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Welcome back, loyal readers. With all of the little things that have been going wrong on the Heinlein Kyle and his senior officers feel they need to plan for what Kyle calls the “teething issues” the new ship is having. There are some who believe Kyle might be having teething problems of his own as he adjusts to being the youngest captain in the Explorer Program.
Enjoy.
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Douglas
CHAPTER 26
PLANNING FOR GLITCHES
By Douglas DD
Assisted by Zarek Dragon
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 4
0700
Kyle and Danny entered the executive dining room ready for breakfast. Logan Wilson, the chief science officer, and Mituti Tudupe, the chief navigator, were sitting at a table perusing breakfast menus. Mituti nodded for Kyle and Danny to join them.
“Good morning, men,” Kyle said as he sat next to Logan. Kyle noted that Logan seemed a bit tense.
“I like how Kyle calls us men when I’m thirteen and you’re just twelve,” Mituti said to Logan.
“Well, you are eight months older than me,” Kyle pointed out.
“I’m not close to a man yet, even in Explorerland,” Logan said.
“How are your brothers doing?” Kyle asked Logan in an attempt to relax him.
“They don’t have school until nine so like the good students they are, they’re sleeping in. I think they plan on having breakfast with Koji and Duskin sometime before class.”
Kyle noted that Logan would usually know exactly when his nine-year-old twin brothers would be having breakfast and with whom. He could tell that Logan was feeling pressure. When Tanner entered the dining room to take orders, Kyle took a quick look at the menu and decided to go with the French toast meal. Logan ordered the same as did Danny.
Mituti ordered tenawe waffles. The flour was made from a Darastixian grain. The meat, however, was good old bacon.
Steve and Brad were walking to breakfast when they came across Don and Everett, who were heading to the buffet for their breakfast. “Good morning, guys,” Steve said in his usual friendly manner.
Everett gave Steve a grin and a mock salute, while Don grunted out, “Good morning, sir.” Don would have loved to tell the two senior officers to fuck themselves since he hated each of them, especially Brad. Both were pains in the ass as they found ways to screw up the glitches his Guardians tried to let loose on the Heinlein. If only they’d just leave things up to Kyle, he’d screw it up for sure. We don’t have enough of these glitches as it is, and we need them all to work. Brad and Steve had a way of catching things before they even started, Don thought.
I dare them to screw up the one coming up, Don thought. He knew he had to be civil to the senior officers as much as possible since he might need their assistance after his Guardians took over the ship.
One thing Don knew for certain was that neither Steve nor Brad were the mystery department head looking to join the Guardians. Both of them were way too tight with Kyle. If it wasn’t for those two assholes, Kyle would be starting to come unglued by now, Don thought.
Kyle, Danny, Mituti, and Logan had just been served their breakfast when Steve and Brad sat at an adjoining table. After everyone exchanged greetings, the newcomers ordered their breakfast.
“You’ll love this, Kyle. Brad and I had a quick chat with your buddies on the way here,” Steve said.
“And which buddies would they be?” Kyle asked.
“I’ll give you ten guesses and the first nine don’t count.”
“Oh, please. I was enjoying breakfast until you brought up those two, whose names escape me at the moment.”
“Correctamundo on the first guess,” Steve grinned.
“You know what I can’t figure, is why Everett hangs with Don,” Danny said. “He seems like a decent sort.”
“I can give you the answer in one word.”
“Sex,” Kyle said. “There’s probably a bit of an ego trip thrown in as well. From what I can tell he has been given some big responsibilities by Nixon.”
“Yes, to both ego and sex,” Brad said.
“Is everything about sex with you guys?” Logan barked as he slammed his cup on the table and stomped out of the dining room, almost knocking over security chief Kage Enzan and Tanner Offerman, who was following Kage into the dining room to hand him a menu.
“Did somebody say sex?” Kage asked.
“It was mentioned,” Kyle answered.
“Since when is Logan hung up on sex?”
“Since never, as far as I know. He’s been in a funk all morning.”
“Perhaps one of us should have a talk with him and find out what’s going on with him. We can’t have department heads running off halfcocked. What will the crew think?”
“This is the executive dining room. What happens here stays here,” Kyle said.
Tanner could feel the department heads eyeing him. “Mum’s the word,” he said as he sidled over to Kage’s table to take his order. Kyle knew that Ian, the head chef, had thoroughly vetted Tanner as well as Tony Perez and Rowdy Molina before assigning them as executive dining room waiters. Tanner was the main waiter for the dining room, but Tony and Rowdy could both fill in when needed.
Meanwhile, Logan wanted to talk to Don Nixon and Everett Belmont, two of his charges in the Science Department. He stepped into the main crew dining room and didn’t see them. He then went next door to the buffet where he saw his two science officers along with Terry Broxton, from Information Services, eating together at a table. He stepped up to the table. “I’d like to see the two of you in the science ready room at 0830,” he said to Don and Everett. He turned and stomped out of the buffet before they could respond.
“Well, he certainly isn’t in a good mood,” Terry said. “I’m glad I’m not meeting with him.”
“Great. Not only is our captain a toddler but our science boss is an infant,” Don groused, referring to the fact that Kyle was 13 and Logan was 12. “Who knows what kind of moods those babies will be in.”
<Bridge>
0800
As the Heinlein moved quickly but routinely through hyperspace, Devin French sat at the conn thinking about how things had started churning since the ship had left Spencer Planet Colony. The big issue was that it was difficult to come up with proof that Don Nixon and his Guardians were truly tossing glitches their way, or of things like the thruster slowdown were simply teething issues for the new ship.
He had no doubt the glitches were somehow caused by the Guardians. But in order to come down on Nixon and his minions, they needed proof. He knew that Kyle, along with Steve and Brad, the second and third officers, and himself needed proof to do anything. To battle the glitches, they needed more than the glitch happening and the computer telling them that somebody or something was causing the glitch. They needed to prove who was behind it and how they pulled it off.
Devin knew that Kyle had his theories as to how to corner Don and the rest of the Guardians, but he felt they were complicated and relied on too many things happening that couldn’t be controlled. Devin remembered when Kyle came aboard the Endurance after Devin astrogated the ship to the wrong destination. Kyle found what had been done wrong by keeping his search simple and relying on the basics. The same was true in the subsequent battle against Azazel, the Rogue Star. Keep it simple and rely on the basics.
But as much as he respected Kyle Robinson and what he was doing as captain of the Heinlein under trying circumstances, he felt that Kyle had lost contact with his basic philosophy. He had been willing to tell Kyle what he thought since that was his job as first officer and as Kyle’s friend.
I’m going to support Kyle throughout this trial, but it would be much easier if Kyle looked at his problems in the same way he had when he saved my bacon on the Endurance. Devin’s thoughts were interrupted when A.J., who had the communications desk on the watch, informed him he needed to take a communication from HQ regarding fuel consumption.
<Science Department Chief ready room>
0830
Logan Wilson sat at his desk going over paperwork regarding the Planck Nebula which was the destination of the first official mission. Logan thought that the paperwork was worse than the busy work he was sometimes assigned in his Academy classes. While not much was known about the nebula, he knew there were better sources of information than the boring sheets of information sent out from Space Fleet HQ.
The good thing about the paperwork was that it kept his mind off of his upcoming meeting with Don Nixon and Everett Belmont. It was a meeting he wished he could simply avoid, but the way things were unfolding with the senior officers, he had no choice but to go through with it.
He set the sheaf of papers down, when Don and Everett entered the ready room through the open door. Logan signaled them to sit in the seats in front of his desk.
“I have something I want to talk to you about,” Logan said.
“Obviously, or you wouldn’t have asked us to meet you here in the ready room,” Don said with a bit arrogance apparent in his voice.
“I figure you’re going to give us more things to work on regarding the Planck Nebula,” Everett said.
“That is not the topic I want to discuss,” Logan said.
“Then what DO you want to discuss?” Don asked.
“I want to discuss the Guardians, the role they are playing, and what I can do to help you.”
Don and Everett flashed looks at each other that said, He’s not the one I guessed. They were thinking of Ben Kennedy telling them that a department head was seriously considering joining the Guardian cause.
Their looks told Logan that his announcement didn’t come as a surprise. “You are acting like you knew this was going to happen.”
“All we knew was a rumor that one of the department heads was considering joining the Guardians, but the person telling us this had no idea who it was—or so he said,” Don said. “No way I thought you would be the one.”
“Why? Because I’m only twelve and your Guardians have no use for young officers?”
“Not at all. You’ve always seemed like a straight shooter. You go by the book, you run a tight department, and you give us useful work to do.”
“Yeah, you make the work hard but interesting at the same time,” Everett said.
“Like a certain captain, you are very young,” Don said,. “But unlike that certain captain you know what you’re doing. You’re good at your job.”
Everett wondered if Don was shooting himself in the foot—maybe even shooting both of them in their feet. His trust that Logan wasn’t setting them up surprised Everett. From what he had seen of Don, he trusted nobody except his trustworthy Guardian officers.
“Who shared the rumor?” Logan asked.
Again, Everett wondered if Logan was being straightforward or was setting up Don and the person who spread the rumor. Once again Don surprised him.
“Ben Kennedy, who has the baby captain’s trust for whatever reason, is the person who told me.”
Logan wasn’t surprised when he heard the name, but it left a different impression. “Damn. I don’t know how Ben came up with my name, but I guess it’s hard to keep secrets on a ship like this.”
“I’m pleased to welcome you to the Guardians. I assure you that we’re not mutineers and are acting according to Regulations 29 and 38. And to guarantee we’re following protocol we are keeping very detailed records. And it looks like you will be our necessary junior officer—welcome aboard.”
“First of all, I am not joining the Guardians,” Logan said.
“It sounded to me like you said you were doing just that.”
“I said I would help you in any way I could.”
“We do need the support of a junior command officer. And you’re as junior an officer as it gets among the department chiefs. If you’re not going to be a Guardian then we can’t use you, no matter what kind of help you think you can give us.”
Everett watched the back and forth with interest. He wondered how Don would handle the situation since it was not playing out as he apparently believed it would.
“I’ll tell you two things, Lieutenant Nixon.” Logan’s use of formal address caught the attention of both Don and Everett. “First of all, you and Ensign Belmont both report to me. If I join the Guardians then you suddenly become my superior officer no matter what our ranks are.” Logan was a lieutenant, but as a department chief he officially outranked Don.
“But you…”
Logan held up his right hand stopping Don in midsentence. “I said I had two things to tell. The second thing is, I said I would be an information source. To do that, I have to work behind the scenes. if I become a member of the Guardians and attend the meetings then my undercover work will become public knowledge and I will not only be of no use to you, but I will lose my position as science chief.”
Logan and Everett both looked directly at Don, waiting to see how he was going to react to Logan’s little tirade.
Don nodded and gave Logan an apprising grin. “That’s exactly what I thought you would say,” he said. “People, especially senior officers, will wonder what you’re doing at a Guardian meeting and your cover will be blown. But Everett and I report to you and meeting with you in your ready room is a regular part of our jobs.”
“Exactly. And on that note, you two can get to your stations and work on your assignments. I want the science department to be as aware of what to expect in the Planck Nebula as possible.”
Don and Everett stood, left the ready room, and headed to their department stations.
“Damn, that dude might be the youngest department head, senior officer, or whatever you want to call him, but unlike a certain young captain he totally has his shit together,” Don said.
“I’ve been impressed by him since we first met. He’s like twelve going on full adulthood,” Everett said.
“That’s because he earned his desk in that ready room by knowing what the fuck is going on…unlike the little toddler who was presented the position I was most qualified for because his daddy is the boss of the Explorer Program. What a joke.”
“I think Logan is going to be a big help for us. Him and Ben both.”
“I agree. The Guardians just got stronger,” Don said.
Everett left for his station where he would do some study on the chemical and physical makeup of the Plank Nebula. Don figured that learning what little was known of the planets in the nebula could wait. What he needed to do now was meet with Wade Green and Barney Werney, the two Guardians working in engineering, to find out how their plan for the big glitch they had planned for Friday was unfolding. It sounded like just the right thing to send Kyle-baby into a tizzy.
<Spencer Colony Planet>
1400
Greg was ready to start studying for his Space Academy entrance exam. He learned that he had been assigned his tutor and his examiner. His tutor was Ensign Earl Porter and his examiner would be Lieutenant Michelle Simon. For some reason he was happy that his tutor would be a man. As for his examiner, he didn’t care since his examiner wouldn’t be working with him as closely as his tutor.
Today he and his father would be meeting them in a Space Fleet Building meeting room. The thought had run around his head that since he was the governor’s son and his father would be accompanying him, the two officers should be coming to meet with them at the governor’s house. But what he had learned on his visit to the Heinlein was while he was given first class attention as a guest on board the ship, none of the crew from the captain, to Ali in the classroom, to the dining room servers considered somebody above them in status just because his father was the Governor of the Spencer Planet Colony. And he found he liked it that way.
They probably want me to meet them at their office because that’s how they met all applicants and their family. Plus, it’s probably where they kept all the information they want to share with me, he thought. His thoughts then turned to Allen, who would be coming to the house to spend the night. He couldn’t wait to show him what he had learned from Koji and Duskin and that was cuddling in bed could make a person feel good. He wanted to find out for himself by cuddling with Allen.
Greg and his father, Governor Michael Hallion, arrived at the Space Fleet Building fifteen minutes before their appointment. Not wanting to create a big fuss around his son, Michael elected to drive his own car as would any other parent. The only difference was the security vehicle following them to their destination.
They arrived at the main entrance at two forty-five for their three o’clock appointment. They were met by Lieutenant Simon and Ensign Porter who led them to the assigned meeting room. They went through the standard introductory routine with Greg and his father.
The routine was mostly an outline of what Greg would be doing if he decided to apply for the Academy. There were a lot of questions by both parties. The biggest thing that the Space Fleet officers wanted to know was how serious Greg was about leaving the easy life and taking up a life of hard work and study, most likely away from home. “That will be followed by years in space as a Space Explorer and a Space Fleet officer,” Michelle said.
Greg was an articulate boy and did a good job of convincing the officers of his desire. “There’s one thing you need to pay particular attention to before you take the Academy entrance exam,” Lieutenant Simon said. “You will find mention of it in the ‘Career Alternatives’ booklet. Like all of the pamphlets, this is required reading.”
“I don’t want an alternative. I want to go into space,” Greg said.
“That is what the chapter on Flight School is about.”
“Flight School? What’s Flight School?”
“Flight School is about students who rank high on the entrance exam, but not high enough,” Michelle said. “It’s also about those who want to go into space but don’t want to be away from home on the long exploration flights. Flight School graduates train to fly the cargo carriers, the ore carriers, the passenger ships, and the maintenance ships.”
“I thought Space Fleet flew everything.”
“In a sense they do. All of the kinds of ships I mentioned are operated by Space Fleet, and their operating crew members all serve in Space Fleet. Some even move on to exploratory ships after earning superior ratings and passing examinations. All space ships are crewed by Space Fleet except ships that operate in only one planetary system—like Earth to Luna shuttles.”
“Well, I want to explore and see the galaxy, but it’s good to know that I have something to fall back on,” Greg said. “Did you know about Flight School, dad?”
“I did,” Michael answered. “But Michelle and Earl asked that I let them take you through the introduction and I concurred.”
On that note, the meeting came to an end. Earl told Greg they would be meeting a week from Saturday at 0800. “It will be in this meeting room. We’ll be going over lesson one in the examination study book, so study it and answer the questions at the end of the lesson.”
On the ride home Michael asked his son if he was still interested in taking the exam after going through the rigorous introduction.
“Interested?” Greg exclaimed. “Dad, I am beyond interested—I am excited. I know I can do this and I totally know I want to do it.”
“Then I have a feeling you’ll be getting deep into lesson one.”
“You know it.”
“Just don’t let it get in the way of your regular schoolwork.”
“Dad, that schoolwork is like a walk in the park compared to this. I’ll be right on top of it.”
That evening Greg set up a communicator connection with Ali and told him about his experience with the two Space Fleet officers he would be working with. Ali congratulated Greg on following through and meeting with his mentors. “I will be sure to let Kyle know what you told me,” he said.
“Thanks, Ali. You’re the best.”
<Heinlein, 1900>
Kyle was walking through a passageway with Devin French, his first officer. Lucias Hayes, from operations, was covering Devin’s watch. They were on their way to Information Systems to chat with Brad about what IS computers and technicians had learned about the glitches that have been plaguing the Heinlein. What they didn’t expect was to see Don, Everett, and Jim Maxwell, the executive committee of the Guardians.
“Good evening, gentlemen,” Kyle said as the two groups met.
“Wow, look at that guys. It’s the number onesie and number twosie of the Robert Heinlein. How did we ever get so lucky,” Don smirked.
“We must live right,” Jim said.
“We’d love to stop and chat about right living, but Commander French and I are heading for Information Services to learn what they’ve found out about the annoying glitches that have been plaguing us,” Kyle said. Devin approved of Kyle’s formal address. He wasn’t quite so sure he approved of his revealing the purpose of their visit to IS.
“It wouldn’t have anything to do with poor ship’s maintenance and the lax standards of the senior officers, would it?” Don asked.
“We suspect it’s the teething issues expected of a star ship model. New equipment can be pretty finicky at times,” Kyle said.
“Oh, and hey, Kyle, thanks for loaning my social group the use of one of your department heads. He will make us a very social group.”
“And who might that be?”
“Hey, dude if you don’t know who it is, then you know even less about your command than I thought. Funny, he didn’t tell you. Could he have as little trust in you as I do?”
Kyle walked up to Don, who was two inches taller, and looked up at him. “Maybe it’s time for me to keep track of your growing insubordination and take action.”
“Chill out, captain. All I’m saying is that as a concerned member of the crew I am bothered by frequent glitches we seem to be having. Good luck finding anything at Information Services. From what my troubled department head says, they can’t figure out squat.”
Kyle glared at Don but decided not to say anything—this time. Just as everyone was ready to start off, they saw Ben Kennedy coming out of an intersecting passageway.
“Hey, Ben. Join the crowd,” Don said. “Your buddy Kyle was just telling us how little he knows about his crew, seeing as he has no clue which of his department heads joined us, and even less of a clue about the malfunctions attacking the ship. I was just about to tell him that maybe he should turn things over to his first officer. What do you think?”
“I think that for now we need to sit back and enjoy the ride. Kyle knows what I think of him and you all know what I think of him, so I don’t have to stand out here in a public corridor and say what I think of him. He might have issues, but he’s been fair to me. But, yeah, things could be running a little better as a whole.”
“Maybe if we all work together things will come together faster,” Kyle said.
“Or maybe we’re close to not being able to work together anymore,” Don said.
“Whatever. Come on, Devin, let’s go meet with Brad. We’ve wasted too much time out there.” Kyle turned to Don and said, “Just be aware I’ll be watching you and your stupid fucking Guardians even closer as we head on our mission. I’d like nothing better than to kick your ass in a progress report.”
Don smirked and shook his head. “Oh my, such language. I have a feeling fuck and ass aren’t going to show up in any report, unless it’s a report criticizing your leadership techniques.” He couldn’t help but sense that the ship’s baby captain was starting to crack. His plan was moving along just as he hoped.
Next: In Distress