Federation Reborn 2: Pirate Rage (97 page)

That earned knowing nods and chuckles from the assembled group.

---<>))))

Corporal Gleason wasn't thrilled about working the docks. Someone had to handle it he admitted; he just thought he would have had a more glorious post when he'd signed up for the army instead of the marines.

Fat lot of good that had done him. He was still manning a post. A boring post. Well, boring until a shipment like the one currently being unloaded came in.

A human stevedore came over with a dollie and a massive casket-like container. He set it down on one end and unhooked the hover dollie, then wheeled it off to the side before standing it upright. He pulled a tablet out for the corporal.

“What's this?”

“Delivery,” the stevedore said, holding out a tablet for the army corporal to sign. The corporal was used to the antic. He knew not to argue, but he was careful about what he signed for.

“What the hell is it?” the corporal asked as he took the tablet and scanned it briefly before sketching out his signature. Everything looked legit. It was from Epsilon Triangula of all places. It might be a shipment of gear they found he thought. Could it be a suit? That would be cool he thought, looking at the display panel and green LEDs along one side.

“It's a problem. Your problem,” the stevedore said with a grin as he tucked the tablet under his arm.

“Very funny. Wanna tell me what I just got my ass in a sling for?” Gleason growled.

The stevedore shrugged. “From the look of it, it's a stasis pod. I've seen a few. It came in on that shipment of recruits from Epsilon Triangula this morning. This one has a tiger inside of all things. My advice, be careful when you open it. He doesn't look happy,” the stevedore said, taking the tablet back.

“A what?” the corporal asked, startled.

“A tiger. Big bastard but old.”

“I'm not …”

“You just did. He's your problem now,” the stevedore said with a grin as he took himself off.

The corporal stared at the upright pod. He went over and wiped at the clear visor where the head was. A tiger was indeed inside, a yellow Neotiger with what looked a perpetual scowl on a face that was a bit of a mess.

“Great, another repair job. Why do they send them to us? At least if this one is a sleeper, he
might
have implants … could it be a sleeper?” he frowned as he tried to think of what to do. Technically he was in unknown ground. He could call medical and have them deal with the guy, which was probably what he should do. But then there was recruiting and training … or should he call to have the guy signed in? He wasn't sure.

He stood there staring for a while before his implants pinged. That gave him an idea so he reached out with his Wi-Fi to see if the cat had implants. The signal he got had him go wide eyed and slack jawed. “Um, Sarge? Can I get you over to the docks? You're never going to believe this, but we've got a live one,” he said in a message.

---<>))))

Brigadier Jersey Forth frowned as he read the latest dispatch from Pyrax. Apparently he was to expect a delegation from there soon. The Bek Marine and army officers were coming a calling, as the old saying went. That was fine. He outranked all three of them.

Major Theodore Edward Bear IIXXX was a Neopolar bear Marine. He'd see how the bear sized up once he got in the star system. From the sound of his bio, the bear was a hard charger. If he was he could use that grit.

He'd have to get up to speed though. He'd also have to do it while Jersey threw some duties at him. There was nothing like seeing if an officer was worth the rank tabs they had on by throwing them in the deep end right away—sink or swim.

The two militia army officers from Nuevo were a different story however. Both were outside his jurisdiction. He wanted to treat them with kid gloves. Lieutenant Colonel Pasha 1010111 was the ranking Nuevo army militia officer. He wasn't certain of the man's last name. There might be some odd cyber cult thing going on. According to what he'd heard, Nuevo was a mostly agrarian world lacking modern industry. Again, he was going to have to see how much the officers knew and what they could handle. These two seemed to be … weekend warriors, he thought, wrinkling his nose.

Lieutenant Olivia Lincoln was the second army militia officer. He had nothing in her file like her boss. He shook his head. No matter. He'd get up to speed with them when they got to the planet.

With any luck he'd hand the army mess off to both of them. That would be nice he thought. And what about the new recruit? Rajestan? Nohar Yellow Tiger Rajestan, former army ranger sergeant of the legendary 501st. What the hell was he supposed to do with him? John might be tickled pink that the elderly Neocat had not only signed back up but also shipped himself out on his own initiative, but …

He shook his head. Rajestan was still getting sorted out by the medics. He probably should have gone to Pyrax first, gotten his body's geriatric issues sorted out, then come here. But he'd jumped the gun. Fine. They'd deal with it, or in this case he would. Fine. All the better, he thought.

He frowned thoughtfully. He could turn the tiger over to the army militia and see what they say. He was tempted … and they'd get with him eventually he was sure. But for the moment he had to figure out a different approach.

Technically he wasn't … shouldn't, he should say,
shouldn't
be all that concerned about the tiger. He was after all army, not a marine. The sergeant was Captain Church's problem, he thought. If he was
smart
, he'd sick the tiger on admin paperwork during his rehabilitation and retraining and see if he could handle it or go nuts. More nuts than he already was, the brigadier thought, shaking his head silently. The very idea of shipping oneself across the cosmos …

“Sir, Major Valenko's division is ready for deployment. Their ships are loading. You said to let you know before he departs for Protodon?” his yeoman asked.

“Yes, I'll go have a chat with him,” the general said, rising to his feet.

“But, sir, um, your schedule …”

“Work around it. Figure it out,” the general said simply as he left.

The yeoman bit his lip and then muttered about finding someone sane to work for as he tried to sort the sudden departure into the schedule without causing a chain of chaos in his neat and orderly world.

---<>))))

“It's coming together,” Sprite said with a note of satisfaction in her voice. She noted the admiral was relaxing in his office, but not quite ready to call it a night. It was after hours and he definitely needed a break. Sometimes it felt like he was buried in paperwork.

“Oh?”

“This.” She indicated the yard and the naval station. “All of it. We've got people coming in from all over the frontier now signing on. Despite certain pessimists in BUPERS, I think we'll see another uptick in personnel now that Bek has joined. I mean other than the Bek and Nuevo military,” she said wryly. “And the quality is definitely improving.”

“And material as well,” the admiral mused. She was right about the Bek and Nuevo military. Bringing them up to speed would take some time but they already had the basics down apparently. He'd read the reports and seen the tactical sims of the various Bek naval and Marine officers in the academy sims. They were good even though they hadn't been blooded.

“True. I was surprised that our departure would actually facilitate that here,” she said shaking her head.

“I admit that was a pleasant surprise. Governor Randall has put an emphasis on that.”

“I noticed that when I reviewed the logs. He's coming along nicely. He seems like a halfway decent guy when you get under the politics,” Sprite said.

“Possibly,” he said nodding.

“Two years here,” Sprite said. He raised an eyebrow. “Two-year anniversary of your triumphant return. I caught a blog on the net about it a minute ago.”

“Ah, so that's where this introspection came from. I had wondered.”

“You mean I'm usually all doom and gloom?” she asked smiling now, hands on her hips.

He smiled back, hands up in supplication. “Heaven forbid. But you have been a bit maudlin from time to time.”

“Pot and a certain color?” she teased.

“Point,” he chuckled shaking his head. “We've got people, but we're still having a bottleneck training them. We've barely got enough for the ships and facilities we have in use now that we're mothballing the smaller ships. If the builders hit their stride soon, we're going to have growing pains.”

“I know,” Sprite sighed. She shook her head frowning. “Way to shoot a girl's bubble, Admiral,” she said shooting him an accusing look.

He snorted. “Just keeping us grounded. Usually that's your job, remember? It's nice to swap rolls a bit.”

He'd just had to deal with a bit of fallout from the mothballing of the smaller ships. One he hadn't anticipated. When the news had hit the media it hadn't gone over well. There had been a bit of panic before the soothing press releases from both of his offices smoothed things over, at least on the surface.

But then the calls for the gunships, corvettes, and frigates started to come in. Private parties and local governments wanted to buy them. Some of the governments like Pyrax and New Texas had demanded they be turned over to them! He'd been amused until they had gotten a bit too uppity about it all. Sprite had convinced him that slapping them down wasn't the thing to do.

Instead they'd worked out a compromise. They had already worked out a price for the oldest gunships and then written up a contract detailing the sale. They had been sold as is, where is, and would not be maintained, supplied, or crewed by the government and navy. That had gone over fine for the gunships.

The corvettes were a different story; one he'd fought for some time. Finally, he'd agreed with her and let the first flight go. It was the same as before, as is, where is, no personnel, no parts, no maintenance, no MILSPEC equipment on board. And they couldn't be used in acts of piracy. They could be refitted for space work at an extra price. They'd released that statement a few hours ago, and it had shut up the clamor instantly.

He wasn't sure if they were going back to their piggy banks to crunch the numbers or had been scared off by what was involved in taking on a force of ships and maintaining them. He didn't care either way, as long as they stopped bothering him for the moment. He drew the line at corvettes though. Frigates were too useful to sell. He could man them with the personnel from Bek as a temporary measure while they got themselves sorted out.

“That means I get to wear the admiral's cap?” she asked amused once more, drawing him instantly back to the conversation at hand.

“Heaven forbid!” he laughed.

“Funny,” she said tartly, eyes flashing.

“You'll get here on your own eventually, Sprite, if you choose this path. You and I both know staff positions are unenviable places to be. You also know those in them do not get the opportunities for promotion like field command presents.”

“Uh huh,” she drawled. “I'm not ready to be installed in a ship … if ever. I'd consider my own command,” she said. His eyebrows flicked skyward. “But I think I'm more useful here.”

“Definitely,” the admiral said with a nod. He sat back, exhaling in relief.

“You were scared there for a moment,” she teased, sitting her virtual self down in a nearby chair and then crossing her legs. “About the personnel problem, I believe as the educational systems reform we'll be seeing a better sampling of raw recruits. The longer and better the reforms the more likely we'll get to old Federation standards.”

“Possibly,” he said nodding.

“You mean eventually. Right now our best people come from here in Antigua, Triang, Pyrax, Epsilon Triangula, Bek, and Seti Alpha 4. They have the highest standards of education and the densest populations.”

“I know,” he said with a nod. “Gaston is getting there, I admit. Nuevo … they mean well; they admit they are ground pounders. They will fill out the ranks of the army and marines undoubtedly.”

“Undoubtedly since they seem to be oriented in that direction already,” Sprite said.

“Kathy's World, again marines and army. Agnosta, Proxima, New Texas, same deal.”

“Syntia's World might have more naval recruits. The same for some of the southern star systems.”

“But not many. You noticed the interest in cavalry from Halced 6 and New Haven?” he asked. She nodded. He snorted in reply. “As if.”

“True.”

“Senka has some good spacers, but their population base is too low.” He shook his head. “You can't really count Bek yet. We haven't integrated them into the new Federation yet, and the sampling they sent is too small. It is also going to take time to get personnel out of there and to the academy since we're limited to a handful of ships that can make that jump through the rapids.” He grimaced. “I think we're going to have teething issues there as well. Not just on the hardware side, but the personnel side as well.”

“Different methods of doing the same job?” Sprite asked.

“That and they are pretty set in their ways of doing it. Senka folks are pretty set in their ways as well, but Bekian's can really be a handful. They are stubborn. I'd forgotten that,” he said, ending in a rueful note.