Libor: Katana Krieger #2 Page 6

  "To improve your effectiveness, Naval Experimental engineers have put together two special sticks of missiles. Each contains three Daggers, and will fit into the racks for your close in weapons system. You'll have two sticks of your standard CWS weapons, plus six mid-range air to air missiles, without compromising your normal offensive batteries."

  I can feel my smile return. "Thank you, sir. We wasted several large and expensive missiles on little targets last time out."

  "Indeed. We are looking hard at redesigning the remaining frigates after Constitution to accommodate a broader array of missiles as standard equipment. Lasers are much cheaper, and they never run out of ammo, but we've met an adversary that requires a doctrine change. We wish we could do more for this trip, but time is short."

  "Captain, you certainly also noticed that we've kept the Senator in the dark about some aspects of the Libor. Those are secrets you should keep, but not to the grave. Tell him if necessary. Your RISTA team will be tracking their language for us. If we can decipher their spoken words without them knowing it, we gain a huge tactical advantage."

  Exactly the point I made to Shelby a month or so ago.

  "They will assuredly understand everything we say from day one, even though the Senator won't realize that. We think it's better for him and the professors to truly be in the dark, rather than try to play act. I expect to be taken to the woodshed over that decision in the not too distant future, but hopefully we'll have Intelligence that will make the whooping worth it. You, knowing the truth, need to be careful where you say what to whom."

  "We're also about to blood test the entire Navy, Marine Corps, and all our civilian contractors. Someone is feeding the Libor crucial data, like when Yorktown is sailing, or when her captain is going out to dinner, we need to find them and put a stop to it. And, maybe, learn more about the Libor in the process."

  "Combined though, that's nearly 30,000 people, it's going to take a while. We will do your entire crew and the critical ground staff in the next couple days as a precaution."

  "Questions?"

  "Sir, my mother used to quote an ancient Chinese proverb that went ‘the lion that chases two hares catches neither.' How far do I let the Senator's objective of making a treaty go against my objective of getting everyone home in one piece?"

  She laughs. Not a big laugh, more a professional things are bad laugh.

  "Captain, we're violating just about every precept of military planning doctrine for this mission, don't you think?"

  "Yes, sir, mixed objectives, not offensive, no superiority, no surprise, faulty security..."

  She interrupts me, with one S and three other letters still to go.

  "Indeed. The technical answer is that the Senator is in command, and you will follow those commands. The more realistic answer is that you need to bring him home, the choice of whether that's in a body container or not is up to him."

  "Aye, sir." I gave her a nod when I said that, pretty sure I should be packing extra body containers for this trip.

  Admiral Everingham steps into the conversation.

  "Speculation does us no good. Let's go upstairs and work over the operational details one more time, then get busy."

  Fifteen minutes later, we're around the conference table in ChiNO's office.

  The rest of the afternoon and early evening is spent finalizing jump coordinates, or rather selecting several possible jump coordinates based on the location of the planet and the well traveled flight paths in the system, deciding what missiles to put into my 24 tubes, working out schedules for the Marines to help RISTA conduct data collection on the bridge without hurting their training cycle and with one squad left at home, deciding how to use the Recon unit while we're in transit, finalizing the plan to signal Yorktown's presence to the enemy, finishing the schedules for Congress, Truxton, and Decatur to transport our data back to Gamma Upsilon, and talking about Admiral Sutherland's role.

  The last is the most difficult. Sutherland ranks me, he should be in overall command of the task force. Instead, his destroyer group is on a separate mission, no paperwork showing any link to mine. He's there to guard the sector from infiltration, according to all Navy records, no one else knows what their real function will be.

  We only get one break, which I use to hit the head and send a message to Admiral Benson, apologizing. He's already en route to Canada, the message will be waiting for him when he arrives.

  I started the day the tiredest person on Earth, I've finished it the tiredest person in the universe.

  Finally, about 2000 hours, they let me go. My corporals are standing outside the door waiting, falling in behind as I move soundlessly by. They don't say a word when I get out of the tube early, or order my iced tea, or their water bottles, and they even say good night to Amy when she acknowledges them.

  Tonight I manage to fall instantly to sleep. I dream I'm standing over the Senator's lifeless body on the Libor home world, surrounded, soon to follow him.

  Chapter 4

  At 0559 I turn the alarm off before it can pretend to wake me up, hit the machine for some zero gee exercise, then shower, and pack. I'm not coming back to the BOQ, or I should say, I'm not coming back to the BOQ at least until my mission is completed.

  My duffel slung over my good arm, my corporals and I get to Yorktown without incident by 0700. Once there, they announce a change of plan. I had hoped to be rid of them, nice though they are, but no. Marshall lays out his plan.

  "Sir, we are now on day duty. We'll be in the control room. If you want to leave the docking bay, please make sure we're with you. At night, a squad is guarding the ship, they should be enough to make sure nothing happens."

  I give them a reluctant ‘aye' in return.

  There's still some activity outside my ship, finishing touches, I hope, on repairing the hull damage. I find even more civilians inside despite having been told at least once they were done. Dump my stuff into my cabin, then float forward.

  Shelby's on the bridge, she's been in on and off for the past few days, getting things started.

  "Commander, have the senior staff assemble in my ready room."

  "Aye, Skipper." She touches the microphone on her collar. "Rains, Powell, Garcia, Palmer. Captain's ready room, on the double."

  I look at her, someone's missing.

  "McAdams is assigned to Naval Experimental for two more days, Gomez is with her."

  "Roger that." I think for a minute. "When she's gone, is Mr. Gomez ready to take her place?"

  Shelby thinks for a minute.

  "Gomez has all the skills, except maybe not what it takes to be the boss."

  I nod in agreement. All our folks are suddenly with us, and I lead them the eight feet to my ready room.

  I haven't met my new second officer, Jacob Rains, but Shelby has. I should have asked her about him. He's 31, according to his personnel jacket, just up to Lt. Commander, was chief pilot on Jefferson before his uncle decided I needed him more. Tall and blonde, he does have a lot of the president's face in him. We exchange salutes, then I hold out my hand.

  "Mr. Rains, welcome aboard." He returned the salute, shakes the hand.

  "Thank you, sir, I'm excited to be here, sir."

  "Have you met the rest of the senior staff?"

  "Yes, sir, I came on board yesterday. Except for Ensign McAdams, sir."

  "Lieutenant McAdams."

  "Yes, sir, sorry, sir, I must have missed that."

  Decent first impression, made some effort to get ahead of the game, though he missed the McAdams promotion.

  I pull back a little, open to the rest of my staff. Shelby is my exec, Rains under her. Garcia is chief pilot, Powell is head of engineering, Palmer leads the Marines.

  "Folks," I put my captainly voice back into use after being off for a while, "Everything you hear and do for the next month or more is beyond top secret. We're getting visitors on board. They aren't here. Not in our logs, not in our communications, not in our heads. Make sure your teams know
how critical it is."

  "Our official mission is border control in Gamma Nu and Upsilon alongside Admiral Sutherland aboard Hornet, and his battle group. We'll go over all the mission parameters after we're underway."

  "Maria, what's your status?"

  "Good to go, Skipper, except for empty missile tubes."

  "Roger, that. We've going with 12 air to air single warhead and 12 air to ground single warhead, plus updating the CWS launchers." My former second officer, Matt Ayala, argued for that configuration a long time ago, 720 megatons, pure hammers in our hands. McAdams didn't like the idea, makes me wonder what she'll say this time. I turn to Powell.

  "Emily, engineering status?"

  "We're ready, Skipper, except that the fixes Naval Experimental came up with to counter the electromagnetic pulse generators we encountered are still being installed. No time to test them, and probably no way to test them." She reaches up and scratches her shaved head on the last remark.

  "Once they're done, you'll have to take me through the ship and show me."

  "Aye, Skipper." I turn to our Marine.

  "Tony, where are you?"

  "I came aboard this morning because I knew you'd want to meet, sir, but I'm dealing with a surprising number of issues. I have to leave a squad behind, and that's causing me a few headaches, primarily morale issues, but also making sure I have a full skill set with fewer hands. We also have to alter our tactics for reduced numbers, change how we're supporting your RISTA unit, and we have the Force Recon unit to integrate. We have a heavy training schedule for the next five days, with your permission, I'm not planning on reporting aboard until just before departure. I also have your security force working with us. We're training PFC Martinez, so we can return PFC Mussina to you."

  "Approved, Mr. Palmer, do what you think is best. I understand having personnel issues. Please let Mr. Perez know how you're planning on shuffling the bunking arrangements so we can get them entered into the computer. Do we know the crews from the landing and assault ships?"

  "Yes, sir. Assault ship and one landing craft are the same teams who were with us last mission, the second landing ship is also a veteran crew I've worked with many times. We've got no issues there at least."

  "Good to know, Lieutenant."

  I turn back to my other staff. "I need to meet all the replacement Navy personnel. Maria, you have two new and Emily you have three. Find a time this afternoon to get them up here."

  Two ‘ayes' step on each other, my butt doesn't like the sound of either of them, but I let it go for now.

  "Mr. Rains, how are we on stores?"

  "I haven't done inventory yet, sir, I thought I'd get to it today, sir."

  I give him my best get with it look.

  "We're going to be gone for up to six months, Lt. Commander, it's the second officer's responsibility to confirm we are prepared. Make it first thing on your agenda. It can take days to get the paperwork through Procurement and get delivery if we're short, and I'm not leaving if we're missing something vital."

  "Yes, sir, sorry, sir."

  "Folks, let's run standard in-port gunnery practice and damage control sims the next two days. When Mr. McAdams gets back, we'll run three days of battle sims, each shift to work independently. I want us to plan four days of sims each week from here out. There's going to be a lot of boring down time, we can't risk not being sharp. Commander Perez will lay out a plan."

  "We'll do them without the Marines for now, and run a few the day before departure with them. Also, we're going to have four civilians on board, plus carrying an extra landing ship. Sorry, there are going to be four civilians not on board. Mr. Rains, I'm putting you in charge of making sure they get drilled in emergency procedures."

  "Yes, sir, happy to, sir."

  "Questions?"

  "Skipper," Powell with a question, "can you tell us who the civilians who aren't coming aboard are?"

  "Not until they're not on board, which should be the day before we leave. Oh, and we're all going on a medical program, Dr. Bonilovich will have the details. Mr. Rains, lots of extra medical supplies to inventory."

  "Yes, sir, no problem, sir."

  "Anything else?" Heads all shaking. "Good. Let's run the first gunnery sims at 1400. Dismissed."

  My room clears, except for Shelby.

  "Shel, what do you think of Rains?"

  She doesn't pause this time. "Seems skittish. I've picked a couple sims for tomorrow that will let us get a better idea."

  "Good. I had a bizarre idea this morning in the shower, I'm going off ship for an hour. Meet me in the gym at 1100?"

  "Aye, Skipper."

  We leave together, she floats over to her bridge station, I head to the exit hatch.

  My idea didn't come to me in the shower, it came to me in my dream, I only decided to do it in the shower. I try to sneak out, but my corporals catch me at it.

  "Sir, are you headed somewhere?" It's Marshall, still the only one I've heard speak, other than a quick yes, sir.

  I accept my fate. "Sorry, gentlemen, I won't try to sneak off again. I'm going shopping."

  They don't look too excited by the prospect, but they fall in with me. We're down to the normal gee area, ride the train to obtain gravity, then walk to Officer Country. I look at Marshall when we get to the door.

  "You okay with waiting for me out here?"

  "Yes, sir, I think we can do that."

  "Thanks. Please try not to scare off any of her customers."

  They smile, but don't laugh. I think that means they intend to make sure no other customers enter while I'm inside. I push the door open, enjoying once again the little bell attached to it. Maddie the Owner is in her usual position, bent over a table working hard on getting somebody's clothes ready to look good, doesn't look up, but yells over the sound of her machine as I get to the counter.

  "Captain, pleasure to see you again!" She seems to honestly mean it. I wait patiently while she finishes whatever she's doing to the dark green uniform in her machine. Finally, she turns and looks at me.

  "Maddie, I have a special project only you can help me with."

  She smiles, happy.

  "What can I do you for?"

  I take the auto-injector cartridge I borrowed from Admiral Baylor out of my pocket.

  "I need a uniform that will hold a couple of these, and a weapon of some kind, without being obvious or easy to find."

  Her face switches to devious. I like it. She sticks her hand out for the cartridge, looks it over carefully for a few seconds, then hands it back.

  "Knife okay?" Anybody else would have asked why, she doesn't bother. My guess that she used to be a Marine is confirmed.

  "Knife is fine." I almost tell her she could make it a frying pan, but that would take too much explaining.

  "When do you need it?"

  "Tuesday."

  "Monday after 1600. Knock if I'm closed, I'll be waiting for you."

  "Affirmative, and thanks."

  I give her a quick salute, which she returns. I make the bell ring, gather up my corporals, and roll back to Yorktown. Get busy being a captain once again, meet Shel for gym time, eat a little, then go up to the bridge.

  Maria Garcia brings a chief petty officer and an ensign over just as I'm getting my screens up and reporting ship's status. I slide out of my couch to face them all. They're standing at the zero gee version of attention, give me a formal salute. I return it.

  "Captain Kreiger, let me present Ensign Michael Jones and Chief Petty Officer Kevin Keyworth."

  "Gentlemen, welcome to Yorktown." I use my friendly captain voice.

  While I'm shaking hands, I can't help but notice how different they are. Jones is weeks out of the Academy, the fresh faced exuberance of someone looking forward to his first real deployment, thinking about giving orders as something other than a temporary cadet, possibly intent on saving the galaxy. Keyworth is nearly grey haired, muscular, yet not as up on his zero gee exercises as he'll wish he was a week from now,
probably intent on getting his 30 in.

  We spend a few minutes talking about where they are from and where they've served, before I notice that Emily Powell has joined us with a troop behind her. She and Garcia must have coordinated. I send the pilots back to work, and bring in the engineers.

  This time, we have three Chief Petty Officers, all looking pretty much like Keyworth did. We run through the salutes and introductions: CPO Belanger, CPO Cruz, CPO Machado, all pushing 50, all five to ten pounds over weight, all greying. We're definitely the most experienced crew in the fleet now, we have only two rated seamen in the three main units, that being Manuel in the RISTA group and Stewart with the pilots, plus two more in the boat deck gang.