Star Man 2: Star Rise

by I. G. Roberts

  Through all this, the Government on Cambridge saw the wisdom of adding another four Cobras to the local System Defense, but the shipyard wouldn’t have the capacity to build them till after the ones for Lahoshar were launched. Planning was also underway to refurbish the Freighter, Theseus and Thor captured during their first foray out of the System. She was to be used as a support ship when Cobras needed to make extended voyages. For the most part, the ideas Colin had, were to be implemented. The updated ship was to have new, significantly more powerful Reactors, the Shields upgraded to something slightly stronger than the Cobras had, and Point-Defense was to be installed anywhere they could manage. But this task needed to wait, for a while anyway. Two of the four Taipans and one of the two Cobras ordered by Lahoshar were ready for delivery. Tangesha crews had been training in both Cambridge and Lahoshar for these ships for six months now. By delivering them, one Cobra, and two Taipans along with their crews would be released to come home to Cambridge.

  Thor, Hiln, and Samurai arrived back in Cambridge System, a little worse for wear after running into nearly twenty Pirate ships. They destroyed at least eight, damaged another three, but not without taking some damage of their own. All three ships would need a week or two in the dock for repairs. This was the largest fleet of Pirates anyone from the Federation had ever seen. The last two patrols outside the System, one by Theseus and Freyja the other comprising Samurai, Hiln and Thor had a fight with Pirates in both directions. It was worrying for everybody and ratcheted up the urgency the authorities felt. It looked as though the Pirates were trying to cut Cambridge off. All anyone in Cambridge could do was continue to prepare as best they could.

  A group of young Naval Officers, barely out of the Academy were in a cafe not far from Headquarters, quietly chatting among themselves when Colin wandered in to buy a snack. While waiting for service, Colin idly listening to the several conversations ebbing and flowing around him when he heard a reference to Cobras running out of missiles. A discussion like this was something these Officers should know to only have in a secure location. He turned to the three young men and gave them ‘the look.' It was the look that should have told them to stop talking immediately, but unfortunately, only one of them saw it and recognized who Colin was. It took the young Officer a moment to quieten his two friends down. They all looked in Colin’s direction as the blood drained from their faces. When the three of them were quiet, Colin suggested they should return to Headquarters with him. After Colin had his order, he turned and left, trusting the three, now thoroughly terrified young Ensigns to follow him. When he arrived at Headquarters, Colin went directly to an empty meeting room then waited for the other three to catch up.

  When the Ensigns were all standing before him, Colin turned and asked in a bland voice, “Would you care to tell me your names?”

  The three briefly looked at each other, then seemed to come to an unspoken agreement on which of them was to be the spokesman.

  The one on Colin’s left replied, “I am Ensign Wheeler, this is Ensign Brown beside me, and Ensign Harrison on the other end Sir.”

  “Alright, Ensigns Wheeler, Brown and Harrison, why do you think you’re here talking to me?”

  Wheeler spoke again, “Because we were talking about something we shouldn’t have been in the cafe, Sir. Sir, we have no excuse for that, the three of us became so caught up in the discussion, we forgot where we were. We’re sorry Sir, it will not happen again.”

  “Fair enough. Be aware, other senior Officers would take a very different view than I am on this matter. Make sure you do not slip up like that again. Now, tell me where your conversation was going.”

  “We hadn’t gone very far Sir, not yet. We know there are limitations on how much ordnance the Taipans and Cobras can carry. We started wondering, what do we do if they run out of ordnance. If the Pirates are too close to the planet, they won’t have the option of returning here for replenishment. There aren’t any spare Freighters for us to send out into the black somewhere. The only alternative we’ve been able to think about so far is to establish some supply caches somewhere like in the Kuiper belt. Then the fighting ships would be able to replenish, even if the Pirates reached the planet. We’re sorry Sir, it was an intellectual exercise for us, we didn’t mean any harm.”

  “Gentlemen, wait here, I shall return directly.”

  Colin left the room, looking for Sonya. He went to her office first, but Sarah said the Commodore had stepped outside for a few minutes. If Sonya wasn’t there, and Sarah didn’t know where the Commodore was or wasn’t willing to tell, then Colin didn’t have any idea where to start looking. He asked Sarah to try to locate the Commodore because it was rather urgent. Sarah could see Commander Gordon was both excited, and concerned about something, so she started working on finding her boss. It didn’t take Sarah long, only a few minutes but she eventually located the Commodore and relayed Colin’s request. Sonya knew Colin was not someone to ask something like this unless he thought it imperative. She cut short the chat with Commander Corbett about the damaged ships then made her way back to her office to find Colin pacing like a caged Tiger, clearly agitated about something.

  Sonya asked, “What’s wrong Colin, why are you so agitated?”

  “We’ve been shown up to be a bunch of incompetents by three wet behind the ears Ensigns Sonya.”

  “What have they done, what have they said?”

  “Come with me, I’ll let them tell you, Sonya. Don’t be angry with them, they’ve thought of something we should have. Just hear them out, okay?”

  The two of them headed back to the room where Ensigns Wheeler, Brown and Harrison still waited anxiously. When Colin walked into the chamber with Commodore Nicholson in tow, they immediately came to attention and snapped off a salute. There was no way in the world any of them would ever dare to show anything but respect for Commander Gordon and Commodore Nicholson, especially the Commodore, she was the most senior military Officer in the System.

  After Sonya and Colin had returned their salutes, he made them sit, then said, “Now Ensigns, how about you tell the Commodore the same thing you told me about the little supply problem you thought of.”

  The three of them looked at each other for a second then Brown explained what they’d been thinking to the Commodore. As Brown relayed the thinking, Colin could see an irritated look building in Sonya’s body language. He knew she wasn’t angry with the Ensigns, but they didn’t,

  Finally, she exploded, startling the three junior Officers, “Damn it, Commander, how in the hell is it that none of us thought about this. We should have known this already, we should’ve thought about it. Lord help us, we should already have a solution in place.”

  “Yes, we should Commodore, but we couldn’t see the wood for the trees.”

  Colin could see Sonya struggling to calm herself till she finally asked the Ensigns who their supervisors were. The Ensigns each told her his supervisors name and Sonya, in turn, contacted her Aide, Sarah, asking her to communicate with the three supervisors and tell them to “get their arses over here.” When each of the supervisors entered the room, he or she took in the scene, especially Commodore Nicholson pacing back and forth with a black cloud seeming to hang over her head. Then they looked at the three Ensigns sitting next to the table, looking terrified and of course put two and two together to get five. Each of them gave their Ensign a dirty look, a look promising dire consequences when they were out of this room. Colin noticed it, and so did Sonya.

  When everyone was present, she turned to the new Officers and said, “Commander Gordon overheard these three Ensigns having a conversation, a conversation I am very, very disturbed by. Understand this, there will be no repercussions against any of these young Officers. Their only fault is one of ignorance, of not knowing who they should approach with the problem they’ve identified. Do I make myself clear?”

  The three Lieutenants all crisply said, “Yes ma’am,” it was after all the only acceptable response they could make.
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br />   Sonya indicated Brown and said, “Alright Mr. Brown, please share what you’ve told the Commander here, and me, with these three Officers.”

  Once again, Brown relayed the thinking the three friends had been trying to deal with. As it all spilled out, Colin was observing the three Lieutenants faces, and he saw understanding begin to dawn on them. These youngsters weren’t in trouble, Commodore Nicholson was very happy with them. Colin saw something else behind the eyes of Browns supervisor, he was scheming something. Colin decided he was most likely thinking about how he could steal the kudos for this thinking for himself. Colin gave him ‘the look’ and minutely shook his head. He could almost see the man deflate.

  Lieutenant Weizmann saw the look in Commander Gordon’s face and saw the slight shake of the head. He knew the Commander had already read his mind and wondered how the man did it. Weizmann had heard about the Commander, and his abilities in the past but hadn’t really believed the stories. Now he knew those stories were not lies or even exaggeration. The Lieutenant would’ve been even more alarmed if he realized Commodore Nicholson had noticed his scheming as well.

  Finally, Ensign Brown finished narrating everything the three of them had thought of so far. All three Lieutenants were quite impressed, there were not so many things the youngsters hadn’t thought of yet. Of course, they didn’t have all the answers either, but at least they had thought of most of the questions needing to be answered. Even Weizmann could understand why the Commander, and then the Commodore were so interested.

  Commodore Nicholson said, “These three young Officers have brought a problem, along with most of the solution to our attention. Be aware, they did not go behind your backs. They’ve only been discussing this since this morning. The only reason we heard about it before you, is because the Commander here happened to overhear their discussions while they were having lunch. Now, while it is okay to pull others into this if there is a genuine need, these three, under your combined supervision are to resolve this issue. We need supply dumps we can make for if the Pirates make it here to the planet, and we need them sooner rather than later. These three have done most of the thinking, so I do not want them pushed out of the way, they are to be kept central to this effort. Lieutenant Downer, you have the overall lead on this. Alright, all of you, dismissed.”

  The other six Officers filed out of the room. As they left, both Colin and Sonya noticed Kelly Downer patting Ensign Harrison on the shoulder. When they were all out of earshot, Sonya contacted Sarah, asking her to contact Lieutenant Downer and suggest to Kelly she should keep an eye on Lieutenant Weizmann.

  After the call was over Colin said, “So, you noticed it too.”

  Sonya just smiled and nodded, then said, “Don’t you have better things to do than pester me here, like organizing a party? I’ve been looking forward to it, so I hope you do a good job.”

  Colin just nodded and left.

  Colin arranged his housewarming party and invited all the friends he’d made in the last two years, at least he asked the ones who were currently in Cambridge System. In the end, he invited a Federation Councilor as well, after he received the request from Commodore Nicholson. Colin engaged caterers for this event, and they provided staff to tend the bar and the buffet. He asked Julia to attend as the hostess. She didn’t understand what Colin meant at first. Colin patiently, and carefully, explained what she would be doing. Colin explained to Julia he just wanted her to greet people as they arrived, point out where they could find food or something to drink and engage in polite conversation. He said outside of that, she should just relax and enjoy herself.

  The next day, Theseus docked without incident. Colin contacted Samuel to request he send Anne and Ensign Wills down to his house. He’d only met the Ensign briefly when she first came on board Theseus. More recently, Colin had heard whispers of the problems the Ensign had while he was on the planet and she was alone on Theseus. Colin wanted to make sure the Ensign was okay. There was no way he was going to risk losing a promising Officer because he wouldn’t or couldn’t give her support when she needed it.

  Chapter 11

  Colin and Julia were sitting outside his home, overlooking the ocean, enjoying the view when the doorbell rang. Julia Jumped, ready to go answer it but Colin waved her down before climbing to his feet. When Colin opened the door, Anne was standing there with Susan Wills. He smiled at the two women and invited them in before offering them both a beer. Susan began to decline, not sure about the correct etiquette, but Anne accepted for them both as they headed out to the seating area. Anne took Susan out to introduce her to Julia while Colin went to get everyone a beer. When he joined the three ladies on the patio, Colin took a seat before asking Susan how she was fairing. Susan looked at Colin, feeling a little intimidated to be in the presence of a man who was so well known, and with his reputation. When she looked at him, she could see he had a friendly smile on his face and a raised eyebrow. Susan wasn’t sure what Colin knew so she looked at Anne for guidance, not quite knowing how to answer the question.

  Anne replied, “You probably should answer truthfully, Sue. The Commander probably heard about your little adventure when we left you alone in charge of Theseus. I believe he’s asking out of genuine concern for your welfare. It’s okay, go ahead.”

  “Yes, ma’am. I’m sorry Sir, I don’t know what you know just yet but I’m fine now. Once Lieutenant Fraser helped me, and we dealt with the immediate… problem, the crew became very helpful. I’ve had no problems since then. Sir, I’m sorry, I messed up. When the problem started, I tried to deal with it the way we were taught at the Academy, but none of the techniques seemed to work. I should have asked for help sooner, I know that now.”

  Colin smiled at Susan, at least partly to try to help her relax, he could see the woman was on edge, expecting the axe to fall, so he leaned back in his chair staring into the distance in silence for a few minutes. After mulling over the problem, he concluded that Susan needed him to acknowledge the error then help her to move forward from there.

  Without looking in her direction, Colin said, “Susan, you’re right, you made some mistakes. The first was that you relied entirely on your training when you were trying to decide how to deal with the idiot. I’ve met a lot of women who are superb at handling men who are a little… recalcitrant. Surely your parents and friends have taught you how to get your own way. Basically, you allowed the situation to spiral out of control. Indeed, you tried doing all the right things, at least the ones the book said you should be doing but apparently they weren’t working. Tell me, did you know those two were running a gambling ring?”

  “Not for sure Sir. I’d heard a whisper, but I had no evidence, just vague rumours. I scored quite high in leadership tests, but it quickly became apparent to me I’m not the leader I thought I was.”

  “Even with a vague rumour, and even if you didn’t know who the organizers are, you should be contacting me, or at least Lieutenant Harland or Lieutenant Fraser if you don’t feel confident dealing directly with me. Anne, would you care to enlighten the Ensign here about her leadership ability.”

  Anne smiled and replied, “Certainly Captain. Susan, there is nothing wrong with your leadership ability that a little experience won’t fix. Most of Theseus’ crew recognize it and follow your orders without argument or complaint. The only time our people balk is when you give an order they think is unnecessarily dangerous and even then they accept your inexperience and try to guide you without actually disobeying you. The best part is that you are smart enough to take guidance from the crew. That’s worth a lot in their eyes.”

  By now, both Colin and Anne were looking in Ensign Wills’ direction to make sure she understood the point. They both saw the beginnings of comprehension dawn on her face as Susan put a lot of different things together and began to see what she was being told.

  Susan said, “I think I’m beginning to understand now, Sir, ma’am. Thank you for your guidance.”

  Colin smiled and replied, “No t
hanks are necessary Susan, it's all part of the service. You’re doing fine. Remember, unless you put us all at risk because of utter stupidity or pig-headedness, I’m unlikely to stay angry with you for too long. Now, you haven’t touched your beer, don’t you drink, would you prefer something else?”

  “The beer is fine Sir. When Lieutenant Fraser said you wanted to see me, I assumed I was coming here so you could ream me out for screwing up. I’ve been on edge and couldn’t face alcohol. I’m sorry Sir.”

  “No need to apologize Sue. You’re not in trouble. Now, sit back, relax, and enjoy the scenery. Anne, are you planning on coming to the party?”

  “Yes Sir, I wouldn’t miss it.”

  “Good, Julia will be the hostess for it but can you help me keep an eye on things to make sure she isn’t out of her depth please?”

  “Of course. So, Julia, are you settling in okay. This man isn’t driving you too hard is he.”

  Julia’s face took on a startled, deer in the headlights look as she realized she was now the centre of attention. She looked from Anne to Colin and back again, trying to see if they were laughing at her, but of course, they both were keeping straight faces. Julia tried to understand what they were saying to her but still didn’t have enough life experience as a free woman to fully grasp the joke. Finally, Colin lost it, laughing out loud at the bewildered expression on the girl’s face.