The enormity of what I was doing crashed over me and I stood paralyzed. For how long I couldn’t say afterward. I didn’t snap out of it until my door buzzed, indicating someone outside wanted me to come out and deal with more of this unholy mess I’d somehow landed a staring roll in fixing.
Back in the briefing room I had a whole new set of faces with which to contend. Unlike the new department heads who were an equal mix of the young and the old, the bridge crew was almost entirely young. Not only were they young for their posts but I eventually discovered mostly half trained as well.
I should have been able to figure out for myself, if only I’d stopped for a few moments to think things through. Obviously, most of the officers and senior enlisted bridge crew had been provided by the empire. Of those experienced few that weren’t imperials, many had jumped at the Empire’s offer to join the imperial armed forces.
In short, I was left with the enlisted crewmembers they’d been training up during the cruise. Looking at the table of organization for the bridge on my suits internal HUD screen, I discovered we barely had enough people remaining to staff a single shift on the bridge. We didn’t have enough to even think about fully staffing the Flag Bridge on a round the clock basis with three full shifts like we’d been doing up to this point.
We had one navigator, two helmsmen and no one at all in tactical as, apparently, they’d all decided to sign up with the imperials. We also had an overabundance of people who’d been cross trained to man the various sensor stations and the damage control center on the bridge. Our Science officer was the only person approaching middle age and he was here only because he was conducting a study for his PhD thesis at the University of Capria, on the cost/benefits of slave rigging an older warship like ours versus running it with a crew three times the size of most warships in our weight class.
Just counting bodies gave me an uneasy feeling. I realized that even if we called everyone in during an emergency, we still had no one trained in tactical. I had taken a few online classes on basic tactical theory, mostly for the fun of it, but had stopped when I discovered it was a lot more like work than I’d expected and I didn’t wanted to take that kind of time away from my colonial administration studies.
I think I fairly successfully redirected most of the questions I didn’t understand, or subjects which were only barely comprehensible to me, off on my absent Intelligence Officer slash First Officer. Anything I couldn’t hand off, I steadfastly stated was still under review. I thought I sounded like an incompetent fool who couldn’t even make a decision half the time but what could I do? I wasn’t trained to be an Admiral. All I could do was point them in the direction of someone who might have a clue and stick to the things I could do something about.
It was one of the helmsmen who finally helped me reach a decision regarding something I could actually do something about.
“Where are we going after this, Admiral,” he asked, looking worried and yet strangely hopeful that I had an answer at the same time.
“Going, Helmsman DuPont?” I asked, my brow furrowed. “I would hope we would adjourn to the bridge to perform a ship-wide readiness check and systems analysis.”
“After we leave this star system I mean, Sir,” he said. “It’s just that a few of us have been wondering where we’re going to go after the ship’s put back to rights.”
This was the question I dreaded above all others, especially from one of the people who were going to actually operate the ship. Anyone else and I could say that I needed to talk with the helmsman or navigator first. But this was a helmsman and the blasted navigator was right across the table from him.
This was the sort of thing to which Admiral Janeski was supposed tend. On the outside I was stalling for time by appearing to think the question over, while on the inside I was railing once again at our recently departed imperial admiral. Unlike myself, I was sure he never found himself at a loss as to how to reply to a question like this. I wished that I could cause him even a quarter as much trouble as he’d caused for me, and then suddenly I had it. The idea that popped into my brain was so outrageous, so gutsy, that it would never have occurred to me before the Admiral dumped this great big steaming mess in my lap and called it placing me in operational command. I dare say it wouldn’t have occurred to me even if I was a trained Admiral myself, not before the Empire of Man declared it was pulling out and leaving us to our own devices anyway.
Now it not only occurred to me, the idea filled me with a perverse delight.
A couple months ago the Lucky Clover had come upon a pair of pirates, a converted merchant freighter and an aged heavy cruiser that was even older and more poorly built that the Lucky Clover. Swift action and some handy maneuvering on the part of Admiral Janeski had resulted in our ship disabling the two pirates. The fact that the pirates hadn’t been able to keep up on the maintenance of their one genuine warship and that half the guns didn’t fire hadn’t hurt either.
Anyway, the two ships had been captured and claimed as prizes of the Imperial Rim Fleet. Their crews had been shipped off via prison transport while we’d continued on with our assigned patrol route. However, leaving to continue our patrol hadn’t been the only thing the admiral had done. He’d used the Imperial ComStat, a network of FTL buoys which were not always within communications range on the outer edge of the spine, to send a message for a couple of the ad-hoc patrol fleet’s larger vessels to come guard the prizes and repair the engines of the heavy cruiser enough get it to a repair dock.
I thought that since the Imperial Rim Fleet was officially no more, and that our ship had done most of the work and all of the original seizing, that going back and claiming those two ships for our beleaguered Patrol Fleet was a capital idea.
I was sure Admiral Janeski had plans for those ships, at least at one point. What those plans had been or currently were, I wasn’t quite sure but still, it would be nice to derail his plans for once, whatever they were. I couldn’t think of anything more likely to do so than stealing those prizes right out from under his nose and making sure our imperial abandoners never saw a credit of all the prize money from those captured pirate ships.
I also knew the perfect way to sell this to any of the ship’s crew with thoughts of bugging out now and heading straight for home. I was sure there were quite a few of them by now. I didn’t dare order them to do something and have them refuse. At the moment, everyone (outside of the fallen security team) was listening intently to what I had to say because I was the Admiral the Caprian government had placed over them. That could all change in an instant if they didn’t like where I was taking them, and once they started ignoring me it would only be a short step from there to turning on me like an angry slash lizard. Just like they did to poor Jean Luc. I shuddered and felt a little queasy.
“That’s a very good question, Helmsman DuPont,” I said, after an uncomfortably long silence while I considered the question. “Now that I’ve had time to think about it, instead of running around like a maniac trying to put our ship back in order,” I put on a winning smile, direct from media training 101, and watched as they reluctantly followed suit. “Our first order of business should be to go back and pick up those two pirates vessels we took a prize,” I smiled.
Brows furrowed and mouths started to open with questions but I overrode them. “I’m sure everyone on the ship wants to make sure the Imperials don’t steal them from us…” I paused for effect, and then added the only part I thought the crew would really be interested in, “along with all that prize money the crew earned when the Clover captured them.”
Mouths closed and brows became less furrowed. I could see that a desire to go to the nearest port, or just plain straight home, warred with the thought of giving up all that prize money. Money that with half of the original crew gone, along with the Imperial Fleet, would be doubled if ‘we’ grabbed the pair of ships or, on the other hand could become absolutely nothing when the Imperials did all the grabbing instead.
I could te
ll some of them weren’t entirely convinced by the idea but at least I had given them something to think about, something other than making a bee line for home.
As for myself I thought the idea had merit all on its own but I had to admit to that I wasn’t sure if going straight home would get me killed and/or imprisoned and this seemed like the perfect way to go about delaying the inevitable, at least until I had more information and some time to digest it.
Everyone likes to think that politicians and fat cat capitalistic business men have some sort of monopoly on greed, but wave a fat chunk of change in front of the masses and most people are willing temporarily alter their moral compass or entirely revise their normal, reliable decision making processes.
More than anything else the crew was worried and with good reason. Even a complete naval fool like myself could see we had critical manpower shortages all over the ship. Supplies had been raided, equipment sabotaged and morale crippled to the point where any sane commander would have hove to and head straight for the nearest port. To top all it off, with the Imperials leaving the spine-ward sectors to their own devices, there was a lot to worry about both on both the personal and interstellar scene. In my opinion the crew would have to be complete idiots not to be worried.
A chorus of, “Yes, sir,” and “You’re the, Admiral,” came from the bridge crew.
I just nodded. I could tell that a few of them would still need convincing but for now I’d just let the thought of ‘losing’ all that money do my convincing for me. Hopefully by this time tomorrow the crew would be buzzing over the idea of rescuing their prize money from the greedy Imperials.
“I think that about wraps things up.” I said. “For now the helmsmen will have to be on twelve hour shifting. The navigator will stay on first shift but is on call at need. As there are no tactical staff that problem solves itself. The various sensor and damage control personnel will also be mainly on first shift but I want at least one sensor operator and one damage control operator on shifts two and three.”
There were various nods of agreement.
“In the future we’ll start a cross training program, to fill as many holes on the bridge as possible. Bridge staff as well as general crew will be considered for the training program. Training aside, I’m hoping for volunteers for the two and three shift spots but if there are disputes regarding who get those duties take them up with First Officer, who will be the final arbiter of the initial assignments. The same thing regarding the new training program, also if anyone is interested in the new training program please speak with the ship’s First Officer, Raphael Tremblay.” I gave them a moment to process these orders, hoping it made me appear controlled and collected. “Dismissed.”
As they filed out I congratulated myself for handing off yet another time consuming assignment to the ship’s former Intelligence Officer. I wanted that man as busy as humanly possible.
Chapter 5: First Among Officers
The former Intelligence Officer, looking very harried and overloaded, caught back up with me on the Flag Bridge.
I was sitting in the Admiral’s chair (or throne as I still thought of it, especially since it was the only chair on the bridge big enough to take my power armored enlarged bulk) watching the half trained bridge crew go about the job of scanning near and far space inside the solar system. In the background I listened as the bridge damage control center coordinated with the engineering and damage control parties, as they went about routine maintenance and repairs.
Everyone sounded nervous and in some cases like they didn’t really know what they were doing. Occasionally I’d clump my way to a position of interest and peer over the shoulder of someone. I was trying to get a feel for what they were doing, but I was having limited success. By 'limited,' I mean I had absolutely no better idea what they were doing after observing them than I did before observing them. Unfortunately, having someone in power armor looming over you tends to make most people nervous, so I tried to limit myself to the desk controls on the throne as much as possible.
I was busy mirroring the display of a sensor operator when my First Officer cleared his throat.
I turned my head to face him. “Yes?” I imagine I sounded more than a little irritated, but it had little effect on the already flustered junior lieutenant.
“Engineer Spalding told to me to inform you that he refuses to waste time on staff meetings on the bridge when there are more important meetings in engineering, or better yet actual work to be done on the ship.” Raphael Tremblay said, reporting on our wayward Chief Engineer.
“I take it they freed him from the brig, then,” I said a little too sharply and I knew it.
“Yes, Admiral,” he nodded.
“What else?” I consciously tried to moderate my tone now. Too many outbursts simply wouldn't do here on the bridge. People were tense enough as it was.
“Sir?” the former intelligence officer said.
“What else did he say,” I replied. “Our Chief Engineer is quite the character, I’m sure he had more to say than he wouldn’t be showing up at a meeting.”
“Other than disobeying a direct order and generally being abrasive and insubordinate?” Lieutenant Tremblay asked disbelievingly.
I gestured with my hand for him to get to the point. Servos whined in response, and I think my new First Officer flinched at the sound of the power armor's mechanisms.
“He complained about everything from the state of the ship to the former Imperial crew and even the former Caprian crew who, in his words, ‘deserted the ship’. He also claimed engineering had lost the most people of any department on the ship.”
I'm afraid I wasn’t able to keep my eyes from widening at this news.
The new first officer rolled his eyes in response. “Engineering only lost about a quarter of its people. From the initial reports most other departments lost half or more.”
I tried to hide a sigh of relief at this news, bad as it was. “Not quite as bad as I’d feared, then,” I said in a measured tone.
Raphael Tremblay made a back and forth movement of his hand. “Better than most but I wouldn’t say it even approaches the level of good news. Initial reports are that most of those still with us are hopelessly junior or out and out trainees.”
From what I’d seen so far I had to agree with him. Still it wouldn’t do to talk down about the crew where they could hear him. Images of Jean-luc and his traitorous crew had formed a permanent presence in my mind's eye. I raised my voice above the general din of the bridge and said, “Everyone who stayed with us is worth two of those disloyal jackanapes who left with the Imperials.” The former intelligence officer opened his mouth but I quickly cut him off. “As for training, that just takes time. I have no doubt that our ship can and will be the equal of any Imperial crew, given the chance. What's more, they now know they are surrounded by comrades who won’t abandon them in the middle of their mission.”
The speech appeared to have the desired effect, as I saw some of the crew on the bridge straighten their shoulders.
Lieutenant Tremblay slowly closed his mouth and glanced over at the bridge crew before deciding not to continue that line of conversation any further. "The bridge crews lost over three fourths of its people, including the Captain and all the senior officers, and we have no trained tactical officers at all,” he said instead, trying a different approach.
“I know that,” I replied shortly, silently congratulating myself on identifying this particular Lieutenant as a threat to my budding command. I drew a measured breath.
Lieutenant Tremblay’s mouth quirked but he didn’t look pleased, “I understand we are instituting a new training program to fill the holes.”
“I'm glad to see you've made yourself aware of such developments, Lieutenant,” I said with a cold, practiced smile.
The Lieutenant gave a fleeting smile and then frowned, “If I’m going to be your First Officer, it’s important I know I’m responsible for something like a new training program before I
’m approached by crewmembers looking to apply.”
“You've already demonstrated that you've got your finger on the ship's pulse,” I said unrepentantly. "I have the utmost confidence in your ability to continue displaying such attention to details which concern ship wide operations." All of those one-sided public debate defeats with my cousins were starting to pay dividends, I thought to myself with a smirk.
“I mean it!” he said angrily. “If you don’t want me to be your first officer, that’s fine with me. But if you do, I need to be in the loop on things like this.”
I narrowed my eyes and considered. “I suppose you’re right,” I finally agreed.
Admiral Who? (A Spineward Sectors Novel:) Page 6
