty watch was "with Anu", and the Captain killed them when he got to the Command Deck.

4. The Captain (who missed a munity being prepared on his ship) was not actual suitable for command and was allowing the ship crew to "slack off"