, or at a bookstore near you.From Chapter 13
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“And besides, just where do you think all these lizards are going to come from? Shangri-la? Or maybe they’ll just materialize out of thin air. Or from the Cloud itself. My God, what nonsense!”Embarrassed, the briefing officer shifted uncomfortably on her feet. Her pretty young face blushed brightly, as if her aborted report on alien ship movements had been the cause of this latest eruption. Beside her at the lectern, just under the viewing screen. stood Commodore Wright, her face burning with disgust. Silence had fallen over the rest of the starship captains, assembled in the main auditorium for their weekly briefing. They already knew the dangers of trying to interfere. The kind of exchange they were witnessing had become all too familiar.
“I don’t know, Commodore McIntyre,” Cook replied sharply, standing at his seat on the left aisle. “If I did, there would be no need for this discussion, and you could spare us the witless attempts at pointed rhetoric. In the meantime, it seems to me that we would do well to start studying defenses against an enemy flanking movement, if only because the Crutchtans are unlikely to view their tactical situation as narrowly as CosGuard’s finest.”
McIntyre’s face seethed with anger. A small man, his forceful personality and booming voice filled the hall. He was used to dominating these strategy meetings and did not take kindly to newcomers challenging him in his own domain—especially loudmouth rookies who hadn’t learned their place, or how to hold their tongues.
“That’s absurd, Cook—that’s truly absurd.”
“ ‘Fools see absurdity in their own reflected folly,’ ” Cook said, quoting a line from an old Isitian master. “What I say may well be wrong,” he explained, seeing his comment evoke nothing but confusion on the faces of everyone around him, “but it’s hardly absurd.”
“Gentlemen..., ” Wright began, as calmly as she could.
“Unlike some acquaintances of mine, I don’t pretend to know all the answers,” Cook continued, undaunted. “But I do know that knowledge rarely comes from ridiculing people who ask questions. If war does come, and we don’t knock out the enemy with the first blow, we’ll be scrambling all over creation, trying to shore up our failing flanks. In my humble opinion, that is where we should expect them to attack because that is precisely where we’re weakest. No matter how strong we are elsewhere, those two starbases—117 and 121—are the keys to front. That much should be clear to anyone who can read a starmap.”
“Rubbish!”
“Gentlemen— ”
“If we don’t reinforce them, we may well find ourselves on the short end of the war’s decisive battle. Unless, of course, the war turns into something of a rout. But then that’s hardly an assumption that should guide our strategic planning, so it’s largely beside the point.”
“Gentlemen, please....”
“They’ve no bases, no forces, no lines of supply, and no means of mounting an attack. And you’ve decided that it’s all immaterial, because the lizards can suspend the laws of logistics with no more than a wave of the hand.”
“Gentlemen!”
Cook pointed an angry finger at his antagonist. “Mark my words, McIntyre—though actually, I doubt we’ll ever really know, come to think of it. It would take a war to prove me right, and from what I’ve seen the aliens are far too civilized to let that happen. But mark my words, anyway— ”
“Cook—you’re an idiot! A windbag and an idiot!”
“All right, that’s quite enough!” Commodore Wright raged, her eyes on fire. “I’ll see you two right here—and right now. Everyone else is dismissed. The next pre-maneuvers briefing will be posted on the Board.”
Slowly, the two combatants sank into their chairs. The other starship captains started filing out of the auditorium, their feet shuffling noisily. Occasionally, one would lean over to give a word of encouragement to McIntyre while passing the senior wing commander’s seat. At last the great room emptied, until just Cook, the two commodores, and the pretty young briefing officer were left. Neither Cook nor McIntyre had budged from his seat, placing them on opposite sides of the room and making it impossible for Wright to see both of them at the same time.
“I think our Isitian friend has been sniffing something besides daisies,” sneered McIntrye. Before Cook could respond, the base commander erupted.
“I am sick and tired of this constant bickering!” she flamed, slapping the podium with the small stack of papers she held in her hand. “The two of you come down here—right in front of me—right in the center. Right here! Right now! I’m not about to get a stiff neck trying to yell at both of you. Come on...come...as in—Now!”
Reluctantly, the two men rose from their seats and ambled to the front row center. Petulantly, they kept two seats between them. Each held his tongue as Commodore Wright, index finger wagging furiously, addressed them much as a schoolteacher would scold the class troublemakers.
“There is no excuse for it. None at all! I won’t have my wing commanders at each other’s throats. I won’t stand for it, do you hear me? And I don’t care who’s to blame. You’re both acting like spoiled brats. Now you don’t have to like each other, or talk to each other. In fact, I don’t care if I hear another word spoken out loud by either one of you. Ever! And I suspect I speak for the entire contingent here at Looking Glass! But this—gentlemen—is the last time that you two will disrupt a staff meeting.”
Wright strode to the front of the podium, and spoke in a taut voice that admitted no discussion. Her angry eyes shifted from Cook to McIntrye and back again.
“From now on, the two of you will show each other the same courtesy that you expect from the rest of the staff. In the privacy of your own quarters you may insult each other to your heart’s content. But in public, you will not show the slightest hint of your differences—not on my base—not on your own ships. Not anywhere in my command. Not anywhere in the whole of Terra! And if either of you so much as thinks of starting up again, I’ll have your tanned hide hanging from my wall so fast you won’t even know it’s gone.
“Am I clear?”
Both men nodded.
“Am I clear?” Wright fumed, glaring sternly at the young Isitian.
“Yes, ma’am.”
“McIntyre?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Wright gathered her briefing papers and angrily stuffed them into her briefcase. “You two are confined to this auditorium for the next ten minutes. You can use it to talk over your differences, or you can sit in silence like a pair of stubborn jackasses and not say a word. I really don’t care, as long as I hear nothing more about it.
“Follow me, Lieutenant. Let’s leave the children alone for a while.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
The two women walked up the aisle toward the door. Soon the two wing commanders were alone with their thoughts, their eyes drifting everywhere around the room except toward the figure sitting two seats down. And for ten minutes—to the second—the only sound in the hall was the soft hiss of the ventilator, echoing in the stillness.
© 2009 by Jeffrey Caminsky
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