Tiger- Crusade

by David Smith

  O’Connor raised an eyebrow in surprise. ‘Actually, Captain you’ve been flitting backwards and forwards across the borders between the Tana Empire and the two Sha T’Al factions. You’re currently in orbit over Todot Hahn. Did you miss that too?’

  B’Stard’s mouth flapped but nothing came out.

  ‘And I suppose that if you missed that, you’ve also missed the sub-space broadcasts from the Sha T’Al and Tana confirming that their forces have stood down and they’ve begun negotiations?’

  B’Stard looked stunned.

  O’Connor sat back in his chair. ‘So all things considered, I think we can all relax now. I’ve spoken to your superior officer Captain, and she’s agreed to drop the investigation due to the extraordinary circumstances in which Tiger has been caught.’

  ‘BUT THAT’S NOT CORRECT!!’ she yelled sitting bolt upright.

  Every jaw on the Bridge of Tiger and in the Admiral’s Operations Room dropped, and there was a pregnant pause until the Captain remembered that she was naked and hastily covered her breasts with her hands.

  She was too angry to be embarrassed and continued to voice her objections very loudly. ‘That is not acceptable!! This ship . . . this crew . . . this rabble!! They’ve broken every regulation in the book! They must be held accountable!!’

  Admiral O’Connor rubbed his chin. ‘Inappropriate behaviour? Failure to supervise? Dereliction of duty? Breech of temporal guidelines? Breech of the Prime Directive?’

  ‘YES!! Exactly!’ enthused B’Stard ‘They’ve all been wildly at fault!’

  O’Connor leaned forward. ‘I was referring to you, Captain.’

  ‘WHAAATTT???’

  O’Connor had a very serious look on his face and there was a hard edge to his voice as he continued. ‘Captain, you took command of Tiger on Star Date 9150 and have let the crew do whatever the hell they wanted to ever since. According to your own records you’ve not been to the Bridge during the whole episode. Your crew have been breaking rules and regulations wholesale and you’ve done nothing about it. You’ve been completely irresponsible and worse still, you’ve been indulging in a relationship that’s wholly inappropriate for a person of your office.’

  B’Stard looked shocked, and looked like she was about to argue, but O’Connor pressed a button on his console and in the corner of the screen a small image appeared, showing the clip of the Captain being pounded by Joynes.

  O’Connor shrugged. ‘Bearing in mind comms between Sector 193 and 244 have been down for months it’s astonishing that this clip has managed to go viral right across the fleet. Frankly Captain, you’re a laughing stock. As well as a social media star. Just by the by, several porn-film companies have asked Starfleet for contact details for you and Joynes, but I guess that’s not relevant just now, is it?’

  Dave was flabbergasted. ‘How the hell did the Admiral find all this out?’ he murmured to himself.

  Behind himRuiz said very quietly ‘I believe Chief Money made a contingency plan which involved leaving certain logs and data at Todot Hahn for the Sha T’Al transmit in the event of communications being restored.’

  Dave realised he should have seen that coming. If the Chief knew he was in trouble, he’d have done anything to discredit the JAG team.

  On the view-screen, B’Stard looked absolutely mortified, but that look quickly faded into one of sadness, and her eyes dropped, unable to face her accuser. She knew more than anyone else that the Admiral was right.

  O’Connor knew he’d made his point and softened his tone before continuing. ‘In her role as Judge Advocate General, Admiral Kawanishi has agreed that your investigation has been compromised and its findings have been invalidated as a consequence. The whole investigation has been dropped.’

  B’Stard couldn’t bring herself to look up, but still clung to her greatest motivation. ‘But the Prime Directive . . . it’s been violated . . . ‘

  O’Connor nodded. ‘Indeed it has, many, many times, and Admiral Kawanishi has made it clear that the viloation cannot go unpunished. I will take the lead in this matter Captain. You’re dismissed.’

  B’Stard looked shocked, but realised she’d lost her legitimacy and closed her part of the comm-link.

  Dave gulped. It was time to face the music.

  Instinctively, Dave stood up like the accused about to receive his sentence. He took a deep breath and said his piece. ‘I take full responsibility, Admiral. The entire crew of Tiger and Commander Chamberlain and her crew were acting under my direct orders.’

  O’Connor smiled. ‘That’s damned decent of you Hollins, but you aren’t in command of Tiger and never have been.’

  Dave was stunned. ‘But . . . I . . . ‘

  ‘Shut up Hollins. Quit while you’re ahead.’

  ‘But Admiral! I can’t let any of my crew . . . ‘

  ‘They’re not “your crew”, Hollins’ said O’Connor pointedly. ‘I’ve been through this with Admiral Kawanishi at length immediately before calling you, and confirmed that repeated breeches of the Prime Directive will result in the Court Martial of the Tiger’s Commanding Officer . . . Captain Emmanuel Dominique LaCroix.’

  Dave opened his mouth to protest. Then he shut it. He’d forgotten that Tiger actually had a Captain. Then he opened it again as he realised Captain LaCroix had been suspended too. ‘That’s not strictly true, Admiral. Captain B’Stard suspended Captain LaCroix three weeks before she suspended me.’

  O’Connor smiled ‘Nice try, Hollins, but check your logs. Captain B’Stard’s been so busy doing “other things” that she never formally logged LaCroix’ suspension. Legally speaking he’s been in charge the whole time, even when B’Stard thought she’d put herself in command.’

  Dave felt awful. ‘That may be true, but it’s not fair, sir. Captain LaCroix had no part in this.’

  O’Connor tried to put Dave at ease. ‘Pay attention, Hollins, this is an important lesson: The occupant of the Big Chair is responsible for everything. Everything his ship achieves, everything his crew gets wrong, every success and every failure, every triumph and every disaster. If an officer can’t handle that, they’ll never be a Captain.’

  Dave couldn’t let it rest. ‘I appreciate that advice Admiral, but I can’t let the Captain take the blame for my actions, sir: he didn’t have a clue what was happening.’

  O’Connor sat up a little straighter. ‘Ok, Hollins, time for another important lesson. Admirals have to make hard decisions to get the best result from any given situation. Sometimes it’s unpleasant, sometimes it’s unfair, but I can assure you that it’s never done unwittingly. I’ve been looking to get shot of LaCroix for a long time now, and if the bone-idle moron gives me a gilt-edged chance like this, I’m obliged to take it.’

  He shook his head sadly. ‘That’s the lesson, now here’s some advice. Don’t waste your time feeling bad about it. It’s you and Grosvenor who’ve made all of this happen, and it’s been in spite of, rather than because of, Captains LaCroix and B’Stard. Doesn’t matter if you object, doesn’t matter if you turn cart-wheels, this is going to happen, because it needs to happen. Hard decisions.’

  Dave slumped back into the Captain’s chair.

  O’Connor smiled ‘Glad to see you understand Hollins, because with LaCroix under arrest with immediate effect I need someone to command Tiger and get her ready for active service. The only candidate for the job is you, so congratulations Captain David Hollins.’

  Dave couldn’t even speak.

  O’Connor didn’t let that stop him. ‘I’ll make it formal as soon as I can, but I want you to crack on in the mean-time. Get back to Hole, take Rickover with you and get Tiger ready for an exploration mission.’

  All Dave could manage to say was ‘Exploration?’

  ‘Yes, exploration.’ O’Connor could see Dave’s confusion and enlightened him.

  ‘The resolution of the Tana – Sha T’Al confrontation means there’s nothing to stop the Federation from beginning the colonisation of Treaty Exploration S
pace. There are hundreds of systems to be surveyed and explored, and the Fleet’s stretched thin as it is. We can’t spare an ‘Excelsior’ class ship, so we’ll have to rely on an old ‘Constitution’ class vessel. As Tiger is already here, there doesn’t seem much point in shifting anyone else in.’

  Dave nodded mutely, still stunned.

  ‘Ok Hollins, you’ve got another three months. Head back to Hole and I’ll send you everything you need. Get Tiger fully repaired and kit her out for a full five-year mission to explore newly incorporated Sectors 245 to 270.’

  ‘But . . . what about . . . B’Stard? And who’ll patrol Sector 244? And I’ll need crew . . . we’re still really short handed. And . . . ‘

  ‘Whoa! Slow down Hollins! Don’t try to solve everything now, you’ve got time.’

  ‘But . . . ‘

  ‘Relax! As soon as she completes her shake-down, Higgs will replace Tiger on patrol in Sector 244. Tiger will undertake initial exploration of the new sectors. Commander Grosvenor will be re-assigned to Tiger to act as first contact specialist, and B’Stard will stay at Todot Hahn to begin drafting border protocols with the Tana and the Sha T’Al. I’ll leave Joynes there too, as administrative support and to stop her from getting too . . . tense. It’s a done deal.’

  ‘Can I keep Ruiz and Delgado?’

  ‘If they’re ok with it and as long as you promise to look after them.’

  Dave still had many concerns. ‘What about the Feds? And the Union? And the FRS?’

  O’Connor shook his head. ‘I’ve asked Admiral Kawanishi to discuss the issue of precedence with the Director of FLEA. Turns out him and Kawanishi are old poker buddies, and it didn’t take much to come to an understanding. FLEA accepted that JAG took precedence on ships outside Federation space. In truth, that was our reward for offering to settle the lawsuits Miss Rice brought forward for assault by Fleet personnel on Agents Field and Orange. They’re both quite wealthy men now, although not as wealthy as Miss Rice, I gather. With regard to the others, you underestimate your own crew Hollins, I believe it’s all taken care of already.’

  --------------------

  Crash powered up the reaction drives and pulled Tiger out of orbit.

  Rickover followed her, now assigned the dual task of assisting the refit of Tiger and also building a subspace comms network in Federation Treaty Exploration Space.

  Santiago left orbit too, but took a different path, heading back to Todot Hahn where Captain B’Stard and her new adjutant Commander Joynes, would begin formalising border protocols with the Independent Sha T’Al home-worlds. Izzy had rejoined Tiger’s crew formally although Dave hadn’t seen much of her since. She always seemed to be too busy to talk to him these days.

  The Union were leaving with them too, having achieved their main objective. The crew of USS Tiger received a substantial bonus in the form of more than nine months additional pay and commensurate leave entitlements. In truth, they’d been desperate to get away: Even they’d had enough of Crewman Voltaire.

  The FRS cutter Paul Revere was long gone too. The Revenue men had been allocated three weeks to investigate alleged cross-border trading, but had to report back that they’d found nothing of note. In truth, the FRS men had spent their time interviewing the hell out of Chief Moneys LREP’s and hadn’t found time to look any further.

  Just a few days earlier, the Auckland had departed for Earth, taking the remnants of the JAG team back for reassignment. Down in her brig was Captain LaCroix, going to face music that he knew nothing about and cared nothing for.

  With them had gone the FLEA agents, still only semi-conscious after several months of extensive healing. Strangely the PRAT had mysteriously malfunctioned although no-one knew how the mysterious hammer-shaped dents had got in the casing. Strangely there were no records of their interviews with Kwok and Moss either: all of the recordings made on the ship’s computer had mysteriously disappeared.

  It was just Higgs in orbit over Cross-roads now, and before long she’d begin the journey back to Sector 193 to complete her trials before joining the Fleet and taking up her role as Sector 244 patrol vessel.

  It was tough on Captain LaCroix, but in his heart of hearts, Dave knew it was no less than he deserved.

  The Captain of a star-ship was a god-like figure, and LaCroix had abdicated his responsibilities with an appalling lack of concern.

  If he’d stayed, nothing would have changed, and Tiger and her crew would have been doomed to a life of mediocrity, under-achievement and indifference.

  Dave sat in the Captain’s chair . . . his chair, and looked around the Bridge and the various monitors, watching the crew go about their business.

  They weren’t perfect, and they definitely had their quirks and peculiarities, but they were his crew. Dave had never felt so proud, both of himself and his crew.

  Now, they had a new mission, and a new impetus. Tiger had a future.

  The Crew of USS Tiger will return in

  Tiger: These are the Voyages . . .