Wolves at the Gate (Star Wolf Squadron Book 3)

by Shane VanAulen

  “No, that’s not an option,” he got out as he cleared his throat,

  “Why not? She has to be concerned with the security of this system and of her starbase?” Mike inquired.

  “She is a pre-war flag officer, who was an admiral’s aide and later his chief of staff,” Hemmings explained and continued, “most of her experience is at starbases and she has minimal ship time.”

  “So, she wouldn’t listen to reason?”

  “Worse, she is Commodore Essex’s older half-sister,” he revealed.

  Mike wanted to scream but instead just shook his head in disgust.

  “How does that happen?”

  “Yancy is well connected both politically and with senior officers from before the war. She has used those connections not only for her own advancement but also for her brother’s.”

  “And what did he ever do to become a flag officer?”

  “From what I’ve found out was that he was pretty much a desk officer until the war started. He has been in three battles as a ship captain. All of those battles were fleet actions and in only one battle did his ship fire on an enemy ship. To hear him talk about it, it was a hard-fought ship to ship victory,” Commander Hemmings said.

  “But?” Collins prompted.

  “But I bumped into a chief petty officer who was on his ship during the Battle of Capri Seven. He told me that the Karduan destroyer was already badly damaged and had lost power. It was basically floating by their position when they finally engaged and fired on the destroyer.”

  “That’s all you need to be the commander of an Attack Fleet?” Mike said in outrage.

  “Yep, and have powerful friends in high places,” the XO agreed and added, “he really did make the most of that destroyer even billing himself as the Hero of Capri Seven.”

  “So, skilled and combat proven officers like Hope and Kirkland are retired and passed over for a desk jockey!”

  “Not the first time or the last. It is hard sometimes transitioning from a peacetime service to a warfighting force,” Hemmings commented with a sigh looking away for a moment.

  “Yes sir,” Mike replied not happy with all of this recent information.

  “What about you? How are you settling in? How’s your schedule?” the commander asked changing the subject.

  “Fine, working hard,” he answered keeping it brief.

  “Yes, besides your classes, your regular duty shift, and your additional duties you don’t seem to have much time left,” the senior officer commented.

  “It’s gotten easier now that the ship orientation classes are over,” Mike replied.

  “Still, it seems that in the two weeks that you’ve been here you haven’t had a day off?”

  The young ensign shrugged, “I keep getting duty orders and it seems any request for normal time off or leave have been denied. I’ve also been blocked from going to the starbase or to the nearby planet.”

  “Yes, Lt. Commander Humber reported this to me as she couldn’t find out what was going on. I’ll look into it and I’ll at least get you a normal duty rotation.”

  Mike let out a sigh, “You won’t have to look very far, just start at the Commodore’s office and his dog robber.”

  “Just keep your cool and do your job to the best of your ability. Don’t give them anything to use and they will eventually move on,” Hemmings said standing up and moving to the bulkhead to leave.

  “Yes, sir,” Collins said and nodded while thinking that his advice sounded a lot like that of Commander Hunter’s.

  The Commander smiled and nodded his head once before he left.

  Lt. Collins’ duty shift with his maintenance team started a little differently than normal. Today was their day to spend half of their shift doing maintenance on the janitorial robots and automated floor cleaners. It was messy work but his team seemed to be in a good mood. He saw that part of it was because of their repair droid and robot. There were three duty shifts with four teams each to the Leper Colony section. Mike had gotten each team a repair droid and an older repair robot.

  Since the teams had received their droids with their robotic helpers their lives had gotten a little easier. Today was no exception as the maintenance of the janitorial robots was going much faster. Mike still had two repair droids and the Med-Bot back at the Salvage, Parts and Repair Office. He was also hoping to get another chassis to put another droid together.

  The other reason he had to guess about because it seemed that over the last few days more people seemed to recognize him. He had to assume that they and his maintenance team had seen the vids of the Star Wolf’s actions. In truth, he hadn’t even seen them himself not needing to be reminded by them. He tried not to think about the vid crystals and when he did he hoped they would do what Captain Hope and Commander Hemmings hoped they would do and motivate people to action.

  Over the next week, it was mostly the same for Ensign Michael Collins. The one exception to his hectic schedule was that he started receiving emergency response call during the few hours he had to sleep. He worked the third shift and slept during the late afternoons. The first time he got an emergency maintenance call he couldn’t believe it as there were four maintenance teams on duty for his section beside other engineering and repair teams available. Nonetheless, he had to answer the order and call his team together.

  The emergency was with a food processor unit in one of the mess halls. It was a minor repair that any team could have fixed in a half-hour or less. Needless to say, his team wasn’t happy at being awoken from their beds.

  During the next few days, he received an emergency repair order every sleep cycle. This time he didn’t make the same mistake again and instead of waking his team he went and checked out the emergency himself. If he could repair it by himself he did. Only on two occasions did he need help but instead of calling for his team members he summoned the two repair droids from the Salvage Office.

  He knew what was going on, it was another attempt to mess with him and beat him down. He wanted to ask Pallas where the orders were coming from but he already knew it was more of the same from Granny Essex and Lt. Bitch. You’d think they had better things to do than this but maybe the release of Star Wolf’s vids had gotten back to them and they weren’t happy.

  At the end of his third week, he was tired despite being genetically altered. He was trying to get used to his new schedule and even planned to be disturbed during his sleep cycle. The good news was that Commander Hemmings had gotten him a weekend off which he was looking forward to but it was not to be.

  While working in the Salvage, Parts and Repair Office he was tinkering with the old Med-Bot trying to get a more modern diagnostic program to load into its old CPU. He and Petty Officer Schmidt were very surprised when four military police officers entered the office. They were in full combat armor with gauss pistols and stun batons. They weren’t alone as a certain Lt. Friar had accompanied inside.

  “What can we do for you, Lieutenant?” Mike asked looking up from the Med-Bot.

  “Maybe you need some spare parts?” Schmidt trying to sound innocent but thinking that what she really needed was a new heart.

  She ignored the petty officer and looked to the ensign.

  “Mister Collins, you are hereby placed under arrest,” she announced as the MPs moved to grab him and pull him from his seat.

  Mike didn’t resist as there was no sense in doing so.

  “May I ask what the charges are?”

  “No,” she replied and proceeded to read him his rights under the Uniform Code of Military Justice or UCMJ.

  Schmidty looked at him but he subtly shook his head no.

  The MPs then took him to the brig and tossed him into a holding cell. One of them whispered, “Sorry,” as he locked him in.

  Mike settled in on the sole bunk and decided to get caught up on some of the sleep that he had been lacking. Closing his eyes, he quickly fell asleep.

  Chapter Five

  Mike awoke to the sound of his cell’s
door sliding open. Two MPs entered his cell as he yawned and sat up.

  “How long?’ he asked.

  “Nine hours, sir,” one of the Military Police officers answered.

  “Best sleep I’ve had in three weeks,” Collins remarked in all honesty.

  One of the MPs smiled.

  “You’ll have to come with us, sir,” his partner said.

  Mike nodded, swung his legs off the bunk and stood up.

  “So, am I to be shot at dawn or do I get to walk the plank?” he inquired.

  “We are to take you to Conference Room 1A,” the first MP said.

  “There you will face a Captain’s Mast,” the second explained not sounding happy about it.

  Collins shrugged in response, “Well, I’ve been half expecting them to come up with something ever since I delivered Admiral Egbert Norton-Underhill’s orders to them.”

  The MPs lead him through the ship taking him up to command deck. The route was through most of the main arteries of the ship and crewmen stopped to see who was being escorted by heavily armed military police officers.

  Some of the onlookers shook their heads or made a face. Mike was unsure if he was the target of their disgust or if it was for the person who had ordered his arrest?

  Reaching the conference room on Deck 1, he was walked into a room full of top brass. The room was set up with the normal seating moved to the side walls and out of the way. This left a large empty space between the long table on the far wall from the door.

  The table was a different story as it was completely crowded with people sitting on the other side of its long surface. Behind the center of the table sat Commodore Essex, on his left was Captain LaFevers and on his right side was his sister, Rear Admiral Yancy. On either end of the table were Lt. Friar and Commander Hemmings.

  Mike was only surprised that the admiral was there while everyone else was expected including Commander Hemmings as he was the ship’s executive officer and would be present as a witness to the proceedings.

  He came to attention, presented a crisp salute and held it until the ship’s Captain returned it.

  There was a small silver bell on the table in front of Captain LaFevers. He picked up a small rod and tapped the bell twice three times.

  “This Captain’s Mast is now convened,” he said and turned to his left, “Let the record show that Lt. Linda Friar will be acting as Master of Arms.”

  “I request Judge Advocate General representation,” Mike stated wanting a military lawyer present.

  “A JAG officer is not required at a Captain’s Mast,” LaFevers stated wiping his bald head with a handkerchief.

  “This is not a trial but a hearing of possible misconduct on your part,” Commander Hemmings explained as this was a non-judicial punishment proceeding.

  “He has already been read his rights, so let’s get on with this,” Commodore Essex declared sounding annoyed to have this take up so much of his valuable time.

  “I have to agree with the Commodore, let’s move this along,” Admiral Yancy added breaking her silence.

  Lt. Friar took over at that point reading from a palm pad.

  “Ensign Michael Collins, you are hereby suspected of committing the following violations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Noncompliance with procedural rules, misappropriation of equipment, and failure to obey an order or regulation. You do not have to make a statement to the charges you are suspected of committing. Any statement made by you may be used as evidence against you at a later date. You are advised that a Captain’s Mast is not a trial and that determination of misconduct is not a conviction by a court. The formal rules of evidence used by court-martial in trials do not apply in a Captain’s Mast.”

  “Am I allowed to address these accusations?” Mike inquired scanning the faces of the board.

  “Yes, but only if you give up your right to remain silent,” Captain LaFevers answered.

  “Any statement or testimony you make could be used at a later court-martial trial,” Hemmings added trying to warn his godson.

  Mike nodded thinking that either you give up your right to remain silent or quietly take whatever non-judicial punishment they want to give you.

  “I waive my right to remain silent,” he stated.

  “Good, let’s address the first two charges as they are related. Noncompliance with procedural rules, and misappropriation of equipment,” LaFevers said and then looked to the Commodore’s dog robber.

  “It has come to this ship’s command staff’s attention that you have misappropriated several repair droids without authorization and have redistributed them for your own advantage,” Lt. Friar stated.

  “Would you like to explain yourself, Ensign?” the Captain asked.

  “Yes sir,” Collins replied without hesitation knowing that this was not something worthy of a Captain’s Mast.

  “Excellent, so please tell us how four repair droids managed to be given to the maintenance teams specifically to the Engineering Maintenance teams which you are a team leader of?” LaFevers pressed.

  “Well as an additional duty, besides taking the officer basic course, ship orientation class and being a team leader for the Engineering and Maintenance Section, I’m the officer in charge of the Salvage, Parts and Repair Office on Deck 12 Annex D. When I took over, there was only one overworked petty officer working there trying to simply strip and categories defective droids and as well as other tech that was being sent to him. He was doing a good job but the place needed organization and was overflowing with parts.”

  “What does this have to do with you stealing droids?” Commodore Essex demanded sounding irritated.

  Mike continued ignoring him.

  “As I was saying, while we were organizing the workroom I discovered several advanced repair droids that had been redlined and marked as terminated for parts by the Robotic Maintenance Section. We have to run a diagnostic to determine useable parts and when we did I found that several units only needed some minor repairs to be made usable again.”

  “And that is when you decided to take them for yourself!” Essex declared with self-important pride as if he had solved the mystery and had gotten the criminal to admit his guilt.

  “No sir, we sent one of the fixed droids back to the Robotics Maintenance Section and they then sent it back to us still marking it as dead. By that time, I had repaired four other droid units and had also found enough old parts to repair four old Type-Two repair robots,” Mike informed and paused waiting to be interrupted again.

  After a few seconds Commander Hemmings prompted him, “Please continue, what did you do next?”

  “I put the droids to work helping to organize the salvage and parts room. I then went on to do a little research on what I could do with these droids. Using the ship’s Table of Organization and Equipment, I had the computer identify what sections that were supposed to have repair droids assigned to them but didn’t. It turned out that the Engineering and Maintenance Section was supposed to have a minimum of eight repair droids as part of their TO&E. No other department was so woefully lacking. I then assigned the four droids and the four repair robots to those teams. The robots were no longer on any ship records or inventory lists so they were a bonus. I also slaved them to the repair droids to assist them in repair and maintenance operations,” Mike explained.

  “I think that was an excellent and inspired idea which I’m sure will help with ship efficiency,” Cmdr. Hemmings commented earning him a glare from the Commodore.

  “Yes, all well and good but who gave you the authority to make such decisions to repair equipment marked for parts, make transfers and dictate who gets what?” the ship’s captain asked.

  “Well sir, you did,” Mike declared.

  “What? Explain yourself Mister Collins!” LaFevers demanded in anger.

  “Sir, it probably wasn’t you directly but whoever assigned me as Officer-In-Charge of the Salvage, Parts and Repair Office as an additional duty,” he said and looked to Commodore E
ssex for a second before he continued, “Under the office’s mission statement as OIC I can repair as well as salvage units for parts. Per that venue, the repair droids being made operational was perfectly in line with the job of that office.”

  “What about you assigning them to your own teams! You don’t have that authority!” Essex blurted out turning sideways a little in his chair.

  “Sir, I followed the protocols set by the office’s guidelines and as I stated earlier I determined that Engineering Maintenance Teams were the most lacking in repair droids having none. I then applied for an equipment transfer order. Once I received the order I transferred the droids to the four maintenance teams. I’m also happy to report that maintenance efficiency is up by twenty percent as well as team morale,” he concluded trying hard not smile.

  “And who approved these transfers?” LaFevers questioned.

  “Sir, transfers at this level are fairly minor and common, and are handled by the ship’s central computer,” Collins informed.

  Commander Hemmings quickly looked to the ceiling, “Pallas, have you been monitoring these proceedings?”

  “Yes, Commander,” Pallas replied its voice sounding around them.

  “Were these droid transfers handled appropriately and according to regulations,” Hemmings asked.

  “All transfers were in accordance with ship procedures,” the A.I announced.

  “Why weren’t we informed of this?” Commodore Essex queried.

  “All command officers were notified in the ship’s weekly status report, page 27 paragraph eight,” the Battle Carrier reported.

  “Thank you, Pallas,” Hemmings said while turning and looking down the table at the other senior officers. “I believe that we should drop this matter as no misconduct has been committed.”

  “I agree, this has all been a wild goose chase and a waste of our time,” Admiral Yancy said turning her narrow face towards her half-brother as it made a sour expression.

  “Very well, we will drop this matter about the droids but we still have one other issue to deal with,” Essex said and looked to Captain LaFevers to continue.