"That makes what? Six?" Durand asked.
"Yes, Sir."
With Admiral Leahy back at the helm, Bill had been free to follow up on his year-long investigation with computer and bank account searches. Six agents of foreign governments had been found on Sigurdsen, including one from Paradiso, just in the Naval Operations Center. All had been arrested and were facing capital charges.
"Do you think you got them all?"
"Not likely, Sir. There'll be more, including outside of the NOC, but they'll be a lot harder to find. We'll keep at it," Bill said.
"Actually, I want your second to take over the job. That's Senior Captain Savarkar, isn't it?"
"Yes, Sir."
"He's up for promotion. I want to make him Rear Admiral and have him take command of your section. I have something else for you. Is Savarkar up to the job in your opinion?" Durand asked.
"Yes, Sir. No problem at all for him."
"Excellent. Because it just so happens that I'm in the market for a chief of staff this week, Admiral. And I think you're the best man for the job."
"Chief of staff to the head of Intelligence Division? Wow," Jan said that evening.
"And heir-apparent, it looks like. The previous guy was a little too chummy with Graham's people. One of the things Captain Savarkar found in the computer data was that Durand's office was leaking to NOC."
"Was he arrested? Will he be charged?"
"No. It comes under the category of an error in judgment. Durand was fuming, but he knew that. He himself had contacts all over Sigurdsen. All over the Navy, in fact," Bill said.
"But his loyalty was never in doubt."
"No, he never leaked anything that made Birken or Intelligence Division look bad. He built useful relationships in support of his boss and the division. Anyway, the chief of staff got shunted out of the way, and Durand was looking for a replacement. And I'm it."
"And a third star. Nice," Jan said.
"We're the same rank for once. Wonder how long that will last."
"Well, I still have four months until Peggy is one year old, so with me out of action until then, I think you're safe."
"A likely story," Bill said.
It was just two weeks later that Jan got a request – not an order, she noted – to stop in at Tactical Division and meet with Admiral Xi.
"Admiral Childers. It's good to see you," Admiral Xi said.
"And you, Ma'am."
They shook hands and both sat down.
"How's Peggy?"
"Good, Ma'am. She's a handful, but that's to be expected."
"Good. Excellent."
Xi looked down at some notes on her desk, then back up at Jan.
"I know you have several months left on your leave., but there were a couple of things I needed to bring you up to date on.
"First, the Defense Minister nominated and the Commonwealth Council has seen fit to name you a full Admiral. Congratulations, Jan," Xi said.
"Thank you, Ma'am. That's unexpected."
"Well, it's actually getting to be around that time, and they decided not to wait. For all that, it's not many Admirals who have saved a Commonwealth planet from an incursion like the one in Kodu."
Jan didn't know what to say to that, and Xi went on.
"The other thing that's been working its way through channels is the reason I asked you to come and see me. The Merit Board nominated it, the Defense Minister approved it, and now the Commonwealth Council has passed it in closed session.
"For your actions in Kodu, you have been recognized with the Commonwealth Charter Medallion. Congratulations, Admiral."
Xi stood, so Jan stood, and then Admiral Xi saluted her. Jan returned Xi's salute, and shook her hand, in a daze.
The Commonwealth Charter Medallion was the Commonwealth's highest military honor.
Admiral Xi sat back down, and Jan half sat, half collapsed, into her chair.
"I don't deserve it. I was just doing my job," Jan said.
"I believe that every recipient of the CCM says exactly that. But in fact, it's not true, Jan. You didn't just follow orders. You exceeded your orders by planning for an incursion that headquarters assured you would not come, and then you selflessly threw yourself and your task force into the breach to save the planet.
"I've seen your loss estimates, don't forget. You fully believed you had no better than a fifty-fifty chance of surviving yourself, that it would also cost half your ships and crew, and you made the decision without hesitation that it was in the overall best interest of the Commonwealth to press on. Task Force 32 responded to the Paradiso incursion within minutes. You protected Kodu, you saved the Navy and its reputation from its own stupidity, and you did so despite the very real danger to yourself. And further, because you were prepared, the actual losses were just over half what you estimated.
"The CCM is meant to encourage that sort of thing."
There was no public ceremony for the award of the CCM, partially because the nature of space battles meant it was so often awarded posthumously, partially because the nature of space travel and planet assignments meant it could wait years before a living recipient was back on Sigurdsen.
Admiral Xi opened the top side drawer of her desk and withdrew a long, flat, black jeweler's box. It opened with a hinge on the short side. She opened it and set it on the desk, and slid it across to Jan.
"Congratulations again, Jan. Trust me that it's well deserved."
When Bill came home that evening, Jan was again nursing Peggy in the big comfy chair in the living room. Jan was in the plain shipsuit she preferred for casual wear. It was handy for a breastfeeding mom because the zipper down the front made things so easy. Her uniform jacket was hung over the back of the swivel chair at the desk.
"Hi, Hon. How did the meeting go?" Bill asked.
Then he spotted her uniform jacket with the four stars of a full admiral on the shoulder patches.
"Ho, ho. What did I tell you?"
"Turn the chair around," Jan said softly.
Bill swung the swivel chair around so the front of her uniform faced into the room. When he saw the CCM atop all her other decorations, he half sat, half collapsed into tailor seat on the floor, and just stared at it for a while.
"Ha! Gotcha," Jan said, softer still.
Bill turned to her.
"That's – That's amazing."
"I told Admiral Xi I did not deserve it. She said that's the standard response from every recipient. And that I was wrong."
Back To Work
Jan was coming up on the end of the partial maternity leave she had taken when the Board of Inquiry findings had come in at the short end of the time range. Going back onto active status was looming.
She didn't know what kind of assignment could be in the works, but she wouldn't take a spacing assignment. She wouldn't be separated from Peggy for weeks or months at a time.
Even a planet-side assignment off Jablonka would mean a month in transit in a shoebox-sized cabin with a one-year-old, which was way too much of a good thing. Maybe there was something that, as a full admiral, she could do here at Sigurdsen. Division head or something. Xi had taken over at Tactical Division within the last couple years, so that was unlikely. But maybe there was something.
And there was still what she called "the Kodu problem." She would not again order thousands of spacers to their deaths because of pathetically stupid orders from higher.
Perhaps it was time to retire after all. There was plenty of money. In almost twenty years in the CSF, she had hardly spent anything at all. Jan was a person of simple tastes, with no expensive vices, and her basics had always been provided by the service. Between her initial stake as a Commonwealth citizen, the first five years of stipend, twenty years of salary in the CSF, and some smart investing, she had grown a nest egg that was sizable, much more than enough to comfortably retire on.
Jan was at that point when she got a request to meet with the CNO, Admiral Thomas Leahy. He requested the meeting at
his house on Sigurdsen rather than in the office. Dread warred with curiosity about what the CNO would propose for her duties.
There were three large houses on the edge of Sigurdsen Fleet Base, on the opposite side of the base from Jezgra, the capital city of Jablonka. They stood in a row along the shoulder of the first of the hills south of the base. From their front porches, one could look out across the fleet base, toward the towers of downtown Jezgra in the distance. Their back yards were fenced gardens sheltered from the wind by the houses and the hills behind them. A gate in the backyard fence of each allowed walking up into the hills beyond.
They were large houses, built for entertaining guests to the base. They included large public rooms, a chef's kitchen that would do credit to a small restaurant, in which four or five could work at a time, and a formal dining room that would seat twenty. All five bedrooms in each house had en suite bathrooms and a small sitting room.
It was called The Hill. The houses were assigned to the Chief of Naval Operations, the Chief of Naval Research, and the Planetary Commander of Sigurdsen Fleet Base.
Jan made sure Peggy was happy and the woman who was her day help during the week had everything she needed well before the car showed up in Flag Row to pick her up. She was in full uniform, and had fought herself back down to her pre-pregnancy weight. She and Bill were sparring again, and it felt good to once again be so loose and fit.
The driver held the door for her, and Jan got into the big staff car. They rode in silence to the south end of the base and up the road to the three big houses on The Hill that overlooked Sigurdsen from the foothills. The driver pulled into the loop drive and stopped at the base of the stairs to the porch. He held the car door for her as she got out.
Jan paused at the top of the stairs and turned to look out over Sigurdsen. So many memories here. There was their townhouse on Flag Row. There the gymnasium where she had met Bill. The apartment blocks where she had spent most of her base time before Bill. The Tactical Division headquarters building. The Intelligence Division headquarters building. The commissary. And even the Officer Candidate School, unchanged in twenty years.
Jan turned back to the front door where a Senior Chief held the door for her.
"Morning, Ma'am."
"Good morning, Senior Chief. Is our boss in?"
He smiled at that as he closed the door.
"Yes, Ma'am. This way, please."
He led the way back through the house, through the large living room, through the formal dining room, through a set of French doors and out onto a flagstone patio where Admiral Leahy sat, also in full uniform, at a patio table under a big umbrella. A coffee service was out on the table. There was one other cup and saucer set.
Leahy got up as they approached.
"Ah, Jan. Thank you for coming."
He held out his hand. Jan saluted first before shaking.
"Good morning, Sir. Good to see you again."
"Same rank, and we're not in the office, Jan. Call me Tom."
They sat down at the table. The senior chief poured coffee for Jan and withdrew.
"How's Peggy doing?"
"Coming up on one year, and trying so hard to walk it's scary. Tom, I dread when she goes on active status."
Leahy laughed.
"And Bill?"
"Good. He really likes his new position. He and Admiral Durand are two peas in a pod, it seems."
"Excellent."
Leahy absently stirred his coffee, then looked up at her.
"You're coming up on the end of your leave, Jan, and I wanted to talk about what you might want to do when you return to active status. Have you given any thought to it?"
"Yes, quite a bit, actually. I won't accept spacing duties, because I won't be separated from Bill and Peggy for long stretches, and it's not fair to pull Bill out of Sigurdsen when things are going so well for him. Not fair to the Service, either. He's very good at what he does."
Leahy nodded, and Jan went on.
"I can't see a planetary assignment off Jablonka, with a three to five week transit time. A ship's cabin with a one-year-old on the way out can't be anybody's idea of fun, and the return trip with a two or three year old is worse yet. Can you imagine?"
Leahy laughed.
"And, Tom, I can't needlessly order thousands of spacers to their deaths again because of pathetically stupid orders from the NOC. Once is quite enough.
"I have my eighteen in. Maybe it's time I hang it up."
Leahy nodded.
"Cogently summarized. You know, of course, that the whole Navy feels the same way about Kodu. They won't again sit still for an ass like Graham. Jan, I'll predict that there won't be another staff officer elevated to CNO for a hundred years. The rank and file won't stand for it, not while the Navy's institutional memory holds Kodu in its mind.
"There's an anxiety now with orders from higher that runs from below decks all the way to flag rank on the operations side of things. It's a major concern, because I am going back into retirement. I quit this job once already. And whoever takes over as CNO has to have the full confidence of the Navy, the whole Navy, from top to bottom.
"But I think I have a solution. To my problem, to your problem, and to the Navy's problem."
"Really?"
"Yes. Jan, would you consider being Chief of Naval Operations?"
Jan's coffee cup hit the saucer with a bang. It was more of a controlled drop than properly setting it down. It was a good thing they were using the patio dishes, and not the fancy stuff.
She just gawked at him. Her conscious mind was in shock, even while her automatic thought processes began sorting, sifting, organizing, and re-arranging facts, impressions, and possibilities.
"It's a very nice house. It comes with a staff, including childcare staff if you want. The food's good. The neighbors are quiet. It has a pretty view. The back yard is fenced. I thought the swing set could go right over there," Leahy said as he waved toward an open spot in the gardens.
He had a twinkle in his eye as he watched her come to grips with his proposal.
"No space travel. You've already been to half the Commonwealth. More than me. No long separations. Short commute. Home every night for supper. It's got a lot going for it."
Jan shook her head.
"Tom, doesn't the CNO have to be nominated by the Defense Minister and approved by the Foreign Minister and the Chairman of the Council?"
"Yes. That's all been done. You're their choice. If you take it."
Another shock.
"Jan, two months ago, we surveyed active and retired flag ranks as to who they would like to see as CNO. We asked for three names."
Jan remembered. She had nominated Admirals Jeanette Xi, Desmond Deshpande, and Richard Murdock.
"Ninety-five percent of them nominated you as one of their choices. Twenty percent didn't even name anyone else. Just you. Admiral Ludkin, because there had been some reports of friction between the two of you in Bahay, messaged the Defense Minister personally from his retirement to make sure the DM understood that you were his only nominee on his survey form.
"The Defense Minister also came to Sigurdsen and walked around the base. He stopped a number of non-coms at random and asked them who they would nominate. Every one of them said you. One senior chief said they would follow you straight into hell, because the devil didn't stand a chance. He didn't get any suggestions from the non-coms of anyone else. No one else at all, Jan. Not one.
"As far as I'm concerned, you're the one person who can pull the Navy back together after Kodu."
Leahy sat back and sipped his coffee. Jan looked up into the hills behind the house. A million questions sifted themselves, organized themselves, prioritized themselves in her mind. She asked the big one.
"How are the staff issues sorting out?" Jan asked.
"Pretty good, I think. I've weeded out Graham's know-nothings and sycophants. Intelligence Division did a good job cleaning out most of the foreign agents. I think most of them anyway. B
ill did a nice job there. The chief of staff knows what she's doing and is easy to work with. We've moved competent people up into the openings. Lots of people new to their positions, but solid experience one and all, and they're working out so far.
"On the political side, the Defense Minister is a big fan of yours, and is open to input. He'll ask your opinion on big issues at his level, and actually listen. He won't be a problem.
"I also talked with my neighbors. The CNR, Kurt Wisniewski, is enthusiastic. You've done a lot of work over the years with the intelligence and research types, and you have a really good rep over there. He wasn't at all fond of Graham. Called him a jackass. The Planetary Commander is Dez Deshpande, who you relieved in Kodu. He said, 'Thank God,' when I asked him about you as CNO.
"On the personal side, know that you can call me any time. Sometimes you just want to talk to somebody who's done the job before. I'll be there for you."
Jan looked down at her coffee cup. She ran her finger around the rim absently. Then she looked up at Leahy.
"I need to talk to Bill before I can give you a decision."
"Of course. I'm still holding down the shop. Take the time you need."
As always, Jan was nursing Peggy when Bill came home. It seemed that feeding time was feeding time for all the Campbells.
"Hi, Hon. How did your meeting with Admiral Leahy go?"
"You need to sit down first," Jan said.
"Uh, OK," Bill said.
He sat down on the sofa facing her.
"How would you like to move up to The Hill?" Jan asked.
"He asked you to be Planetary Commander?"
"No. CNO."
Bill just stared at her.
"He said that the Navy needs someone they have confidence in, after Kodu. Everybody looks at their orders now and wonders, 'Are these orders stupid? Are they going to get my people killed.' It's a crisis of confidence," Jan said.
Bill shook himself out of his shock.
"Yeah, I'm not on the operations side, but I've certainly picked up on that."
"They surveyed all flag ranks, active and retired, a couple months back."
Childers Page 26
