Enemy of my Enemy (Horatio Logan Chronicles Book 1)

by Chris Hechtl

  “I think he can handle it. He's part gorilla from the look of him. Besides, did you see the size of his hands? Now think lower,” she said with a grin.

  Ensign Jaroslaw groaned, realizing he was being teased. Bailey and his wives caught that last remark and the girls giggled. Both ensigns turned, blushing. Sylvia waggled her eyebrows upward. “She's sorta right,” she said mischievously.

  Bailey smacked his forehead with a hand in embarrassment as the girls snickered. “Hey, wait a minute,” he drawled, hand slipping off his face so he could turn a glower on his bonobo wife.

  “See you inside in a bit,” Galiet said, shooing the humans inside. The female ensign didn't need any further urging, she pushed her partner around the corner to where the marine guard was stationed.

  “Braggart,” Clennie said wickedly.

  “I don't suppose, one last time for …” Sylvia said. When Galiet shook her head no she put on a pouty face, complete with sad brown eyes and extended lips.

  “I suppose we can find a supply closet somewhere,” Clennie murmured. When Galiet turned a glower on her Sylvia grinned.

  “Best get aboard, folks. The media is out in force, and we need the dock cleared,” the marine guard said at the corner.

  The quartet looked over to the Veraxin and then Bailey nodded.

  “Next time,” Sylvia vowed, smacking him on one ass cheek then fondly caressing it.

  “Promise,” Galiet said. “The nice thing is, with the money we'll be earning and with whatever you two can put in savings, we should be able to buy our own ship when we get back,” she said.

  “Yeah! I've been waiting for it for awhile!” Clennie replied with a grin. “Right Sylvia?” Sylvia nodded. “Though I still think an orbital docking station would be the better option. More stable for the brat pack,” she said.

  “We've been over this,” Galiet warned.

  “Buy our own …,” Bailey frowned. “Wait, where was I? I didn't …,” Galiet glared at him. “Well, I'd remember if I did!” he said.

  “Later.”

  “Come on, our own ship? Who can pass that up?” Sylvia said, all smiles.

  “Well, afford the down payment for the loan on one,” Galiet said smoothly, taking Bailey by the arm once more to forcibly drag him into the ship if she had to. “I'll tell you all about it later, honey,” she said as Sylvia caught his head and kissed him. Then Clennie moved in to kiss him as well.

  “Buy …”

  “Later, dear,” Galiet sighed, knowing he wasn't about to let her scheme go.

  ~<><{<^>}><>~

  The Bek supply mission got off to a slow launch once the media came out in force. A press release wasn't enough to appeal to them so Admiral Irons requested they hold the mission to perform a series of brief interviews before they departed.

  That turned into more of a media circus and a bit of a send-off party for Horatio. Once things settled down and the interest shifted to the Bek rear admiral, he took the time to shake hands with Admiral Subert.

  “I'm going to miss you,” Admiral Subert admitted.

  “Thank you, sir. I'm glad I lived up to your expectations,” Horatio said honestly. He turned when they heard a bark of laughter.

  The media was in force, but they were more focused on the Bekian rear admiral for the moment.

  “Good call on recommending Valdez for Argus. I had been wondering what to do with that one,” Admiral Subert said wryly, still eyeing the Bekian officer.

  “He's good, sir. But he hasn't been on a command deck in awhile,” Horatio replied in turn, slowly returning to Admiral Subert to give him his undivided attention.

  “I know. He's still struggling. Fortunately, she's only doing initial working-up exercises. He'll figure it out or we'll find someone else to take the job.”

  Horatio nodded. “Yes, sir.” Perhaps it was good that it was out of his hands he thought. He had trouble being impartial. He was fairly certain Admiral Irons had the same set of blinders on.

  “Safe sailing, Horatio. I won't tell you smooth sailing; I know it's going to be bumpy. Hang in there,” the admiral said, shaking his hand again as the Bek admiral headed to the boarding ramp with his human female flag lieutenant in tow. The woman nodded, clutching a bag to her chest as she adjusted her glasses with her free hand.

  “We will, sir,” Horatio replied, wondering if the woman had gotten a chance to be run past medical. He had his doubts. The two officers exchanged salutes in parting.

  Horatio waved as the group broke out into cheers. There were others he knew there in the crowd to see them off. Some were happy to see him go for very different reasons he thought, nodding to the Pyrax government delegation. But they had come to realize he'd been a mild irritant compared to Admiral Subert. He wondered as he entered the boarding ramp how many wished for the good ole days when he'd been in charge? He chuckled as he came into the boarding compartment and toed the line for the usual boarding ceremony.

  ~<><{<^>}><>~

  Bailey and Galiet did their best to settle into their quarters. Even though they were a couple, there weren't couple rooms on board. Each of them had been assigned a rack. There was space under the thin cushion to store stuff, cubbies here and there, and each had a locker. Bailey was certain most of his locker would be taken over by his wife.

  “Wow, this takes me back,” he said, hoping he could head off an explosion.

  Galiet was clearly not impressed with the cramp quarters, nor the idea of sharing it with others. “We traded the condo for this?” she demanded.

  “It's only temporary. At least until we get to Bek,” Bailey said soothingly.

  “True. But ….” She was cut off as a pair of people came in. One was a Neodog; the other was a human Chimera. They murmured apologies, stored their stuff on the bottom bunks then left as quickly as they'd come.

  “So … we're not alone.”

  “This hardly qualifies as a stateroom, love. We're in tight quarters; it's a warship,” Bailey said. “Just be glad we've got what we've got, and we don't have to hot bunk,” he said.

  “Hot bunk?”

  "Share a bed with someone else.”

  “I thought …,” she looked at him.

  He grinned. “Well, if you want to try it …,” he indicated the bunk. It was claustrophobically tight. It did have a curtain that could be drawn across for some semblance of privacy. Not much though.

  “Great,” she sighed. “This is going to put a crimp on our love life,” she said.

  Bailey growled about it. He knew Galiet was the most inhibited and shy one of his trio of wives. Galiet put a hand over his mouth to smother his cursing. He saw her twinkling eyes. “Some second honeymoon cruise,” he growled under her hand.

  Her hand dropped to rub the small of his back. “Oh, I don't know. I suppose if we really have to we can find a nice quiet place to sneak around into,” she teased. “When we're not busy,” she said.

  “We're passengers. Guess what, we're not going to be busy a lot,” he said.

  “I wish that were so. We've got meetings to attend, papers to write and read, histories …” he groaned. She winced. “Easy there, big boy. I tried to tell you this wasn't a pleasure cruise,” she said.

  “Right,” he drawled. A thought occurred to him. His eyes narrowed. “Okay, out with it. Since we can't …,” he glanced at the open door. “You know, you can at least fill me in with this grand scheme you and the other girls cooked up without me. You'd think one of you would have clued me in. Hell, I'm surprised Sylvia lasted this long!”

  “Yeah, she sucks at keeping a secret, doesn't she?” Galiet chuffed softly.

  “Well, you just have to know how to get it out of her. Tickling works with all three of you of course …”

  Galiet shot a glower at him. “With you too tough guy,” she said, back handing his shoulder.

  “Maybe,” he said.

  “No maybes about it. Wanna test that theory?” she said, her long fingers turning into claws as her eyes glittered at him.<
br />
  “Ahem, um, no,” he said, pretending to tug at his collar. “Um …,” she moved in closer and his arms dropped to his sides. “Behave. Stop changing the subject!” he said, waving a finger at her.

  She caught the finger and started to twist, but he goosed her, making her relax her grip enough for him to withdraw the finger. “Now, about this ship …”

  He knew she was going to be difficult about it when she started to poke him back. He groaned, realizing she was going to play it out for who knows how long.

  ~<><{<^>}><>~

  Horatio knew someone had given up their quarters for him. Someone else had given up their quarters for Admiral Zekowitz. He wasn't sure who, most likely the duo was doubling up with someone … or they'd bumped someone junior into doubling up or tripling up. It sucked, but he was senior, seniority had to have some perks.

  It hadn't taken him that long to unpack. Just a few minutes to do so and then he was done and wondering what to do before dinner. He'd considered tracking his new flag lieutenant down, but Pietro deserved the time to settle in as well.

  Lieutenant Pietro Olson was a newly minted Jig, so new he still squeaked. He had a background in engineering and staff duties, but he'd obviously never served as a flag lieutenant. Since Horatio had never deigned to have one assigned to himself, it would be a learning experience for both of them. Hopefully, the lieutenant would lean on Lieutenant Si to keep things straight.

  She'd have her work cut out for her if she did. Pietro was green, eager like a puppy, in awe of the commodore, and unfortunately, as klutzy as any juvenile. Horatio shook his head. The white-haired Chimera meant well, but he inordinately got his limbs mixed up. Given that he'd damn near dumped a cup of coffee on Horatio the first time they'd met, the commodore was leery of risking himself in the kid's presence.

  So, instead he decided to play with Mercury again. He booted the A.I. on his personal tablet, but the A.I. ran incredibly slow. That meant he couldn't pull up any schematics, so he decided to see what the A.I. could do with paperwork.

  After a fruitless half hour, he almost wished he hadn't bothered. Mercury was definitely not set up for such things, nor could he write a script to get him to figure it out worth a damn. After the tenth crash, he'd given up and logged the problem. Out of perversion as much as a desire to report it he tagged the report to be transmitted to Pyrax Naval command. Hopefully, one of the programmers would get it and do something or at least have a laugh at his expense.

  He logged off and then got ready for dinner.

  ~<><{<^>}><>~

  Horatio felt some semblance of relief that Captain Perth hadn't called for a formal dinner on their first night. They had several days underway in subspace before they got to the B101a1 jump point. Plenty of time for the ship and crew to do a little bit more shaking down.

  He'd initially thought that the Neochimp skipper was like him, disdainful of formal attire. Someone who “worked for a living.” He quickly disabused himself of that opinion when he noted the captain in his day uniform. It wasn't the full formal wear, but it was a grade above the coveralls that many officers and enlisted wore as their normal outfit. Of course, he didn't have to get his fur dirty toiling in engineering or elsewhere, the commodore thought.

  Dinner was simple but good, definitely filling Horatio thought. It seemed a little unfair to feed Falling Leaf the ravioli in mushroom sauce, but she seemed to take it in stride. She even had seconds, which surprised him. Of course the Veraxin steward had been deft enough to give her portions commensurate with her smaller size.

  “I think we can wait on dessert for a few minutes,” Captain Perth said as Z'k'zz topped off his wine, then went around to do the same with the other crew who indicated they wanted more.

  “Very well, sir,” the Veraxin murmured before he retreated.

  “So, we've got another day or so to use the computers before the helm hogs them all? Does that mean I can get another sim or three in?” Oppie asked with a wide ape grin.

  “Maybe,” the captain said with a slight trace of a smile.

  “One can never get enough sim time,” the TACO said.

  “I understand your flag lieutenant wants to get some bridge watch time, sir?” the XO, Lieutenant Dvorsky asked politely, eyeing Admiral Zekowitz.

  “If it isn't too much trouble,” the admiral said. He'd been a little put out that they hadn't been able to fit the flag lieutenants into the compartment. The officer's wardroom could only fit so many he knew. None of the bridge officers had been willing to bow out it seemed.

  He knew that wasn't entirely true. Most of the helm team had decided to eat in their quarters. Ensign Tulimak was logged as the senior officer on the bridge with Ensign Caroline watching over his shoulder.

  “I think we can arrange something,” the captain said, eyeing his Chimera XO. She nodded slowly.

  “I'd appreciate it. I feel a little bad to monopolize Si's time so much as it is. Too much time as a staff officer and they tend to get stale,” Zek said.

  “Well, we certainly can't have that. I'm sure we can find ways to keep her and your lieutenant, sir,” Captain Perth said, nodding to Horatio. “Up to speed on quals. The reservists too if we have to. Everyone should get some time.”

  “Thanks, skipper,” Horatio murmured.

  “We have a light passenger load, but we're still bumping into people. And don't get me started on the cargo,” Oppie said.

  “We should crew the entire ship with elves. We'd have plenty of room then,” Percy said with a flick of his ears to the Elf within their midst.

  “Speak for yourself. Do you know how hard it is to use the toilet on this tub? And don't get me started on flushing,” Ensign Falling Leaf stated.

  That earned a sympathetic snicker from the group. Percy shook his head. “I'm imagining you standing and trying to aim,” he started to pantomime doing it but a glower from the XO stopped him. “Heaven forbid someone leave the seat up.”

  “Gah,” Falling Leaf agreed.

  That earned another chuckle.

  “Well, if we can't have the crew as elves, why not the passengers?” Second Lieutenant Oppenheimer asked, pretending to size the two flag officers up. Trust the Orangutan to be a card, Horatio thought in amusement.

  “Or have them as sleepers. That is almost as easy,” Lieutenant Brock rumbled. Oppie briefly stared at him in surprise before he finally smiled at the show of support.

  “True,” Doctor Naroob said.

  “Sorry, I have things to do,” Zek said with some dignity. That smothered the good-natured mood a little.

  “I for one wouldn't mind if only to get out of the ton of paperwork piling up,” Horatio said, shaking his head.

  “You have paperwork, sir?” Lieutenant Dvorsky asked, eyeing him.

  “Don't you know? This is the navy. Everyone has paperwork. To be filed in triplicate,” Horatio stated. “This isn't a pleasure cruise for us either.”

  “Oh. So I suppose I should warn Ensign Caroline about the workload?” Captain Perth asked whimsically as he toyed with his wine glass.

  “Already done, sir. I gathered he'd have problems with his paperwork when the commodore tried to foster it off on Mercury and failed miserably,” the A.I. caroled from the overhead.

  Eyes lifted up briefly then over to Horatio. Horatio shrugged the looks off. “Hey, can't beat a guy for trying,” he said. That sparked another chuckle.

  ~<><{<^>}><>~

  Just before they jumped out of the star system, electronic mail was sent via whisker laser to Caroline. Caroline's crew and A.I. sorted through it and then sent the relevant messages to the crew and passengers.

  Horatio checked in inbox and found something of interest. Commander Yao sent a patch for Mercury. Horatio opened the notes and scanned them. He found out that the birdman had discovered part of the problem with the A.I. was that it would run a clone of a piece of equipment to simulate it. It had a physics engine and would simulate the piece of equipment or ship to see wear points and proble
ms where things would break over time. It would then generate a list of maintenance issues, and what parts would need to be replaced when.

  The problem was the more complex a piece of equipment, or an entire ship for instance, the harder the program ran and the more resources it needed. Eventually it overloaded and crashed. It ran the program in the background, so it wasn't known that it was a problem until Yao found it. Yao's patch turned the automatic runoff but allowed the user to turn it on and off manually.

  Clearing up that problem solved a major crash bug in the A.I. program. It was still heavily resource dependent, but that was to be expected. He also knew he wasn't going to be able to use the program on the trip to Bek. That sucked.

  ~<><{<^>}><>~

  “Jump alert. Thirty seconds,” Ensign Caroline said over the PA.

  “Here we go again,” Tumilak commented. The Neowalrus wiggled his bristly mustache a bit. “You ready for this?” he asked, eyeing the Selkie sea lion.

  “As I'll ever be. Definitely more ready than the last time,” Qilaq replied. She had plenty to do on top of her helm duties. She was looking forward to some of her studies. The really interesting thing was that she had Ensigns Weiss and Jaroslaw on board to teach her with Doctor Naroob. It meant things were going to get interesting.

  The long layover in Pyrax had allowed her to catch up on some of her missed classes and had allowed her to manage to attend most of a semester before their departure. She resented the disruption to her career but at that point was more or less resigned to it. She had joined the navy out of duty. Hopefully, more of her people would step up soon so she could follow what she considered her true calling.

  “Ten seconds to jump,” Ensign Caroline stated, interrupting Qilaq's brief revere of the future. She immediately scanned her board and the preflight checklist. All were still green.

  “All stations cleared. All compartments and personnel secure for jump. Synchronize jump engines,” Lieutenant Brock intoned formally.

  “Hyperdrive fully charged. We're ready,” Tumilak stated.