straight from the politicians. No actual action required, he sent it on its way.
His scowl vanished at the next item; in the privacy of his office, it morphed into a smug smile. The Annual Founding Day Parade was next week. The entire 1 st Deucali Brigade would be out in their dress blues, proudly showing what it meant to be an Earth Alliance Marine. It never failed to bring a tear to his eye to march through the streets at the head of his men. Though the Public Relations Staff Commander was responsible for the preparations, he had taken an active oversight role. He scheduled a meeting for 0700 the next morning to review the state of readiness.
The voice of his secretary interrupted his train of thought. “Sir, Commander Bradlen has arrived for your meeting.”
With a grimace he closed the various screens and straightened his jacket. “Send him in.”
An upstart lad, Bradlen had risen quickly in the ranks due to an overabundance of competence. He returned the salute of the young Commander. “At ease.”
“Yes, sir.” Bradlen sat down across the desk and opened a series of screens between them. “I’ve uploaded the latest supply reports and inventories as well as the shipment schedule for the next three months.”
He paused while O’Connell accessed the files. “As you can see, we’ll receive a new shipment of test drones next week, along with the new ware for the existing high-orbit defense array. I heard a rumor we were getting another array soon, sir. Any chance it’s true?”
Liam smiled thinly, the curl of his lips not otherwise impacting his expression. “I’m afraid that’s classified for now.”
“My mistake. Um, about the ware for the array…Earth says it’s ready for deployment, but I assume you’ll want it tested thoroughly first, sir?”
“You assume correctly, Commander.”
“Understood. I’ll arrange for it to be routed through Configuration/Testing before Implementation Services gets their hands on it.” He cleared his throat and seemed to hesitate in uncertainty.
“Spit it out, son, I don’t have all day here.”
“Right. Sir, I feel I should draw your attention to a discrepancy in the inventories for our VI short-range missiles. There’s a report on it in the files. The discrepancy occurred in the middle of the transition to the new inventory system, so it’s probably just a glitch, but….”
Liam snorted in clear disgust. “Goddamn warenuts. Every time they push out something ‘better’ it only makes things worse.”
“I…yes, sir. I can have Support run some diagnostics, see if they can find the problem—”
Liam shook his head in a manner which brooked no dissent. “Won’t be necessary. I will take great pleasure in informing Logistics Command they need to fix their crocked ware.”
“Of course, sir. If there’s nothing else?”
He had begun pulling up other reports; his head jerked in the direction of the door. “Dismissed.”
Once Bradlen departed, he dropped the illusion of activity. He sat silently as an epoch passed…then reopened the Inventory Discrepancy Report. Seconds ticked by while he simply stared at it, as though the authority of his glare might melt it away.
He didn’t know why he was hesitating. The decision had already been made; the deed already done. In many ways the decision had been made twenty-four years ago when he stood over his mother’s grave and made a vow, even if it had taken until two months ago for the opportunity for him to fulfill his vow to finally knock on his door.
He had expected the discrepancy to be discovered. In this hyper-cyberized, always-connected world they lived in, it would have been impossible to hide it—so he hadn’t tried. Instead he’d made sure the materials vanished during the hectic, confused inventory system transition, thereby providing a ready explanation for their ‘absence.’
Deucali Military HQ housed tens of thousands of armaments. Anyone who noticed a couple of dozen missiles
His scowl vanished at the next item; in the privacy of his office, it morphed into a smug smile. The Annual Founding Day Parade was next week. The entire 1 st Deucali Brigade would be out in their dress blues, proudly showing what it meant to be an Earth Alliance Marine. It never failed to bring a tear to his eye to march through the streets at the head of his men. Though the Public Relations Staff Commander was responsible for the preparations, he had taken an active oversight role. He scheduled a meeting for 0700 the next morning to review the state of readiness.
The voice of his secretary interrupted his train of thought. “Sir, Commander Bradlen has arrived for your meeting.”
With a grimace he closed the various screens and straightened his jacket. “Send him in.”
An upstart lad, Bradlen had risen quickly in the ranks due to an overabundance of competence. He returned the salute of the young Commander. “At ease.”
“Yes, sir.” Bradlen sat down across the desk and opened a series of screens between them. “I’ve uploaded the latest supply reports and inventories as well as the shipment schedule for the next three months.”
He paused while O’Connell accessed the files. “As you can see, we’ll receive a new shipment of test drones next week, along with the new ware for the existing high-orbit defense array. I heard a rumor we were getting another array soon, sir. Any chance it’s true?”
Liam smiled thinly, the curl of his lips not otherwise impacting his expression. “I’m afraid that’s classified for now.”
“My mistake. Um, about the ware for the array…Earth says it’s ready for deployment, but I assume you’ll want it tested thoroughly first, sir?”
“You assume correctly, Commander.”
“Understood. I’ll arrange for it to be routed through Configuration/Testing before Implementation Services gets their hands on it.” He cleared his throat and seemed to hesitate in uncertainty.
“Spit it out, son, I don’t have all day here.”
“Right. Sir, I feel I should draw your attention to a discrepancy in the inventories for our VI short-range missiles. There’s a report on it in the files. The discrepancy occurred in the middle of the transition to the new inventory system, so it’s probably just a glitch, but….”
Liam snorted in clear disgust. “Goddamn warenuts. Every time they push out something ‘better’ it only makes things worse.”
“I…yes, sir. I can have Support run some diagnostics, see if they can find the problem—”
Liam shook his head in a manner which brooked no dissent. “Won’t be necessary. I will take great pleasure in informing Logistics Command they need to fix their crocked ware.”
“Of course, sir. If there’s nothing else?”
He had begun pulling up other reports; his head jerked in the direction of the door. “Dismissed.”
Once Bradlen departed, he dropped the illusion of activity. He sat silently as an epoch passed…then reopened the Inventory Discrepancy Report. Seconds ticked by while he simply stared at it, as though the authority of his glare might melt it away.
He didn’t know why he was hesitating. The decision had already been made; the deed already done. In many ways the decision had been made twenty-four years ago when he stood over his mother’s grave and made a vow, even if it had taken until two months ago for the opportunity for him to fulfill his vow to finally knock on his door.
He had expected the discrepancy to be discovered. In this hyper-cyberized, always-connected world they lived in, it would have been impossible to hide it—so he hadn’t tried. Instead he’d made sure the materials vanished during the hectic, confused inventory system transition, thereby providing a ready explanation for their ‘absence.’
Deucali Military HQ housed tens of thousands of armaments. Anyone who noticed a couple of dozen missiles
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