Well-Traveled Rhodes (Kinsella Universe Book 6)

by Gina Marie Wylie

  “Say, 'Pixie terminate exercise and report results,'” Tam told Cindy.

  “Pixie, terminate the exercise. How did we do?”

  “The exercise was incomplete; the crew hasn't been assigned damage control or emergency stations.”

  “That's my job, isn't it?” Cindy said.

  Captain Hall appeared, still wearing a bubble. “It might be your job, but it's my responsibility, XO.”

  Chief Shinzu came onto the bridge. “Your responsibility, but I'm the training officer. This is a collective leadership failure.

  “Right now, tonight, we go over the augmented crew roster and assign emergency stations to everyone. I mean, it used to be fine to say, 'everyone's battle station is on the bridge' but this is now. There are lot more people involved now; we have to stop fooling around and get professional and serious.”

  A new voice broke in. “This is Lieutenant Bob Shannon, delivering two shuttles. Your ship is reporting a lock failure in the shuttle bay.”

  Captain Hall let out a groan before replying. “Wait one; we just ran an exercise and we're running at a twenty percent over pressure. Pixie, see to it.”

  “Aye, aye, Captain,” Lieutenant Shannon replied.

  Pixie was prosaic. “Lieutenant Rhodes, there were three personnel who did not react in the minimum time specified by the Fleet for donning a bubble after such a failure. Lieutenant Jedburgh, Lieutenant Knowles and Chief Shore.”

  Chief Shinzu was frosty. “If you please, XO, see that they are in the training compartment at 0600 tomorrow. They'll be first, but not last! We will get ship-shape! Toot-sweet!”

  “Yes,” Captain Hall said. “We'll go to battle stations tomorrow at 0400, departure from dock at 0500, secure from quarters at 0530. I'll see everyone who isn't on watch in the mess at 0700.

  “Tin Tin, I'll be back later. XO, Chief Shinzu, Gunny Hodges... please remain. The rest of you get some sleep.”

  A few minutes later a young man in his early twenties appeared. “Bob Shannon reporting, Captain,” he told Captain Hall.

  “Welcome aboard, Lieutenant. The XO will get you and your wife settled... the quarters are still new, and you'll find a fair degree of choice.” Captain Hall paused. “I see that this time no one saw to it there was no conflict with date-of-rank.”

  “You mean that I've been a first lieutenant for two years?” He waved at the wavy stripe on the captain's shipsuit. “That trumps date-of-rank as far as I'm concerned.”

  “And if your date-of-rank should technically land you the XO's slot?”

  Lieutenant Shannon glanced at Cindy and smiled slightly. “Technically,” he said quietly, “all sorts of things should be... but they aren't. I just want to fly, Captain. Period.”

  For the first time Cindy noticed that there was a young woman standing next to Lieutenant Shannon. She was slight, she was short, and her skin and hair were pale. Cindy couldn't understand why she hadn't noticed the young woman before.

  “I've taught my husband never to make an issue of ages or dates,” the youngest member of their crew said.

  Captain Hall sighed. “Admiral Gull said that while your wife isn't a member of the Fleet she is a civilian contractor, and as such should be treated as supernumerary crew. It won't be an issue with anyone on this crew.”

  She gestured forward. “Lieutenant Shannon, we deploy in a few hours for a three-day workup. If you crash now, will you be ready to have us underway at 0500?”

  “That's a roger, Captain. I'm good to go.”

  The captain turned to the young woman standing next to her husband. “My XO will see the two of you to your quarters, then Mrs. Shannon, you need to get with Lieutenant Rhodes. She has some ideas to run past you -- you will not, I repeat, you will not do any manned experimentation such as she envisions without my direct, formal written authorization.”

  The lieutenant laughed. “Oh, Sarah is the opposite of a danger junkie. Not to worry, Capt'n!”

  “Go make things happen. XO, Chief Shinzu, Gunny Hodges and I will prepare a watch bill and you can sign off on it before you get some sleep.”

  “I'll probably just stay up,” Cindy told her.

  “No you won't. As of now we are on formal war deployment footing. No more than twenty waking hours in a row and nothing more than thirty-six hours awake in forty-eight. Chief Shore will be keeping track and will sedate anyone who gets too enthusiastic.”

  Cindy stared at the captain for a moment, while listening to Pixie explain the regulations.

  “I'll be ever so much better off with two hours of sleep tonight,” Cindy said sarcastically.

  “Something is better than nothing, XO. This was a painful lesson we learned in the early days of the war. You will spend longer times awake than the regs specify -- but that's because we'll be fighting for our lives. Get as much as you can before.”

  “Aye, aye, Captain,” Cindy said with resignation in her voice. She had, at the last moment not said “Mommy” instead of “Captain” -- she was pretty sure the comment wouldn't be appreciated.

  She took the new crew members towards the residence module. “Lieutenant McVae integrated it earlier today,” she told the pair. “There may be glitches; tell Pixie to alert her. She's a certified BuShips officer; she can get it fixed up.”

  “XO,” Bob Shannon said and then stopped. “I don't want to step on toes, but if we are going to maneuver in a few hours, do I need to do a better job docking and securing the shuttle than the quick lock that I did?”

  “Lieutenant, this crew has all of the heart in the universe. We are, however, sadly lacking in practical experience. The captain was a weapons control officer before; I was a secondary student. Others of us have equally varied history.”

  “I was reviewing their public records. Varied, that's a good term for it.”

  “We'll fit right in,” Sarah Shannon told Cindy.

  “Lets make a detour and I'll make sure the shuttles are secure. We don't want them coming loose when we maneuver.”

  “No, I don't imagine we do.”

  To Cindy's surprise, Chief Shinzu was in the shuttle bay, doing the work. “I thought you were on the bridge,” Cindy told her friend.

  “I'm used to doing a watch bill for a hundred people at a time, XO. Nineteen? Piece of cake!” She waved at the shuttles. “You understand that for two years I've done little but work in bays just like this one? Old habits die hard.”

  “Thank you, Master Chief,” Bob Shannon. “I saw the size of the ship and thought, “I'll just let the shuttle bay crew deal with it. When there wasn't anyone there, I thought you were still winding down from your drill. I never imagined a ship this size with a crew this small.”

  Cindy chuckled. “We were thirteen on the trip out from Earth.”

  “And you could work the ship?” he seemed surprised.

  “We have a lot of automation,” the master chief said with a laugh.

  “I guess so!” the pilot said.

  “Come,” Cindy said, “let's see to your quarters.”

  The two of them picked the closest set of compartments to the bridge, away from where the weapons' officers had chosen, to be close to their duty area.

  “We just have ship bags,” Bob Shannon told Cindy. “What is it you want my wife to do?”

  Cindy explained, starting from the beginning.

  They listened intently until Cindy concluded. “So, we're constrained not to be able to do human testing -- so we'll take it out on one of those shuttles. While the engineering people can't say what the effects of such rapid transitions will be on the hardware, they aren't optimistic. Command is dead set opposed to human testing.”

  “Foo!” Sarah Shannon exclaimed. “It's one thing to forbid jumping into the boiling pot on maximum boil -- but what's wrong with putting in one toe gradually?”

  “Ummm... because the admiral said no human experiments?” her husband said.

  Sarah sniffed. “You plot hot orbits; now and then you fly one. If it wasn't dangerous they woul
dn't make such a big deal out of it. As you well know I have a flag on my Master Pilot's certificate -- able to withstand multiple zero-cycle fan transitions.

  “And how did I get that flag? Why, I flew a shuttle with another person with the same ability sitting next to me to pick up the pieces if I wasn't as immune as I thought. Three zero-cycle time transitions, a minute and a half apart.”

  “That's safe.”

  “And docking approaches have a safe range where you trust six year olds with them. What's the difference? Why you test, you parameterize, you do due diligence to find out what is safe and what isn't. When you start getting into the 'clearly unsafe' zone -- then you stop testing. You don't stop before you start.”

  “It's dangerous,” he repeated.

  She laughed. “Are you going to sit there and tell me that at one point everything is fine and the next test point the subject drops dead?”

  “It could be,” he said stubbornly.

  “And you could screw up a hot approach...”

  “It is a question we can at least approach,” Cindy interjected. “Clearly if the hardware isn't up to it, human testing towards the goal would be pointless.”

  He nodded. “With that, XO, I think we should do as the captain commanded: get some sleep.”

  Chapter 12 -- Workup

  There was one big difference between having Tam Farmer as a roommate and having Shinzu. Shinzu snored; it wasn't loud, but it was present. Tam slept peacefully, although she did wrap her arms around one of her two pillows, hugging it tight. There was undoubtedly some deep psychological explanation for that, Cindy thought, but she couldn't imagine what.

  The first surprise waiting for her was the new watch bill. Instead of four watches, with one rotating to fill in for days off, there were still four watches, but watches were now six hours and days off had gone to zero.

  More importantly, her battle station assignment had changed. She was no longer on the bridge, but half the ship away, in the bridge alternate, where her primary duty was in change of damage control.

  For Cindy it was a bitter pill at first, but then she remembered that there had been someone on Dragon's bridge important to Captain Hall, another person important to Willow Wolf. Captain Hall and Willow Wolf had survived -- their loved ones hadn't. This was duty at its most fundamental level. She never once said anything to anyone about it -- instead she communed with Pixie getting an outline of her duties in damage control.

  Over and over, she thought, she was getting her lack of basic knowledge thrown into her face. She was sure it wasn't deliberate, but it was hard. Very hard. Damage control assumed that the person in charge had a thorough understanding of the ship's various systems.

  The answer was clear: what do you do to fix a broken sewage line, spewing waste into the ship: whatever you had to do to contain the problem.

  At 0500 Lieutenant Shannon piloted them out of their dock and headed for their exercise area. One thing that was a mild surprise was that Sarah Shannon was posted to the bridge alternate position as well.

  For one thing, Sarah didn't sit in her position, but was up and moving around, looking at each of the three manned positions, one after another.

  Finally she settled next to Cindy. “You probably think Bob is a child abuser, a rapist; the worst kind of person in the universe.”

  “Yes,” Cindy said honestly. “Still, people I respect say that I need to withhold judgment.”

  “You realize that you're a cripple, right?”

  “Pardon?” Cindy said, a little surprised. Chief Irgun looked up, smiled slightly and looked away hastily when she saw Cindy was looking at her.

  “You've never been close to someone in your life. Not even a friend.”

  “So I've been told,” Cindy admitted.

  “I was as different from the rest of my family as a person can be. I knew it from when I was little. My father was someone always looking for 'the big score.'” She made air quotes. “He thought the job at Tannenbaum was at last what he'd been looking for his entire life. Even when they told him the odds, he was cheerful, confident he could handle it. A man who'd never handled anything in his life before.

  “He was on his third day of training when he forgot to safety his air hoses. Worse, my mother was the one who checked him and said he was fine. He was dead two minutes later. Two days later she watched an arc-welder without protection; blind, she turned and ran into a lifter moving a structural member -- it went in her stomach and out of her back. She was dead instantly.”

  “I'm sorry,” Cindy said, helplessly.

  “They were idiots. I'm not an idiot. My brother was an idiot. He was, he told me, a thousand times smarter than either of our parents. He wanted, he told his best friend, a good view of the stars. He went through an airlock in his shirtsleeves.”

  Cindy grimaced. She couldn't help herself. “One of my earliest trips in a spacecraft was in a fighter. The squadron commander explained 'Master Start' to me. I was so proud that she'd let me push the button. Only later did I learn it was something little kids on the Rim did all of the time.”

  “Well, not all of the time,” Sarah said with a laugh.

  “You're trying to bite off too much, Lieutenant. With me, it was much easier. Bob knew everything there is to know about piloting. By the time we'd reached Earth on Starfarer's Dream I had my basic flight certificate. The advanced flight certificate I had before we shipped out for New Cairo three days later.

  “That was when things went in the toilet for Bob. Dirty-feet don't like people like him and they took it out on him at every chance. The good news about that, though, is that the Fleet Aloft commander at New Cairo felt the same way and sent us packing... the day before the planet was destroyed. If he'd been happy with Bob, we'd have both died there.”

  “I don't know what to say,” Cindy told her.

  “You're not supposed to say anything. I had a terrible time getting my advanced piloting certificate. Some moron at BuPers assigned Bob to Adobe, thinking, no doubt, we'd be wiped out.

  “Admiral Gull might not be a Rim Runner, but his heart is there. He's done everything for us he could -- including this assignment. He told Bob that if we survived, Bob could have his pick of jobs in the Fleet.”

  “Well, that's what they've told us,” Cindy said, back on familiar ground.

  “Bob wants to fight; he's going to get himself killed, I'm afraid... I have no idea how to stop him. He wants to get in the fight.”

  “Willow Wolf,” Cindy said with authority. “She's been in the fight. Captain Hall... even Gunny Hodges.”

  “I saw the gunny for about thirty seconds at Tannenbaum: he was leaving as we were arriving aboard Starfarer's Dream.”

  Cindy nodded. “Is it just me or is it weird that all of these people are prepared to give their lives in a fight against the aliens... but draw the line at our risking a hang nail finding our physical limits?”

  “It's perverse,” Sarah agreed with her. “I've already learned that husbands are perverse; now it's clear that the Fleet behaves much the same way.” She looked at Cindy. “I don't need a mommy.”

  “Well, I'm definitely not that,” Cindy said heatedly.

  “I didn't figure you were... but oh my! Have I ever learned to check my numbers!”

  The two of them laughed together.

  Chief Irgun spoke. “We're about five minutes from the exercise area, XO.”

  “I want every passive sensor we've got on those five rocks as soon as we're rational,” Cindy told her.

  The chief nodded, and then turned to Sarah Shannon. “Mrs. Shannon, I know this is your battle station and you can't leave. I would, however, like you to turn off your eyes, ears and memory.”

  Sarah chuckled. “Oh, sure! I do that all of the time, Chief! You go right ahead! I'm not here!”

  Chief Irgun gestured towards the bridge. “I heard about Lieutenant Farmer, XO. That's she's moved in with you and why.”

  “It's a small universe,” Cindy said, feeling bitter
.

  “It is, Lieutenant. Lieutenant Farmer put into words something I've been feeling for a while now. You're going places; you might not think so, but everyone else around you can see it. Please, Lieutenant. I'd like to join your entourage.”

  “I don't think lieutenants are permitted entourages,” Cindy replied, feeling nervous.

  “Heh!” Chief Irgun replied. “And what is the function of chiefs in the Fleet? We make things work! Trust me, Lieutenant, say yes and I'll stick with you.”

  “Yes.”

  The chief grinned. “Good oh! Now, sensors aren't showing any ships active in the exercise area. You're sure there is one?”

  “I'm sure. A cruiser left abruptly last night when Admiral Gull moved the exercise up.”

  Chief Irgun grinned. “Not only do I have all my engineering certificates, but I was once a bridge rat. My job wasn't coffee service though -- it was the chief sensor tech.”

  “Chief,” Cindy asked, “why is it that half the time when I hear the words 'bridge rat' they are followed in some context or other by the words 'coffee service?'”

  Sarah Shannon laughed. “Bob drilled it into me: the difference between dirty-feet and Rim Runners. The woman who gave us star travel -- Stephanie Kinsella -- was relegated to duties of the bridge rat in charge of the coffee service on the first interstellar flight.”

  That was too much for Cindy. “You have to be kidding, right?”

  “No, XO,” Chief Irgun spoke up. “That's what actually happened. When their CO got himself killed by being stupid, she brought the rest of the crew home, safe. The one time she didn't bring home all of her crew safe...”

  The words faded away and Cindy could see the sad expression on the woman's face. She asked Chief Irgun what she meant.

  “Crew, XO. Marines aren't considered crew. Kinsella lost her first Marine landing contingent.”

  Pixie spoke in Cindy's ear. “Admiral Kinsella left her husband behind -- they found a biowar lab that had lost containment. A ship fled the area as Admiral Kinsella arrived -- she was sure it would carry the plague back to Earth... so she came home as fast as she could, without trying to rescue her Marines. Even a day later would have killed tens or even hundreds of millions of people more than those who actually died.”