“Are you ordering me to relax my insistence on military conduct, sir?” The tone was carefully neutral.
Kas shook his head violently. “No! I… ah, Sheol. I guess I was. Even though I know better than to tell a captain how to run his ship. My apologies, Captain. Of, course; you’ll do as you think best. Just consider it an advance explanation of any lapses that might occur.”
Ler-Traken nodded. “Yes, sir. But have you considered that a tight ship might be the best way to minimize those lapses and get them back to their military selves?” Kas looked thoughtful, and Ler-Traken continued, “Don’t worry, Commodore. I’ll try to base my opinion of the crew on their efficiency, not any minor lapses in military courtesy.”
Kas sighed with relief. “Thank you, Captain. Believe me; it wasn’t easy to try to break their military conditioning. I just hope it’ll be easier to restore it.”
The two set to planning Starhopper ’s mission, and by the time they were finished, Kas had relaxed considerably. Yes, there would be problems with Tremling and To-Ling, but hopefully those problems would involve their personalities rather than their effectiveness. He was certain he could count on Ler-Traken. And his first impressions of young Wansung were largely favorable despite his early false steps. Inner-versus outer-world attitudes had been developing and hardening Empire-wide for a number of years. It wasn’t unreasonable for the man to assume Kas would have strong feelings on the subject.
He sighed deeply, then began calling in his six Lieutenant Commanders. They would serve as Department Heads aboard Rekesh, though those were normally Commanders’ billets. Three of them were staff, and only three were line.
Below the command level, the most responsibility would undoubtedly rest with Til Be’Rak, a strikingly attractive redhead, and the senior Astrogation staff officer aboard. Despite her name, Be’Rak was an innerworlder. Kas’ interview showed her to be friendly, outgoing and gregarious. Her seductive appearance and smiling manner made her easy to underestimate and dismiss, but Kas knew that she had to be highly competent for Captain Froud to have drafted her for such an essential position.
Wor Sha-Tren was an Engineering staff officer. Rough edged and surly, he made an exasperated Kas wonder what it was about the engineering specialty that attracted misfits and malcontents. Sha-Tren was from a wealthy innerworld family, and considered his assignment to Rekesh a betrayal of an “arrangement” his family had made permitting him to stay on Prime. After only a few minutes, a seething Kas dismissed the abrasive officer to the care of Tremling.
Vol Ra-Lavon was no big improvement. Kas’ only Supply staff officer, Ra-Lavon stated in the first few moments of their conversation “with all due respect” that he felt Kas should have been shot for assaulting an innerworld Admiral. Kas was unsure whether the man was more upset that Lu-Jenks had been an Admiral or that he’d been an innerworlder. With no real choice, Kas appointed Ra-Lavon Admin as well as Supply Officer. But Kas was afraid the man would become one of his biggest problems.
Coincidentally, all of his line Lieutenant Commanders were outerworlders.
Senior among them was Con Vertring. Vertring had two years’ experience as Executive Officer of a corvette. He seemed competent, if a bit of a ‘book’ officer. He seemed to go to great lengths to mimic innerworld manners, even to the extent of denigrating outerworlders. Kas appointed him Assistant Operations officer.
Bru Raskin seemed the extreme opposite of Vertring. Indeed, the man seemed a veritable cartoon of an outerworlder. He seemed to enjoy using the coarsest of outerworld mannerisms to scandalize and irritate innerworlders, whom he considered effete snobs. At first Kas wondered how such a coarse loudmouth had attained the rank of Lieutenant Commander, but he learned that Raskin had never been stationed on an inner world. Kas seemed to remember the man’s fitness reports hadn’t been particularly good in any area except gunnery. With crossed fingers and desperate hopes, Kas appointed him Gunnery Officer.
Kas had purposely saved Lordsgrace Worshipful for last. A small, rather voluptuous brunette, she was one of the three that had served with Kas before. Worshipful’s parents had been defectors from the Glory. Kas had known her casually, and knew she was very sensitive about this. In compensation, she had always been very vocal about her contempt for the Glory, and indeed for anyone with religious beliefs. When he’d known her as a junior Lieutenant, she had always seemed to be on a crusade to prove herself as good as the best of the others. Kas had a few reservations about her attitudes toward her more devout colleagues, but he knew that her relentless drive to excel had made her an outstanding officer, if somewhat stiff and formal. After giving her some pointed hints about religious tolerance, Kas appointed her Environmental/Commissary Officer, responsible for the maintenance of living spaces, laundry, and food and beverage preparation.
Of the other twelve officers, nine were Lieutenants, with five to ten years’ service. Five of the nine were staff officers, including two Engineering officers, two Comp amp; Comm officers, and an Astrogator.
The other four were general line officers. Kas had served with two of them when they were Ensigns, fresh from the academy. He ignored their previous acquaintance, and assigned two of them to Gunnery and Fire Control under Raskin. One of the others went to Supply, and the last he assigned to Wansung as Assistant Operations and Helm Officer.
Finally Kas had three Lieutenants, Junior Grade. With two to four years’ Fleet service, they occupied the second-lowest rung on the officer ladder. Thankfully, Kas had been spared any Ensigns, though he was authorized to commission any NCO’s he found suitable. Two of the JG’s were assigned to Worshipful, and the last to Gunnery under Raskin.
By the time Kas had finished interviewing his officers, Starhopper was nearly ready to break orbit. He hurried to suit up and cross to her. He didn’t want to miss the opportunity to bid farewell to Lar Tennig and, of course, to Lady Jane.
The man-settled universe is a huge place, and attitudes toward male — female relationships run the gamut from the Glory, where extramarital physical contact of any type other than hand-holding is punishable by death for both parties, to places where nudity is common and sexual contact as casual as a handshake.
Lady Jane had been sharing his bed aboard Starhopper for some time, and Kas was fairly certain her mores were as liberal as his own, or nearly so. Still, he couldn’t avoid a sense of guilt and responsibility.
He was relieved when she seemed to take their separation with a reluctance and tinge of regret that matched his own slight wistfulness perfectly. He firmly quashed a constant urge to ask her to move aboard the Rekesh before Starhopper boosted. Once they began moving the cruiser back toward the Empire, there would probably be no chance to drop off passengers. He gave her the remaining cash Empire Intelligence had given him as compensation for their help, and promised to swear if asked that he had coerced their help. Finally, Ler-Traken was hovering around; trying to delicately tell his Commodore the ship was ready to boost and to get the Sheol off! and Kas could delay no longer.
Back aboard the Rekesh, Kas cursed as Starhopper was swallowed up almost immediately by the blackness of space. He didn’t even have the consolation of watching her fade into the distance. He sighed with regret and entered the airlock.
He had no chance to dwell on his loss, however. There was simply too much to do.
His most immediate problem was the habitability of the huge ship. With life support restored, blood, bits of flesh and even body parts that had been missed by the searchers had begun to rot. The stench was nearly unbearable, and permeated the entire ship. The only-partially-restored life support system was simply unable to cope with the problem.