“Look out for the spa,” Faith said, muzzily. “There’s a spa listed. Spas aren’t good. You get in the scrum in spas.”
“Translated as use a large force for spa clearance which I and Lieutenant Fontana can cover,” Steve said. “Lieutenant, you’re dismissed until tomorrow morning. Have your team ready for clearance ops by 0800 hours tomorrow. Understood?”
“Aye, aye, sir,” Faith said.
“Your gear should already have been moved over here. Ask Mrs. Bailey where it’s at.”
“Yes, sir,” Faith said.
“That means you can get up and leave, Faith,” Steve said, shooing her. “Go.”
“Roger,” Faith said, standing up. “See you tomorrow.”
* * *
“As to ‘useful intelligence,’ Captain,” Steve said. “The fact that the Lieutenant’s team was able to get us full deck plans is a blessing. We might be able to make a rational guess where survivors are located and we’ll concentrate on that at first.”
“I was not meaning to imply any lack of confidence in the Lieutenant, sir,” Wilkes said, tightly.
“Captain, your lack of confidence in my daughter is writ large,” Steve said, chuckling. “You don’t care for her being a Marine officer. I get that. For that matter, you don’t like that I’m an instant Navy Captain and your boss. Get that as well. When you’ve had some experience clearing a large vessel, you can, as the Gunnery Sergeant did, revisit your calculation. It is experiential. You may retain your opinion or modify it. I really don’t care which as long as it doesn’t interfere with the mission. Now, we’re going to pull out those blueprints the Lieutenant’s team found and try to go at this with an actual plan for a change… ”
* * *
“Captain, a moment of your time?” Lieutenant Chen said as the meeting broke up.
“Sure, Lieutenant,” Steve said. “What’s up.”
“I… I do not have Captain Wilkes’ issues with Lieutenant Smith,” Chen said. “Either Smith. I’ve found them both to be extremely competent especially given their age. They’re… I’m not blowing smoke, sir, when I say they’re a real credit to you and your wife, sir.”
“They’re… ” Steve said then shrugged. “It’s both a very proud papa and a trying to be dispassionate observer who agrees. Their achievements speak for themselves. I take it, though, that there has been an issue?”
“There was, sir,” Chen said, reluctantly. “Any good officer knows that there are things to overlook. For example, there are shall we say ‘special stores’ on the boats… ”
“Given that there’s no real pay to be seen on the horizon, I’ve ignored the fact that boats like Sophia’s are turning into floating treasure galleons,” Steve said. “And as for the booze… I was once told by an officer I admired that there’s no point in giving an order you know won’t be obeyed. But if you want me to discuss it with Sophia… ”
“I’m going to do that, sir,” Chen said. “But that’s not the issue, sir. Sir, in the middle of the battle yesterday, Faith went dress shopping.”
“Excuse me?” Steve said.
“One of the containers we used to block the quay turned out to contain some formal dresses, sir,” Chen said. “Faith… protracted the engagement to sort through them looking for a dress for the Marine Corps Ball, sir.”
“Seriously?” Steve said. “I mean… Seriously?”
“Yes, sir,” Chen said. “I haven’t formally investigated it, sir, but… ”
“I hear what you’re saying, Lieutenant,” Steve said, carefully. “And I understand your concern. It… it just doesn’t sound like Faith. She’s not normally a shopaholic.”
“The Marines think it’s funny, sir,” Chen said, seriously. “Just another example of, well, ‘Miss Faith.’ But it put them in a dangerous position while the Lieutenant went, well, dress shopping, sir. I understand she is your daughter, sir, but… ”
“That’s… Yes,” Steve said. “She is. However, I convinced the Gunny she was worthy of a lieutenancy on the basis that she’s not quite as immature as she acts. This is a counter example. Did she give any argument in favor? I mean, I cannot find an argument but… ”
“I haven’t brought it up with her, yet, sir,” Chen said. “It’s a touchy subject. The Marines think the world of her and they think it was hilarious. But it was not only putting her Marines in jeopardy to go dress shopping, it was using them for personal privilege, sir. On the other hand, she’s a Marine, not Navy, and she’s your daughter, sir. I’d considered bringing it up with Captain Wilkes but… You’re my chain of command, sir. And she’s your daughter.”
“Well, I’m her chain of command as well,” Steve said. “I’d like to bring her in to discuss it. See if she has any reasonable arguments. If not… Letter of reprimand?”
“I… wouldn’t go that far, sir,” Chen said. “Possibly a written counseling statement.”
“Very well,” Steve said. “I’ve got a slot at fourteen-thirty. Bring her by.”
* * *
Faith woke from a dream that all the women who’d been raped and murdered on the Alpha were trying to talk to her. She couldn’t understand their words, though. Just that they were warning her of something.
She really didn’t like being on the Alpha. She’d had to clear it with her Dad and Sergeant Fontana and it was one of the clearances that gave her nightmares. On the other hand, she had a cabin to herself and a private bathroom. She’d put up with the nightmares.
Someone had kindly laid out a pair of shorts and a Marines T-shirt on her bed before she got there. And all her stuff was not only in the room but unpacked and put in drawers. Her hard-found dress was in the closet and someone had even put it in a plastic bag.
She’d just dropped her uniform on the deck, pulled off her bra and crawled into the sheets, she was that tired. The brown T-shirt and panties were fresh. Good enough.
She got up and went into the bathroom and examined herself in the mirror.
“Okay, now I get what they mean by ‘death warmed over.’ ” Her face was drained. She looked like a recent kill. Maybe that’s what the women were trying to tell her. “You look like shit, Faith.”
She wasn’t even sure what time it was. She could see it was twilight. Probably the sun was going down, not coming up. If it was coming up, she was already late for assembly.
There was a sign in the shower stalclass="underline" “Please conserve water. Wet down. Turn off the water. Lather up. Rinse off.”
She turned the shower on full and just hung her head under it. Screw water conservation. They could get some from the fresh water tanks on the freighter. The freighter her team had fucking cleared. And if they ran out? Well, they’d just clear another fucking freighter. Or get it from the liner. Liners always had big fucking fresh water tanks.
The shower helped. She did some push-ups and sit-ups and stretches and that helped more.
By the time she’d gotten done with that, her stomach was rumbling.
“Time to find food,” she muttered.
She was off duty so she just wore the Marine T-shirt and shorts and some flip-flops. If anybody had a problem with that, they could bite her.
When she got to the main saloon, there was a buffet laid out and it was about full of people. What got her, initially, was that there were very few she’d recognized. While her team had been clearing the towns in the Canaries, the rest of the Squadron had been doing recovery ops at sea and apparently they’d been pretty successful. She saw a few of the girls from the Money scattered around but they seemed to be “sponsors.” Mostly it was one to a table. And you could tell a lot of the people were “freshies,” fresh off the lifeboat or out of a compartment. The “boaties” all had super dark tans. The “ghosts,” compartment people, were all wearing shades and were either ghost white or sunburned.