It was Captain Gilly. “Sit down, Lieutenant Cooper.”
“Sir?”
“You’re going to need to be seated. Lieutenant.”
“I don’t understand, sir.”
“I’m sorry to interrupt your leave, Lieutenant, but you have to be back at Maunalua tomorrow as early as possible. 0700 or earlier.”
“I can come now, sir.”
“We need you by early Monday; I wish I could say you don’t need to be back sooner. A problem has arisen.”
“A rescue, Captain?”
“After a fashion. It’s late evening there, on a Saturday, there being Kansas. An impressive numbers of sailors hail from Kansas.”
“Sir, what’s going on?”
“The President of France went on vacation yesterday afternoon. To visit some pretty Greek islands and all of that. The Opposition and some very disloyal members of his party have sandbagged him. Lieutenant Cooper, earlier today the French Parliament passed, and the acting Prime Minister of France signed, an arrest warrant for you, on the charges of mass murder, sabotage and probably walking on the grass. The charges run to two pages of single-spaced type.”
Becky sat down on her bed. “Sir?”
“They want to get back at us for the loss of the Orleans. They waited until the President was out of the country, called a special session of Parliament, passed it on a voice vote and had the acting President sign it into law. They also indicted Kat, out on the Aft Trojans, for murder. We haven’t heard from Eagle yet, or Kat. All things considered, we can hardly wait.
“I’ve dispatched a security team. As yet the media are just waking up to this, and have no idea who you are or where you are. The President told Admiral Delgado to deal with this, if at all possible. I pray to God it’s possible. The Fleet, the Federation, will go all out for you, that goes without saying.”
“I have no idea what to do, sir. None.”
“Be here as early as possible tomorrow. We’ve told the French it’s l’weekend. That seems to have pissed them off. Still it gives us a little time.”
“Let me rephrase what I just said, sir. What should I do?”
“Enjoy the last night of your leave. A security detail and a PIO are en route. They will take care of anything between now and tomorrow morning. Tomorrow early, board the shuttle and come to Maunalua.”
“Sir, I’m an early riser.”
He sighed heavily. “Right now there are lights burning in a lot of offices all around the world. Lieutenant Cooper, the French, except for Sarkozy, don’t like the Federation. They feel that it’s intended to supplant the European Union. At the Australian Conference, they sent maybe third or fourth string diplomats to negotiate with Admiral Kinsella. You can imagine how that went.”
Not too well, Becky believed. You didn’t want to send anyone but the best against Stephanie Kinsella.
“I have another meeting to attend, Lieutenant. Be here tomorrow morning.”
Captain Gilly broke the connection, leaving Becky shaking her head.
Her father broke her mood. “Becks? What’s up?”
“I have to go back tomorrow morning. Early tomorrow.”
“And your leave?”
“Called on account of rain.” She looked up at him. “They are sending a security detail and a PIO. Tell anyone who calls and asks for me ‘She doesn’t live here anymore,’ and give them the Fleet HQ phone number in Hawaii.”
“What’s going on?”
“I was told once to be careful -- that sometimes the biggest threats to your career are elephants trying to dance on the head of a pin, and stepping on you by mistake.”
“Becks, you were six the last time I paddled you. I’m tempted now. Please, dear Becks, what’s up?”
“I guess I need to talk to everyone again.”
It took a few minutes; her mother had been getting ready for bed, her two brothers had been talking over beers.
“There is no easy way to say this; I’m really sorry, and I apologize to all of you in advance.”
“Becks? You’ve been mysterious since your phone call,” her father told her.
“The French government has accused me of mass murder in regards to the accident to the Miracle at Orleans. They feel that I deliberately sabotaged their ship and killed more than two hundred people.”
“What?” her father said angrily.
“It’s a political thing, I think,” Becky told them.
“You said the French President wanted to give you a medal!” her mother said, outraged.
“Politics,” Becky repeated. “If anyone calls and asks, you have no idea where I am. If they are persistent, refer them to the Fleet in Hawaii.”
The Fleet was evidently much better than she thought, keeping the nosies at bay, because the phone never rang.
On the other hand, she was met at the Maunalua shuttle port by Admiral Kinsella, Captain Gilly and Commander Jacobsen. When Becky tried to speak Admiral Kinsella made an elaborate shushing sign. “You will have a chance to say your piece shortly, Lieutenant.”
They rode a limo to the temporary building that was Fleet Headquarters. It was a short walk to Admiral Delgado’s office. Even very early on a Sunday morning, the hallways were thronged with officers, looking busy, and some were clearly fatigued.
The meeting convened in one of the senior officer conference rooms. Unusually, it was Admiral Delgado who conducted the briefing for everyone. There were a whole lot of people present.
“It was initially thought that this had the potential to become a nasty international incident. To my chagrin I ignored Admiral Kinsella’s opinion that I had no idea how nasty it could become.
“Eagle, out on the Aft Trojans, sent a veiled threat to the French, saying that sovereignties don’t issue arrest warrants for the heads of state of other sovereignties. The acting French President told him that France and the EU don’t recognize their government and that they intended to send police to effect the arrest. Thank God, Sarkozy hastily cut his vacation short and is back as of this morning.
“At 1400 Zulu this afternoon, the Aft Trojans bought an eight hour block on a French cable channel and started running a movie marathon. The first movie was Armageddon. To make the message very clear, the scene where Paris is devastated by a meteor impact was looped through three times. There are three other movies in the queue, ending with another showing of Armageddon in prime time.” He nodded in Admiral Kinsella’s direction. “I couldn’t get the admiral to bet a million to one against the second showing being identical to the first.
“It’s easy to laugh -- but it’s something else again when two nations with extensive arsenals start threatening each other. And make no mistake -- those movies of meteors hitting the Earth are threats. There are a couple of hundred thousand rocks that Eagle or his people have access to.
“Hopefully Sarkozy will be able to quash the worst of the hotheads. He has told the President that things have gone too far, and that we have to respond.”
He cleared his throat. “We held an informal inquiry into the loss of the Miracle at Orleans, mostly directed at the perceived significant issue of what caused the fan failures. The charges laid against Lieutenant Cooper ignore the fan failure, and charged her with willful sabotage of the reactor installation.”
Becky had thought that working on Anna had been the most difficult task of her life. Keeping still now was infinitely more difficult.
“The President has gotten the French to agree to Prime Minister Campbell of Australia, to arbitrate between us. Currently it looks like we will hold a formal Board of Inquiry. The outline calls for a French president of the Board, and another French member, while the Fleet will supply three officers of flag rank for the remainder. I’ll be one, Admiral Kinsella will be another. The third has yet to be selected -- arrangements are still up in the air.”
He gestured towards Becky. “You are doing admirably, Lieutenant. Not a single scream of anguish.”
“Sir, it’s not my place,” Becky
replied.
“That’s so -- but when an elephant steps on your toes it’s hard not to at least let out an ‘ouch!’”
He gestured again, this time at Commander Jacobsen. “Let us focus just now on our own situation. The Fleet, and consequently the Federation, thought we could deal with this informally. Clearly, that was a mistake, and it’s not one which we can afford to make again. The deaths of so many people, the loss of a ship like that isn’t a trivial event that can be dismissed by a couple of officers holding a meeting in a conference room.
“True, we didn’t know about the loss at the start of the inquiry, but we did before we finished.
“As much as it is a pain in the ass, it is a necessary pain in the ass. Formal procedures, as Admiral Kinsella reminded me last night, are a way to make sure our i’s are dotted and our t’s crossed. It’s like a pilot’s checklist before flight -- you don’t want to take a chance on forgetting the simplest thing.
“So, we will hold a formal inquiry. After an event of any consequence from here on, we’ll hold a formal Board of Inquiry. I’ve already set a half dozen JAG officers to work on drawing up a code of justice for the Fleet; for right now, we’ll stick to a slightly modified version of the American UCMJ. A Board of Inquiry tries fact. All it can do is recommend to the convening authority what future actions it feels are necessary, if anything.
“Commander Jacobsen, I tasked you to look into this matter in further depth, to see if any of our people might have any liability in these events.”
Commander Jacobsen stood. “I am trying, sir, to the utmost of my ability not to scream in anger. I would, sir, as an engineer, give my left nut to ask any of a thousand questions of any of the French engineers who worked on the vessel at any point in her ill-fated life.
“The inescapable fact is that the French did not permit Lieutenant Cooper to accomplish any of the integration tasks for that reactor... all she did was fashion structural supports.
“At the time competent engineers of the Fleet reviewed the blueprints she submitted. They agreed that the supports were proper and sufficient. Lieutenant Cooper submitted x-rays of about 50% of those welds. They were reviewed by competent engineers who agreed that they were done correctly.
“None of the integration work was done before Lieutenant Cooper left that vessel. She estimated that six to eight weeks of work remained to integrate and test the reactor. Two weeks after Captain Gilly and his party left the vessel, it attempted to return to Earth under its own power. We are presuming that they had completed work on the reactor and were using it. They did have a secondary power system online, that might have been adequate. If I’d had a crew working on that reactor 24/7, seven days a week, it’s possible that I could have had it ready in a month. Not two weeks.
“Yes, Lieutenant Cooper was one of my students at Annapolis; I was fond of her. That is not clouding my judgment in the least.”
Admiral Delgado considered her for a few moments. “I had thought to employ an experienced JAG officer as Lieutenant Cooper’s counsel and letting you back him up. Now, I’m thinking the reverse should be true. What say you Lieutenant Cooper? Would you agree to having Commander Jacobsen as your lead counsel?”
She didn’t hesitate, but replied, “Yes, sir.”
“Commander Jacobsen...”
The commander cut him off. “Sir, I mean no disrespect but this will have to be quick. I’m slated to depart on the Southern Cross in two months; we start working up for the flight in a month. I rather hope Lieutenant Cooper will be serving in my engineering department.”
Admiral Kinsella spoke for the first time. “It’s Monday morning. We pick a JAG officer in time for brunch, Commander Jacobsen brings the officer up to speed by tomorrow at mid-afternoon. Than we hold a pre-Inquiry conference to go over everything one last time. We’re ready to go Wednesday at 0800. That should set to rest Commander Jacobsen’s concerns about how much time this will take.
“Unless the French head of a inquiry has some very inventive means of forcing delays, I think we can be done in time for dinner on Wednesday.”
“That’s certainly an optimistic schedule, Admiral,” Admiral Delgado said dryly. “Commander Jacobsen?”
“I think I see where Admiral Kinsella is coming from. We focused most of our attention on the fan malf up to now. There is very little data, relatively speaking, concerning the reactor installation. Lieutenant Cooper more than adequately documented the work she had done, her proposed schematics and blueprints for the hookup and integration of the reactor.”
Captain Gilly interrupted. “I have an observation on this matter. I saw how Captain Reynard worked -- or didn’t work. We made available a couple of technical experts if they had any questions; they never asked so much as one question. I am as certain as I can be that the work was done in a hasty, slap-dash fashion without regard to safety procedures and without documenting their work. In short, the French will have nothing to go on but paranoia.
“Even using some very imaginative delays, I can’t see this going beyond Friday.”
Becky cleared her throat. Her mind had been furiously fermenting ever since they had sat down at the conference table. “I realize that junior officers exist to be seen and not heard, but I would like to offer a thought.”
“By all means, Lieutenant,” Admiral Delgado told her.
“I have had others taking offense at me or my actions since grade school. I have never formed a lasting dislike or a desire for personal revenge that lasted past the moment.
“I’ve never had a government take a personal dislike to me, where they are essentially engaging in a private vendetta against me. It is hard, sirs, to not take that personally. And harder still not to respond in kind.
“In trying not to take it personally, I have the following observation to make. When Pilot Officer Malcolm asked me to participate in the review of the original accident, I had occasion to view the original reactor room of the vessel. It was empty. Malcolm told me that the French had told him that they’d decontaminated the area as well as possible.
“It is my conclusion that since the original reactor was no longer aboard the vessel, it had been ejected. I believe there is a solemn international treaty about the containment of debris in orbit, with particular attention paid to radioactive debris.
“I propose that the Solar Patrol be tasked with locating that debris and towing it to a location to be determined, where it won’t be a hazard. And billing the French.”
Admiral Kinsella’s laugh was nasty. “I concur. I most heartily concur.”
Captain Gilly kept a straight face. “This sort of task will be a part of the Patrol’s duties. This sort of exercise will be an important part of learning their duties.”
“I believe that treaty only covers objects in Earth orbit,” Admiral Delgado mused. He brightened. “It is clear the original treaty was written before we knew we’d be running all over the solar system shortly. I believe it is within my purview to order such a remedial action. I will recommend to the temporary Federation Council that such an extension of the original treaty be a high priority.”
An aide knocked on the conference room door and handed a message form to Admiral Delgado, then hastened away. Admiral Delgado read it and smiled. “The French aren’t doing too well. In the last hour an emergency session of the UN Security Council was called into session by the French to condemn the Trojans for threatening them with WMD.
“They were laughed at by China and the US, since the ‘threat’ consists of movies, and of course, the Trojans aren’t a member of the UN. The vote was 2 in favor, 4 opposed, including three vetoes and one abstention.
“The French also introduced a motion into the European parliament censuring the Trojans, while at the same time applying for EU warrants against Lieutenant Cooper and Kat. They didn’t vote -- the British and eastern European members walked out, while the Scandinavians, including Denmark, and Holland told them not to be absurd, that they’d never vote for such a thing. T
he French appear to have brought the EU close to collapse.”
He picked up a phone and asked the operator to get him the President. Commander Jacobsen turned to Becky. “I imagine you’ve been a little too busy to follow politics lately, right?”
“Not much, sir, sorry. I’ve had my nose rubbed in my lack of knowledge in economics; I’m sure my ignorance of government and politics is equally profound -- and just as much of a mistake.”
“The Federation is getting organized. In the initial discussions, one of the top priorities was establishing a membership committee and requirements to join our nascent Federation. Currently the membership committee consists of members of the state departments of various countries, with the secretaries of state as ex-officio chairmen, in six month rotations. The Federation Council consists of a number of heads of government. The two groups are collaborating on a Federation charter, extending the original outline developed at the Australia Conference. Since it doesn’t exist as yet, membership is not permanent -- you can ask to join, and no nation has been rejected as yet. However, a great many countries have been made aware that their governments won’t qualify as they are today.
“Right now the major players are the US, Australia, Japan, Canada and the UK.
“France is one of the countries that we initially thought would be one of the players, but after they threw out Sarkozy, he’s been cautious about broaching the subject since his return. It’s clear there is considerable sentiment in France against the dominance of the Anglosphere in the new Federation... of course if they joined they’d have as much of a say as anyone else, but that’s not how they see it.”
Admiral Delgado started talking; clearly it was to the President of the United States. “Mr. President, I’ve heard about the UN and European Parliament votes. It is our opinion that we should hold a formal Board of Inquiry. We would be ready to go on Wednesday.”
“Yes, sir, I do mean the day after tomorrow.”
Rescue Branch (Kinsella Universe) Page 15
