“Yes, you may, but first you must accept the imposition of the judgement against you.”
Boy, he was making it tough. If she didn’t accept the punishment, the captain had every right to propel this incident all the way up to a general court-martial under Section 934. “I agree to the administrative punishment, sir,” she said forlornly.
Haad annotated the file and closed it. Suddenly a big lopsided smile crept across his face. “That’s it, Lieutenant Hansen. At least I can show my due diligence. The fact that your son must have somehow slipped onto that last courier boat from Elber, the one that brought us Lieutenant Mols, is something I’ll let the port authority guys back on Elber fight about.”
Max snapped her head up and looked into his eyes. “Did I hear that right, sir?”
“You can thank Commander Yorn for coming up with that tale, lieutenant. He did a little research and found that stowaways were quite common in the history of the Navy in general and rampant in the Colonial Navy to be specific. Seems he found some old article about a fourteen-year-old lad that had somehow slipped onto the Idaho Springs some thirty years ago.”
Davi Yorn stood up. “And that boy was named Haad. Story was, he wanted to see the galaxy and had run away from his abusive father who had recently abandoned him.”
“Are you telling me —”
“Yes. That boy was me. I know what it’s like to be left behind with no place to go, lieutenant.”
“The Navy sent him to Bayliss and made him a ward of the Fleet. Made him go to school and study about the proper ways to get a look at space,” Yorn said.
Max was floored. Maybe this was going to turn out okay. “So, what am I to do with Harold, sir?”
“With your permission, I would like to send him back to Elber and on to the military school on Bayliss. Of course, you must accompany him to get him properly signed in. That means leaving the Christi, lieutenant, and once you leave the ship, my gosh, all of that punishment I inflicted on you falls in your wake.”
“I don’t know what to say! But what’ll I do about my career? What’s awaiting me on Bayliss?”
Yorn walked the length of the table and put a hand on her shoulder. “I have recommended you for the advanced tactics, strategy, and command and control school, lieutenant. Welcome to the line. Once you graduate from the war college that citation for bravery I inserted into your file will look pretty good next to your transcripts. At least it’ll look pretty good to the promotion board.”
Captain Haad said, “And that school just happens to be on —”
“— Bayliss,” she finished for him.
“Still want that lawyer, lieutenant?” Haad asked as he stood.
She smiled. “No, sir! But what about the loss of pay? How do I handle that?”
The captain held out his hand. “Got a credit on you? I’ll take one and call it even.”
“Aye, sir, that I can do!”
“Well, then. Case closed,” Captain Haad said.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Robert B. Jones, an accomplished futuristic artist and illustrator, and a former Chinese linguist for the US Air Force, grew up in Washington, D.C. He has worked in some of the most security-sensitive places in the country, including the White House, Camp David and the National Security Agency. He is the author of A Chip In Time and his follow-up Danny DeVille novel, The Hand Is Quicker. The Belt Loop is his third novel and his first foray into the exciting space-opera science fiction genre. He currently resides in Henderson, Nevada.
The Belt Loop _Book One Page 28