John Ringo: Against the Tide

“This is the VIP guest house,” Edmund said. “Herzer and I will be staying here. The rest of you will be at the BOQ, which is just down the road. As soon as I can find somebody to help us with our gear, you’re for there. I want you here no more than an hour after dawn, which is only a couple of hours. So the faster you get some sleep the better. But you need to be here in dress uniform and cleaned up, so figure that into your schedule.”

While he had been talking, Herzer walked to the glass-fronted doors and tried to open them, finding them locked. At that he pounded with his fist on the wood, glancing through the spaces in the frosting on the windows.

“Charge of quarter’s asleep,” Herzer said over his shoulder.

“I would be too,” Edmund said, stretching. “I’m getting too damned old for this, Herzer.”

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” a young seaman said, looking at the captain revealed in the light. “If you go waking up the admirals they’re going to be something pissed.”

“Listen you little shit-for-brains,” Herzer growled, using his hook to pick up the much smaller sailor by his collar. “If you don’t get down there and help General Talbot with his luggage, I’m going to be something pissed. And you really don’t want to see me pissed!”

“Yes, sir!” the sailor gurgled as Herzer lowered him to the ground.

“Get a detail,” Edmund corrected. “We’ve got a lot of stuff.”

“Sir… General,” the sailor said. “There’s nobody here but me for two hours, sir. Everyone else is at the barracks and…”

“Never mind,” Edmund replied with an angry sigh. “Ensigns, I’m sorry but I think you’re going to have to miss some more sleep.”

“Not a problem, sir,” Tao said. He’d been unloading their bags and he now hoisted a sea chest in one hand and a bag of armor in the other. “Where are we going, kid?”

“Upstairs to your right, sir,” the sailor said, grabbing another bag and stumbling under the weight.

Between the six of them they conveyed all the gear in one load; Herzer wasn’t the only one who had packed armor and personal weapons.

“Guys,” Edmund said. “I’ve changed my mind. Herzer and I have to be at the headquarters at dawn, you guys sleep in. Not long, be there no more than two hours after. But get some sleep, you’re going to need it.”

“Sir, we’ll be fine,” Van Krief said, squaring her shoulders. “Sir, we’re Blood Lords,” she added, sounding surprised that he’d think a two-day unstopping ride would bother them.

“Lord, to be as hard-d… core as you are, Ensign.” The general smiled. “Okay, two hours.”

“Yes, sir,” Destrang said. He was the only one of the five that still looked unrumpled by the travel, but he was sorely in need of a shave. “Let’s hope that they have a shower or something.”

“Oh, I’m sure they do,” Edmund said dryly. “I can’t imagine the Navy not having a shower in their BOQ. I’d be surprised if it was that simple.”

“Good lord,” Destrang said with a whistle, looking around the bathroom. “I need to change services!”

The officers’ bath, which the Navy insisted on calling a head, had six separate showers, a large wooden soaking tub like those found at Raven’s Mill, two separate “private” tubs that could handle three at a pinch, a wood-heated sauna and a steam room. The sauna was the only one that wasn’t currently heated and the sleepy female seaman who had greeted them had grumpily allowed that it was possible to get that heated up in about an hour.

“And this is temporary quarters,” Van Krief said, wonderingly. “For junior officers.”

“There are some commanders in the barracks,” Tao said. “While you eggheads were talking to the private I was reading the roster on the wall.” He looked around balefully and shrugged. “I’m going to take a shower.”

“Well, I’m going to take a shower and then have a soak,” Destrang said, stripping off his tunic as he headed back to his room. “There’s not enough time to bother sleeping. A twenty- or thirty-minute soak before we have to head back is just what the doctor ordered after that damned ride.”

“Can I get you anything, General?” Herzer asked as he stepped into Edmund’s room.

“Yeah, a bath like this at my damned house,” Edmund growled. “What’s your bathroom like?”

“I use the common one in the corridor, sir,” Herzer said. He was fresh from the shower and in his dress uniform. It was similar to the undress uniform except the lapels of the tunic were light blue to denote his branch of infantry. But in keeping with the situation he’d also pinned on his medals. At the top was a device like a shield pinned on the left upper breast of the kimono. Below it were four medals. The one on the uppermost row was a representation of a gold laurel. The three on the row below were a silver eagle, wings outspread, another shield formed in bronze and a pair of crossed swords. He realized with a start that he had more than Edmund and wondered if he should take some of them off. “But it was pretty nice.”

“Go look in mine,” Edmund said, shrugging into his own tunic.

Herzer had been impressed with the common bath. It had a very nice tub, a separate shower lined with tile and two porcelain basins with hot and cold running water. Not to mention a flush commode. Edmund’s put his to shame. The floor and walls were of some sort of light wood, very rich-looking. The shower was huge, lined in black marble and so large that it didn’t need a door. The bath was of some rich, dark stone he didn’t recognize and at least twice the size of the one in the common room. The sinks were made of the same smooth stone and the faucets appeared to be of pure silver. He thunked one and the sound indicated that it was. He shook his head and looked in the separate room for the commode just because he had to see. The commode was black marble and there was another device next to it the purpose of which Herzer had no clue. Ditto black marble.

“This is pretty elegant,” Herzer said when he came back in the room. Edmund had donned his tunic and elected to not wear his medals. The only thing on the tunic were four silver stars. He seemed to think that was enough.

“I don’t think that rank shouldn’t have some privileges,” Edmund said, sourly. “There has to be some reason to deal with the crappy aspects of having the responsibility. But I’ve rarely encountered a group that accepted this much ostentation that hadn’t lost sight of the point; which is to bring harm to the enemy.”

“Yes, sir,” Herzer replied, thinking of the military history he had been studying. “The Spartans and most of the Romans would certainly agree.”

“Do we kill time for an hour or go round up the ensigns and head for the headquarters early?” Edmund asked.

“Do we have transportation?” Herzer asked.

“It’s about a quarter klick to the headquarters,” Edmund replied, dryly. “I think even I can survive the walk.”

“Yes, sir,” Herzer said. “But do you think the admirals would walk?”

“Good point,” Edmund replied. “Do we just look like low-life scum if we don’t have wheels? Or do we look like hard bastards who don’t go for ostentation?”

“Both?” Herzer chuckled. “If we have wheels, we disdain them. But I don’t think there’s a coach waiting for us.”

“I should have held onto ours,” Edmund admitted. “But the driver was as tired as we were.”

“And we didn’t tell the helpful gentleman downstairs that we’d need them.”

“Go roust out the ensigns,” Edmund said after a bit. “I’ll talk to the young gentleman downstairs about finding some chow. When you’re back we’ll walk. Of course, that means that we’ll have to walk, rain or shine, from now on.”