“Thanks, Boss.” Jasmine got him ready for another round of sims. I headed back up to the ready room, satisfied that Diego didn’t hold a grudge. I wasn’t properly equipped for this political stuff, but I was the one in the big chair, so I did my best. Jackie was waiting on me when I arrived. I asked, “Am I late?”
“No, Boss. Actually, we should wait five more minutes, according to Mr. Branham’s rules.”
“I won’t tell if you don’t. Let’s get it done.”
“Yes, Boss.” When I finished, Jackie was still there. I asked, “Something I can help you with?”
“Well, I’m not sure how to say it.”
“Just say what you want to. I’m fairly hard to offend.”
“You admitted the only reason we had to go to the Navy yard in such a hurry is because you made a mistake.”
“I did. Is that a problem?”
“I’ve never worked with a human who wouldn’t put the blame on a bot, if they had an opportunity. You taking blame for your own mistakes is new to me. I’m not sure how I feel about it.”
“How am I supposed to get better at being Captain, if I don’t acknowledge my mistakes? We’re in a tricky situation, we need the best Captain we can get. I’m trying to improve where I can. I’m not sure what the problem is.”
“Back in the Navy, the Captains all thought they knew it all. You’re different, and it’s taking me a while to get used to.”
“I don’t mean to cause you problems, Jackie. Is there something specific you think I should do differently?”
“That’s just it, Boss. Your way works better, I just have trouble remembering that the Navy way isn’t the only way.”
“We’re all doing what we can to keep the ship going. If you see me doing something you think I could do better, please let me know. I need all the help I can get.”
“I’ll do that, Boss. Thanks for taking the time to talk.”
“No problem.” I headed down to medbay. John was at his desk. He said, “Hello, Captain. What can I do for you?”
“Captain? What happened to Bob?”
“You went and put me in your chain of command, for starters.”
“Well, if you’re going to be that way about it, Sally says it should be Commodore now, anyhow.”
“Because you’re about to be in command of a fleet?”
“Because she’s a Captain now, and she doesn’t want anybody confused about who is in charge, mostly. The other doesn’t matter till tomorrow when we get to the yard.”
“I’m guessing you’re not here just to give me an update on our command structure?”
“I know you would rather be in charge of medbay, and nothing else, but circumstances are making us all do things we don’t want to. Is Dixie ready to be Chief Medical Officer?”
“She passed her last cert this morning.”
“What about Jane? You can’t be on the bridge where you belong, and in medbay, too.”
“She’s ready, but she won’t admit it.”
“I’m giving you Pete, so Greg won’t have to get used to a new trainer.”
“So, you’re going to try and keep families together on the ships?”
“I’d rather have it the way it is now, with all of us together, but that just isn’t going to be possible. We need experienced people on all the ships, if we have enough.”
“Are we going to wind up going back to Earth and raiding Veteran’s Homes, for crew?”
“The way things are going, I’d hate to rule it out.”
“So, what’s our plan for now?”
“I want to get the ships mobile, and move them someplace the Squirrels won’t be able to find them. Once we have that done, we can worry about our next move.”
“We’re not doing anything right away to impress the Squirrels?”
“I have to think they would take that as a hostile gesture, and things are tense enough with them already. If we wind up having to deliver more of their ships, I could be convinced to make it a fleet exercise.”
“You mean, jump into orbit with the whole fleet, dump off their ships, and jump out, without any fuss?”
“That was floating around the back of my mind, yeah.”
“I hate it when you and Nikki get separated. You get mean in a hurry.”
“You don’t think that’s the right way to go about it?”
“I do, but usually, you come up with a plan that is less aggressive than mine.”
“So far, being less aggressive with the Squirrels really hasn’t bought us much, do you think?”
“I see what you mean, but I’m still a little leery of pushing them too hard.”
“I am too, but what I’m thinking is that we demonstrate that we could, if we so desired, do them more damage than they are willing to take. At the same time, we demonstrate that we have no such desire.”
“That sounds reasonable, but it seems to me that we could get put in a situation where we have no choice but to shoot our way out.”
“We can always send Taz and Willum in first to see how much they’ve improved their defenses.”
“You don’t think much of the Squirrels as opponents, do you?”
“What I’ve seen so far doesn’t lead me to that conclusion, no. They seem to be all bluff and no tough.”
“They do like to avoid direct conflict, don’t they? Makes me wonder if we need to be on the lookout for booby traps once we get there.”
“Somebody snuck the Gene out of there, so I doubt there were any at that time. What I’ve seen of Squirrel tech is hard to understand, for a human. Of course, they’ve had a few thousand years to correct that mistake.”
“I
