Chapter 70: Heading Home

When I stepped onto the bridge a couple of minutes later Ensign Munfree spun her chair around and glared at me. “You have a secret!” she screeched.

“Everyone does,” I said calmly as I strolled over to my command chair. “Kelly, how soon will we jump?”

“The ship feels heavy,” Blaine complained. “But it looks like we’ll jump in just under one hour.”

“We do have two habitation pods attached to the ship,” I pointed out. “Those add quite a bit of weight.”

“Pods?” Blaine asked.

“No one is inside them. The families that did live in them are on board. We have two new missile crew. Lance Corporal Jacqueline Vernon and Private Amy Branch. The Lance Corporal has agreed to go by Jackie, so we don’t mix her up with Lance Corporal Boddicker,” I replied.

“We have new crew?” Ensign Munfree asked. “But that would put us over the requirement for this ship.”

“Sadly, as part of the process, Private David Sarkozy and Private Brad Kelly were transferred to the Yularaat station. They have left the ship and will not be returning to Crucible with us,” I said with a shake of my head.

“What about their concubines?” Ensign Munfree asked.

“A small transport ship will retrieve their pods and move them to Yularaat,” I said. “I may tell their concubines when I arrive, if they haven’t already been informed. I believe a drone was launched from the station while I discussed this with Admiral Redmill.”

“You heard him order it?” Ensign Munfree asked.

“No, but if I was paying attention to the conversation, I would have,” I replied. “And I know he had officers paying attention.”

“A drone was launched and it was heading in the direction of Crucible,” Blaine said. “So do we have to report here regularly?”

“I believe they will mostly react to drones we send out. Actually I should have asked if we have any drones left,” I said.

“Warren said that once we docked a remote delivered six new drones,” Ensign Munfree said. “We are stocked back up to maximum. We also had all of our replicator stores replenished.”

“Good,” I said as one of the holographic displays I was looking at flashed. “And it appears our newest set of orders have arrived. Give me a moment.”

I called up the orders. The first section was as expected. Corsica was to travel directly to Crucibleat. There we would drop the pods we were carrying and then enjoy three days of rest. Afterward we were to jump past Gee One Dash Six Five Nine and work our way back towards Crucibleat. This would take a total of thirty to forty days and the final stop before returning home was a revisiting of the system where we had seen a Sa’arm carrier.

I turned off the display and leaned back in my command chair.

“Good news?” Ensign Munfree asked.

“Three days of leave for everyone once we arrive at Crucibleat and drop the pods. Then we had a thirty to forty day patrol that includes Gee One Dash Six Five Nine,” I replied.

“The leave will be nice,” Chaz replied. “Jezame really missed me last time and we had only been gone five days.”

“I’m hoping my two ladies haven’t killed each other,” Blaine said.

“You said that last time. Will they ever stop feuding?” I asked.

“Nope,” Blaine said. “They are just too different.”

Hopefully they can find a way to remain peaceful,” I said. “From what little I saw they both love you.”

“They do,” Blaine said. “Betsy stood by me for years, even before I was a huge star on the football field. And Rory helped me pass my classes and stay on the football field even though she didn’t trust jocks.”

“Try reminding them that they love you and that you love them. Then point out that when they are fighting, its hard to remember how much you love them,” I said.

“That won’t work,” Blaine said.

“It worked for Jezame and Kirk,” Chastity said. “Jezame was extremely jealous of Kirk for the first half of our trip to Crucible. How did you know Mark?”

“Two of my ladies were the same way for the first part of our trip,” I replied.

Chastity shrugged. “Do you want to announce this to everyone?”

“Sure, activate the intercom,” I said.

Chastity spun her chair around and started running her hands over the controls.

“Don’t know why we need a communications officer,” Blaine said. “You can do all the same things using the controls on your chair.”

“Yes, but having her around means I don’t have to spend all my time here. I do need breaks. She can also provide a filter for some communications that I don’t need to know about,” I said.

Blaine stiffened for a moment. “I never thought about that,” he said.

Ensign Munfree laughed. “And that’s why you’re not the captain. Captain, do we need to have everyone at their posts?”

“Is the intercom ready?” I asked.

“Oops,” Chaz said. “It’s ready now.”

I heard the chime indicating that the ship-wide intercom was activated. “Everyone,” I said firmly. “First, Admiral Redmill was impressed with our reports. I’d like to pass on the fact that he believes we have done a fine job.”

I paused for a moment. “Unfortunately,” I continued. “The punishment for doing a good job appears to be that you are given more work. We have a new set of orders.”

Ensign Munfree giggled. I glared at her and then continued. “Those orders start with us returning to Crucibleat. For those of you not aware, Private David Sarkozy and Private Brad Kelly have been transferred to Yularaat. I’d like to welcome Lance Corporal Jacqueline Vernon and Private Amy Branch as their replacements. They will form a single missile launch team. Privates Swift and Morgan will be pairing up. For those of you wondering. Lance Corporal Vernon has said she does not mind being called Jackie, which should hopefully reduce confusion with Lance Corporal Vernon Boddicker. Vernon, expect me to use your last name most of the time in the future.”

Blaine started laughing. “Five minutes to jump point,” he said.

I ignored his comment and continued speaking. “Once at Crucible we will all receive three days of leave. At the end of that leave everyone needs to return to Corsica. We will be going on a thirty to forty day patrol deep beyond systems known to have a Sa’arm presence. The orders do not give details as to why, but I suspect that the Confederacy High Command is trying to develop a picture the threat level we are now facing.”

“For now, carry on your usual duties. I am going to make one change. As this jump will initiate soon and we do not need everyone at their stations only on duty personnel have to be at their stations for this jump,” I said.

My personal intercom beeped. “This is Captain Parker,” I responded.

I could see Chaz frantically trying to adjust her controls. “Captain, this is Ensign Daniels,” I heard Warren say. “Did we really trade away Sarkozy and Kelly?”

“They left the ship before I returned. Their concubines will be moved from Crucibleat to Yularaat by a transport. They’ll almost certainly be gone before we return from our next patrol,” I responded.

“I can live with that,” Warren said. “Oh, I called because I wanted you to know that I was going to suggest that we dispense with having everyone at stations for every jump when we are exiting a system or entering a known system like Crucibleat.”

“I’m going to disagree with you on entering a system. Sure we know that Crucibleat is supposed to be safe, but the first time it isn’t we’ll be in danger unless everyone is at their stations,” I pointed out.

“I never thought about that. So you have us all at our stations in case we run into something?” Ensign Daniels replied.

“We need to think about things like that,” I confirmed. “That might be something for you to start working on going forward. You’d be a good ship’s captain someday.”