by Chris Hechtl
“Aye aye, sir.”
“Now, as far as promotions, I'm reviewing every one of them. I already informed the Admiralty here any list or flag rank promotions have to be run by me,” he tapped his chest significantly. “So, if you've been given one in the past three years, you are going to be looked at. Get over it. If the promotion has been in the past two years, consider it rescinded just as soon as the paperwork can catch up to you. And if I find out it's been because of loyalty to Childress or Draken, pack your shit and don't let the airlock hit you in the ass on the way out,” he growled.
“Now …”
@
Few of the promotions or changes in chain of command after Horatio's transmission were accepted. Anything with Admiral Childress's personal stamp of approval was set aside for intense review.
That decision hit some of Admiral Childress's supporters hard. Some resigned or filed paperwork to retire. In order to help sort things out, BUPERS under the temporary guiding hand of newly-promoted Captain JG Tisdail brought back some of the personnel who had resigned in protest plus some veterans who helped out.
Some of the personnel who were under investigation tried to retire. Anyone under a cloud from NCIS and JAG were not allowed to resign or retire however. Admiral Irons was clear that he was going to see justice done and a proper housecleaning was long overdue.
@
“Horatio, are you okay with this?” Zek asked as he looked over to Horatio.
“It's not exactly how I thought it would turn out, but it works.”
“It damn well better work,” Admiral Irons growled from behind them. Both men stiffed and came to attention.
“At ease. You two have your work cut out for you.”
“Admiral Bolt is good people, sir. Commander Thistle said good things about him and my time building Ilmarinen taught me to respect him. He'll be of help. I don't know some of the others though to be honest. But after hearing what Admiral Sharp Reflexes did, I trust him.”
“Agreed,” Zek said slowly. He was impressed all over again with Commander Thistle. The chimera had been busy unpacking the industrial plant and getting it set up without orders even before Admiral Irons had gotten to Command One. That had saved tons of precious time. Zek had thanked the commander by putting in for his transfer to BUSHIPS. That was still in the works, along with the promotion he'd also requested. “I wish I could say the same for some of the others though. The old guard are political animals too. It's still going to be rough. After you leave, there will still be a few who resent what happened. They'll lay in wait to try to do something if anything at all. They'll have their knives ready the moment our backs are turned.”
“Bring it. I'm not going anywhere,” Horatio said firmly.
“I see. I'm glad you are going to be a rock, but let's try to weed those types out, shall we?” Both flag officers nodded. “Well, we can't get them all I admit, but I'm taking some officers with me back to Pyrax. Many of them will be flag officers. If there are some that are questionable but have good records, let me know. I'll give them their second chance there under Phil.”
“Yes, sir.”
Admiral Irons grimaced and ran a frustrated hand through his hair. “I wish Yorgi would have come clean with me sooner. We could have avoided this. I would have taken a different approach obviously.”
“I thought you knew, sir. It was common knowledge in the navy here in the Republic. Sort of an open dirty secret no one wanted to talk about.”
“I gathered that. I don't like the patron system. I understand sheparding a career for the sake of a good officer. But I hated it before, during the old Federation, and I'll put the brakes on it now if I can here. It's too much cover your ass shit and politics. We need straight shooters and hard workers. People like you two who are willing to get their hands dirty and get the damn job done.”
“Party people need not apply?” Zek asked.
“There is a time and a place for such stuff. It's useful I admit, but not now. There is a war on. One with Horath and one with the outer darkness. We've got too much at stake in both fights to be distracted.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Good. I wasn't kidding about getting BUSHIPS in order. I'll be leaning on you two a lot since I plan to upload as many keys to the personnel and industrial plants as I can while I'm here. I'll be passing on the civilian keys to the president and vice president as well.” He shook his head ruefully. “When I can find the time. I can't be here for long. They'll need implants too.”
“Understood, sir,” Horatio murmured.
“Sir, speaking of meetings,” Protector interjected.
Admiral Irons grimaced. “Duty calls,” he said. Both of the admirals came to attention and saluted him. He returned the salute. “Carry on.”
“Aye aye, sir,” they said in unison.
“Double time.”
“Aye aye, sir,” Zek replied, glancing at Horatio. When the admiral was gone, he turned to him. “Are you up for it? If you need a break, say the word. I can try to swing things for a couple weeks while you decompress.”
“I'll take the time when we've got our feet under us and things are running smoothly again. I wouldn't mind seeing the Sema family, and I definitely wouldn't mind being away from small rooms with locks on their doors for the foreseeable future.”
Zek smiled in sympathy. “Agreed,” he said, patting the other man on the arm. “So, where did you want to dive into first? I'm still sorting out the management team.”
“You take it from there. I know Admiral Irons ordered the industrial replicators to begin self-replicating once they are finished setting up. I'll check on that and make sure they are moving smoothly there. We'll need to work with Admiral Bolt and I suppose the civilian industrialists to handle the logistics. You know who to trust on that end.”
“None of them,” Zek replied with a shake of his head. “Bolt is okay, but the civilians I wouldn't trust as far as I could throw them.”
“Lovely.”
Zek shrugged. “The funny thing is, a lot of them are former flag officers.”
“Oh, that's even better,” Horatio sighed. “Okay, so, you've got that and the personnel … I think I can tackle the replicators and see if we can get started on modernizing the slips. There is no point building small warships. Nothing smaller than a light cruiser can survive the rapids. The original plan was to work on cruisers first and then scale up from there.” Zek nodded. “I'll see if I can grab Commander Walengrad since she did a damn good job in Bek B. From what I heard, she could use a break but we need her. I think she's earned a promotion too,” he said pointedly.
“I'll talk to Admiral Sharp Reflexes. If he and BUPERS sign off, I will too,” Zek replied. “And I also asked for Commodore Brunswick. I'd like to bump him too. He did well in Bek B. I think he's just the bear we need to help shake things up over here. That is, if they don't keep him in Bek B,” he said in disgust.
“Awesome. Okay, I'll see if I can also shake the money tree with Admiral Irons using my contacts with the government. I don't know how well it will work …”
“Trust me, they want to put everyone back to work and get things back to normal just as badly as we do,” Zek replied. The government had diverted a lot of the tax money intended for the military for infrastructure improvements. It had put some people to work, but there was only so much they could do.
Horatio nodded in return. “Good to know. Okay then, what else do you think I should look into?”
“I'm not sure, but I'll let you know. Priorities are set; let's get on a basic plan. Can you get me an outline tomorrow?”
“I'll work on that,” Horatio replied with a nod. “After seeing Winterspell and the BCs and hearing the report of Caroline's damage, I'd like to skip light cruisers completely. I think HCs and BCs are what can make the most impact in the pirate war …”
Chapter 54
When he finally got around to it, Admiral Irons met with President K'k'R'll and his cabinet. He want
ed to give them all hell for not doing more and for perpetuating the nanite and A.I. hoaxes that had been exposed, but he couldn't blame them. The history thing they'd taken for granted. The recent events—he grimaced internally as he gamed it out once more. There was no way they could have come out overtly against Childress without triggering some sort of coup. General Yetmister would not have agreed to allow his marines to be used, but he could have been relieved of command.
“Your simple visit is turning into a circus, Admiral,” Protector warned as the shuttle made the final approach.
“Oh?”
“Every member of Congress is on hand. It is all over the media,” the A.I. reported, opening a window on his HUD to show him some of the media coverage. There was even a parade.
“Oh,” the admiral said in an entirely different tone of voice.
He frowned and then sighed internally as he realized there was no helping it. He'd gotten Lieutenant Weiss to the president in order to install the implants in the Veraxin and Neocat as well as in other personnel in the government. His visit had been intended as a brief meet and greet and a way for him to pass on their implanted code keys and finalize their initialization of their implants. “Have you adjusted my schedule?”
“I've cleared the day. They wanted a state dinner but there are too many people. They did ask you to address a joint session of Congress.”
“Lovely,” he said dryly.
“Do you want to send your regrets?”
“No, I'll think of something,” he said slowly.
“The city is shutting down. Security is on high alert. This should be interesting,” Protector stated.
“Yeah,” Admiral Irons said dryly. “SITREP with the implants?”
“All of the personnel with implants prior to our arrival have been upgraded and given full key updates. BuMedical has enlisted the Lieutenants Weiss and Jaroslaw to form an assembly line now that Lieutenant Weiss has returned. The medical replicators you and they build are producing basic ID kits now.”
“Good.”
“It will still take time to get to them all,” the A.I. reported as they felt the wheels touch down on the runway. There was a judicious use of force emitters to break the forward momentum of the shuttle. The passengers were mostly oblivious due to the shuttle's inertial dampeners, but the admiral could sense and feel the change.
As the shuttle taxied to the waiting crowd the admiral rose from his seat. Major Burrows and his security detail were already up and getting ready to debark. Traditionally, he was the first off though. They had made arrangements with security and sent a small Marine detachment ahead of them he knew.
“Pull up my canned speeches for me. They'll need to be modified for the event of course,” the admiral said as he made his way through the shuttle to the door.”
“Already loaded in my memory buffers. Captain Sprite sent me a few ideas at our last ansible stop.”
“She managed to send you entire speeches in B-102c?” Admiral Irons asked as the shuttle's door opened.
“The basics of them. I filled in the blanks.”
“Damn, it's good to have good help.”
“Now if we can arrange it here in Bek, we'd be home free,” the A.I. replied as the admiral stepped out to a thundering crowd.
“I wish,” he muttered under his breath as he put up a hand to wave and block some of the sunlight and then smiled.
@
Sven was still a little in awe at personally meeting Admiral Irons. Ingrid had wanted to attend, but there had been so many people there it had been impossible to squeeze her in. He knew that she knew it had been an impossible task, so she'd let him off the hook.
At least, he thought she had, he thought, looking down at her head as she laid up against him. She looked up to him and then back to the tablet in her hands. She glanced up at a sound and then over to the kids as they walked down a hallway talking on their cell phones animatedly. She shared a smile with him and then went back to reading.
Sven knew he wasn't the only one shocked by meeting Admiral Irons in the president's office. The president was still grappling with his own elation at the turn of events. Congress was practically doing cartwheels. Parades had been thrown together in Admiral Irons’ honor. It was a lot to absorb, even more so with the shocks going through the navy and their society.
“He's so … wow.”
“Yeah.”
He'd finally gotten a Sunday afternoon off. He was still doing work, but he'd managed to finagle it so he could do it from home for once. Along with the homework was a ton of correspondence to wade through. A lot of people were trying to get him into a meeting with Admiral Irons. He shook his head at that. The admiral's time was already overscheduled as it was.
The three starships had passed on emails and vidmails from the outer Federation. Ingrid and Sven were amused to receive emails from Moira Sema. It seemed her confirmation as Secretary of State had been confirmed. Sven was glad her gambit had paid off. When he had a chance to scan the emails in the safety and comfort of his home, he shook his head.
He looked over to his red-haired wife who was barefoot. She had her tablet and was reading while cuddled up to him. “I think the outer Federation is run by very naive people or mad optimists, take your pick,” he said.
“You are just a cynic from your years in the sordid politics here in the republic,” his wife said. “Don't worry, Moira will set them straight.”
He groaned. “That's what I'm afraid of.”
Ingrid laughingly showed him some of the emails her sister-in-law had shared with her. He was also amused to see Moira was playing a long game with Irons and possibly stalking him. “They'd be a good match … if she can get around the reporter. Break them up,” Ingrid said.
“With Moira? I don't doubt she's got a plan. It's just a matter of time before she drives a wedge between them. What bothers me is I thought she was with Horatio?” Sven asked.
“That was a passing fad. You know she was using him to get a leg up and a reputation.”
“True. I wonder what he thinks of it though.”
“He's here, right? He didn't ask to go with her.”
“True,” he admitted. “So, you think she'll seduce Irons? After breaking him and the reporter up?”
“Yeah, but she's got to do it in a way that makes it clear she's not the culprit, or she'll be branded by him and never get in with him.” Ingrid said thoughtfully. “Knowing Moira, she's got some sort of plan in the works. Remember, Irons and the reporter are apart now. She can assemble all sorts of ammunition to use against the reporter while Irons is gone.”
“True.”
“She could also get in with the media company. Try to have the woman reassigned, though I highly doubt they'd be stupid enough to do that. With her in bed with the president, it's clear they've got an ear near in bed with the president himself! The pillow talk alone!” Ingrid shook her head.
“Yeah, fodder for the gossip people. No doubt Irons is aware of it and is using it to his advantage,” Sven murmured, kissing the nape of her neck.
“Oh, I can safely assume he's well aware of that,” his wife drawled, smiling at his ploy. “But it is like playing with fire. He could get burned.”
“Possibly. The question is, if Moira goes that route, or hell, if the woman does it to herself and self-destructs, how is she going to get her hooks into Irons? She is a potential rival.”
“Oh, give or take a couple decades maybe. Now?” Ingrid shrugged. “Give her time. She's got plenty of it now that she's had regen therapy.” She grimaced. The government was exploring that, but it was clear that it would be only open to people who were in the military or government service, at least, initially. “And opportunity … well, she'll figure it out. Besides, it is not our problem at the moment anyway.”
“True,” Sven admitted.
“I think we should take advantage of Moira's breaking trail though.”
“Oh?” Sven asked carefully. “How so?” he asked, co
cking an eyebrow skyward as his wife looked up at him impishly.
“I think we can send some of our up and comers to the outer Federation, you know an exchange program, college, and aides, whatever. And maybe while we're at it, we can retire a few people in that direction to help things along there and show them how things are done. All with the eye to get a fresh start and new opportunities for our side.”
Sven nodded slowly. “And the sooner they do it, the more likely they will be to be like Moira and get their foot in the door early. Since there are so many openings, they might climb the ladder as fast as she did. There is no telling how rapidly they will rise.”
“Exactly,” Ingrid smiled. “So, which of the kids do you think we can send? And which college? Antigua or Pyrax?”
“Oh, Antigua,” he said slowly. “We can ask them at dinner,” he said as his wife let her tablet in her lap go and reached up to grab the back of his head to pull him down for a kiss. “Later,” he said.
They kissed again.
“Much later,” she said huskily as they grinned at each other.
@
Zek had his hands full with BUSHIPS right from the beginning despite Horatio's help. Admiral Irons expected them to hit the ground running and make up for lost time. He'd thrown himself into the project and had managed to finally get Commander Thistle transferred over to him despite Admiral Bolt's protests. It would take time for Commodore Brunswick to hand over his duties in Bek B's BUSHIPS and come over.
The lieutenant commander had also been given a rare double promotion to captain JG for his outstanding performance in logistics. Admiral Irons had sat on any attempt to pin the chimera's ears back for his secretly helping the rebels with support and supplies or for staying in under Childress. By all rights, the newly-minted captain should have been rotated out to command a ship as tradition dictated, but they needed him where he was. Something could be done about that later if the new captain ever wanted to rise beyond his present rank.
