Fool's Gold (The Wandering Engineer) (91 page)

The
Admiral chuckled. "Right, I don't blame you. Corvette duty is cramped,
stinky duty. Not for the faint of heart."

“So,
maybe it will be good for him after all then,” Shelby said with a grin.

"Admiral
you have a meeting in five minutes," Sprite interrupted, popping in beside
him. She tapped her foot and crossed her arms.

"I'm
going, I'm going."

"Now
look Dan, I know your first instinct is to tear things apart and make things
your own way but there is a rhyme and reason to how things are put together on
a ship. Don't rush to judgment in your first couple days. Take the time to
listen to the crew and don't try to change things right off. Try to adapt to
them as much as they adapt to you. It will make the transition a lot
easier," Mayweather said as they went to his quarters.

"And
you've been through this how many times?" Dan asked distracted.

"More
times then you know," she replied, trying to keep the bite out of her
voice. He paused looking at her.

"I've
had several captains on my old yacht. When my sister first came to the chair it
was a nightmare the first week. She nearly killed us twice. She thought she
knew everything and micromanaged," she sighed.

"A
jumped up star yacht? You're comparing a warship command to that kind of
experience?" Dan asked sounding disgusted.

"Trust
me Dan, when it comes to command it's all relative," she shrugged.
"You'll learn in  time."

"Right,
now if you'll excuse me, I have some packing to do. Captain," Dan said
snidely as he stalked off. She let him go.

"Learn
the hard way then," she muttered to herself.

The
door to the bridge opened and then closed. Shelby turned and looked then looked
around. "Firefly, is there something wrong with the door?"

"No
why?"

"It
just opened and closed on its own," she replied.

"That's
because someone came in," Firefly sounded amused.

"Someone?"
Shelby asked. Firefly's avatar pointed down at her feet. She looked. Standing
at attention was an elf dressed in a fleet officer's uniform. Her implants fed
her the elf's IFF. "Can I help you? Ah. Lieutenant Thorn right?"

"First
Lieutenant Thorn reporting for duty commander," she saluted. Shelby stood
and returned the salute.

"All
right, where are you being posted?" Shelby asked confused.

"Tactical
ma'am. I'm your new Tactical officer ma'am," Thorn replied. Most of the
bridge crew looked up in surprise. Firefly turned a glare on them and they went
back to their duties. The ECM officer looked a little crestfallen.

"As
you were people," Shelby muttered a second too late.

"Right,"
Thorn nodded.

"So
you’re our new tactical officer? Do you have any experience?" Shelby asked
feeling dumb.

"I
served with Commander Logan on Sun-Yat. I transferred to Maya as tactical and
defense officer there. When I found there was an opening here I put in for a
transfer. The Admiral approved it, pending final approval of Firefly and the
captain," Thorn shrugged. “He's already filled my shoes with a sleeper kid
that you pulled off that Dutchman liner.” The elf raised her hands as if to
shrug. Her tail twitched a few times.

"Right,
the captain, she's in her day cabin," Firefly reported. The Elf nodded.

"I'll
report in to her then. With your permission?" she asked.

"Oh,
yeah right. Dismissed," Shelby said. The elf came to attention then left
in a hopping gait.

"To
be a fly on the wall for that interview," Shelby murmured.

"Trust
me I'll be there. But I don't think it will be as surprising or interesting as
you are assuming commander. Captain Mayweather has worked with other species
before including the young first Lieutenant. This just extends and deepens the
experience," Firefly replied.

"Still..."
Shelby shrugged.

Some
time later the captain and new tactical officer came onto the bridge. "I'd
like you all to meet Lieutenant Thorn. She is our new Tactical officer. Please
take your station Lieutenant," she smiled. Thorn looked up to the captain
then moved off to the Tactical station. A watch man looked at the elf. She
shooed him out of the couch. Hastily he obeyed giving the exec a startled look.

She
shrugged helplessly. The couch automatically reconfigured for the new
tactician, the holo projections changed to her scale. Her left eye rolled
slightly to look at the exec.

"Can
I help you with something commander?" Shelby hastily shook her head. She
nodded to the relieved watch hand. "Perry you're relieved. Get some
downtime then check in with your new boss when she calls you." He nodded
and left.

"Fresh
meat," Mayweather said smiling. The smile was more of a predatory grin as
she turned it toward the Tactical officer. “Or at least someone I haven't toyed
with in a while.”

"Ah
captain, they ah, see teeth as a threat. It's an instinctive thing. You could
lock her up if you’re not careful," Shelby murmured.

"I've
spent time with you barbaric humans commander. I've gotten used to it,"
Thorn replied from her station. "Her I'm not so sure about though,"
she pointed a long finger to the captain. "She looks like she eats meat
raw."

Mayweather
chuckled. "So there madam exec," she smiled again. "For your
information I only eat meat raw after tearing strips out of unfortunate people
who deserve my righteous wrath," she smiled again. A few of the crew
looked at each other nervously, Shelby looked dutifully fearful.

"Okay.
I tried to warn you..." Mayweather said. She shrugged then smiled to
herself. It was going to be interesting.

Mayweather
grimaced as she handed a tablet to the exec. "There, that's done,"
she sighed sitting back. "I never thought being a captain would involve
this much paperwork!" She shook her head lips pursed.

"And
that's just the easy part. I get the majority," Shelby answered. “I'm
surprised you didn't have this on Maya though.”

“Maya
has a smaller crew and fewer problem children. Or did,” the captain said with a
shrug.

“And
we were about to get shot at so adding paperwork to the load would have been a
bit much,” Shelby said with a grin.

"Did
I ever thank you for being the exec? Or that I got to skip that role?"
Mayweather teased. Shelby sighed.

"I
know I know, it's a thankless job. I'd much rather be up to my elbows in
engineering," she smiled. "I was reading the brief on setting up the
JAG office. It's going slower than the other departments, we don't have many
people who study both law and want to get into the military," she shook
her head.

"JAG?"
Mayweather asked, wrinkling her nose. "Sounds funny."

"Judge
Advocate General. Captain. It's an acronym for the Justice system of the
Federation military," Firefly responded. "I am glad the Admiral is
starting the ground work. It shows he has planned for the future," the AI
nodded.

"Do
we really need a justice system?" Mayweather asked.

Shelby
shrugged. "You never know. I think I will brush up on law just in
case." She shook her head. "You may want to as well captain. Some
things are a bit more... um, snarled than a simple captain's mast."

"Bread
and water. Or keel hauling if anyone goes out of line. Simple and
effective," Mayweather said with a dismissive sniff. A few of the crewman
looked around nervously.

"She's
joking right? Tell me she is," Firefly said sounding aghast.

"I'm
not so sure. With the captain, all bets are off Firefly," Shelby shook her
head. Mayweather smiled.

"It
it complicated," Thorn said from her station.

"The
justice system? Of course it is. It was made by lawyers and politicians to
justify their existence," Mayweather said with a smile.

"Almost
a perfect paraphrase of what the Admiral said in class ma'am," Thorn
replied with a tinkling laugh.

"Class?"
Mayweather asked.

"I
was in the college for a brief time Ma'am. Then on Sun-Yat as a deck hand and
life support ape..." Thorn shrugged. "Commander Logan recommended me
for commission," the elf said then gave the captain a look. “You of course
know that, even though you weren't with us more than a week before moving to
Maya.” The captain nodded.

"And
that's where you experienced the Admiral's pungent and correct opinion of
lawyers?" Mayweather teased. “That seems at odds with his insistence on
setting up the JAG core though,” she smiled.

Thorn
shrugged. "That and in his correspondence courses and lectures I was
in," she chuckled. “I know he doesn't like them, but he did point out that
there is a time and place for all things, including lawyers.” She shrugged.
“His lecture courses are peppered with all sorts of material.”

"Ah.
I've leaned toward the tactical and engineering ones myself," the captain
answered.

"Oh
I took them too Ma'am."

"Over
achiever huh?"

"Something
like that ma'am," Thorn said with what passed for a smile and laugh again.

"Well,
let's see what you've learned. Time for a little exercise..." the captain
smiled as she sat back. Her station reconfigured for a sim.

"When
you’re ready," Thorn said sounding serene.

The
Admiral studied the nervous students and smiled. "Sir, why do we need to
study logistics?" one asked. Irons tried to hide his amused laugh. "I
mean, I want to learn how to be an engineer, not a paper pusher."

Sprite's
avatar seemed to swell on his HUD. "Why that little pissant!" Irons
smiled inward briefly. She'd been getting increasingly tart about some of the
students and their opinions about computers. The students oscillated between
awe and disinterest when it came to AI. She preferred awe, however most of that
had rubbed off over the past seven months of repeated exposure.

Irons
chuckled. “You'd be surprised. Any organization floats, that is operates, only
with paperwork. Lots and lots of paperwork,” he snorted as the class groaned.
“In the navy it's paperwork, Helium 3 and coffee,” he said shaking his head.

"Now,
Logistics, well, it's a bit more complicated than just having the parts on
hand. Modern Logistics is a lot easier than in the past, replicators make things
a lot easier to fabricate," he shrugged. "But making sure you have
the part on hand is a problem too. For instance, what happens if you need a
part to make a repair?"

He
looked at his student, Mr. Right. The young man cleared his throat. "We
would order the part and replicate it," he shrugged looking around to his
fellow students in support. Several nodded. The Admiral smiled.

"And
if you’re in combat? Or if the replicator is the part that is broken? What
about if you’re on a ship that doesn't have the abilities of larger ships?
Screening units do not have the replicators of larger ships. Even Firefly has
her limit. What if you don't have the time and materials to make the
part?" Several of the students including Mr. Right suddenly had a very
thoughtful look on their faces.

"I
didn't mean to make you look bad, but it is a problem. Hence logistics. Having
the right parts on hand with the right people when they need them. Battles have
been won and lost on them. There is an old saying," he paused as Sprite brought
up the quote.

"For
want of a nail a shoe was lost. For want of the shoe a horse was lost. For want
of a horse the battle was lost." He looked around. "That's a bit of a
paraphrase. It means that armies move on logistics. Here's another," he
grimaced.

"The
devil is in the details." He looked around as several nodded. "That
one is a bit easier to understand. Mr. Right, why don't you look up the
logistics of the Lewis and Clark expedition on the American continent in the
eighteenth or nineteenth century earth and then compare it to the logistics and
outcome of the Donner party of the same time period." His victim grimaced
but then nodded.

"Have
the report ready by the end of the week," he nodded. "Now, as I was
saying, logistics can be critical. Knowing what material you have on hand to
make parts, your power reserves, and the templates on file is all well and
good, but if it is crunch time you don't have to time to make a part sometimes.
Like oh, say our recent crisis on the Port-Au-Prince colony."

He
pulled up a holo and spread it apart. "You did sir, during the reactor
repair," a voice in the back said. Irons frowned.

"Who
said that?" he looked.

A
young woman with a braid raised her hand. "Me sir." Irons nodded.

"Well,
We did. But we had extra resources. For instance, we had Io 11. We also had an
intermittent supply of material brought in by the Valdez family," he
waved. "Power was a problem, but once the reactor was stable we could work
around it by using the replicators on Io to make the critical parts. Once we
had a working reactor we shut down the old one for repairs and once we had the
life support stable we used excess energy to power the industrial reactors on
the station. But that took a lot of balance. And of course careful
planning."