Valor At Vauzlee (6 page)

* * *

Up and showered by 0700 the following morning, Jenetta dressed and spent ten minutes stowing the things that had been delivered to the ship from her room at the Bachelor Office Quarters. As always, the animated picture of her family, taken at the Academy on the day that her eldest brother graduated, went immediately onto her dresser. In the image that morphed to the beginning every thirty-seconds, Jenetta and her mother were the only ones not in uniform. Although her brothers were all cadets at the Academy, Jenetta had still been in high school at the time. Her father, a captain in Space Command, had recently turned over command of his destroyer and was preparing to take command of the Cromwell, GSC-F839, a new frigate nearing completion at the Mars shipyard. For the picture, Quinton Carver and his wife Annette sat on a stone bench in a small park-like setting on the Academy grounds, with their children arrayed behind them. The four boys stood together, with their arms on each other's back, while the bushes behind them swayed ever so gently from a slight breeze. Jenetta had been shuffled off to the right of the image. Because of her clothing and detached position, it almost appeared as if she wasn't a part of the group. Halfway through the image playback, Richie raised his enormous left hand and placed it on her small shoulder, finally making it seem like she might be a part of the family after all.

The animated picture of Zane Spence and herself, taken recently at Gregory's, went next to the family portrait on her dresser.

Still making it to the officer's mess by 0745, she had time for a quick bowl of cereal and a cup of coffee before the start of the first watch at 0800. She took several pieces of fruit to eat while she worked, hoping that they would quell the hunger pangs she was already feeling as she returned to her office.

If she'd had any hopes that the new day might be easier, they were dashed as her duty list scrolled up on the computer. It appeared that every officer aboard ship had left several new messages since she'd gone off duty late last evening.

Jenetta intuitively knew of the difficulties involved in an entirely new command structure, where routines and procedures have yet to be established. Subordinates will feel their way along uncertainly as they try to learn what's expected of them and what authority they have to make decisions. Until they know, they tend to be too quick to pass on problems to their senior officer. It's doubly difficult where both supervising officer and subordinates haven't previously been posted together. The situation represents a potential logistical nightmare for an executive officer in a new command.

She knew that her main job now was to make each officer understand what she expected of him or her, or she would be plagued with minor problems all the way to Earth. Instead of handling every problem that came her way on the second day, she passed many of them back to the originating officer and told him or her to resolve it and inform her of their solution.

* * *

Chief Petty Officer Filip ‘Flip' Byrne entered the crowded quarters of CPO Edward Lindsey and dropped his six-foot two-inch frame tiredly into the only unoccupied chair of the five arranged around the table.

"You're late," CPO Lindsey said.

"Yeah, tell me about it," Flip said with disgust.

"The watch ended an hour ago."

"Just deal me in and don't give me any crap, Eddie." Flip sighed loudly. "We had to completely empty and reload cargo hold C-24. We just finished. The LT said that it would be done before we quit for the day, if we had to work until third watch."

Holding his hand up to cover his eyes in pretense of a seer having an omnipotent vision, the stocky five-foot seven-inch CPO Lindsey said in an eerie voice, "I see the hand of our child XO in this."

"I told you not to call her that!" CPO Byrne said angrily. "She graduated from NHSA in ‘56, so she's only ten years younger than you." Calming, he added, "But you're right about her being involved. She came down to inspect C-24 just after we finished stacking and securing everything. One of the new knuckleheaded loader operators in my group put food synthesizer chemicals in the storage locker where the emergency medical stores are supposed to be stockpiled. Another knucklehead, unable to store the medical stuff properly, just dumped it in the common area. Then stuff got piled on top of it and it was buried. The XO spotted the screwup right off. When she asked where the medical stores were, the Lieutenant couldn't answer. I expected her to cut into him like a plasma torch through aluminum, but all she did was make a sad comment about how she'd hate to be waiting for medical treatment in sickbay while they searched the entire hold for the supplies needed to treat her injuries. Then she got this sort of strange expression on her face as she looked at him. It was like the look my mother would always give me when I'd done something that
really
disappointed her. I hated that look. It made me feel about two centimeters tall. I always wished she would just smack me upside my head instead. I really felt for the LT. Anyway, after she left, he ripped into us for making him look bad in front of the XO. He swore that if anything like that ever happened again, we'd all regret the day we were posted to the Prometheus."

"So you got chewed out and wound up with extra duty because of the XO; the officer that you keep defending."

"Hey, she was absolutely right, Eddie. How'd
you
like to be waiting for medical treatment while they hunted through an entire hold looking for the supplies they needed to treat
you
? The extra duty was because of the two knuckleheads, and I'll make damn sure they pull so many extra details for screwing up that they never do it again. I know you don't care for the XO, but she's first-rate in my book."

"It isn't that I don't like her, Flip, it's just that I don't subscribe to all the hero worship she receives. In spite of what some people think,
Jenetta Carver doesn't walk on water
."

"We were both on the Thor during her court-martial, and I remember you always making a point of being in the vid theatre or near a monitor when the live broadcasts were on. I also remember you cheering like a madman when the verdict of not guilty was announced."

"So, I don't like to see anyone being dumped on unfairly by the brass, even officers. She done good by destroying that Raider base."

"And by recovering these two battleships?"

"And by recovering these two battleships," Lindsey admitted.

"And in saving all those people that the Raiders intended as slaves?"

"And in saving all those people that the Raiders intended as slaves," Lindsey admitted also.

"But?" CPO Byrne asked.

"But— I still don't think that entitles her to become the XO onboard the Prometheus. She's far too young and inexperienced."

"She's not the XO, Eddie. She's only acting as XO until we reach Earth."

"Acting or not, she's the XO. Our
lives
are in her hands; her very
young
hands."

"What about the Captain. Gavin's one of the most respected officers in the fleet?"

"He's the
only
reason I haven't requested a transfer back off this ship."

"Are you serious? You'd give up one of the choicest postings in the fleet because a young officer is occupying a temporary position?"

"Only if she'd been made captain, temporarily. There's no way I'd serve under a captain that looks like she's fresh out of the academy. There's just something—
unnatural
— about it."

"Since the minute she arrived you've been searching for something to hold against her. Name one mistake she's made as XO; just one."

"That's not the point."

"That's exactly the point, Eddie. You're upset because she's doing the job as good as anyone with thirty years experience." Glancing around at the faces of the other three chief petty officers, all of whom had been sitting quietly but listening intently to the conversation, Byrne said, "Oh hell, just deal the damn cards will you, Eddie?"

* * *

By the end of the week, Jenetta's workload had been pared by ninety percent and normal shipboard routines had begun to develop. Most of the expected crew had reported aboard as other ships arrived at the spaceport. Gavin summoned Jenetta to his briefing room a little after 1100 hours.

"Stand easy, Commander," Gavin said as she entered and braced to attention. "How are the preparations for departure proceeding?"

"Very well, Captain. Armament is complete and victualing is
nearly
complete. The ship will be ready on time, but I'm not sure if all crewmembers will be aboard. A few haven't yet checked in because their ships haven't reached Higgins."

"That can't be helped. We leave as scheduled and Space Command HQ will have to figure out how to get the crew members to us."

"Aye, Captain."

"Commander, I've been keeping a very close eye on your activity during the past week."

"You have, sir?" Jenetta asked apprehensively.

"I wanted to see how you would meet the demands of an extremely difficult administrative situation, so I purposely didn't help out. I admit that I was more than a little concerned about having an ensign that had just been advanced three grades, functioning as my acting first officer. In fact, for two days before you reported aboard, I intentionally let problems accumulate so that you'd have a real mess to unravel."

"Things did seem a bit backed up at first, sir."

"Well, I'm not going to be watching you so closely anymore. You've proven that your administrative skills are just as good as your reputed tactical skills. You have everything running like a shipboard chronometer."

"Thank you, sir. I learned quite a bit during the months that I functioned as captain of the Prometheus."

"No doubt," he said, letting his eyes drop momentarily to the pip on her collar. "I've noted your superior administrative performance in handling the difficult task of preparing a new command, in your file. I no longer have any reservations about your being my acting first for the trip ahead. Good work, Commander. That's all."

"Aye, sir. Thank you, sir."

Jenetta returned to her duties with a slight smile on her face and felt good for the rest of the day. The Captain's involvement in the ship's preparations had been conspicuously absent during the week. Even her access to him had been severely limited. Now she understood why. It wasn't personal, as she'd begun to fear; he was only testing her ability to handle the job.

* * *

As the Prometheus' bridge crew made final preparations to depart the spaceport at 1300 hours on Sunday, a call came from the deck officer in the forward cargo bay. The lieutenant responsible for securing the airlock reported that a large, unexpected group of Space Command personnel had just arrived. The officer in charge was requesting to be admitted. Jenetta told the deck officer that she'd be right down, and hurried out after turning over bridge responsibility to the next most senior command officer.

When she arrived at the cargo bay, she found a group of about twenty-five GSC ratings, noncoms, and junior officers already standing inside. Jenetta immediately recognized Commander Keith Kanes of SCI, who stepped forward as she approached. The five-foot eleven-inch intelligence officer with brown hair and piercing steel-grey eyes saluted and spoke up first.

"Permission to come aboard, Commander?"

"Granted," Jenetta said after returning the salute. "Welcome aboard, Commander. What is this? We're about to get underway."

"I've brought you some passengers for the trip to Earth. And I have special orders for the captain."

"Passengers?"

"Yes, including one for your brig."

Jenetta's gaze flew to the group and she scanned the faces. Her eyes opened a little wider when she recognized Commander Pretorious, the Raider officer that had been in command of the Prometheus when she led the assault to recover it. As tall as Kanes, but with curly black hair and dark bushy eyebrows that gave him a certain comical look, he was manacled with prisoner transport chains.

"Can you accommodate us?" Commander Kanes asked.

"I'm sure that we can, sir. Is this your entire party?"

"Yes."

"Will you be traveling with us, sir?"

"I will."

Turning to the officer of the deck, she said, "Lieutenant, seal the airlock so the ship can get underway, then contact Lieutenant Shelton and have her arrange quarters for our passengers. You will personally take charge of the prisoner, with suitable Marine guard, and see that he is secured in the brig. High security while he's aboard."

"Aye, Commander."

The Lieutenant moved to a control console and initiated the process that would seal the enormous outer and inner doors of the bay's airlock. Jenetta remained until both hatches had been closed, locked, and certified as being sealed by the computer. She then turned to Kanes.

"This way to the bridge, Commander. Your people are in good hands."

"As am I. Thank you, Commander." As they walked, Kanes said, "You seem to be getting on quite well."

"Yes sir. I've been very happy. This is where I want to be, where I've dreamed of being for as long as I can remember. There was a time when I believed that I'd never make it."