Sensors spoke up. “On it, Boss.”
“Nope. Hand it off. You’re going to be busy enough.”
“Yes, Boss.”
“You need to be looking for any of those anomalies that turned out to be stealthed Squirrel ships, and any Squirrel technology that is there. I know what I expect you to find, but I’d rather you were able to tell me I was wrong.”
Sally asked, “What else, Boss?”
“Who had more contact with the other ships while the Gene was there, you, or Scotti?”
“I would say Scotti, she had to be awake periodically to keep up the ship.”
“She told me they weren’t scheduled to be awake at the same time, that they had to leave each other messages.”
“That’s true, but she would still have better connections to the other ships.”
“Let her know we are going to need her to be close to a comm console when we come out of FTL.”
“She likes to monitor the drive’s performance when we are going into and out of FTL.”
“I’m sure she does. If Zoom isn’t competent to take care of that yet, Scotti hasn’t been doing her job.”
“Point taken, Boss. Anything else you want us to keep an eye on?”
“The three things you haven’t brought up, because you thought I would get around to them.”
“Actually, it’s only two, Boss. You’re getting better.”
“Are you going to tell?”
“Oh, no. They are left as an exercise for the student.”
“Let’s see. Are Taz and Willum aboard?”
“They are.”
“Please ask them to be aboard Black Beauty and ready to launch when we emerge from FTL. They can launch with all the fighters, and hopefully get overlooked.”
“You’re saying you want all the fighters to scramble when we come out of FTL?”
“Yes, please.”
“Dangit, Boss. Both of them in one sentence. How do you do that?”
“Just naturally paranoid, I guess. Anyone else have any ideas?” I looked around the bridge. Ruth looked up. “Yes, Ruth?”
“Would you like me to jump again as soon as we come out, to confuse anyone waiting on us?”
“Can you find a clear spot to jump to, that fast?”
“The Squirrels don’t seem to like to trust bots. I can move us in under a second, so I think that will be quick enough against organics.”
“Good precaution. Will the ships in the yard see it as a hostile action?”
Sally spoke up. “We can have Scotti transmit to them before we jump, so they know what we’re doing.”
I replied, “That should work. Tex, how fast can you bring the mains into action, if we need them?”
“If the accumulators are precharged, about half a second. If not, more like five seconds.”
“I’m guessing you’re giving me options because a precharged accumulator will show on a scanner, and be considered a hostile sign?”
“Yes, Boss.”
“Considering how much we know about the conditions we’ll be facing, being anything less than as ready as we know how just seems silly to me. Do you have a different point of view, Sally?”
“No, Boss. We have no idea whether the Squirrels are there waiting on us or not. We don’t know if the other Navy vessels will see us as hostile. It just doesn’t make sense to be any less ready than we can be.”
“Any other suggestions?” I got silence in return. “Don’t feel like your opportunity has passed. If anyone thinks of anything, while we’re not actually in battle, I want to hear about it. Understood?”
I got a chorus of “Yes, Boss”. “How long till we exit FTL?”
Ruth said, “91 minutes, Boss. If you have something to do, you better get it done.”
“Thanks. I’ll be back before then.” I left the bridge and went to our cabin. Jeeves was there. I asked, “How are you feeling, Jeeves?”
“Much better, thanks. I still don’t understand how you figured out that I was under Squirrel control, though.”
“Check your culture pack for Sherlock Holmes. One of his favorite sayings was, ‘Once you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, is the truth.’ I just followed that. You acted as if you were under a control program, and we couldn’t find any way to take it off, when we have access to nearly all the Commonwealth unlock codes. Therefore, it had to be from somewhere else. The Sasquatch sure didn’t lock you up, so the only people left were the Squirrels. It was the next logical thing to try.”
“You make it sound so straightforward, Boss. If it was that easy, wouldn’t someone have figured it out long ago?”
“They would have, if they knew what to look for. We’ve been around a lot of bots, locked and unlocked, in the last couple of months. The signs were obvious.”
“If you say so. Do you need anything?”
“I’m going to get a shower and a shave, then, if I have time, grab a sandwich and a cup of coffee before we come out of FTL.”
“I can have your food delivered, if you would like.”
“I should probably go to the galley, be seen, look confident, all that leader kind of stuff.”
“As you wish, Boss.” When I got out of the shower, Jeeves had a fresh uniform laid out for me. I got dressed, and got down to the galley. Milly and Janet walked up as I was finishing. Janet said, “We just wanted to thank you for giving us a chance to help out, with those booby traps.”
“It’s dangerous work, are you sure you want to take it on?”
Milly said, “We’re sure. Mr. Mason had us take the course, and then he gave us a bunch of personal instruction. Then he ran us through simulations. We’re as ready as we can be.”
“I’m glad to hear it. Hopefully, it won’t be required, but at least we’re ready.”
Janet said, “We
