“You can relax. Lieutenant Yardley, I have superseded Captain Shapiro as your tactical officer. My wife, Trudy Swenson, has superseded her as well in regards to Ensign Ruiz. About now she is an ensign as Trudy is reading her into the Fleet. Monday at 0800 I will see you in my classroom, where I teach ‘General Subjects for Privates.’ After that you’ll have Trudy for ‘Private Subjects for Everyone.’
“I’m pleased that you have kept up with your Rim certificates. Later that morning you’ll start on the Fleet Basic Certificates, a four-hour block of new instruction, interrupted by lunch. Then a three-hour block on life in the Fleet. You’ll get the advanced course, Ensign Ruiz will start with the basics.”
Admiral Swenson smiled at Steve, mimicking Steve’s smile from earlier. “It’s true that Ernie briefed Trudy and me earlier, but it’s proper that you wait until he tells you in person,” the admiral thought.
The former admiral gave a half salute and was out of the room as fast as he had appeared.
Steve’s new roommate walked over to Steve. “Those two classes -- they are reserved for the top one percent of a class.
“I looked up your public records; you’re maybe in the bottom one percent.”
“I didn’t assign myself to those classes,” Steve said levelly.
“And what was that about ‘Fleet Basic Certificates?’”
“As I understand it, Captain Cynthia Rhodes proposed the curriculum be revised. Vice Admiral Gull thought so too -- the incoming Commandant of the Academy, among others, has been tasked with the implementation.”
“How do you know all of this?”
“Admiral Fletcher briefed us earlier. Admiral Sanchez, Captain Mikkeljon, Captain Shapiro and others.”
“Evidently there is a lot more to you than surface appearances.”
“Evidently,” Steve said as mildly as he could.
“Who is ‘Ensign Ruiz?’” his roommate asked.
“We’re engaged.”
“Let’s see now. You were briefed about a revision to Fleet certification by Admiral of the Fleet Fletcher a revision proposed by two people who hold the Federation Star,” he laughed harshly. “How do I get in?”
“Everything I’ve heard suggests that you should talk to your tactical officer.”
“Sheesh! It’s like the people running the Fleet know what they are doing!”
Steve smiled again. “I hear that a lot.
“What’s your name, so I don’t have to refer to you as that other guy?” Steve asked.
“Cliff Maitland. Do you realize you can’t get married at the Academy?”
“You’ve heard of Cindy Rhodes, Cliff?”
“It’s all classified.”
“What’s not classified that some of the dinosaurs got together to twig BuPers. One day she was a lieutenant commander. One of the dinosaurs made her a commander, a few minutes later another made her a captain, the Turbine Jensen promoted her rear admiral and Admiral Fletcher made her a vice admiral.”
“She’s only a captain. Younger than me, a year older than you.”
“Admirals Jensen and Fletcher told BuPers ‘Ha! Ha! Only kidding!’”
“Irk! BuPers must have loved that!”
“As you’d expect, Cliff. Yolanda and I have permission to marry whenever we want; maybe in a few days.”
Cliff laughed. “Does she have a sister?”
“Her mother was murdered a few weeks ago. She doesn’t appreciate jokes as much these days.”
“Sorry!”
The door to their room popped open and Captain Shapiro was there. “Yardley! What’s the first rule of a junior officer!”
“I’m not sure what you mean, Captain,” Steve told her.
“The one you must never, ever forget! The one that heads the list. Never let something you do be a surprise to your CO.”
“Admiral Swenson, sir. I’ve had no time.”
“No, that other thing, tomorrow. Never let your CO be embarrassed by a schedule change from her boss that you knew about.”
Steve glanced at his roommate. “It’s classified, Captain.”
“And you don’t think I know that? All you say is that you have a classified briefing and a time. Not with who and not about what.”
“I have told Yolanda.”
“Is she cleared?”
“Her clearance is higher than mine for some things.”
“There’s your answer.”
“And the Admirals Swenson?”
“I went through fighter transition with Hannah Sawyer. She and Gloria Swenson were a couple. I wasn’t invited and even Gloria wasn’t invited either to those classes, though you’d think her aunt and uncle would have cut her some slack. Never let this happen again.”
She whirled and left.
“A mild purple rocket,” Cliff said.
“Admiral Merriweather was worse,” Steve agreed, rubbing his cheek, remembering.
“An admiral struck you?”
“You had to have been there. She was right and I was wrong. She apologized afterwards, anyway.”
Cliff shook his head. “I can see when you joined the Fleet; I can see you were promoted. How you came to the attention of all these senior officers -- I just don’t understand.”
“Like I said, you had to have been there. Look, Cliff, my day started in London and I’m tired. I have to get up early.”
*** ** ***
The next morning started even earlier that Steve had assumed. He was still sleeping when someone shook him hard. He opened one eye and saw Admiral Merriweather.
“Get up!” she commanded.
Sleep slid like scales from Steve’s eyes. He glanced at his alarm clock; it was a little after four AM. “Not for three hours, sir!”
“Get your bottom out of that rack, Mister Yardley! I’m down from Thebes, Admiral Cloud is here from Atlanta and Admiral Fletcher never gets any sleep! Now, Mister!”
Steve rushed getting ready and staggered out the door. They went to the Fleet HQ, and were led to a meeting room, one where Admiral Fletcher and Admiral Cloud were waiting for them.
Admiral Fletcher looked up at Steve. “Sorry, but I’m going to eat; it’s the only way I can survive this schedule! A messman will take your order if you want anything.”
The messman quickly went about his task and vanished. Admiral Merriweather turned to Steve as soon as he was gone. “What’s this about Nishnamurti?”
“Does everyone know the history of Campbell’s World, after the war commenced?” Admiral Fletcher stated.
Everyone agreed and Admiral Fletcher waved at Steve.
“Admiral Cloud, Admiral Merriweather. I am sensitive, particularly to people I’ve met, at distances up to a kilometer. I passed closer than that to Captain Nishnamurti yesterday when Yolie and I were being brought to the Academy. Captain Nishnamurti was counting her twenty pieces of silver she was going get for betraying the Federation to Richard Campbell, with the knowledge that there were at least two exploits allowing someone to commandeer any Fleet ship.”
“Yolanda Ruiz said there were three, Admiral Fletcher,” Donna Merriweather told the others. “She refused to give more than one.”
“On my honor as a Fleet officer, she knew of only two and informed Commander Stimson of both,” Steve said.
“And those two have been found and obliterated,” Admiral Merriweather reported. “I’ll have that scum strung up by her heels and flogged.”
Admiral Cloud turned to Admiral Fletcher. “I submit, sir, that this is a unique opportunity. Obviously, the people at Campbell’s are still bent, no matter how firm Admiral Gull was with them.
“Nishnamurti should be ejected from the Fleet -- and then allowed to return home. We have -- a number -- of existing assets on Campbell’s. We can add new bodies, replace some of the old ones, and assign the existing assets meaningless tasks,” Admiral Cloud told them. “Those assets have not uncovered any sign of plotting to date -- they are either compromised or incompetent.
“Wit
h Yardley a kilometer away and seeming to do something else, the plotters will never know that they are being watched. We could roll up the entire conspiracy in a few days.”
“Promise me, my father doesn’t get a pass this time,” Donna Merriweather said with passion.
A long moment of silenced stretched out. Admiral Merriweather sighed. “And the fact that Dr. Kemp was ordered down with me? And she brought her black bag along with her?”
“I leave that as an exercise for your imagination,” Admiral Fletcher told her.
“And what are we to take away from that, Admiral?” Admiral Cloud questioned.
“I am not bent,” Admiral Fletcher said. “On the other hand, you can’t learn soon enough that a telepath never tells the whole truth. You’d hate me and those like me. Fleet can probably adjust to it, but most people can’t or won’t.
“Your personal lives are private, but you would never be comfortable thinking that someone else knows all the details. And that those details are open to any passing telepath. No one can comprehend that.
“Think about it this way. Supposing you prefer to go commando all the time for comfort’s sake. You don’t want narrow-minded bigots judging you about the issue. Someone who’d tell others about it -- you’d hate them and might seek to work them ill. A rational telepath would never bring the subject up.”
“Based on what, Admiral Fletcher? Your thirty minutes of experience?” Admiral Cloud continued.
Admiral Fletcher laughed. “You think an admiral can’t walk and chew gum at the same time? How much brain power do you think I use with you?
“Lieutenant Yardley is briefing me as we speak.”
“And you don’t think Captain Nishnamurti is worthy of your full attention?” Admiral Merriweather snapped.
“Admiral Cloud has a good framework already. With the cooperation of Lieutenant Yardley it shouldn’t be long. Admiral Merriweather, you’ll load your fighting complement, and then depart for Campbell’s.
“Lieutenant Yardley, inquire of Ensign Ruiz if we may borrow her ‘shuttle.’”
“I beached my sensor department head,” Donna Merriweather said to them.
Admiral Cloud looked at her in askance. “I had heard about Nishnamurti... you relieved another department head?”
“You have no idea, Admiral Cloud, how humiliating it is to be dressed down on your own deck by an officer of a friendly power, commenting on your crew’s poor analysis of sensor data.
“The woman had assumed that the survey cruiser Alabama was the larger of the two vessels,” Steve Yardley informed the admiral.
“I’d have assumed that a cruiser was larger than a shuttle,” Admiral Cloud stated. “Obviously, not a correct assumption. I see why you relieved her, Admiral Merriweather -- sensor officers are not paid to make assumptions when they have access to the raw data.”
“More than that, Admiral Cloud,” Admiral Fletcher interjected, “I fired a great number of purple rockets at Earth Defense. Ensign Ruiz reported she was piloting a shuttle and not a single sensor officer thought to check if she was telling the truth. I’ve sent a whole new crew to Yellowknife to check Fleet flatware inventories. The old crew has been sent to the research station in Antarctica, looking into the mascon in Wilkes Land.
“Their senior is directly responsible for the inventory of venerable office utility called ‘staples.’”
“Shuttle Mad Hatter is nearly three hundred meters long and thirty in diameter and has more than thirty fans. This was one of Hannah Sawyer’s contributions to the war effort. I’m not likely to forget it,” Donna Merriweather said.
“That said, I’ll need some time to get my fighters aboard and settled. I assume they will be getting a lot of sim time. A week; ten days would be better, sir.”
“And if I stood between the Admirals Swenson and students they have picked for their classes, Thor would challenge me to a duel with that depleted uranium pugil stick of his. No, Lieutenant Yardley, your schedule will not change for two weeks and Ensign Ruiz’s schedule won’t change at all.”
He turned to Steve. “We need to get this nipped in the bud. We can’t afford distractions. The AI revolt was sufficient for that! Ensign Ruiz needs a little catch-up time, Lieutenant.”
“I understand, sir.”
“I imagine the paperwork on Nishnamurti’s relief will take about ten days or two weeks. She hasn’t been made aware of telepaths, I understand?”
“That is correct, Admiral Fletcher. May I be excused? I need to get slop buckets and my crew back on Thebes before we can land on my fighters,” Admiral Merriweather said.
Admiral Cloud needed to do things as well, leaving just Steve and Admiral Fletcher. “It would look bad if we didn’t talk, sir,” Steve told the admiral.
“I have a request from Captain Shapiro, protesting her supersession. I swear, the woman has a death wish,” the admiral said sadly, shaking his head.
“All of her friends are dead, admiral. She needs a reason to live.”
“Any suggestions?”
“Admiral, no one has looked at Mad Hatter carefully. I know that no one has discovered many of the ships systems yet. Among other things, the Union is extremely sensitive to mutations of their clever genomes. Gene twiddling as they practice it has come down in price, but a genome like Yolie’s still costs millions -- they can’t afford to have nature making random revisions to it.
“Order Captain Shapiro to survey Mad Hatter; have her talk to Yolanda and get a list of systems. There are some big surprises, Admiral.”
“Which answers what I should do with Captain Shapiro for what? A week?”
“Assign her as my control. Trust me, Admiral, Captain Shapiro will be exposed to less radiation sitting in the pilot’s position on Mad Hatter than she receives here at Maunalua.”
“How effective is the shielding?”
“The hull is ten nines, sir. And the shield assist? Another twelve nines.”
“Christ! I’m running out of places to put the screwups where they can’t screw anything up!”
“Shanghai Station, Admiral. That’s the Union habitat in the Federation. That’s where their people went for ‘knowledge transfer duties.’”
“Young man, you will go far!”
Steve shrugged. “I haven’t read Captain Rhodes, but I think we must have some genes in common.”
“You may be right! I had to give up Rhodes to Charlie Gull; I’ll fight a lot harder to keep you!”
“Can I tell Yolie I’ll be gone for a while? What about my roommate?”
“You can explain your deployment to Ensign Ruiz but not the reason; tell your roommate nothing. He will be informed that you will be making a short deployment in Thebes by Admiral Swenson. I only wish that our researchers had made further advances in how Colonel Grimes’ ship traveled so far, so fast. Campbell’s World is six weeks there and six weeks back. It is too much to hope for that you can wrap it up as quickly as you caught the man who killed Ensign Ruiz’s mother.”
“He trapped himself, sir. There was no need to use telepathic evidence against him. Richard Merriweather is smart enough to use several levels of cutouts.”
Admiral Fletcher nodded. “Don’t do anything stupid, Lieutenant! Better if the man never knows someone like you is possible, and definitely he can’t learn your name.”
“I don’t think Fleet lieutenants come to the attention of a planetary president.”
“See to it that you don’t, Lieutenant! Now, I have to go.”
“Yes, sir!” Steve replied.
When Steve got back to his room, Captain Shapiro was waiting for him. “Admiral Merriweather told me that she has been ordered down, ready or not.” She motioned at his roommate, sitting up in bed, obviously listening. “The admiral came to get you out of the rack. She was, he said, brusque and maybe a little angry.”
“She’s angry, sir. But not at me, and not at you. Admiral Merriweather has some orders for you, Captain. Classified orders.”
“And what
emotion will I feel on getting those orders?”
“You’ll be a giddy schoolgirl again.”
The captain laughed. “I was never a ‘giddy schoolgirl’ Lieutenant. I think that is a most unlikely outcome.”
“Perhaps I’m wrong, sir. A dollar bet?”
There was a muffled sound from Cliff Maitland.
“Young man, Cindy Rhodes was my operations officer in the Big Battle. It is a fact, that Commodore Heisenberg was thinking about betting her commodore’s’ star against Rhodes in a battle sim. Admiral Gull wouldn’t have it. Then-Lieutenant Rhodes trounced the commodore. Since then, the Fleet takes a jaundiced view of juniors offering bets with their seniors. Senior officers, of course, don’t have such a restriction, because more often than not, it’s a learning experience for a junior, one that won’t be forgotten.”
“Is that a ‘no,’ Captain?” Steve asked innocently.
She laughed. “You’ve served under two officers known to be officers that do not, as a matter of course, take to idiots kindly. Both of them are fulsome with your praises, Lieutenant. Don’t let it go to your head! I can be patient waiting for surprises arranged for by junior officers.”
She left and Steve sat down on his bed. “Sorry, Cliff. I expected to be able to sleep in.”
“When an admiral comes calling on you, no matter what time of they day it is, you comply.”
Steve smiled slightly. “With alacrity!”
“And it’s all classified?”
“I’d tell you if I could, Cliff, but yes, it’s classified.”
“Please, don’t tell me anything.”
“I won’t!”
About 1000 in the morning, Yolanda knocked on Steve’s door. “Walk with me, Steve.”
“Sure, Yolie. We are supposed to wait until Monday, then we should expect not to have enough time to scratch.”
“Admiral Swenson came to see me last night. I’m now a Fleet ensign, I’m supposed to report to the quartermaster after lunch. Then we have a tour scheduled of the Academy.”
“Has Captain Shapiro seen you yet?”
“Yes, she wants to go over Mad Hatter’s systems at 0900 tomorrow. She said you made a mistake.”
“I did?”
The Odyssey and the Iliad (Kinsella Universe Book 7) Page 25
