Mikado looked at his best ship commander and said, “Cassie, you will address him as Your Majesty, Duke Gardner, or Your Highness. You give him the respect his title demands just as your crew members do you.”
Cassie bit her tongue and said, “Yes Sir, I’ll try.”
Mikado looked at her and said, “There will be no try, Captain. You will do as you’re ordered.”
Cassie knew Mikado’s patience was wearing thin but then she decided to tell him why she wanted another assignment. “Yes Sir, I will address him properly. Admiral, you must assign another captain to this assignment.”
Mikado aid, “You have not given me a valid reason to do so.”
Cassie took a deep breath and said, “Admiral, Tommy Gardner was one of the freshman cadets in my company at the academy.”
Mikado looked at her and he could see where she was going. Upper classmen always made life hard on freshman. “So you were tough on him. He should understand the reason for that.”
Cassie sighed and said, “Admiral, I was more than a little tough. I actually received my only reprimand for using very harsh behaviors on Freshman Gardner. I made him do two hundred pushups because I didn’t like the way he made his bed and that was one of the easy punishments I made him endure.”
Mikado narrowed his eyes and said, “I’m sure you had a good reason, Captain.”
Cassie said, “Everyone knew who he was. I was determined that he would not get preferential treatment.”
“So you over did it.”
“Sir, it seemed no matter what I made him do, it didn’t seem to faze him. Everything was funny to him. I guess I decided I was going to break him.”
Mikado said, “I know Duke Gardner personally, Captain and I have never met a finer individual. He is so much like his father that it’s uncanny. Did you ever stop to think that by treating him as unfairly as you did that you singled him out to punish him for who he was?”
Cassie lowered her head and said, “I didn’t at that time. It was after I graduated that I learned I was called 3B by my peers.”
Mikado looked at her and Cassie said, “Biggest Bitch in the Brigade. My mentor at the Academy told me that every one of the graduates in my class was ashamed of me. Admiral, you’ve got to transfer me to another ship.”
Mikado looked at Cassie and said, “Captain, there are always consequences to our behaviors. It looks like yours are coming home to roost. You had your fun at a good man’s expense. Now it’s his turn. Your request is denied and if I hear of you being anything but respectful to Duke Gardner I will bust you out of this navy. Do you understand?”
Cassie looked at the com and meekly said, “Yes Sir.”
Cassie turned off the com and worried about the coming storm she was going to have to endure. She hoped she was as tough as Tommy Gardner had been when she had put him through a living nightmare. She knew that whatever he chose to do, she deserved it. Apologizing for what happened at this point would make it look like she was doing it only out of fear and that her apology would be insincere. She didn’t sleep well that night anticipating Tommy’s scheduled arrival the next day.
Chapter 4
Captain Dodd had the entire crew of the SR Megaship Dorg-Ross standing at ease in the landing bay waiting for Duke Gardner’s arrival. Wes stood there waiting for his best friend to arrive and worried about how Tommy was going to deal with Captain Dodd. He remembered all the punishments she had imposed on Tommy, most of which he didn’t deserve, and knew that Captain Dodd had to be sweating her new assignment. Wes had to admit that Captain Dodd ran a well organized ship and held her crew to an extraordinary high level of performance. The most recent fleet review had the Dorg-Ross ranked number one. He had learned a lot from her but he could never forgive her for making Tommy’s first year at the Academy unbearable. When he learned he had been assigned to her ship he thought about resigning from the fleet but Linda Kay had told him that if Tommy was strong enough to stand up to Captain Dodd then she knew he could do it too. Now after six months, Wes had to admit that it wasn’t as bad he thought it would be. The shuttle entered the landing bay and Captain Dodd ordered, “Crew, Atten-shun.”
The crew came to attention and Captain Dodd saluted as Tommy exited the shuttle. Tommy walked up to Captain Dodd and looked her right in the eye for a long moment and then returned her salute. Right behind Tommy stood the two Algean adolescents. Tommy was going to make Captain Dodd sweat for a few moments before he said anything but he could feel the anxiety of the adolescents. They were barely able to restrain themselves. Tommy said, “At ease.” The crew assumed an at-ease stance but Captain Dodd remained at attention. “Captain, I need these two adolescents taken to the ships library immediately and have them started assimilating the contents.”
Captain Dodd said, “Yes, Your Highness.” She turned and said, “McAnn, Ortiz, take these two Algeans to the library and show them how to use the readers.” Tommy noticed that she had chosen two of his friends. The message was clear, if Tommy made life tough on Dodd; she would do the same to his friends.
Tommy thought about that a moment and then said, “Captain, I would feel much better if you took them yourself. These Algeans are from very high families and I know you’ll give them extra consideration.” Captain Dodd looked in Tommy’s eyes and knew that her plan to hold Wes and John hostage was not going to work. She didn’t really like the idea anyway but she had to try. She bowed and said, “Yes, Your Highness, I’ll take them at once.” Then she turned and said, “Crew, dismissed.”
She turned to the Algeans and said, “If you will kindly follow me; I’ll take you to the library. I know you must be hurting after the voyage.” The Algeans thought their thanks to the Captain and stiffly walked out of the hanger.
Tommy was surprised. Captain Dodd actually sounded sincere. Obviously he was wrong. That woman had no heart and no feelings for anything but herself. As the Captain left Tommy said to her, “As soon as you have them on the readers I want to have a meeting with your command staff.”
Dodd turned and said, Yes, Your Highness. Lt. McAnn will you set it up, please,”
Wes said, “Yes, sir, right away.”
Thirty minutes later the ship’s officers and Captain Dodd gathered in the conference room. Tommy entered and everyone came to attention. “As you were,” Tommy ordered. “The reason I’ve called this meeting is to make sure that we understand the necessities of dealing with Algean adolescents and particularly these two particular adolescents. I know you have heard about the curiosity of the Algean young but I want to make sure you understand the dangers of it. Algeans have an informational storage capacity that we still have not been able to explain. They are created with genetic information that contains most of their racial knowledge. Although this represents a huge amount, the adolescents also have an empty reservoir that pressures them to fill it. What I mean by pressure is that they experience severe physical pain if there is not a regular intake of information. This pain can be debilitating.” Tommy paused for a moment and then said, “We also know that Algeans have differing capacities of storage. An adolescent from a high family will have more than ten times the capacity of a normal Algean. This also means they suffer ten times the pain if their learning needs aren’t met. One of the Algeans with us is a seed from the Eldest who is the leader of their entire race.” Tommy paused to let that sink in and then he said, “The second is a seed from the fleet leader that led the final attack on the Dremels’ planet. Both of them are from the highest families in Plant culture. This means that they will be insatiably curious and we are going to have to be creative to find ways to keep them mentally occupied until we can fill their storage. Are there any questions?”
Wes raised his hand and said, “What do we call them?”
Tommy smiled and said, “Some of you may not know but Algean Adolescents do not receive a name until they complete their learning cycle. The reason for that is that so many of them die from placing themselves in dangerous situations, it would be a waste of good names. However, the female that is the shorter of the two is named Twig. The male is named Sprig.” Tommy noticed the officers smiling. “Any other questions?”
Lt. Ortiz raised his hand and said when Tommy nodded at him, “Duke Gardner, we have heard that there are some unresolved issues between you and Captain Dodd because of things that happened when you both attended
