Chapter 30: Under Weigh

The message had been sent to every cruise line and colony that Solaria had friendly relations with: did anyone have a cruise ship that could be drafted as a hospital ship, that their government could contribute to the cause?

Just as the other colony worlds had, Deneb replied with an apologetic "no".

All of the colony worlds except one.

Admiral Helfrich was escorting his opposite number in the Solaria Federation Army, General Henderson, after a visit with the two brigades tasked for Operation Haversack, the code-name for the show of force at Arcturus. Both men were still fretting over the lack of a hospital ship. As the Admiral's skiff neared the floating jewel in space which served as the offices of Fleet Technical Services, the co-pilot leaned back and advised him, "Urgent message from Fleet Command, Sir." She handed him a headphone.

"Yes? Yes, I see. Ah, THAT ship." He paused as the voice at the other end continued to expostulate. "Ah. Well..." He winced. "And the President has instructed me to accept the offer? Well, it can't be helped. Thank you. Issue an acceptance message, and make it polite and gracious."

General Henderson peered over his glasses at the Admiral, intensely curious, but said nothing. If it was any of his business, the Admiral would let him know shortly.

The Admiral was rubbing the bridge of his nose, trying to avoid the headache he knew was coming. "We have our hospital ship."

The General sighed in relief. "Excellent. I was worried about that."

"You are providing a quarter of the doctors, nurses and orderlies from Army medical staff – two doctors, eight nurses and eight medics. I'm providing another two doctors, eight nurses and eight corpsmen from Naval medical staff."

General Henderson could do mental math with the best of them. "That's half the staff. And the other half?"

"From the providers of the hospital ship."

"Ah, excellent."

"The ship is a brand new cruise liner, hasn't even taken her first paying passenger yet. It was supposed to head to its home port for its acceptance ceremony, but instead it's being handed over temporarily to us. It will follow with the fleet to its home port, by which time it should be completely reconfigured to hospital ship status. We'll need to dig up a couple of armoured shuttles to act as ambulances, we'll provide the shuttle crew. That's another four pilots, two of whom are extras so we can operate the shuttles 24 hours if necessary, and another crew of four maintenance crew who will double as loadmasters."

General Henderson nodded. "If you can let me communicate with the General Staff Office?"

"Gladly," sighed the Admiral wearily.

"By the way, where DID we manage to dig up such a prize? What ship is it?"

"It's the SS Diane Webber."

"Oh." The name meant nothing to the General.

"It's Spican flagged."

"Oh," repeated General Henderson, not really paying attention to the implications.

"And Spican crewed."

Sudden realization hit the General. "Oh ... OH."

Admiral Helfrich nodded. "And they're supplying half the medical staff. And the President has confirmed that as far as she's concerned, as it's been seconded to the Spican Orbital Guard and not the Solarian Navy, it's Spican territory, so our personnel will follow Spican dress regulations on board the ship." He looked sadly at the General. "Which means both our medical staff will be running around in the buff."

As the General began muttering imprecations, the Admiral assured him, "I have a bottle of very nice brandy in my office. May I offer you a libation when we get back?"

Not trusting himself to speak, the General merely nodded in affirmation.

"Your first direct contact with the President?" enquired Admiral Helfrich mildly. His passenger nodded again.

"Every time I've had direct dealings with her, at least one sailor has ended up nude." He picked up his data pad and started issuing the necessary orders to his Vice-Admiral in command of Fleet Medical Services, and calmly added, "I was convinced that this time my entire fleet was going to be stripped. Fortunately it's only twenty-six for me, and eighteen for you. You may want to warn your troops not to get injured if they don't want to get nude too."

The admiral noted the smirks on the faces of the two pilots. Aha ladies, you'll do, he thought to himself, annoyed with what he perceived to be the arrogant reaction of the pair. I just need to find and strip two more pilots. And two doctors. And eight nurses. And eight corpsmen. And four shuttle maintenance techs ... His headache was back.