A brief pause followed. 'Duh. I guess my brain's not working all that well, yet. Wait one.' Paul waited, a task made easier by the fact he had nothing else he could do at the moment. 'Okay. Chief Hadasa is officer of the deck inport. Lieutenant Silver showed up about half an hour after the fast cruise started. Since the brow had been sealed except for emergencies, they had to tell him to leave and come back later.'
Paul found himself laughing. 'Lieutenant Silver certainly has a remarkable sense of timing.'
'You can say that again. At this rate, he and Carl may never meet. See you at lunch. If general quarters is secured by then. Maybe we'll have to eat battle rations at our combat stations.'
'Ugh. Good thing Sykes got rid of the oldest rations.'
'Do you really think that'll make any difference in how they taste? Later.'
A weary half-hour later, the bosun mate passed the welcome word to secure from general quarters. A small cheer erupted in Combat. Paul took off his headset, rubbed one ear where the headset had rubbed it, then looked around at his division. 'Good job, people.'
Chief Imari nodded. 'Thank you, sir. Now that drills are over we can get back to work.' The other enlisted groaned at her words. 'But I guess we can let 'em eat lunch first.'
'Careful, Chief. You'll spoil them.' A chorus of playful protests followed Paul as he headed for his own stateroom. He wasn't sure how he looked after hurriedly throwing on his uniform this morning, but he couldn't imagine it was all that great. I'd better make sure I look halfway decent before I run into Kwan or Hayes.
Chapter Five
'Hey, Paul!'
Paul turned, puzzled by the hail since he didn't recognize the voice. A tall, lanky lieutenant stood at the other end of the passageway, Carl Meadows at his side. Carl beckoned and Paul walked toward them. 'This is Lieutenant Silver, Paul.'
'Hi.' Silver flashed a big smile and extended his hand. 'Call me Scott. You're another ring-knocker from the Academy, right?'
'Yup. Nice to see you, Scott.'
'Oh, I bet you're not half as happy to see me as Carl was. It seemed like I couldn't get on this ship!'
Carl nodded. 'It's a real short turnover. We only have a couple of days left.'
'But I was Auxiliaries Officer on the Rickover, so I can handle the turnover for main propulsion assistant quickly.'
Paul gave Carl a puzzled look. 'Main propulsion assistant? But you're the Weapons and Fire Control Officer.'
Carl spread his hands. 'It's a rolling turnover. Lieutenant Kilgary's taking over my job, and Scott Silver's taking over Kilgary's job.'
'Kilgary's going to weapons? Why?'
'Colleen's afraid of being typecast in engineering and being forced to serve in that type of assignment her entire career, so she wants to get experience in another area. She's too late, if you ask me, but I understand why she's doing it.'
'Yeah.' Paul didn't know Colleen Kilgary all that well because their duty sections and watch patterns rarely crossed. But I'm sure she'll do great as Carl's replacement, and having her onboard after Scott takes over her job will mean he has a source of knowledge to draw on. It should be a win-win situation for everybody. 'Is she going to replace you as my underway officer of the deck?'
'Nope,' Silver replied with another smile. 'That'll be me. Carl tells me you're a great junior officer of the deck, so I'm looking forward to it.'
Carl checked his watch. 'Let's get going, Scott. I need to get you to engineering and pick up Colleen to pass on my stuff to her.'
'Sure. See you around, Paul.' Paul watched them go, then mentally shrugged. He seems okay. Friendly, that's for sure. And if he's been on the Rickover he ought to be familiar with how the Michaelson handles as well, so I shouldn't have problems with him as my officer of the deck. I hate to see Carl go, but this could be a lot worse.
Paul, busy with his own work, saw little more of either Carl or Scott Silver before he received a page from the quarterdeck. Jen's here? He glanced at the clock. It's only 1700. She's the one who's early this time.
Jen gave his uniform a critical going over. 'Did you actually get this pressed?'
'Yeah.'
'I guess you're okay.'
'Thanks. I haven't had a uniform inspection this tough since I left the Academy.'
'Ha-ha. Forgive me for wanting you to look decent. Ready to head for the Mahan?'
Two docks over this time, and another quarterdeck very similar but not exactly the same as the Michaelson 's. A very sharp-looking officer of the deck welcomed them aboard, then a very sharp-looking ensign escorted them to the captain's quarters.
Jen rapped on the hatch. 'Lieutenant Shen reporting as ordered.'
Captain Shen looked up from his desk. 'At least you follow orders now that you're in the Navy, Jen. This is Sinclair?'
'Yes. May I present Lieutenant Junior Grade Paul Sinclair.'
Kay Shen squinted at Paul. 'Pleased to meet you. I thought I might have to wear my sunglasses to this little get-together.'
'Sir?'
'Jen keeps talking about this knight in shining armor of hers. I figured I'd need my sunglasses to cut down on the glare.'
Paul smiled politely, unsure how to respond, and trying to figure out why Jen and her father were acting so formal with each other.
'Well, let's eat.' Captain Shen led the way back to the Mahan 's wardroom, where a small group of officers awaited. After a dizzyingly fast round of introductions, Paul found himself seated opposite Jen, unable to be sure of the names of anyone else at the table except Captain Shen himself. The meal passed quickly as well, with only occasional small talk and a few questions to Paul about his operational experiences on the Michaelson. Before he knew it, Captain Shen was rising, everyone else was following suit, and he was once again walking with Jen back to the captain's stateroom.
Captain Shen sat in the one chair, waving Paul and Jen to the small couch against one bulkhead. Paul sat a little stiffly, unable to relax.
Kay Shen smiled briefly at Paul. 'You're an Academy graduate.'
'Yes, sir.' Jen's body, next to his, felt tense.
Captain Shen leaned back, raising one eyebrow at Paul. 'I looked up your record. You weren't the anchorman, but you didn't distinguish yourself in class rank, either.'
Jen's voice carried an edge. 'Dad…'
'Okay, okay. Somebody's got to be in the middle. So, Mr. Sinclair, do you have any plans about making my daughter an honest woman?'
'Dad! I don't require some male keeper to make me an honest woman.'
'Oh. You don't want him.'
'I didn't say that.'
Captain Shen glanced at Paul again. 'I take it you two aren't sharing quarters, yet.'
'Dad!'
'No, sir. We're both still assigned to ships.'
Captain Shen nodded. 'Different ships, fortunately. Good thing you had Gwen Herdez riding herd on you when you were both on the Michaelson.'
'You know Commander Herdez, sir?'
'I had the pleasure of serving with her once. Hard as nails.'