Jethro: First to Fight (9 page)

“You are going to be front row center
sir, VIP section under guard. Your leaving will be noted.”

“Frack me,” Walker growled. “Fine. But
someone's paying for this later. I had my own plans,” he growled, closing his
eyes and slouching. “Supposed to be the governor and I can't even do what I
want,” he grumbled.

Nelson turned away, hiding a sigh. His
boss was turning into a sullen 2 year old before his eyes and he hated it. He
hated himself for going along with it.

...*...*...*...*...

As the shuttle unloaded, Jethro let the
stream of people exit ahead of him. He grabbed his small carry on and followed
in their wake. He scented a familiar scent as he entered the corridor leading
to Marine country. “Jethro!” The Gunny growled.

“Yes Gunny?” Jethro asked, putting his
bag down and turning to face the Doberman.

The Doberman sized him up for a moment
then snorted. “Doc Standish said you're on light duty for another few days. So,
I'm sending you to Riley. Keep him and Ox company for a while. And try,” he
held up a finger. “Try to stay out of trouble this time?” he asked.

Jethro couldn't help but smile and flick
his ears forward. “Yes Gunny. I'll try,” he replied dutifully.

“How's the bear?”

“He's fine. Tired of being a pickle
floating in a jar I think. Complaining of hospital food,” Jethro said, flicking
his ears in humor.

“Figures,” Schultz said, flicking his
own ears in humor.

“He said he's going to be out soon.”

“Well, that's good to hear,” the former
DI said. “Though they'll probably have him on light duty or medical leave a bit
longer.”

“Most likely. He's still bald.”

“Well, some say bald is beautiful,” the
Gunny snorted.

Jethro snorted back. It was a bit weird
hearing jokes coming from his former Drill Instructor. “Not on a Neo sir. Been
there, done that,” he said.

Schultz just smiled ever so slightly.
Jethro shivered. The Doberman's ears flicked in humor once more. “Well, be that
as it is, I want you to get squared away and help where you can.”

Jethro nodded. “Yes Gunny.”

“And no heavy work with the right arm.
Let it heal damn it!” The Doberman growled. “I mean it!” he said, turning away.

“Yes Gunny,” Jethro said, picking up the
bag and changing direction to the armorer's workshop. “This is going to be fun,
I wonder if I can get some time in with my suit?” he murmured to himself. He
instinctively picked up his pace, eager to find out.

...*...*...*...*...

“Jump point defense... asteroid forts?
We'd have to tow them there,” Commander Logan said, thinking the idea over.
He'd thought about it a while ago, but discarded it. “Any ideas on getting
around the power and shield problem?”

“The lance Corporal recommended talking
to her squad mate Ox. I have another idea, open it up to a competition. Drop
the idea into the forums with a reward. The engineering teams will be
interested in such a challenge even if the reward is, as they would say, 'tame
or lame'.”

“An interesting idea.”

“We could of course purpose build the
forts in the yard and then tow them out.”

“True, impractical though, at least for
now. I like the idea of building the forts in asteroids. It's more economical.
It would help with our population too.”

“You would give more people more room
for advancement outside a ship,” the AI responded.

“That is definitely an incentive. Any
ideas on the incentives?”

“Leave time, a promotion, a job
overseeing the effort, credit for the work, credits in an account... It is up
to you sir.”

“Yes, yes it is. I like the idea of
leave time and a promotion to overseeing the work. Hmmm... let me think about
it a bit more,” he mused. “But it's definitely a good idea.”

“Thank you sir.”

“Keep them coming Commander, good work.
And pass on the same to the lance Corporal.”

“I will sir, thank you.”

...*...*...*...*...

Governor Walker heard about Destiny's
security breach and then about the shipment from admiral Irons. He was
instantly furious that he didn't get the shipment, whatever it was. He demanded
to know how it had been kept quiet from him for so long.

“You answered your own question sir,”
the aide replied. “They slapped a classified label on the load. They used all
their own people and robots to transfer it. Our spies couldn't transmit the
information over the communications so we had to wait until one physically came
in on leave and told us so.”

“Oh. That still doesn't excuse the
Captain!”

“He's apparently not happy about what
went on. Someone sabotaging his ship...” Nelson the aide shrugged.

Walker threw his hands up in the air. He
didn't have anything to do with that, but apparently the Captain didn't think
so. “He still should have turned the load in to us!”

“He apparently thought differently sir.
Or it might have been someone or something else. From what our source said, the
load was protected by the admiral's AI. Anyone who got their hands on it that
wasn't navy and it would self destruct.”

“So it would have been useless to us
anyway!” Enrique said, glaring at the governor.

“No, it could have been leverage,”
Walker growled.

Enrique shook his head vehemently no.
“If we had tried that Logan would have sent in the Marines after it.”

“He wouldn't have dared!” the governor
growled, eyes flashing.

“Don't bet on it. Hijacking a classified
military cargo?”

“It wouldn't have been a hijacking! I'm
the governor!”

“Which means you have to obey the law
sir. We all do.”

“I'm the governor! I'm the law!” the
governor shouted, face red as he leaned over his desk to stare the Lieutenant
governor down.

There was an awkward quiet moment as no
one moved or said anything. Enrique Salvador had been stared at by the port
admiral, a man who had been insane and quite able to kill him with a single
word, this man could probably do it, but he'd have a hell of a mess on his
hands and a lot of explaining to do if he tried. Finally the aide cleared his
throat. “What?!” the governor spat, turning his head like a turret to stare
down the aide.

“Sir, it's a moot point anyway, it
didn't happen. There is no sense getting upset over it. We need to move on. You
have a busy enough schedule,” the aide said carefully.

“Right,” Walker finally admitted. The
aide let out a deep exhale as the tantrum was averted. “But I want the next
shipment,” the governor growled.

“Sir?”

“You heard me,” the governor said,
stabbing his desk blotter with his index finger. “I want it here. Find a way to
make that happen. The moment another shipment comes in, I want it diverted.
Order them to divert then order them to shut down communications like we did with
Destiny.”

“Sir...”

“Do it Nelson. That's an order.”

“I'll do my best sir,” the aide said
with a sigh.

“Yes, you usually do. Don't disappoint
me,” the governor growled sitting in his chair once more. “So, more on Irons.
How did he survive?”

“He's an engineer sir. We've already
heard the story, and Knox news has been running the material their reporter
April O'Neill taped before her incident.”

“Her. Irons lover.”

“Yes sir. If there is any incentive to
return other than the yard and the naval presence, she is it.”

“Keep an eye on her then,” the governor
ordered. “What I want to know, is why the hell did it take so long for our
source to get back to us? Even with the leave, it's been a month!”

“He's been very cagey sir,” Nelson said
carefully. “We did confirm anyone involved in the unloading of the cargo had
been either sequestered or had been too busy or not one of our people. We were
lucky to have the one source at all.”

“And I take it he was reluctant to stick
his neck out? In case ONI or NCIS got wind of it?” Enrique asked, sounding
amused. The governor shot him a quelling look.

“Actually, no sir. He was a source
because of his relationship to...” Nelson stopped short and glanced at his
boss.

“To...?” the governor asked, raising an
eyebrow.

Nelson squirmed but then finally gave
up. “To secretary Nancy O'Dell.”

“O'Dell. I was wondering what happened
to her. I noticed you were breaking in a new model. What's her name Tracy?”
Enrique asked. “What ever happened to Nancy anyway?” he asked.

“She, um, quit,” Nelson supplied when
the governor didn't say anything.

“Really. I suppose that might be why her
brother or sister is looking for her. If I remember right there is an Ensign
O'Dell.”

“There is,” Nelson said before he caught
his boss's hard look. He immediately flinched and then hunched his shoulders,
knowing he'd given their source away.

“And I bet the young man spoke in what
he thought was gossip to his sister,” Enrique mused. “I'm wondering how you got
him to open up at all.”

Nelson didn't say anything, he just
looked down. Enrique looked at him and then to the governor. Finally he sighed.
“You better hope nothing untoward did happen to Miss O'Dell. She has a rather
powerful family on the station. Her parents are major investors. Now I
understand why they asked about her the last time I talked with them.”

“Oh?” Nelson asked, looking up. He
glanced at his boss. His boss had been so self assured that the woman wouldn't
be missed. That she was a nonentity. Now he worried that something would come
up.

“Um, sir, O'Dell won't give us anything
else until he speaks directly with his sister.”

The governor scowled. “So he's useless
to us now.”

“It would appear so,” Nelson replied,
nodding.

Enrique heard that and winced. The way they
spoke of Nancy told him whatever had happened to the girl it had been final.
Quit? No, more likely terminated in the most literal meaning of the word. He
closed his eyes for a brief moment. “I know I'm not going to want to know the
answer, but for the record, what did happen to the young woman? Exactly?”

“None of your concern. She is no longer
here,” the governor ground out.

“Not here. Great. And when her family,
her sibling start asking more pointed questions? When they oh, I don't know,
hire an investigator or request an investigation into her disappearance? She
hasn't turned up in a month, she rather disappeared suddenly. You see where I'm
going with this? When someone like Knox news gets a hold of this, it could be a
career ender.”

“Not my problem. She quit, end of story.
Once she quit she wasn't my responsibility,” the governor replied with a shrug.
Enrique studied him. He could tell the man was lying through his teeth. There
was just a hint there, a smug sense in the man's eyes. But now that people were
asking questions, something else. The governor steepled his fingers together
and ignored the inquiring look of the Lieutenant governor.

“So, all the reports are true. Irons
managed to beat Felicia's carefully laid traps and did the impossible, survived.
And he's shipped off for parts unknown.”

Nelson bobbed a nod. “Yes sir. Last
known location was Triang boarding the large bulk freighter Kiev 221 headed to
Antigua.”

The governor was sorely tempted to
dispatch Miss Persephone and her team after Irons. But they had no way of
knowing where he went from Antigua! He could have stayed on the ship, he could
have gotten off, he could have boarded another. Hell! He could have found
another ship in Triang before Kiev 221 jumped! It was so frustrating, not knowing.
And with each passing day the variables multiplied.

He was under tremendous pressure from
the industrialists to get Irons back. The various colony leaders as well, even
Vesta. A day doesn't go by when his office wasn't beset with a call in by a
lobbyist, and when Destiny had returned he had been barraged with calls.

“We need to do something, I'm under a
lot of pressure from supporters to get the navy to heel. We need the navy's
resources, need them badly.”

“Sir, they are one of the few bright
marks in the economy. If we get into a tangled mess with them, or mess that
up...” Nelson warned.

“Then we'd better not then!” Walker
growled. “Long, we need to do this in such a way to get people on our side for
a change. I've got an idea on how to go about that, but we're going to need
some help.”

“Tell me what you need,” Long said,
nodding reluctantly. He wasn't sure how far he was willing to stretch his neck
out again though.

“Okay, we're going to need that shuttle,
the one on Vesta. The one you know about.”

“The military one?” Long asked. “What do
you want with that thing? It's a death trap! I'm surprised the navy didn't come
by and pick it up?”