Part two – Shuffling resources

It only took me about a week to fully settle in as the base commander, thankfully. But I was surprised by just how challenging this job was turning out to be, I wasn't just a military officer anymore. I was also a governor, responsible for a colony of people that were learning how to be people.

After having grabbed my morning coffee from the mess hall, I was just outside of the secretarial office and I could hear some talking going on inside. Taking a sip of my coffee before I opened the door to see who was in the office at oh-seven-hundred, a half hour before I even expected Hornet to be in the office. When the door opens, I'm surprised to see Hornet at her desk chatting with her sister that she still hasn't introduced me to yet.

The both of them turn to look at me, the one with silver hair looks me up and down, and I note that she looks so much like Yorktown, like to the point where I'd almost start to wonder if Hornet was adopted. I note that she snaps to attention after she sized me up and said, "Second ship of the Yorktown class, Enterprise, reporting for duty."

Out of reflex, I return the salute as I say to her, "Good to finally meet you, Enterprise."

She nods and asks, "Permission to speak freely, Sir?"

Okay, so she's the professional type then.

I nod as I say to her, "Captain Stennis informed me, that I'll need to be a lot more relaxed with regulations here, so no need to ask from now on, alright?"

She fidgets a little with her hands and nods as she says, "Hornet has had a lot to say about you, Sir and I wa-"

She was cut off as Hornet got to her feet and covered Enterprise's mouth with a hand and laughed nervously before saying, "Forgive my big sister, Sir." She paused to glare at Enterprise over her shoulder and added, "Enty doesn't know what she's talking about."

I raise an eyebrow and make a noise akin to being both dismissive of this and agreeing to it before I change the subject by asking, "Anything come in overnight?"

Hornet let go of her sister, turned, and bent over her desk as she started rummaging through the papers. I tilt my head to the side as I watch her stern rock back and forth, while her sister twists to see what I'm looking at. It takes a moment but she finds whatever it is and spins to face me, holding up a brown file folder with a grin on her face as she says, "Found it!"

Once I've got it in hand I look at the two of them for a moment before I clear my throat and say, "Carry on."

XXXX

Once I'm in my actual office, I note just how empty it feels. I remember how James had it decorated and I really need to get my stuff out here so I can get something done in this place, I'd hate for everyone to think I'm dull. From the other side of the door, I can still hear the two of them. They're going back and forth at one another, bickering as siblings do. I can't make out what they're saying, but from the speed and tone, I'm guessing it has something to do with what Enterprise was about to say. With a shrug, I move to sit on the couch in the office and open the brown folder.

I take a sip of my coffee and almost spit it out as I read the first line, it's a request for a fair to celebrate V-S day. I mean, yeah victory over the sirens was a big deal, and if what I'd learned was true, we had these girls to thank for it, but the amount they want to spend on this is alarming! On top of that, I have no idea how I'd even get half the things they want for this!

I drop the folder on my coffee table before I log into my computer and see that I've got a message from high command. I open that one first and start to read through it and I let out a loud groan at the contents, almost immediately my office door swings open and Hornet is there, her head tilted to the side as she asks me, "What's wrong?"

I pinch the bridge of my nose as I sigh out, "We are going to have visitors next month. The Royal Navy is sending a delegation of kansen here to see if it would be in their interest to use this place as a way of getting their kansen used to the idea of dealing with human life."

She lets go of the door handle and folds her arms under her bust as she says, "That's not a bad thing, right?"

I shake my head as I say, "It is and it isn't." She tilts her head at me again and I continue, "It is because I've got a month to get new facilities to house them built and it isn't because I'm on board with helping them adjust to the idea of living with humans."

Looking up I see Hornet cross my office to sit on the couch and I raise an eyebrow at how casually she does that, putting her arms out across the back of the couch and grinning at me. It wasn't lost on me, that I had a really good view of her side profile from where I sat, especially since she didn't have that black and gold cape on right now. After a moment she saw the folder on my coffee table, her arms came off the back of the couch as she leaned forward to pick it up. With the folder in hand she leaned back and crossed her knees, a very human action I note, as she asks me, "So? What'd ya think about this?"

I tilt my head to the side as I ask, "What makes you think I read it already?"

She winks a green eye at me as she says, "Nothing, I just think you've done that already."

I nod as I confirm, "You're right, I did. But with guests coming soon and the hurried pace I need to get a structure built up."

She shrugs and says, "The Manjuu are fast builders, how big of a building do you think you're going to need?"

I shrug as I say, "Something about the size of the dorms, maybe?"

Hornet nods as she says, "They should be able to get that done in time, and have plenty of time to build up a fair."

I laugh as I say, "You're not going to let that go, are ya?"

She grins, tossing the file folder down to the coffee table as she says, "Nope, not a chance."

Hanging my head I sigh out, "I'll see what I can do."

I can hear Hornet get off the couch and cross the room before she pats the top of my head and says with a laugh, "Good, that way I don't have to get a wooden stick to hit you with."

Looking up I raise an eyebrow at her and she grins back as I ask, "Do I even want to know?"

She shakes her head, still grinning away as she tells me, "Nope. I'll come find you around lunch, it's burgers and beer day in the mess."

Before I can protest that lunch option she's out the door and I sit back in my chair, leaning it back as I sigh. I leaned a little too far back as I feel it go completely over and I'm left looking up at the ceiling panels and I sigh out, "Did you have this much trouble here, James?"

XXXX

I got so wrapped up in the minor tasks that needed my attention, from getting the build requests to the Manjuu to juggling the monthly budget to try and make everything work out. That I didn't even notice the time until I heard the popping of a lid from a bottle beside me.

I blink a few times at my sudden surprise before the smell of food hits my nose and I hear Hornet on the other side of my desk asking, "Cola Commander?"

Tilting my head to the side I was about to ask, when she added, "I helped myself to Georgia's stash," she paused to grin and laugh as she added, "She won't miss them, she's got tons."

I quickly save the documents I'm working on before spinning my chair to fully face her and I see that she's got a couple of trays on my desk as well as two cold bottles of a dark bubbly liquid. With having my attention she takes the top off of her tray to reveal what looks like a decent burger and fries, she grins as she says, "I love burger day."

Watching her dive right into it, acting so very human, I can't help but remember what James told me, "Some days you'll be hard-pressed to tell the difference."

I twist the lid off of my bottle and sip as I think about how true that statement is turning out to be, then it hits me, if that statement is really true, then I'm going to be in for a world of suck till I get posted elsewhere. I don't think I've ever had a posting where I didn't hook up with someone or have been with someone before a deployment.

Hornet wipes her face and tilts her head at me as she asks, "Something on your mind, Commander?"

I sigh and nod my head as I say, "Yeah, but it's not something I'm sure you can help with."

"Try me." She says with a grin and adds, "I'm good at helping others, just ask Northampton, or Yorky."

I give her a sideways glance and sip more cola and debate my options before I say to her, "It doesn't matter. Anyways, I managed to solve the budget issue with getting both the fair going and getting the new building built on time."

Her green eye starts to shine with something I can only describe as joy as she proclaims, loudly, "Awesome! You're the best Commander!"

I rub the back of my head as I humbly say to her, "It just took some juggling, nothing that impressive."

She shakes her head, her long blond tails swinging back and forth as she says, "I'll figure out a way to show my appreciation for this, somehow." She's quiet for a moment before asking, "Oh! I know! We'll go to the fair together!"

Wait, what?

I know I have a surprised look on my face as she grins at me and says, "As friends."

On one level, I'm disappointed, on another level, not so much. I nod as I say, "Alright, I accept."

She grins at me and asks, "So is the fair going to be before or after the guests arrive?"

"I'm aiming for before." I tell her, sipping more of the cola before I put it down and take the top off of my tray, and pop some fires in my mouth.

I note that they are kind of average as far as fries go and as if reading my mind Hornet says, "Yeah, I know, the fries are just okay."

I tilt my head to the side and ask, "Okay, I got to know, how'd you know that these are just okay?"

She grins as she tells me, "Well, after Yorky moved in with Captain Stennis, they invited me and Enty over for a barbeque for Independence Day and he made fries from scratch." She paused to wave a fry as she continues, "Since then, these have just been lackluster."

I nod as I say, "Best fries I ever had, I got during a road trip up to the Maple Monarchy. They had this dish, poutine I think it was called. Anyways it was just mind-blowing. It had gravy, cheese, fries and they even put bacon on it." I pause to laugh as I add, "They had to roll me out of that place."

She laughs and leans a little forward to pick up her burger as she says, "You had me at cheese."

As we finished lunch she gathered up the trays and asked me, "Hey Commander, are you busy this weekend? I was planning on heading into the town and do a little shopping." I give her a sideways look and she laughs before saying, "Don't worry, I'm not trying to set you up on a date with anyone unless you want me to?"

I felt my cheeks get a little hot and she puts the trays back down before that grin came back and she asked, "You do? Who?"

My cheeks only got hotter before I cleared my throat got and said, "No, I'm not looking, at least not right now."

She makes a noise like she doesn't believe me but shrugs as she says, "Fine, we can dig into this later then."

I watch as she picks up the trays again and leaves my office, I'll admit, I watched her go. Those little cut-off shorts really do look good on her. Once the door closed I went over to my copy of the UCMJ and I grabbed the folder that contained everything I needed to know about my role here since now I had questions about what I could and couldn't do.

XXXX

I spent hours going over the UCMJ and the rules I had to operate by at this base and I found them wholly inconsistent. One line stressed that the kansen are military property, one stated that they were people, one stated that they were outside the normal command structure, and the yet another made it clear that they were under my command. With a sigh I hang my head as I say out loud, "That's the navy for you; nothing is ever simple."

I sit back in my chair and pinch the bridge of my nose before looking at the clock and seeing it had gotten late, much later than I thought it had. But well, when you spend time trying to figure things out, I guess it's bound to get away from you. With a sigh, I shut down my office, grab my kit, and head off to my residence.

Just as I get outside, I see a tall woman with long silver hair, violet eyes, in a long black coat with a number 6 on it. She takes off her white officers' cap and starts to roll it around in her hands as she calls out, "Commander, do you have a minute?"

I give a nod as I say, "My door is always open, Enterprise right?"

I see her give a little smile as she looks down and nod before saying, "Correct Sir."

As I make my way over to her, I ask, "What's on your mind?"

I watch as she fidgets a little and asks, "I was wondering, if…"

She trailed off and tried to avoid eye contact, so I ask, "If?"

Her cheeks went bright red and she took a deep breath before letting it out and asking, "What do you think of my little sister?"

I'll admit, that took me by surprise, I tilt my head to the side and ask her, "In what way?"

Again her cheeks went bright red and she gave a quick look around before saying, "In the way that Captain Stennis and Yorktown think of each other."

Again, I'm taken off guard by that one; I rub the back of my head as I say, "Honestly? I don't know. I mean I've only known Hornet for about two weeks at this point, and that's way too soon to really know anything. On top of that, I'm still trying to figure out my place here."

She blinks at me a couple of times before telling me, "Your place is simple, you are our commander."

I laugh and shake my head as I say to her, "Yes and no. Yes, I am your commander, but I'm the only male human on base, the one male that you girls get to interact with regularly. Whereas for me, well, I'm surrounded by pretty girls, all day, every day, and I don't really know what I can and can't do according to the regulations as you are all still in a gray area."

She puts her cap back on and folds her hands behind her as we start to walk and she says, "I don't really understand."

I sigh as I say, "The one thing that everything agrees on, right now, is that the kansen are people. The problem is, according to the regulations, you are also considered inside my command structure, outside of my command structure, and are military property."

I see it when she starts to understand the problem as she says with a nod, "And that is causing conflict as to what you can and can't do with us?"

I nod as I sigh out, "Trust me, until that gets cleared up, I'm going to be in for a rough time here."

It takes her a moment before asking, "So, does that mean you like female frames?"

I nod as I sigh out, "Yeah."

Enterprise brushes some hair behind an ear as she asks, "What are your preferences?"

I give her a sideways look; I'm starting to wonder if these questions are coming from her, or someone else? So I ask her, "Enterprise, did someone put you up to this?" Her cheeks went a brighter red while she looked down and nodded, I sigh inwardly and ask her, "Did she have blond hair?"

Again she nodded, but this time she mumbled out, "Yes."

I raise an eyebrow and ask, "Was it Hornet?"

I was surprised when she shook her head and said, "No."

"Then who was it?" I ask.

"North Carolina." She said while trying to avoid eye contact with me.

It took me a moment to try and picture who that was, I haven't met everyone on this base, I mean there were close to sixty kensen stationed here right now, but we had room for almost three times that in the dorms. That's when it hit me, I can cancel the build order on the extra dorms, we've got the space, I just need to hose the battleships and carriers together and move the cruisers and destroyers together. So I change the subject and ask, "Enterprise, do you know how many carriers and battleships are stationed here right now?"

She stops and I can see her brow knit together for a moment as she starts to count with her fingers quickly before saying, "Two carriers and four battleships, why?"

I smile at her as I say, "I'm trying to solve a housing issue for next month, and how many cruisers and destroyers?"

"Twenty-six destroyers, twelve light cruisers, and eight heavy cruisers." She says as we continue on our walk before she adds almost reading my mind, "Each dorm has approximately forty-eight rooms, not counting common areas and mess halls."

"Good, so do you think I'd have a problem getting the carriers and battleships to share a dorm, and get the destroyers and cruisers to share?" I ask her.

After a moment she shakes her head and says, "Most of us don't have a ton of personal stuff as it is, so it should be easy enough to get everyone housed together."

I grin at her and say, "Good, then that's a task I'll need some help with, starting tomorrow."

She bobs her head and tells me, "You can count on me sir, now about those preferences?"

I laugh and hang my head as I sigh, "Really?"

"Yes sir, I've been asked to retrieve that information." She says, clearly more relaxed now that I know why she wants it.

With a sigh I rub the back of my head as I say, "I like a mature figure, I'm not into the young look like the destroyers seem to have, more along the lines of the heavy cruisers, carriers and battleships."

Enterprise went bright red again and she fidgeted as she asked, "Does that include me, sir?"

I nod as I say, "Yes, Enterprise. But I also prefer blond and red hair."

She nods before she says, "I think that's the information that North Carolina was looking for."

"One last thing, I also prefer someone who knows how to have fun. That's not a physical trait, because let's be totally honest, every kansen that has physical traits that make them attractive, so it has to be more than just physical."

Again she nodded and said, "Of course sir."

I let out a breath and notice that we're at my door and I say to her, "Good night Enterprise, let me know how it goes with getting the girls to move. Ideally, I'd like to move the lesser numbers of types in with the larger numbers."

Again she nods and says, "Well Sir, most dorm rooms have space for two or more kansen to share, why not also double up as much as possible with sister ships? We might be able to get it condensed down to one dorm them."

I stop and look at her as I ask, "How many of them do that already?"

Enterprise shrugs as she says, "I know I used to share a dorm with Yorktown, Hammann, and Hornet. I also know that North Carolina shares one with Washington as do California and Tennessee."

I nod and ask, "What about the cruisers?"

"Cleveland, Montpelier, Denver, and Columbia all share a room. As do Brooklyn, St. Louis, Helena, and Honolulu." She adds after a moment, "I bet I could convince Reno and Seattle to share one too."

I grin at her and tell her, "Tell you what, you work on a list of room assignments and drop it off to me when you've got it done and I'll give it a stamp of approval."

She snaps to attention as she says, "I'll do my best to have it to you no later than six bells tomorrow night, sir."

I give her a salute as I tell her, "Sounds good, Enterprise, have a good night."

She smiles and nods as she returns the platitude, "You too sir."

XXXX

XXXX

When I woke up very early in the morning, I sat bolt upright in my bed, and I recalled the dream I had been having about Hornet of all people. It had been a good dream, a really good dream, as I hung my head, I groaned at the idea that my dream had been very sexual in nature. I flopped backward against my pillows and ran my hands down my face just as my phone made a noise, letting me know I'd gotten an e-mail.

I rolled to my side and picked it up to see what came in and I saw that it was from high command, more specifically, Fleet Admiral Green. I'll admit, I was a little worried about what it could contain. James had told me that she was… difficult when it came to dealing with the kansen.

I open the message and start reading it, and a sat up more as I dug into the meat of it, apparently based on improved metrics shown by Yorktown after she begun a relationship with Captain Stennis, they want to see if the results can be duplicated. I blink a few times as I process that, it sounds like they want me to get into a relationship with a kansen. As I get to the bottom of the e-mail I see that there is an attachment, opening that I see that it's a waiver of article 134, making me exempt from it in regards to being with a subordinate. Yet it has a stipulation that requires that subordinate to be a kansen.

I let out a sigh; feeling like a weight has been lifted off of my shoulders, and one that I hadn't known had been there the entire time. But now the real question was; what am I going to do about this? I mean this is one of the strangest non-order-orders I'd ever been given. I did just have a really good dream about Hornet and I've got a good working relationship with her right now, but I also know that North Carolina has some interest; perhaps I should spend some time with her and get to know her too.

I roll onto my side and tuck back in to get some more sleep.

XXXX

XXXX

A/N: Chapter 2 down. Sorry that this one took so long to get out, I had a family medical issue crop up, and it sucked up pretty much my entire week last week. I'm just glad I had this about 75% done before this problem went down. Anyways I'm going to try and get back to my normal schedule of posting.

As an additional note, this has been cross posted for r/azurelane and the r/HornetCult