Josiah West 1: Kaleidoscope

by C. T. Christensen

  Panic, confusion, surprise, embarrassment, wonder and an urge to hide in the washroom lined up to take their shots at him. Finally, it was surrender that won. His shoulders slumped, “You don’t have pickups in my bedroom, do you?”

  She eased back from her pickup and laughed, “No, no, I’m not that much of a voyeur.” Suddenly, she was all business, “The Admiral invests a great deal of trust and responsibility in the people he hires.” Her face took on a level of seriousness that Josiah had not yet seen, “He has to know something of your private life and the people you associate with. You are unaware of it, but the Navy Security Service did a check on you a month ago and the Admiral ordered one started on Parente when I told him of my impression of her. The preliminary report on her looks good; the Admiral likes her and I like her.” A softer look crossed her face, “Do you like her?”

  That question caught him totally flatfooted. He knew at what level of “like” she was talking about; it was the point where the barriers came down and another person moves into your life. Confronting that question put his mind in a jumble. Molly waited patiently while he ran his memories of Nora through his mind and realized that there was a new, warm feeling that was growing next to the ones that kept his family alive in his life. He blinked and refocused on Molly’s face, “Yes…I do like her…a lot.”

  Molly was all business again but with a happy smile, “Good, when you return to the BOQ, there will be a special package waiting for you at the front desk. It will have precise instructions that you are to read before opening it. Oh, one more thing,” the smile intensified, “you were sixth in your class of one hundred and eighty-seven at the Academy; Parente was fourth in a class of two hundred and six.” Then, she cut the connection.

  Ouch!

  The rest of the day ran smoothly only due to Josiah’s long experience in forcing a focus in spite of fatigue or multiple demands. That call had been a kicker. Phelps had noticed but refrained from prying when he saw it was a happy thing and Josiah chose not to elaborate.

  #

  It was past 1700 when they left the hanger. Phelps stopped at Josiah’s vehicle, “Say, West, I noticed in your record that you haven’t been home in three years. We will be tooling around in a boat capable of going anywhere in the Solar System tomorrow, so a quick hop to California for a couple of hours would be a nice way to get some flight time.” Phelps got a questioning expression on his face, “Have you even called and told your folks about what happened yesterday?”

  Again, Josiah was caught flatfooted. He leaned his back against the door of his vehicle, “Oh…no, I haven’t. Everything happened so fast and was so crowded that it never occurred to me.” He looked at Phelps with a touch of embarrassment, “I guess, to be honest, I was a bit ashamed to go home and stick the fact that I was still an ensign in my Parent’s faces. It was bad enough that I was never able to tell them about any promotion when I called home. I called them right after the Mars Thing. I played down the part about how close I came to getting killed; I tried to give them the idea that the good things I did would be enough to keep me from facing a Judicial Inquiry. The news reports were a bit confused so I think I calmed their nerves on that one. Since then, the last time I called was a month ago to assure them that nothing had come of it except for the usual debriefing sessions.”

  Phelps got a big grin on his face and slapped Josiah’s shoulder, “Ok, West, if you have no objections, we are going to California tomorrow. Wear your whites with all the buttons and bows and we will impress the hell out of your folks. I want to see your Father’s jaw hit the deck.”

  Josiah brightened as that image formed. He smiled at Phelps, “Alright, I like that. 0900?”

  “0900 it is,” said Phelps as he headed for his vehicle.

  SEELEY

  When he pulled into his assigned parking place at the BOQ, the number 5 slot that had been reserved for Nora was empty. He entered at the back entrance and headed down the hallway on the lower floor. Jesse was at the front desk but was in the process of turning it over to a petite, dark skinned girl with Third-Class Petty Officer stripes on her sleeve. The new sign on the desk said PO3 Astrid Seeley. Jesse caught sight of Josiah as he came out of the hallway, “Lieutenant West, I’d like you to meet Petty Officer Seeley. She will be on the desk tonight until 0200. Seeley, this is Lieutenant Josiah West; he is the latest addition to the Admiral’s staff and is in 202.”

  Seeley gave Josiah a big smile and shook hands with him, “I’ve heard about you, sir, and I’ve been hoping to meet you since I heard you were here. If you ever get a free minute, I would love to hear how you handled a power transfer relay blowout.”

  Another surprise, “What do you know about drive systems?”

  “My father was a CPO and drive systems tech; I grew up with it.”

  Curiouser and curiouser, “Why are you here instead getting dirty in a relay bay?”

  She looked a little embarrassed, “I got bored with school and didn’t qualify for tech level training when I joined the Navy.” She got a look of resignation and shrugged her shoulders, “I guess we all make mistakes.” She smiled again, “But I’m taking classes and trying to catch up.”

  Josiah released her hand and pointed a finger at her, “Good, keep at it, hard.”

  She smiled again, “I will, sir.”

  He turned to Jesse; he was already holding the package he was about to ask for, “Ah, yes, that.”

  It was one of “those” cases. He pulled off the sealed envelope that was stuck to the top and started reading the enclosed letter as he climbed the stairs to the second floor:

  “West, the contents of this case represents my need to find good people wherever I can. They are only to be used upon my direct orders for a specific reason. You will keep them in your lockbox until I give instructions for their use. I charge you with the responsibility for instructing Lieutenant Parente on the expected and proper behavior while wearing them.”

  Jacks

  He was almost to his door when he opened the case. He stopped walking when he saw two sets of shoulder boards with the gold bars of a Lieutenant Junior Grade set against the red background of a First Division Staff Officer. He couldn’t help grinning as her words came back to him, “Knowing you is crazy. What else ya got?” You may regret asking that question.

  Josiah had just unlocked his door when Jesse called from the other end of the hall, “Lieutenant West, a delivery just arrived for you.” He was pushing a wheeled wardrobe cart.

  Strange, I thought everything had already….

  He remembered when he saw that they were Nora’s uniforms.

  “Just leave the cart in the hall, sir.”

  Josiah put the cart by the empty closet and the case and letter in the lockbox. Nora wasn’t here so he got out his pad and called her. She was at an off-base restaurant with her friend and looked to be having fun. After introducing him to Ally, she swung the pad to show him her new vehicle. It was one of those small four-seater flip-tops that were in favor with young women. It was a dusty rose color. That will be a nice contrast next to the standard black thing the Navy gave me.

  The view switched back to Nora; she had a slightly worried look on her face, “Josey, I…had money left over, so…well…IboughtoneforAlly, Ihopeyoudon’tmind.”

  It took a second to replay that at normal speed; he started laughing. She still had that worried look on her face when he could talk again, “Do you still have some left?”

  She got happy again, “Oh, yes, I still have almost 8,000 credits left.”

  “Nora, the money is yours; do whatever you want with it.”

  She looked very relieved, “I hope you don’t mind but I’m going to spend the night with Ally; I need to get a few things to bring there.”

  “That will be fine. I’m really dragging; I could use some sleep. I’m going flying tomorrow so I gotta be sharp.”

  It still took a few more minutes with all of the profuse thanks from Ally and Nora before he could sign off. That is
a couple of happy girls.

  That bed looked real good.

  #

  Josiah arrived a few minutes early at the hanger and called Molly before he went in. “Well, Lieutenant West, what can I do for you today?”

  She had her usual smile in place, “Molly, I met a Petty Officer Third-Class yesterday that looks like a good candidate for a push up the ladder. Is that something that the Admiral would be interested in?”

  “The Admiral is always interested in putting people where they belong;” her smile took on a slightly nasty edge, “up or down.” Her demeanor shifted to more of a business mode and her gaze to a data terminal next to the com panel, “What’s his name?”

  “Her name, Astrid Seeley; she works in billeting and was flying the desk on the night shift at the BOQ. Her father was a CPO and drive tech. She seems to know a lot about drive systems but couldn’t get into the program because of school difficulties.”

  Molly quit tapping and sat for a moment reading the display, “Hmm…bright kid, good test scores. It looks like she is more a victim of regulations rather than a beneficiary of clear thinking.” She kept tapping. “Hmm…PHON,” she yelled. Josiah jumped. “I’M SENDING YOU A MEMO. CHECK HER OUT.”

  Her attention returned to the com screen, “Phon will talk to some people and get a clearer picture. If she looks good, she will be in Atlanta for the start of the next drive systems class in a couple of weeks. That’s a good one Lieutenant; keep it up. Anything else?”

  Josiah made a mental note to hold the pad a little further from his ears the next time he made a call like this, “No, Molly, that will be it for now.”

  He put his pad away and entered the hanger’s office. Eddie and Andy were checking something on a data display. Eddie broke into a big grin as he entered, “Lieutenant, I hear you’re going to visit the folks today. Is it really true that they have no idea of this?” Eddie was waving a beefy hand at Josiah’s summer white uniform with all of the new and rather startling additions.

  He had to smile at that, “It’s true; I haven’t talked to anyone at home for a month.”

  Andy got a questioning look, “So, Lieutenant, you’re going to arrive unannounced at your family’s place of business, land one of the biggest and rarest assault shuttles in the world at the front door, step out with all of that,” again, a wave of the hand, “and expect no one to have a heart attack?”

  He grinned at that thought, “Everybody in my family is in good health, and I have to admit that I’m kind of looking forward to the surprise. It’ll sure liven up their day.”

  Right then, they were interrupted as Commander Phelps opened the door into the hanger, “Good, you’re here. Let’s get started with the pre-flight.”

  A VISIT HOME

  The pre-flight on Kaleidoscope required all four members of the assigned ground crew and the pilot working together to keep it down to an hour. The need to familiarize Josiah with the procedure pushed it to two hours. When they got away from external and machine area checks and into the passenger area, Josiah had to stop and gawk. The overhead lighting had been the only illumination the day before. Now, the film screens that covered the cabin side walls were operating. It was like floor-to-ceiling windows.

  Phelps ran his arm around the room, “It was a ridiculous idea to put direct-vision ports through a combat hull so we went with micro-drilling and installing exterior pickups to feed the film screens. Impressive, huh?”

  “Wow, impressive indeed.” With the film screens on, it was like standing on an open platform with a lot of seats.

  They went up a formal four-step stairway that had replaced the typical ladder to the command deck. Fran was there, “Lieutenant, if you would please swipe in.” She indicated a pad next to a systems screen on the aft bulkhead. He did so, and she tapped something into the keypad then swiped her own arm then tapped again. When she had finished, she looked up at him, “Sir, you now have full command authority with the master control program. Please sign here.” She held up a data pad indicating her part of the pre-flight had been done and she cleared those systems for flight operations. Josiah signed. As she was stepping through the hatch, she stopped, “Lieutenant,” Josiah turned back to look at her, “sir…be careful.”

  She left, and he turned to Phelps, “She sends a chill up my spine when she does that. Does she have a valid fear?”

  Phelps leaned on the back of the right seat, “Well, as long as you don’t override her limiters there will be no problems. The limiters restrict coil output to well below calculated structural flex points. You have to remember that she’s a drive tech; one of the best in the Navy.” Phelps straightened up and walked back to the hatch, stuck his head through it, and looked around. He came back to the right seat, “That little girl has a mind that makes people’s jaws drop when she starts talking. She doesn’t know it yet but the Admiral has lined up a slot for her at the Academy this fall.

  “She was made aware of what you did on Mars and is firmly convinced that you know more about drive systems than she does, at least the more shady and improbable aspects of the technology.” Phelps smiled, “When we were preparing your Statement of Commendation, we got her into the Admiral’s office and asked her to evaluate the Safety Board’s findings after they took apart that shuttle. She spent an hour going over their report and the raw data. When she was finished, she had this weird look on her face; she just turned to the Admiral and told him that they should all be dead, saluted, and left. When she made that statement in front of everyone…well, it wasn’t pretty.”

  We could now see that Eddie, Fran, Andy, and Jeremiah had gathered just outside the hanger door waiting for us. Phelps nodded in their direction and smiled softly, “What you did was impressive from a strictly technical point of view but also very telling from a psychological point of view. She knows that you have what it takes to bet your life if the trade-off is good enough. She is afraid she may have given you the tool to make some non-standard option seem doable.”

  Josiah held up both hands with palms out, “Trust me, I am still just as attached to my skin as I ever was.”

  Phelps gave him an odd look as they took their seats, “Yeah, that’s what worries me.”

  #

  Fifteen minutes later, they were easing Kaleidoscope out of the hanger on the GS lifters. That was another system that had never been designed into the D but had become necessary when the new coils were installed. This particular installation included low-power lateral emitters that enabled maneuvering in ground handling mode. There was no practical way to moderate or warp the field effect of drive coils designed for the extreme requirements of a tug, so Kaleidoscope’s drive was kept locked down while anywhere near anything.

  Once well clear of all buildings, Josiah turned Kaleidoscope around to face back toward the hanger and settled back down to the pads. He checked his com panel and touched the pad on his left attitude grip, “Tampa ground this is Admiral’s shuttle requesting Admiral designation and non-critical free flight clearance for training. Departure northwest within continent and atmosphere.”

  “Admiral’s shuttle, designate…Admiral one-zero. Northwest departure to continental and atmosphere limits approved. Advise of any intent to approach established traffic patterns. Monitor LATS and channel two-zero-zero.”

  “Admiral one-zero”

  Josiah set the Traffic Link Encoder to the Admiral 10 designation and tapped the com screen to select channel 200 for traffic control monitoring. The Low Altitude Traffic monitor System screen showed only the usual activity in established traffic corridors.

  “Kaleidoscope, proximity check.”

  A series of chimes sounded with varying intensities, “PROXIMITY SYSTEM OPERATIONAL. NO CONFLICTS.”

  A nice thing about Kaleidoscope, it still had a fully updated military-grade proximity alarm system; it just didn’t have the weapons systems to remove any unwanted conflicts.

  Josiah tapped in the release code for the drive on the primary command screen.

&
nbsp; “WARNING - DRIVE ACTIVE.”

  Josiah lifted Kaleidoscope on the GS system and did a slow climb to 200 meters before engaging the drive. Even with minimum power to the coils it made everyone feel better to gain some altitude first.

  He had set the compensator level to a rather firm “feel” so that there was a solid feel of velocity changes. It would not be a good idea if there had been passengers, but there weren’t, and it was more fun this way.

  After a sedate climb to a thousand meters up and five kilometers out over the gulf, Josiah aimed northwest, forty-five degrees up, and ran the power up to the point where the two of them were pressed firmly into their seats; they passed escape velocity well before getting above twenty kilometers. He pulled back the power and applied a light reverse thrust to keep them from exceeding their authorized maximum altitude of 100 kilometers.

  Josiah was impressed and turned toward Phelps, “My compliments to your people; there was absolutely no feeling of sync dropout. I don’t think my father’s people could have done better.”

  Phelps knew the level of experience that generated that compliment and was justly proud, “They may seem like a slap-stick comedy team most of the time, but they are the best.”

  They spent the next hour going through emergency procedures--simulating all types of system failures. Josiah found his earlier time with a D to be a 90 percent match with a couple of new things added.