Chapter 07 The aftermath
PASTOR OCTAVIAN'S OFFICE
USS WISCONSIN
There was a large group assembled, too large to fit in the office. Octavian left the doors open and out in the corridor were more crew waiting. He looked around and said, "I know why you are all here, and thank you. Let's all kneel by the walls, to stay out of the way of other crewmembers coming by. Let us pray." Octavian knelt and they all started praying for the meeting. All felt it was going to be another battle.
BASE COMMANDER'S OFFICE
STARBASE 5
STARDATE 6328.5
Jacobs, Leonaidas, and Hotchner walked into the office. Opposite were Jackson, Morrow, and Stevens. The mood was quiet. After a short time Admirals Adama and Clayborne walked in. Adama sat behind his desk, Clayborne sat down beside it facing the two crews.
Clayborne started off, "I declare Excalibur the winner by way of disqualification."
Adama shot right back hitting the record button, "Starbase 5 commander's log, Stardate 6328.5. I am in a meeting with Admiral Clayborne, Senior officers of Excalibur and Wisconsin. Admiral, everyone, I'm recording this proceeding as I see it to be a hostile meeting. Please repeat Admiral Clayborne."
Clayborne was unphased, "Excalibur won. Wisconsin is disqualified."
This surprised everyone, including Jackson. Jackson did not like Jacobs, but his dislike for Clayborne was growing by the day. To be fair, Wisconsin won the game.
Adama turned, "That's not how I see it, sir."
Clayborne said, "Wisconsin cheated. It's simple. They used a false emergency to get people off the ship."
Hotchner handed a pad over to Jacobs and Jacobs asked, "Permission to speak sir."
Clayborne said, "Denied."
Jackson thought that this was out of order. Adama sternly said, "That is out of order Admiral and you know it, go on Captain Jacobs."
"According to regulations for wargames, and here is the relevant passage, any means of deception is allowed on simulated enemy ships." Jacobs handed over the pad.
Adama took it and looked it over. Its sad, but Jacobs came well prepared. Jacobs correctly identified that he was going to have two engagements. One in space and one legal. Adama handed it to Clayborne, who took it and started reading.
Clayborne retorted, "That doesn't include warp core breaches. You don't mess around with that."
Jacobs pointed out, "Not so, fifty years ago, the USS Silversides faked a warp core breach to cause a simulated enemy ship to flee, temporarily taking away a tactical advantage. It's at the end of the report."
Clayborne shot back, "Maybe so, I'll review it, but you don't fake warp core breaches, it's nothing to play with."
Jacobs shook his head, "Almost a hundred years ago, Captain Archer faked a breach on the original Enterprise, NX-01 to escape pursuing Suliban. That technique is taught at the academy."
Clayborne sat still for a minute. Jackson had to admit that it was a good ploy, but he was going to keep his mouth shut. Right now, he might avoid getting a bad mark on his record. Clayborne tried to change the subject, "Captain Jacobs, I understand by your report that you didn't use your prime people in main spots? Why?"
Jacobs explained, "I saw this exercise as a chance to give some of the crew some valuable experience. They needed to perform under pressure, and so I chose the highest-pressure spots to be filled by people with little or no battle experience. I needed to know if these people could perform under pressure."
Clayborne asked, "But what if they failed? You would have lost the wargame and it be entered on your record."
Jacobs said evenly, "Sir, we all know that the Wisconsin group won the wargame, and I'm still here defending myself from having a mark on my record."
Jackson clearly saw what was going on, and now he was revolted by his part. Clayborne said, "Why would you risk a second-rate engineer to simulate a warp core breach? What if she made a mistake?"
Jacobs looked at Clayborne directly in the eye, "Ensign Kelly is not a second-rate engineer. She is a warp-field specialist. She does tests on the warp core all the time and knows her way around them like the back of her hand. In a way, she was the perfect one to send over."
Clayborne shot back, "Then why didn't she have the right tools, for instance a placement arm long enough to reach up to the sensors in the chamber?"
Jacobs explained, never breaking eye contact, "With deference to Captain Jackson, Excalibur had a modification that wasn't in our database, probably because they were pushed out of spacedock early. For whatever reason, our database didn't have the modification in it, so Ensign Kelly adapted and came up with another way to accomplish the simulated breach."
Clayborne raised his voice, "By crawling in the chamber herself, a risky process in and of itself."
Jacobs explained, "She did the proper safeguards, the risk was minimal."
Clayborne pressed, "Would you expect her to climb up in it?"
Jacobs kept his eye on the Admiral, "I would not have planned for her to do that. Had we known about the modifications, we would have the right tooling for the operation…"
Clayborne interrupted, "There, her actions were not authorized."
Jacobs kept his eyes on Clayborne, "Admiral, I did not say that, and this is for the record. I authorize her actions and commend her initiative. That is exactly what Starfleet expects from its officers. She realized the whole operation relied on her not only getting those transducers placed, but within a minute."
Leonaidas corrected, "Actually, it was 75 seconds."
Jacobs admitted, "75 seconds, so she had an additional 15 seconds to come up with an alternate plan and execute it. I not only think it's commendable, but astonishing."
Clayborne stated, "She contaminated the chamber. It will take more than a day to clean. That violates your 24-hour limit. If Captain Jackson wants to bring a complaint on that, I can disqualify you on that."
Jacobs held Clayborne's gaze, "That is Captain Jackson's call. I will not hang out one of my crew for action that I believe not only was a key to the operation, but if this were a real battle, she would have saved the ship. She did exactly what she needed to do, and I support it. If she marked up the interior too much for a 24 hr repair limit, so be it. In a real battle, she would not be concerned about marking up the interior of the chamber. Before you go on, what do the cargo vessels think about the exercise?"
Clayborne was silent, this Jacobs in infuriating. Adama spoke up, "I think Captain Shoron's report says it all. To quote:
'I entered this exercise with my typical skeptical manner. This wargame was as unrealistic as all the others. Starfleet expects to confine this to within the system. They further disallowed warp drive. So now we are basically cannon fodder to the attacking vessel. Why should we not use warp drive? Why is the exercise done at the end of the system? Truth be known, we would warp right from orbit, in fact once released, we warped away from the system immediately. We would not wait around to be ambushed. Also, if we made it to the end of the system with an able enemy behind us, we are still fighting for our lives.
'With this skepticism, I was introduced to Captain Jacobs. Most of the other Captains I've been involved with play the game to win the game, Jacobs offered us an alternative ending that was realistic. We all saw the ending as survivable, which is all that counts to us. It was marvelous to see that there was a Captain in Starfleet that was interested not in winning, but surviving.
'I have never been in a wargame where we didn't lose some cargo ships. My complements to the Wisconsin.' Sounds like to me that the Wisconsin won. The warp breach issue is according to rules. No rules were broken."
Clayborne said, "But Kelly contaminated the chamber, it will take a day to clean it out before they can use it. I said only 24 hours for repair. If Captain Jackson wants to lodge a complaint, I'll entertain it for disqualification."
Jackson was watching and saw exactly what game Jacobs had played. He had to admit that it was the correct play. He also realized that he made this game personal, which you are not supposed to do. Jackson had hoped to skate without saying a word, his attitude changed from twelve hours ago. Looking at Morrow, he could tell Paul was thinking the same thing. If roles were reversed, he doubted if he could have done better, and that was a tough thing to admit. Jacobs' style of leadership was different than his, and maybe Jackson could adapt some of it to him. That was what the real purpose of wargames is, to learn.
Jackson could tell all eyes were on him. "I said it will take a day, and the chamber will be ready in 24 hours. There was no violation of rules in my judgement."
Clayborne was aghast. He expected Jackson to drag his feet, slow things down, make the repair longer than 24 hours. "Captain, are you sure you want to do that?"
Jackson looked at Clayborne, "Admiral, my estimate to you was a day. If Matthews is worth his salt, he will have it done in time. In fact, let me check." He defiantly flipped open his communicator, "Jackson to Commander Matthews."
Matthew's voice came through, "Matthews here, sir."
"How long for the dilithium chamber to be cleaned?"
Matthew's cockney accent answered, "Oooo, better part of a day, sir. Is there a problem?"
Jackson, having to choose to be truthful, went all in. He eyed Admiral Clayborne angrily while he gave the order, "Yes, there is, make it 20 hours."
Matthew's answered back, "We'll get right on it sir, 20 hours no problem."
Jackson finished, "Thank you Mr. Matthews, Jackson out." Looking back at Adama, Jackson stated, "Excalibur will be ready in 20 hours for orders. I believe my original orders were to be attached out of Starbase 5."
Adama looked at him back. "They are, Captain. Admiral Clayborne, if there is nothing further, Wisconsin is the winner and this meeting is over."
Clayborne stood, "Jackson, Jacobs, I'll be watching both of you. You'd better keep your noses clean." He turned and stormed out the doors.
Adama watched him leave, then said, "Starbase 5 commander's log, continuing, this entire meeting is to be sent to Admirals Warren and Nogura." Pushing the record button off, he turned to the Captains, "Captain Jacobs, Captain Jackson, anything the two of you want to say to each other?"
The two Captains looked at each other, Jacobs being first to say something, "Captain Jackson, I apologize for all the damage to your ship. If your crew needs help…."
Jackson raised his hand, "I understand Captain, it's not a problem. I see what our real problem is now. I'm sorry for being a jerk earlier. What happened between you and Dan Hammel?"
Jacobs stated, "As I said before, and I urge you to check the logs, I wasn't even in the area. It would take a day to get to him, and a day to the starliner. He wasn't in an emergency condition, and could last more than long enough for help to get to him. It wasn't like he was in a lifeboat."
Jackson nodded his head, "Dan said that he felt like he was going to be attacked any moment."
Jacobs replied, "Well, if he was attacked, there was nothing I could have done anyway for a day. My sense was that since the Pirates left him, they wouldn't come back again. The threat left. I however had a bonafide emergency on the Tahitii."
Jackson smiled, "I agree, I probably would have done the same. I'm sorry about pressing you on that. Captain, congratulations on a good game." Jackson reached out his hand.
Jacobs shook it, "Thank you, and please call me Josh."
Jackson replied, "Hank. My officers Paul and Chris."
Jacobs introduced his officers. Jackson asked, "Joshua Jacobs? Anyone call you JJ?"
Jacobs shook his head, "No, that's the nickname of our head of Communications. My initials would be JJJ."
Jackson laughed, "Another J?"
Leonaidas quipped, "His parent's typewriter got stuck."
Adama said, "I like my Captains to work with each other. Glad the two of you kissed and made up. Hank, let me know when you're ready for inspection. Josh, time for you to get out there."
All the men came to attention and said, "Aye aye, sir."
Adama finished, "Dismissed."
BRIEFING ROOM
IKV KLOLODE
Kang walked into the briefing room and sat down at his chair. He looked to his wife, who also was his first officer and said, "Report."
Mara started, "We've analyzed the data you gave us, and are prepared to report in each area. We'll go around section by section starting with me as deep background. Commander USS Wisconsin is Joshua Jeremiah Jacobs. In their language, all names begin with the same character."
Kang asked, "Any significance?"
Mara answered, "No, beyond perhaps a family joke or something. Captain Jacobs was a DERF class tender captain."
Kang thought a bit. Tender captains, always outgunned. Out of necessity they learned to defeat enemies of superior firepower. The weak died quickly with a whole crew or ran like cowards. The strong survive. Strange to see a Klingon proverb be shown in Starfleet's history. "Do we know his record as a tender captain?"
Mara nodded, "Yes, we do, he had several engagements with Klingons, fought honorably. Numerous periods of his record are also blacked out."
Kang asked, "Blacked out?"
Mara pointed out, "We got most of his service record through declassified Federation documents. They hand it to us printed out, with classified sections colored in black so we can't read them. We know that there is more, even where there is more, but not what it is. It is their law on how they declassify documents."
Kang shook his head, "Strange, go on."
Mara continued, "We are trying to illuminate those blacked out periods with our own records. I am working with navigation to try to reconstruct where he was during those blacked out periods and if we had any action. So far, we think that he has engaged in at least two classified actions. Both he has defeated us. There are probably more. From what I see, this Captain has an honorable battle history that is not to be underestimated. This may have been an influence on his ship design. There was another event in his life that is significant. Just out of the academy, he had an emergency flying a Raptor where he had to land the craft with no power."
Kang nodded, "Impressive. I remember those Raptors."
Mara continues, "It's more than that. It was a training exercise, everyone lived, he was decorated for the landing because it was an extremely difficult landing. They should have died."
Kang mentioned, "Only the strong survive."
Mara sat down, "Exactly. Engineering?"
The engineer gave his report, and they went around the table detailing what they discovered about the Wisconsin. All this reinforced what Kang thought of the ship. This was not a ship to be trivialized, Starfleet really outdid themselves on this one. He was also looking into the eyes of his warriors, he did not see the typical Klingon arrogance, but Kang had worked on that already. What he did see was very interesting. All were very cautious. His warriors respected the Wisconsin and known crew before even meeting them in battle. When he got to his head of infantry, there was a very interesting response.
"Kang, their security staff is unlike anything we have come across."
Kang expected this, but it would be interesting to see what his officer found out. "How so?"
The infantry officer said, "These are not normal Starfleet security personnel. As we have found out over the years, Starfleet's security personnel have gotten progressively softer. Once they disbanded their Marines, their focus on training has been almost been like a police state. These security types go back to Earth's history on elite forces."
Kang did not quite understand, "How do you mean?"
The officer explained, "Starting about three hundred years ago, some military forces on earth realized that they needed some specialized training. Because of a lack of resources, including men, only a few were trained, fewer passed. The Starfleet Marines of almost a twenty years ago were descendants of them. If we look back at our own history of the Klingon – Federation war, those Marines were formidable. I looked back at a lot of conflicts, known tactics, procedures, so forth. I would look at each of these 'Badgers' as definitely equal to one of us. Perhaps equal to one of the Emperor's guard."
One of the other officers said, "Surely not!"
The infantry officer said, "I'm giving you my assessment. One thing I've always admired about Starfleet is their training. Years ago, the Marines worked on toughening."
An officer said, "We do to. Physically, we are superior."
The infantry officer continued, "Undoubtedly, but don't consider these humans as weak. Each one of these 'Badgers' has been pushed beyond their normal limit. They have either learned or had in them not to quit. They will perform above that of a normal human easily. Also, their conditioning is mental as well, which we've relied on cultural conditioning. Each one of us has experienced the first time going into mortal battle. Our toughening starts as a child because our culture does that. That is why we don't experience the fear of battle that other species do."
The first officer said, "But they don't have that warrior culture."
The infantry officer said, "Not from a child, but they do an excellent job of instilling it in their Marines of years ago, and the 'Badgers' of today. The Executive officer of the ship is a former Starfleet Marine. He personally selected the head of Security. They also went to a country on their world that still practices this warrior culture training and trained the 'Badgers' there. That is what I mean by elite. DO NOT EXPECT these men to cower in fear or run when you do your battle cry or charge them. They will instinctively react and kill you on the spot as you attack."
The engineering officer scoffed, "Never."
The infantry officer said, "That attitude will get you killed because of overconfidence. I cannot stress this enough. If you go in expecting them to be like Emperor Elite, you will be very well prepared. If you go in thinking you will cause them to cringe in terror when you charge, you could end up with a knife in your gut. That is my report."
Kang learned a lot, he had only one question, "What is this 'Badgers' you keep saying?"
The infantry officer apologized, "Sorry, Kang. 'Badgers' are an animal native to the area of land that the ship is named after. It lives in the ground, is a fearsome animal, especially when cornered. The humans treat badgers with great respect, because even though the mass of one is significantly less than a human, it can kill one quickly and with great surprise."
Kang nodded his understanding. "I will make a statement to the crew later, but I want each of you to reinforce this to your divisions: I want you all to think of these 'Badgers' as Emperor Elite. You will drill appropriately. Do we have pictures of them?"
The infantry officer nodded and pushed a few buttons. Some photos came up from the hearings on the Wisconsin. They showed Badgers in battle gear with various weapons. "Note the body armor. It will be difficult to use Bat'leths on them. Also, the helmet contains a communication and targeting system. They also have the capability of carrying a wide variety of weapons, including explosive traps. If you are giving chase, expect the passage to be mined. That happened on the Norsican station."
Kang suddenly thought of a question that he was trying to form for a long time. "We physically are like Norsicans. They are no match for us of course, but more than a match for a human. That raid on the Norsican station, what was the casualty ratio?"
The infantry officer said, "I was interested in that myself, and it was difficult to estimate exact numbers. They landed two groups of six Badgers. They rescued four hostages from their maximum-security area, including a Senator that was being personally guarded. They either killed or injured at least twenty Norsicans. Their internal sensor data was unable to establish that any better. No Badger losses."
The engineer was amazed, "My apologies Kang for my arrogance. I will make sure my division is ready."
Kang looked around, "Very well, let me know if anything comes up concerning the Wisconsin. One more important piece of information you should be aware of is that we have reason to believe that there is Black Fleet operating in the area. Treat any anomalous sensor readings as possible unauthorized cloaked ships, inform me immediately. To the Empire!"
"To the Empire!"
IKV TERROR
SYSTEM NGC-1789
Commander Cern slowed to impulse. They could see Kruge's ship close to port, cloaked. You could see a cloaked ship with difficulty if you knew what to look for. The cloaking device bent light around the ship making the ship invisible. Ideally. In practical experience, you cannot bend light precisely, so what the effect becomes is to make the ship look like a glob of water. You could see a shimmering, distorting effect on the stars behind the ship, and see the ship. If the cloaked ship got close, like Kruge was now, you could make out the outline.
It made for interesting tactics. A cloaked ship tried to make sure it' fight didn't occur near a planet, or any large object. Often, this was not practical, so you made sure you never moved between the target and planet. You also tried to keep your relative motion to a minimum. Heavy maneuvering would betray your position if an enemy was using a thermo scan, because your thrusters and impulse engines outputted more heat than the cloaking system could mask, and you would leave a trail of hot gas. That could be bad only if you were dumb. But some commanders thought that cloak meant invisible. Good ones never thought that.
Cern had not made up his mind on Kruge yet. He was a typical Klingon commander. Arrogant, brutal, and usually right. The third quality made it difficult to approach him with suggestions. Kruge's voice came over the subspace radio. "Move toward that asteroid field off our bow. Stay there until I call for you. You can use sensors, just don't go anywhere."
Cern asked, "What do you want me to do in the meantime?"
Kruge's angry voice said, "I don't care. Chart all the rocks around you, test them, whatever. Just stay there until I call you. Do not acknowledge anyone else."
Cern asked, "What about the fleet?"
Kruge cut him off, "ESPECIALLY THE FLEET! No one is to know we are here until we are done. Now go!"
Cern ordered 1/3 impulse to go to the asteroid field. Strange, be on radio silence but radiate sensors. Anyone within a light year will pick up the sensors. Why not talk to them?
SENATOR JAMESON'S QUARTERS
TAHITI CRUISE SHIP
ON COURSE FOR EARTH
Senator Jameson was on his balcony enjoying the simulated sun sipping a Mai-Tai wanting to get drunk for the night. The Tahiti was a wonder of modern engineering. A very large ship to be sure, it was at least five times larger than any Starfleet ship out there. The ship was roughly cylindrical, with the Bridge and ship's offices up front, engineering in back, and passenger staterooms in the middle. He was on a balcony overlooking the atrium that ran down the inside of the ship. The 'ground level' was a very large pool with appropriate groundskeeping around it. There were five levels on either side of the pool that went all the way down the ship. It also had sufficient palm trees, flora, and fauna to block a clear view from one side of the area from the other. Across the ceiling, was a very cleverly engineered series of lenses and lights to give the impression of natural, sun-lit sky. The 'sun' would cast light at the proper angle for the time of day throughout the whole atrium. Someone lying beside the pool in one of the various tanning areas would see a sun rise in the morning on the bow end of the atrium, and move throughout the sky toward the stern of the ship for a realistic sunset. All this without being able to focus on the ceiling. This first-class stateroom suite included at the back end a very large transparent aluminum picture window to the outside. Standing in front of the window, you had an unparalleled view of the stars gliding by while the ship was at warp. A short elevator ride down (or stairs if you wanted the exercise) was a private greeting room to the hallway connecting to the rest of the ship. This is the only way to travel long distances.
Jameson, of course did not know how this all worked, and could care less. Right now, he had a first-class stateroom overlooking a sizeable portion of the pool, and with the design of the ship, nobody can look into his stateroom. It was virtually private. He took a long swig of his Mai-Tai. Without any of his staff around, he considered that he was roughing it. He had to go to the onboard store and buy his clothing himself. Royal Polynesian Cruise Lines went all out accommodating this passage. They bumped a first-class booking back one level. Then they had to bump a booking from that level to class 3, where there was an opening. Nobody was happy, and a lot of free amenities later, the situation was palatable to the inconvenienced parties.
A beep sounded on his datapad. It had a Starfleet emblem on it, Admiral Adama outfitted him with the basics until Jameson's office could get him equipped. Jameson picked up the pad and read the message.
TO: Senator Charles Jameson
FROM: Ensign Joseph Kenn, USS WISCONSIN
Stardate 6329.1
Dear Uncle Charles,
Thank you for getting me posted to the Wisconsin, I'm settling in nicely. We had an exercise today and I think I'm going to enjoy the new posting. Hope you are doing well. Joseph
NOTE: attachment included
Jameson opened the attachment. It read:
UNCLE, GLAD YOU WERE TAKEN CARE OF HEADING BACK TO EARTH. YOU PROBABLY ALREADY KNOW THIS, THE WISCONSIN WAS INVOLVED IN AN UNCLASSIFIED WARGAME WITH NUMEROUS CIVILIAN SHIPS. THE LIST OF CIVILIAN SHIPS IS INCLUDED AT THE END OF THIS MESSAGE. I WAS ON SHIP #1 WITH CAPTAIN SHORON. WHEN HE FILES HIS REPORT, YOU MAY WANT TO READ IT, I THINK IT WILL BE INTERESTING.
ADMIRAL CLAYBORNE ISN'T PLEASED WITH THE OUTCOME. WISCONSIN WON. I'M NOT SURE WHAT ELSE YOU WANT, BUT THAT'S WHAT I HAVE. TAKE CARE, JOE
Jameson tossed the pad to the side. He needs some good information; his nephew's message does not have any good information. Jameson knew all this already, having been informed by Clayborne in an earlier message. He will follow up on the freighter captain reports, maybe Joe is trying to sneak some information there. No telling. Overall, the message is a disappointment. Well, Jameson's nephew will probably get the hang of it later.
CAPTAIN'S READY ROOM
USS WISCONSIN
Jacobs read Kenn's message. There was a beep and Jacobs said "Come in."
Kenn came in and stood in front of the desk. Jacobs motioned, "Please, sit down."
Kenn did, Jacobs said, "I just read your message."
Kenn shifted, "What did you think, sir?"
Jacobs asked, "Before I say, explain yourself."
Kenn started, "I simply let him know about already declassified information. The reason I pointed him toward Captain Shoron's report is because I know he will speak favorably of you."
Jacobs said, "He did. Go on."
Kenn continued, "I gave him as much as I felt that still stayed in Starfleet guidelines. It's going to be difficult to continue to give him messages that say nothing. Did I overstep the boundary?"
Jacobs thought a minute. "I think you came dangerously close to going over the edge."
Kenn asked, "How so?"
Jacobs said, "Your guideline is whatever is declassified. Anything that the Cargo captains know is by definition not classified. Your position on ship #1 is not classified, but personnel positioning could be difficult to explain. In the past many officers have been in trouble because of simply letting their loved ones know which battlefield they were on, or where their ship was, or whatever. I don't think it's going to be a problem, but be very careful in the future. Second is the information on Admiral Clayborne not being happy about the outcome. How did you get that information?"
"We could hear that over the channel at the end of the game. He clearly wasn't happy."
"Over a Starfleet channel, during a Starfleet exercise."
Kenny saw what the point was. Jacobs continued, "I think you're going to be fine on this, mainly because freighter captains love to gossip. It will be all over subspace that Clayborne wasn't happy, and it will be traced back to them, not you. But you don't want that kind of trouble."
Kenn nodded, "I see what you mean. Sir."
Jacobs explained, "Mr. Kenn, I'm telling you this not to come down on you, but to help you out. You are dealing with a person that is extremely ruthless, vindictive, and totally self-centered. He will sink you the moment you are no longer a use to him, being a blood relative will not help you."
Kenn asked, "Thank you sir. If I may ask sir?"
Jacobs nodded. Kenn continued, "In the future, can I ask you to look at the messages for problems?"
Jacobs thought a minute. One way to think is how this is going to look when it all comes out. So, the Captain of the ship editing a secret message between a crewmember to a government official? Well, he has the authority to make sure ALL communication is according to regulations anyway. If censorship comes up, the regulations fall on his side. If the issue of intentional misdirection comes up? How will that play?
No, better to keep it simple. Here is a kid put in an impossible situation with forces he really does not understand. He is asking for help from his Captain. If I say I am behind the kid, how can I say no? "Mr. Kenn, what if I say yes?"
Kenn thought about what the Captain was saying, "I'd appreciate it sir. I am trying to prove to you that I'm not going behind your back."
Jacobs asked simply, "I understand that. If I say yes, will you listen to me? Even if it sounds too cautious?"
Kenn nodded, "Absolutely sir, I appreciate you allowing me to try to stay on my uncle's good graces."
Jacobs said, "It's the least I can do. I'll be happy to help your editing. How is your settling in to the Wisconsin family?"
Kenn was surprised. "Going well. The Badgers are a very welcoming group. It's something I didn't expect. I expected them to be aloof, reserved, even suspicious. They have been very welcoming."
Jacobs added, "It's one of their characteristics. You also have Mr. Teal'c to thank on that. He told everyone about your rescue. He told them what you went through. That you used your training to survive, to help. Also, that you were willing to sacrifice yourself for the rest of the group."
Kenn, remembering the horror, said quietly, "I was."
Jacobs finished, "They see that. It's an important quality to have. Welcome aboard, Mr. Kenn." Jacobs stood and reached out his hand.
Kenn stood and shook it starting to tear up with all the memories of that near death time coming back, "Thank you sir."
Jacobs said, "Have you talked with Pastor Octavian?"
Kenn said, "We had a couple of long talks on shore leave. He has something I need."
Jacobs nodded, "Good, find out what it is, then possess it. Dismissed."
Kenn turned and left. Jacobs thought that the boy had promise. The door chimed again and Jacobs said, "Come."
Leonaidas entered, "Did it go well?"
Jacobs nodded, "Yes, it did."
Leonaidas and Jacobs sat down on opposite sides of the desk. Jacobs poured them both coffee and handed a cup to Leonaidas. "Thanks, Josh. How did he do?"
Jacobs said, "Pretty good for a kid in way over his head. Minor hiccups, but nothing serious. He's still concerned about trying to make this look to his uncle like he's cooperating."
Leonaidas said, "He's still trying to stay in his Uncle's good graces?"
Jacobs nodded while sipping his cup, "And he hasn't figured out yet that there is no way for him to do that."
END PART 1
