Eric Olafson, Midshipman 75

Part 75: INTERLUDE: ADMIRAL DENT'S OFFICE

The commandant of the Newport Academy stood on the open balcony of his office, his hands wrapped around the railing. As it was his habit at this time of day he watched his Cadets run in cadence at the exercise yard.

It was an exceptional well trained bunch this time and they would only need a little of his special brand of help to win the trophy this year.

He was a short man, especially to Venusian standards, since natives of this Sol system planet tended to grow taller than the average Terran human, due to the slight difference in gravitation. It wasn’t much of a difference but over the millennia, Venusians grew to an average of two meters and twenty centimeters. Admiral Hiro Dent was only 165 centimeters tall, and that included the special insoles he wore. He blamed his parents for not doing anything about it. Of course there were surgical options open to make him much taller, but now his pride did not allow that and he promised vengeance to anyone noticing his size or even dare to mention it. He strongly believed that his shortness was the very reason that made him try to excel in everything.

It was a long road for him to get his first star and to be given command over this the most prestigious academy of them all; he had kissed every behind there was to kiss, even used bribery once to get past the psycho evaluation and sold his soul to the devil. Not the real devil of course, but in order to get here he had accepted the help of the Worm and they owned him ever since.

Sometimes he wished his academy buddy Swybar had not introduced him to these people, but without them he would most likely still be a Commodore at Academy headquarters, constantly overlooked when a new posting as Academy Commandant became available. He was so sure they would pick him as the next Academy commandant, but no they overlooked him again, promoted that stinking fish-maw from Ulta who was younger and had fewer years in the service. They always promoted Non humans over humans when they had the choice. He hated Webb Stokes, the cursed Ult with a burning passion. It should have been him.

Dent’s hands pressed so tight around the steel rail, they turned white with strain even now as he thought about it.

The Worm was burrowed deep into the fleet and they offered to assist him in obtaining an equally prestigious posting, complete with a promotion to Admiral. He accepted of course.

Admiral Connors, the Commandant of the Newport Academy had a sporting accident the very next week. The accomplished alpinist loved to climb around in the rugged mountains of Newport North and somehow lost his footing. This accident and a set of completely new evaluations turning up in his personal file finally opened the doors and he was picked as replacement and arrived here almost exactly twenty years ago.

He immediately put his own brand of leadership on this place. He made sure that most of the Non human cadets, no matter how good they supposed to be, failed or left. He carefully selected his staff and made sure they were loyal to him and didn’t mind to bend the rules here and there, to assure his cadets would excel above all others.

Of course he was not completely his own master and had to accept the guidance of the Worm. His position was a perfect platform for them to place officers who were connected to this organization in leading positions all over this huge fleet.

His scheme had almost been discovered by a Cadet almost right at the beginning. A Cadet excelling in almost every field was sent to him, by the Immortal Admiral Mc Elligott. Yet that cadet was too nosy for his own good and could not be persuaded no matter what he tried to see the light. He made the life of that Cadet a living hell and thought this was the end of it after he dismissed him as not suitable from his Academy. That this misfit John Harris somehow managed a stellar career and made Captain of the Devastator was a burning thorn in his side ever since. Especially since the Worm blamed him, missing a prime chance to get a man of this Organization at the helm of the most powerful starship in the known Universe.

He leaned over the railing that had been made lower especially for him and smiled to himself; Harris was captain of the Devastator now for almost ten years and sent him his finest midshipmen to compete and never managed to take home the coveted trophy. That no other team really had a chance against his Cadets because he made sure they would win was unimportant.

It was then when he noticed a shooting star; something broke through the cover of the clouds and descended way too fast to be a shuttle. It was also much bigger than the ships that usually landed here.

His mind raced, was it an orbital attack? Did the Nul or someone manage to penetrate this deep into Union space? Of course Newport would be on top of their lists of targets.

Whatever it was had disappeared in the distance and behind the South Forest, exactly where the Landing field was.

No explosion, no fireball and no rising mushroom cloud.

He ran inside his office and yelled at the GalNet terminal. “Get me Command and Control!”

He was instantly connected to the Academy control center located just a level below his office and he looked at Commander Becker’s face and said with a demanding tone.”What just happened?”

“Sir, what exactly are you referring too?”

“Are you blind? Something just crashed on our landing field.”

“No, Sir. A Barracuda Destroyer just landed.” Becker was clearly trying not to tell Dent everything he knew, most likely fearing the reaction of his superior.

“What in the Devils name is a Destroyer doing here and why did it come down like an orbital bomb? Was it not enough that we had to grant landing permission to a fish-stinking Ult captain and his Battle ship just yesterday?”

“Sir, it is Newport tradition that we grant landing permission to competing teams. We could not refuse the Ult captain as we never refused anyone before, and we could not refuse the Barracuda as it brings the team of the Devastator. Their landing maneuver as reckless as it appeared was executed within the rules and it was done manually by a very talented Helmsman.”

“Remind me to find a reason to change this tradition or this cursed Captain Harris decides one day to land his flying continent.”

“Yes Sir.”

“So Cadet Suppor and his team has arrived as I was told he would. Make sure the Captain of that Barracuda is reprimanded for any damage he did to our lawns and welcome Cadet Suppor right and have him brought to me.”

Becker looked astounded.”Sir I do not know where you got this information from, but the name of the Cadet Team leader from the Devastator is Olafson and he is the captain of that Barracuda. I double checked but all command codes and orders check out, Captain Harris has made this Cadet, acting Captain over a full destroyer and they arrived alone. I also must add they managed to land on the Duro-Crete and did not damage the lawns at all.”

Dent was known by his staff for his choleric outbreaks; so Commander Becker braced himself for what was to come as he noticed the Admirals face turn red.

Dent’s voice rasped with anger. “Are you telling me that this cursed upstart Harris allowed a team of green nosed cadets to fly a Destroyer all by themselves? How could they have possibly landed on the Duro-Crete, the field is full!”

“Yes Sir, this is exactly what I am telling you. They also found room on the landing field, right between the Leyland and two of the D40ties, there isn’t enough room to squeeze a Spindlar in the space between those ships, but they did it. As I said, whoever steered that destroyer is one hell of a helmsman, especially doing it at this speed.”

Dent wanted to say something else, but he noticed the flashing symbol on his screen, alerting him to a call on a special secure and private channel, so he said instead.” Deal with them and then I want to know everything there is to know about these Cadets.”

He switched before Becker could acknowledge. The other call was from his associates of the Worm. As usual the screen remained blank and the voice as human as it sounded was certainly artificially created said. “Good afternoon Admiral. I hope all is well on Newport.”

Dent wiped the spittle of the corners of his mouth, brushed over his short brown hair he wore combed straight back to calm his nerves and responded. “Yes everything is as it should be. The cadet team of the Devastator has just arrived.”

The voice sounded pleased. “Splendid news indeed, you are aware that we want the Suppor team to win, so your team has to take second place, but you will of course request that team to remain on Newport for the rest of their third year. Has the Narth arrived yet?”

“I was informed just now, that the arriving team is lead by a Cadet named Olafson, not Suppor and Fleet command has denied my request for the Narth Cadet, now for the sixth time.”

There was silence and then the artificial voice didn’t sound artificial at all, there was clear anger and even something like confusion in it. “Olafson, are you certain the name is Olafson? There must be a mistake or perhaps a second one. This cursed man and his three times cursed team is supposed to be dead and rotting on Quagmire Bog.”

The voice fell silent and Dent felt as if he just received information that was actually not meant for him. He already thought the connection was lost, despite the still active channel indicator, when the voice came back on. “We were assured that you could request any Cadet you deem worthy, why have they denied your request?”

“I cannot say, no real explanation was given, but my requests were denied by Fleet Command and stamped with the seal of the Admiral of the Fleet.” He thought it was a good time to explain the reason for his own frustration. “Maybe it is the fact that I was overlooked for promotion. I should have received my second star long ago and that could have added some weight to my requests.”

“Don’t overestimate your value, Dent. You can be replaced as easily as we put you there. Gather all information on the team of the Devastator and come back to us as soon as possible.”

Now the channel indicator went dark, the connection was terminated.

Dent was in no mood to receive any other calls, but the GalCom unit signaled that his aide urgently tried to reach him and so he acknowledged and said to the officer. “You better have a very good reason for disturbing me now.”

“Sir I do, the Admiral of the Fleet is calling and waiting for over ten minutes on priority channel. I am running out of excuses, but your terminal was busy, even for priority.”

Admiral Dent knew it was not a good idea, to make the Old Man of the Fleet himself wait and so he straightened himself and accepted the call.

Admiral McElligott clearly wasn’t pleased.”Mr. Dent, what does it take to get through to you? Are you too busy to take my call?”

“No Sir, I was otherwise disposed and not near the terminal.”

“Your terminal was busy when I tried it directly, that is why I called your assistant.”

The Admiral of the Fleet basically called him a liar and Dent had to take a deep breath to keep calm.”Sir, what is it I can do for you?”

McElligott switched from being displeased to an almost overfriendly tone. “I am calling you in regards of this year’s challenge. Since you are so successful we decided it is time we observe more closely. This year I and a delegation of Academy Commanders will come to your academy to take a very detailed look. Frankly there have been voices that demanded a more independent panel of judges. I must admit I paid little attention over the past years to a seemingly unimportant inter-fleet contest, but I was told it has become a very prestigious affair and that it is your teams that carry away the trophy consistently. Now after checking into this matter more closely I came to the conclusion that you either do something much better than all the others and if so it must be recognized and rewarded, or the evaluation process that awards the success might not be as unbiased and technical sound as it could be.”

Dent’s face color turned pale. “Sir, with all due respect, it was me who turned this school in what it is today and it was me who made a previously obscure inter-fleet competition to the fierce and highly coveted event it is now. I resent any notion of unfairness, most likely raised by those who lost against my cadets. Newport is an Elite school and I handpicked every cadet serving here. These are already excellent cadets that excel and became noticed above the rest. I simply fine tune them and give them an environment they can truly raise above the norm. This is the very purpose for this Academy to exist for almost a thousand years now.”

“But it has only recently; let’s say in the last twenty years really taking this concept to new heights.” The Old Admiral said. “Don’t get me wrong Mr. Dent, if all is as you say it is, then your promotion is long overdue and we must find a way to implement your expertise over the entire Officer education process, with you at the helm of course.”

Dent calmed down and if he managed things carefully he just might get Stoke’s chair after all. He would be very important and could assist his special friends in ways not even they had dreamt of. “It will of course be an honor to welcome you personally here on Newport and show you and my esteemed colleagues how I manage this consistent level of excellence.”

“I am glad you say so, Mr. Dent. We are only a day out and will arrive shortly.”

Part 76 »