Enemy of my Enemy (Horatio Logan Chronicles Book 1)

by Chris Hechtl

  “If he fails spectacularly enough, he won't come back at all,” Admiral Draken reminded them. “And that would be on his own head. Though some might ask why we didn't just build more ships once Ilmarinen proves herself,” he reminded them.

  “So, we give him the bare minimum to do the job?” Admiral N'r'm'll asked.

  “Something like that,” Admiral Childress replied with a nod of agreement.

  “What do you mean something, sir? We need details to form a budget,” Admiral Draken reminded him.

  “I don't like how we didn't know about the man's career. What else don't we know about him?” Admiral Childress asked. He looked to the leader of BuPers, and then to the ONI deputy chief. “Which is your responsibility to find out. You two are behind,” he said in a tight voice.

  Admiral Hill grimaced. N'r'm'll went very still at the rebuke.

  “Have the staff go over his bio again. Hell, assign an entire team if you have to. We can have a dog and pony show on it if we have to. But he's going to be out of our hair for awhile. At least several months,” Admiral Draken said with a nasty smile.

  “Yes, and I'm wondering what Admiral Irons will say when he finds out we bollixed his carefully laid plans?” Admiral Hill mused.

  “Why? Worried he'll relieve us? He can't. We're here. He's there. Won't work,” Admiral Childress said dismissively. “There is only so far I'm willing to bend over for the man.”

  “We've signed on to the Federation. We're Federation officers last time I checked, sir. Unless you are pushing for independence?” the Neochimp asked, eyeing her boss. He didn't say anything. “It won't wash with the public or most of the navy, sir,” she warned.

  “She's right, sir,” Admiral Draken said quietly.

  Admiral Childress scowled blackly.

  “I doubt that would fly with the population. Feelings are riding high about rejoining the Federation now,” Admiral N'r'm'll said cautiously, chiming in. “I think if we go that route we need to bide our time and lay the groundwork carefully. A whisper campaign, well, any other sort of sabotage and tools to sell it to the population.”

  “They are sheep. They know we know what's best for them,” Admiral Childress scoffed.

  “They are sheep because we think they are ignorant. But sheep have numbers, and they can stampede over a rogue wolf or bear if they have to do so. At the very least, they can bleat loud enough for the sheep dog to wake up and step in.”

  “The only sheep dog here is the government. They are firmly on our side,” Admiral N'r'm'll said.

  “In your dreams. The administration is staying out of it. The kingmakers and contractors are behind us now. We think. Hope. But they will turn on us in an instant if they need to do so or if they see an opportunity to benefit themselves. Don't bet Mrs. Childress would throw one or all of us under the bus if she had to do so, especially to save her own neck,” Admiral Draken growled, looking at his boss. “That includes her one and only son.”

  “True,” Admiral Childress admitted.

  “Glad one of us sees the forest for the trees, sir,” Admiral Hill said, shaking her head. “We have to do something. More importantly, we have to be seen doing something,” she pointed out. “Both to the public and to Irons when we do get some backlash.”

  Admiral Draken nodded. “Right.”

  “But, something we've overlooked, once that ansible is set-up here, Irons will be able to address us and the population through it, which means no end of meddling in our affairs,” Admiral N'r'm'll warned. “He'll be able to compare notes, and he'll find out more about what is going on here,” the Veraxin stated.

  “Well then, we can see that an accident happens. I may not have read up on Logan, but I did read up on ansibles when I heard they would be sending one our way,” Admiral Draken said with a shrug.

  Admiral Childress turned to his Ops leader and cocked his head, then raised an eyebrow in inquiry. “Oh? Do tell,” he said, crossing his arms.

  “Well, as it happens, the ansible core is made out of half muons. They use quantum entanglement and some other stuff to pass information. You spin them and read the spin in order to transmit information. Clockwise for a one, counter for a zero, or still.” He used his long, clawed index finger to indicate the directions, then clenched his hand and held it outright before him. “They are also terribly sensitive to shock and motion. Anything that rattles them can rattle them right out of their cages. If they touch anything, poof,” he said, making an explosive shape in his hand. “No muons.”

  “Well, I suppose we could use something like that,” Admiral N'r'm'll said, signaling first-level respect and agreement. “After all, accidents are known to happen,” he said, looking at their boss with all four eyestalks.

  “And who knows, it might not come to our intervention,” Admiral Hill said thoughtfully. “They have to get through the rapids first,” she pointed out. The other officers nodded. “And it is a long way from B-102c to here.”

  “A lot of jostling along the way,” Admiral N'r'm'll said in complete understanding. “It explains why we've never had one before.”

  “And plenty of ships have been lost in the rapids. We know that,” Admiral Draken said.

  “True,” Admiral Hill said reluctantly.

  “Including ones with nosy commodores,” Admiral Childress growled.

  “It hasn't come to that yet, sir,” Admiral Draken said severely, eyeing his boss to get him to back down. Admiral Childress spread his fingers apart in a mild acknowledgment of the rebuke.

  “Well, his new mission to salvage derelicts … a lot can be overlooked with them too,” Admiral N'r'm'll mused. “Space is a dangerous place as it is. Toss in jagged metal and derelict ships … as we said before, accidents are known to happen.”

  Admiral Hill frowned deeply. She was internally horrified by the very idea of sacrificing a ship and its crew, but she knew better than to show such expression on her public face. That would be a death sentence to her career and quite possibly a real one. “Change of subject, how do we appease the public? There have been some noises about the gifts Caroline brought in. We and the government cherry-picked what we wanted. We didn't let the government see everything of course, and our friends in industry have only gotten a small taste of everything we've seen and gotten. We're turning some of it over to Logan in order for him to use but also to explain why we're not using it,” she said.

  “Creating antigeriatrics is out for the pharmaceutical companies. The government is firm there; our population wouldn't support so many people living for an unknown number of years. They want it in their own hands of course.” There was another brief nasty smile that flashed on the admiral's face. “Pity we can't do that however,” he said with an indifferent shrug. There was a chuckle from the other officers. “I suppose we have Georgi to thank for that.”

  “Possibly,” Admiral Hill replied with a nod.

  Admiral Childress's eyes cut to her, but he continued to speak. “But putting that stuff in the hands of the general population would lead to chaos. Having everyone stop aging would be … troublesome. The population pressure alone …,” he shook his head.

  “Would be rough. I understand the logic there,” Admiral N'r'm'll said with a nod. “It would freeze everything. It could do so in the navy as well. So, we pick something else out as a carrot. A few things minor enough to not affect our political lord and master's hold on the population. Something that will make everyone happy and grateful of the navy,” the bug said.

  “And make our own people happy and their dependents,” Admiral Childress said.

  “I can have my staff go over the lists again. See if we overlooked something,” Admiral Draken suggested. “We're already getting some help from Logan's team. The gear they've pointed out and shown us how to build without replicators … or I should say, shown our industrial friends how to make,” he said with a brief smile, “has helped out in that regard. And it has helped fill our coffers a bit,” he pointed out.

  “The problem
is the advanced tech doesn't come in small lots. We need a gradual increase to handle some of the tech we are willing to allow,” Admiral Childress pointed out tapping the tabletop meaningfully with his index finger for emphasis. “And some are anathema to our way of life. Replicators and nanotech …” The human admiral wasn't the only one to shudder over that idea. “I suppose we could release some of the computer software tech. Some of the improvements to the hardware alone would intrigue the tech companies and make the population happy,” he mused. “I'm not happy about making it open source. Maybe a few things, but licensing some of it would as you said, bring more credits into our coffers,” he said with a nod to Sherman.

  “True, sir,” Admiral Hill said with a nod, relieved that the subject had been successfully changed. "But as Admiral Draken and you said, sir,” she nodded to the other flag officer. “We have to tread carefully on what we choose since the various techs are interlinked. You can't have one without building another or laying the foundation for things the powers that be best wish to avoid all together.”

  “Hence the engineering staff check,” Admiral Childress ordered with a nod. “We're going to have to pick the right people to do it though. Closed lipped people.”

  “Yes, sir,” Admiral Draken said. He turned to Admiral Hill. “Get with Admiral N'r'm'll here and get on the review process now.” Both officers signaled assent.

  Admiral Childress turned to Admiral Draken. “Make sure Horatio is shown the door but do it in a way that doesn't blow back on us. We definitely don't want any signs of a public break up.”

  “I'll do my best, sir. He hasn't said anything negative to the press.”

  “Good. Keep our friends in the press near to catch anything anyway. We can filter it, spin it if we have to, or get them to suppress it with the right trades I suppose,” he said with a grimace.

  “Aye aye, sir,” Admiral Draken said with a grudging nod. “Hopefully, it won't come to that.”

  “I doubt it will. One thing we do know about Logan, he's got a mouth but he's loyal to the navy. He won't do anything to damage its reputation,” Admiral Hill interjected. He resents the situation he's in and isn't at all happy that we're not following Admiral Irons' orders, but he hasn't made waves about it.”

  “You better damn well hope so,” Admiral Childress growled. “Keep him busy and out of the eyes of the media as much as possible. But don't make it look like it is in haste or awkward questions will be raised.”

  “I'll do my best, sir,” Admiral Draken said with a dutiful nod.

  “See that you do.” The admiral settled himself as he picked up his tablet and glanced at it. “Next on the agenda, we've got to deal with the budget changes for the next quarter. I know some of it dovetails in with what we just said and the new ships Irons wants us to build. I know our friends in industry are helping us steer things their way …”

  “For their seat at the trough,” Admiral Hill muttered darkly.

  “Ahem, be that as it may,” the admiral said, eyeing the junior flag officer severely to shut her up. “We may have problems there since they might get a little too zealous on dragging their heels. We need to watch them. We need something to keep them in line, something tangible I suppose.”

  “Which means more tech trades,” Admiral Childress said with a sigh. “Damn it.”

  “Licensing them, sir.” Admiral Draken held up a restraining hand to forestall any protests. “Yes, yes, I know it's not what we want, but it's what we're going to have to use since it is the thing they want. Just how to go about it and how to use it to our advantage though …”

  “I wonder if Irons and Logan realize the weapons they handed us with the care packages that Caroline and Logan brought?” Admiral Hill mused softly. The other flag officers glanced at her then went back to looking at the budget.

  She grimaced, shrugging such considerations aside. For the moment, the navy held the edge in things. No longer did they have to worry about the Xenos coming. That had taken a major threat off the table, one the navy had used to browbeat what it needed out of the population for centuries. Now that was over, so they'd traded the threat of the stick for the carrot. But they were still learning how to apply it properly she knew.

  She just hoped Irons didn't get involved. Hopefully, he'd be too busy with the war front to get personally involved in Bek.

  But she wasn't so sure she should put much stock into such things. Hoping … she closed her eyes briefly. Heaven help them all if she and the others around the room started to think of Irons as a threat and an enemy, she realized.

  But hopefully it wouldn't come to that.

  If Logan made waves, it would embarrass the current administration as well as Childress and his backers. Hopefully, Zek had made it clear to the man. The people here had long memories, and he was in their reach. They were not nearly as forgiving as some in the public were led to believe. Thou shall not embarrass thy boss was practically tattooed on every officer's eyeballs. He should know that, right?

  “Patty, pay attention,” Admiral Childress said, eyeing her severely. She flinched, breaking out of her momentary distraction and then nodded. “Better. As I was saying …”

  Chapter 38

  Ilmarinen spent a week after a weekend stand down to undergo a series of refit cycles to fix the minor bugs that had cropped up and identified. The A.I. and the robots on the ship made short work of running down the minor bugs they found, but Commander McKenzie made certain his own organic personnel were on hand to double check everything they did.

  Making the adjustments to the ship's systems for a better flight took a little longer. Galiet worked long hours trying to refine the ship's hyperdrive software and the ship's node control software. She made it clear that part of the problem was Ilmarinen's reliance on old electronic hardware. The mix of old hardware and modern electronics was causing some software problems and some lag.

  Her complaints brought up concerns with the crew. There was some concern about making a longer jump with the ship going off course as she had.

  But the ship's achievements were played up as a complete success in the news. That emboldened Admiral Childress and his staff to go forward with his plan.

  ~<><{<^>}><>~

  Despite some of the misgivings from Galiet and the crew and the hurry up and go attitude from the Bekian Admiralty in Command 1, Horatio carefully planned his departure. He drew up the standards and oversaw the refit of Ilmarinen to his exacting standards. He knew they had a good team on board, but they definitely needed some fine tuning.

  Getting to know them wasn't as easy as he'd hoped. Trying to do so while balancing his other duties was nigh on impossible. He decided that the best way to get to know them was on the way.

  One of the things he requested rather than ordered were for volunteers in the crew to receive ID implants. Bumedical signed off on the request without comment. Horatio patiently explained the process on a ship's intranet web page and in a series of video files. He, Olson, and the Neochimps were accosted several times with requests to explain it in person however.

  Since the request was for volunteers and not compulsory, the project received reluctant agreement from Captain Clayton. It was well received by others, however, including instant agreement from the senior engineers. Once Mack, Gemma, and Leo woke the following morning and gushed about the changes, it awoke interest and amusement in the crew. By midmorning half had volunteered to get the implants themselves.

  He got Zek and Commandant C'v'll to give Ilmarinen a crop of middies who were graduating. He focused on any who had taken the navigator and Helm courses. Unfortunately, there were very few. Zek managed to point out a couple promising engineers as well as a list of mustangs.

  He did his best to get the band back together. Galiet and Bailey were grateful to stay on. The two ensign surgeons BuPers told him flat-out that he couldn't have; both were in hot demand with the VA. Apparently, their efficiency was drawing in veterans from all over and making the VA look good. So good that the
y'd gotten some good press about it.

  Hopefully, the two wouldn't be victims of their own success. Senior officers who were made to look bad, inept, or inefficient didn't take kindly to those who showed them up. Unfortunately, there wasn't anything he could do about it.

  He did manage to get another fully-fledged doctor and small staff assigned to the mission. The Neochimp Ensign Fa'rook would serve with Ensign Light Touch well since they were both classmates. Once the station was habitable, he would move his staff over to it.

  He found out through Pietro that the duo had reputations as troublemakers in the medical community. When he checked on it, Admiral Heals Quickly seemed amused.

  “Well, I'm glad someone found a use for them,” the T'clock said.

  “We'll put them to use, sir,” Horatio replied with a nod as the bug cut the circuit.

  He frowned thoughtfully. They had a lieutenant commander, a Centillian named Decoure that was nominally head of the station. The Centillian called himself a station master, which was funny since the station had yet to be built.

  Decoure was a bit prickly but seemed eager to get started or at least he had right up until he'd decided to go into hibernation until they got to B-102c Horatio thought wryly. He shook his head, unsure of the faith of the Centillian.

  He was pretty certain that the brass wasn't convinced they could pull off the station. He knew better. He had a plan, a bit unorthodox, but he was pretty certain they could make it work.

  And when they did the medics would have plenty of room. Hell, if they pulled off half of what he was planning, the tiny station staff would rattle around in the station and would have all they could do to keep up with its maintenance needs.

  ~<><{<^>}><>~

  Philippe Colton nodded to Leo, Gemma, and Mack as they entered the room. “You three don't have a lot of time.”