“Is she trying to sell you on the whole ‘Emperor Bob’ thing?”
“She seems to think that as long as it’s me going after them, there’s at least a decent chance nobody will be emperor. If it’s somebody else, she’s not so confident.”
“Even with you in charge, the temptation to bring the fleet out of FTL in orbit around somebody’s planet, just to get their attention, is going to be pretty strong.”
“You’re telling me. Why do you think we haven’t gone and woken them up yet?”
“You know I’ll do the captain’s training if you ask, right?”
“I hoped you would. How do you think Bucky will take that?”
“Actually, she might be the better choice to take the training, if you get down to it.”
“Isn’t she still in the Guide?”
“Yep, but your probation is almost over, and she plans on retiring as soon as it expires.”
“Obviously, we can only have one or the other of you as a captain, but who gets to be captain, and who gets to be XO, that is between you two, if you can get past Sally.”
“Dangit, Boss. You’ve almost got me talked into this crazy plan.”
“Good. You can work on getting John onboard.”
“Crap! Really? You know how much he hates command.”
“I do. I’m guessing you know why, and I don’t. Therefore, you’re better qualified to talk him into what we need him to do.”
“Boss, I truly hate it when you get logical. My head is full enough for tonight. I’m going to bed.”
“See you in the morning.”
“See you then, Boss.” Snitz finished his contributions to the local ecology, and we headed in. When we got there, Nikki asked, “What kept you, Caveman? Beatriz want another dance?”
“Nope. Steve had some worries he wanted to talk to me about. I think I managed to talk him into taking the training to be a captain.”
“He asked you about training to be a captain? That doesn’t sound like Steve.”
“No, he came to me with concerns about Bill Richards. He thinks Bill wants to wake up the Navy and be Emperor Bill.”
“You’re not going to let that happen, are you?”
“Not like I have much choice, if I want to keep sucking wind. If Bill had any sense at all, the first thing he would do once he seized power would be to make sure I was dead, and that would probably include you and the kids.”
“So, you have to make sure he doesn’t get power?”
“Unless I miss my guess, Sally will be more than happy to take care of that for me. One of the things I had to get certified on to become a qualified captain was suppressing mutiny. Her captain wouldn’t have certified her all those years ago unless she were certified in that as well.”
“You expect him to make his move before we get back, don’t you?”
“Would be the logical way for him to go about it, don’t you think?”
“I suppose. It’s hard for me to get my head around someone we trust turning against us like that.”
“It was hard for me, too. Why do you think I haven’t done something before now? I just couldn’t believe what I thought I was seeing.”
My comm rang. “Captain Wilson.”
Topper said, “Boss, Sally called and asked us to stand guard over the house tonight. I thought you might want to know.”
“Thanks, Topper. I was thinking about asking you myself.”
“What’s up, Boss?”
“I don’t know for sure that anything is, but Murphy is our shepherd.”
“Understood, Boss. See you in the morning.”
“Talk to you later, Topper.”
Nikki asked, “What was that about, Caveman?”
“Sally is as paranoid as we are. She asked Ruth and the boys to stand guard tonight. Topper thought I might want to know.”
“I’ll sleep better knowing that.”
“Me too. Andre thinks that bunch will give us better security than his Marines, just because they are more motivated.”
“He might be right. They do like their Boss.”
“Let’s get some sleep.”
“Ahh, nope.”
“That works, too.” I was sleeping hard when the comm rang again. “Captain Wilson, this better be good.”
Topper said, “No, Boss, it’s bad. We had to keep someone out of the house, and she had an Earth-style pistol. Ruth needs to go to the Gene for repairs.”
“What about the intruder?”
“She was damaged, but she is still alive. We would be more than happy to fix that for you, Boss.”
“As much as I would like to take you up on that, Topper, I think we need to make sure we do this properly. I’m guessing it’s Jennie Stone you caught?”
“Yes, Boss.”
“You made sure she didn’t trip over any communicators after her mission failed, I assume?”
“She didn’t get any messages out, Boss.”
“Do you have any reason for me to take care of this right now?”
“No. We put one of Mr. Branham’s nighty-nights on her. She’s not in any medical danger, and she’s not a danger to anyone.”
“Thanks for taking care of that for me. I doubt there will be any more excitement tonight, but do you mind staying at your post just in case?”
“We had planned to, whether you approved or not, Boss.”
“Nanny protocol, come back to bite my hind end, huh?”
“Right on the first guess, Boss.”
“See you in the morning, Topper.”
“See you then, Boss.” I hung up. Nikki asked, “Who was that, Caveman?”
“Topper. He caught a pest trying to sneak into the house and took care of it.”
“Oh. Come back to bed, I’m cold.” I did, and the next thing I remember was Snitz licking my ear. I got up, and took care of what I needed
