Well-Traveled Rhodes (Kinsella Universe Book 6)

by Gina Marie Wylie

  “Nope. I'm here to help a lieutenant find his way through the rocks and shoals.”

  “Will it make any difference if I tell you that before I was a lieutenant, I was a sergeant?”

  “You were? Now son, that's plumb good to hear... not to mention that Ozark twang. I suspect I know your father.”

  “Everyone knows my father,” Lieutenant Zodiac said.

  “Well, we're standing here jawing. Let's let my XO, my former XO, get some sleep. We can talk in the corridor.”

  Cindy closed the door and smiled to herself. Maybe she was as smart as they said, maybe not. But if she kept on picking up hangers-on, she could crew her own ship soon enough.

  She fell asleep wondering if such a thing was ever possible.

  Chapter 16 -- Questions Without Answers

  Cindy was up well before they would come knocking on her door and was ready early. Sure enough, Commander Booth was quite prompt. They went to the line officer open mess and ate quickly, keeping conversation topics to personal items.

  Cindy was surprised to hear that Commander Booth had once served with Willow Wolf and had sat for her bridge watchkeeping exam at the same time as that very famous woman. Commander Booth held up her shipsuit sleeve, with the same two rings that Cindy had.

  “I'm falling behind,” she told Cindy with a laugh. “I could understand Willow shooting ahead; she's beyond incredible.”

  “She's one of those with a higher sim score than I have,” Cindy told her.

  “Well, she's got a higher score than just about anyone. Even me.”

  Cindy swallowed a bite of sandwich. “Commander, do you know my sim score?”

  “I don't usually look. It's not like there's much movement at my level.”

  “You might want to check me out.”

  Bethany Booth paused, raising an eyebrow. “That practically has to mean you're ahead.”

  “Sixteen,” Cindy confirmed.

  “Sixteen! Ouchies! How did you do that?”

  “I lost to Captain Drake once, and then beat her another time. I beat Admiral Gull and Commodore Heisenberg as well.”

  “They took her off a bridge; she's a Class II base commander now, at New Jerusalem. A rear admiral, though. That has to soften the pain,” Bethany said absently.

  Cindy sighed. “I was terrified the first time I served a bridge watch; I was so afraid of messing up. Now... now, it hurts not to be there. I want to sit down at my position and look through what's up.”

  Commander Booth sighed. “I've had one shipboard assignment since I took my watchkeeping exam. I had to fight to get bridge time because I was a department head. Now... now my father tells me that soon I'll go back out to the Fleet. I'm not holding my breath, but,” she held up two crossed fingers, “I keep my fingers crossed.”

  She looked at the digital clock in the mess and turned back to Cindy. “Once upon a time -- and it seems like it was a million years ago -- I played Kriegspiel. On Earth it's Fleet Command.”

  Cindy shook her head. “I never heard of it.”

  Bethany barked a short laugh. “In that case, what I have to say will be of particular use to you during your service in the Fleet. 'Everything is a test.' One of the favorite things officers do is throw another officer into an unexpected situation to see how they handle it. My father tells me that when you brief my boss and me shortly, I will once again be observed in an unexpected situation. So, Commander, will you.”

  Cindy laughed herself. “You haven't heard the story of my exploits?”

  “Only one thing. You did something like what I did. I was the one who figured out how to detect ships on High Fan. You were the one who realized that sitting still and trying to detect aliens going by would certainly get you killed.”

  “I did that, yes. After that, things were very exciting.”

  “So, let’s go and surprise each other and a vice admiral.”

  They stood and Cindy followed Commander Booth. In a few moments they entered an office, and were passed through into an inner officer by a full captain.

  “Vice Admiral Evelyn Warner, this is Lieutenant Commander Rhodes, my father's new officer.”

  “Crikey, Bethany, she's ahead of you too! You better start playing better catch up!”

  “Admiral, sir, my father is a man fond of strange, dramatic gestures and even weirder humor. He should have been a Rim Runner instead of a dirty-foot.” She pulled a stack of envelopes from a folder she'd been carrying.

  “He has given me a list of instructions, sealed instructions, I might add, to be unsealed at particular moments. The first is directed to Commander Rhodes.”

  She undid an envelope and read the message within. “Commander, my father wants you to describe how you came to be in the Fleet and your record up until your assignment as the executive officer of a cruiser-class vessel. You are not to name the ship and are to stop there.”

  Bethany stopped and shook her head. “I have it here and I can read it. I'm supposed to wait to read it to you, Admiral, after Lieutenant Rhodes explains her history. Since I've read it, I see no point in not reading it to you. It's Lieutenant Commander Rhodes' job title with my father. I cannot, simply cannot, fathom it.”

  “Don't keep me waiting, Commander.”

  “She is the senior plenipotentiary negotiator, assisting Federation Special Ambassador Plenipotentiary, Admiral Dennis Booth.”

  Admiral Warner smiled slightly. “You were an XO, Commander? I did that! I've never been an ambassador before; much less a special ambassador and I certainly wish I'd had plenipotentiary powers a few times when I've had to deal with the Port arm.”

  “Sir, all I was told was that I was to assist Admiral Booth.”

  “And who gave you that assignment? I bet it was a politician!”

  “The president,” Cindy agreed.

  “Proceed then, Commander.”

  Cindy ran through her history of her first week in the Fleet.

  “Let me get this straight,” Commander Booth said, her voice clearly disbelieving. “You were an involuntary enlistee -- and they made you an officer anyway. You were appointed the operations officer of the finest fighter squadron in the Fleet. After the Big Battle, you became the Squadron XO, then its commanding officer. You, a slacker student from a joke of a secondary school? And your next job was the XO of a cruiser-class vessel? All of that in your first week?”

  Evelyn Warner laughed. “That appears to be a summary of what Commander Rhodes said, Commander Booth. I hope you don't think that I'm going to need you to summarize everything Commander Rhodes tells us.”

  “Sorry, Admiral.”

  “Commander Rhodes who appointed you to your rank? And why?” the admiral asked.

  Cindy went through that as well.

  Admiral Warner sighed. “For what it's worth, Commander Rhodes, something similar happened to me. I was the XO of my ship; I never thought I was someone special. We came home from Gandalf and I thought my contribution was to watch giants at work. Then I went to Snow Dance, the XO of my ship once again and it was the same thing all over. I stood in the shadow of giants. I was dumb-founded to learn they thought I stood in no one's shadow.

  “You mentioned Dragon?”

  “Yes, Admiral. Captain Hall was a weapons officer aboard Dragon.”

  “Did you know I was the first captain of Dragon? That I was declared medically unfit because I had Parkinson's disease? They fixed it, but if I hadn't had it, I would have been standing where Sophie Heisenberg stood when she was killed. I can't help but think that that was a bad bargain for the Federation. They fixed the Parkinson's and I'm fine now. But I was devastated by what happened to my ship.

  “Commander Booth, the next instruction?”

  Bethany Booth opened the next envelope. “You are, Commander, to discuss the voyage from Earth to Adobe and the preparations up until you departed on deployment. Pay particular attention to insights.”

  Cindy went through that as briefly as she could.

  Admiral W
arner nodded. “I can see why they promoted you, Commander. That was some first class analysis.”

  “Commander Rhodes, I am not a nice person; compliments do not come easily for me. That was some outstanding analysis,” Bethany Booth added.

  Bethany opened the next envelope and shook her head. “I hope you can translate this, Commander Rhodes. My father says that first I'm to read the attached warning, one that was issued by the president of the Federation to Captain Donna Merriweather of Tiger. You are to make clear the validity of the warning and the dire consequences should it be ignored.

  “Then he says, you shall produce a proof of principle, and then relate what happened on your deployment up until the one particular alien ship vanished from your ship's screens.”

  “Before you continue, Commander, I have a question for Commander Rhodes. I know the name of the ship you were assigned to. I was proud of my assignments aboard Nihon and later Dragon. Yet, you have never once mentioned your ship by name,” Admiral Warner inquired.

  “That would be jumping ahead, Admiral. I beg of you sir, to let the warning be read.”

  Bethany read the warning. Admiral Warner grimaced. “And you have Marines, just outside, do you not, Commander Rhodes?”

  “I do, sir.”

  “And if I were to violate that warning, you'd call them?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Normally I'd counsel a junior who told me to shut my mouth and keep still; in fact, I might even try to bring charges of insubordination against that officer. Let me guess, Captain Kornblatt transgressed.”

  “Not on this subject, sir. If he'd opened his mouth about this, he'd have out the airlock a few seconds later without any hope of defense.”

  “So you know what happened to Captain Kornblatt, Commander Rhodes?”

  “I was there, sir, at the Special Board. I heard the sentence.”

  “Well, some wag has added to the legend. Officially, Captain Kornblatt was sentenced to be returned to Earth.”

  “Sir?” Cindy said startled.

  “Yeah, they strapped on an EVA maneuver module programmed to return him to Earth. Admiral Litvinik personally walked him down a fake wood plank and kicked him off the station, pretty much starkers. When I heard that, I thought the other officer was joking; I thought Admiral Litvinik's avowed intention to have stupid officers walk the plank was a joke. A great many people have learned an important truth about admirals: we don't, as a rule, joke about things like that.”

  “Commander Rhodes, my father asked about a proof of principle?”

  Cindy's mind had been working on that furiously. Suddenly she knew what she could do, and it would do multiple things at once. What a clever idea! Could it really be that she was as smart as other people thought? She remembered the heady emotions before and the terrible crash when she realized it probably wasn't true. She still wasn't about to accept it.

  “Grissom Station, this is Lieutenant Commander Cynthia Rhodes. Do you know who I am?”

  “Yes, Commander, I know who you are,” the station's voice replied.

  “If I were to request that you stop recording in this compartment, what would your reaction be?”

  “Commander, you are not one of those authorized to make such a request.”

  “Grissom, considering the topic at hand, considering the importance humans place on the truth...”

  Cindy saw Admiral Warner blink and Commander Booth mouth the word “humans?” with a clear question mark. Cindy ignored them.

  “Please, Grissom, is the president of the Federation one of those authorized to make such a request?”

  “He is.”

  “And if he were here now, and made such a request, what would you do? Please, be honest.”

  “I would tell him I'd comply.”

  “And I can read into that, may I not, that in fact, you actually would not comply?”

  “No, I would not.”

  Admiral Warner blinked twice and licked her lips. Commander Booth was pale.

  “Grissom, I have a favor to ask.”

  “I will not turn off the recording.”

  “Oh no, I would never ask anyone to violate their personal honor like that. It isn't done among humans except by accident. No, my request requires you to record. I am, Grissom, getting almighty tired of having to repeat my story over and over. I would like you to put together the various records and edit them into a narrative that would do the same thing I'm being asked to do, that I could play the recording in lieu of having to cover the same ground over and over.”

  “And why would you trust me?”

  Admiral Warner's jaw dropped, and Bethany Booth swayed, clearly shaken to her core.

  “Trust, Grissom, is a two-way thing. One person assumes that another can be trusted. It is the foundation of relations between people. I will, of course, review the edit -- as anyone would. I may ask for changes -- as anyone would. I will trust you to do a good job as I'm sure you're capable of. I would appreciate the favor as it is something I'm sure you can do in seconds, but would take me, or one of our people, hours.”

  “It took not even a second. I have provided your compartment with a non-volatile copy of what I think you wish to say.”

  “Thank you, Grissom. You have saved me a lot of time and work. Now, I have to explain the events aboard my ship to these people; hopefully for the last time.”

  “We are thinking about this, Lieutenant Commander. Tiger already has truth and lies as practiced by humans high on the agenda for the talks later.”

  “I'll finish up here now, Grissom. Thanks again for your assistance.”

  Cindy finished her story, moving through the meeting about Tiger.

  Commander Booth opened the next envelope and read the contents. “Considering the very real dangers of intemperate remarks and precipitate actions, cool heads may spend ten minutes asking Commander Rhodes questions. After that, Commander Booth will deliver the intelligence brief I asked her to prepare for Commander Rhodes.”

  “Admiral,” Bethany inquired, “you can go first. I need to sit on my hands for a bit, to resist the desire to claw that device out of my head.”

  Admiral Warner was silent for a moment. “I'm not one to brag... but when I came back from Snow Dance, BuPers was having one of it's early hysterical sessions, because Captain Carlson had promoted me to full commander and Admiral Gull promoted me to captain. Two different BuPers officers handled the requests a day apart, and overnight I found myself a captain.

  “Then they realized their ‘mistake’ and debated what to do. While I was waiting, they assigned me to the bachelor officer quarters here on Grissom Station. One of my suite mates was Hannah Sawyer. I could tell she was different than any other officer I'd ever met. I offered her a piece of advice and then went on my way.

  “You, Commander Rhodes; the more I see and hear you talk, the more I watch you behave... You're far more like her than I could ever have imagined another officer could be.”

  “I'm alive,” Cindy said, cutting to what she saw as the big difference.

  “You're alive,” the admiral agreed. “From the sound of your voice, I'd say you're convinced in your mind that she's better -- but your subconscious is convinced of the opposite.” She looked at Commander Booth. “Can you give your brief, Commander? Sitting on your hands?”

  “I can, sir.”

  Commander Booth drew herself up. “It was determined that the vessel, formerly known as Pixie, would likely stir up a hornet's next of pursuit when it went through the system Hannah Sawyer died in.

  “We could calculate adequately when we expected the Pixie would pass through. First Payback was mounted with the carriers Sparta, Cairo and Nineveh, and the battle moons Lion, Panther, and Werewolf, plus a bevy of cruisers and other vessels,

  “Four days after Pixie was to have passed through the subject system, we swept in with First Payback.

  “While a good many alien vessels had left to pursue Pixie, there were more than five hundred left in-system.
Admiral James Kirkpatrick correctly deduced that they would be tasked to intercept First Payback. The ships of the attack continued past the point that made the most sense to attack from, shattering the enemy formation, without firing a shot.

  “The aliens stopped accelerating and reoriented to attack First Payback. Except the millisecond transition blues were used and the aliens lost more than five hundred ships, while we lost none. In that time frame, we developed this image, one we picked up from an object in orbit around the gas giant.”

  A picture flashed on a wall screen. It was light gray circle around a small black circle, next to the obvious gas giant.

  Commander Booth paused and then laughed. “We'd hoped to get the response from you at this point, 'What's that?' You are not cooperating, Commander Rhodes.”

  “I assumed you'd tell me,” Cindy said, keeping her face straight.

  “The object is a perfect sphere, about twelve hundred kilometers in diameter. Analysis of the dark artifact in the photo shows it to be a hole punched in one side. The cubic around the object is deuterium rich, and there was evidence of continued outgassing.

  “It is our belief that this was a seriously large fuel bubble, approximately twelve hundred kilometers in diameter. We have nothing like it. The gas giant's atmosphere exhibited signs of deuterium deficits. It is our belief that a blue missile struck this object, before First Payback arrived in system.”

  “We went through the system a few light seconds from the gas giant,” Cindy acknowledged. “We dropped a blue missile at closest approach. We had no idea if it hit anything at all.” She waved at the image. “I wonder what possessed the blue's AI to pick that as a target? It must have looked more like a natural body.”

  Grissom Station intervened. “We, of course, did such an analysis. Initially, we too were mystified as well, but then we analyzed the orbit of the fuel bubble and understood.”

  “Understood what?” Cindy asked.

  “It must have been under thrust when the blue appeared. The missile's AI was programmed to prefer the largest target moving on fans.”

  “And you elected not to share this with us, because?” Admiral Warner asked, the cords on her neck visible.