“I hadn’t really stopped to think about it ma’am,”
“How about Ensign Light. I know you two have had a relationship, even though you tried very hard to avoid it.”
“Yes ma’am,”
“And seeing her injured is difficult.”
“Yes ma’am.”
“So you had a much stronger emotional bond with them than you did Master Chief Wallace or Specialist Tasha, wouldn’t you say?”
“Yes ma’am.”
“If that were your wife out there, how would you feel?”
“I’d still be out there looking for her ma’am.”
“Why Lieutenant?”
“Because I love her.”
“Don’t you think that love, in one form or another, is at the root of how you feel for Denner and Light?”
“I suppose that’s possible.” He said.
The Captain got up and walked around her desk and sat on the corner, hanging one leg over the edge and half standing on the other. “Tell me Lieutenant, if you had to schedule the mission over, what would you do different?”
“I suppose I would schedule it different.”
“Really why?”
“Well…actually I don’t know.” He said thinking about it.
“Who would you schedule instead?”
“I’m not sure.”
“Do you think that Ensign Light wasn’t qualified to do this mission?”
“Yes ma’am, she was qualified, otherwise I wouldn’t have let her go out alone on it.”
“Then is there any other reason you feel she shouldn’t have been out there?”
“No ma’am.”
“Then the answer is unless you knew in advance that the accident was going to happen, you would have sent her out to manage the EVA, correct?”
“Yes ma’am, I suppose you’re right.”
“Then Lieutenant, you are faced with the hardest part of command. You made the best choices you had, you trust your personnel to do the job they are trained for, and you accept that sometimes things don’t turn out how you intended. Sending people out into combat is easier than sending them out and having something like this happen. In combat you can prepare for what might happen, in this kind of a situation it catches everyone by surprise. How you handle it determines just how good of a commander you are.”
“I’m not sure I understand. Are you telling me that I shouldn’t feel loss?”
“On the contrary, it’s perfectly natural to feel loss. How you deal with that loss… that is what makes you into what you are. If you can’t get past the loss you will never make a good commander. On the other hand, if you never feel for your people, you make a lousy commander. The trick is to find the middle ground that allows you to feel for your people, but still send them out into dangerous missions, and accept the loss when things like this happen as well.”
“Yes ma’am.” Matt said, pondering her words. “When we lost the Commander, how did you deal with it ma’am?”
“The Commander and I were pretty close. Once my duties allowed it, I sat in the dark for several hours, thought of the good times we had together, and prepared myself for life without him in it. Not an easy thing to do, but a necessary thing. I choose to remember him by the good times, not the accident.”
“Yes ma’am.” Matt said quietly.
She got up from the desk and walked around past Matt, stopping behind him. She laid her hand on his shoulder and squeezed it gently. “Remember the positives, don’t dwell on the accident. There is nothing you could have done if you were there.”
“Yes ma’am.”
“Ok. Lieutenant. Why don’t you take the rest of the day and spend it with your wife. I understand that Doctor Clark has given her the rest of the day off as well.”
“Yes ma’am,” he said as he got up and headed out the door.
The intercom came to life while Matt and Jenny were lying in bed, cuddling and holding each other. “This is the Captain. As you know the accident caused a significant amount of damage to the engineering spaces. We have made what repairs we can here, and need to get to earth into space dock to make the rest of the repairs. We also lost nearly half the fuel load we intended on getting. Our choice is to wait for another tanker, or to make a long coast trajectory back to earth. Given the current position of the earth with respect to us, we will be doing a flyby of the sun to get to earth. The whole trip will take twelve days, due to the fuel restrictions. It’s the best we can do people. Unfortunately we will be shutting down significant parts of the ship to lower power demands due to the loss of one of our three generators. In the next few hours we will be shutting down inertial dampers in a number of spaces. These will be marked appropriately. Those personnel that can should combine and share quarters if it will allow the life support in a cabin to be shut down. Notify Engineering if you are shifting quarters so they can disable the dampers in that area. Hang in there people, we’re on our way home.”
“Well, sounds like we’re a bit banged up.” Jenny said quietly.
“A bit.”
“So, we have a lot of room. We could move Pats and Suz in with us. That way their quarters would be empty.” Jenny said, stroking his chest. “Do you think you could handle that for the week?”
“I don’t know. Do you think they can keep their hands off of me for a week?” Matt asked her seriously.
“Do they have to? I mean we’re not going to be going anywhere as high velocity as we were before, but I don’t mind if they want to play a little.”
“Are you a glutton for punishment, or is there some other motive here. I mean Patty can be damn near insatiable once she starts and Suzi… Well Suzi has no trouble at all just climbing into the middle of something. We won’t have any private time at all.”
“To be honest. I was kind of thinking that now that we’re not high v any longer, that if you had other choices you might decide I’m not what you really want after all.” She said quietly.
Matt rolled on his side and slid down in the bed until his face was even with hers. “There is no one else I want other than you.” He said kissing her gently on the lips. “If you want your old roommates to share our quarters for the week to help the ship that’s fine with me, but to be honest, I don’t really have any desire to share my bed with them. I got all I want right here.” He said reaching under the covers and stroking her naked body.
“You ready to go again all ready?” She asked with a giggle.
“I’m always ready to go if it’s with you.” He said disappearing under the covers, causing her to giggle even more as he kissed his way down her body.
The first few days were quiet. The suit room and armory were closed down to save energy, so Matt had little to do besides rotate on the bridge duty. Patty and Suzi were swapping between the sofa and one mattress they brought from their quarters to sleep on the floor. Patty was frequently busy in engineering, which was working overtime to keep the crippled ships systems going. Suzi and Jenny seemed to be alternating shifts in the infirmary looking after their charges. Matt was lying on the bed working on a data pad, the sheet the only thing covering him when Suzi walked into the room.
“God what a day.” She said as she walked to the sleeping area and began stripping her jump suit off to use the shower. “Jenny said to let you know that she might be late tonight. She’s going to take part of Amy’s shift for her.”
“Ok, thanks.” Matt said distractedly as he worked through paperwork on the data pad. Matt’s attention wasn’t even pulled to Suzi until her bra sailed through the air, landing on his lap, followed close behind by her skimpy white panties.
“Are you even going to look at me?” She asked as she turned her body back and forth for him to see.
Matt put down the data pad and looked over at her. “Ok. I’m looking.”
“I get the feeling you don’t think I’m good looking any longer.” She said with a fake pout.
“Hell Suz. You look just as hot as when we were sharing quarters, what, a
month ago?”
“Well, if I’m so hot, why don’t you do anything?”
“Well, to be honest I’m quite content with what I get from Jenny.”
“And you’re not the least bit interested in a little fun on the side?”
“I don’t see the point. You were great when we were together, but I’m in love with my wife. That’s what I really want.”
Suzi walked to the end of the bed and pulled the sheet off of him, exposing him completely. She crawled up the bed dragging her hard nipples up his body until she had settled her wetness on top of him, gently kissing his lips.
Matt rolled over pinning Suzi under him. He leaned down and kissed her on the lips and then looked down at her. “You just don’t take no for an answer do you?”
“Nope.” She said, wrapping her legs around him, hooking her feet behind him to pull his body down to hers and wrapping her arms around his neck to pull his face down to her chest.
Matt gave her one gentle kiss on each nipple and then lifted himself off of her, gently disengaging her legs from him. “Well, you’re going to have to.” Matt said. “The answer is no.” He said as he climbed off the bed and walked around the partition and sat down on the sofa.
Suzi got up and followed him around the partition. “You sure?” She asked, climbing on his lap and grinding her wetness against his hardness.
Matt stood up, setting her gently on the floor. “Ok, you got me all turned on, but you’re not where I want to put it! Jenny is. Can you understand that?”
“Yes.” She said simply as she walked over to computer. It only took her a minute to type a message and send it.
“What was that about?” Matt asked.
“Simple.” Jenny said as she walked into the room. “She was saying that she was unsuccessful at seducing you.”
Matt turned around to look at her confusion reigning on his face. “I don’t understand.”
“It’s simple.” She said stripping off her jump suit, leaving her completely naked. “I wanted to be sure… Now I am.” She finished as she stepped to him, wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled his face to hers for a deep sensuous kiss. After a long wet embrace, her nipples hardening against his chest and the scent of her arousal growing in the room, she pulled slightly away. “I wanted to be sure that I was really the one you wanted. Now I’m sure without a doubt. If Suzi couldn’t seduce you, under normal conditions I know no one else ever will either.”
“I told you that you were the one a long time ago.” Matt said. “You didn’t have to test me.”
“I know. But I had to know for me. You passed. Now you get the bonus.”
“What’s the bonus?” Matt asked.
“You get us both for the rest of the night, and you get to keep me forever.”
“I don’t need the first, only the second.” Matt said.
“I know you don’t but you’re not going to say no, are you?”
“Lover, I’ll always do anything you ask of me.” He said with a kiss. “If that includes having sex with someone as hot as Suzi, just to please you, then that’s what I’ll do.”
“Good, because I’d really like for the three of us to be together one more time before the end of the cruise.”
“If that’s what you want.” He said as she and Suzi pulled him toward the sleeping area.
Matt was sitting duty on the bridge as the space dock came into view. In the distance he could see Station one, slowly rotate, its great rings glistening in the sun. They closed on the space dock, a constant stream of radio traffic helping guide their approach. The space dock looked like a large cigar hung on the bottom of a single ring, the bright red ring turning slowly in the sun, the cigar remaining stationary, on end a black maw. The battered ship was slowly guided inside the structure by the gentle touch of Lieutenant Sparks. She handled the controls as gently as if she were making love, stroking the two maneuvering joysticks gently she coaxed the ship into the dock, lining it up with the service and support points as skillfully as if she had been doing it her whole life.
“Aligned and ready for docking clamps.” She said to no one in particular.
“Space dock one, we are in position for docking clamps.” The communications officer radioed.
“Clamps engaged” Commander Emerson said crisply after a few seconds. “Powering down engines.”
“Thank you eng. Comm., give me ship wide please.” The Captain said from her chair.
“Ship wide.” The Lieutenant at communications responded.
“This is the Captain. We have arrived at space dock one. I want to congratulate you on a difficult mission well done. This trip will go down in the annals of the fleet. We lost some comrades on this trip, but the rest of us survived under the most difficult of situations. This was supposed to be a training mission. Many of you will now leave, going on to other schools and postings. I want to say that it was a great pleasure and honor to serve with all of you, with a crew that is of such a high caliber that its crew will be setting the standard here, and in the future at their new postings. Good luck to all.” She finished, motioning to the communications officer to cut things off. “That’s it ladies and gentlemen. Good luck in your new postings. Mister Molter would you join me in my cabin please?”
“Yes ma’am.” Matt said getting up from his station and following her to her cabin.
“I have a parting gift for you. Military marriages are difficult, getting posted together is often difficult or impossible. I spent some time online with fleet. After a lot of arguing and string pulling I have a late wedding present for you.”
“What’s that ma’am?”
“I’ve arranged for Jenny to be posted TDY to station two for the next six months, which just happens to be the duration of your advanced command class.”
“I’m sorry ma’am. Isn’t the first rotation twelve months?”
“Normally yes, however I convinced them that sending you to initial command school after your experience here would be moving you backwards. Instead you will be going to the six month advanced course. Following that you will be posted to the Javelin as its junior operations officer.”
“I’m not familiar with that ship ma’am.”
“That isn’t a surprise, it’s still in construction. I have been informed that four months ago they decided to advance me to that ship. I’m due to be posted there when it commissions in five months. By the time we finish our initial space trials, which will take about a month, we’ll be back by Earth, just in time to pick up our new junior operations officer and head nurse.”
“I don’t know what to say ma’am.”
“You don’t need to say anything. It’s been a privilege to work with you and to watch you grow through this mission. No doubt someday I will be taking orders from you, but for now you’re taking them from me. Enjoy your time in command school. When you get to the Javelin things will be a bit different. We will be tasked with setting up a ring of deep space observatories so we don’t get surprised by another one of those things out there. They tell me that it’s going to be the fastest ship in the fleet with four times the fuel capacity of the Saint Claire and a new set of engines. I understand that in the last eight months there have been a lot of developments in that area. In theory they tell me we can make point three c.”
“That’s damn fast ma’am.”
“It is, and I can’t think of a better operations officer than one that has already gone point two plus.”
“Thank you ma’am.”
“Oh, by the way, they tell me that Ensign Light regained consciousness today. Before you leave, why don’t you go pass her the news on her posting to command school?”
“Yes ma’am, it would be a pleasure!”
“Very well, Dismissed and good luck Lieutenant.”
“Thank you ma’am. It’s been a pleasure to serve with you.” Matt said standing and snapping a sharp salute.
The Captain stood up, snapped a return salute and then held her hand out for him to shake
. He took it and she pulled him close and gave him a hug and a kiss on the cheek. “Till we meet again Lieutenant, and don’t lose that boyish charm before I see you again.”
“Yes ma’am.” He said with a smile. “I’ll do my best.”
“Of that I have no doubt.” The Captain commented to Matt’s form as it retreated from her quarters on the Saint Claire for the last time.
The End
Fleet Academy Page 47
