Commander of the Seventh Fleet, stationed at Base McAuliffe in 2634, at the time the kilrathi open the “real” war, with a massive attack on that base. He appears to be a slave to his demanding wife, Linda. He receives notification of the loss of contact with Point X-ray, but does nothing about it. He feels he should get on Concordia and go for a ride on it to try to use its translight capability to make contact with Fleet HQ, after days of communications blackout due to solar flares, but doesn't do it. Later, Long and Nagomo get into a heated argument over what to do, as the kilrathi begin to emerge through the jump point. Winston Turner tried to persuade Long to disperse the fleet, but Long disagreed, causing the loss of about 80 ships with that single decision. Long is killed, along with Nagomo, during the Battle of McAuliffe.