John Ringo - To Sail a Darkling Sea

“Yes, sir,” Faith said. “Sorry about… No excuse, sir.”

“Mister Zumwald will be counseled as well,” Steve said. “At a certain point, possibly I’ll have the two of you sit down and you can give him your story of clearing the Alpha and why, particularly on this boat, automatic male dominance for the purposes of personal service triggers rather unpleasant memories.”

“Rather not explain that,” Faith said. “I can’t even talk about it with the Marines. And… If I can input on it, I’d just as well not have to deal with him again.”

“There are not many of us,” Steve said. “More, thank God, every day. But still so few. Absent throwing him off the island or, rather, on an island, you’ll have to deal with him at some point. On the subject of Captain Wilkes or any other superior… ”

“Do not undermine his authority,” Faith said.

“Except in one limited circumstance,” Steve said. “And even then, especially then, you have to be punctilious with your professional demeanor. So it is not, in fact, undermining his authority.”

“Which is?” Faith asked. “Which is, sir?”

“When you’re an instructor,” Steve said. “The fact that Captain Wilkes has not seen a live zombie since he jumped ship, by orders, from the Iwo has been brought up through other channels. He really cannot make rational judgments as to what is and is not normal and proper without some experience of the operations. He needs experience and he needs an experienced teacher… ”

“Oh, Da… ” Faith said, pleadingly. “Have Lieutenant Fontana or the Gunny… ”

“No,” Steve said. “What the Gunny and Lieutenant Fontana are going to do is give you a quick class in how to be a subordinate and an instructor. From what I’ve heard, you have it mostly down. The Marines certainly think that you’d have made a great Tactical Instructor. At least when it comes to zombie fighting. I’ll have the Gunny and Lieutenant Fontana, both of whom have experience with training more senior officers, explain to you the dos and don’ts. Then you will train Wilkes with your team back-stopping. And you will treat him with due respect. Is this understood, Lieutenant?”

“Yes, sir,” Faith said.

“Now, as to the combat shopping. Dress shopping, Faith. Seriously?”

“They were Paris originals , Da!” Faith said.

“It was my mistake using your first name,” Steve said. “In this case, again, Lieutenant, it would be ‘Captain.’ Lieutenant Chen feels that it was a serious error in judgment on your part and I cannot disagree. Not to mention the wall against infiltrating infected as we clear these ships is rather shaky. Two lapses in judgment.”

“In that case, Captain, I will repeat myself,” Faith said. “They were, and are, Paris originals. May I state my case?”

“Go ahead,” Steve said, leaning back in his chair.

“I am not sure that the argument will work,” Faith said. “But I’ll stand by it. And I’ve had time to think about this one. First, I agree that I had a lapse in judgment as well as, uhm, not sure what the right term is. But I shouldn’t have looked for a dress at that time and with my team helping me. That was sort of stupid. But I wasn’t sure that we could hold the position. As it is, I would strongly argue that we need to… word, starts with a p, means important, sort of like property… ”

“Prioritize?” Steve said.

“That one,” Faith said. “I would recommend, Captain, that we prioritize getting them out of the compartment and to a safe place.”

“They’re dresses, Faith,” Steve said. “I get that you wanted a dress… ”

“Sir, again, they are not just dresses,” Faith said, frowning. “I don’t know how to explain it. Maybe… Money terms? The dress that I grabbed, on the rack, in a store, would run thirty thousand dollars, sir.”

“Ouch,” Steve said.

“Now you’re getting it, Da,” Faith said with a grin. “We never could have afforded these for prom. That container contains several million dollars worth of clothing. And it’s more than that, sir. I guess it’s an MWR issue. But all the clothes we’ve got are either slops that were from infecteds or pulled off of salvage or uniforms. Pretty… matters to a woman. Just about any woman. The reason we propped the door the way we did was to keep the infected from screwing up, like, the last pretty thing in the world, sir. Those are the last Paris originals anyone will probably ever see. I… I don’t know how to put it any better, sir. A woman would understand, sir. But everybody in my chain of command is a guy. No offense.”

“Not quite,” Steve said, thoughtfully. “Stand by.”

He leaned up and toggled his computer to video then hit the link to the Dallas .

“ Dallas , retrans to the Hole, personal for General Brice.”

“Roger, Squadron, stand by.”

“Captain,” Brice said, nodding. “How’s the clearance going?”

“Nominal,” Steve said. “It helps having Marines, that’s for sure. Still not finding many survivors but there’s always hope.”

“Is it going to affect your primary mission?” Brice asked.

“We’ve got the time,” Steve said. “It’s clear these or continue clearance at sea until the tropicals pass. If we’d left for Gitmo instead of Tenerife when we left… ”

“I’ve seen the satellite imagery,” Brice said. “You’d be getting pounded.”

“We’ll leave this area late November for Gitmo, General,” Steve said. “But that wasn’t the reason for the call.”

“And the reason for the call is?” General Brice asked.

“I have a potential discipline issue which overlaps with personal and I need both a more experienced professional’s opinion and, sorry, a woman’s,” Steve said. “Fortunately… ”

“I’m both,” Brice said, chuckling. “Personal?”

“My daughter, Faith, took time out during a mission to secure a container that contained what she states is valuable material,” Steve said. “She also put her Marines somewhat at risk both securing the materials and finding some for herself.”

“That’s… not good,” Brice said, shaking her head. “You don’t put your people at risk for personal gain.”

“She agrees that her actions at the time were… poor judgment,” Steve said. “But to prevent the materials from being damaged by the infected she also elected to weaken the defenses. The container was being used to block the pier we’re holding and she had the Marines brace the outer door to keep the infecteds out of the container. Bracing the inner door would have made it functionally impossible for them to get onto the wharf, but also would have allowed them access to the container.”

“Tell her what it was,” Faith hissed.

Steve waved for her to be silent.

“I’ve seen the satellite imagery,” Brice said. “We were wondering why you’d done it that way. That had better be some pretty important material.”

“Well, that’s the question, General,” Steve said. “It sort of hinges on that. It was dresses.”

“Dresses?” Brice said, shaking her head. “I didn’t think Faith was a shopaholic, Captain.”

“Tell her what kind!” Faith hissed.

“Faith is present and insists that I point out that they were Paris originals,” Steve said.

“WHAT?” Brice said, leaning forward in her chair and grabbing the monitor. “ What kind ?”

“Yves Saint Laurent!” Faith said, jumping up and leaning around to crane her head in front of the camera. “They’re, like, gorgeous !”

“How many?” Brice asked.

“A whole container full!” Faith said.