Chapter 2: The Executive Officer and Chief of Staff
Wilson was pondering a couple of appointments when the Queen came in unannounced. She had made a habit of touching base with Wilson either on the phone or in person if her schedule allowed once or twice a day. She could see the perplexed look on her subordinates face an asked. “What’s up?”
“I need to make a decision on a personnel appointment,” Wilson replied, “My chief of staff and XO.”
They had discussed this before and knew what part of Wilson’s problem. He wanted Mylea as his deputy. But he didn’t want to be accused of appointing only his friends to positions of high office. But she had seen how the two worked. They were almost of one mind, and she had seen Mylea reground him when he was going off on a tangent. The Queen had been given a very confidential briefing on Mylea. It had included all of her duty stations. She had been impressed. Mylea was no light weight. If it hadn’t been for the death of her life mate, she would have had been placed in command of all Military Police Units in the Thonian Armed Forces. The Trena Mounted Patrol had wanted to promote her to assistant chief of the department; but she had refused. She had been holding down the Third Watch Commander’s post for a couple of years and earned the respect of most if not all of her subordinates. She was a good administrator, and from all reports a good leader. She had been Wilson’s commander on several joint deployments. By all reports they were a well-oiled team that she had witnessed herself.
“Look, Sir Mike,” The young woman said, “why tear yourself apart over the decision. You know who your chief of staff should be. Mylea! Don’t worry about appearances.”
“It’s not really that your majesty,” Wilson replied, “every time we have worked together Mylea’s been the boss, and I’ve been her sergeant. Even here on Trena, she was a watch commander, and I a mere instructor at the police academy. She is still my superior officer. Now by the act of the crown I am boss and she is one of my subordinates. Sometimes that can cause problems.”
“I know,” The Queen commented, “but she has told me that on some of your deployments, you should have been the boss of those assignments, and if you hadn’t been an NCO you would have. Besides Michael, she respects you and knows how you think. This is going to be important when it starts getting tight. You need to have people who will obey you without question, and yet have enough moxie to say slow down and listen to me. Mylea’s your girl!”
Michael nodded, wrote a few notes on his pad, and said, “Computer. Announce the following appointment. Mylea Atomi, grade deputy marshal, rank; chief of staff and deputy commander Trena Evacuation Command, effective today.”
Mylea came in a little later, and put the announcement on the desk and said, “Thank you.”
“We’ll see how much you thank me in a couple of months.” Michael quipped. “Managing my staff may cause you to go nuts. More so as I start filling others in on it! Especially, the civilians!”
“We’ll make it work.” Mylea replied.
“I’m going to appoint Michelle Klond as our MO. That is if the princess will release her. Mercer will be the command’s Legal Officer. Lady Hawthorne will be the special projects coordinator. Langtree will be my engineer. I still need a flight Ops coordinator, I’m thinking about appoint Chief Able as my emergency services officer.”
“Janet’s a good choice.” Mylea replied, “She knows almost everyone in the EM community and is respected by most of the Fire Chiefs in the Trena Fire Department. They had big plans for her. She was being groomed to be assistant chief, and if she worked out she was going to be on the short list for chief of the department in ten fifteen years.”
“We need a logistics officer, and a media coordinator.” Wilson said, “Once we get these done we can get down to the business of getting our people off world.”
“General Langtree can act as your logi,” Mylea said, “He or Bob from Boeing.”
“No, Jonesy,” Mike said thinking about the AI that ran Boeings factory. That job was mostly logistics with some people management. Jonesy though, irrelevant, was good at both jobs. “Announce it.”
“Aye-aye skipper,” Mylea replied. Seeing her friend wince she continued, “Michael, we will make this work. You are the skipper. This isn’t really anything new. Look at it this way. Remember our first assignment. I was just out of the MP Command School and they sent me to Gregory. Their intention was for you knock the War School crap out of me and make me into an officer. I may have been the boss on paper but we both know that you ran that company. Nothing new!”
“Yeah Right,” Michael said remembering the deployment. “You didn’t turn out half bad for an officer!”
“I’ll get this stuff posted Mike,” Mylea replied and left the office.
Every Last Mother's Child Page 58