To Sail a Darkling Sea - eARC by John Ringo

States,” Galloway said. “And someone close to him, we believe his wife, assisted in its production.”
    “Oh,” Januscheitis muttered. “That had to be cold.”
    “At this point, I’m not going to pass moral or legal judgment,” Galloway said then shrugged. “Given the… the way that the infected were ‘cared’ for was horrific. And it’s been shown that the virus does permanent damage. There is no ‘cure’ as such. CDC has confirmed that in animal testing. Using them as a source of vaccine would have been, in retrospect, a much better choice. But that is twenty-twenty hindsight and no-one was even willing to openly broach the idea prior to the Fall. The point is that not only does Wolf have the knowledge to produce the vaccine, he has a plan which may provide the equipment and materials. He also… has been and continues to be the main driving force of this rescue operation which is the only such rescue operation ongoing in the world. At least of its size.”
    “This is it, sir?” Lieutenant Pellerin said. “Some small craft and a couple of ships?”
    “That’s it, Lieutenant,” Huskey said. “Smith had the combination of being vaccinated and having a boat that was sufficiently stored, armed and safe to hold out until the Plague had run its course. There are one or two other small groups in other oceans but they are even smaller than what you’ve seen.”
    “We just finished a long conversation with the admittedly fatigued commodore,” Galloway said. “Our conclusion was to give the commodore a US Navy Captaincy.”
    “Sorry, sir,” Gunny Sands said. “A Captaincy , sir?”
    “Yes, Gunnery Sergeant,” Galloway said. “That would, we are aware, put him in command of not only yourselves but all of the Navy commanders at sea. Mister Smith, pardon, Captain Smith, is fully aware that this is an ambiguous situation. The explanation for this decision is long. Would you like it?”
    “I’m sorry, sir,” Pellerin said. “I would, sir.”
    “Are you familiar with Wendell Fertig, Lieutenant?” Galloway asked.
    “Oh,” Gunny Sands said, nodding. “That makes sense, now, sir.”
    “No, sir,” Pellerin said, frowning. “Was he a Marine?”
    “Fertig was, prior to World War Two, a civilian civil engineer in the Philippines,” Galloway said. “He was direct commissioned an Army captain shortly before the war broke out. He was rapidly promoted to major, definitely, and according to some reports to lieutenant colonel although the Army never confirmed that.
    “After the fall of the Philippines to the Japanese, he began organizing guerillas. Recognizing that they would never follow a major or possibly lieutenant colonel, he styled himself a brigadier general. And it worked. By the time MacArthur landed, there were thirty thousand Filipinos under arms and MacArthur was greeted by a marching band.
    “It was a matter of social values systems as well as competence. Various persons in history have styled themselves Generalissimo something or another. Fertig was, in fact, competent to organize and develop a guerilla movement. But he also needed the cachet of being a general , not a major. The entire thing was, as ‘Wolf Squadron’ is, a cult of personality. A barbarian band more than a military force. It is about getting lots of people to do stuff, quoting Wolf, ‘for no other reason than that I ask.’
    “You are currently the senior Navy officer who is not essentially trapped. But no one knows who ‘Lieutenant Pellerin’ is. Everyone knows of Commodore Wolf. He did not style himself that way, by the way, the moniker was given to him by his captains. Which is sort of the point. With an actual captaincy, he has both his cult of personality and controlling legal authority. And he is the man with the plan who, thus far, has been succeeding. Thus the ‘competence’ part. I will not say that there are not questions and a degree of angst. Captain Smith, himself, expressed some negativity about the