by O E Tearmann
"And, of course, what Blake knows on base gossip, everybody knows," Yvonne agreed pointedly.
"You handed him four million dollars when you showed up?" Aidan asked with an incredulous glance at Kevin. The taller man shrugged. "I had to get out fast. It was all I could grab."
"Look at Mr. Modest," Liza put in with a grin. "From what I hear, it was four million bucks plus half a dozen access codes for high speed 'net and a nice stack of medical supplies. You were loaded!"
Aidan set his mug down before he dropped it. "So, you guys already knew? Makes me kind of the idiot here, doesn't it?"
"Just the newcomer. He's the idiot," Damian added, pointing a fork at Kevin. "Actually thought we were stupid enough not to notice?"
"You never said anything," Kevin muttered, his pale skin flushing hotly as he focused on his breakfast.
"Commander Taylor told all us old hands, an' we kept an eye on you," Janice put in. "But you worked out real good, once you settled in an' I took a couple strips offa you. Pretty soon you was workin' Blake there into the ground, an' we knew we got a Duster. We let the kids know it when they got t'be specialists sos' they could watch your back an' watch what they said. It matter any where you come from?"
Kevin glanced up, half grinning and half chagrined. "So why the need for the years of idiotic charade?"
In answer, nearly everyone at the table chorused, "Taylor."
Lazarus provided a sheepish grin. "He wanted to see how long it'd take for you to come clean, you know? See if it mattered at all."
Kevin gave the table a comprehensive glare. "I hate you all right now, you know that."
"Dude, you freaked when we figured out you were into dick after you'd been here a whole freaking year," Lazarus remarked as he took a bite of his breakfast. "I mean you literally tried to punch me out. We figured if we said anything about anything else your system would crash."
Kevin raised an exaggerated brow. He was trying for one of his mock-haughty expressions, Aidan could tell, but there was a grin tugging at his lips.
"You know Lazarus, we should have you stuffed and mounted as a textbook example of the original horse's ass."
"Yeah, but then we'd be down a munitions officer," Aidan muttered with a glint in his own eye, now that he had wrapped his head around what was going on. "And I kind of like being able to blow shit up when we need to."
Kevin gave one of his showy, theatrical sighs. "I suppose I'll spare him then."
Laughing, the crew got down to breakfast.
Event File 41
File Tag: System Reboot
Timestamp:10-20-2155/ 10-23-2155
"And that's it?" Magnum asked.
"That's it," Aidan agreed, nodding to Tweak. She ducked her head in a nod, avoiding everyone's eyes.
Kevin watched her carefully as she stared at her feet. Now would really not be the time for one of her outbursts. After all, it was her work on show.
It had taken ages to get her to agree to go with them to present her new IR emitters and vid clips of their effects to the Sector Commander. Now that they were here and Tweak was standing hunch-shouldered and nervous, Kevin wondered if it had been such a good idea.
The dark man across the desk studied them for far too long once their presentation was done. Kevin forced his face to remain politely blank. He could see Aidan's knuckles whitening on his crossed arms, and forced down the urge to reach over and put a hand on Aidan's shoulder.
"All right," Magnum stated finally. "You're barracking here tonight and giving that speech again Wednesday at 6 in the evening. Message your base. You're going to need visuals of the schematics and parts lists, not just vids of the results." He nodded at Tweak. "And Miss Tweak? If you're going to speak, figure out how to do it more clearly."
"What audience will we be addressing, sir?" Kevin asked as deferentially as he could, trying to compensate for the way Tweak raised her eyes to glare at the man.
The Sector Commander glanced at him. "The Sector Technical officer and all the people in logistics and technical divisions that I can gather here with a day's notice, McIllian. You did want this anti-drone tech to get into general use, didn't you?"
Oh bloody hell, Kevin's mind whispered to itself. "Yes, sir," his mouth agreed.
Sector Commander Magnum nodded, parceling another one of his looks out between them.
"Mcillian. Tweak. Dismissed. Room 32 C and D are yours for the stay. Headly, with me for a minute," he stated eventually.
"We in trouble?" Tweak asked, dropping onto the cot in her borrowed room.
"Not yet," Kevin replied carefully, leaning against the wall by the door.
Tweak pulled out her tab, the device taking up both her small hands.
"I gonna have to talk? To people?"
"Probably," Kevin agreed, watching the door and willing it to open.
Tweak sighed. "I'm g-gonna f-f-fuck up."
The words finally kicked Kevin's brain back into gear. Turning his head, he blinked. "Tweak, you did perfectly well in there, even with Magnum staring at us like a dog eyeing a squirrel."
Tweak shrugged. "That was j-just the old d-dude and you g-guys. You g-guys don't scare me."
"That could have been worded better, but I take the point," Kevin rejoined dryly. Crossing his arms, he studied Tweak. "Does it help if you memorize the speech?"
"What's the M thing?" Tweak asked, staring at her tab, though she hadn't turned it on.
"Memorize. Know something well enough to remember it by heart," Kevin explained carefully.
Tweak considered his words, but shook her head. Her foot started to tap against the cot's upright. "P-people l-l-looking at me."
The door opened. Aidan stepped in like a street dog watching for animal control.
"What'd Magnum have to say?" Kevin asked, stepping in to close the door and take Aidan's hand.
Aidan gave him a weak smile. "Basically? He's trusting us, so we better not screw this up."
Tweak drew her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. Kevin caught Aidan's eye, raised his brow and nodded in her direction. He mimed an explosion with one hand. The line between Aidan's brows deepened.
Carefully, the blonde man took a seat near Tweak on the bed, just out of reach.
"You okay?"
Tweak shook her head.
"How come?" Aidan asked, and Kevin heard the gentleness in his voice that had cut through his own paralyzing terror not so long ago.
"P-p-p-people l-l-l… S-s-shit."
Tweak turned on her tab, brought up the screen with a flick and typed, letting both men read.
"There will be people looking at me, and I know I'm going to fuck up when people are staring at me. If this speech has to be good, make Kevin do it. "
"Gladly, but this isn't my area of expertise, Tweak. I won't be as good at talking about it as you are," Kevin added, rephrasing the statement in his addendum for her sake.
"Maybe if we practice today and tomorrow you won't be scared by Wednesday?" Aidan asked quietly. "Want to try?"
Slowly, warily, Tweak raised her head to meet his eyes. Finally, she nodded.
For the next two days, Kevin helped Tweak and Aidan polish the presentation. Tweak drew up schematics that could be presented. They practiced the speech, and Kevin discovered that Tweak didn't stutter nearly as badly when she was reading her text off her tab. It was when she had to look people in the face that she had problems.
Kevin wasn't sure if it was far too soon or not soon enough when the sun sank on Wednesday and the clock read 18:45. He and Aidan already pulled on dress uniforms borrowed from Sector stores, though Tweak had taken one look at the thing available in her size and sneered. At least she'd brushed her hair and agreed to cover her tank top and bandaged arms with a nice button down shirt. Thank God for small favors, Kevin told himself wryly.
"We'd best get along," he su
ggested. Both Tweak and Aidan glanced up, both pulled from their thoughts, both nervy.
Kevin drew in a calming breath. "Shall we?"
The hall buzzed with voices half heard through the briefing room door.
Behind the two men, Tweak froze. Kevin glanced over his shoulder and winced.
"Tweak, please don't-"
"Kev?" Aidan cut in quietly. "I got this."
Giving his hand a quick squeeze, Aidan stepped back to stand in front of his youngest specialist. Kevin held his breath.
"This is really gonna suck, hunh?" Aidan asked. Staring at her feet, the girl nodded.
Aidan made a noise of commiseration in the back of his throat. "If you think about it, you know nobody in there can touch you for skills, right?"
Tweak's lips quirked. Her head jerked in a tiny nod. "Yeah."
"So really, there's nobody to be scared of in there," Aidan murmured in that quiet, calming voice he was so good at using. "You can kick all their asses. Right?"
Finally, Tweak raised her head and gave him a tiny smile. "Yeah."
"So let's go do it." Aidan murmured. Stepping forward, he opened the door and held it for her. Kevin waited to bring up the rear.
Twenty minutes later, Kevin let out the breath he felt like he'd been holding for two days.
"And that concludes your team's remarks, Commander Headly?" Magnum asked across the room. Aidan nodded.
"Yes sir."
On the other side of the holo-screen set on the floor, Kevin watched Tweak with a fair amount of satisfaction.
She'd done well reading off her tab and keeping her eyes focused on the holo as she brought up specific points on the schematics. The room full of technical officers and logistics officers were nodding to one another, watching the three of them with interest.
She'd really pulled it off.
Between them, the holo-screen juddered and flickered. Tweak gently kicked the emitter by her foot. The image of her large and small IR code emitter prototypes settled into place, screens with their schematics and supply lists rotating like satellites.
Magnum turned in his chair to survey his cramped room of technical officers. The heavy, dark face was as inscrutable as it had ever been, but Kevin had a sneaking suspicion that Magnum was repressing a smile.
"Officers. Questions?"
"How many tests have been run to date?"
"Six. Two f-first day, on d-d-delivery d-drones. Two on v-v-v-v-…" Tweak shot Kevin a 'help me out here?' look. He gave her a quick nod.
"Two tests were completed on ViperDrones themselves, using the handheld model on an unmanned bike parked with its slick tech disengaged," he began. "We've run three tests on bases, one at our own after the hailstorm two months ago. The others were performed to supplement or replace a slick tarp on base 1401 and base 1320 until they could be repaired. I want to stress at this juncture that the emitters are only effective on low flying surveillance drones. They won't have any effect on satellite reads, so this isn't our Holy Grail. I'd recommend treating it as a supplement to slick tech as well as a new tool in our arsenal. At the present time, we can instruct drones to believe they're reading innocuous signals and pass a target by, to believe they're damaged and land for repairs, to believe their sensors are offline or to believe they've been summoned back to their point of origin. Our repertoire will grow as we uncover more command prompts that work. The caveat on this idea is that, if we get slipshod, one of the Corps is going to sort out what we're doing and find ways to counter it, which is why I have to stress that this is a special-use tool and not a Swiss army knife."
A polite chuckle ran through the room.
"What's the range?" another officer called.
For the next twenty minutes, the three of them fielded questions and debated points. Tweak became surprisingly eloquent on the use of substitute parts for her original list.
And then there were no more questions and no more hands raised.
Slowly, Magnum stood. He studied the holos for what felt like a geologic age. Then he turned to the assembled crowd.
"All right. I want everyone implementing this as soon as the Winter Holiday is over. Go home, have your break and then get to work on this."
"Sir!" the men and women in the room agreed en masse. Magnum acknowledged them with a nod.
"And while we're all together, one more thing." Turning, the bigger man faced Aidan. Kevin watched as his boyfriend very subtly leaned back on his heels, trying not to wince in sympathy.
But Aidan didn't take a step back, and he didn't flinch.
"Commander Headly?" Magnum intoned.
"Sir?" Aidan asked, and Kevin had to force down the urge to step across the space between them.
"Your base has been formally commended by Regional Command for sterling work on a technology that will tangibly aid the Force."
The screen flickered to an image of an award.
"Furthermore," the big man added. "I'd like to formally congratulate Base 1407 for returning to and exceeding the high standard of work it was known for before its loss of leadership. Well done."
One of the sector commander's wide, dark hands clapped Aidan on the back, the other enfolded Aidan's for shaking. Magnum passed by Tweak with a smile and shook Kevin's hand. He was too poleaxed to do anything but shake hands and smile like an idiot.
Behind them, the officers in the room clapped.
"Did you know he was going to do that?" Kevin asked when the three of them had climbed back into their truck and were rattling home.
"No freaking idea," Aidan replied, wide eyes on the road. "All he said to me beforehand was 'don't screw it up on Wednesday'."
Kevin grinned, shaking his head. "Quintessential Magnum." Catching Aidan's eye, he couldn't help but laugh.
"So." Tweak asked from the back seat, "We're okay? We did good?"
Aidan glanced in the rearview mirror for a moment, still grinning. "Yeah Tweak. We did good. We did really, really good. That thing, the commendation? It means everybody's saying in public that we did a great job on something."
"The cash bonus for the base is a nice sign of gratitude as well of course." Kevin added, and Aidan chuckled. "Yeah. Blake'll be happy."
"He quit bitching 'bout costs?" Tweak asked.
Kevin shook his head. "I don't think that's physically possible, unfortunately. Blake was born irritated. I should know, I trained under him long enough."
Leaning back, he crossed his legs and closed his eyes, grinning so widely that his face ached. In eight months, they'd gone from being under threat of disbanding to a regional commendation.
How had that happened?
But he knew the answer to that. Aidan.
Opening his eyes, he watched Aidan as he drove.
This gorgeous, complicated man who had so much going on inside him had yanked them all back together. He'd brought out the best in every one of them with his quiet manner. Some days, Kevin still couldn't believe it had happened.
Aidan glanced at him then and smiled, and the world was perfect.
"Hey. Guys. G-googly eyes later," Tweak's voice commanded from the back seat. "Watch the d-d-driving."
Kevin turned in his seat to give Tweak a dry stare. "You have no romance in your soul."
"Good." Tweak snapped back, "C-can't make me s-s-s-stupid l-like you." She gave him a ridiculously cheesy grin. He rolled his eyes and dropped back into his seat.
When they rattled into base, it was long after dinner. Only a few night owls were in the rec room, and only Janice was crazy enough to still be working.
"We'll tell the crew about it in the morning," Aidan remarked, repressing a yawn. "Hit the sack, Tweak."
"Roger," Tweak agreed, walking down the hall.
Kevin watched her with a smile. "She's got a spring in her step."
"She did kind of do something amazing," Aidan admitted, yawning now that Kevin w
as the only one watching him.
Kevin chuckled, putting an arm around Aidan's waist. "Yes, she didn't utterly mortify us in public this time. By the way, she's not the only one who needs to hit the sack. Come on."
He fell asleep listening to Aidan's heartbeat.
It took some time before the entire crew filed in for breakfast, and by the time they'd all sat down, the morning larks had at least five conversations going at once.
"Now, you think?" Aidan asked quietly under the racket.
Kevin glanced around the room. "Mm, well Jim's eyes are open and Janice is up to the caffeine level of speaking with civility, I'd say now's best." Under the table, he gave Aidan's hand a quick squeeze.
Aidan smiled as he stood. Kevin watched him as he walked to the head of the main table. "Hey, guys?"
A few people looked up, but most of the conversations went on unabated.
Janice raised her head lazily, spearing her reconstituted eggs. Looking down the table, she caught Kevin's eye and smirked. Then she opened her mouth. "Hey jackasses! Commander's talking!"
The room went silent.
Aidan cleared his throat. "Um, thanks, Janice."
"I think I'm deaf," Lazarus whispered, then yelped as Sarah, Kevin assumed, kicked him under the table.
"So, I've got an announcement," Aidan continued, holding his tab in both hands. Setting it down on the table, he flicked on his screen and enlarged it. "This happened."
The regional commendation floated in the air. Beside it, Aidan brought up a notice Kevin hadn't seen.
Review Conclusions: Base 1407
It is suggested by this Sector that, in the light of Base 1407's exemplary work, they should be regarded as returned to full-function. The conclusion has been reached that the detriments related to close bonding between members of a stable base are outweighed by the impressive level of coordination and dedication presented by a functional base trained in this mode of operation.