by Chris Hechtl
“Dismissed,” she said formally. She turned and then shook her head.
“You had to do it, Ma'am,” her chief engineer said.
She looked up and then nodded. “I know, Cynthia, I just hated pulling rank like that. Why the hell did he have to be the pimple on our ass?” She demanded to no one in particular. She covered her face with her hands for a moment.
“I…I'm not sure, Ma'am,” Cynthia said carefully. “It could be as you said, a way to get attention, or to pull rank. Or, it could be a way to remind you to take up the reins of command, Ma'am,” she said. “You've sort of been hesitant to throw your weight around and remind people who's boss,” she said cautiously.
Shelby's hands dropped to her cheeks, covering her mouth. She blew out a long exhale, then dropped her hands as she looked at her XO. The Veraxin Zeb clacked his mandibles but didn't say anything. He was an ET of few words, but when he did say something they carried heavy weight. “You could be right I suppose. Oscar might, I do say might,” she held up a finger to Cynthia. “Might, have some redeeming qualities under that annoying pain in the ass persona of his,” she said. “Maybe. Way down, waaaay down deep.”
“Always looking for the sun through the clouds, Ma'am,” her chief engineer said with a small smile. Shelby snorted as Zeb indicated second level amusement.
<====###====[=]<==
For the next week, Oscar limited himself to formal information transfers. He was stiff to the point of wooden, his lively demeanor and easy informality he'd crafted as a public persona was gone. That put Shelby and the other officers on edge.
Scuttlebutt called Oscar the grouch, and Shelby the old lady. She snorted at the very idea of being called an old lady. Really, she thought, shaking her head. Her, old? Yes, she was in her forties, technically older than Captain Mayweather. She'd had her time as an assistant chief engineer on Anvil, then chief engineer on Firefly, then her XO. She'd damn well earned her stripes. She sat huddled on her bench in her room, staring out the simulated window as she cradled a cup of hot cocoa with the ship's cat, Lively, in her lap. She stroked the soft pelt of the purring creature and fought her annoyance.
Really, she needed to put his pissy attitude down again if he kept it up. The whole stiff upper lip thing was getting on her nerves. She longed for the informality. She was an engineer; she didn't need the crappy parts of command. She sighed, setting the cup down.
But that went with the job, she thought, stroking the cat's ears with both hands. She smiled and nuzzled the cat with her forehead as he reached up to touch noses with her. “Yeah, I'm the dragon lady I guess,” she said. He sniffed then sneezed.
“Gesundheit,” she said and then watched as he got up and padded off.
Oscar was still resentful over her pulling rank the next morning at the morning conference. She ignored it but documented their exchanges in case she needed them in a formal review of their actions later.
<====###====[=]<==
Six weeks after they arrived they wrapped up their mission. Shelby's rather wistful idea of just so happening to run into Firefly on her route home was a distant memory. She shrugged it off. Oh well, perhaps next time, she thought. Or the time after that.
She wasn't really home sick, she just wanted to show off her first command she told herself. Then she snorted. “Right,” she drawled softly.
Seti Alpha 4 was on its way to becoming a pretty beautiful and modernized planet. Not only had Prometheus put a modular station in orbit, but she'd also modernized every school, medical office, and rescue unit on the planet. The network of modern roads and airports alone would boost the local economy and allow trade to flourish.
Their Veraxin female doctor V'brno had worked with Doctor McFile, the medics, and politicians on the planet to treat and inoculate the world's children. The kids of this generation and the next would grow up healthy with all the chances at a first class education that Prometheus and the Navy could provide. And many people knew it and were grateful, another plus.
The island they had leased for the Navy had been swarmed by the construction group from Prometheus in their last week. It now had a flat landing strip and basic facilities for those military personnel who had shipped down from Bertha. There were a bare hundred squids and two squads of Marines; they'd rattle around on the big island for some time. Eventually the reservists in the military would transfer to the planet to help man it. Until then, they'd have to make due. Most of the core personnel were paper pushers. She wasn't sure about the wisdom of it; she wondered if they were being shifted to a post out of the way, or if they were just warm bodies filling a slot. It wasn't her problem or concern anyway. She shrugged the idea off and set it aside.
Satellites were in orbit and on station at each of the star system's two jump points. They would not only provide communication, weather monitoring, and other services for the colony, but they would also allow the navy to monitor ship traffic through the system.
They'd also worked on the planet's constitution on the sly, encouraging the locals to look into it with a bit of a viral campaign. They'd even embedded a few files and history lessons the Navy PR office had created in the computer databases they'd passed on to the schools. The talks and hard work of the now exhausted engineers had done an excellent job of diplomacy, actions always did speak much better than mere words, Shelby thought with a satisfied smile. Hotanga had been sent off on the Beatrix Butterfly with a group of delegates to negotiate Seti Alpha's joining the new Federation along with dozens of navy and marine recruits.
All and all, she was quite proud of herself, and her people. They'd done good. It was a good start to the project. They'd even found out that Mariah’s Mischief and the other ships had passed through the system safely. They had the rough timing involved for each, so they could judge how fast they were going. It would be nice to encounter one of the ships, but most were slower than Prometheus and her escorts. It wouldn't be all that surprising to pass them in hyper and never even know it.
Just after they broke orbit on their way to the Halced 6 jump point, Descartes called in with a minor medical emergency. Lieutenant Eddington, exec of the escort had tripped and hit his face on a knee knocker, breaking some of his teeth and his left gum line. Captain Logan watched as the frigate sent over her tiny cutter to bring the unfortunate man to Prometheus and her sickbay.
Prometheus's doctor V'brno examined the young man and then had their resident dentist fix the problems. The young man waved off an offer to dine with them in the officer's mess, not that Shelby blamed him in the slightest. He looked like those images of a Terran chipmunk she'd seen. “Rain check then?” she offered kindly. He nodded. He mumbled his thanks when he left.
<====###====[=]<==
She smiled to Zeb as she came on the bridge. “Everything peachy?” she asked. He signaled second level agreement. “Do you ever talk?”
“When I have need of it, Captain,” Zeb replied. “I was told I was a bit of a chatterbox on my last posting.”
“Ah,” she said thoughtfully. “Well, you aren't a Sphinx, so you can drop it. I'd like a word,” she said.
“I thought you were bonding with the chief?” The Veraxin asked.
She snorted and then indicated the wardroom. He nodded and followed. Silently he passed a text message to Lieutenant Silverfish to take over the bridge. The Neocat acknowledged the order. “You have an informal way of dealing with the crew and command,” the Veraxin said.
Shelby rolled her eyes as she set her coffee cup down. “Not you too,” she sighed.
“I'm not complaining, Ma'am, you've as you said, been at this longer. Everyone has their own distinctive command signature. I noted you delegate more. You aren't a micromanager, though coming up through the XO's slot could make you one.”
“A marionette you mean. A paper pusher. I hated it,” the captain said. She waved to the steward as he poked his head out of his small nook. “Egg McMuffin, Charles,” she said. “And a refill,” she said, taking her seat and indicating her
cup.
“Right away, Skipper,” he said. He looked at the Veraxin expectantly.
“A cup of clover honey and a side of celery,” the Veraxin replied.
“Oh, hitting the sauce early?” Shelby teased as the steward withdrew.
“As it happens, Ma'am, I'm just coming off shift,” the Veraxin said.
Her smile fell. “Sorry, I didn't mean to hit a nerve,” she said.
He signaled first level amusement. “You didn't. I'm not that touchy Ma'am,” he replied. “Back to your early discussion point,” he said as she indicated the seat on her right. He bobbed a nod of assent and went over to it. The chair morphed itself into a seating pad for him. He clicked his mandibles and slid onto it. “I believe it is customary for a ship's captain to bond with one or more of her officers. You and Lieutenant Troll share a lot in common, not just your species, but also gender and former roll as an engineer.”
“Still an engineer, thank you,” Shelby replied with a sniff. “I do still like to get my hands dirty from time to time,” she said, putting her hands out and then flexing them.
“Another thing to bond over.”
“Yes, but you are my XO,” Shelby said. “I've been remiss in not finding common ground with you. We've gone through several sims, and the working-up exercises, but I barely know you,” she said, settling back as the steward came in and placed a small plate with the breakfast sandwich on it. A clear cup of orange juice followed that and then a refill of her coffee. Then he placed a cup of golden honey in front of the Veraxin first officer, followed by a plate of neatly trimmed celery.
“Is there anything else?” the steward asked.
“Nope, thanks, Charles,” Shelby said, smiling her thanks. He nodded and withdrew.
“I believe, that we haven't bonded not because of the differences in species, age and gender, but because we've been rather busy, Captain. I have some engineering experience, but lack enough common ground there. I am interested in engineering, but like a lot of officers, I've dreamed of a command since I was a larva.”
“Heh,” Shelby said, picking up her McMuffin and taking a bite. She glanced to see her XO take a sip with his straw then pick up a piece of celery to crunch at it. The captain chewed and swallowed. Charles was good; he knew how to get the muffin perfectly toasted and just enough heat in the egg. “Tell me about it. But I dreamed of being a chief engineer. Been there, done that. I scratched that off my list and moved on,” she said.
“From what I heard you were dragged kicking and screaming out of the job,” the Veraxin teased.
She snorted and put the sandwich down. “True,” she admitted. “I wasn't too thrilled about getting the promotion, but I was overruled. Admiral Irons wanted to expand explosively, and you either went along, or got shuffled off. I had no intention of getting shuffled off.”
“I agree. You have stepped up and thrived, Ma'am,” the exec said.
“Glad of you to admit it. I wish others would,” the captain said darkly.
The exec clacked his mandibles and then took a sip of his honey. “I believe Oscar the grouch will come around…eventually,” he said. “He knows he was in the wrong intellectually. Stepping back and putting everything and everyone on a formal footing has…strained the easy nature of your command style, but it has put everyone on notice that we are professionals and should act like it,” he said.
“I like to delegate. I admit, with some things I'm not comfortable handling, though I can in a pinch if push came to shove. But if I can get away with handing it off to someone else…call me lazy,” Shelby said with a roguish smile as she picked her juice up and took a sip.
“That's not lazy, that's being a commanding officer. I agree. I had thought you were in the right in delegating the authority of the escorts to its most senior officer. Captain Levinson unfortunately overstepped his authority. He'll get over it,” the Veraxin said.
“He'd better. I don't mind the sulking, I rather like the quiet. But we may need to work together if there is a problem. And I can't have rough edges getting in the way,” she said.
“Well, as far as you and I are concerned, we could work through them through discourse, possible projects together such as exercise or games, or other means to get to know each other. But, as far as Captain Levinson is concerned…”
“We'll figure something out. Maybe I'll pull a couple battle drills and beat the pants off him,” the captain said.
“Now you're talking, Ma'am,” the XO replied with a clack and signal of first level agreement and amusement.
<====###====[=]<==
As they entered the Halced 6 system, they deployed a recon satellite and then picked up the ion trail of various ships. "Captain, the Moth class we encountered recently…she's slow," the tech said, handing her a tablet. "We picked up her trail to the jump point but…" she shook her head in disgust.
"Tell me about it," the captain muttered, looking at the report. The tech opened her mouth but then closed it when her captain looked at her. "She, is this right? She's as slow in sublight as she is in hyper! Either they really like to save on energy or they were on their last legs," she said.
The tech nodded. "It looks that way, Ma'am."
"I'm starting to wonder about the safety of the people we had them transport now," the captain muttered. She shook her head. "What else?"
"The usual background right now, Ma'am. We've sent out a hail. Should we deploy another satellite?"
The captain frowned, tapping her finger tip against her lips briefly. Finally she shook her head. "Tempting, but no. If we left one out in the open, the colonists could use it as a relay, but it would make for a tempting target for anyone coming through."
"Pirates, Ma'am?"
"Or just thieves in general. A satellite is a small platform of tech gear after all. I wouldn't put it past anyone to pick it up and say they never saw it." She frowned and then shrugged. "Command doesn't want to authorize the expenditure for that reason. I can't blame them. If the natives want a meet and greet satellite, let them pay for it, and we'll build it to spec."
The tech nodded. "I see, Ma'am."
"Glad you do," the captain said, signing off on the report and then handing the tablet back. "Good work, Sandy, keep it up," she said.
The woman seemed to preen briefly as she took the tablet and then stepped back as the XO came forward. After a moment she returned to her duty station.
The Halced system was 7.8 light years from Seti Alpha, and populated by several gas giants ranging size. In fact, the only terraformed “planet” in the system was a dwarf planet or moon that orbited one of the class 1 gas giants. The colony was the sixth moon out of ten orbiting the class 1 known as Cat's eye for the oval shaped storm on its surface. There were four other colonies in the system, all small, cramped, and dirty underground facilities on four of the other moons around Cat's eye. They were the last, having abandoned the other colonies one by one when their power or systems failed.
According to the intel they had, most of the population was slowly retreating to small cramped housing districts inside the original domes on Halced 6 as well. The moon's terraforming was being undone by time; one could easily project that the planet would be uninhabitable in a thousand years or so.
For now the natives had reserved thousands of hectares of their planet for their flora and fauna. It was apparently their hope that they could reverse the climate change by saturating the planet with biomass in an attempt to keep a breathable atmosphere. They had a lot of repairs to do, earlier generations had clear cut entire continents in their desire for wood, along with over fishing and hunting. The planet had gone through a brief greenhouse period with all the waste gases in the atmosphere, but now the gasses were thinning out and the planet was cooling. Of course all the trees and algae they were cultivating may have something to do with the depletion of the greenhouse gases.
She shook her head. It was a balancing act, she couldn't imagine doing it without proper computer support and mechanical assista
nce. But these people were doing it. She had to admire that. They weren't just giving up; they were trying despite what people said about the odds of success.
A lot of the colonies were like that, Shelby thought. Kathy's World came to mind, another moon that had been terraformed into a habitable place but was now spiraling into an ice age. Terraforming the planets had to be kept up, if not the planet slipped back into its native state over time. With Federation help they could go back to terraforming their world or even relocate to another world if they desired. She made a note to bring that up in their discussions.
There were three elderly shuttles and a single sublight liner left running goods and people between the colonies. She'd been surprised and amused to find that the sublight liner had been modified with a magnetic sail of all things. The ancient thing was apparently the perfect propulsion method to move about the Cat's eye subsystem without expending waste energy.
When the quartet of ships reached Halced 6 orbit, they found that they had a problem. Their radio introduction had been received with a negative response. They were not given permission to mine the inner system asteroids, something that put out Cynthia and a few of the engineers.
“What do they expect us to use for materials?” the Chief demanded during the morning briefing.
“That.…we're working on, Chief,” Zeb replied. “Negotiations aren't going well,” the Veraxin admitted.
Captain Logan nodded. They were off to a rough start right out of the jump zone; Bertha had suffered an engineering casualty while in transit to the system. Fortunately no fatalities, but the two casualties had been placed in stasis. When the ships had exited hyper at the jump point, she'd been informed in a terse text message report from the Veraxin captain. Shelby had been involved in that investigation with Cynthia so she'd handed off the negotiations with the natives to her XO.