Enemy of my Enemy (Horatio Logan Chronicles Book 1)

by Chris Hechtl

  “Aye aye, Admiral. Have a good day.”

  “To you too. Antigua out.”

  ~<><{<^>}><>~

  “You aren't eager to get going, sir?” Lieutenant Si asked, eyeing her wayward charge.

  Admiral Zekowitz looked up from the tablet he'd been reading with a frown. “Why do you say that?”

  “You were due to get on the shuttle twenty minutes ago, sir,” she said gently.

  “Um …,” he looked up to the chrono and then swore. “Damn it,” he rose hastily, dropping the tablet as he gathered up his jacket. “Why didn't you remind me?”

  “I did. Twice. You grunted and waved me off,” she said, tucking her hands behind her back.

  He glanced at her as he tucked the tablet under his arm. “All right, knock off the cadet crap. I'm going to get that when I get to San Diego.”

  “Yes, sir. I suppose you could do a virtual class,” she suggested.

  He grimaced. On the one hand, such things were convenient. They didn't require that he burn up transit time going back and forth between the yard and the space station. But, there was a time lag, and a limit on bandwidth. There was also a limit on how much he could see and experience without a full VR rig or implants.

  “No, I like to attend in person. I think they got over my being from Bek. At least this class I get to teach not attend like a raw student,” he growled.

  “Yes, sir. We're never too old to learn are we, sir?” Lieutenant Si asked, picking up after him and then following him out of his office.

  “Apparently, not,” the rear admiral said. “Did they hold the shuttle?”

  “There is another leaving in ten minutes. You'll be late for the class, but I understand flag officers can get away with things like that,” she teased.

  “Funny,” he growled. “Oh,” he snapped his fingers. “I was going to meet with the civilian techs and consultants. Dump that on the commodore will you? Make sure he's brought up to speed,” he said.

  Lieutenant Si nodded. “Aye aye, sir,” she said, making a note in her implants. She had a fuller set than the admiral, but still not a complete officer's package. She had been getting the implants and updates in small doses due to her duties attending to the admiral. She usually scheduled them for when he was out of her hair.

  “You have more surgery today?” the admiral asked as they entered the lift.

  “Yes, sir. Minor. Antigeriatric treatments plus some minor tweaks they said. At least I'm past the corrective surgeries,” she said.

  He nodded. It rankled a bit that Bekian medicine hadn't noticed her scoliosis curve, nor the small tumors she'd picked up in her breasts and skin. Such things had to be corrected before they delved into some of the more advanced procedures.

  “Are you going to be out long?” he asked carefully.

  “Going to miss me, sir?” she asked mischievously as the lift swayed up and down slightly to indicate they were arriving at their intended destination. He shot her a quelling look. “I'll be fine, sir. They want me to take a week or two off. I'll be on my feet by Monday.”

  “If you need the time, take it, Oprah. I don't want to run you into the ground. That comes later,” he said.

  She chuckled. “I'll be on deck Monday, sir. Maybe a little slower than usual, but I'd rather be working than sitting on my can,” she said as the lift doors opened. She followed him out, hands still behind her back.

  He snorted. “Stubborn as the day is long,” he muttered, shaking his head.

  “I have to be to keep up with you, sir,” she said. She sent an advance signal to security alerting them of her and the admiral's passage.

  “And cheeky too,” he said in an amused tone of voice. He acknowledged the salutes and the officers and enlisted making a hole for him and his flag lieutenant to proceed. He entered the boat bay and tentatively handed over his tablet to the security officer. The officer waved it off. He scowled.

  “You've been precleared, sir, and the lieutenant just sent your clearance again,” the Neochimp said, nodding to the lieutenant.

  Admiral Zekowitz turned to shoot his follower an amused glance. She merely smiled slightly. “You're going to be late again, sir,” she urged quietly.

  “Okay, okay. That eager to get rid of me,” he said.

  “Just trying to keep you on the straight and narrow,” she said as they moved out again. She waved to indicate the shuttle on their left. He turned and marched to it.

  “Right. Oh, crap, I'll need a …”

  Her hands came out from behind her back. She handed him his overnight bag. “All packed. I even remembered your toothbrush this time,” she said, handing it to him at the shuttle's open docking port.

  “What would I do without you,” he said.

  “Forget to tie your shoelaces or something,” she said airily.

  “Cheeky to the last,” he sighed in mock exasperation.

  “I learned it from the best. You, sir,” she said with a slight gleam in her eyes. He knew the byplay was helping to distract them both. “Safe trip, sir.”

  “Safe … surgery. Whatever. I'll check in on you later.”

  “Yes, sir,” she said as he ducked his head and entered the lock. She took a step back as the lock promptly closed. A tech waved for her to get clear. She did so, watching the shuttle as it began its final preparations to take off. “Good luck, sir,” she murmured as she turned and squared her shoulders as she left the boat bay.

  ~<><{<^>}><>~

  “Lieutenant Si? I … oh,” the commodore cut the channel when he saw the medical hold. He grimaced. Okay, so he wouldn't be talking to the flag lieutenant for the moment. It was Friday; the admiral was most likely on his way to San Diego if he kept to his schedule. Which meant he couldn't object to the orders the lieutenant had uploaded into her inbox before she'd gone off duty for her scheduled round of surgery.

  He shook his head. So much for that he thought. He'd already met the techs and civilian consultants that were going with them on Caroline. He'd worked with many of them in the Pyrax yard after all. Hell, he'd trained half of them! He shook his head. But the second part of the orders, to get more familiar with the project … that was trickier than he'd thought.

  As he ran through the outline, he saw much of the plan was already in place. It had been drawn up by Admiral Zekowitz and had been approved by both Admirals Subert and Irons. He was glad the man had dived into it despite his misgivings about being returned to his home star system so soon.

  The rear admiral was busy with his training however, so Horatio found himself taking up some of the slack and questions were routed to him. He tried to draw on Mercury for help with the plans, but the A.I. couldn't handle the logistical load so he gave up on that.

  The more he thought about it, the more he didn't like the plan. It was overambitious. It also had a high risk … and a high chance of failure of one or more of the ships. Something would have to be done he thought. He hoped someone would notice and intervene … but then chastened himself over such stupidity. He was someone, and obviously, he'd seen a problem. He needed to bring it to someone's attention. And he fully intended to do so … come Monday morning.

  In the meantime, he would take the time to get his facts straight and ready to present to the powers that be.

  But what he had seen wasn't the only problem. As he delved deeper, he noticed that the plan's intended cargo just wasn't there. Nor would they get enough in the allotted time before the scheduled departure date.

  “Sir, we're doing what we can obviously. We can make some of the parts, but I'm afraid without drawing them from stores there is no way we can make deadline. We can provide a few of the samples requested, but it will mean putting off some of the scheduled ship construction dates, some by a significant margin. They'll be off, or the entire slip will be shut down until we get replacements in from Antigua,” Barry stated.

  Horatio frowned thoughtfully. Slowly he nodded.

  “I know it's not something you want to hear …”

  �
��What did Admiral Zekowitz say when you presented this to him?”

  “He said to wait until the next convoy comes in and see what we've got. I know we're getting a shipment of equipment to make hyperdrive components, sir, but it won't make up the difference. We have the convoy's cargo manifest in memory. I downloaded it through the ansible, that and the manifest of the next two convoys,” the A.I. said primly.

  “Okay,” Horatio replied with a nod.

  “But we can't do that. We've got to find a way to make this work. If we can't ship what we want to ship, then we've got to shift priorities to what we can ship,” Lieutenant Castinella said stubbornly.

  Horatio frowned thoughtfully, rubbing his chin with his forefinger and thumb. Lieutenant Castinella was a good and conscientious officer. She had to be to handle BuOps with efficiency. But she had to see reality.

  “Hang on,” Horatio said as she started to go at it with Lieutenant Barry. “Setting the problem of logistics aside for the moment,” he said, “there is another problem I believe everyone has been overlooking up to this point, or they've taken the most optimistic viewpoint. We're realists here however; we need to see everything from all angles.”

  “And that is, sir?” Lieutenant Castinella asked. She reached out and picked up her cup and took a sip of her drink.

  “The helm teams. We don't have enough to go around.”

  “I thought we were going to draw on the Caroline's team and the recent graduates, sir?”

  “The recent graduates went to Sally Ride,” the commodore said, “or will when she gets here.”

  “Oh.”

  “There are four other water dwellers in the pipeline, but most are in their second form at the academy.”

  “I thought they were going to be fast tracked, sir? Possibly even eased into non-commissioned ranks to shorten their training time?” Lieutenant Castinella demanded.

  “That is strictly voluntary. We can't demote someone without cause. Would you like to be informed that you are going to be demoted to a petty officer?” he asked. She shook her head, eyes wide. “I thought not. So that plan died. I believe the recruiters are trying to find a way to handle the situation with new recruits. Given that many water dwellers do not have the necessary skill sets of an officer initially, they might make some headway into persuading them to take the PO route. I don't know.”

  He frowned. “Technically we don't need officers running the helm. The powers that be are correct there. But helm teams sometimes stand watches too, and they also like an upward path to work on for promotions and such.”

  “It's a pity some people aren't happy being where they are, sir,” the female lieutenant said.

  He eyed her. “That's up to the person in question. Quite frankly I'm glad I didn't just settle for what I had and wanted more. If I'd had I'd still be shuffling papers as a yeoman,” he said.

  She flushed. “Sorry, sir.”

  “Water under the bridge, Lieutenant. Let's move on.”

  “Yes, sir,” she mumbled, ducking her head.

  “The mission plan is to get those loads through though, sir,” Lieutenant Barry said. “But we can't do it on the current schedule. In a year, yes. Now, no.”

  “Look, I know we're all eager to get Bek up and running. I get that. But sending freighters, even those with milspec hardware through the rapids with untried helm teams is tantamount to murder. It would be potentially throwing away the ships, crews, and valuable cargo. I understand the cold logic that if even one ship gets through we're better off, but I don't think it is worth the risk.”

  “But …”

  Horatio waved a hand to stave off further protests. “I'll run it past Admiral Subert and Admiral Irons of course. But I'm pretty certain we're not going to go that route. So, barring that, I want you to plan on a fallback contingency.”

  The female lieutenant blinked and then her eyes narrowed warily. “Sir?”

  “Plan the other two ships to build the core of the Harbor Station there. I'll see if we can get a factory ship to be one of those two ships if possible.”

  Lieutenant Castinella's eyes widened. “That would be ….” She nodded slowly. “Yes, I can see that. We've been having problems getting engineering priorities.” She glanced at the A.I. avatar in their midst.

  Lieutenant Barry, the A.I. G-4 Logistics head and the officer in charge of several positions in the Pyrax naval staff, seemed stingy about releasing the factory time to make the goods required. Nor would he allow a lot of those goods to be drawn from stores if they were in quantity.

  “Station core modules we have in ample supply,” Barry replied. “And what we don't have we can easily fabricate since we have the key codes here,” he offered. “Having the station would allow us to stockpile cargo in the star system for transfer. And it would allow the helm teams the time they need to finish their initial education and gain some valuable field experience as the commodore suggested.”

  Horatio nodded. “Right. Another reason we can wait on sending additional ships into the rapids. We're squeezing what we can to fit into Caroline. Fine. Take this time to build up a stockpile and list.”

  The female lieutenant nodded slowly. “Aye aye, sir. We'll need to run it past the brass though.”

  “Of course. I'll handle it since I technically am brass,” Horatio said firmly.

  Lieutenant Castinella's eyes widened again and then she nodded. “Sorry, sir. I didn't mean to imply any sort of disrespect.”

  “No problem. No insult intended I think. Let's move on,” Horatio said firmly.

  ~<><{<^>}><>~

  “What is this about Horatio?” Admiral Irons said as his avatar came online. “Your subject matter said something about a change in orders?”

  “I was wondering the same thing,” Admiral Subert said, leaning over to look at Horatio. He turned to look at Admiral Zekowitz.

  “Ditto,” the rear admiral said with a shrug.

  “It seems you have the floor, Horatio,” Admiral Irons stated.

  “Okay, gentlemen, what I'm saying is the mission to the Bek nexus is a bit too ambitious as it stands now. We're running into all sorts of problems, and the schedule has been pushed back twice. We're looking at another three- to four-month delay as of this morning.”

  “Why?”

  “Logistics is a problem,” Horatio stated. “We simply don't have what we need on hand, not in stores. Not if we want to keep the production numbers going here,” he said. “You've been shipping materials in from Antigua Admiral, but it's been going to use for the ships here,” he stated.

  “We have the priority. After all, we need the ships here and now,” Admiral Subert stated.

  “No argument, sir,” Horatio stated. “But that isn't my only problem or the only problem that's been brought to my attention. The other problem is we're planning on sending two ships that have no business being in the rapids. Ships that aren't built for that sort of abuse,” he said.

  “Freighters and other ships have handled them just fine before,” Admiral Irons stated.

  “With all due respect, sir, that was before the war with properly trained crews. We're talking about sending people in with little or no experience in such things. The helm teams will be yanked right out of the helm academy again, sir, with no sailing experience under their belts.”

  Admiral Zekowitz winced.

  “Look, we've got a small graduating class coming up. Four water dwellers are in that class. They graduate in a week. Don't you think we should give them a chance to get some seasoning before throwing them at this? I understand it worked out okay for Caroline, but several of her crew had prior experience.”

  All three senior officers reluctantly agreed with him.

  “So … what do you propose for a fix? I know you, Horatio; I trained you. You don't just come to me with problems,” Admiral Irons stated.

  “Yes, sir. I'm proposing a shift in priorities. I want to lay the groundwork for when we can send ships regularly through the rapids—the Harbor Station id
ea.”

  Admiral Subert grunted. Horatio glanced at him. He could see the other man's jaw work. “So … your plan is to build the station instead. Okay. But I'm not sure I can sign off on swapping engineering priorities to build the modules,” Admiral Subert pointed out.

  Horatio could tell from experience that the man wasn't happy about the change in plan on one level but relieved on another. He snorted mentally.

  “I think I have an alternative,” Horatio said. “Hephaestus 33 is about to launch after her latest refit. I know you were planning on sending her to Epsilon Triangula, but I understand that priority has been downgraded,” he said, looking at Admiral Irons' image.

  The admiral's avatar nodded. “I see where this is going. So, send a transport with the extra crew to man the station with supplies that we can give them and then have the factory ship make up the difference?” he asked.

  Horatio smiled. He could see Admiral Zekowitz sit back in something like disappointment.

  “Exactly. I know it is a risk to send her there, but I understand the picket has been reinforced,” he offered. “She can then go on to Hidoshi's World and or Richalu. If you wish to assign her an escort, you can also do so at your convenience,” he submitted.

  Admiral Zekowitz frowned thoughtfully but then seemed to nod slowly. Horatio glanced over to Admiral Subert to gauge his reaction. The admiral seemed to agree. After a moment he nodded.

  “I think it's a good compromise, Admiral,” Admiral Subert replied.

  “Okay,” Admiral Irons said. He nodded once. “Draw up the orders. Since we're sending the factory ship, we might as well get as much use of her there as we can. Add supplementary orders to build platforms while she's there if they have the time and materials. We can hash out the orders for Hidoshi's World and Richalu later,” he said firmly.

  “I bet the senators and delegates from both star systems will be happy, sir,” Horatio interjected. He caught a curious look from Admiral Zekowitz.

  “I'll bet. And of course everyone else will be pitching a snit since they haven't had their turn yet,” Admiral Irons said. The ansible leached out any changes in tone or emotion, but Horatio's adequate imagination could fill in the exasperation none the less.