Voyagers: SS Robert Heinlein

Welcome back. After suffering a couple of delays the Heinlein makes it in orbit around Spencer Colony Planet.

 

Your email is always appreciated—they are my salary for writing.

 

 

CHAPTER 21

 

DELAYS

 

By Douglas DD

Assisted by Zarek Dragon

 

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 29

 

Heinlein>

 

1400

 

Kyle sat in his ready room chatting with Devin about how routine the day seemed to be. “The watches changed on time, the ancillary jobs scheduled so far today are either completed or being completed, and our coming out of warp for shuttle pilot training went exactly as planned,” Devin reported.

 

“We’d better be careful, or people will start to think we know what we’re doing,” Kyle grinned.

 

“Your detractors have to be shitting bricks.”

 

“I hope so. It would make it easier to track them all down.”

 

Danny came through the door, interrupting the conversation. “I hope we’re not barging in on something important.” Ace Cardiff and Steve Boyer followed him into the office.

 

“The door was open, meaning the conversation won’t be destroyed by an interruption,” Kyle said. “We were talking about how routine things have gone so far this morning.”

 

“Including the shuttle pilot training you’re conducting,” Devin added, knowing the compliment would mean more coming from him than from Kyle, who was his husband.

 

“It helps that we have a couple of great trainees,” Danny said. “And Ace is turning into an ace trainer on top of that. Anway, Ace and I are here to give you a report on how our training is going.”

 

“Go for it,” Kyle said. “We’re ready to listen.”

 

“Ben Kennedy has been an outstanding trainee. You can see how much he wants to succeed at this. He’s even hidden his asshole personality and has been, like, totally into everything. All he can get is standard certification now. He passed all of his flying tests except for touch and go practice, which we’ll finish up on Spencer tomorrow. He and Warren are doing their written tests right now. Chappie is monitoring the tests.”

 

“Chappie and I will train Ben on one of the Bubbas tomorrow after the touch and goes.”

 

“Flying those big suckers is a big step,” Devin said. The two Bubbas were the shuttles used for carrying big loads. “Sounds like you think he’s ready to get advanced certification.”

 

“Remember he was doing well with his training on the Sooloo before he switched to being an asshole and went off the deep end,” Danny said. “So, yeah, I not only think he’s ready, I know he’s ready. I have no doubt he’ll do well with the Bubbas. We did a lot of work in the flight simulator.”

 

“What about Warren?” Kyle asked Ace.

 

“He’s progressed really well. He didn’t have the head start that Ben did, but he learns quickly,” Ace replied. “After his final touch and go he should be ready for his standard certification.”

 

“Good work guys. You can work with Steve to set up a schedule for whatever work needs to be done tomorrow and Saturday. Anything else?”

 

Ace and Danny indicated they had nothing else to report. “I’ll send you guys the written test scores as soon as we have them.”

 

“Sounds good. You guys are dismissed.”

 

“What do you make of Ben?” Kyle asked Devin after Ace and Danny left.

 

“On the one hand it looks like he’s trying to shed his asshole stripes. On the other hand, I get the impression he’s being Good Ben in order to get his shuttle pilot certification, which we both know he really wants. As far as I’m concerned, as long as he hangs out with Don Nixon, I won’t trust him any farther than I can throw him.”

 

“Well, that’s two hands worth. What about if there’s a third hand?”

 

“What do you mean by that?” Devin asked.

 

Kyle told him.

 

“Are you ready to approve the petition for a monthly clothing optional day?” Devin asked after Kyle finished.

 

“Already done. I made one minor change, however.”

 

“What’s that? Underwear required?”

 

“You can be such a cynic sometimes. Do you think I’d pass up a chance to see such beauty on display?  The change is that they wanted the same date. I felt a specific day of the week would make the event easier to plan as opposed to a floating day that would be different each month. I researched the policy of the ships that have Clothing Optional Day, and the majority are going with the specific day of the week.”

 

“Your plan sounds reasonable and has obviously been well thought out,” Devin said.  

 

“I’ve picked the third Wednesday of the month unless we’re in port or berthed at a space station. In that case it would be three days from departure.”

 

“Would the day of departure be one of the three days?”

 

“Nope,” Kyle said. “It is three days FROM the day of departure unless something happens to screw it up in which case Clothing Optional Day will be cancelled for that month. As to what those things are, I’ve used the list compiled by the Sooloo, which is very complete and very clearly written.”

 

“As always, you made a well thought decision. I think the proposal will be well received by the crew and will receive an overwhelming majority of yes votes. Speaking of which, what percentage of yes votes will be needed to pass the proposal?”

 

“I’ve been saying a supermajority will be needed and I think 92% is both a supermajority and a number that can be reached.”

 

“It’s like at the Academy. Ninety and ninety-one percent are considered an A- grade while ninety-two is an A,” Devin nodded.

 

“When do you think we should have the vote?” Kyle asked.

 

“How about we announce it to the crew tomorrow morning before we arrive at Spencer,” Devin replied.

 

“Agreed.” Kyle handed the proposal to Devin. “Let’s tell the senior officers at dinner to make sure they are all on the same page.”

 

“Did you have any doubts?”

 

“No, but my previous commanding officers were always open and upfront with all members of the crew, and I plan to operate from the same page.”

 

“I understand entirely. As always, you made a well thought out decision,” Devin grinned.

 

“With two thinkers like us, how can things go wrong?”

 

“That’s a question that is best left unasked.”

 

“You are right again. And I just had this thought; let’s talk to Steve and Brad before dinner and get their input on the best way to present the proposal to the crew.” Kyle glanced at the watch schedule for the day sitting on his desk. “We’ll meet at 1630 here in my ready room. Steve has the conn for the 22 watch (second watch-second trick) at that time, so make the necessary substitution so he can attend the meeting.”

 

“Aye, aye, Captain.” Devin and Kyle traded salutes and grins. Devin rose from his seat and excused himself from the ready room.

Kyle sat back and pondered the last day and a half. He knew that not every day would be as smooth and routine as that time period had been, but it was satisfying to have them happen. It told him that he just might have what it takes to be a good captain.

 

1630

 

Kyle, Devin, Steve, and Brad were ready for the executive officer meeting that Kyle had scheduled. Kyle told Steve and Brad that he had approved the Clothing Optional Day proposal. He explained when he wanted the day scheduled. Steve and Brad agreed with Kyle’s schedule.

 

Steve and Brad said that Operations and Information Services would work together to create the ballots and then send them out on election day. “Ops will create the ballot,” Steve started…

 

“…and my computer geeks will see that they get sent out to all members of the crew simultaneously,” Brad concluded.

 

“And yes, oh great one, we know that in a crew generated election you are a voting member of the crew,” Steve said. Steve then left to return to take the conn back from Danny, who would return to the Astrogation table, which was being manned by Caden Jamison. Caden was about three weeks away from finishing his astrogation studies under the tutelage of Danny and       Chief  Astrogator Mituti Tudupe, with some extra help from Ben Kennedy, his roommate.

 

1700

 

At 1700 hours the executive officers congregated in the Executive Dining room for dinner and to hear an announcement from Kyle. Most of them knew what Kyle’s announcement was going to cover and that Kyle would simply be making a done deal official.

 

In Space Fleet, and thus in the Explorer Program, the senior officers were the department heads and command officers. On the Heinlein the command officers were the captain, first officer, and second and third officers with the second and third officers (Steve and Brad) also being department heads.

 

Also seated in the Executive Dining Room were the other department heads: Riku Tatsu (Chief Medical Officer), K   age Enzan (Tactical and Security), Mituti Tudupe (Navigation), Ronald Robinson (Chief Engineer), and Logan Wilson (Science).

 

 As Chief Pilot, Danny was considered an executive officer even though he technically wasn’t a department head. He had taken over the conn so Steve, whose watch ended at 1800, could attend the dinner. Since Operations was going to be playing a big role in the operation of the Clothing Optional election, Kyle felt Steve should attend the dinner meeting. The only department head not sitting in at the meeting was Head Chef Ian McFlynn since dinner time kept him busy. Devin would update him after dinner.

 

Kyle went through the election procedure for his executive officers. Other than a couple of procedural questions which Kyle and Devin answered, all of the officers were in accord with the protocols for Clothing Optional Day and for the way the election would be conducted.

 

The final order of business was officially setting the day of the election. It was moved and seconded that election day would be the day after they left Spencer, which was the coming Monday. The motion passed unanimously.

 

“Brad is ready to send the announcement of the elections to the crew today,” Steve said.

 

“The ballots are ready, too, but I agree that we wait until we leave Spencer Planet before sending them out,” Brad said.

 

Each crew member would receive his numbered ballot as soon as the ship left orbit on Sunday with the ballot being due by 2000 hours the next day. The number on the ballot was the crew member’s public ID number. The crew member would have to enter his private ID into his tablet or computer to send the ballot off to operations.

 

“As you all know, I’d love to keep everything quiet until we leave on Sunday and then send out the announcement,” Kyle said. “But, with a large number of crewmembers working on the proposal and since it’s not a top secret somebody is going to leak something to somebody. As a result, I figure we might as well make the official announcement now. It will take the pressure off of everybody, the captain included.”

 

After the meeting was adjourned at 1515 Devin signaled for Tanner Offerman, who received the most assignments as Executive Dining Room waiter, to start serving. Tanner had taken everyone’s orders before the meeting and was ready to dish out the food. Head Chef Ian McFlynn generally made out the culinary assignment schedules. In his mind Tanner was the premier waiter on his staff with newcomer Jackson Davis being a close second.

 

The Executive Menu featured three entrees and, as always, was a gourmet delight. One of the three entrees was always available in the buffet and often one or both of the other two entrees was as well. The seating in the Executive Dining room generally consisted of four tables with four seats per table and one smaller table with two seats for a more private setting. That made five tables with 18 seats total.  Because of the meeting, the five tables had been placed together creating one table of 14 seats.

 

The chatter at the table was informal. One question caught everyone’s attention, however. It came from Logan Wilson, the head of the Science Department. “I’ve got a question that’s been bugging me,” he said.

 

“Fire away,” Devin responded.

 

“Why is the planet we’re going to called Spencer Planet Colony instead of just Spencer Colony or Spencer Planet?”

 

“I know the answer to that.” Kyle’s reply beat Devin’s by seconds. “Edwin Spencer, who was studying this section of the galaxy on the Shepherd Telescope, discovered the planet orbiting Gamma Proxima. Turned out it was the only planet orbiting the star. The International Space Administration officially named it Spencer Planet a few years later. Most people simply called it Spencer and still do.

 

“Between the Telescope and Space Fleet exploration, it was determined that the planet was habitable. Scientists checked it out first and about ten years ago it became an official colony. Since the planet was officially named Spencer Planet the colony became Spencer Planet Colony. There’s a good chance of them having an election soon to petition the ISA to rename the planet Spencer and the colony the Spencer Colony.” Kyle paused a moment and then said, “Damn, that was quite a mouthful.”

 

“You sounded like a professor at the Academy,” Brad said.

 

“Yeah, only like one lecturing in soprano,” Steve chuckled causing laughter to break out around the table.

 

“How did you know all of that?” Logan asked.

 

“It’s a good idea for the ship’s captain to learn as much as he can about a planet his ship is visiting. And since Devin almost beat me to the answer it seems our first officer felt he should do the same thing. Truth be told, I think it would be a great idea for all of the executive officers to do the same,” Kyle answered.

 

“Changing the name from Spencer Planet to Spencer makes total sense to me. It’s so simple why didn’t they do that to start with?”

 

“Welcome to the real world, Logan,” Kyle grinned.

 

After more laughter and some razzing of their young colleague, the officers ended their dinner and headed for their next destinations, both scheduled and unscheduled.

 

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 30

 

Heinlein>

 

Executive Dining Room

 

0800

 

Kyle was enjoying breakfast with Devin, Danny, Brad, and Steve. Having served the second watch (0300-0600) Danny and Steve were fighting yawns.

 

“The announcement of the clothing optional election is written and ready to be sent to the devices of the crew,” Steve reported.

 

“Information Services is ready to send the announcement on Kyle’s command,” Brad said. “The crew members will receive it on whatever device they’re using.” Under normal operating conditions the crew was expected to check their devices for messages at least three times day. While they received an audio signal when receiving an important message, the audio was often muted because the crew member was on duty. The mute could be overridden if the message dealt with a red alert situation. 

 

“Well then, my command is to send the announcement out at 0900,” Kyle said. “Now let’s eat then go back to bed or go to where we’re scheduled to be. Thanks for a quick, efficient meeting.”

 

Devin was currently scheduled to have the third watch conn, but he had moved Lucias Hayes into the slot so he could meet with and enjoy breakfast with the execs.

 

 

 

Guardian Meeting

 

1045

 

Everett counted the Guardian members in attendance. “We’ve got seven here. Terry and Barney, the two who aren’t here, are on duty. We also have Randy Knox from Info Services here.”

 

“Welcome, Randy,” Donald Nixon said. “What made you decide to check out the Guardians?”

 

“It was sending out that announcement about trying to have a clothing optional day,” Randy replied. “My feeling was no fucking way I want to be around a ship full of naked boys getting all horny and shit. Terry knew how I felt about that and a couple of other things, so he suggested the Guardians. If you’re what I think you are, I plan on hanging around. Kyle’s gotta go for this and the other shit he’s pulled like using his dad to make him captain.”

 

“I agree that the announcement that was sent out is a total work of bullshit,” Don said. “And we’re more than happy to get another body from Info Services. You and Terry working together are going to help us so much. You know what we’re all about, right?”

 

“I know that you’re about getting you to be captain and that the way you’re doing it follows the handbook and doesn’t break any rules.”

 

“That is exactly right. Now, we’re going to have to come up with a plan in case the vote gets a fucking majority.”

 

“It needs more than just a majority,” Everett said. “It needs a super majority, which, according to the announcement, is 92% of the crew. My math says that’s just ten no votes and with Randy we’ve now got ten just in our group. No way that vote passes…no way at all.”

 

“The little boy captain won’t even be able to win a vote that everybody wants to win,” Don laughed. “What a joke.”

 

“It’s looking like Terry was right about you guys,” Randy said. “I think I’ve come to the right place.”

 

“But now we’ve gotta talk about what we’re going to do to rattle Kyle boy’s nerves once we leave that Colony Planet or whatever it is.”

 

As Don went into the remote his secret dad had given him and how using it properly would keep causing minor system failure which would bring the so-called captain tearfully to his knees and cause him to break into tears when the time for the big failure presented itself, Ben Kennedy’s mind wandered elsewhere.

 

There’s definitely something wrong with those numbers Don read to us, Ben thought. A Ninety-two percent majority to win just doesn’t seem right.”  There was something he had seen in either Space Fleet or Explorer Program manual recently while studying for his Lieutenant examination that was nagging him. He checked his communicator and saw that the time was 1114. He was scheduled to stand bridge watch at 1200.

 

Ben figured that was as good an excuse as any to leave the meeting early and see if he could find what he was looking for. If he was right, it would give the Guardians another weapon to use against Kyle.

 

“Excuse me Don. I hate to interrupt but I have to take care of a couple of things before standing watch,” he said.

 

“Take care of what you need to take care of,” Don said. “Like we discussed it’s important that you do everything you can to make yourself look like a ‘good’ guy.” Don put good in air quotes. “I’ll have Jim send you the minutes.” Generally, Terry Broxton had been taking care of the minutes, but he was on duty at Information Services working on the matrix for the upcoming vote, so Jim took over the duties for this meeting. Since the meeting was recorded, his job would be to send the recording to each of the Guardians.

 

Ben headed for his stateroom and sat at his computer. His roommate, Caden, was in the education area doing assigned Space Academy work. He went to the Explorer Program website, logged in and he then went directly to the special events section of the Explorer Program Manual.

 

After some surfing he came across what he was looking for. After reading through what was in the Explorer Manual as well as the cross references to the Space Fleet Manual, he learned that Kyle and his officers had made a mistake. The 92% rule in the Space Fleet Manual was for some kind of vote that made no sense to him. He returned to the Explorer Manual and saw that kind of vote was not there, nor was the 92% rule. The special election super majority in the Explorer Manual was 80% or more. He found no weird riders in the Explorers Manual similar to the 92% rule in the Space Fleet Manual.

 

What cadets learned early on at the Academy was that the Space Fleet and Explorer Program manuals were essentially the same. However, there were differences, and while Information Services at Space Fleet Headquarters did their best to alleviate confusion, there were times when somebody in a hurry mixed up which manual the regulation or protocol was in.

 

Ben was certain that was what had happened to Kyle. But he also had to wonder if Kyle had received incorrect information from one of his senior officers and didn’t double check. Either way, as captain of the ship, the buck stopped with Kyle, and he had screwed up.

 

The thought that went through Ben’s mind was Now, what am I going to do about it? I guess there’s nothing I can do about it now, but once my watch is over, I’m gonna have to do something.

He arrived early to the foyer outside of the bridge just before noon where he saw Kage Enzan, who he had served with on the Sooloo, and wandered over to chat with him. Ben liked and respected Kage, but the feeling wasn’t mutual. Ben had earned the well-deserved reputation as a loner and a troublemaker.

 

But Kage, who was the Chief of Tactical and Security, was a decent and approachable person, and he returned Ben’s friendly greeting. Kage knew that Ben was hanging around with Don Nixon and his Guardian ilk and he felt that maintaining any kind of trust and contact that he could with Ben could end up being worthwhile. On the flip side, Ben felt it didn’t hurt to have some kind of contact with Kage. It might help him in learning what, if anything, Kage knew about the Guardians.

 

One of the first things the seven watch officers did after they relieved the first trick of the fourth watch was order lunch from the kitchen. Fifteen minutes later Andy Stovey arrived from the kitchen pushing a chrome-plated food cart. He left the cart in a corner of the bridge, told the watch crew he would pick up the cart in about an hour, wished them a good appetite, and returned to the kitchen. 

 

<Captain’s Ready Room>

 

1330

 

Kyle and Devin sat in Kyle’s office for a command meeting. The door was closed, which meant the meeting wouldn’t be disturbed.

 

“The first thing we need to talk about is the itinerary change,” Kyle said. Spencer Colony Planet had contacted the Heinlein at 1020 telling them that a power failure in the Planet Traffic Control satellite station would mean a delay of three to six hours. The Heinlein’s scheduled time had been 1400. Until a new arrival time was set, the Heinlein was given a flight path that essentially had it flying in a wide oval.

 

“I’m surprised that they don’t have the means of dealing with a power failure,” Devin said. “Earth control has multiple backups.”

 

“Earth control has to deal with a hell of a lot more traffic,” Kyle pointed out.

 

“A HELL of a lot more traffic…I like it. You’re sounding more and more like a captain every day.”

 

“Now, if I could just find a way to change the tone of my voice, I’d be on my way to totally sounding like a captain.”

 

“Hey, Scott Kenyon of the Hubbell is fourteen and his voice still get the squeaks.”

 

“But it’s not a soprano 24/7 every day.”

 

Kyle was interrupted by the ready room’s communicator. “Bridge to captain.” Doug Devlin was manning communications in the bridge for the current watch.

 

“Robinson here,” Kyle responded.

 

“Spencer Traffic Control is on intership communications.”

 

“Roger that. I’ll take it. Have the Mituti listen in.” Mituti had the conn. The conn would be responsible for maintaining the assigned route until sometime between 1700 and 1730 (depending on conditions on and surrounding the ship) when Kyle planned to take over the conn. Kyle switched the communicator from internal to external reception. “Captain Robinson, here.”

 

It was a good thing the conversation wasn’t on video or Kyle would have caught traffic controller Hassan Patel shaking his head on hearing the voice of a young boy coming from the captain of a starship. “Our system is back up and I have a new arrival time for EHC1932, the Heinlein, if you’re ready to copy.” Protocol called for the controller to use the name of the ship he or she was talking to in this case to ensure that there would be no mix up.

 

“EHC 1932 ready to copy,” Kyle responded. He saw that Devin was ready to copy as well.

 

“Your new arrival time will now be 1830 hours. You are to use Spencer Inbound Route 2A until you are contacted by Orbit Control.”

 

“Roger that. Arrival time is 1830 hours. EHC1932 will use Spencer Inbound Route 2A until contacted by Orbit Control.” Spencer Traffic Control signed off. Kyle asked Mituti to repeat the instructions and told him he’d take command of the conn.

 

“Whew. It’s stuff like that that makes being captain fun,” Kyle told Devin.

 

“And you were right on top of it,” Devin grinned.

 

“Now that we’re back on our trip, let’s get to the other item we need to discuss. I’m guessing there’s been a lot of chatter about the voting announcement now that it’s been sent out,” Kyle said. “What’s the consensus?”

 

“It’s positive. It’s not like the proposal is a surprise. Everybody knew that Tommy was intrigued by the idea—the only question was who would he corral into presenting it with him,” Devin responded.

 

“Any objections?”

 

“Of course. Not many proposals, no matter how popular they might be, end up getting unanimous approval. The big issue is the 92% rule. A lot of the crew think it’s unrealistic and could shoot down what most of them want. Those who had served on ships that had voted for Clothing Optional Day say they don’t remember the super majority being, well, that super. I told them I saw it in the Manual and it seems to be something new.”

 

“It might be a good idea if we took a second look in the manual,” Kyle said.

 

“I agree. I’ve got a meeting with Steve and Brad. We’ll see what we can find out. It didn’t sound right to start with, and it still doesn’t.”

 

“If we can’t find anything that convinces us to change our minds, we have time to contact HQ and get the final word from the source.”

 

Devin left to check on how the watches were going before taking care of business in his ready room. Kyle told him to leave the door open, which meant anybody on the crew could come visit his office to chat. He had seven visitors. All but one of them wanted to talk about the vote announcement that had been sent out that morning.

 

At 1515 the      eighth and last visitor to his open-door session was Ben Kennedy who knocked on the open door and stepped into the ready room as per ship’s protocol. “Hello, Ben. It’s good to see you,” Kyle said. He pointed to the chair on the left side of his desk which served as the visitor’s chair. “Sit down and tell me what’s on your mind.”

 

Ben sat in the seat, wishing he hadn’t come. He found Kyle’s high-pitched voice to be annoying in someone who allegedly commanded the largest star ship in the fleet. But a quick stop in the ship’s library had confirmed what he had been thinking. There were three things he could do with this new bit of information and for reasons he simply didn’t understand he decided to follow his third choice.

 

Ben skipped giving Kyle a polite greeting and simply said, “I’d like this to be a closed-door session.”

 

“That is your prerogative.”

 

Ben rose from his seat and stepped to the door. He had the feeling somebody had been following him since he had left the bridge at the end of his watch. He took a step into the corridor, took a quick glance both ways, and caught a glimpse at a crew member at one end of the corridor. The crewman quickly ducked into the connecting corridor. Ben closed the door and returned to the chair. Kyle thought the look into the hall was a bit bizarre but said nothing.

 

Ben then told Kyle what was on his mind. The crew member Ben had glimpsed raced up to the door and stopped outside. The crew member was Jim Maxwell who had been tailing Ben ever since his bridge watch had ended. When he observed Ben entering the captain’s ready room, it looked like his efforts might be paying off.

 

Jim could hear two voices through the door, but he couldn’t make out what they were saying. HE suspected that Ben had taken the vote percentage issue to Kyle in an attempt to be on the captain’s “good side” as Don Nixon had put it. Jim could tell that Ben and Kyle were disagreeing on something as their voices began to rise some. As he listened, he was also continually watching the corridor for crew members. He would have a difficult time explaining why he was eaves dropping at the captain’s door. There were five ready rooms located in this section of corridor and the traffic usually wasn’t heavy. What happened next surprised Jim as Kyle and Ben’s voices rose to a full-scale shouting match.

 

“Everybody was right about you,” Ben shouted. “You’re a clueless idiot! You decide to have an election, and you can’t even run something simple like that without fucking it up.”

 

“Shut up!” Kyle yelled back. “You’ve got no idea of what you’re talking about. I didn’t want you on this ship and this is the reason why, so fuck you!” Jim could tell which of the screamers was Kyle just by his screechy soprano voice.“

 

“Yeah, well fuck you, too. Except for your so-called husband and your fuckbuddy executive officers, everybody on this ship hates you, and you can put me right on the top of the list.”

 

“Get your sorry ass out of my office and don’t even think of coming back,” Kyle raged. “Your days as a fucking shuttle pilot are over before they even started and forget getting a fucking promotion. I hate you, you fucking bastard.”

 

“Listen you little weasel…”

 

“Out before I call security.”

 

“I’m going.” Ben stood up. “But I’m going to finish with this. Enjoy your time as the worst captain in the Explorer Program because your time is short.  That’s how fucked up things are for you. Oh, and be sure to wipe away the tears before you see anybody.”

 

Jim debated whether to take off or wait for Ben to exit the ready room. He decided to wait.

 

“I hear the food is tastes like shit at the Star Fleet penitentiary,” Kyle barked as Ben stomped out of the office, slamming the door shut behind him. That was when he saw Jim.

 

“Follow me,” Jim said as he headed down the short end of the corridor.

 

“You can tell Don that I’m not on the whining baby’s ‘good guy’ list but that I don’t give a crap,” Ben said as he followed Jim. He resented Jim spying on him while at the same time he was happy to have the Guardian there. It made what just went down in the captain’s ready room even better. He thought Don just might be happy to hear about Kyle’s little breakdown in his ready room; all because he didn’t double check his information source.

 

 “I’m gonna tell Don about Kyle’s screwing up the voting information and how he treated me,” Ben said.

 

“He wanted you to be the ‘good guy’ dealing with Kyle,” Jim reminded Ben.

 

“He also wanted to start shaking Kyle up whenever possible. I think I succeeded in doing that. I guess now we’ll see which is more important to him.”

 

Neither Jim nor Ben was able to talk to Don right away since he was on duty working on some experiment in the science lab. Tommy Harper, who greeted them as they entered the department office, told them he would be available sometime between 1600 and 1700 hours. They told Tommy they would come back after 1600 and asked him to tell Don they had stopped by.

 

“So, which one of us is going to talk to him first?” Jim asked.

 

“I thought you were since you’re on the Guardian executive committee,” Ben said.

 

“True, but you’ve got more seniority in the program than I do.”

 

“Big fucking deal. Why don’t we just see him together and see how it plays out.”

 

“That works for me.”

 

<Captain’s Ready Room>

 

After Ben left, Kyle wiped away the tears on his face with tissues on his desk, He did some serious thinking about what had just occurred between him and Ben and wondered what the final result would be. He hoped that something positive would come of it.

 

Kyle asked Devin to come to the Captain’s ready room. When Devin arrived, he shut the door and sat at the chair next to Kyle’s desk.

 

“I had an interesting visit from Ben after you left,” Kyle said. “For now, what I have to tell you is for you, Danny, Steve, and Brad only and I’ll be the one to let them know.”

 

“I understand,” Devin said.

 

Kyle filled him in on the incident between him and Ben and what he planned to do about it. Devin didn’t feel comfortable with Kyle’s proposal and told him so.

 

“Truth be told, I don’t feel good about it either. We all better watch this carefully, because it could come back to bite me in the ass.”

 

“You’re the captain. You gotta do what you gotta do. Are you going to tell your dad?”

 

“Not for now. It’s not like this has to be solved now. It just needs to be watched. I will tell Hal, though, since he doesn’t need to be blindsided by whatever those Guardian assholes come up with. But he’s got to understand that even though I’ve no hairs and a squeaky voice the buck stops right here.

 

“I can go along with that. But you’re going to be open to suggestions from the four of us that you’re confiding in, right?”

 

“I have to be willing to listen to you guys,” Kyle said emphatically. “I know I sure as hell haven’t got all the answers and I might not even have a single answer. I have to hope we’re smarter than Nixon and the assholes following him and I like to think we are.”

 

“Who knows, your idea might really work,” Devin said.

 

“Right now I’d put the chances of that happening at near zero. The executive officers are gonna have to be smarter than Don and whoever his top guys are, and we have to totally work together or we just might be totally fucked.”

 

“If those guys are so smart, then why haven’t they ever been in command of anything in the Explorer Program?”

 

“Good question. But let’s drop this subject for now and get to work on our arrival at Spencer and making orbit.”

 

With that Kyle and Devin did the kind of work that made being in command of the Heinlein a special kind of job and one they knew they were good at.

 

 

 

1625

 

Ben and Jim caught Don’s attention as soon as he came out of the lab. “If this is something regarding our group, let’s head to my quarters and discuss it there,” Don said before they could open their mouths.

 

A few minutes later they were in the privacy of Don’s cabin. Jim and Ben had finally decided that Ben would start the discussion. As a result, Ben quickly told Don what had transpired between him and Kyle.

 

“That wasn’t quite what I had in mind, but on the other had I think Ben established his bona fides,” Don said.

 

“Bona fides?” Jim said.

 

“His credentials. He proved he’s really one of us and that the time he spent with Kyle on the Sooloo was really the fucked-up mess he says it was.”

 

“You mean you had doubt?” Ben asked.

 

“Not really. I had no doubt your hate of the baby captain was real enough, but it’s good we have solid proof that all of the Guardians can understand.”

 

Jim backed up what Ben said about the shouting match in Kyle’s ready room. “Kyle was totally out of control. I didn’t know he could cuss like that and it was like he was squealing those cusswords out.”

 

“He was so mad he was crying at the end,” Ben said.

 

“Like I said, this wasn’t exactly what I had planned. Ben won’t be able to play the good guy trying to get on Kyle’s side, but Kyle now knows exactly where you stand. I think what happened between Kyle and Ben may have gotten our little project started.”

 

“But what if I made an attempt to smooth things out between us? Could it help us in some way?”

 

“I’ll give that some thought,” Don said. “In the meantime, don’t be surprised that when the time comes for us to finally head to the Spencer Colony Orbital Control station we don’t get started on time.”

 

“Oh?” Ben said.

 

“So, you made up your mind about what we talked about?” Jim asked.

 

“We’ll see how much having the computer go down in engineering affects our already late schedule,” Don smirked.

 

“Oh, this is starting to be fun,” Ben said. Jim and Don nodded in agreement.

 

 

 

The Heinlein left the position it had been holding at 1722 for the trip to Spencer Orbit Control. The trip was scheduled to take an hour and five minutes. That ended up not being the case when the engines quit after five minutes.

 

“Sir, we appear to have lost power,” said Steve, who had the conn.

 

“I managed to get the impression, Commander,” Kyle said. He was sitting on a fold down seat. He wasn’t planning on taking over the conn until 1800, but the failure of the engines had instantly changed that plan. “I’m taking the conn.”

 

“Understood. You have the conn,” Steve responded.

 

Before Kyle could issue an order, Scott Franklin, who was manning the engineering station, said, “Captain, I am connected to Commander Robinson.” He was referring to Chief Engineer Ronnie Robinson. Kyle was impressed by the rapid response—his officers appeared to be a half a step ahead of him, which in this case was a good thing; it was what they were trained to do.

 

“I’ll take the communication,” Kyle said. “What happened to our power, Ronnie?” Kyle asked his chief engineer and adopted brother. “All of the computer screens at the engineering station are blank.”

 

“As you can tell, we have electrical power,” Ronnie said. “What we don’t have is engine power. The emergency generators kicked right in. As for why we don’t have engine power, it appears both the main computers and the backups governing the engines have all crashed. Kai is on the horn with information services to see if they can figure out what happened.”

 

“Good move; they’re the computer guys after all.”

 

“Brad isn’t on duty, but he’s been summoned to the Information Services Office. Right now, I’m dealing with Lieutenant Braxton who says he can’t find why the engineering computer system has crashed. He said he just sent two computer engineers down here to see what they can find at the source.”

 

“Is there anything we can do on the bridge?” Kyle asked.

 

“Not at the moment. I’ll let you know right away if we need anything from the bridge.”

 

The two disconnected and Kyle took a deep breath. He was concerned about Terry Braxton handling the issue at information services. He knew he was on the list of Donald Nixon minions and Kyle didn’t trust him. On the other hand, he didn’t have a legitimate reason to remove him from his duty, and he knew Brad would be taking over the investigation any minute.

 

A minute and a half later Brad contacted him. “I’m having Nelson take over the investigation,” Brad said, referring to Nelson Mirah, who was the assistant chief of information services. “He might be young, but he’s a bleeping genius on the computers. He solved every problem thrown his way during our shake down.”

 

“Good move.” Kyle agreed with the decision, both because of Nelson’s skill as a computer tech and because it put Terry in the background of the investigation. He was sure Brad was thinking the same thing since he knew the names on the cabal list. “How are we doing for auxiliary electrical power?”

 

“We can follow normal protocol as long as nothing changes. Besides, with the engines down, we’re consuming less than normal fuel. I’ll be back to you as soon as we have something.” Brad and Kyle disconnected.

 

“Ensign Jamison, please connect me to the Spencer Orbit Control station,” Kyle commanded. Caden Jamison was manning the communications station. He connected Kyle with Commander Omar Ali, who was the watch commander for the station. After the two jumped through the proper hoops and exchanged pertinent information, Kyle told Omar he would give him an ETA as soon as he had one. Since Danny was manning the astrogation table, Kyle was able to exchange a few clandestine flirts over the next few minutes.

 

As it always did, the change of the watch happened at 1800. Kyle and Danny exchanged waves as Danny was relieved at the astrogation table by Carter Bronson. He stood up from the table to leave the bridge and grab a quick bite to eat, but he knew he would have to wait in the foyer for Kyle before he went to dinner. Devin French was the watch commander, Reggie Boland manned the information station in place of Nelson Mirah, and Chappie Irvin was at communications. Kyle was also aware that Mark Winters at the security station had a connection to the cabal. But before he did anything with the new watch, he turned the conn over to Devin and left the bridge for a piss break and to communicate something with Danny.

 

Danny had read Kyle’s second wave and knew it meant for him to wait in the foyer for instructions. Kyle exited the bridge and walked up to Danny. “When we get our engines online I want you to return to the bridge to supervise Carter at the helm. I want your experience there on the approach to the traffic control station. Let Carter man it to start, but don’t be afraid to take it over if you think it’s necessary.”

 

“Carter’s handled himself well in training and on the simulator. He should do fine.”

 

“Agreed, but with things out of sorts I’d like you at the astrogation table.”

 

“I’ll be there.”

 

Danny took off to dinner and Kyle took care of his business. He returned five minutes later and took the conn back from Devin. He thought about contacting Brad for a progress report, but he knew Brad well enough to know that he would communicate with the bridge as soon as he had something worth communicating.

 

That moment didn’t take long in coming. Kyle suddenly saw the computer screens at the engineering station light up. He was surprised since he thought he would have heard from Brad that the computers would be coming online.

 

Before he could contact Brad, Brad contacted him. “Don’t say anything,” Brad said. “I’m as surprised as you are. I told you young Nelson was a whiz. Well, everybody here is a computer whiz of some sort, but he’s a notch above them. Anyway, I think he was as surprised by the turn of fortune as I was.”

 

“Well, however it happened good job. How long before we have engines?”

 

“Nelson says engineering can start them now. So, I’m now going to contact Ronnie and tell him he can get us moving.”

 

“What was the problem?”

 

“I’ll tell you after we reach the station. We still have a little detective work to do, but we’ll know by then.”

 

“Roger that. Now, tell our chief engineer to get our asses moving,” Kyle said.

 

“Communications, please inform Spencer Traffic Control that, with their permission, our ETA will be 1930.” Traffic Control acknowledged the ETA, and the Heinlein was ready to move.

 

The bridge crew was soon feeling the ship accelerate. “Set the assigned course for Spencer Traffic Control Station,” Kyle ordered navigation.

 

“Assigned course is set and being followed,” Carter quickly responded.

 

 

 

“It looks like the bastards got the engines going,” Ben said. “I was hoping it would take them longer.”

 

“Actually, it all worked out fine,” Don said. “I wasn’t expecting us to be down for a long time. According to my secret dad all we needed to do here was see how the toddler and the crew reacted to a minor setback. We saw that the crew worked like they were well trained. I credit Devin and Ronnie for that, because I’m sure Kyle baby had next to nothing to do with their training.”

 

“According to Mark Winters, who was on bridge watch, Kyle kept cool and calm through the whole thing and acted like he knew what he was doing,” Everett said.

 

“Don’t forget, like Ben told us, the temporary captain lost his cool totally when Ben called him on his shit, right down to breaking out in tears. And that was just over a typo or something in his fucking stupid election. Hell, I was hoping he’d shit his diapers on this one and save us the trouble of having to go through the whole plan.

But the Guardians made some progress on this one. We’ve just got to keep the pressure on. After all, Ben showed breaking him is doable.”

 

“What’s next?”

 

“We’re only at Spencer planet for a couple of days, so let’s figure on another minor setback a day or so after we leave,” Don said. “I’ll meet with Everett and Jim.”

 

“That sounds good to me,” Ben said. Don noticed that Ben was starting to take an assertive role instead of sitting quietly. He thought that was a good thing because it was obvious to him that Ben had a lot to offer to the group, even if he did fuck up his ‘good guy’ instruction. But that was starting to look like a good thing, so he was ready to close the door on it unless Ben fucked up again.

 

 

1930

 

The Heinlein had arrived on time for its latest arrival time, which was five and a half hours later than its original ETA. Kyle was communicating with Omar Ali, the Spencer Orbit Control watch officer on open communication line, meaning everyone on the bridge could hear the communication.

 

“EHC 1932 to Spencer Orbit Control. Captain Kyle Robinson.”

 

“Commander Omar Ali here. We read you captain and assume you’re looking for an orbit parking spot.”

 

“Roger that, Commander Ali. You obviously know your stuff,” Kyle grinned.

 

“I’d better or a few space craft would end up with some fiery entries. Anyway, levity aside, you are assigned slot C7. That will be your home until you leave orbit around our beautiful planet.”

 

“We will proceed to Slot C7,” Kyle said. “You will be talking to Ensign Carter Bronson and Commander Daniel Robinson. Thanks for guiding us safely.”

 

“Thank you, captain Robinson. It was a pleasure doing business with you.”

 

Fifteen minutes later the Heinlein was secured in Orbit slot C7 and communications between the star ship and the orbit station ended for the time being.

 

“Now that we’re secured in orbit, it would be great for everyone to learn what went wrong with the voting instructions and with the power to the engines,” Devin said.

 

“Well, the reason for instructions being wrong was because of an HQ glitch, if you can believe it, along with our own negligence. In other words, even with the glitch those instructions shouldn’t have been sent out.

 

“The glitch was HQ putting the 92% rule on the wrong page of the digital manual. Our mistake was taking the digital manual as correct and not double checking against the printed manual, which is the official one. I take the blame for that and am ready to take my punishment from our esteemed first officer.”

 

“That will be a thousand lashes with a wet noodle, if Chef McFlynn can find a noodle that will survive the punishment.”

 

“Anyway, Information Services has been cleared to send the correction to all crew members. The super majority needed is that standard one, which is an 80% yes vote.”

 

“And the engine issue?”

 

“That is something I will need to discuss with the senior officers before we reveal anything to crew. We will be meeting tomorrow morning to deal with the subject,” Kyle responded.

 

“In other words, you don’t know,” Mark Winters said.

 

“You can take that any way you want, Lieutenant Winters. More shall be revealed tomorrow.” Since Winters had been linked to the Guardian cabal, Kyle didn’t want to say anything in his presence.  “And now, since it has been a long day for me, I am going to turn the conn over to Devin and retire to my quarters.” He took a few steps to the astrogation table and spoke to Danny. “I’ll see you later. Tread lightly when you enter our quarters.”

 

“Aye, aye sir,” Danny grinned. He could see the exhaustion on Kyle’s face and was glad his husband was ready to call it a day.

 

“I think you can leave with Kyle,” Devin told Danny. “I think Carter is perfectly capable of steering a secured ship. In fact, you might as well join Danny and leave early as well.” Devin also dismissed Reggie from the engineering station, Nelson from information services, and Mark from security. That left “Chappie” in communications, Lucias in operations, as well as Devin on the bridge. A three or four man bridge watch was SOP for a ship locked in orbit.

 

The Heinlein was quiet. It would spend the next day in orbit around Spencer Planet Colony and was scheduled to leave at 1000 the following morning for an as yet unknown destination.

 

Next: Spencer Colony Planet