Duty and Obligation

by Sean Benjamin

  Terrant nodded. She had seen the other three flotilla freighters in action in the Electra System. Their firepower had been a key asset there.

  Rafe then added, “If the AC has more of that class of freighter outfitted as slavers, we will try to get our hands on a couple, and those will go to other squadrons. It would be nice to have all our freighters being the same class. It would streamline the maintenance and manning efforts.”

  Terrant said, “Speaking of which, we still have to get a freighter crew.”

  Shane took up the conversation. “That will be easy. Lots of sailors looking for work and Flot 1 has never had trouble getting people. I’ve already talked to Vampire and they will contact the other Flot 1 freighters. Those crewmembers know enough people to man five freighters. The problem will be finding a captain but that will sort itself out.” He smiled at her. “Just make sure you rename the ship. A name like Tristan would be banned by the pirate union.”

  Terrant smiled. “Will do. I guess it will all come together, and we’ll get a nice big freighter. When a captain is selected, I’ll discuss a new ship’s name with him or her.” She switched topics again. “The sale of the other light cruiser was finalized yesterday. Money will help the rehabs. Would have liked to keep one of the cruisers for my squadron but too costly to refit. All those crews sold off everything but the bulkheads.” She shook her head slowly. “I was stunned when I saw the condition of those ships. I am amazed there wasn’t a catastrophic failure in vacuum in any of them.”

  Shane and Rafe nodded, and Shane flipped the topic. He spoke softly. “How are you doing, Lew?”

  Terrant gave him a smile and a slight shrug. “Good. It’s different. I hadn’t realized how ingrained I was to the military lifestyle until I stopped doing it. You know, I didn’t say a word to my crew about any changes. I just stopped wearing my uniform, let my hair down, and began ignoring some regulations. That started a transformation in the ship. Relationships came out in the open. People dressed any way they wanted. Everything got really informal in a hurry.” She shrugged. “I’m still in command. People still do what they are told to do. They work hard at their jobs. No mass desertions. Food tastes the same.” She leaned toward Delacruz. “I think the crew feels like a burden has been lifted from them since we have a settlement now. For the first time in years, they aren’t looking for a home and purpose. They have both now. Everyone sees the progress and seems to be happy with it.”

  “You too?”

  She nodded. “Me too. I worry about being a good squadron commander but it all just seems better, even easier now. I have no idea what the future will bring, but I’m looking forward to it.”

  Rafe had watched quietly as the other two talked on. He knew these two former Marbella Space Navy officers had much more shared history than he had with either of them, and it was natural they would gravitate to each other. He hoped they would work closely together now that the adversarial relationship between Terrant and the rest of Flot 1 was gone. He and Killian O’Hare had shared history and a resulting close relationship, and Rafe knew Shane must have felt like the odd man out at times. Hawkins would be very happy if these two squadron leaders came anywhere close to what he and O’Hare had. Command is lonely. You can’t be pals with the people you lead, and the outsiders you could trust are few and far between. Friends with the same experience, values, and leadership challenges were a godsend.

  Shane and Lew Terrant smiled at each other, and Rafe was happy to let it go on as long as possible. After a long moment, the two turned to Hawkins. He nodded and addressed upcoming events. “I do know one task in the near future. We will be hitting Fusilier with as many ships as we can muster. I’m still looking at the timeline as far as ship availability, but I know you two will be in on this along with the rest of Charlie squadron. We will get several of the other flotilla ships too. With the Goths concerned about the diplomatic fallout regarding the new Zeke base and the Sunrise Grange in chaos, we have a bit of a break in operations, so it’s time to clean up some old business.”

  Terrant nodded. She knew the story about Fusilier. Her ship, Cottonmouth, had been part of an earlier ambush aimed at Fusilier that only ended up damaging the light cruiser Chasseur, one of Fusilier’s sister ships. Shane asked, “I have command of the Fusilier expedition?”

  Rafe nodded. “All the way. We are gathering intel on Fusilier now. If an opportunity presents itself, you will go with whatever ships are available. There will be your four squadron ships and Corsair from O’Hare’s Wolfpack for sure and whoever else we can grab. I’ll try to get you overwhelming numbers. The last thing we need is to lose a ship while taking out damn Fusilier.”

  “Why is Corsair in on this?” asked Terrant.

  “Corsair is from United Against Slavery, the same group that sent Redemption here a couple of years back. After Redemption was taken out by Fusilier, the UAS sent out Corsair. Several Corsair members knew people in Redemption. They want in on the kill.”

  Terrant nodded. Money was undoubtedly the single most motivating force in the Badlands. Revenge was in second place, but given the right circumstances, it could be in first place for some people. Like the crew of Corsair, for example. Revenge can drive people for a long time. It had for her, and she knew she was not alone in that particular arena. After all, Flot 1 had carried out two missions against the OrCons for revenge and had hit four Goth ships on the Goldenes Tor/Aurora Empire border because three of them had been at Ulatar. Yup, revenge could drive people across the universe and make them semi-insane at the same time. She understood revenge very well.

  Hawkins looked at Delacruz. “Shane, since you have operational control of every ship but Predator and Nemesis, you get a second mission. There has to be more than Tristan as a modified slave ship for the AC. We need to grab as many as possible but have no idea where they are. We got requests out and have tasked our friends to be on the lookout for any of that class, but the results will be hit and miss. I want you to put Flot 1 ships in the best positions to intercept them. It is safe to assume the AC will pull them out of service and run them to the nearest shipyard for modification or someplace safe to hide out. I’ll let you pick the locations because you are going to decide how many ships you can spare from the hunt for Fusilier. You do the numbers as you see fit and then do the tasking.”

  Shane nodded. He liked the increased responsibility. “No problem. I’ll look it over. I’m sure we can do both missions.”

  Rafe now spoke in a quiet voice. “There is one last item before we adjourn. I understand Mia Wo is onboard as a trainee, and I further understand she is one of your captain candidates. I need words with her about her performance at Mistral.”

  Both Lew and Shane thought they knew what the words would be. “You want us to leave?”

  Hawkins shook his head. “I’m just going to talk to her a bit. No bloodletting.” He looked at Terrant. “You have already put in a good word for her and I understand she is doing really well in training. Her destroyer, Habu, was in the best shape of any of the ships, so I agree she has potential to be a good one, but I can’t let her actions at Mistral pass without comment.”

  Shane nodded. “I already chewed on her and told her you would probably want a turn so she expects it.”

  “Let’s meet her then.”

  A few minutes later, Mia Wo stood at stiff attention across the table from Hawkins. She barked out her greeting. “Mia Wo reporting as ordered, sir!”

  Hawkins was not surprised. Wo was a graduate of the Armed Forces Academy on Rialta and fought as a junior naval officer in the last stages of their civil war. Her late father had spent a career in the navy and she was raised in a military environment. Rafe spoke in a calm tone. “Stand at ease, please.”

  Mia went to a stiff parade rest as she clasped her hands behind her and stared straight ahead. Rafe smiled. “No, really, go to at ease.” Mia went to a position halfway between parade rest and at ease while maintaining her straight-ahead stare. Hawkins figured this was th
e best he would get, so he moved on.

  “You know why you’re here?”

  Mia immediately snapped back to attention. “Mistral and Kiraloch were totally my fault, sir!” She nearly shouted her confession out in the day cabin.

  Hawkins suppressed a smile as Terrant and Delacruz, completely out of Wo’s field of view, smiled openly.

  Hawkins talked conversationally. “No, Mia. Actually, very little of it was your fault.”

  That remark got to her. She looked directly at Hawkins now with an incredulous expression on her face. Hawkins smiled at her. “Go back to at ease.” She did so while maintaining her eyes on Hawkins. He talked in the same conversational manner. “I realize you feel that entire episode rests on you, so you will throw yourself on any grenade labeled Mistral or Kiraloch, but there is no need.”

  He paused as she spoke softly. “I shouldn’t have waited the twelve hours. I should have reported their departure immediately.”

  Hawkins nodded. “Yes, you should have, and that is your mistake, but you didn’t create the incident. Those three idiots in the other three ships did that. If you had reported it, would that have made a difference? Probably, but they still would have headed to Kiraloch, and the Commonwealth still would have gotten a line on them through all the comm reports. Maybe we could have intercepted them before they got there but maybe not. The bottom line is those three created this problem, not you. That is on them, and I hold them responsible for it.”

  Hawkins shifted topics. “I get the fact you didn’t want to get anyone in trouble. You didn’t want to be the bad guy. I do get that. Unfortunately, command doesn’t work that way. Being a good or bad person has nothing to do with it. Right and wrong have everything to do with it. Sometimes you have to be the bad guy in order to do the right thing. I’ve shoved people out of airlocks, shot people aboard my own ship, shot people on other Flot 1 ships, and put people dirtside with just the clothes on their backs. Every single time, those people had brought it on themselves. They earned their payback through their own stupidity and criminality, and it was my job to administer that payback. I would expect you to do the same thing. That doesn’t make you the bad guy, it makes you the person who upholds standards, enforces discipline, and rights the wrongs. In short, it makes you a ship’s captain.

  “One of my many favorite sayings is, ‘I forgive every mistake once, I forgive no mistake twice.’ This is your one mistake in this particular area. We will consider it a learning experience and move on, but this type of mistake can never, ever, happen again—so if you’re going to make more mistakes, make sure they are new and different. Do you understand that… Captain?”

  Mia hesitated as she adjusted to being called captain. Then she came to attention and softly said, “Yes, sir.”

  Rafe smiled at her. “Don’t call me sir.”

  “Yes…. Flag Captain.”

  Hawkins glanced over to the other two captains with a silent question as to whether they had anything to add. Both shook their heads. Rafe looked back at Mia as she stood at attention. “Relax, Mia.” She went back to at ease and looked down at Hawkins. He continued. “I understand you have done very well here. Habu comes out of the yards at Hranice shortly. You will get her back and I understand most of your old crew signed on with you. Those people had a chance to leave and didn’t. They want to work for you. That’s a good sign of a fine captain. I look forward to you doing great things with Habu.”

  Mia smiled. “Yes, sir. Ah… yes, Flag Captain. Thank you.”

  “Thanks for coming in, Mia.”

  The young woman came to attention, executed a smart about-face, and departed the cabin. Shane looked at Hawkins and smiled. “You are way too nice.”

  Hawkins shrugged. “You already yelled at her. She knows she did wrong. No point in beating that to death.” He looked at Terrant. “She’ll be a good one for your squadron.”

  Lew Terrant nodded and smiled. “As someone who suffered from the same affliction, I think she’ll have to relax the military stuff a little. That’s her comfort zone right now, but I think the transformation is already happening aboard this ship as she learns other ways of doing business. I do agree she will be a good one.”

  Delacruz stood up. “What do you say to a meal in the officers’ mess?”

  The other two nodded and also stood up.

  Chapter 4

  Maclyn Yardley walked into the small courthouse in the town of Benteen on Agra 2 in the company of one deputy. She was a guest in the town jail as a military jail for the Zeke base had yet to be built. Yardley had no real complaints about the place. The food was good, and the sheriff was decent enough. Greg Paulsen was clearly not a local man who got the job because he was married to the mayor’s daughter. Judging by the number of comm calls the guy got, he was doing much more than keeping the peace in the small town. Yardley assumed this visit to the courthouse was to meet a lawyer or some other preliminary paperwork action to get her extradited back to the Aurora Empire for trial. Since she had yet to meet with a lawyer and was still in the Badlands, she knew today’s proceeding was not a major milestone in her prosecution. If she was sent back to the Aurora Empire and a trial followed, then she would start worrying. Of course, the witnesses and evidence against her would have to make the long trip to the Aurora Empire also. She couldn’t imagine Ringo making that trip. There was still hope of getting out of this unscathed.

  Once in the courthouse, it was clear that no procedural meeting was about to take place. Nobody paid her the slightest attention, and she was led past the two courtrooms, both empty. Yardley was brought to a small, empty conference room, put inside, and the door closed behind her. She sat in one of the six chairs surrounding the conference table and waited. She hoped a lawyer would be coming through the door. She had sent a message to the Aeonian regional offices several days earlier and had not heard back. She had to admit she was getting concerned about the ongoing silence from her employer. A company-provided lawyer would go a long way to arresting her fears. It would mean the conglomeration was committed to her defense and would work to get her off.

  The door opened but the man who entered was definitely not dressed like a lawyer. Even here on Agra 2, lawyers didn’t have daggers stuck in their boots and shooters nestled under their armpits. She was momentarily at a loss but then recognized him as he took a seat across the table from her.

  “Captain Hawkins,” she said coolly.

  “Captain Yardley,” he replied in a matching tone. He stretched out his frame in the chair and extended his feet under the table. He interlaced his fingers and put his hands on his midsection with his elbows on the chair’s arms. He regarded Yardley with a tilt of his head and a slight smile. She didn’t smile back.

  “To what do I owe the pleasure, Your Grace?” The sarcasm was well aimed but had no effect on him. Rafe had heard the same words and timbre countless times since his return to the Badlands. He held his slight smile before speaking. “Expecting a conference with your lawyer here?”

  “I was hoping,” she replied honestly. “If not today, soon enough.”

  Hawkins shook his head. “Nope. When you sent your message to the AC regional office here in the Badlands, they sent a request to the Royal Navy here for a list of the charged crimes and the supporting evidence. The request was complied with. They must not have liked what they saw because this arrived today addressed to the command here.” As he spoke the last sentence he reached inside his vest to an inner pocket. He withdrew a folded sheet of paper and flicked it across the table to Yardley. The paper slid to a stop in front of her and she regarded it with a wary eye. Feeling a sense of dread, she gingerly picked it up, unfolded it, and read. Her worst vision of the future was being fulfilled. She maintained a calm exterior as she laid the paper back on the table.

  Hawkins smiled at her. “I do like the sentence where they are aghast, simply aghast, at your behavior, but I have to admit my favorite part is where they hope and pray that former Captain Yardley receives the hars
hest punishment that the law allows for her unspeakable offenses.” Hawkins light, bantering manner switched now to a more serious tone. “I’m not the judge in this case, but I think their hopes and prayers have a good chance of being answered in the affirmative.”

  Yardley had other hopes. “When I get back to the Aurora Empire and get proper representation there, it might not be so straightforward.”

  Hawkins nodded and then replied. “Yes, that would be true except there is one flaw in your plan. You’re not going back to the Aurora Empire. You’ll be tried here.”

  Yardley’s eyes widened. “That can’t be.”

  “It can be, and it is.” Raferty’s voice took on an instructional tone. “You see, one of the problems that many of the Aurora Empire peers who opposed Measure 200 had with the law was it called for trials to be held in the areas outside the Empire where the crime occurred. They didn’t want that. They wanted the trials to be in the Aurora Empire because they said Empire citizens should be tried within Empire borders. They knew it would be a nightmare to do that. Moving witnesses, evidence, ships, etcetera across great distances would be impractical, costly, and nobody would want to do it. These peers knew very few law enforcement people outside the empire would consistently jump through those hoops so there would actually be very few trials. If the law had that provision to have the trials within the Aurora Empire these peers would have voted for the bill long ago. They could then claim they had voted for an anti-slavery bill while knowing the practical effects on the slave trade in most areas outside the Empire would be marginal. But the supporters of the law knew all this too, so they refused to change the provision. Well, the bill eventually passed with the trial provision intact so trials are done in the area where the crime occurred as long as there is an Empire magistrate there.

  “The Queen appointed the commander of the Royal Navy Badlands Squadron as the Badlands magistrate for the enforcement of Measure 200 with trials to be held under admiralty rules and procedures. Your trial will be here on Agra 2. Captain Lisa Cassidy presiding. If you can’t get a defense attorney, one will be appointed. You need to address that.”