Star Man 2: Star Rise

by I. G. Roberts

  Anne was preparing to go to the orbitals to board Theseus when she received a message from Commodore Nicholson’s office to go there first. She had no idea but knew you didn’t delay when summoned to the Commodores office. Anne quickly threw the last of her belongings into her duffel and departed. When she arrived, she was taken straight into Sonya’s Office. When she entered, she realized the room was a little crowded. FNS Theseus’ XO, Lieutenant Samuel Harland was already there and another Lieutenant in Trooper uniform as well. Both the other Officers were looking curious, as though they had no idea why they were here either.

  When Anne entered the office, Sonya rose from behind her desk and said, “Thank you all for coming so promptly. I know it is very short notice but we have a situation on board FNS Theseus and you three are going to go there and fix it, preferably without involving Commander Gordon. Follow me.”

  Commodore Nicholson led them into a small meeting room next door to her office. As soon as they were all inside, Sonya pointed to a screen at one end of the chamber. One after another, sets of full motion video with sound came on. The first showed one of the new crew being insolent towards Ensign Wills. With each clip, things degenerated. The Ensign went to the NCO commanding the Trooper contingent and was ignored. It all came to a head when the crewman squeezed the Ensigns breast that very morning. She fled to the Captain's office and began the work of placing a formal complaint and writing a letter to resign her commission. At that point, Theseus locked her in the office and sent the report to the Commodore who told the AI neither the complaint nor the letter was to cross her desk. Either would ruin the young woman's career before it even started. None of them wanted that. All they needed was to find suitable punishments for the main perpetrator and for the Trooper NCO. Theseus was on the line as they watched so the four Officers could talk to her while they decided on the best way forward. The Trooper Lieutenant decided on the best way to deal with the NCO. He would lose all rank and seniority for failing to do his duty as specified in his orders which stated clearly that the Troopers were to safeguard the security of the ship and her Officers and crew. He was also supposed to follow all reasonable and legal orders of the ship’s Officers. Clearly, the Trooper NCO had not done either of those things.

  Sonya turned to Sam and Anne and said, “Short of killing the man, you have carte blanche but deal with it, understood. You two are going to need to try and put that young Officer back together, clear?”

  Once again, both Sam and Anne said, “Yes Ma’am,” before they turned and left.

  They both knew now why the Commodore didn’t want Commander Gordon involved if it could be helped. If he found out now, he would beat them to Theseus, and the idiot who precipitated this would either be beaten to a pulp, or he’d be breathing vacuum. If the Troopers tried to intervene, they might very well join the man who’d assaulted Sue Wills. No, this was a situation they needed to deal with before their Captain found out about it, and the perpetrator was required to be off the ship doing some menial work under the most horrific conditions they could manage. The Trooper Lieutenant was there, along with a squad of Troopers to deal with their side of the problem. He had a new NCO to command the unit on FNS Theseus. They didn’t expect problems with most of the Troopers on the ship because Theseus said none of them even knew about the issue.

  When they arrived at the airlock leading to Theseus, the Troopers standing guard duty looked surprised. When they made to announce the arrival, the Lieutenant stopped them, telling them he had business with their NCO. As it happened, they didn’t like this NCO and didn’t trust him. A couple of the Troopers had heard vague rumours about goings on, things like there NCO being involved in organizing a gambling ring with someone from the ship's crew. They knew that was something not allowed on a ship, especially one this small. It could tear the team apart. They didn’t have a reporting path, though, not here on a ship as their communications had to go through their CO, and he was the problem.

  The two guards stood aside, and the party entered the ship. Anne went directly to the Captain's office where Theseus unlocked the door and let her in to be confronted by a distressed and disheveled looking Ensign Wills. When Anne entered the compartment, she went to the Ensign and calmed her down.

  After the Ensign had settled to a point where she was a little more coherent, Anne said, “The Commodore has not received your report or your letter, but she knows what has been going on here. Now we, you and I, are going to resolve your little problem. Susan, I apologize. We should never have left you here alone like that. Now we fix it. Follow my lead. First though Sue, we are going to your quarters where you will bathe, put on a fresh uniform and fix up your face. Are you with me?”

  “Yes Lieutenant, I’m sorry to cause you so much trouble, ma’am. I failed. Maybe I’m not cut out for this.”

  “Ensign, do not ever talk like that in front of me again, or any of the other Officers or crew for that matter. You were confronted with an impossible situation. I’ve seen surveillance footage of everything. Ensign, you did nothing wrong. There are a few techniques we can teach you that will help in the future. Susan, you have the basics, but you need to massage them into a solid command presence. Now let's get you ready. You are going to need to be in the right head-space for this.”

  When Ensign Wills was cleaned up and had a fresh uniform on, Anne gave her a once over, then asked Theseus, if a suitable cargo hold was clear. When the AI replied in the affirmative, Anne asked Sue, if she remembered the self-defence training.

  The Ensign replied, “Oh yes ma’am, I remember, but I couldn’t be brawling on the ship.”

  Anne said, “You’re right of course Ensign, you shouldn’t be brawling on the ship, but there are exceptions, and this is one of them. Your authority has been severely undermined among the crew. You are going to have to earn it back. When we arrive in the hold, you are going to order your tormentor to kiss your boots and to grovel to you. He won’t do it of course. When he refuses the order, I want you to take all the pain, and all the humiliation he has inflicted on you and channel it into your leg as you put every ounce of strength you have into kicking him in the groin. Do not hold back. Ideally, his head will hit the overheads after you lift him off the ground. Once he is down, you will repeat the order for him to apologize and kiss your boots. At that point, he probably won’t be able to, even if he wanted to, but don’t let up, when he doesn’t do it, kick him in ribs as hard as you can. Susan, you need to show you are badass. You need to show yourself to be as bad as Captain Gordon. Okay? This is your chance. If you do this right, I doubt you’ll ever have another problem with this crew or any other for that matter, word will get around.”

  Anne could see a determined, even an angry look building on the Ensign’s face as she replied, “Yes ma’am, I understand. And thank you for giving me this chance.”

  Anne smiled as she asked Theseus to page all hands to the hold for the coming showdown. Then the two women made their way down there themselves. Most of the crew knew what was going on, some even tried to intervene on the Ensign’s behalf behind the scenes but had received a beating for their trouble. They knew that if Lieutenant Fraser was involved, the man was in a lot of trouble already, the old hands already knew she was badass. They knew the Lieutenant was cut from the same cloth as the Captain and he was someone you just didn’t cross, ever.

  By the time Anne and Susan arrived, the crew was already assembled. The Troopers were there as well, with their old NCO kneeling on one side, the sleeves were torn off his uniform, and his head bowed in misery. The two women walked along the ranks of crew till Ensign Wills came to the man who’d been tormenting her. She stopped and turned to face him. As Susan looked at him, she could feel the anger building.

  Then, with all the authority she could muster, Ensign Wills said, “To the front Mr. Wood.”

  Wood had a brief look of shock on his face then decided he could tough this out. He sneered, all these bitches could do was to reprimand him. So what, Wood didn�
�t care, they couldn’t hurt him. Wood swaggered out the front and faced the Ensign. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a half smile on the Lieutenants face, and a hard, unflinching look in her eyes. When Wood was standing in the indicated spot, after taking his insolent time about it, Ensign Wills walked up close till she was almost nose to nose with him, almost like a drill sergeant. For the first time, Wood began to worry a little, and he could feel the anger starting to build.

  Wills bellowed in his face, “When I give an order Wood, you comply immediately, without delay.”

  Wood sneered at her as she stepped back and said, sarcasm dripping from every word, “Now Mr. Wood, you will lay face down on the floor, you will beg my forgiveness, and you will kiss my boots. Do it now.”

  Wood looked at Ensign Wills in disbelief, she couldn’t do this. There was no way he would follow that order, it was illegal. He heard a snicker from someone behind him.

  Lieutenant Fraser bellowed, “Silence in the ranks.”

  Wood looked at Wills, hatred in his eyes and said, “No, I ref…”

  Intense, unbearable pain exploded throughout his body as her boot lifted him nearly a foot off the floor by his balls. Then Wood’s was rolling around on the floor. Curling into the foetal position, gasping for breath and moaning in pain, tears streaming from his eyes, oblivious to what was happening around him. There was no let up from the pain for several minutes.

  Finally, Wood could focus a little on something other than the pain and could hear Ensign Wills repeating her order. Try as he might, he couldn’t react. Next thing Wood felt the ribs on his left side exploding in agony as she kicked him there. Now Wood was struggling even more to breath as intense pain passed through his body with every breath. Wood knew he’d be out of action for a while with this. He’d be lucky if he could even walk for several days. Strong arms picked Wood up and dragged him over to the side and dumped him on the floor near the Trooper ex-NCO.

  Lieutenant Fraser stepped forward and said in a loud voice, “Understand this, what you saw here today never happened. Wood is lucky Captain Gordon doesn’t know about this yet. If the Captain did know, you can rest assured, Wood would be on the other side of the airlock door over there. The type of insolence and even physical assault perpetrated by Mr. Wood against Ensign Wills will not be tolerated in this Navy, ever, and in particular, it will most certainly not be tolerated on any ship, I’m an Officer on. The Ensign is worth ten of this piece of shit. Is that clear.”

  There was a chorus of, “Yes ma’am” from the assembled crew. Anne turned on her heel and exited the compartment with Ensign Wills following close behind her, limping a little because she’d bruised her foot with the two kicks. Anne led the Ensign directly to the Captain's office. When the women were inside, with the door safely closed, Anne noticed Susan was shaking like a leaf. Anne led the Ensign over to one of the seats and helped her sit. Susan wasn’t crying, which Anne thought a good sign. It looked to Anne like the Ensign was coming off an adrenalin high. After about ten minutes of sitting quietly, Ensign Wills appeared to have calmed down enough for the conversation to restart. Anne knew the Ensign needed help to make it through recent events. The events of the last few weeks will have caused Susan to mature a lot.

  Anne said, “How do you feel now Sue?”

  “I’m fine ma’am, thank you. I don’t know where all that came from, though. I think I hurt my foot with the first kick, though. I did what you told me and channeled every single bit of my anger and frustration into that kick. It felt so wrong to be doing that to another human, but at the same time it felt so very right.”

  “Okay then Susan, I want you to go to the hospital here on the Station and have the foot looked at. We will be departing in forty-eight hours with Mr. Harland in command. Captain Gordon is busy on Cambridge for the next few weeks, so Commodore Nicholson has ordered the XO to take Theseus for a patrol around this System. Now get yourself to the hospital and have your foot looked at.”

  “Yes ma’am, on my way now. Lieutenant, thank you for your help. I think I would’ve resigned my commission without it. I was pretty much done in.”

  Anne smiled as the Ensign limped out of the office, on her way to the hospital as ordered. On the way to the lock, Sue passed a few of the crew. Every one of them smiled at the Ensign and saluted. It seemed their attitude towards her had taken a 180 degree turn about though when she thought about it dispassionately, the crew, except for Wood and the Trooper NCO, had always been respectful towards her. Susan didn’t know it then, but she’d taken on a whole new persona in the crew’s eyes. Most of them respected her before, and except for one or two, the rest accepted she was just a new Officer trying to find her feet. Well, they all saw how her feet found Wood’s balls. They all saw his feet leave the ground with that kick and none of them ever wanted to be on the wrong end of another one like that. Wood was gone, dragged off the ship by the departing Troopers. He wasn’t the most popular man on the ship anyway. The old hands all knew Wood was lucky to be gone from here before Captain Gordon returned. Lieutenant Fraser was right, if Captain Gordon were here, Wood would’ve been trying to breathe vacuum, or at best, he would be lying bleeding on the deck. They all sought to warn Wood, but of course, the man was too cocksure he could handle this Jumped-up Captain. Well, Ensign Wills ably demonstrated Wood wasn’t anywhere near as tough as he thought. Most of the crew felt guilty they hadn’t dealt with it before the Ensign was forced to. For her part, Susan could feel her self-pride returning a little with each salute.

  When Susan was safely off the ship, Anne asked Theseus to contact Commodore Nicholson. Theseus had already sent a report about the day's events to Sonya. Anne could see the Commodore had already seen what happened.

  Sonya said, “Crude, but effective. How is the Ensign? Is she okay?”

  “Yes ma’am, Ensign Wills is okay. We thought about it and concluded we had to convince the Ensign to deal with the issue, both to send a message to the crew and to help rebuild her own self-confidence.”

  “Good, I’ll find a suitable place to stash Mr. Wood while we retrain him. We have systems in place to catch people like him, but of course, occasionally one slips through the cracks. When they do, they inevitably end up causing major problems. Please, keep working with the Ensign to help her become the best Officer she can be. Thank you, Anne, for the innovative solution for what could’ve been a career-destroying incident.”

  “Ensign Wills did most of the work Commodore. All I did was calm her down and lit the fire in her belly. As soon as I saw her, I could see the anger and humiliation. I only showed her how to harness and channel that. Some of the ideas came from one of the Troopers who came here with us. He overheard us discussing how to deal with the situation and Oh so respectfully, suggested the Ensign should just ‘kick him in the balls,' when we thought about it, we concluded he was right.”

  “We should promote that Trooper Anne. Do you know his name?”

  “Yes ma’am, I’ll have Theseus send you the details.”

  “Thank you, Anne, Oh, Theseus has just sent the name, I’m impressed. Very well. Now, how is Lieutenant Harland, is he ready to command the ship for the next two weeks?”

  “Yes Commodore, he’ll be okay. He’s come a long way since Commander Gordon joined the ship.”

  “So, do you think he’s ready for a Cobra of his own?”

  “Ma’am, it would be inappropriate for me to venture an opinion on that subject. This is for the Captain to answer.”

  Sonya smiled as she said, “Point taken. Will you be ready to depart on time?”

  “Yes ma’am, we’ll be ready.”

  “Good, let me know how Ensign Wills goes as well, please. I’ll talk to you when you return.”

  The next day, Theseus undocked to depart for the planned patrol around the System. As it turned out, the patrol was an uneventful one, just as was hoped for when Theseus was sent out with Lieutenant Harland in command. The intent was to give Sam a little experience and to make the first
baby step towards the making him ready.

  On Cambridge, the talks between the Federation Council and the President of Cambridge proceeded. The agreement had already been reached for the supply of three hundred Cobras and four hundred Taipans. Work was already beginning on the preliminary preparations to expand Cambridge’s shipyard to cope. The President knew they were going to require imported workers to meet the demand for this contract alone. Now, the Federation Council was asking him to help the Federation to finish not one, but two new Warship designs, one for a new Destroyer, the other, for an entirely new class of starship, a Carrier. The Carrier would carry ships a little less than one-third the size of a Cobra with a crew of only four. These small ships would not be Jump-Capable because they would pass through the Jump inside the Carrier, but they would be very powerful in their own right as fighters and missile delivery ships. Of course, these fighters would not have anything like the endurance of even a Patrol Boat, but then they could be expected to return to the Carrier for replenishment. The Carrier would itself be an enormous ship at least two kilometres long. The Federation planned to eventually build six of these behemoths, but the initial order would be for two. Before those ships could be completed, though, there was still a lot of design work to be finished. All the new ships, except the fighters, would have the same type of primary propulsion as the Cobras and Taipans. The fighters would have a limited form of this as well but would primarily rely on more conventional thrusters especially when they needed to enter a planet's atmosphere.