“Brevet promotions, Captain Hall, are for the convenience of the Fleet, to put capable individuals into a position where those individuals can do the most good. I submit, Captain, that if you were to brevet me ensign, my date of rank would be whatever day the brevet became effective.
“And let’s face it, Captain. They are going to interfere with your mission, because you don't have a single watch-qualified officer aboard. I would bring that with me, killing that objection instantly.”
“And you would outrank me; I'm sorry, Commander. I won't agree to that.”
“I would be an ensign,” the commander said patiently. “I am totally at your mercy. Do you know what happens to my career if you don't recommend my permanent appointment with a notation that I appear fit for higher rank?”
“It seems to me that it wouldn't matter.”
“Captain, I killed a rear admiral. Sure, most of the rear admirals in the Fleet understand -- but there is a solid minority who will never forgive me... and, like the two admirals on Bridges, they are terrified that I will decide that they don't measure up and have them set aside, and eventually shot.”
“Like what happened at New Cairo,” the gunny interjected. “A billion people died for that mistake.”
Commander Roeser nodded. “Captain, I give you my most solemn oath: the only way I would ever attempt to take command of Pixie will be if you and Ensign Rhodes are dead or incapacitated. I just want out of here -- you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours. I'll give you a triple-x qualified watchkeeper and a certified I-branch officer on top of that. I'll be your most junior officer and I will never, ever complain or seek to rise above my station.”
Chief Galen, on the communications console, spoke up. “Captain, the Port Admiral here wants to talk to you. Admiral Swanson says it's important.”
“Commander, give me a few moments,” Captain Hall told him.
She turned and nodded at Galen who brought up easily the most corpulent Port admiral that she had ever seen. “Admiral, sir. We need a new senior petty officer, preferably multi-skilled.”
The admiral's eyes furrowed; she had wanted to speak first, but Irene Hall had beaten her to it.
“You are in no position to make demands, Lieutenant. Your status is highly irregular. You aren't qualified to command such a vessel. We are going to have to take this under advisement.”
“Admiral, sir. Obviously, I can't give you orders. However, I beg that you check our order authority. I believe that before we left their content was changed to most emphatically state that this crew is fit for their duties and wasn't to be delayed or obstructed.”
“Are you threatening me?” the admiral's eyes gleamed with triumph.
“Of course not, Admiral. I'm just suggesting that you might wish to consider the butter-side of contradicting that authority.”
“You are threatening me! You get yourself down here at once! Bring the rest of your crew!”
“Admiral, we've passed on our message. I am not at liberty to divert my mission on the whim of a Port admiral; none are in my chain of command. If you can, you can supply me another body, or, failing that, we'll continue our mission.”
“And I'm giving you a direct order: shuttle down at once.”
“Admiral, I would like to request a particular individual. I feel that it would be useful to have some I-branch skills that we currently lack; an individual with other skills would be very valuable. It would like to brevet Tin Tin Roeser ensign, and appoint him Third Officer of the Pixie.”
“You would, eh?” the admiral's eyes had gone from angry to speculative.
The screen flicked off; something that was just about never done in the Fleet.
The gunny laughed. “I guess you don't need to learn much about poker that you don't already know, Captain! Five to one the admiral tells you he'll be up shortly.”
Captain Hall shook her head. “No bet. Someone on Admiral Swanson's staff is going to remind her of the serious downsides of attempting to obstruct Fleet priority missions. The first two admirals who did that were railroaded out of the Fleet. All know that these days, they'd be shot out of hand.” She waved at the screen where the admiral had been a moment before. “Either that Portie admiral's staff is trying to kill her, or she's a good candidate for being shot.”
“Admiral Swanson again, Captain,” Chief Galen intoned, and the screen was back.
“A shuttle will depart from Bridges within the hour. Your named individual will be aboard. I am filing a complaint against you, Lieutenant Hall, with the appropriate authorities.”
Cindy was startled when the gunny spoke up. “Did you research this crew, Admiral?”
The admiral sniffed. “Marines should be seen and not heard.”
The gunny chuckled. “No doubt. As a courtesy, Admiral, I'll copy you on my official report about this incident. I hate to report on someone behind their back.”
“You're a sergeant, and insubordinate!”
“I am a Master Gunny, Admiral. We're weird beasts, sort of like Tin Tin Roeser has discovered -- we're whatever we want to be. You should check with your BuPers people about the particular perks that accrue to a master gunny. And I do suggest you check my public history. Good day, Admiral.”
With that he lapsed into silence, while the admiral, once again, rudely disconnected.
Captain Hall turned to him. “What do you mean you can be whatever you want to be?”
“Master gunnies serve at the wishes of the Fleet. Most of us could be retired at the stroke of a pen. However, we hold the proper certificates to hold any rank from Marine gunnery sergeant to Marine major, as the needs of the Fleet require.”
Captain Hall sighed. “So, I'm going to have two people who outrank me aboard. This is just so wonderful!”
“Captain Hall, there will be none who outrank you aboard. I am legally a gunnery sergeant; I can't change my rank -- for that matter, unless you are the Marine Commandant, you can't either. Tin Tin Roeser will be the same thing. Sure, the ranks are a legal fiction, but that doesn't stop them from being real enough.”
Cindy had, in the meantime, asked Pixie about the gunny. Her eyes widened as she heard that he'd been aboard Starfarer's Dream at the start of the war; he'd accompanied William Travers and Willow Wolf on their first combat patrol, although he'd parted company with them after their first battle.
Captain Hall shook her head. “Chief Shinzu, prepare to accept a shuttle dock. Chief Parminter, please be ready at once for a transfer down to Bridges at once.”
The chief shrugged. “To be honest, Captain, I've had a lot of chances to think in the last few weeks. I understand why I have to go. I just wish I was going someplace where I might be of some use.” He waved down towards the planet. “I have a bad feeling about this.”
“Good luck, Chief Parminter,” Cindy said. He looked at her and grimaced.
“I've made my own,” he told her. “Good luck yourselves.”
An hour later Cindy once again piloted Pixie out of orbit at Bridges and calculated the transition to High Fan.
*** ** ***
They settled down to the routine of rotating watches once again, and except for Tin Tin Roeser replacing the gunny as a watch commander, there seemed to be no change for the first few days.
For Cindy it was a return to class work. More and more she was getting frustrated. Most of what she had to learn was math, and she'd had only the most cursory math courses before she'd demonstrated in front of Admiral Nagoya's house. She'd tried to bite off as much as she could, but had to dial it back, because all math, all the time, made for very dull reading.
Electronics was more interesting, and she could at least understand the higher level concepts even if the lower levels required more math than she had. Sensors and communications were just applications of electronics and those made even more sense.
However navigation and the engineering fields remained intractable without more math than what she understood. Then, one day the gunny decided to make life
more interesting for the rest of them, and he had all of the off watch crew report to him in the gym.
The gym, compared to what they'd had on Rome was tiny, but still practical. “You will all learn self defense. If you can prove to me that you have an adequate skill set, you'll be excused. Master Chief Shinzu, you first.”
He looked at her. The master chief had promptly gone into a fighting crouch and he smiled broadly. “One of the first things you need to learn is how to fall. Let me demonstrate.” He walked towards Shinzu and she promptly dumped him on the ground.
“As you should have noticed, I used my arm to break my fall, further breaking the impact by rolling. That's the two-step you have to learn -- break the fall and then roll away. Now, I will demonstrate on the master chief.”
He advanced towards her, and a second later the master chief flew through the air, doing a quarter spin, landing on her back. She slapped the practice mat when she landed and bounced back on her feet.
The gunny advanced on the master chief again, this time planting a foot in her stomach and lofting her up in the air as he rolled backwards.
Cindy wasn't sure what Shinzu did, but she seemed to tuck in tight, and instead of a 180 degree spin, did one of two hundred seventy degrees, landing on her feet. She bounced up, using her feet and caught the gunny in the stomach, pushing him over backwards on his bottom. He kept rolling, coming up to his feet, immediately going into a fighting stance.
“As you can see, there are a lot of possible combinations in self defense,” he said in measured tones. “But still, as Ensign Rhodes is learning, like any skill, you have to learn the building blocks. In self defense, first you learn to fall, and then you learn to block, then punch and finally kick. I'll give you a good going over... er, background on all of that. Master Chief, you are, however, excused.”
At the end of the session Cindy was limping and she went and flopped on her bed, hoping that a nap would help before she had to go on watch. Chief Shinzu appeared and grinned. “I don't ever recall seeing you lolly-gagging before, Cindy.”
“That was because I've never been beaten black and blue before. My back hurts, my legs hurt, my arms hurt...”
“And your head?”
“I kept that out of the line of fire. My bottom though, got more than its fair share.”
The master chief nodded. “That has to be your first priority. If you learned nothing else today, that is a good start. Now please, roll over on your face.”
Cindy looked at her. “And then what?”
“And then I will use some of the ancient arts to remove some of the pain. Trust me, Cindy, this is therapeutic, not romantic. When I finish, while you will feel much better, you won't be feeling the least romantic.”
Cindy rolled over and for the next fifteen minutes, Shinzu pushed and prodded her back, arms and legs. Before Cindy was quite aware of it, she was asleep.
She was only a little battered when she went on watch, and no longer walking with a limp. After a bit, Chief Shinzu showed up bringing her a sandwich, and Cindy promptly tore into it. “Thank you, Shinzu.”
“No problem, Cindy. Before long, I'll teach you some of that, so when the gunny decides on some payback, I'll be ready to deal with the pain.”
“He wouldn't!” Cindy said firmly.
“Sure he would! He will! Trust me on this! Something will come along that seems innocent enough, and then... bang! He will demonstrate the superior upper body strength of men. I have already prepared my counter attack.”
“Counter attack?”
“Once I knew who he was, I checked the records. He used to spar with Willow Wolf... Captain Wolf is one of the few women who have similar upper body strength to men. She used to regularly pummel him. I need but to mention her name and he will apologize.”
“And an apology will make up for pain?” Cindy asked.
“He is a proud man, Cindy. I am good, but I could only beat him in a fair fight if I had a good day, he had a bad one, if he was unlucky and I wasn't. That only happens on HDD. However, I know something he doesn't, I'm pretty sure, and if that's the case, perhaps I can get him again.”
“Why?”
She laughed. “Counting coup, Cindy! Rim Runners are terrible when it comes to one-upmanship.”
Chief Galen laughed. “She is right, Cindy. On my first war cruise, two very unlikely people decided to move in together; we were all happy for the both of them. The captain, though -- one of them was his niece, and what he did was double their bunk space.”
“And that was funny?”
Chief Shinzu laughed. “I know that story! He added another bunk bed, stacking it on top of the first bunk.”
Chief Galen nodded. “They lived happily ever after, so far as I know. I stayed on Shenandoah until we came back from First Rome and then I went to teach communication procedures at the Gagarin School on Helvetia. After that a stint on the Picket Force. After that... I was ready for something more sedentary.”
“And you picked this?” Chief Shinzu said with a laugh.
“We're either going to sit on our cans for two years, or we're going to be hunted down and destroyed... probably quickly. I've got my fingers crossed about what happens.”
The next day, during the day watch, Captain Hall called the watch commanders and the master gunny to the bridge. “We need,” she told them, “to think about tactics for when we are deployed. I don't think we should just wait until Fleet says, 'Do this' or 'Do that.' I think it would redound to our credit if we at least had some suggestions.
“So, watch commanders: at the start of your next watch, brief your people on the challenge. A week from tomorrow I want results... even if you think the idea is stupid, but it's the best you've got, let’s hear it. It's pretty clear that there is a lot of unexplored country out there.”
“If I may, Captain,” Tin Tin Roeser asked. “I've been going over the reports from the Big Battle and I've noted some interesting things. I'd like a time where I can brief everyone on the crew at once. The more eyes and brains we've got thinking on this material, the better.”
“Even if none of us have any I-Branch experience?” Irene asked.
“Well, several of the POs have some training in the area. I do have an advanced certificate in Intelligence Operations, but it was mostly how to read intelligence summaries. I think it would be useful, Captain.”
“Well, Ensign, in that case I'd like you to give me the benefit of your thinking ahead of the others. I want a chance to chew on it as well.”
“Of course, Captain. As in everything, all of this is subject to your concurrence.”
“Well, I certainly concur with basic premise.” Irene looked at the others. “Ensign Rhodes, you remain. The rest of you may resume your day.”
The captain waved Cindy to a seat. “Chief Shinzu said you had a question.”
“I want to write a report.”
Captain Hall smiled. “When I was your age, the one thing I hated the most was writing reports. Here I am, ten years later, writing reports nearly every day.”
“Yes, sir. This one... I'm not sure if it's my place.”
“What is your topic?”
“The criminal incompetence of my schooling. We are two plus years into a war where the fate of the entire human race's existence is at stake. I've had a terrible time with the math I have to learn. I'm not stupid -- it's just that it's a vast subject area and what I've learned to date doesn't qualify as 'education.' Only students on the technical track had much math -- and there were less than thirty such in my school of more than two thousand.”
Cindy looked at her boss. “Captain, there are times when I'm so frustrated that I want to scream. The thought that there might be only two dozen of my peers fit to even start down the path to becoming Fleet officers -- that's not right. It's simply not right. They're pulling their weight -- the rest of my classmates aren't. We can't afford it.”
“I'm a Rim Runner; our schools teach what people need to know. I have to admit, that
I was surprised by your lack of preparation; I thought it was just an isolated example. Yet, you were a student a Maunalua High; you'd think that if there was ever a place on Earth that demanded high standards that would be it. If they don't...”
Captain Hall shook her head. “Write your report. I'll read it; that's my job. I promise you that no matter what my personal opinion of the quality of your work is, that I will pass it on when we get to Adobe. There... well, it'll be out of my hands. You understand that I'm going to endorse it with my own opinion, right?”
“I understand that's how it's done.”
“And I will do it.
“One last thing, of a personal note. Tomorrow Ensign Roeser will be moving in with me.”
Cindy grinned. “He fascinates me; I don't know why.”
“Charisma, I think. It's why a bridge full of officers and NCOs of the Fleet decided to obey his orders and not their admiral's. You look into his eyes and... I can't describe it.”
“It's not for me to comment on your personal life, Captain,” Cindy said. “So, well, just so you know: good for you!”
Her captain barked a laugh. “And you, Cindy? How are things between you and Shinzu?”
“After Gunny Hodges beats us up, she rubs my back. I wake up in time for my watch. I have no idea.”
“Cindy, I don't know anything about the aliens, but I do know about people. Each of us is capable of deeds and thoughts of towering brilliance and greatness. But when you put us together in groups... the best of us are far, far more than the sum of our parts.
“In nearly every form of human endeavor, some individuals excel, but when we work together -- there is some magic, some sort of mystical chemistry that makes us a thousand percent better than we were as individuals.
“I'm selfish, Cindy. I want us to win this war -- but I want to be there at the end, crowing over our last dead enemy. I'm good at what I do, so are the others -- so are you, if you keep at it. I really, honestly, think that we can do remarkable things, those of us on this crew. We might even be able to have a direct effect on the outcome of the war. One we can see; one everyone can see.
Well-Traveled Rhodes (Kinsella Universe Book 6) Page 16