Josiah West 1: Kaleidoscope (5 page)

“
Look at me; I’m crowding twenty-nine years old, still an ensign, and still hiding in the bowels of the biggest loser ship in the Navy.” Josiah leaned forward, “Admiral, tell me I didn’t misread you and make a big mistake by telling you about the real Navy people on the Caldwell. If you’re the man I’ve heard you are and you do want to clean up this Division then you have a core group of people that you could have only dreamed of until now.” He eased back in his seat again, “As for me, I’m angry, frustrated and burned out; I’m looking forward to getting out. Sorry Admiral but I have no interest in doing more of the same.”

Admiral Jacks was nodding slowly. When he stopped
, he acquired one of those small smiles Josiah had seen earlier, “I’m glad you put it that way, that you don’t want to do more of the same. How would you like to do something different?”

The
Admiral leaned forward and pushed the case across the table, eased back in his chair and just sat there watching Josiah. Everyone was watching Josiah, including Beltozi, Sun and Shepard from across the room. It looked like his turn to do the obvious, so he pulled the case to the edge of the table and opened it.

The first thing through his mind was one of those clichéd scenes in the vids where someone opens a box and the contents cast a bright glow. He was looking at a pair of shoulder boards with the two gold bars of a full Lieutenant
on the red background of a staff officer. It took awhile, but he finally managed to look back at the Admiral and say, “You’re kidding, right?”

Admiral Jacks brought his hands down hard on the arms of his chair, pulled himself to the edge, and stuck a finger in Josiah’s face, “You think you’re fed up with the Navy? I’m the one that has to clean up Division One and I need help.” He relaxed a bit, put his hands back together and his elbows on the armrests. “Up until that crash
, you were just another piece of trash that was heading for the dump, but your performance started us checking you out. The blatant discrepancy between your Academy record and service record got us digging deeper. We found that the higher level personnel on the Caldwell that even knew you existed thought of you as just some below average clod in the churn while those closest to you praised you highly. We had an idea that there was something odd going on, but we never suspected what you just told us.” He raised his hand and indicated someone to his right, “Commander Phelps is my pilot but he’s headed for the War College, and we have been looking for a replacement for several months.” He pointed down at the open case, “We, obviously, chose you but we knew it would have to be a hell of an offer.”

Once again the
Admiral picked up a data pad; in fact, he spread the remaining four in a row and pointed to the first one. “This one modifies your service record to show a promotion to Lieutenant Junior Grade sixteen months after leaving the Academy.” He pointed to the next pad, “This one promotes you to full Lieutenant twenty-six months later.” His finger moved again, “This one restores all lost back pay and this last one authorizes payment of twenty-thousand credits for retention in service of a critical specialty, that of shuttle pilot.” He now pointed at the data pad in front of Josiah, “You sign that one and I sign these.”

While
the Admiral was talking, Commander Sun had walked up behind him and leaned over, “Admiral, we need you to look at something.”

He nodded and said, “Excuse me,” and followed Sun across the room.

Commander Phelps leaned over and touched Josiah’s sleeve, “Being a staff officer is great, and being the Admiral’s personal pilot is a fantastic job. You get to hobnob with the top brass and heads of state, and in the most luxurious shuttle you ever saw. The Admiral has an old D model Panther assault boat stripped out and fitted with all of the classiest gear available.”

That caught Josiah’s attention, “You have a Panther D?”

Phelps grinned, “Yes indeed, it’s the only one still flying, and it is beautiful. Of course it will take a few weeks to get you your command rating what with having to schedule simulator time.”

Josiah absently waved a hand as his mind wandered through some old memories, “Oh, that won’t be a problem; I already have full Systems and Command ratings for a Panther D. I will need a check ride though.”

That got at least four “Whats”, two “Huhs” and one “That’s not possible.” Commander Marks pointed to his logic pad pouch, “There was no mention of any such ratings in either of your records and the Panther line ended around fifteen years ago.”

Josiah understood the confusion, “My family operates a flight systems service company in
California. It was started by my grandfather, and my father now runs it. They are both ex-Navy. When I was fifteen we got the job of rebuilding a Panther D for the Marine Memorial Garden up by Jacksonville. By the time we finished rebuilding all of the systems, making it airworthy only took a few more days and it was cheaper to fly it to Jacksonville than to ship it. We spent six months rebuilding systems, and for the fun of it, my dad made sure I took all of the system and command rating exams. I was the one that flew it to Jacksonville. If you go there you’ll see my picture as part of the exhibit. They were kind of surprised when my father told then that he was the co-pilot and the sixteen-year-old boy was the PIC. The ratings are part of my civilian records, not the military records. Here...” He got his pad out and opened it. The others got the idea, and, in a minute, he had uploaded his civilian flight ratings to their pads.

A couple of minutes went by as they scanned his civilian ratings. An occasional “Good Lord” or “Wow” was heard. Lieutenant May-Reynolds looked up at him with an expression of disbelief on her face, “You got all of these ratings by the time you were nineteen?”

He smiled at her, “Actually I was a week short of my nineteenth birthday when I entered the Academy. I got my first rating, a class 2 atmospheric shuttle rating, when I was twelve and it became sort of a game to see how many I could get.” He scanned their faces with a grin on his, “You have to realize that I had a complete flight service facility to play with. We got all manner of equipment through there: Privately owned, corporate, foreign and even the occasional military job. The only restriction on my command ratings was that I could not fly as PIC with any unrated passengers aboard until I was sixteen. Of course, what did I care? I was doing flight testing by myself before I was fourteen. I did my first sub-orbital flight around the Earth on my fourteenth birthday.”

Everyone’s attention shifted as Admiral Jacks, Beltozi and Sun returned to the group and resumed their seats. The people sitting next to Beltozi and Sun handed them their pads so they could read his civilian ratings. Admiral Jacks addressed the entire group, “Beltozi, Sun, and Molly have been checking on the authenticity of the record data that West supplied us. We called up some of those officers that signed off on your various activities over the last four plus years.” The
Admiral was now focused on Josiah, “It appears that the record is genuine. I have ordered Master Chief Shepard to scan through that record for any awards that you are now known to be qualified to receive. The most obvious ones are for those Marine assaults that you participated in. It is not normal practice to award Marine campaign ribbons to naval personnel but I will sign off on them. Those, and anything else that Molly comes up with, will be yours before you leave this room.” He raised his hand and pointed at the open case still lying in front of Josiah, “Now, there is still the question before you.”

Captain Beltozi stood up and with a formal air to his voice turned to face Admiral Jacks, “Sir, the staff would like a moment to confer privately with Ensign West.”

The Admiral appeared mildly surprised but rose from his seat, “As you wish.” The rest of the staff also rose from their seats and Josiah joined them.

As the
Admiral turned to walk away, May-Reynolds handed him her pad, “Sir, you will want to read this.”

As the
Admiral went slowly toward his desk reading Josiah’s civilian ratings list, Captain Beltozi steered Josiah to the back corner of the room against the windows. The entire staff surrounded them, “We want to be very clear about things before you make your decision. When you walked into this room we were all about ninety percent sure that the offer would be made to you. The only thing that bothered us was your service record. Now, with that cleared up, you definitely have the job if you want it.”

Phelps took over, “Being the
Admiral’s shuttle pilot is only part of the job. You will be given all manner of assignments from checking the quality of the food in the chow hall to working with foreign military and diplomatic personnel.”

Now it was Lieutenant Edwards’ turn, “The term ‘work hours’ has no meaning. Even if you are on leave
, you’re not on leave.”

Commander Scott put a hand on his shoulder
, and he turned toward her, “You’ll still only be a lousy lieutenant, but you will find that those red shoulder boards are like keys to a Magic Kingdom. You will find that everyone is very friendly to you, including other admirals.”

Lieutenant Ataxis started speaking in his precise East African British accent, “Because of that influence you must be very careful how you deal with people. There is a temptation to be a tin-god.”

Captain Beltozi gripped his arm again, “See that man over there?” He indicated the Admiral sitting at his desk with a twitch of his head. Josiah looked and nodded. “See that woman over there?” Another twitch in the direction of Molly Shepard working at a screen at the conference table. Another nod. “Everyone standing around you loves them, and they love us. Along with everything else, we are a family. Molly thinks of the junior officers here as her ‘kids’. We refer to her as ‘Mom’ behind her back; don’t you ever tell her that. You have made her very happy and that makes us very happy. You have also impressed us with your actions and abilities. We want and need you here,” he looked at the rest of the group, “don’t we?” That brought another wave of backslapping and affirmative replies.

Beltozi wasn’t finished, “If you decide to join us I want to emphasize that Kofi was right about the power trip of being a staff officer. Wh
erever you go, those shoulder boards give you the voice and authority of that man over there. Tread very lightly until it really is necessary to pull out a big stick, like you did when we crashed.” Beltozi’s grip got a bit firmer as he put a grim look closer to Josiah’s face, “If you make that man look bad I will personally sign the transfer order that puts you in command of a weather station on an asteroid.” With that, Beltozi broke into a big grin and smoothed the arm of Josiah’s shirt where he had been tightly gripping it, “So, shall we return?”

By that time, Molly was at the
Admiral’s desk and showing him something on a data pad. The staff remained standing until Admiral Jacks and Molly joined them. As everyone sat down, the Admiral handed May-Reynolds her personal pad back. He then looked at Josiah, and, obviously referring to his civilian ratings, said, “You’re kidding, right?” That brought more laughter and a grin to Josiah’s face, “Sir, I was about eighteen and a half when we threw a party on the day my rating count exceeded my father’s.”

The
Admiral just shook his head and looked up at Molly who was still standing beside him. She looked at the pad and then at Josiah, “Ensign West, a check of your actual duty records have determined that you have completed training and attained experience level requirements for fourteen ratings. This is a Navy record unless other members of your ‘group’ have done better. You are also awarded the Marine Combat Ribbon for your participation in the Argentine Police Action.” She then handed the data pad she had been holding to Admiral Jacks who then signed it and handed it back to her. “Also, with the signing of this form you are now the youngest and lowest ranking person to ever receive the Command Instructor rating.”

That brought everyone to their feet in a burst of noise and they dragged him to his feet and began pounding his back and shaking his hand again. There were several instructor ratings but this was the highest. Admiral Jacks was the last to take his hand, “You know, West, no one under the age of forty or the rank of Lieutenant Commander has ever received that rating. You gave me the chance to brag that I awarded it
to an ensign. He still gripped his hand as he looked around, “Unfortunately, I don’t have a set of Command Instructor wings to present you with, and nobody here has that rating so I can steal theirs.”

Molly tapped his arm, “Taken care of Admiral. They should be here in a couple of minutes.”

Admiral Jacks got a slightly unfocused, distant look in his eyes, “If you want something done, call a PO.”

Amid more grins
, the Admiral indicated that they should take their seats again. “The question remains,” and he pointed at the case again, “Ensign West. I know this day has been a lot different than you expected, and I am sure that it would really mess up your plans for returning to civilian life, but do you really want to retire from the Navy as an Ensign? Your first hitch has been a unique experience at the very least, but I need you here,” and he pointed at the group around them, “not out there.” His pointing finger now indicated the world outside. “Make me happy.”

Josiah looked down at the shoulder boards in the case,
Well, it’s not like the family business will suffer without me, and I don’t have a hot girlfriend waiting at the station, hmmm...lieutenant, staff officer, medals and Command Instructor. It could be fun.
He looked square into the Admiral’s eyes, “Admiral, I’m going to make you happy.” He picked up the data pad, withdrew the stylus from its slot, and signed up for another five years.