“Sir?” Jethro asked. He hadn't put in for more classes.
“You heard me. Brush up on your history and biology. Maybe talk with your grandmother the matriarch. Maybe she can shed some light on this. But keep any answers your find...”
“To myself. Yes sir,” Jethro replied, nodding.
The Major nodded. “Good man.” Jethro took that as a hint of dismissal. He surged to his feet, feeling oddly better. He came to attention. “Dismissed,” the Major said, waving a hand as his free hand put his leaves back on. He picked up a tablet as the hatch closed and then tossed it back.
The Major toyed with a stylus, looking at the tablet. “You know, the hell of it is, the kid is right. Damn it.”
“Can I get into this now Major?” Firefly asked from the overhead speaker. The AI sounded a little put out. That was just too damn bad.
“Fine,” the Major sighed, flicking the stylus away. “Let's hear it.”
“First, good job. I'm not happy about the results, but I understand you had to give him something. And Major, I do sympathize. But I am... stuck. Trapped. I can't go on.”
“I see.”
...*...*...*...*...
Jethro took a couple of extra light military and civilian college courses, along with the recommended biology classes. He wasn't sure what he was looking for, his search of the material came up empty. He'd already learned some basics in boot, things like basic first aid, and communications. They served him well in the biology class, but not so much in the computer course. He'd taken several other classes afterward, but taking the advanced courses cleared his way to promotion.
He struggled with the civilian side, it was hard since he didn't have a formal education. He was amused by some of it after a while. Most was book work since they didn't have the equipment on hand. That made it easy, he downloaded it to his implants and then set them up to sleep teach him the lessons, sometimes chapters ahead of the class.
Asazi had taken some of the same class load he had. She'd even gotten in to some of the early DI courses, though she'd come back and said that the Corporal trying to teach it didn't know his ass from his elbow. She'd quietly made Lance Corporal, surprising the squad. Gunny had pinned her stripes on and then they had been called to an exercise before they could give her any form of 'wetting down party'.
He was curious as to why command was now opening up promotions. Scuttlebutt had it that promotions had been on permanent hold because of the admiral's departure and the lack of ships. Apparently something had changed. It took him a few minutes of musing before he finally remembered the orbital forts and stations. Slowly he nodded. Yes, each would suck up people. Also Agnosta. With a couple thousand Marines, their families, and some naval personnel off in another system, they would open a hole for more people here in Pyrax.
San Diego was another thing, they had finally gotten the solar farms large enough to allow some expansion in the Bernal sphere. Not a lot, but they could restart work on the interior. That demanded labor.
The Anvil college was a popular destination in the system, one of the brightest spots in the future of the system. It's ability to link with those with implants and the colleges acceptance of correspondence courses had allowed it to have a dynamic class and student body. Already satellite college campuses had begun construction on two of the largest colonies, and another inside San Diego. San Diego would have an almost purely military student body of course though, because the academy and advanced tactical training course would be there, or so they said.
...*...*...*...*...
The class on biology didn't help. The birds and the bees ticked him off. The kids in class giggled about it, so much it distracted him so he switched to attending online. His questions of benign tumors that do things only confused him, the answers in the data were way over his head. He couldn't ask anyone, couldn't involve anyone, so he remained frustrated.
He dropped out of the course when they focused on reproduction. He really didn't care about the birds and the bees, he wanted to know what was going on in his own body. He'd been tempted to get another student to take a biopsy, but had decided that letting a kid with no experience cut him might not be the wisest of ideas. Besides, he would scar, and the scar would compromise his cloak.
Stymied he switched to a required history class. The class was on the Xeno war. The course was light, really a child's primer on the conflict. It was an interstellar conflict, intergalactic. Not Intragalactic, but truly intergalactic. The Xeno's had come from outside the milky way many thousands of years ago fleeing some other race, or so the sketchy history blurb about their species said. They had swept the milky way with a broom, obliterating any intelligent life they had found before they had run into the Federation. They had tried and succeeded in infiltrating the Federation, and when they had enough information they had acted, striking fast to hammer each colony world into rubble. Thousands of worlds, billions, no trillions of sapients had died before the Federation had picked up enough intelligence to strike back.
The war that had followed had raged through the milky way, burning planet after planet. Admiral Irons was mentioned in the history class, he had created many things including the nova bomb. From the sound of it, it hadn't worked out as he had planned. Instead of a terror weapon to cow the Xeno's into surrendering the Federation had shown the other side something possible and they had copied it. Then true darkness had started with blinding bursts of supernovas consuming everything. Stars were bombed, collapsing into black holes, magnetars, neutron stars... he winced. The core worlds had been gutted by the damn Xenos. Trillions had died.
Somehow, he still wasn't clear on how, the history book didn't say, but somehow Federation Intelligence had gotten it's hands on a Xeno navigational suite that hadn't suicided. They had taken it apart molecule by molecule and then sent the information out to all the remaining ships for vengeance just ahead of the nova that consumed Sol.
Unfortunately that had left the other home systems unguarded, a calculated risk that had blown up in their face for nearly a year. For nearly a year the Xeno's were unopposed, moving from system to system tearing it apart. Some systems had fought gallantly, some had built fleets to flee into the darkness. No one knew what had happened to them. But then word of what was happening to their own worlds got back to them and they had left.
From there the history was sketchy. There was speculation that the fleets had met up in climactic battle and torn each other apart, or that one side or the other had initiated a nova bomb obliterating both and the system they were in. No one knew for sure. All they knew was that for seven centuries the Xeno's had never returned.
Jethro tapped the tablet against his muzzle. That thought bothered him now. No one knew. No one knew if the Xeno's were still out there. They assumed they were all dead. Did the Xeno's think the same thing when they left the remnants of the Federation? Could they have survived? Troubling thoughts, he thought, setting the tablet aside and turning off his rack light. He did his best to put it out of his mind.
...*...*...*...*...
When he finished the Xeno war class Jethro hunted around. He didn't like the field, only one course was available that he needed for promotion, a class on intelligence. He frowned, staring at it before he finally gave in and signed up for it.
The class was an in introduction to intelligence, Lieutenant JG Irene Teague was a last minute fill in to teach the class. It was a short two week class. Jethro spoke with her after a class when she had a free moment. “What techniques work best for interrogation?”
“What do you think?” she asked, smiling as she packed her satchel.
“Well, I usually growl and they get scared and piss themselves silly.”
“Right,” she snorted. “We call that bad cop by the way,” she said. “There are many techniques, but the best is to be a listener.”
“A listener?”
“Well, we've found that a combination of isolation, good cop bad cop, a little carrot and stick, and careful question
s have been the best ways to tease information out of our POW's,” she said. “Comparing notes and seeing who is lying about what is also very useful.”
“I bet the implants and security recordings help sir. What about the carrot part?”
“Oh, privileges,” she replied with a slight smile. “If they want something, they give us something. And we bond. The good cops I mean. Get them on your side, get them eager to please you, if only because they see you as a friend and protector. Sometimes it's the little things like a softer pillow or a favorite food or treat that can get through their defenses. And patience. Don't just jump in and start trying to worm critical intel out of them. Work around to it with casual talk over weeks and months.”
“I see.”
“We're getting there,” Irene said. “A lot of us tend to forget, we're still learning on the job. But, well, it's getting progressively easier, we're building on our successes and learning from our failures.”
“I see. Every little bit helps?”
“Every conversation, even the trivial ones matter. And since we only have a handful of pirates, it's easy to cross correlate what they say. The admiral gave us the biggest stick of them all, if they don't cooperate they go out the lock.”
“Ouch.”
“Yeah. We don't bring it up. Not unless we're nasty. Just bringing it up can break a relationship and we don't want that.”
“Isolation?”
“It keeps them from comparing notes. Sometimes we put them together for brief periods because they asked for it. Sort of a carrot thing. You'd be surprised what intel they let slip during those periods,” she said with a smile.
“Including the ones we picked up on Agnosta?” Jethro asked.
She stared at him for a long moment. “How did you...” He felt her access his implant ID. After a moment she nodded. “I see. I didn't realize you were in on that,” she said, voice flattening a little. Instinctively she used her implants to look around the area to see and note who was in ear shot.
“I'm just curious ma'am,” he said, spreading his hands slightly.
“Ah. Well, the rough treatment didn't help at first, at least until we turned it on its head.”
“Oh?”
“They were pretty... frightened of you and the other Neo's. Making it clear that if they didn't play ball we'd ask one or more of you to step in, and help convince them into talking, helped somewhat.”
“Ah, I see,” Jethro snorted.
“Since all of you are carnivores, that helps. A nice show of teeth now and then, just the idea had a couple pissing the bed.”
Jethro grinned. “Anything we can do to help. I could always ghost in and spook a few,” he said.
“Ghost... yes, I heard something about your cloak. Where did you get it?” she asked.
“Genetics. My ancestor Tobias. That's all I know really, if you want more you'll have to get past Firefly and a load of classified labels,” Jethro replied ruefully. “I'd like to know more myself sir, ma'am.”
“Ma'am is fine,” the Lieutenant said, waving a hand. “I imagine the classified blocks are there for a reason,” she said.
“I know that on some levels, but we're talking my body here. We're also talking about...” he sighed and shook his head. “Never mind, again classified.”
“I see,” she said slowly, and then nodded. “That's one of the hardest things to do, is to shut up. I'm glad you are working on that part Corporal. Keep working on it.”
“Yes Ma'am,” Jethro replied, flicking his ears in humor.
The Lieutenant smiled slightly. “Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got a date with my boy-toy and he owes me a massage and a hot bath before I have to grade papers. You get on that homework assignment young man, cat, whatever,” Irene said, waggling a finger at the panther.
Jethro's eyes widened briefly and then he nodded dutifully. “Aye aye ma'am.”
...*...*...*...*...
The first orbital fort was under construction. The Naval architects and engineers had got around some of the worst of the design issues with creative low tech fixes and work arounds thought up by Ox and his compatriots. Each fort design had massive Gauss linear actuator weapons for their main guns. Each could lob multiton lobs of metal and rock at a target. There were many of different scales, some for main weapons, some for point defense. Each of their mounts were modular to allow the crews to upgrade to point defense lasers or graser weapon turrets when they became available. If they ever did.
Horatio brought in the Sod Busters crew to help and do some of the work. The military engineers ended up training them on the job for the work. Just getting some of the noobs to have a work ethic was an achievement, most wanted to sit around and talk while someone else did the heavy lifting. The Valdez and Gutierrez family were heavily involved in hauling goods and people to and from the fort.
Solar power and beamed energy were the current power method until a fusion reactor could be built and installed. Since the tech for a reactor was mostly banned by the replicators, they had a long wait on that front. They did use as much off the shelf parts as they could, and planned for the future carefully. An opening for the reactors was made, and EPS conduit and control runs were installed. Hopefully if they ever did get a fusion reactor, they would be able to drop it in and hook it up.
Jethro occasionally took lunches in an observation blister. He and a few others would silently eat their MRE's while watching the splendid view. Some were more interested in the stars beyond, he was ever curious about all the tiny craft darting about, feeding the asteroid. It seemed liked a reversal of the way things should be.
The work took less than a month before it was finished. When it was finished and tested the first fort was towed out to the jump point to Beta-101A1. It took Firefly two standard weeks to tow the behemoth asteroid to just outside the safe jump zone, two million kilometers from the jump point's center. There it was set up, overseeing the minefield and giving Wendigo, the escort frigate on picket duty there some much needed back up.
There was a brief public ceremony christening the project. The media closed with the news that three additional forts were under construction and that San Diego was now back under construction. Jethro remained on Anvil, studying hard for finals. He was amused to see some of the squad in dress blues as honor guards at the ceremony. He was less amused by the talk by various colonial mayors about how the navy could drag their colony in to the yard and give them a free overhaul.
...*...*...*...*...
When he passed the intel test Jethro decided to celebrate. Hrriss was supposed to meet him at an upscale restaurant. He waited patiently, and was annoyed when he received an e-mail apologizing and canceling the lunch. He ordered a light meal, ate it quickly and then paid his bill.
As he was leaving Jethro ran into the Anvil station governor, Enrique Salvador, Lieutenant Commander Thornby, and Lieutenant Commander Matilda. He gave the two military reservists a brief nod in passing. He didn't have to come to attention and salute since both reserve officers were out of uniform.
...*...*...*...*...
Anvil station governor Enrique Salvador smiled politely to the two ladies. He'd known both for decades. Doctor Thornby had been an intern when he had been born, she had assisted his Pediatrician doctor Rom'thal until the old Veraxin had retired, and then taken over as his general practitioner. In other words she'd looked after him for practically every sniffle, bump, bruise, and broken bone. As well as the occasional hangover. They had worked well on the station council, she had been a supporter when the port admiral had been in charge. But ever since the upheaval she had been distant, first in being so busy, but also with this mess with politics and the navy. “Thank you for agreeing to meet me.”
“Hey, I couldn't pass up a handsome lad offering to take me out to lunch,” Matilda quipped, taking her seat. Enrique blinked, he'd been on his way to seat her but paused in confusion. Thornby smiled politely, allowing him to seat her. She smiled her thanks as he took his own seat.
<
br /> “Everything well?” Matilda asked, as a waiter came over. “Water,” she ordered, turning her head to the woman. The girl nodded, writing it down on a tablet. She turned expectantly to the doctor.
“Water as well. Vitamin water though,” the doctor replied, shooting a teasing glance at the dean. Matilda snorted softly.
“Um, ah, vitamin water as well,” Enrique replied with a shrug as he picked up his menu. Matilda had changed a great deal. Gone was the self effacing secretary he had known. The grandmotherly woman had firmed up, she was now a confident woman. She had even taken the time to initiate anti-geriatric treatments it seemed. She looked twenty years younger. It was a bit disconcerting to see the cougar on the prowl.
Doctor Thornby watched the waitress bob a nod and then disappear unobtrusively. It was the beginning of the lunch hour, there was a small crowd, growing as patrons came in. She was amused by the presence of the nearby Marines and immediately recognized Jethro. She nodded politely to him. He flicked his ears back. She snorted softly, laying out her linen napkin in her lap.
Enrique was a bit off his game, she judged, he'd begun to become fidgety lately, a sure sign he was caught in a crack and didn't like it or see a way out of it. In other words, he was acting a lot like he had been before the admiral had arrived, when he'd been under the thumb of the slimeball Port admiral clone. Some people returned to type under the wrong conditions, adopting a crony attitude. She was done with that.
They engaged in small talk, discussing a few things, dancing around the subject of whatever Enrique wanted to talk about. Matilda brought them up to speed on her granddaughter's latest boyfriend and how well she was doing in school.
She wished he'd just come out and say it, they might be able to get it sorted out. Besides, all this dancing around the subject drove her nuts. She had work to do, important work. Not that she minded the break, it was just annoying.
Jethro: First to Fight Page 29
