A Mistake in Judgment

Yes, dear readers, some of the lustre is at last starting rub from the diamond. Blackjack wasn't universally beloved. He had his enemies. The Marines, Admiral Owen Paris. And one other man, though at the time, he wouldn't have called himself an enemy.

Aki Nakamura held the rank of Admiral of the Fleet from 2360 until 2390. His position "on-paper" was Commander in Chief – Starfleet, more commonly known as CNC. As the highest ranking officer of Starfleet, you would think he'd have to be insane, having to juggle tactical knowledge, military planning, scientific knowledge. When I point that out to him, Aki – who wears a curt moustache of the same style worn by Yamamoto almost three centuries ago – can barely hold his laughter.

"One thing I'll tell you about the role of CNC is this. I wear Yamamoto's moustache. But my actual job was closer to that of Eisenhower. At my level, at the general staff level, the job isn't so much about managing policies as it is managing personalities. Eisenhower had to balance the brashness of Patton, the more cautious calculation of Montgomery, the delicate ego of Bradley."

"On my table, I had two sides to every argument. On one side, you'd have a group of war fighters, like Nechayev, Ross, and of course Blackjack himself. On the other, you'd have the explorers and thinkers of Paris, Haftel, Haden. And then of course T'Lara would be on the opposite side of the table, and good lord," he says to me with a smile, "If she gave you that death glare of hers, you knew it was time to stop."

How on Earth do you make sense of that? How can anyone manage something like that? Aki, to me, seemed more like a kindly old uncle than a man who had seen Starfleet through two wars intact, earning him the nickname Iron Boots. Because of the demands of his work, Aki never married and has no living relatives, but I've come to look upon him as more than a subject for my stories.

In his off duty hours, Aki coaches kids in Kendo, almost the same way he commanded Starfleet. Lighthearted nature, laughter, and the freedom to be you, but with a firm expectation of demonstrable success.

He responded by tossing me a Kendo stick and explaining his method. "The way to succeed in that position is to know how to read the room. Just like reading your opponent in a match. You make each voice feel appreciated and respected, but only within the contexts of the boundaries that you set. And once you've set that boundary, you must hold to it. If you allow even an inch of flexibility, that boundary comes tumbling straight down."

He swung, nearly hitting my nose, but held back at the last possible second, laughed yet again, and smiled. "And you can't take yourself too seriously. A well-placed joke, a lighthearted comment, that doesn't just put out the fire, it stops the tinder from ever making a spark. A lot of Academy instructors often chastise their students for being too informal, for not taking themselves seriously enough."

My Ojisan, or at least that was how he was starting to feel to me, put the Kendo sticks away, poured me another tea, and continued explaining what it took to be the CNC of Starfleet. "Hogwash, all of it. Being casual, being willing to laugh even in the toughest of situations? That doesn't undermine your authority. It strengthens it. It demonstrates that you're above giving into emotion, and that you can laugh in the face of danger. I'll say this about the Marines, if nothing else, they know that truth better than anyone. It is something Starfleet could stand to learn."

Aki-Ojisan continued his stories. Countless hours he'd spend managing the forces of nature and will at his planning table in HQ, the fights he'd had to referee. Always with a smile. It wasn't until we got the end of our talk that the smile gave away into something more troubling.

"I gave Blackjack the room to be himself because he had proven that he could get things done. Trying to control him would have been like trying to turn back a storm with a dog's leash. When I think back to those days, I realize now that was a mistake. I should have reigned him in. I should have put my foot down harder and put a stop to the whole affair right then. But I didn't. I was convinced he simply needed the time to cool his head. After all, he was barely out of his thirties when he sat down at my planning table."

Aki-Ojisan's eyes went to a dark place, as he finally told me what he'd done. "It was my idea to sign off on the title change. Discretionary Assignment. My judgment was that I'd send Blackjack back into space for a few years and put his boundless energy to work in a constructive way, building fleets and task forces. After five years or so of seasoning, I'd have sent for him once more and brought him back to the table as a more focused, more confident, and a more effective Starfleet Admiral. I was wrong about that, Kirin-chan. Sending him off without a leash, without control or accountability. A mistake in judgment. One that almost cost the Federation everything."


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