Second Chances (137 page)

“All right, Commander. What is it?”

“Admiral, you should be focused on the big picture not doing grunt work.”

Irons frowned thoughtfully but didn't reply.

“You have to delegate situations like this, not just the basic repair, which by the way is code. The line is fine; we're using it but also the training.”

“He lacks confidence. He's young. He's getting it.”

“I know that, sir, but you shouldn't be the one to have to deal with it. We need you doing your job. There are people to make certain he does his.”

“And I seem to recall the chain of command is a bit messed up right now,” Irons replied.

“True. And yes, this ship is damaged....but...”

Irons held up a hand. “Status of the fleet?”

“Unchanged since last update four hours ago.”

“And the same can be said for the past day and week correct? There isn't a lot I can do as an admiral in hyper.”

“There is paperwork.”

“Which you should be handling as my chief of staff. You and the AI. I'm currently acting captain until we find someone to fill the slot, so my responsibility is to this ship and crew too, Commander.”

“What about planning for the future, Admiral?” Sprite pointed out. “And yes, I am the chief of staff, so my job is to keep you on task and on the mission.”

“Okay, first of all, I refuse to plan any more than we already have. The basic outline is there, I don't need another endless meeting rehashing the same old dog and pony show again. Been there, done that. There is only so far you can take planning.”

“Admiral, Prior Planning...”

“Yeah yeah, prevents piss pour performance. But I can't coordinate with the other ships in hyper right now, so we can't be on the same page.”

“True.”

“They are each taking their course heading and speed from
Maine
, which means
Maine
needs to be functional.”

“Yes sir, but...”

“My ass, your ass, is riding on the line here. I can do a lot getting this ship functional again while also bonding with the crew and assessing them.”

“I see...”

“I want to make certain this is done correctly, Commander. I don't want someone snipping a line to oh, say the hyperdrive.”

“Um, okay, good point.”

The admiral smiled sourly. “So we're good?”

“Yes, you can go play hooky as long as you eat your veggies and attend at least the morning meetings,” Sprite replied, clearly exasperated.

The admiral exhaled noisily and ran a hand through his hair. “Glad we've cleared the air.”

“I just thought you were backsliding. Going back to old habits, burying yourself in small problems and leaving the big picture alone.”

“I can't do much about the big picture while in hyper. I refuse to worry about it anymore than I already have, some things are just out of my hands right now. I can't change that until we get
Maine
sorted out. One problem at a time Commander.”

“Aye, sir. Don't rub it in,” she growled. “...Admiral.”

He snorted and went back to work. After a moment Sprite flipped back into the net and decided a check with Lobsterman on the other work parties might be in order.

Maine
had a lot of damage to repair, and unfortunately, her chain of command left a lot to be desired. It was something they had attempted to work out prior to leaving B101a1, but
Firefly
had been tasked to return to Pyrax in a certain window, and the admiral had wanted to clear out to B100 omega in order to facilitate repairs better there, refuel the fleet with his automated refinery he had left in orbit, and to send a relief force to Hidoshi's World to follow up the one led by Lieutenant Lewis.

Maine
had a navigator, ops officer, tactical officer, and some very junior officers, but she lacked a properly trained chief engineer, captain, and XO. To be fair, most of the ships in their fleet had similar manning issues.

The fleet had a dedicated core of former slaves turns sailors and Marines as well as transferred personnel from
Firefly
. To thicken things up they had two hundred former slaves from the Horathian fleet, many still on the ships they had been enslaved on. Each and every one had volunteered for the posting. The admiral had taken the most experienced of these to thicken the ship's companies, but each ship was still undermanned with what was barely a skeleton crew on many.

Things were definitely going to be interesting, the AI thought. Now that they had gotten over the emotional high of liberation, many were starting to strain under the pressure of the work load. Oh, many of the organics had dealt with living and working on a damaged ship for most of their lives, but in this case they had to deal with training along with residual psychological trauma issues. It was only a matter of time before someone somewhere broke. She just hoped it wouldn't be too bad...

You can read the rest in the fall/winter of 2014-2015. (I hope!)