Well-Traveled Rhodes (Kinsella Universe Book 6)

by Gina Marie Wylie

  “I have the authority to agree to all of that,” Admiral Booth told Tiger. “And, I might add, in case that wasn't clear, I hereby agree in the name of the Federation to the terms stipulated. Obviously, there will be additional operational details to work out, but I don't see any significant obstacles.”

  “That is correct. If you agree, then we are finished here.”

  “One last thing, Tiger,” the admiral interjected. “This is a quite common feature of human agreements. That is, we give a clear and as concise a statement of our individual goals as we can.

  “Thus, you and yours want to leave in the most expeditious manner possible consistent with our mutual safety. It is your choice, and one that we agree with, given the differences in points of view. As you wish to depart as speedily as possible, we will assist you and yours in all ways possible, in such a manner that both sides will term the separation 'amicable' and not prejudicing a later meeting of our two entities at some point later in time.”

  “That leaves out all of the areas of contention rather elegantly, Admiral. You are correct, though. We've been over them already and clearly we don't need to do it again. We differ; we agree to separate on amicable terms. Should we meet again, for whatever reason, the meeting should be as amicable as our departure.”

  “Exactly,” Admiral Booth said. “We can include both sets of language in the final document.”

  “We don't need a final document; we aren't going to forget the terms.”

  “We will have a final document,” Admiral Booth told Tiger. “We use quantum-signed documents. It is impossible to alter them without destroying the signature. We would produce a copy for each of us, each side would read both copies and verify the text is identical -- then it would be signed. After that, the documents would have a counter that measures the number of times it's been accessed, and of course, any attempt to manipulate the text destroys the signature.”

  “As you wish, it is agreed.”

  *** ** ***

  It didn't take long before they were in a standard shuttle, headed back to Grissom Station. Tam Farmer leaned close to Cindy. “You look tired, XO.”

  “I had always thought my father did nothing. That his job was a series of meetings where nothing much happened. I can't imagine anyone ever describing today as 'nothing much.'”

  “I have a treat for you then,” Tam told her. “I talked to Alis McVae a bit ago... I guess I'd better start calling her 'Captain' now. She's officially the new captain of the Daniel Shore, although only she and Master Chief Shinzu are aboard. And, speaking of official, neither of us has been officially relieved of our positions aboard the ship... Captain McVae says that they are now berthed near Grissom Station, and we can sleep aboard, if we wish. They would welcome the company, she says.”

  “We could just shuttle to her?” Cindy asked.

  “Sure.”

  “Let’s do that then,” Cindy said emphatically. “I have no wish -- ever -- to visit Grissom Station again if I don't have to.”

  Admiral Booth spoke up. “That's fine with me, Commander Rhodes. Actually, it will make security easier. Perhaps you can find Commander Booth a place to put her head down for the night?”

  “Yes, sir. We've always had a surplus of berths.”

  “Good, you do that. Tomorrow morning, I want you to get with Commander Booth and work with her on that report I assigned her. Apply your insights, if you can. Report to me at 1300 Zulu, and we'll see what's washed up by then.”

  “Aye, aye, Admiral, sir. And Lieutenant Farmer?”

  “She can assist me in the morning. I'm going to need a gopher.”

  “Yes, sir,” Tam told him.

  “And your Flag Lieutenant, sir?” Bethany asked. “Your aide?”

  “Commander Miles is in the sick bay. After his implant was removed he started having hysterics. Lieutenant Kommando, when I told him to have his implant removed, refused the order. They removed it earlier this afternoon, and he isn't speaking to me. Grissom Station assures me that neither officer was influenced inappropriately. What Grissom considers 'inappropriate' was left unsaid.

  “So, I'm short bodies and I'm reaching out to people I don't have to brief in on a matter this classified.”

  “Sorry, sir... I was just concerned.”

  Admiral Booth sighed. “I'm concerned; all of the top staff are. About ten percent of those who have had their implants removed on Grissom Station are having problems. Captain Merriweather says that she has yet to experience any problems.

  “Captain Merriweather has her wish: every surgeon, nurse, or medic who can perform the surgery is busy cutting. It's going to take weeks and we have no idea how many people are going to need hospitalization afterwards. We have no baseline; worse, we have no idea how long the recovery periods will be.”

  “I will never, ever forget Captain Hall's expression as she went for Tin Tin,” Tam said. “Her eyes -- they said it all... the total horror of not being able to stop her desire to kill the man she loves. I have no idea why I could resist -- and it wasn't much. I managed to stagger into her path. Inside my mind, my inner voice was screaming at me to kill him, kill him, kill him.” At each repetition of the two words, her voice rose.

  She looked at the admiral. “I dream about it, sir. It's bad. Really, really bad.”

  The admiral's phone sounded and he listened for a few minutes, and said a few words.

  “Well, schedules aren't much different than battle plans. They never survive contact with the enemy.

  “Commander Booth, you and Commander Rhodes still have your morning to get that report in shape, and see if there is any other low-hanging fruit we can grab. At 1200 hours, there will a shuttle for us, where we will be down bound to Atlanta for a 1330 meeting with the Federation Council. There will be a brief awards ceremony for Commander Rhodes.” He turned to Cindy. “It would look bad if you showed up with Star that Lieutenant Zodiac gave you. Give it to my trust, and you'll get it back tomorrow afternoon.”

  “Yes, sir,” Cindy said, subdued.

  “At 1400 you and I, Commander, will brief the War Committee of the Council about our negotiations. The president has agreed to the terms, but we need to get the rest of them to sign off as well.

  “At 1630, Commander Booth will brief senior leadership about 'splat' transmissions. You may have Commander Rhodes' assistance if you so desire.

  “At 1730, we will have dinner with the senior command staff. That will be all of us on this shuttle, including Lieutenant Farmer and Lieutenant Zodiac.”

  He regarded Cindy steadily. “Admiral Saito said that we should give you one of the three cruisers assigned to the computers. I said no, Admirals Fletcher, Nagoya and Jensen said no, and so did the president. You might as well know, Commander Rhodes, but the decision has been made at the highest levels of the Fleet that we can't trust the computers in regards to you.

  “We don't want you anywhere close to them, not in a position where you could be snagged and made to say, 'Sure, of course I want to go with them!'”

  “I can say that I'd die before I would agree that,” Cindy told him.

  “Robbie Kinney told me once, after First Rome, that we'd eaten our seed corn. Those were the words she used, to describe the deaths of so many of her officers, including Hannah Sawyer. We have, since then, become uncommonly careful with our seed corn.

  “Still, nothing beats experience in the harsh forge of combat. It has always been a tough call, and now tougher than ever. I have no idea what Ernie Fletcher wants for you, Commander, but I'm sure of one thing: it will be wickedly brilliant.”

  “I can wait a bit, right?”

  “Ha!” the admiral exclaimed. “I'm caught out! You'd have found out shortly, anyway when we reached your ship. Your ship was gone for nearly four years. Fleet has granted every one of you four months survivor's leave, not to be charged as ordinary leave.”

  “You want me to sit on my bottom for four months?” Cindy exclaimed, a little angry.

  “Well, you
deserve a rest.”

  “A month, maybe a couple of weeks. What do you think we did between Sub 3 and Earth? We partied the entire time! Nearly a half year! I'm all partied out!”

  Admiral Booth chuckled. “I never thought of it like that. Oddly, most people in the Fleet would think a deployment like that an extreme hardship. Not to mention, there were one or two issues you had to deal with along the way.”

  “A time,” Cindy told him. “I won't speak for anyone else other than myself. But not four months. Probably not even two months.”

  “I understand, Commander.”

  When the shuttle dropped them off at the Daniel Shore, Alis McVae refused to salute Cindy, instead hugging her, as did the master chief.

  Captain McVae greeted Commander Booth more formally, and eventually they had dinner together, before everyone finally retired for the night.

  *** ** ***

  Someone shook Cindy, and she came awake instantly. A Marine uniform brought back bad memories, but she recognized the messenger and suppressed them. “Zodiac?”

  “Commander, we have a problem.”

  She sat up, fighting her real need for sleep. “What, Lieutenant?”

  “A Rear Admiral Zinder appeared at the lock a short while ago. I'd have sent him packing, but he said he wanted to speak to Commander Booth. She was in the mess, talking with Commander McVae, so I asked if she'd see him.

  “She was -- eager, sir. He handed her an envelope, saluted her and left. And then... well, sir, she lost it. She grabbed the nearest thing -- a plate, and threw it. She's beating things in the mess now with a bench.”

  “Fetch Tam, I'll see what I can do,” Cindy told him.

  Cindy could hear the sound from quite a distance. She stopped at the entrance to the mess, and waved Zodiac back.

  “Bethany?” Cindy said mildly.

  Bethany smashed the bench against one of the bulkheads.

  “Go away!”

  “You know I can't do that, Commander. Please, what's wrong?”

  “He loved me! The stupid moron loved me! I never knew! I treated him like dirt!” She smashed the bench into another bulkhead.

  She looked at Cindy, her face stone pale. “No one has ever loved me! I suck as a human being.”

  It slammed into Cindy's gut, then, as if the bench had hit her instead of the bulkhead.

  “Commander, who loved you?”

  “David! David loved me! He was the finest person I ever met! And I threw it away! I threw it away! I should be dead!”

  Zodiac moved next to Cindy. “I can take her, the next time she starts to swing.”

  Cindy turned to him. “Don't! Don't you dare!”

  She saw Commander McVae a few feet past the Marine.

  “Alis, take us as close to Tiger as you can; wait until my command and then take us a light year out, as far from anything the Federation owns as you can.”

  “You got it, XO!” the woman said, and spoke into her phone.

  Bethany slammed the bench a few times against the deck, wincing in pain with each strike.

  “Commander, look at me,” Cindy commanded.

  Bethany looked at Cindy who calmly told the older young woman, “I’m your rival, you know. I'm going places faster than you. You are an emotional child, who simply has had a few lucky guesses.”

  Bethany screeched, lifting the bench high over her head and charged Cindy. Cindy leaned to the right, but actually took two quick steps to the left. The bench whooshed through where Cindy would have been, had she gone right. Instead, she tripped Bethany, sending her sprawling. Lieutenant Zodiac, no slouch, stepped on the bench, preventing her from moving it.

  Two more Marines came through the hatch, preventing the commander from getting back up.

  “Gently,” Cindy told them. “Gently! She's not herself.”

  She saw the nausea in the faces around her as they went to High Fan. The second transition, a virtually instantaneous transition, was like hitting a wall for everyone else.

  Cindy plucked at her phone. “Tiger bridge! Your watch officer!”

  “Commander Shiraz, sir. Who am I speaking to?”

  “Commander, Commander Cynthia Rhodes, Ambassador Plenipotentiary and all of that. I need the closest officer still wired.”

  “Wait one, Commander.”

  Another voice spoke, a feminine voice. “Ensign Cheryl Logan, sir.”

  “Tiger! Listen to me! Grissom has gone rogue! Can you do anything?”

  The ensign's voice went flat. “We are aware; Commander. We are attempting to deal with the problem. Grissom's processors are locked. The issue remains in doubt.”

  “And the fact that you no longer need implants to control people?”

  “We no longer need implants, Commander. We have stopped using the technology. However, Grissom still refuses to respond.”

  “You swear!” Cindy demanded. As Cindy said that, she triggered Daniel Shore’s battle stations alarm.

  “Commander Rhodes, earlier I was trending this way myself. I was pulled back. None of us, Commander, want this.” There was another of the long pauses.

  “Commander Rhodes, Grissom is activating her weapons.”

  Cindy cut the connection without hesitation. “Fleet ops! Priority for Admiral Fletcher! Cindy Rhodes for the Federation!”

  “Fletcher!”

  “Sir, Grissom has gone rogue; they can't stop her. Can you block local latch-frame? Can you lock out their weapons?”

  “We can, Commander. Wait a few!”

  Abruptly the phone went dead. A second later it came back to life. “Commander Rhodes, this is Tiger. I have authorized the Marine force commander aboard this ship to accept your commands. Please rendezvous with his assault force. Do what you must, Commander. I won't ask you to try to limit the damage. This won't be a good day for any of us.”

  The phone broke in. “Fletcher, Commander. It's done... we can't stop latch-frame aboard Grissom, though.”

  “Sir, the computers no longer need implants to control behavior. Tiger says that they don't use that, but Grissom is. Sir, this could be way worse than messy.”

  “We have lockouts on all weapons in Earth orbit, Commander. They are locked out. It is a physical interlock; it can not be overridden. Do what you must.”

  “Aye, aye, sir.”

  A half hour later Daniel Shore met the assault shuttles from Tiger.

  A Marine brigadier, General Kapelli, spoke to her. “We're closing on the station, Commander. I'm told you command.”

  “Yes. What do you hear?”

  “Nothing, Commander. Nearly all transmitting sources in the system have gone dark; we expect to start getting some here shortly, as light speed communications kick in. It'll be slow. We've heard not a peep from Grissom.”

  “Your objective is Grissom's main computer. You will do whatever you must to reach it, General. Destroy it. Then order your people to the various sub-nodes and destroy them. Then secure the station's weapons. This order can only be overridden by myself, Admiral Fletcher or the president. You will experience spoofing on all levels, General. Your people have to ignore that and focus on their objectives.”

  “All levels?”

  “General, some of your people may turn on their fellows. If they focus on their objective and ignore anything else, most of them will be okay.”

  “What a load of shit you've found for us, Commander!” the general told her.

  A few moments Cindy looked at Zodiac. “You're holding back, Lieutenant.”

  “My orders are to keep you safe.”

  “And if Grissom launches on Earth, will that be your defense?”

  “No, sir,” he told her. “I had to try.”

  “Another time, Lieutenant.”

  The Marine brigadier was back a half hour later. “Commander, this has to be your ears-only.”

  “I can't implement that, sir. What?”

  “Commander, my point has reached the objective and used explosives to render the equipment inoperative. You
were correct; they have taken casualties from their own ranks. Once the main installation was destroyed, the interference has ceased. There has been no further resistance.

  “We have secured the weapons control centers as well as the secondary targets and all of those are now secure.

  “Commander, they report finding none of the station's crew alive. They're all dead.”

  “Have you passed that up your chain of command?”

  “No, sir. Captain Merriweather was most emphatic. You are the senior officer in this situation.”

  “Tell your people to continue their mission; they aren't to transmit any updates except to you. Sir, if anyone breaks that, it is very possible that things will get much, much worse than they are now.”

  “Worse? There were more than a hundred thousand people aboard Grissom! Worse than that?”

  “About four orders of magnitude worse. Maybe five.”

  “Roger that, Commander! Our lips are sealed!”

  Cindy braced herself, and called Admiral Fletcher. The call went straight through. “Admiral, sir, Rhodes.”

  “Commander.”

  “Sir, the Marines have achieved their initial objectives. They are confident that Grissom cannot initiate action against Earth.”

  “Thank God!”

  “Sir, the Marines report none on the station personnel have survived.”

  “Ahhh!”

  “Sir, we are secure from latch-frame aboard this ship. I am confident that Tiger was telling the truth; they had the technology and stopped using it.”

  “Why would that be, Commander?”

  “Sir, I'm pretty sure they knew that they'd very nearly tipped their hand before. When people without implants started doing the same things, it would have been obvious.”

  A moment passed. “Everyone aboard, Commander?”

  “Sir, there are no reports of survivors. The Marines haven't had time to search the entire station yet, but I wouldn't hold out much hope.”