He said, 'Yes Sir.' a few more time to someone on the phone and hung up still looking at me. 'The Admiral. would like you to report to his in-port cabin Sir.' He told me. I looked myself over, battle armor, no shower or shave, over 16+ hours awake so far, and the end was still some where far away, I just knew it. More than likely after the jump and God knows what else. I really hate long line periods.
'He said he didn't care how you looked or were dressed, Sir.' He said and smiled. 'Thanks Doc, let him know I'm on my way up.' I said.
'Yes Sir. Commander, we'll take good care of her for you.' He said as I headed out the door and for the lifts.
While waiting for the lift Bobby and Gabby Brinks joined me. She had short blond hair, lite blue eyes, pixey like features and a slim body. 'How is she John?' Bobby asked. 'Messed up, but the docs are pretty sure she'll be okay with a bit of time and a lot of care. They're trying to stabilize her blood chemistry right now.' I said and took my helmet off and scratched my head, I really needed a shower. 'I gave her a human name, Karen, he had been calling her slime worm.' Bobby and Gabby both shook their heads as the lift arrived and we stepped on, I hit the button for the O3 level.
'Any idea what this is all about Sirs?' Gabby asked. 'Nope but when a guy with 2 stars tells you to show up,' Bobby said, 'you drop what you're doing and show up Lieutenant.' Bobby and I both started laughing.
The Marine Guard standing outside the door popped to attention and knocked on it. It opened quickly and the 3 of us walked in. The Admiral was sitting in a chair watching the rescue of the pod from what looked like my helmet cam. It took less than 6 minutes from start to the pod being pulled out, according to the time stamp at the bottom of the screen.
'John, nice rescue. I know the hardest part sometimes is just standing back and letting the experts do their jobs.' He said and turned to face us. ' Have they IDed her yet?'
'No Sir, I heard one of the nurses ask Fran to run a DNA ID on her Sir.' I said. 'I have no idea how long it might take, I'm sorry Sir but that's not my area of expertise. For that kind of information, I would suggest that you ask the SMO to step up here Sir.'
'Yes, quite right, quite right.' He said nodding with a thoughtful look on his face. 'You see young lady, even us all knowing Admirals need to be reminded of certain things, from time to time.' He said looking over at Gabby smiling. 'Allen, would you call Medical and have the SMO come up here at his earliest opportunity.' He asked his Flag Lt. 'Yes Sir.' He replied and walked over to the phone to make the call.
'Does she have a name John?' The Admiral asked. 'Yes Sir, I've named her Karen after my grandmother. The Flin Admiral was calling her slime worm and had abused her badly.' I told him shaking my head.
'Yes, well John perhaps she'll have a better life now.' Loki said as Allen came back in. 'The SMO will be here in a few minutes Sir.' he said. 'Thank you, Allen.' Loki replied smiling. 'Please sit everyone and let me review the helmet cams, and now that my 'experts' are here I'll be able to ask any questions if I have them.' He said and pulled up Gabbys helmet cam and watched the entry into the comms room and it's clean out. Gabbys voice directed several men to check the floating bodies for additional intel. A set of code keys and several more data pads were found on a Flin CDR, he was clearly the Flag Comms Officer.
During all of this the SMO slipped in and sat next to me, he showed me his data pad. From what I could understand it looked like we had managed save Karen just in the nick of time. 'I'm going to put you down as next of kin and guardian John. This way all the boxes are checked, and nobody gets a case of ass over this.' Captain Berry Li MC whispered to me. I nodded and tapped his arm then gave him a thumbs up.
The Admiral finished watching the vids and turned back to us. 'Ah my favorite saw bones, Doc Li. How's our newest crew member?' He asked.
'At the moment Sir she is asleep and one very sick little girl. We've started 2 IVs to equalize her blood chemistry.' he spent the next 15 to 20 minutes describing Karens problems and the things that would have to happen to fix them.
The Admiral had Allen call several other people in, to him it didn't matter if you were an officer or enlisted. If he thought, you might have the answer he wanted to talk with you. During all this the call to jump stations had gone out and we jumped out of the area and were headed home. I knew we were getting 'out of Dodge', wherever that was, and headed for Starbase Pentel 616. It would be a week at high warp speeds, so for the next 7 days paperwork here I come. Oh Joy.
'John? John, you feeling alright?' Loki asked. 'You look a bit wrung out, Doc?' Doc L ran his scanner over me, looked at the numbers and snorted. 'In my professional opinion Sir, He needs a hot shower, about 30 hours of uninterrupted sleep, and about 3 or 4 good stiff shots. Not necessarily in that order.'
Loki shook his head at this. 'We could all stand with some more sleep, and the Gods knew we could all stand with a good bender or 2.' He shook his head yet again. 'Hell, when we reach the star base the first round of drinks is on me. Hell for the strike team I'll buy their first round too. 93 days is to long for just 3 section duty and material condition Yoke set at all times. I suspect the rest of the crew is in the same general condition?' He asked looking at Doc Li.
'Yes Sir, crew efficiency is down 11%, but this is not significant and long line periods generally have a 9.5% to 13.25% drop in crew efficiency statistically based.' Doc Li said and looked around the room. 'Most likely we're all a little 'wiped out' so to speak.' I looked around the room and for the first time I noticed the dark circles under the eyes of almost everyone there.
'Well let's break this up then. John, I know you have a ton of things to do, as does everyone else here. Thank you everybody and pass that along to your people from me. Thank you again everyone.' Loki said as we all stood, thanked him back, picked up our gear and headed out.
'Going to stop down first or head to debrief John?' Bobby asked once we were out in the door. I looked down the passageway, weighing my options. 'Hell, all I really want to do is shower, collect my pet and crawl into my rack.' I checked my watch, 2339. Shit I'd been on the go sense 0510 this morning. 18+ hours and still another 2 or 3 to go. Have I mentioned that I hate being a Squadron Commander? If not let me now mention that I really do hate being a Squadron Commander sometimes.
'Hey if ya wanna drop it off in the morning I understand, besides I know where ya live you goofy shit, so I'm not worried about it.' He said and headed for the lifts, Gabby in tow. 'See ya in 6 hours asshole.' He called out as I just snorted and headed for my stateroom. 1 level down and forward 10 frames.
God I was tired as I entered my berthing space, being a Squadron Commander does have its advantages. I had my own personal head and shower area, and my bunk was larger than the standard rack most slept on. Stripping out of the power armor I stacked it by the door then skinned out of my skin suit. It was great to wear under flight gear or battle armor, but after 16 to 18+ hours it got hot and uncomfortable. Right now, it felt good to take it off. Showering quickly, I dried off and headed for my bunk.
Kneeling in the middle of my bedroom is my pet Am 'An 'Flower', 6 years ago I had disabled a long-range shuttle during a LR mission and managed with 2 other fighters to tow it back to our lines. It had been a medical transport on a return mission to the La Certa Sector, several battles had been fought near ADS 16402 and a planet named Top Hat P1.
She had been one of the medics aboard out of the personal, I had had first choice and had had her ever sense. At that time, I had been a hot shot Lt. with 38 confirmed kills, and I had just gotten numbers 39 and 40 during the flight and capture.
'Master, flower is pleased to have her Owner home again.' She quietly said as she knelt in the 'Nadu' position. 'Does Master require a massage or, perhaps something else Master?' I smiled to myself thinking how I loved how her body would move under me and all the other things she would and had done for me. Including teaching me her language. I looked her lithe naked body over, uuugh I had the urge to throw her onto the bed and bury my cock deep into her. Normally I would have been harder than Battletanium, God I must have been more tired than I thought I was. I held out my hand and lifted her to her feet when she took it. She barely stood 4'6" and I was 6'4".
'No pet, Master is tired and needs sleep.' I said as she removed the towel from around my waist and dabbed a few wet spots on my chest and abdomen. 'Pet will prepare Masters bed then.' She whispered and turned the sheets back. I crawled into the sheets, and she covered me up. Aaaah .. Ye Gods it felt good to lay down. I shouldn't be this tired at 29, well almost 30 in 26 days, maybe Doc Li was right. All I needed was a bit of sleep and a couple of stiff shots, plus my plugs cleaned and the oil changed. I sighed yet again, closed my eyes and let sleep claim me. Tomorrow's problems would just have to wait.