Chapter 33 - Movement, Part 1
"Target is still six days away by foot, sir," Lt. Uirick said.
Kirk had sensed this question a day ago, had tried to estimate when it would be voiced. Today or tomorrow, he'd figured.
"Yes." He peered back at her with an easy expression. Perhaps he shouldn't still be gauging her or the others like that, but couldn't help himself.
She frowned. The others were loosening armor for their break time, sucking on snack packets. They were listening by not obviously listening.
Kirk smiled faintly. "If you were the enemy, where would you think we were right now?"
"With the skuttles."
Kirk nodded as if that were the end of it.
"Our orders are to remain in the vicinity."
"Any movement on foot is in the vicinity. By definition. Are you getting tired? I mean physically?"
"No sir."
Kirk looked around. Gazes were fixed elsewhere with a tense casualness.
"Personally, I find light hiking to be less exhausting than sitting around. Although the armor is burdensome, we need the scan blocking for the open areas."
"I know, sir." She looked off in the direction of their target. Her red eyebrows wrinkled with a frown. She pushed her helmet up off her head more. "What if they've moved?"
She was just tossing this out, he was certain. He assumed she wanted an excuse for questioning because the conversation had gone farther than she'd thought it would.
"I think we'd have sensed them, unless they are very careful. Their blocking isn't as good as the Colonists' used to be when they are on the move. Another reason they won't expect us. In any event, we are still in the area, as ordered."
From where he sat crosslegged on the ground, Hummer said, "If we ambush them, and it's one of the bigger convoys, that will be quite the coup."
"I don't want anyone thinking about glory," Kirk said. "It makes you less wise at the worst time. Okay?"
Hummer sounded confused, "Yes, sir." Hummer tore open another tube of snack goo with some aggression.
Kirk started a countdown until he'd speak again. Considered prompting him right before.
"Sir?"
"Yes?"
"You weren't thinking about glory on Tellun Vi, sir? Or Wolfram?"
"Certainly not on Wolfram. I was thinking about living to get home. Tellun . . ." Kirk rubbed his brow. "I was not in my right mind on Tellun. I can't answer that honestly. How about this? Hiking is better than sitting. If we take them out, we go on leave sooner. Do you need a better reason?"
"No, sir. I wasn't questioning your orders, sir."
Kirk sat up just slightly, he'd been speaking to them as a group, and Hummer heard him as an individual. "Right. You weren't."
Kirk glanced at Uirik. She tapped the barrel of her phaser rifle on the ground. "Break over, sir?"
Darkness came on with long shadows. They were bedded down for the night in a small valley. Kirk found Uirik on guard duty at the lip of a larger of the small hills before he put his head down for a few hours.
"Curious about something, Lieutenant."
"Sir?" She was whispering.
Kirk thought that attitude not a bad one and dropped his voice as well. "The Skuttle crews. You know them better than I. How long will they hold position before disobeying?"
She looked away. Up close her raised helmet faceplate had myriad tiny images of the dimming light of the sunset. "I honestly . . ." She made a sound of disgust. "I don't know. You didn't repeat the orders."
"They weren't complicated."
"Yeah. Repeating increases the importance."
Kirk nearly scoffed. He wanted to treat people as smarter than that, dearly hoped that wasn't a mistake. If it was, he wasn't sure he could stomach adapting.
"If there isn't any shooting . . ." Uirik tipped her head to the side and back. "They'll probably stay put."
"That's all I'm asking them to do."
"Ten days is a long time to split the teams up with no regular comm."
"Can't risk it."
"I know that, sir."
Kirk sighed. "Well. We'll see. Thanks."
She made a motion with her hand Kirk didn't understand. She sounded uncertain, maybe amused. "Anytime, Commander."
Spock breathed in and out before stepping into the Starfleet Annex, pushed every emotion involving embarrassment aside. The tiers were full of relaxed, reading or chatting officers, as usual. A few looked up as he entered, watched him as he made his way to the left staircase.
"Cadet."
Spock stopped. In a row a third of the way up, an ensign in blue reached out to slide his things along the curved narrow table. "Sit here."
Spock glanced around the others nearby who were either involved in their own devices or only mildly curious.
"Sir," Spock said, and slid by two people and into the seat.
Spock centered his padd before him, resisted checking the back of his head with his fingers. Chanel came in, paid only the slightest attention to where Spock was sitting. She lectured on hull shape and warp fields, hull shape and radiation, hull shape and shielding and warp fields, grew increasingly derisive of designs that radiated harmfully across a gap back to the ship rather than shedding entirely into space. Ships needed to be sparse and long for a reason. Designers with delusions of aesthetics and beancounters with delusions of cost savings had to accept that.
"Final assignment."
Everyone around Spock shifted as though just waking up.
"I'm giving each project group a ship class and a starting set of drawings. And a set of significantly revised specifications to meet. So many changes you won't finish. Let me warn you of that. You will work in groups of two or three, but no more, and no flying solos. Got it? You're dismissed. Except Lt. Carrom whom I want to see down here."
Spock didn't get by Chanel. She waylaid him with a tip of her head.
"You look like you feel a little better today, Cadet."
Spock nodded. He was settling back in, forgot for many minutes at a time that anything had interrupted his instruction here. A broad-shouldered man in a red uniform rumpled at the cuffs came aside the Captain.
"Lieutenant, you know Cadet Spock from previous classes, especially the last one. Spock, this is Lt. Carrom."
Carrom had dusty colored skin and faint ridges leading down to his highly arched brows, as if he were one eighth or one sixteenth Cardassian. He made an abbreviated move to offer Spock a hand. Spock bowed his head and the lieutenant dropped his hands at his sides.
"I'm giving you Spock as a project partner, Carrom. I'm confident you two will complement each other well. Now get out of my hair."
She turned to deal with other waiting students. Carrom lifted a palm sized padd. His posture spoke of suppressed impatience and frustration. Spock pulled back from sensing him. He'd done it instinctively, and should not have found it necessary.
"We need meeting times. Let's set up three regular ones so we can be sure of always making two a week."
Spock didn't think that boded well, but he nodded. "I am at your disposal, sir."
Carrom raised his dark gray-green eyes, seemed to take a moment adjusting his thinking. "Right. No preferences? Weekends better?"
"I have personal commitments and my human classmates seem to use the remaining time to catch up, and my schedule is unpredictable as a result."
"Fridays then."
"Those tend to be open. Yes, sir."
"And Tuesday and Thursday evenings when we can. There's a cafe and work area below this floor. We'll meet there. Look the assignment over before tomorrow. Okay?"
Spock almost said, "of course." He nodded. He wondered if Chanel had assigned Carrom as his partner because he also appeared to be a hybrid. Spock had too little data, and put the supposition aside.
Vice Admiral Justin took his time turning his attention to the cadet nervously curling his toes inside his Starfleet-issue boots. He shifted a holoframe on his desk. It showed a teenaged girl burying half of her face in a collie's mane.
"Cadet," Justin said.
As expected, Jaek stood taller. "Sir."
"If you can inspire so many of your fellows to assist you with such an operation against someone they barely know, I certainly hope that you to step up now and meet my expectations."
Jaek was definitely sweating now. "Yes, sir."
"In case that's not clear enough. This is going to be a test. You demonstrated high potential for leadership, but badly lack the circumspection that should accompany it.
Justin leaned against the desk, relaxed. He let the cadet sweat, let him curl and uncurl his toes inside his heavy boots, setting off little deformations of the synthleather.
"Leaders stand up for their team," Justin said, in the mode of a point of conversation. "You hid behind two of your peers far longer than you should have. Nevertheless, I still harbor hope for you. Understand?"
"They insisted on dealing with the matter, sir. I thought I should listen to their better wisdom, their leadership, you might say."
Justin had waited to cross his arms, did so now. "Yes. I'm sure they did insist. That's why they are now fully out of the way in this matter. And you are here."
Jaek bit his full lips down thin. "Yes, sir."
"This is what I want. I want you to bring everyone involved in this matter to my office at nineteen hundred this evening. We're going to stop doling out so much punishment to every senior cadet and concentrate it where it belongs. Understood?"
Jaek blinked rapidly as he processed that. Not a good sign. "Yes, sir."
Vice Admiral Justin peered around the forty some odd cadets in his outer office and at the at least ten more visible in the wide doorway and corridor outside.
"Is this how you are going to play it, Cadet?" Justin said to Cadet Jaek standing slightly apart in the middle of the room.
Jaek flushed red, stood straighter.
Justin turned to his staff. "Arrange an auditorium. The old public one across the hall will do." He strode to his inner office without a glance back.
Spock didn't move from where he stood beside the guest chairs. The door slid closed. Justin made a face of dismay that revealed more than Spock would have expected him to.
"He's snowballing me," Justin said. He looked around his desk, opened a drawer, took out a lime green palm phaser and pocketed it. He looked around the desk another time in absent thought, looked up at Spock.
"Wait until everyone's seated to join us. I want you to observe, but out of the way. And I'll signal you when to return here before I release the group. Understand?"
"Yes, sir."
Justin started across the office and stopped. His shoulders relaxed from aggressively forward to normal. "How are you doing, Cadet?" He held up a hand. "I need you to be open and honest with me. I spent half an hour yesterday convincing the cadets who accuse you of a psychic attack that all they experienced was what they were causing you to experience. I got a lot of crazy versions of the things and insistence that couldn't be the case. But it occurred to me since then that they might be exaggerating less than I originally assumed and I should be looking elsewhere for the actual issue. And that would lie with you."
"I am deeply regretful that I caused harm."
"I don't think you caused any real harm. And you are dodging my query."
"If I may, Admiral. Your statement strongly implies that I did cause harm."
Justin sighed, paused. "Let's back up. Be honest with me. That's an order. How are you doing, Cadet?"
Spock latched his hands behind his back. "Overall well. I have. Moments of uncertainty."
"By uncertainty, you mean you don't feel safe."
Spock leveled his chin. "These reactions are not logical and are entirely my responsibility."
Justin nodded to himself. "It always goes this way. A bunch take too little responsibility and a few take far too much. This institution is in no position to dictate your care. I contacted your father to consult with him and he assured me you were already under care, both human and Vulcan. Is that working for you?"
Spock fixed his eyes on a shelf of abstract rock carvings, remembered Overlander's hug. "At this time I am more cared for than I care to be, Admiral."
As Spock hoped, Justin smiled. "I'm trusting you on this. I don't have much to offer you except a reasonably safe place to learn to be an officer. Which I will deliver on. If humanly possible."
"I understand that you have numerous conflicting priorities, sir."
Justin faintly shook his head. "We're going to keep you around, Cadet. If it kills us. Give me four minutes to get things settled before you follow."
The auditorium contained far more cadets than expected if it was intended to be only those involved. Spock slipped fully inside, remained in the darkened, curved vestibule at the rear. The auditorium smelled of aging materials. The seats were worn and the lighting harsh.
Grange was down on the dais beside Vice Admiral Justin, palm padd in hand. "I register sixty one present."
Justin put a hand up to shade his eyes. "Come down here, Mr. Jaek."
Jaek had been standing in the left aisle ten meters from the bottom. He came forward and up onto the dais.
Justin looked out over the auditorium as he spoke. "Although I find a grudging respect for your ability to convince this many to put their careers at risk for you . . . it's not going to work. I'm going to call your bluff. Everyone here is putting themself forth as having been involved. So be it. Everyone here is now on academic, behavioral, and duty probation. One misstep out of any of you for the rest of the term and you are in front of a panel reviewing your right to be here. Understood?"
The room fell unusually silent for so many bodies.
Justin turned to Grange. "At least we can pull the four am muster for the entire senior class. Everyone present is still due on the plaza for supplemental physical training and will be for the rest of the term. I hope everyone here understands why you are being forced to adapt yourselves to additional discipline. Mr. Jaek, I certainly hope you've been thinking hard about things. Care to explain exactly what went wrong so we're all on the same page?"
Jaek stood at attention a few meters to the side, looking nowhere in particular. "We should not have utilized overwhelming force on a fellow student. We should have. . ." He winced ever so faintly. "We should have admitted defeat and aborted the mission."
Justin stood with face set. "You didn't back off when you should have."
"No sir." Jaek stood perfectly still. "There was a further error. Ignoring the procedures for a downed comrade. Once the stunner was utilized appropriate care should have been administered. Warmth, fresh air. Verify airway's clear."
"And why didn't that happen?"
Jaek rolled his head to the side and back. "Lost control of the purpose of the mission at some point. I honestly think there were too many involved. That made it significantly harder to back down, admit defeat. It became a matter of . . . succeed any way possible. Getting Cadet Spock down seemed like a victory in the heat of the moment. We weren't thinking anymore. The group was too big to think, really. Became reactive."
Justin looked over the crowd. "Anyone here realize at the time that this was a problem?"
A few hands went up.
"Stand up." Justin pointed at the closest cadet. "And what did you do as a consequence of this knowledge?"
The cadet shook her blonde head. "Nothing, sir. Just thought about it at the time. Seemed out of line—"
"Louder for me. The only part that matters. What did you do?"
"Nothing. Sir."
"Sit down. You're no different than the rest. For the record, your thoughts are valueless if they require action and you don't take it."
Justin paced once between Grange and Jaek, came back to the center of the dais. "We give you room to learn here. We provide space for you to make mistakes while you figure out what power is, what leadership is. This space we provide is an age-old one. In the spirit of that, I'm going to revive some other old traditions that we have lost. Every dinner all of you present here now will stand while the others eat. And you will recite a procedure or code or specification or emergency manual section, whatever was assigned for that day. For twenty minutes straight, from memory."
Heads tipped back, groans sounded.
"With so many reciting, it will be easier than you think." Justin turned to Jaek. "Mr. Jaek. You were the leader of this mission. I want to know who stunned Cadet Spock."
Jaek stared straight ahead. The harsh light cast half his face into deep shadow. "As the leader, I'm responsible for everything that happened, sir."
"Do you have a backup career plan, Mr. Jaek?"
The high color drained from Jaek's face. His mouth worked. "Yes, sir. I can work for my aunt's company. Building ships."
"You make that sound unpleasant, Cadet."
"I. It was just an idea. Sir."
Justin took out the phaser and held it up. It shone with glaring lime light. "Anyone want to step up and save Mr. Jaek?" He waited fifteen seconds before pocketing the phaser again.
"One more tradition then, which will continue until someone steps up." He nodded at Grange who gestured to someone else.
Staff came onto the dais with stools and plastic.
"Hold up just a second, though. There are too many of you. This many and we'll start a fashion rather than create the scarlet mark I intend this to be. There are twenty six of you, I estimate, that are actually involved. Stand up those of you who convinced someone to be here who should not be here."
No one moved.
"You are a shy bunch. I don't know how you qualified to be here with this serious lack of personal assertion." He pointed at the blonde woman who had stood up earlier. "Name, Cadet?
She stood slowly. "Holloway, sir."
"Holloway, you get the honor of being first and redeeming your colleagues. You bring someone?"
"Yes, sir."
The woman behind her stood up. "Cadet Smyth, sir." She managed to squeak this out only after clearing her throat twice.
"Smyth, you are exempt from this particular punishment, but not the rest. We will see you at dawn muster and dinner recitation. You are dismissed."
"Holloway, come up here. We know you were there by your own admission, so you can be first. Cadet Jaek's hair is too short to make a point."
Holloway stopped on the steps up to the dais, hesitated. Plastic was being draped over the stool.
"Oh my God," Holloway said.
She moved mechanically across the stage, dropped onto the stool, arms lifeless. Staff put a plastic barber's wrap around her and hooked it under her chin.
She closed her eyes. "Oh my God," she repeated, ducking her head between her shoulders suddenly as the razor buzzed.
Staff unhooked her flowing shoulder length hair from a sparkling clip and pushed her head forward to start trimming at the neck.
Justin stepped over to watch. "What's that, a centimeter? Leave a little extra on the top. A reminder of what they've lost and to make the oldest of us feel nostalgic."
Holloway bowed her head farther over, made a high pitched noise of dismay.
"Your actions left your fellow cadet with a mechanized drain in his head. Your hair will grow back, some time next term when we allow it to."
Jaek was directed to another stool and the sides of his already short afro were buzzed shorter. In the front row his friend, Horton, was rubbing his bald head and laughing and pointing at him.
Spock stepped out from behind the curved wall and into the light. Justin looked up and nodded at him. Spock took that as confirmation to return to the administrative offices.
Justin said to the assembled, "Let's continue with the others of you who knew better at the time but did nothing. You each get one pass for a friend you roped into this as part of a disappointingly long string of bad judgement."
— 8888 —
A/N: I have terrible internet right now. 2. English really needs the word themself so I'm going to claim that 200 years from now we do have that word. It's used in speech anyway, so I'm not exactly claiming we have it now.
