Confederation -- 12

Chapter 12

The ship's hold was full of people all talking at once. It was about as noisy as an equal number of Sunnys. The din was echoing off the overhead, and I had to shout to get everyone's attention.

"Hey! Listen up! Quiet!"

They settled down and turned towards me. Since every man had brought along a wife or a girlfriend, our group was almost doubled. Most of the couples were going to bunk together, although a small number of women were actually unattached at the moment. I momentarily wondered if that would cause problems later in our voyage.

"Marines, fall out to the rear. Ladies, please gather a little closer to me so I don't have to shout so loudly," I bellowed.

Once the shuffling had finished, I addressed the women.

"Ladies, I know that you've never been in space, but there is a lot to learn. The ship is quite safe, but if there were an emergency, you either know what to do and do it quickly, or you die. We've got to get you up to speed with ship operations, and I also want to find out how you can assist in running the ship. I don't want any of you to think all you came along for is to lie around and make your man happy periodically. We're all going to have to work." There was a stir, and I raised my hands in a calming motion.

"With so many people, duties will be very light. The cook will need some help, and everyone is expected to keep their quarters and the ship in general in order. Finally, we'll be giving classes on hand-to-hand combat, weapons use, spacesuit use, and giving you a chance to find out about flying both the shuttle-craft and the spaceship, if you're interested. Ms. Dunham will be your primary supervisor. If you have any complaints or questions, see her first."

I glanced at Liz. She was trying to look as pleasant as possible, but I could tell from her mental radiation that she would make me pay for springing that on her. I grinned at her and then continued, "You'll find that, aside from the scheduled classes, ship life is leisurely. There will be plenty to eat and plenty of time to sleep. I don't think you'll find it too difficult."

I paused and held up an admonitory finger, "On the other hand, idleness can lead to discord. That is something I won't have on this ship. From the point of discipline, I want you to understand that you are now crew members and expected to obey orders from any of the more experienced crew. That's all I've got to say. You're free to go find your cabins and begin learning about the ship."

There was a rustle and some subdued conversation as the couples rejoined each other. I'd turned towards the exit but then had another thought. I turned back and said, "Men, I shouldn't have to say this, but start teaching them about the ship immediately. Also, any disputes or relationship problems –" I looked around to make sure they were watching me. "Bring them to me immediately. Breach of discipline will be punished appropriately."

I didn't know what I would do if there were problems. We could assign extra duty or even lock miscreants up in a storeroom. I hoped that would be the extent of what I'd have to consider.

Liz and I stopped by our cabin to check on the kids before heading to the bridge. They were fine, and Red was doing a good job keeping them occupied, so we headed back to the bridge, talking as we went.

"Dec, you're not handling this very well," Liz started. She had that look in her eye that let me know I was going to have to listen to her. From experience, I knew that she'd probably make several good points that I hadn't considered.

"Look, Liz. You know me. I'm not very good at setting up organizations. How do you create a space navy or whatever you want to call it from scratch and with a bunch of civilians, too?" I asked.

She smiled one of her charming smiles, "Yes. I know that you're much better at breaking enemy organizations than building friendly ones. Let Holmes handle the discipline. You know, set up a chain of command."

She paused and, before I could speak, added, "You should also put the Sunnys and Sim-tigers on the organizational table. We can't continue in our previous informal ways. We've got to have a better organization."

She was right, as usual. I agreed to work out how the women would fit into our system.

Once on the bridge, we got the three ships moving in close formation and headed for the outer system. When we were moving fast enough, we'd transition to FTL status. We were on our way to the Sunnys' planet on which we'd dropped the ice ball. I wanted to use the repair facility to work on the damaged ship. I also hoped to add to our offensive capability. I'd gotten the idea that we needed at least one main gun facing directly aft in a position where it could cover shots targeting the Em-drive and FTL vanes. I'd taken out the Pugs' ship with a shot at the undefended engine section, and I didn't want to be similarly vulnerable if any Pugs got the bright idea to emulate my actions.

Much to my pleasure, the organizational problems worked out during the weeks of the voyage. Holmes handled all of the problems himself without coming to me. He'd promoted one of the Marines on each ship to the rank of lieutenant, and they either took care of problems or kicked them up to Holmes.

Since he was in charge of our third ship, I'd promoted both him and Rudy to Captain's rank. Rudy had asked Joe to be his Executive Officer, and I thought that was a good idea. While I was assigning ranks, I told Liz that she'd have to be the Captain of our ship, a position she took somewhat grudgingly. She also laughed at me when I told her that I would be the Admiral of our small fleet.

I addressed her sternly, "Captain, I won't stand for disrespect. I'm in charge of this fleet, and this expedition and I'm going to have to take action if there's any additional insubordination."

She laughed again and asked, "What are you going to do about it?"

Since it was alter-shift, the kids were asleep, and we were in our cabin. I proceeded to show her just what I was going to do. After a few minutes, she sighed and said, "I am going to be disrespectful often. I think I need as much of that kind of punishment as I can get."

The next day, she appointed Kasm as her XO. He took the job with a bit of puzzlement, confiding in me that he wasn't sure what he was supposed to do.

"It's like being a hunt leader," I answered. "You take general directions from Liz and figure out how to best implement them."

That seemed to clear things up, and our organization began to shape itself into a working unit. The new crew members, the women, were going through training and learning as if their lives depended on it. It seemed like they took the voyage seriously. There were few fights, although there had been some reshuffling of relationships. There had been a few instances of women arguing about certain assigned tasks, but that was because they didn't understand their importance.

By the time we arrived in the Sunnys' system, our three ships had reasonably functioning crews. It was a good thing because we no sooner got there than we had a fight on our hands.