She said, “Oh poo! I was going to go back and give the old man another kiss for being so nice.”
He said, “Yeah, well, the old man told me that Sergeant Clark at the Academy was the one who sent Dave there and I really came to see Dave. Sergeant Clark wants to appear as a witness or as your legal representation if you don’t have any yet. Since Dave has a representative already, I thought he’d like to know that the sergeant and some other folks from the Academy are going to appear as witnesses for him.”
I said, “Thanks, Kyle. I appreciate that, but I don’t think they’ll do much good. All they can testify to is my character. I hardly think that will matter much. By the way, did you get your projectile weapon?”
Kyle smiled as he pulled his shoulder pack forward slightly to show the handle portion of his new weapon snugly fitted into his holster. “I’ve got to go back to see him again when the rest of the bandages come off to do the cleaning. He trusted me on that.”
I replied, “Good. I know you will.”
“I also picked up some more ammunition for your pistol. It was the least I could do,” said Kyle as he brought over a small box of bullets that I knew cost quite a bit. Then he pulled out the notepad and marker and handed them over to Majel who stuck her tongue out at him.
“Majel, you can still go back and visit him. Just buy something different.” I leaned over to my shoulder pack and pulled out the old list that the Sarge gave me before turning back to her. “If you don’t have some of these items, then buy one of them. These are the items that the Sarge recommended that I buy.” I handed her the list and she started looking through it.
Then she smiled as she reached an item that I figured she didn’t have. “Thanks, Dave,” she said before she leaned over and kissed me soundly on the lips.
“Gee, I’ll have to get some more lists if this is the attention I get,” I replied. I deserved the smack on the ass that she gave me a moment later.
Chapter 13
I showed up promptly outside the court room at 0845 on the morning of my trial. Lieutenant Grade was beside me. We were both in our uniforms with our decorations in place. He was a bit surprised to see how many I had already.
“It’s not fair to put you on trial. You’ve got more decorations than ten other officers,” he said.
I replied, “I broke the rules. At least, they think I did as you keep drilling into me.”
He said, “That’s right. Remember, you’re innocent until proven guilty. That applies even in the military and they can’t make you testify against yourself. Just answer the questions that I don’t object to. You’ll be okay then.”
The rest of the crew was also behind us in their best uniforms with their decorations on. Many of them had a number of decorations, a few as many as I had. Of course, those were usually Pennyweight Shipping personnel. Just as Mason and I walked into the courtroom, some other people arrived who I didn’t know about yet.
The trial started promptly at 0900 and stopped at 0920 when a messenger arrived from Headquarters. He delivered a message to the senior officer convening the court-martial. The senior officer showed the message to the other two officers, then ordered the charges dismissed, and stated that the trial was adjourned.
Mason and I were both shocked to hear the charges dismissed suddenly, seemingly without reason. However, neither of us was going to argue with the results regardless of how it came to be. We got up as the trial judges left the courtroom and then turned around to leave.
I was astonished to see Sarge, Penny, and a few other people were sitting behind us the whole time. I gladly shook their hands and walked out of the courtroom with them.
“Any idea why they dismissed the charges?” I asked Sarge.
Sarge said, “Could be that the enemy convinced them not to convict you. I heard some rumors this morning that one of the prisoners finally broke. He talked about everything. I’m not sure how they broke the prisoner. Frankly, it wouldn’t surprise me if they threatened to put the two of you in the same locked room.”
His remark got a laugh from just about everyone there, except me. I was still anxious to know why the charges were dismissed.
Sergeant Clark said, “Look Dave, just accept it as a gift from heaven or whatever. Obviously someone in the right place recognizes talent and knows that the Navy needs officers like you. You’ve weathered some of the worst that you’ll have to go through. Someday, you might learn why the charges were dismissed. If you do, you’ll understand why by then. You’ll probably also be high enough in rank then to do the same thing when it’s called for in someone else’s case. Well, I’ve got to get Mr. Cunningham back to his store.”
Suddenly, I realized that the old man from the surplus store was also standing there. He was old and stooped over and easily hidden behind some of the other people standing around me. When the Sarge stood aside to help the old man, I noticed that Mr. Cunningham, as I now knew him, wasn’t just an old man. He was wearing an admiral’s uniform. I promptly saluted at which point he returned my salute before saying, “I’m retired and still entitled to wear this. Thank you for the salute. You’ve turned out exactly as my son-in-law said you would. I’m proud of you.”
“Your son-in-law?” I said, quite puzzled.
“That’s me,” said Sarge. “I married his daughter before I knocked her up.” Then he walked with the retired Admiral over to a vehicle and left.
None of us knew at the time that massive public opinion was firmly on my side. We were all, for the most part, much too busy to pay attention to the news war coverage on the Universal Internet. I was actually quite unaware that the news media was following my exploits quite diligently with all the resources they could spare. They were even blanketing space with small remote transmitters to get any images possible of the actions we were involved in. I felt I was just doing my job in the best way I knew how. I wasn’t trying to become the media’s dashing, darling hero. That happened totally by coincidence. Because of that, the Navy decided that it couldn’t afford to let me be found guilty. As well, the top brass decided that I would become more involved in the war effort than I could imagine right then. I really can’t blame them for taking advantage of the prevailing circumstances.
Before I forgot my promise, I sat down before lunch and wrote out a letter of recommendation for Lieutenant Remm. I hand-delivered it to the Fleet Admiral who appeared to expect me. He accepted the letter without comment and smiled as he returned my salute.
The retired Admiral’s remark stuck with me for the rest of the day, even throughout the celebration we had that evening. It brought back to mind questions I had a long time ago about a company and a person who weren’t listed in the directory. They were connected to the Sarge and he was connected to a retired Admiral. Something told me that Pennyweight Shipping Company might have been listed at one time and probably did legitimate business, but I then had a feeling that the company did some other things as well. Even though all those people had shown up as if there was going to be a trial, not one of them seemed surprised by the results or how soon they came about as I stood outside the courtroom receiving everyone’s congratulations.
Chapter 14
The Thurman underwent extensive repairs because of the severity of the damage. Our repairs had held up. The maintenance and repair people had some nice comments about how well she had been fixed for a combat repair job. I felt a lot of pride in that and went about writing other letters of recommendation and commendation for the other officers who served with me. Only Doc was still listed with the Thurman. The rest of the officers were transferred to other ships a few days after the trial. Majel got her own ship. She spent one night with me before she left. I wrote a message of encouragement in her note pad for her just in case she got into some situation where she needed to use it.