“Anna will show you to your cabin and then give you access to the logistics system,” Captain Shalenko concluded, as if he had never spoken at all. “If the data-constipated bureaucrats give you a hard time, refer them to me personally and I’ll deal with them. We need everything we can get and I don’t care how much they whine about the costs, or how badly it will screw up their budgets. We need to be fully provisioned before the main body of the fleet starts working up. We’ve been first ready for a long time and I don’t intend to stop now, even if I have to break in a new logistics officer.”
He raised his voice. “Dismissed!”
I saluted again, turned, and marched with parade ground precision out of the hatch and back into Officer Country. I had barely noticed how large his cabin had been, or how decorated it had been, with a handful of truly disturbing images lining the bulkheads. Anna smiled at me as the hatch slid closed and favoured me with a wink, but I wasn’t sure how to respond. It had been too long since I had been with a woman. I hadn’t even visited one of the brothels on Orbit Nine.
Or perhaps she was just being friendly.
“You survived, I see,” she said, with a wink. I nodded in understanding. Captain Shalenko was a very different person to Captain Harriman. He was far more of a tyrant…and a fanatic to boot. “How are you feeling?”
“Enthusiastic,” I said, dryly. She smiled knowingly at me. “He said that I was to become the new logistics officer?”
“You poor bastard,” Anna said, as she turned to lead me down the corridor. “You do know why that’s the junior lieutenant’s billet?” I shook my head. “There’s a fortnight until we are scheduled to depart from this station and you’ll need every second — quite literally — to get what the Captain wants out here. The bastards at the supply dumps have never served on a starship themselves and they will question everything, even including oxygen tanks and spacesuits. We’re supposed to get everything we need, but don’t be too surprised if you end up having to call in the Captain and get him to pull strings.”
She smiled again, rather tightly. “Consider it a rite of passage, John,” she added. “If you can survive the accountants who want to make sure that we don’t take more than we absolutely need, you’ll survive anything, even the Captain in one of his rages.”
“Yes…ah, Anna,” I said, slightly unnerved. I hadn’t counted on becoming the logistics officer so quickly. Hell, I hadn’t counted on it at all. “When will I be on watch?”
“You’re a keen one, aren’t you?” Anna said, dryly. I couldn’t tell if she approved or not, but somehow I doubted it. “The day is divided into eight watches of three hours each and they all require a senior officer on duty. A bit of a waste of time when we’d docked, if you ask me, but the Captain insists on it. You’ll get the 1200-1500 slot tomorrow, with the Captain or me watching over your shoulder, and then we’ll put you on a regular slot once we’re sure of your ability. The Captain likes to shake things up from time to time so you’ll discover that your slot will keep changing.”
“Thank you,” I said, doubtfully.
“Don’t worry about it,” Anna said. “Nothing much ever happens at the docks. It gets much more exiting when we’re in hostile space.”
“Yes,” I agreed. “He mentioned something about an invasion…?”
“You’ll hear all about that later,” Anna assured me. We stopped outside my cabin and she motioned for me to press my hand against the sensor. The hatch hissed open and we stepped inside. “This is your cabin, John. I’d suggest that you got settled in, and then started working through the logistics papers one by one. I’ll send Kitty to help you out in a couple of hours. She was assisting Lieutenant Chi with the logistics duties before Chi was promoted to Commander and assigned to one of the bases orbiting Mars.”
She walked out the hatch and it hissed closed behind her. I let her go, staring around my new cabin. It was smaller than the old wardroom we’d shared, but it was all mine! It was barely large enough to swing a cat, but it was all for me. I didn’t have to share it with anyone. I hadn’t realised how much I’d loathed the wardroom until I’d been given a cabin of my own. I spent nearly thirty minutes just exploring all the hidden drawers and unpacking my duffel bag before opening the terminal and logging on to the ship’s computer. As a Lieutenant, I had more access than as an Ensign, but certain details were still closed to me. I thought, briefly, of the icon the Senior Chief had given me and winced. I’d spent two days on Orbit Nine examining it and if I had dared to hook it up to a shared terminal…
“Maybe not,” I said aloud, and brought up the logistics files. I’d seen them before with Lieutenant Hatchet, but the Devastator required far more supplies than any mere light cruiser. Food and drink were obvious, as were a goodly number of spare parts — the Engineer had complained bitterly about shortages on the Jacques Delors — but others were more confusing, the more so because they didn’t come with an explanation, other than that the Captain wanted them for his ship. What, I wondered, were KEW capsules, or buckshot containers, or even maser tuners? In total, the Captain was requisitioning over a thousand different items… and that was being conservative.
I opened the direct link to the Supply Department on Orbit Nine and placed the orders. I hoped that they would just agree at once and send the items over to the ship, but I knew better. It wasn’t an hour before a message came back, reluctantly granting a quarter of what I’d asked for…and querying the rest. It was just absurd. Every starship in the UNPF needed a reserve supply of oxygen, just in case the life support systems broke down, but they were demanding to know why we needed it. What did they think I was going to do? Steal the oxygen and sell it on the black market? I was still staring at the message in numb disbelief when the hatch chimed.
“Come in,” I called, absently, keying the hatch.
“You must be John,” a rich female voice said. I turned to see a redheaded woman wearing a Lieutenant’s uniform, smiling at me. She was utterly beautiful. I couldn’t help, but notice her. If she’d lived down on Earth, she would probably have been raped by the gangs by now, unless she had connections. I’d seen it happen far too often. “How are you?”
“Swamped,” I said, finding my voice. This had to be Kitty. “I don’t even know where to begin?”
“I had the same reaction,” she admitted, with a grin. She extended a hand and I took it automatically. “Lieutenant Kitty Hanover.”
“John Walker,” I said, seriously. It was an effort to drag my mind back to the problem of logistics, but somehow I managed it. It helped that I didn’t want to look like a fool on my first day. “How the hell do I answer these stupid questions?”
Kitty leaned over my shoulder and smiled thinly. “Oh, that’s Cecil,” she said. I stared at her in puzzlement. “He’s one of the staff officers in the Supply Department. I tried to charm him once, but it turned out that he was homosexual and wasn’t interested in my charms.” She chuckled, leaving me to reflect on his insanity. “He’s a right royal prick, so just copy and paste the answers from last year.”
She tapped keys on the terminal and brought up the document. I was starting to see why Lieutenant Chi had been so keen to leave. He’d written massive essays on the subject of why the Devastator required so much from the supply department. They didn’t even come from Earth, I realised, as a bell began to sound in my mind. The supplies all came from the asteroid belt and the industrial habitats there.