All That Glitters Ch. 53

"Shuttles moving from the Djinaëte ship," the Tac O called out. "They are heading to the planet."

"Comms?" Beauchene asked.

"Nothing specific ma'am," Comms replied. "Planetary Control is not upset by their activity, which indicates that they probably have their assent, though I didn't hear any transmissions of that nature."

"Probably a tight beam transmission because of the mini fleet," Wedam speculated.

"Sharon?" Beauchene asked of her human Science O.

"It takes these kinds of shuttles, forty minutes to descend to the planet ma'am," Sharon replied. "Their large cargo shuttles are not as maneuverable as ours. I give them forty minutes to descend, an hour to unload and reload for passengers, two hours for freight, and another forty minutes to return to the ship.

"This size of ship will have plenty of shuttles to throw at the planet so we can speculate that they will only use one pass to do their thing. Once they are completed, they will likely jump to the next location on their list, Captain."

"So, three to possibly four hours from now?" Beauchene demanded.

"I believe so ma'am,," Sharon replied. "This size of ship tends to have a shitload of shuttles. They have sent down 142 large shuttles to the planet, that's less than half of the numbers I have seen from this class. There does not appear to be more leaving the ship, so once these are retrieved, the ship will likely leave. It will depend on how efficient the ground crews are on planet, Sir."

"Sir, we are getting interesting readings from the comet," Wedam called out. "It has a heavy metal core which is surrounded by dusty ice, giving it the appearance of a normal comet. However, there are plenty of interesting heavy metals including gold, platinum, transuranics, iron, and other trace elements."

"Good, we can send that information to Summit Raddon after this event. She might appreciate receiving it. OK people, we watch and wait. Our main interest is to monitor the mini fleet. The Djinaëte ship does not seem to be interested in us. Once that ship leaves, we can anticipate the mini fleet going its way as well.

"Comms, keep a close eye out for anything coming from the planet to the mini fleet. If nothing else, it will give us a location planet side to keep track of. Keep track of anything coming in our direction.

"Kayman, I need sleep. I leave the bridge to you." Beauchene leaned in to talk quietly to her counterpart. "Our people, both of our peoples, know their jobs. Let them do it. You just keep an eye and ear open to what they are doing. They will inform you of anything important. However, if you are curious, you can ask questions. Learning is what you are here for after all.

"Keep everything on passive scans except for infrequent scans of the comet. I want the Djinaëte ship to think our scanners are not as good as theirs are. You have the experience now to do this on your own. I expect you to be true to Navy traditions," Beauchene gave her a wry smile as the Asocans were still finding out what their traditions were.

Kayman gave Beauchene the circular nod of the head that meant assent to an Asocan. She settled in on her tail as Beauchene left the bridge. She was speculating on her actions toward the human in charge of the ship.

It was becoming painfully clear that despite her rank, she was the superior in tactics, in understanding the ship itself, and in understanding the crew and their needs which, surprisingly, included the Asocan part of the crew.

Kayman had come to this little ship not understanding what her role was. She was a Gurd. She should be in charge of a larger ship. But she was now starting to understand why she was here. She needed to understand the dynamics of leadership and control of vessels as capable as the human ships, even the smaller ones. These small fast ships were ideal to teach and learn that.

Yes, she was a Gurd, but the Lieutenant was by far the more superior commander on this ship. She could, and was now determined to, learn as much as she could from this tiny ship and its captain.

Crew came in to swap out those on the boards. Normally a ship of this size only carried a crew of fifteen, but this ship had extra berths available, just so that they could do extended sneak and peak operations. Kayman was beginning to appreciate that.

The Asocan Grimn (Navy Lieutenant), Kallic Mutt Simit, came and sat beside Gurn Kayman. "Are you remaining on shift, Gurn?" she asked.

"I am. I will give you the handover brief just to familiarize myself with the procedures," Kayman insisted. She explained the situation as Kallic looked at the monitors and watched the crew change shift and settle into the boards.

"Thank-you, Gurn. If you do not need me here, I will sit tactical," Kallic informed Kayman.

"Before you sit tactical, what is your impression of the humans?" Kayman asked quietly.

"They know their business," Kalli replied. "Their training methods are brutal, but I must admit I have learned more working with them in three months than I have working in space for four years. Asocans do not believe that the elite must know of or learn what it is like for the crew to do their jobs, where the humans insist that all leaders must know what they are asking their crew members to do when they give an order.

"I have crawled through the bowels of four classes of ships now, including this one. I have seen the ships from one end to the other, from the senior ranks to the lowest crew member. Humans do this routinely, their officers learning all this as part of their basic training as officers and repeating it frequently as they rise in rank and change ships. Our people do not.

"Our officers do not understand what we are asking our crews to do and often do not realize how much effort is needed to complete a task. We tend to get rather annoyed with our people when they do not complete their tasks as we expect. But then, our expectations are somewhat coloured.

"I have a new appreciation of the work our crew do, something I would not have learned otherwise. Did I enjoy crawling in the muck of the ships? No...but I learned valuable lessons there, lessons I will not soon forget. I have a much greater appreciation for the expectations of work for the crew.

"In my opinion, the humans make excellent allies. They keep us informed, they train us up to their standards, not ours. They have expectations of each level of rank and expect those who have achieved them to carry those expectations with them and to begin immediately to train themselves up to the next rank level.

"A new officer on a new ship type, will learn that ship type from the bowels up, just so that he/she knows what to expect from the crew. No human officer will say that something can or cannot be done if they have not done it themselves.

"Our Navy does not do this. Our Navy trains our officers and crew members individually, not as a group, this means integrating into a team can be difficult. Our Navy trains our officers and crew separately, not as a tandem team, which means that our officers have little to no idea of what to actually expect from our crew.

Our Navy makes expectations of ranks and then throws those expectations out the nearest port when a new officer attains his position. Our ships are disjointed between the officers and crew. The officers cannot appreciate what the crew does, in the way we who have gone through the human training can. Our Navy simply does not have that experience.

"But then, our Navy does not have FTL capable ships. Our Navies are limited to the solar system they were created in. We can always go to port whenever we need to. The humans plan for extended time away from port and work the shifts accordingly." Kallic finished.

"You are correct," Kayman admitted. "We will, of course, have to adjust our shifts to the benefit of our Asocan physiology, which does not match that of the humans. We do not need to sleep as regularly as they do. Yes, the humans make excellent allies and, having seen how they fight, I am glad of this.

"Humans do not fight like we Asocans do. They fight to win by any means, including the use of nuclear weapons," Kayman noted.

"I once heard a human tell his Byandi counterpart that humans fight to ensure that their enemies never have the opportunity to came back at them a second time. They fight all out and brutally," Kallic shuddered as she informed her superior. "We should do all we can to keep them as allies."

That got a circular nod from Kayman as Kallic slipped down beside the Tac O, just in front of the Captain's Dias. Kayman kept an ear on them as the human Tac O gave Kallic advice and instructions on different tactical scenarios. Even at the Tac O's level, which was a Sub-Lieutenant, the disparity in quality was obvious between the two teams. Kallic was listening and learning. Kayman decided she could do no less.

The remainder of the shift was uneventful. The new shift came on just as the Djinaëte ship was jumping out of the system. Lt. Beauchene returned with the new shift to receive the hand over brief from Kayman.

"I wish to apologise to you for the manner in which I have treated you, Lieutenant," Kayman said quietly to Beauchene. "I was upset by the fact that you are very much my subordinate in rank, yet my superior by position, appointment, and experience. This did not sit well with me.

"I have since had the opportunity to watch you in action as a ship's captain. I find no fault with your abilities and I am surprised that you are not of higher rank. I have realized, Lieutenant, that I still have much to learn about running an FTL capable ship.

"From now on, I will continue to make your day miserable by questioning everything that you do, Lieutenant, but it will be because I wish to learn all that you can teach me.

"Will you accept my apology and be my instructor, Collette?" Kayman asked.

"Not an issue, Kayman. I had expected this kind of ongoing situation with you being my superior in rank. I was just wondering how I was going to be able to beat the necessary knowledge into your thick Asocan skull. I'm not sure my fists would have been sufficient...perhaps a strong piece of metal? I'm kind of glad that you realized I can be of some assistance to you. It will save my fists from being broken," Beauchene stated with a grin.

"Yes, your puny human bodies would have a hard time beating sense into me," Kayman acknowledged loudly, so that the entire bridge crew could hear, giving Beauchene a toothy grin.

Collette barked a laugh and told the Gurn to get some sleep, "You are getting delirious, Kayman, if you think you can take me down in a fight! Go, head to your den for some down time."

The Gurn gave the Asocan nod and left the bridge. Grimn Kallic came up from Tactical to sit beside Beauchene. "Grimn Collette Mutt Beauchene," she said formally, but giving her a grin.

"Lieutenant Kallic Simit," Beauchene grinned in return. They watched as the crews swapped out, the humans giving Beauchene the thumbs up.

"What is this motion of the hand," Kallic asked, trying to emulate the thumbs up movement, which was not easy for Asocans as their thumbs didn't really bend that far out from their bowed hands, while the flat human hand lent itself to the specific use of that signal, the Asocan hand tended to cup the fingers and two opposable thumbs. Even with their digits spread, their hands did not truly flatten, maintaining a distinctive curve.

"It is a sign of encouragement, or appreciation, Kallic. It means the crew has noticed that I and the Gurn seem to be getting on a little better," Beauchene explained.

"Yes, we had a rather interesting conversation," Kallic told her friend. "I told her that our Navy did not train its officers the right way. We do not understand the work our crews do. I have learned much from how you humans teach your officers. While I did not appreciate swimming through the 'muck' of the sewer systems on the larger ships, I now appreciate the work my crew members do. The Gurd seems to have understood this."

"Alright people, settle into the boards, please. The next big issue should be the jump out of the mini fleet. Lets hope we don't have to wait too long for that event," Beauchene called out to get everyone situated.

"We have three more days in system, then we can return and enjoy ourselves on the gun range," Beauchene let the crew know. That brought some excitement to the crew.

"Gun range, Collette?" Kallic asked.

"We are an armed ship, Kallic," Beauchene informed her friend. "We do have to ensure that we keep up our ratings for the weapons. That means periodic practice with live ammo. Yes, the Asocan crew will also have the ability to sit the Weapons boards and qualify on the guns. We should have qualified the Asocan crew before we came into this system, however, this task was shoved at us rather quickly.

"We will make up for that when we return. I promise you that I will not release any of the Asocan crew until they have all qualified on the guns," Beauchene gave a wicked grin which the entire bridge crew emulated.

"We have movement on the mini fleet," the Tac O called out two hours later. "They are headed up out of the gravity well, Captain."

It took the fleet much longer than it would have taken the Olivia Brault to get to their jump out point and vanish in a flash of electromagnetic dust.

"Alright people. Let's get back to work on the mission," Beauchene ordered. "Science, encapsulate the data on the comet and send it to The Wanderer with instructions for Marrat to forward it to Raddon Summate KashtinAR. I'm sure she will appreciate knowing what she has in the system."

Office of Raddon Summate Mutt KashtinAR, KashtinAR, The Paalind System, The Asocan Realm

If it wasn't one thing, it was another. First, the police fiasco with Kummel. Then, a small fleet of armed ships had appeared in orbit, not demanding anything of the planet. That meant they were there for intimidation purposes.

Finally, the Djinaëte ship they had been expecting for several days had come into orbit while the mini fleet was still there. Summate half expected Unaayel's fleet to intercept the ship's shuttles but, fortunately, that didn't happen.

Wise of them, she thought, knowing of the power of the Djinaëte vessels.

The police had just left with all the evidence for the two crimes, Kummel still in restraints, while the other three had pleaded innocence in Kummel's conspiracy and had been released though they would be punished by their commander who had been profusely apologizing to Summate for this violation of police protocol. Summate had taken time to sooth the commander and asked him just to continue a proper investigation, which she was assured of by the contrite male.

She had barely gotten time to sit down behind her desk and try to relax when Sarl came into the room. "There is another e-mail from Marrat, Raddon," he informed her.

Summate quickly opened the link watching it on her desk monitor. Marrat was speaking of some incongruous, supposed wedding that had been planned that she would not likely be able to attend and asked her friend, the Raddon, to pass on her apologies to the would be Gurn of the lucky couple, specifically the Gurn in charge of the metal smiths. That piqued the pair's interest and they investigated the images supplied.

Sure enough, there was hidden data in the pictures. This time, it appeared to be information on...a comet?

"This looks strange," Sarl stated. "This comet seems to have a metal core and what metals!! This comet can bring our planet a very substantial windfall if we could render it." Sarl told her. "I think this is the comet that is currently passing our planet. They have a ship out there watching us!"

"Of course they do, Sarl," Summate muttered. "They need some means of monitoring the planet-side conversations they are passing to us. They cannot do that via the ICS as most of the planetary comms does not go through it."

"So, they are trusting us if they are telling us that they are out there," Sarl told his boss. They looked at each other and nodded. They understood the situation. While Unaayel could intimidate with their presence, the Asoc's fleet could render much assistance while staying out of the picture. They had to have been there during the time of Unaayel's mini fleet. Summate wondered if they had the power to do anything if that fleet had attacked her planet. The very thought that they were there, though, brought a good feeling to her heart.

She carefully created a fictitious answer to the e-mail from Marrat, including a small vid that expressed her appreciation for the information that had been provided by Marrat's friends, both the spoken and unspoken information.

SSP The Piscium, Parking Orbit, Liramor-23, The Piscium System

The ship was returning to its home port after a month away. Cale-Ur was more than pleased with the outcome of the trip to Harradi space, as would be the membership of the stockholders of the House of Ur Trading Company, the crest of which was now boldly displayed on the nose of her vessel, put there during their time at Harrod Hoffes.

Caye listened as Capt. Philemon Wright asked for a parking orbit and brought the ship into its assigned spot. She was pleased with the captain and crew, more so with Alya Garrant who had proved herself more than capable on this ship's maiden voyage for the House of Ur. Not only had she found new sources of material in Union space, she also found excellent trade goods to bring back from Harradi space.

"Will you be visiting Raymond?" Caye asked of Alya.

"Of course," she replied with a Pod-Drran smile. She had learned that the Pod-Drran did not appreciate open mouthed smiles showing teeth, which they saw as a threat display because of their overly large canines. "It's been almost a month since I have last seen him. I know he will be busy, but I also know he will appreciate having me back with him."

That got a nod of approval from Caye, who wished she had someone special for her to come home to.

Maybe soon, she thought.

As the Piscium settled into its parking orbit, they made preparations to shuttle over to the station.

Liramor-23, The Piscium System

The shuttle dropped sixty of the Piscium's crew in the reception area of Bay Eight. After a quick run through customs, the crew dispersed throughout the station, with Caye-Ur heading to the Ur residence on Lima deck and Alya heading to the VIP quarters on Echo deck.

She quickly found the cabin assigned to Raymond and was pleased to note that her comp allowed her access to it. Raymond wasn't in the room, however, there was a letter on the bed. She read it quickly and smiled.

It was a set of instructions for her: take a bath with the soaps provided. Dry herself off and then apply the perfumed oil to her skin and use the make-up provided. And finally, find the outfit in the white bag in the second closet.

Naughty boy, Alya thought with a smile.

Alya filled the bath, stripped, and sank down into the deliciously warm bath with its scented soaps. She purred as she felt the tensions leave her body. She was pleased to be back and in the care of her man.

She was soaking in the wonderful bubbles when she suddenly felt a hand on her shoulder and jumped, then she heard the soft words of her friend...

"Welcome back, Alya," Joyce Worten breathed into her ear. Alya turned her head and received a soft kiss from her friend. "Let me help clean you up a little."

Joyce picked up a rough facecloth and began to rub Alya's body. As she leaned over to work parts of her, Alya discovered that Joyce was naked, her soft breast rubbing over her shoulder.

"Why don't you just get in the tub?" she asked of Joyce. "It is big enough for at least four people.