by George Olney
He put down his empty beer and headed for the dressing room. Best get to work. He had an appointment tonight he definitely had to keep.
The senior decurion at the other end of the bar simply nodded in satisfaction as the Legate left to slay his dragon. "Get me another beer," he told the orderly.
He turned casually to look across the pool as Shana collapsed limply into her lounger with a slightly stunned look, to be besieged by the other three girls and bombarded with questions. His smile was a little sparse, but genuine. Like the Sergeant Major said, the girl's doing good.
CHAPTER 10
LEGIO IX VICTRIX
CAULDWELL
Morning formation on Duty Day One felt pretty good to Shana. Before taking command, she was always someone in the ranks. Now she was in front of her own platoon as the commander. She was a real commissioned officer, too, not a cadet appointed to lead other cadets. Great feeling. She was going into her second week with her platoon and she wondered if the thrill would ever wear off. She hoped not.
She had a typical commander's problem this morning to offset her good feeling, but it was something she could handle. Just before the formation, Sergeant Steel told her that her three youngest troopers, Kardo, Chofal, and Smythe, were in the guardhouse again. Something she'd also been told was a regular occurance. Now she had to figure out what she wanted to do with the three habitual Duty Day One headaches. Shana was determined she wouldn't be transferring any troopers for disciplinary reasons. Let someone else do that. She wanted a perfect record.
In a way, it was comforting to get back into military routine after what turned into a wonderful, if enervating, weekend - a wonderful enervating weekend spent in Karl Athan's quarters. She even made dinner on Down Day Two and her cooking was a nice surprise for Karl. So was the fact she was only wearing one of his uniform shirts while working in the little kitchen. Returning to her own quarters for Make and Mend that evening was relaxing in its own way. She was back in her own space and didn't have the usual blahs that went with Down Day Two's late afternoon and early evening. There was another date with Karl to look forward to next weekend as well. On the whole, looking at the mixture of platoon, guardhouse warriors, and new boyfriend, Shana decided she was happy.
She saluted when the Captain dismissed the formation then turned to Sergeant Steel. "Sergeant, will you get my three wayward children and bring them to the Platoon CP? I want to have a talk with them."
"You sure you don't want to have me handle the problem, Lieutenant?" His tone said it wasn't a test, simply a question.
She shook her head. "I've been told those three are ending up in the guardhouse on a regular basis. I want to know why."
Sergeant Steel had a mildly disgusted look. "That's easy, Lieutenant. They're the youngest qualified troopers in the Legion. They're transfers from the Rhiannonithi, recruits that had their Virgin Mission years too early, and Smythe's two years younger than the other two. He tries to act about five years older than he is, gets drunk and gets in fights when someone rags him. Kardo and Chofal get into it on his side and all three usually end up in front of the Captain afterwards."
Shana sighed. "I saw how young they were when I took command. Well, they're mine now. Let me see if I can stop that."
Sergeant Steel saluted smartly. "Aye, Lieutenant. I'll go get them."
As Shana turned away, the Captain stopped her. "Shana, Lieutenant Colonel Paten wants to see you this morning."
Shana said, "Aye, Captain. Have I got any time before the appointment? You know I've got three of mine coming out of the guardhouse. I want deal with that as soon as possible."
Captain Samson grimaced. "Kardo, Chofal, and Smythe. If you can keep those characters from in front of my desk, Shana, you'll be doing me a service. Take care of them first. Colonel Paten didn't say you had to be there bright and early. From what I've been told, it didn't seem urgent."
"Aye." She saluted and went off to the CP to handle her first problem children. Part of the job... and it was a job she was hugely enjoying.
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Shana was sitting behind her desk in the little room designated as Fourth Platoon's CP when Sergeant Steel knocked on the door frame. "Come," she said in a flat, firm voice that said she was The Boss.
"In, all of you," Sergeant Steel said to the troopers following him. "In front of the Lieutenant's desk, and smartly."
Once the three Gladii were lined up in front of her in something approaching a position of attention, Shana took the time to look them over carefully. They were dirty, disheveled, banged up, and Chofal was sporting a beautiful shiner. Sergeant Steel was holding their weapons belts, since those had been confiscated by the guardhouse detail. "You're in front of me instead of the Captain because I said I'd handle the problem," she said in a calm, even tone.
Smythe looked relieved at that announcement, but Chofal and Kardo appeared a little uneasy. All three suddenly looked very nervous when the Lieutenant rose from behind her desk and started walking down their line, examining each of them slowly up and down as she passed. Chofal began looking very worried. Shana imagined he preferred standing in front of Captain Samson and getting his ass chewed as usual.
Shana stopped before the oldest of the three. "Legionnaire Second Class Kardo, how many times have you made Legionnaire Third Class?" Her question was in a quiet conversational voice. Kardo also got a very worried look.
"Twice, Lieutenant," he popped, facing straight ahead at attention.
"Twice," Shana said musingly. "And I suppose you other two have had similar up and down trips."
She stopped in the middle of the line, hands behind her back, and surveyed them again with nothing more than scientific interest. "People, that stops now," she said in firm, even, professional tones. "You are members of Fourth Platoon, and I expect you to act as members of Fourth Platoon. Fourth Platoon, my platoon, is a team in the real sense of the word. Since you three don't understand teamwork, you will have to learn it from the ground up."
She reached out and popped the adhesive field on each trooper's rank numbers with a thumbnail, leaving all of them with bare collars. In essence, they were now Recruits. "You no longer have any rank, people. Not in Fourth Platoon. What you get from here on in, you will have to earn, and you will have to prove to me you deserve it. When you prove yourselves members of my platoon I will return your rank. Not before. That means your performance on duty and your conduct off duty will have to be to my standards. I don't care what you did before I took over. Your past is cleared in my book. All I care about is what you do from this day on. You perform and keep your noses clean, you can have these back and become human again. Another episode like this weekend and you're out of here with your records marked as failures. I wouldn't like that, but I'm a realist. There's always someone unable to do a combat job. You three may fall into that category."
She crossed her arms and gave them another long measuring look. "Personally, I believe you three have potential, or I'd be in the process of finding you new homes in Buildings and Grounds section... in separate legions."
Smythe looked like he was ready to cry. "Lieutenant," he popped, "permission to speak." Shana nodded. "Lieutenant, it was my fault. I started the fight."
Shana walked over and stood directly in front of him. He was still in his mid-teens and not yet at his full growth. She was almost his height, and the experience of standing at attention and looking a female officer in the eye was unnerving to him. "I don't really care, Legionnaire Smythe. You don't seem to understand, so I will make myself clear to you. You are in my platoon. Whatever we do, we do as a platoon. We all stand together. If we do something right, we all share the credit. If we make the kind of royal mistake you three made, it reflects on all of us. Not just you, Legionnaire.
She bored into his eyes. "Understand something else, Legionnaire Smythe. Being a man doesn't mean belting some jackass when he makes fun of you. It means showing the guts to take whatever the fool says, ignore it, and keep moving on. There
will be times when you can't ignore something, but your response will be as part of my platoon, not as three youngsters not mature enough to understand when you're just being hazed to get a response. I expect you to grow up, Legionnaire. You've proved you can perform in combat. I expect you to perform on and off duty with that same confidence in the future. I also know full well that you can do just that if you put your mind to it. I expect you to put away small things and become a man, something you are perfectly capable of doing. Do you understand me, Legionnaire?"
Smythe replied, "Aye, Lieutenant." He looked thoughtful.
Shana nodded. "Very good. Currently, Legionnaire Smythe, you are assigned to Corporal Izzak's team as second man. You are no longer in that position. As of right now, Legionnaire Olsn will take your place and you are the third man in my team. I expect you to watch my back in the next fight. Can you do that?"
Smythe suddenly became ramrod straight. "Aye, Lieutenant. I won't let you down."
Shana stepped back. "I know you won't."
She stood and gave each of them a long measuring look. "People, I decided I was going to give you a fresh start and one chance. This is it. No punishment tours or anything else. I've started you three at the bottom again. It's up to you to work your way up. Perform like men or fall on your face like boys. Your decision.
"Whatever it is, understand that you're part of my platoon, and I'm not going to let the Captain or anyone else do whatever needs to be done in your case. You're my responsibility and I will do what's required."
She turned to Sergeant Steel. "They're yours now, Sergeant. Bring them back to me when they earn their rank again. Also, inform Izzak and Olsn of the switch then tell the First Sergeant about their missing numbers. I don't want them catching any hostile fire about bare collars."
She leaned over and spoke softly in his ear. "I also want you to have a decurion's meeting as soon as possible. This is the last time I see one of my men without every decurion in his chain along with him. I want all my decurions to understand I want problems identified and handled at the lowest level possible and that they are accountable for their men's performance. I'm not happy with Izzak right now. He should have been involved with Smythe long ago. Make sure he knows it."
They broke apart and Sergeant Steel came to attention. "Aye, Lieutenant. I'll take care of everything."
Outside the CP, Kardo spoke to the sergeant as he handed back their weapons belts. "Sergeant Steel, Lieutenant Ettranty's scary. I've never had my ass chewed that bad without someone swearing a lot. And she didn't say much, either."
Sergeant Steel eyed him with only a mild glare. He'd caught a part of that ass chewing, the part about decurion responsibility, and it smarted. The fact that he deserved it smarted worse. "She didn't have to, Legionnaire. She has your numbers in her desk, too. Right now, you three are Recruits again until you prove you can be troopers in her platoon. All I have to say is you better try hard to earn them back. Stop looking for trouble in the Club. If it finds you, well, my guess is a few of the boys will be around somewhere. They'll help you out, but not if you start it. If you start it, your asses are out of here. The Lieutenant meant that."
"No worry, Sergeant," Smythe said proudly. "I gotta stay in the platoon if I'm going to be covering the Lieutenant's back."
Sergeant Steel nodded. "Aye. Now you three go get cleaned up and report to your squads. Dismissed."
As he watched the youngsters head off, Sergeant Steel nodded in satisfaction. The Lieutenant started last week by screwing up royally. She'd made a better beginning of this week. He was pretty sure the trio had seen the last of the guardhouse. Now he had to go have a few appropriate words with the platoon's decurions regarding accountability, and that was another good move by his single pip. He should have demanded decurion accountability, particularly regarding those three, himself. It shouldn't have taken a single pip to remind him.
Despite smarting from his lapse, he smiled. The jury was still out on Lieutenant Ettranty, but it looked like she was shaping up okay.
#####
Shana knocked at Lieutenant Colonel Paten's door frame, much less apprehensive than the last few times in her office.
"Come." Colonel Paten looked at her with a reasonably welcoming glance and added. "Close the door and have a seat, Lieutenant."
Shana gave her a stricken look. "I'm not going to lose my platoon, Colonel," she blurted, "am I?"
Camille chuckled and shook her head. Everyone always assumes a closed door session is bad. "No, Lieutenant, nothing like that. In fact, we simply need to have a private discussion. No real problems, so please be at ease."
Shana nodded with a bit of residual suspicion, closed the door, and seated herself gingerly. "Aye, Colonel."
Camille leaned forward in her chair and rested her clasped hands on her desk. "Captain Samson said you would be a bit late because of a problem in your platoon that needed action. Did you get it resolved?"
Shana had to smile. "You know the egos of teenaged males?"
Camille rolled her eyes. "And male egos in general. That was the problem?"
"Not completely," Shana said, "but that was how I attacked the situation." Briefly, she explained about Kardo, Chofal, and Smythe and their latest misadventure. "The real problem was Smythe. He became combat qualified far too young and was put in a unit way too early. I understand why, but the boy still had to live with it and his two friends would back him up when he got into trouble trying to act older than he was."
"What did you do?"
"First, I pulled their rank and told them they were Recruits as far as the platoon was concerned. Then I told them they had to earn their rank back by acting as men."
Camille rubbed her chin and looked thoughtful. "You don't actually have that authority, you know."
Shana nodded. "I know, Colonel, but they didn't. I also told them I was going to transfer them to separate legions if this behavior continued, and I really can't do that either. In both cases, I know all I can really do is forward a recommendation, but I wanted them to think I could do it immediately if they screwed up again. I wanted their attention and those two moves got it. I don't expect any problems with their informal reductions within the century, and those three troopers are so closely tied that the threat to split them up is a fate worse than death to them. Sergeant Steel and the First Sergeant will make sure the decurions back up what I did and I think Captain Samson will support me if I manage to keep my three troublemakers from in front of his desk.
"Bare collars and embarrassment will keep those three out of the Club until they get their rank back, so that opportunity to screw up is gone for the moment. Then I challenged them to behave like grown men. Smythe's still in his mid-teens, so he took that particular challenge to heart.
"I transferred Smythe to my combat team and gave him the job of protecting me in a fight. Telling him to watch my back gives him his first adult responsibility and will keep him under my eye when we do have an engagement. Judging from his response, I think he'll do anything to keep that position, including stay out of trouble. He's not actually a bad trooper, just immature. The other two got into fights supporting him, so they really weren't the problem. I just had to challenge Smythe to grow up. Hopefully, ego and the challenge to show he's worthy to be called a man will do the rest."
Camille nodded judiciously. "Good job. I hope it works, and I think it will. It sounds like you're doing the right things. Keep it up and I may start to believe you actually do belong in a combat command."
Her expression got a good bit softer. "Shana, the reason I asked you here is because you don't have parents in the Legion, especially a mother."
Shana looked a bit surprised. Hadn't they already been over that? "Colonel?"
Camille waved her hand. "Oh, I'm not talking about that ancestry thing. This is about stuff you don't know and need to. The kind of information a normal Gladius learns from her family growing up." Shana looked confused.
"Specifically," Camille continued, "the fa
ct that you are now romantically involved with the Legate."
Shana sat up rigidly and her jaw jutted out in the Gladius fighting expression. "Colonel, that will not affect my duty performance."
"If I thought it would," Camille said dryly, "we'd be having a different discussion."
Then she relaxed again. "It's just fallen my lot to explain a few things to you that you probably don't know. Please hear me out.
"You may not know this, Shana, but other militaries - like Cauldwell's - have rules and regulations that would prohibit such liaisons as you and the Legate, for what the Corps considers non-reasons. In other military organizations, those rules are designed to thwart nepotism or reluctance to place the beloved party in danger. Some military forces even prohibit members of the same family serving in the same unit.
"You know a Gladius is born and grows up in the Corps. In effect, we're all one extended family. A full strength legion has over twenty thousand men and women in it, but combat casualties progressively reduce the number of available men for a woman as she grows older. In some legions, there aren't enough available men for the women in any case. That was why we got so many enthusiastic female transfers from other legions."
Thinking of Julie, Shana nodded.
"For those and other reasons, romantic relationships aren't prohibited between differing ranks. There simply aren't enough men in the family for that luxury. The only exception is between members of the first two levels of the chain of command. If you and Captain Samson had fallen for each other, for instance, you'd be on your way to a new century in a new battalion, but that would be it. By the way, I'd regret you being moved to another platoon. From the sound of it, you have a handle on your men."
Camille took a deep breath and sat back in her chair. "Gladii don't engage in nepotism in their duty decisions, either. It's something we just don't do. I want you to understand that. A Gladius on duty sees the uniform and not the person. It's the way we are raised and conditioned."
