An Officer’s Duty (70 page)

“I am therefore promoting you to Ship’s Captain,” Myang stated dryly, her brown eyes fixed implacably on Ia’s face, watching her every reaction.

Ia swayed in relief, blood rushing back to her head, making her ears roar and the Admiral-General’s next words sound a bit odd for a moment.

“…But not without a cost,” Myang was saying. “First of all, you will be moved into the Branch Special Forces and placed under the direct oversight of Admiral John Genibes.”

The admiral in grey who had half challenged, half supported Ia dipped his head in acknowledgment. Ia barely spared him a glance, though she did give him a slight nod in return. She had already known that,
if
she won this fight, she would be working with him. The only doubt had been that very big
if
. The Admiral-General continued, forcing Ia to focus on the older woman’s words.

“You will have to get
his
approval for any and all crewmembers, and any and all changes to the ship, and you will coordinate and approve all patrols and special assignments through him. Project Titania has been under his purview since its inception. I don’t care what kind of psychic you
think
you are, he knows all of it better than you do,” Myang stated. She paused, then added, “Secondly, and more importantly,
Captain
Ia…you are hereby placed under a double indemnity clause for any and
all
corporal punishments assigned to your so-called handpicked crew. From a single stroke of the cane all the way through a Grand High Treason hanging, whatever your crew suffers,
so do you
. Is. That. Clear?”

“
Yes
, sir.” Relief threatened to make her giddy. Somewhere in the back of her mind, the part of her that kept track of the flux of the timestreams warned her that there might be problems up ahead, but they were troubles she knew she could navigate. Ia repeated her orders carefully to let Myang know the message was fully received and fully understood. “I accept the double
indemnity of responsibility not only for my own actions, but also for those of my crew, sir. I shall willingly endure without restraint or hesitation any and all corporal punishments assigned to them, as well as any I may accrue on my own, whether it’s five canings, or five hundred, or being hung for Grand High Treason, sir.”

“Good. I’m glad that you do understand the severity of your situation, and the price you will pay if you abuse it. Now, is there anything
else
you wished to discuss with us, soldier?” Myang asked mock-sweetly. “Or can we get on with our business? We do have two wars to prepare for,
if
what you said is true.”

For a moment, Ia’s mind went blank. She blinked a couple of times, drew in a deep breath, then shook her head slowly. “No, sir. I do think all the rest of the business regarding Project Titania can be discussed between Admiral Genibes and myself in another location, at another time. And I’ll get you datafiles on everything I can safely foresee for you, Johns and Mishka notwithstanding. Oh—
ah
, you might want to send the all-clear signal through to the other side of this room,” she confessed, blushing. “I’ve…sort of…
um
…”

“Been holding off the security forces just long enough to have your little Yamaneuver say, yes, I know,” Myang finished for her. “Not all of the security measures built into this room are electronic.” Flipping up her arm unit screen, she punched in several commands.

Project Titania vanished from the screens, and the airlock doors guarding the chamber slid open. Both sets of doors opened, revealing a team of armored soldiers, weapons at the ready. They peered warily into the room, clearly wanting to see what was going on first, rather than randomly opening fire. Lowering his gun only slightly, the major from the staff desk stared first at Ia, then peered at the men and women seated behind her. “Admiral-General, sir?”

“Stand down, Major,” Myang stated. “Your diligence is commendable, but I sincerely doubt even a thermonuclear bomb could stop
this
woman from going wherever she thinks she needs to go.”

Oh, I’m pretty sure a thermonuclear bomb
would
stop me,
one of the few corners of Ia’s mind not dazed by her success muttered.
It wouldn’t stop the Immortal One, but I’m not
that
strong a psi, thank god…

Myang addressed Ia, recapturing her attention. “Be advised, Captain, that if you ever charge in here uninvited again, I
will
flog you myself. Stroke for stroke. For now, consider this a successfully accomplished Yamaneuver. I trust you will be too smart to brag about it to anyone. Dismissed.”

“Sir, yes, sir. No, sir, I won’t brag about this. And thank you, sirs, for listening to me. If there were any other way to have gotten my name onto that list—an
honorable
way—I’d have done it, sirs,” Ia said. “You’ll have my absolute best; I promise you that.”

Mindful of the cap still on her head, Ia gave the Admiral-General a salute. Myang returned it crisply, then flicked her hand in silent admonition to go. Turning on her heel, she strode for the doors, ignoring the weapons pointed at her. The security team lowered their guns, shifting back to give her room to exit. Outside, across from the doors and desk, she found an unpleasant sight awaiting her return.

Oh, Bennie…I’m so sorry. I didn’t think they’d go
that
far with you.

At least the chaplain was being released from custody; the zip-ties lacing her wrists and ankles together were being cut free by one of the Tower guards as Ia approached. The guard even offered her his hand, helping the older woman back to her feet. Smoothing back her auburn hair, Bennie faced Ia with a lividly curious glance toward the now shut double doors.

“Well?” she asked Ia. “I take it I won’t have to visit you in the Dungeon? Or share a cell next to yours, for that matter?”

Still a little dazed, Ia opened her mouth, shut it, tried again, and finally found her voice. “I…got promoted. And transferred. I’m now Ship’s Captain Ia, Branch Special Forces.”

Bennie peered at her face, then at the doors several meters away. “You got promoted? All the way to a Ship’s Captain?”

She shrugged almost helplessly, jacket thumping against her left leg. “I won, Bennie…I
won
.”

“Well, you sure don’t
look
like it,” Bennie quipped, guiding her by the shoulders away from the staff desk and the dispersing guards. “Why don’t we head for the nearest commissary, get you
a nice cup of tea, or maybe a hot caf’, and you can tell your Auntie Bennie all about it.”

That snapped her out of her daze, if only from mild irritation at the chaplain’s mock-patronizing tone. “I
can’t
tell you ‘all’ about it. Not yet. Most of it’s Ultra-Classified. But…I have a ship. I have
the
ship,” Ia emphasized, thoughts turning back to the future. “The right ship. And all I have to do is fill it with the right crew, and the right—”

Her arm unit beeped. Ia flipped open the lid. A text message scrolled onto the screen.

“The official paperwork for your new promotion and cross-Branch transfer will be ready by 1400, Lieutenant. Meet me in my office. I’ll trust you can find it, since you found your way in here. ~Adm. Genibes.”

“Right,” Ia murmured, closing the lid again. Her words to the Command Staff came back to her. Time
was
fleeting, and every second counted. She had too much to do, and too many wars to win. “Let’s make that a meal instead of a drink, Bennie. I didn’t eat any breakfast, and I’ll have a lot of work to do, this afternoon.”

“A
lot
of work, eh?” Bennie asked wryly. “Anything I can help with, or is that ultra-secret, too?”

“Oh, I fully expect you to come along with me for some of it,” Ia sighed roughly. “I’ll need a good chaplain for my crew—and I’ll need you to be ready to save their souls while I’m busy trying to save everyone else’s lives.”

“You make it sound like you’re about to drag your crew into hell,” Bennie quipped. “But no single mission, however important, could possibly damn you all.”

“If I don’t get every step of this just right, then yes, we all are,” Ia muttered. They stopped in front of a bank of lifts, and she pushed the button for the ground floor. Giving her friend a wry look, Ia shook her head. “I may have won
this
battle, Bennie—and I thank God I did—but I still have to win the coming wars.”