Jethro 3: No Place Like Home (43 page)

A lot of the computer hardware was being swapped out anyway for newly manufactured equipment; no one really wanted to trust a system that had been compromised, especially in hyperspace. Jethro didn't envy Ox the task ahead of him. The Tauren and the prize crew engineers were going to be busy for weeks. Hell, he'd probably draft Jethro and others with some DCC training to help out, the panther thought wryly.

He found the mess; they were using the four-tiered dining room instead of one of the crew galleys near the center of the ship. He shrugged as he looked around. The cylinder compartment was opulent, a bit beyond his tastes with the fluted marble columns, gilded fixtures, waterfall chandeliers, and draperies, but nice. He did make a note to remove the damn drapes though. He didn't appreciate seeing the Horathian flag everywhere. That had to go. Marine or Navy flags would replace them or nothing at all he thought, making a note.

“Lieutenant Valenko, a word?” Jethro sent in a text message.

“What is it, Gunny?” The bear texted back. “I'm hibernating, or at least trying to,” the bear said, sending him a face with a tongue out. The panther snorted.

“Sorry, sir, just thought you'd have some orders for me.”

“Check security over. Give me an independent eval when I'm up. Go over the ship; I'd appreciate a second opinion.”

“Aye aye, sir, prowl and be the big bad, Gunny.”

“Out. And I do mean out. Out like a light,” the bear replied. “Night.”

“Night, sir,” Jethro replied.

As Jethro checked the brigs and set up, he was badgered by Bast. The AI was awake, and a little playful and into her why phase. He realized she had questions about the therapy session when she started feeding him images of what he'd seen. He was so distracted he nearly stumbled on a curl of carpet. He paused. “What? What are you getting at? I so wish you'd talk,” Jethro sighed.

The AI seemed confused by the image of the crying woman, replaying it over and over. He tried to do his best to explain it. “Look Bast, what we saw was...well, an invasion of privacy. A private moment for those people. They were trying to heal, both mentally and physically.”

She was puzzled, emitting a confused merow. “There are bad people out there, bad people who wanted to harm them, and did. They are sick, some really sick.” He tried to explain when she didn't let up, telling her quietly that the people were badly treated. “They are victims okay? People who suffered greatly at the hands of the pirates. They survived though, but scarred mentally and physically. Now they are trying to cope, to get back on track. Talking about it, talking in a group helps. It shares the feelings, gets them out, lets you know others know, they feel the same pain, they support you.”

The eyes blinked at him and then looked away. He sighed heavily. “It's...it is my....
our
job to save them. Sometimes we succeed, but we can't be everywhere, you know? We can't...look we can't save everyone. I wish we could. I wish we could spare her pain, but at least she's safe now,” Jethro said quietly. He felt the AI, a phantom touch as she cuddled against him and then drifted into a nap.

He hoped the images that had come up in his mind didn't disturb her. He turned, and moved on. Since he had his suit on and had the free time, he decided a deck by deck check, compartment by compartment would be in order. He wasn't sure if he would find anything, but he could do it.

As he moved through the ship he became increasingly disturbed, and then angered by what he found. He tried to put a damper on his reactions, knowing they would wake Bast. The last thing he wanted was for the AI to wake and ask questions he didn't want to answer. He shook his head, looking at a room filled with gruesome devices. The smell of blood and death was nearly overwhelming. He closed his helmet and clutched at his C-42 Impaler. He wanted to...he turned away as the AI stirred. No, he'd have to keep a lid on it, he thought. He realized now why the Marines hadn't said they'd done a full search or hadn't done a follow up. Some things...some things you just didn't want to see again.

Chapter 19

“Does this mean I'm losing you finally, Commander?” Mayweather asked, turning an inquiring eye to her exec. Word had gotten around about the promotions. There was an excited feel in the air; everyone wondered where lightening would strike next.

“Not until Prometheus launches, ma'am.” Newly promoted Commander Shelby Logan said, smiling. “I'm more of an engineer at heart, ma'am. I think I can do well there.”

“I think so too. And now that we've got a work around, let see if we can finally pull a Captain's chair out for you permanently.” She smiled slightly. Her exec had been promoted to full Commander and was going to skipper Xavier for the ride back to Pyrax. She would be greatly missed. Renee didn't like the holes in her crew, but she understood the need. She just hoped she got most of them back when they returned to Pyrax. “Getting this chain of command thing sorted out was going to be a headache. Wait until Vargess hears about this.” She grinned mischievously.

“I forgot about that. And daddy,” Shelby grimaced. “I mean
Captain
Horatio Logan.”

“Your father hasn't been entirely too comfortable with over-all command. I think a change may be in order, for the good. Although my being in system command will make things interesting,” Firefly grimaced.

“Aye aye, Commodore,” Captain Mayweather said with a smile.

“Yes, that is definitely going to take a bit of getting used to,” Firefly replied. The Captain chuckled.

“I've received files from Commander Sprite. Most are encrypted for Captain Logan and the staff. We also have an all ships header to look for Kiev 221.”

“Yes, I remember from the dispatches. She's still overdue?”

“Yes. She still hasn't arrived in Pyrax.”

“Ouch. Well, we may have to look into that, Firefly or another ship.”

The AI nodded.

“Anything else?”

“Yes, some file updates, and I do have one personal message for a civilian.”

“A civilian?”

“I think I know who,” Commander Logan said, smiling coyishly. “Miss O’Neill if I don't miss my guess do I?” she asked, looking at the AI avatar.

The AI nodded.

“Thought so. Boy he has some explaining to do,” Shelby said, smiling slightly wider. Her eyes twinkled with mischief. “And come to think of it, she's going to be just a bit put out because we turned down her request to come along.”

“She'll get over it,” the Captain growled. She poked Shelby. “I believe you have a ride to catch, Captain Logan.”

Shelby blinked and then nodded. “By your leave then, Captain?” she asked with a smile.

“Go on, get out of here. Get Xavier sorted out; we've got a long ride ahead of us.”

“Aye aye, ma’am.” She turned and nodded to the AI. “Sir.”

“My compliments, Captain,” the AI said, with a return nod. “Smooth sailing.”

“Aye, sir,” Shelby replied, saluting the AI, and then the Captain. They returned the salutes and then she about faced and walked out of the compartment. Renee just caught the small smirk on her former exec's face.

“Think she'll do okay?”

“She'll do just fine, ma'am. It's past time to push her out of the nest,” Firefly responded.

“Yes well, that does open up a bit of a hole in our chain of command though,” she shook her head. Newly promoted Lieutenant J.G. Tr'j'ck her JTO was off on the prisoner liner, acting as her Captain. Ensign Sampson her senior communications officer was off on one of the frigates, as was Ensign Rator'll her sensor officer. Both had been promoted to Lieutenant JG and then frocked to Lieutenant rank to handle the Captain's slot on the ships.

It was temporary; there was no way she'd sign off on either of them getting a two-grade bump in rank. She was a bit concerned about that Veraxin; he was still a bit jittery and hadn't quite settled down enough in her opinion. Hopefully his time in the hot seat would mature him. Chief Chowler was on one of the freighters. Manning bridge watches on Firefly,
frack
, all the ships was going to be fun for the midshipman and ratings, she'd have to keep a close eye on them. At least she still had Janice and guns by her side.

“I'm still a bit confused about why our resident tac witch declined a posting. Janice I can understand, I asked her to stay since we're the flagship and all the other ships in the convoy are going to take their lead off us. I need the best at the helm. But I'm a little concerned that Purple Thorn declined a prize command.”

“I am not certain about her motivation, Captain; you'd have to ask her. But it could be she has concern about her relative size. Projecting command is difficult for an elf when those under them are of larger size.”

“Which is about everyone here. She doesn't seem that troubled with Ensign Tr'j'ck or her department though,” the Captain replied thoughtfully, playing with her bottom lip.

“No, and she does fine when she mans a bridge watch as well. I would suggest talking to her about it.”

“I will,” the Captain said, nodding. “But I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. We've got you, Lieutenant Lu, and her primarily. Janice will be too busy manning the helm and navigation to take a watch, I suppose I'm going to be manning a watch...” She grimaced. “This is going to be tight. I'm glad it is a short flight.”

“Aye, Captain. Short for us perhaps, but for those who are even more shorthanded, it could be a very long flight indeed.”

“True,” the Captain mused.

---( | ) --- ( | )---

When Jethro woke he felt remiss, he frowned. He'd toured the whole ship but he knew he'd forgotten something, something important. As his sleepy mind probed the sore spot like a tongue probing a bit of meat stuck between his teeth, he got up and got himself squared away. Finally he realized what he'd forgotten and felt like kicking himself. His tail flicked in annoyance as he stood there near the unused bed. He closed his eyes and pulled up the ship's net and the TOE.

Oasis's Table of Organization and Equipment was depressingly short. There were four squads of Marines on the cruise liner to go along with the twenty enlisted and six officers including the two Marine officers. PFC Hart had it right; the Veraxin Lieutenant J.G. Tr'j'ck was their acting Captain. He had three other naval officers with him; one frocked from a chief petty officer from Firefly. CPO Evans was now an acting Ensign and department head of ops.

That left Jethro as senior ranking noncom on the ship. Also, apparently doing double duty as chief of the boat. Joy, Jethro thought. And apparently Spitterman was left on Firefly to deal with the noobs. Jethro wasn't sure if he should pity the good Staff, or the people under him.

He snorted at his train of thought and then got back to reading. The other two naval officers were also department heads, both former noncoms frocked to the rank of ensign. One was Ensign Winter, a small pale human female with blackish purple hair. Her skin was almost iridescent, changing in color from a pale off white to a bluish depending on her mood. Scuttlebutt said she had some water chimera genes in her history. She was their chief navigator and helmsman.

The newl- minted Ensign Rofl was a Neo chimp, a nice guy, but quiet. He'd served in various departments on Firefly and other ships, or so the grapevine said. He loved to learn but hadn't wanted officers rank; it had been thrust upon the simian. Hopefully he didn't let his new rank go to his head. He was filling in a variety of roles, but he was listed as acting XO for the ship as well.

As senior officer Lieutenant Valenko was the head of the Marine contingent as well as the ship's acting security chief. Technically the grizzly outranked the other officers on the ship, but he was a Marine, therefore he wasn't supposed to command the ship. Jethro had expected that; after all, the bear's calling was the Marines. But to his surprise he found out that each of the senior officers, including the Marines, had to man a bridge watch. He frowned. That probably had them a bit nervous, and it showed just how strained they were. He checked the other department heads and then snorted.

Ox as their most experienced engineer had been pressed into acting chief engineer, much to his amusement. Ox's squad was the second squad on the ship; half were helping the big Tauren in engineering or manning life support. The other half were manning posts in the galley. Unglamorous for sure but necessary. The food replicators and small crew should limit the need for many people there though, Jethro thought.

He frowned, then cocked his head. No, he thought carefully, that wasn't true. Sure they had replicators, but the prisoners didn't. That meant...he sighed and shook his head. He'd have to look into it later.

Valenko's squad was mostly drawing the security duty alongside most of the mechs. Not all the mechs were security the panther realized; a few were engineering remotes. He nodded. That was good, it gave the Tauren an extra set of hands.

His squad...he frowned. His squad was mostly on security duty. He was...he frowned, not sure about their status. Either a few were helping out in the other departments or they were laying low somewhere...or exploring the ship. He'd have to look into that.

Ensign Esh'z was going over the intel they had. He had an agenda, and apparently nothing except a direct person-to-person order from the bear could get him out of his narrow mindset for long. He was barely attending to his squad, but apparently the grizzly had taken over for him. He'd tried to assign them duties in his intel projects, but the bear had overruled the ensign and put them to work on other more pressing duties.