Jethro 3: No Place Like Home (58 page)

“Well, we can put in for a bump I suppose. You can pass the E-5 test right?” Valenko offered.

She waved it off. “I'll earn mine, fair and square thank you, sir.”

“Okay, so quit bitching about it then,” Harley said tartly. “You're acting like you've got some monumental stick up your ass. It's not our fault you got laid up. Get over it.”

Asazi looked affronted. “You of all people are bitching at me when I joke with you about it?” she asked.

“Ah hell, forget I even said anything,” Harley said, waving a hand paw in disgust. That got a chuckle from the bear and the others.

Chapter 25

Admiral Irons had sent along enough material to complete one long overdue project, Prometheus. Shelby Logan received her formal orders to take over command of Prometheus as her Captain. When she had arrived at the Yard with Xavier she'd been offered the slot as her Captain by Commander Decius, but she had politely refused. Xavier was slated for several months of restoration work before she was returned to service. Prometheus on the other hand was up her alley as an engineering ship. She was a Cabeiri Zeta class, a variant created by the Admiral personally. It was essentially the Epsilon class but with some tweaks. She had cruiser class shields for one, as well as a full-point defense suite of lasers, ECM and counter missiles. The design had also swapped the defunct antimatter reactor and fuel storage for an additional two class two fusion reactors. Unfortunately, she lacked one of her six industrial replicators, but they couldn't have everything perfect.

No, a tin can wasn't for her. She also believed in the mission of Prometheus finding it important, to go around the sector repairing the infrastructure of various worlds, making good will and contacts while starting the Admiral's planned second phase of recovery. Hopefully, they would rouse up enough support to get the Federation government back online, with funding and manpower to go along with it.

Her job would go a long way to spread civilization in the sector and a renewed interest in the Federation. But she had to have support, which was why a tanker and suitable escorts were under construction as well.

Until Prometheus launched Shelby would spend her time overseeing her construction while also overseeing construction and repairs of a sector of the Yard. Her departure opened a chain of command hole on Firefly, one not easily filled on such short notice. With the ship AI frocked to commodore it was a thorny issue. Technically, he could serve as XO since the Captain outranked him by date of rank, but the AI didn't put himself in for the post.

Purple Thorn passed on the promotion; she felt it would be nepotism to take it. Janice was interested in the position, but she was gently let down when Renee told her she didn't have the ability to command without more seasoning.

Finally, two days before they were scheduled to leave dock someone else was brought in. Lieutenant Commander Simon Dart was the epitome of a Federation Naval officer. At least a male human one, tall average looking but handsome, with brown hair and a lean muscular body. He was well dressed in his day uniform when he reported for duty, stiff and formal. Very by the book, insisting on full protocols be performed despite the rather hectic repairs and resupply going on in the ship.

Commander Dart spoke with a British accent but was quiet and reserved. He looked around, seemingly judging the crew on their appearance and behavior. Some of the crew knew of him, texting each other about him. He had served briefly on Fuentes as her JTO before he'd transferred to the college for remedial courses. He had spent time in the Yard, rising quickly to command his own sector.

During the intervening years he'd had a brief transfer to San Diego before return to the Annex in an admin position, doubling as guest lecturer at the war college on San Diego once a month. Last year he had transferred to Damocles as TACO during the most recent war games.

Since then he had risen to XO rank of Centurion, one of the newly-constructed frigates before a personality conflict with Captain Naomi Samuels made her transfer him. His transfer to Firefly came with a promotion to Lieutenant Commander, something he apparently thought was long overdue.

Captain Samuels called Firefly and warned Mayweather about him. “I think he bounced around so much not because he couldn't find a position he liked as much as a crew only being able to stand his stiff upper lip and backbone so much. There is only so much one can stand of a know it all. I hope you rub that crap out of him.”

“There is something to be said about putting on an air of confidence. But too much is just asking for trouble,” Renee replied, trying hard not to be prejudiced against her new XO before she got to know him.

“He's ambitious. He's gunning for a Captain's chair and possibly flag rank. He's got a lot to learn though,” she said.

“Good. I hope he knows it,” Renee replied.

“Oh he does, he does, at least now. I cleaned his clock a few times in the sims after he got a little too uppity. You'll probably need to prune him back regularly to keep him in order. But be warned, he sometimes takes it out on the crew. Which backfires, they lose all respect for him.”

“Lovely,” Renee sighed. “Thanks for the heads up, Naomi,” Renee replied.

“Good luck, good hunting. You'll need it,” Naomi replied. The other Captain nodded and cut the link.

Renee continued reading, but there wasn't much left in his bio file. He didn't like Marines for some reason. He had spent time as a gunship Captain before Firefly had returned. His ship had been in dock for a routine refit; he had transferred over to fill the void in Firefly's crew. It came with a promotion. “Lucky us,” Renee murmured.

She did like how he'd jumped right in, resolving their missing shuttle and fighter issue right off. He'd managed to cut the Gordian knot tangling the mess up and get a pair of Skyhawks for her. She would have preferred shuttles with less of a wingspan, the better to fit more into her already tight boat bays, but she'd take what she could get.

Firefly was to be dispatched to Gaston as a diplomatic mission. She was to travel north, visit Centennial, and if possible locate the overdue Kiev 221, retracing her path up the chain if necessary. From what the Admiral had let on, Firefly might end up on a circuit, traveling a series of worlds in the southwest of the sector. She was be a sort of a roving sheriff, showing the flag and stomping on any pirates that passed through while gathering intel. That would make that area safer and more secure for shipping to pass through. At least that was the theory.

There was still some debate on the convoy route and schedule. She'd heard some scuttlebutt about it. For now they were running the longer route, up Agnosta instead of the shorter route through Gaston and up past Centennial to Antigua that way. The Gaston flight was ten parsecs shorter, but it had a few spots with issues like Centennial. To be fair, the Agnosta route did too with Briev, but at least on that route they could stage material and personnel through the Marine base on Agnosta. As well as in the space stations under construction there.

Their new assignment would be interesting, far more interesting than sitting picket duty in some empty system with nothing but rocks to count. Or sitting on Agnosta or in Pyrax.

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

Janice Yu wandered the naval annex. She bumped into Lt Commander Valdez in passing. He was harried but recognized her. “Sorry, make a hole...Oh, hey Janice! Long time no see!” He said, catching her arm to help her balance. She was startled by his greeting and off balance both mentally and physically.

She had turned to one side to let him pass, frowning as her IFF pinged him. She didn't recognize him out of uniform until the IFF came back. She had been about to point out that a junior was supposed to give way to a senior when moving but he surprisingly outranked her. She felt a little bitter over that. Many had signed on after her and were rising through the ranks like a rocket. That was increasingly bothering her.

She'd never thought she'd want anything but a helms chair. Firefly was incredible; with her augmentation it was almost orgasmic sometimes. But she was starting to realize something in her wanted more. A new challenge. The skipper's insistence that she man a command watch had opened her eyes to new things. But she hesitated to move out of her comfort zone.

“Commander...wowa!” She blinked now recognizing him. Junior Valdez had aged a lot over the past three years since she had seen him last. Even though he was a decade younger than her, he still looked older or at least mature. More mature than when he was a helmsman on Firefly at any rate. He also outranked her, which urked her a little. She glanced over her shoulder to see Renee coming up behind them.

“It's like old home week. Want to go out to dinner? Purely to catch up of course,” he said with a charming grin. Janice blinked in confusion.

“Do it! We've got time, do it or you're an idiot!” Renee encouraged her, texting her. “Besides, he's cute,” she texted, tweaking Janice into a slight flush.

Janice looked at her Captain and then nodded. “Sure, when, Commander?” she asked hesitantly.

Junior smiled, making her smile back. “Commander, hell. I'm off duty, and besides, we're not in the same chain of command.” He said shaking his head. “Call me Junior. Sergio is still my dad,” he told her.

“I remember Junior. I didn't know your name was Sergio though.”

He smiled again. “Sergio Jorge Valdez. Mom calls dad by his middle name, but others call him by his first name. I don't know if I can ever get used to having Sergio as a first name. I've been Junior my whole life,” he shrugged.

His response amused her. She chuckled. “I can tell living in your father's shadow wasn't easy,” she said sympathetically. She could understand; her dad had been the navigator on Carib Queen. She'd lived under him for years, which had been wearing from time to time.

He shrugged. “Yeah well, sometimes you have to step out when opportunity knocks. You may not get a second chance. I'm flying like I've dreamed,” he said with a wave.

Janice brushed her bangs out of her eyes, suddenly feeling shy. He smiled though, that felt nice. He had a nice smile.

She dithered a bit over her outfit. Renee took her to a shop on Anvil, and together they picked out a dress. Renee made her try on several; then they bought the best four with the appropriate accessories for each. Janice went to dinner in the pick of the litter, a red dress, feeling at first out of place and self-conscious, but when he whistled in appreciation she preened a little. His eyes lit and she blushed, feeling great about his appreciation. He made a motion with his finger and she spun dimpling. When she saw the stunned look in his face she grinned.

Renee had been watching from the sidelines. She gave Janice an okay hand sign. “Mission accomplished,” she texted. “Have a good time,” she'd finished as Junior offered Janice his arm. Janice took the arm and they were off.

Janice was enchanted by his attention and deeply flattered by his apparent sincere reaction to her beauty. No boy had ever thought of her as anything but plain. She had trouble accepting her mature beauty but relaxed in his presence.

They bonded over dinner, chatting about manning the helm. She found he was only six years younger than her, not an insurmountable gap when one considered anti-aging treatments. Junior admitted he'd rather pilot a small craft but was now stuck behind a desk more than he'd like. He snuck out to train recruits or fly the ops force in sims whenever he could. She laughed.

He took her dancing at a local club. It must have been the wine and excitement, but she'd felt a thrill over it all, flushed and excited. He'd requested a slow song before they had left, and she'd wrapped her arms around him and shuffled along with him as they moved, feeling the heat of his body as she nuzzled against his chest. That had led to a smoldering kiss and a stumbling path to a nearby hotel, which had started a new phase of their relationship. She had thought that they would both be reluctant to take it too far but apparently such thoughts were forgotten in the heat and passion of the moment.

They woke in a sated tangle of arms and legs, both nude. For a while they talked softly, both still sleepy from the night's affairs. He stroked her hair, something she found she liked. That had led to another round of love making until their stomachs had growled for a meal. That had set them giggling and a call to room service.

They chatted over the meal, sitting Indian style on the bed. “What are we going to do?” she asked, in a red kimono. He liked it that she'd left it loose, letting him see the treasures within the silken folds. She blushed when he came behind her to kiss and massage the nape of her neck. “Damn that feels good,” she purred softly.

He chuckled softly. She'd found him to be a tender lover, hesitant, but oh so tender. Such a gentleman too, holding back his lust until her own body had overflown with her passion. She'd delighted in his kisses, and his insistence that she call the pace.

“Oh that feels good,” she said as his hands wandered over her body. Her eyes closed to half lids as her body drank in his touch, overwhelming her senses. “We need to talk though,” she murmured.

“Now?” He asked wickedly in her ear as he kissed the lobe.

She sighed. “Unfortunately, yes. I've got to...to report in. Firefly is leaving tomorrow,” she said, feeling sorrow hit her. Suddenly lovemaking wasn't on her mind anymore.