That means you two were off limits to each other. I was clever enough to get transferred so I could snag the poor lad before he knew what was happening.'
Brad Pullman came by, hoisting a toast of his own. 'To the soon to be departed. Is this a private booth or can new guys join in?'
Paul moved over so Brad could join them. A few other junior officers came by and sat down, too. The conversation went on for a while, but it didn't have the same easy familiarity as when it'd been just among the four who'd served together for so long.
And when the night had ended and the next day came, Kris Denaldo and Mike Bristol detached from the crew of the USS Michaelson, walked off the ship for the final time, and life went on.
Commander Moraine had finished her daily little speech at officers' call. Paul was beginning to wonder of she had an entire book of them loaded into her data pad. Taylor was doing a good imitation of someone just barely able to stay awake after listening to the speech. Pullman appeared to be trying not to laugh at Taylor. 'I have one other thing to announce,' Moraine declared with icy looks at Taylor, Pullman, and Paul. 'The captain has informed us that we'll be receiving an updated copy of the Fleet Tactical Action Manual. This has a Top Secret annex containing the latest intelligence on foreign space capabilities. You will be expected to read that annex and be familiar with its contents. It's a new format and Fleet Intelligence Center Space wants feedback.'
Paul, already wondering why he'd gotten a fish-eye from Moraine when he hadn't been engaging in the same high-jinks as Taylor and Pullman, started wondering if this was the sensitive material Connally had told him would be provided to the ship. The bait's here, the taps are in place. It's just a matter of waiting until the trap springs. He looked at Commander Moraine, unable to keep from speculating if her days of giving speeches to them were numbered. The thought did cheer him up somewhat.
'Is something wrong, Mr. Sinclair?'
Paul focused back on Commander Moraine's aggravated expression. 'Uh, no, ma'am.'
'Then get to work. All of you.' Commander Moraine stalked off, furiously punching the keys on her data pad.
Taylor blinked and looked around like someone awakening from a sound sleep. 'Hello? What? Yes, ma'am!' Both Paul and Brad Pullman laughed as Taylor stood and stretched. 'I'm really getting to enjoy these morning rest breaks. See you young 'uns later.' She strolled off, singing 'heigh ho, heigh ho,' in a low voice.
Ivan Sharpe ran Paul down half an hour later. 'Captain's Mast, Mr. Sinclair.'
'I know. I know. At thirteen hundred.'
'No, sir. The captain had something come up and he needs to be off the ship then. Mast has been moved up to zero nine thirty.'
'Zero nine thirty?' Paul checked the time. 'Great. There goes the rest of the morning.'
'Yes, sir. If you'll excuse me, sir, I need to notify everyone else involved.'
Paul dropped what he was doing, calling up the charge sheets for everyone going to Captain's Mast, and ensured they were accurate. Unfortunately, Sharpe had been right about the crew blowing off steam when they hit port, and there'd been an unusually large number of incidents that needed to be handled by the quick and dirty form of military justice known to the Navy as Mast even though its formal name was non-judicial punishment.
At 0915, Paul headed for the mess decks. Regardless of how Commander Moraine felt about it, the ship's legal officer was required to attend every Captain's Mast. Sharpe was already there, furiously checking off the presence of accused personnel, witnesses and the chiefs and division officers of the accused. Paul waved a brief greeting and left Sharpe to his work, going to the side of the compartment where'd he stand during the Mast. 'Mornin', Mr. Sinclair,' Master Chief Maines greeted him.
'Mornin', Master Chief.' The new senior enlisted on the ship had taken over that job when she joined the crew soon after the departure of Senior Chief Kowalski. Paul hadn't had too much interaction with the Master Chief, who worked in engineering, but had the impression she was solid enough at her job, even if not quite the paragon that Kowalski had been. Then again, maybe I'm turning into one of those 'old guys' looking back at the good old days when gods allegedly walked the earth in human form. Paul stood next to Master Chief Maines, waiting in a relaxed, almost-at-ease posture.
Maines checked her watch. 'Gonna be a long one today, sir.'
'Yeah. The crew went a little nuts on us the first days back in port.'
'It happens, sir. Not that we didn't try to keep a lid on things, but after all the crap we went through during that last underway period, a lot of people had a lot of pressure to vent off.'
'Too bad they couldn't have vented a little more gradually and avoided explosive decompression.'
Before Maines could answer, Sharpe stuck his head in the compartment. 'All present and accounted for, Mr. Sinclair. I'm going to get the captain.'
'Very well.' Paul let his mind wander, trying to plan which fires he'd concentrate on putting out for the rest of the day once Mast was over.
Before he knew it, Sharpe was back. 'Attention on deck.'
Paul and Master Chief Maines straightened to attention as Captain Hayes entered. Nodding to both of them, Hayes ordered them to 'carry on' as he went to the small podium set up facing the center of the compartment. As Paul went from attention to parade rest, Hayes pointed at Sharpe. 'Let's go.'
Sharpe leaned back into the passageway. 'Petty Officer Timbale,' he called.
Timbale entered, his uniform well turned out, marching up to stand at attention facing the captain. Behind Timbale, his division officer Ensign Abacha and the chief of his division entered and came to attention on the other side of the compartment, facing Paul and the Master Chief so that the accused sailor was in the center of a three- sided box formed by his superiors.
Hayes eyed the sailor for a moment, then looked down at his data pad. 'Petty Officer Second Class Timbale. You are charged with violation of Article 92 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, Failure to obey order or regulation. You're also charged with violating Article 108, damage to military property of the United States and Article 134, disorderly conduct/drunkenness.' Hayes fixed Timbale with a demanding look. 'What do you have to say?'
Timbale licked his lips nervously before starting to speak. 'Captain, I was drunk.'
Hayes waited a moment, then prodded the sailor. 'That's all?'
'No, sir. I mean, yes, sir. I wasn't disorderly, sir.'
'Why were you charged with being disorderly?'
Timbale let his unhappiness show. 'I believe that's the result of a misunderstanding, sir.'
'A misunderstanding.'
'Yes, Captain.' Timbale's expression became earnest. 'I don't deny me and my shipmates had been hitting the bars and maybe hitting them a little too hard. But we weren't making any fuss. Maybe we were a little loud, but when we got thrown out of- I mean, when we decided to leave that last bar we was going to head back to the ship and sleep it off. But then Johnson started feeling a little dizzy and he laid down and we couldn't get him up again and we had a problem.'
Captain Hayes waited again, then once more posed a question. 'And?'
'Captain, we wasn't going to leave Johnson just lying there. He could've got in trouble. But he's a big guy, sir, and for some reason we was having trouble trying to carry him back to the ship. Then Petty Officer Ghi remembered there was a first aid locker real close.'
'Did you think Johnson was sick?'
'No, sir. We knew he was drunk as a pig. But those first aid lockers have stretchers in them. So we popped open the seal on the first aid locker and pulled out the stretcher and put Johnson on it and carried him back to the ship that way. Then the officer of the deck got kind of upset when she saw Johnson in the stretcher and told us we'd messed up. But we never tried to hurt Johnson, sir!'
Hayes looked perplexed. 'Who said you did?'
Sharpe cleared his throat. 'Excuse me, Captain, but the XO screened out an assault charge against Timbale and the others. It was brought because of some injuries Johnson sustained.'
The Captain looked around, then focused on Timbale. 'How did Johnson get injured?'
