Copyright © 2023-2026 Voyagers Authors. All Rights Reserved.
Greetings, reader. Welcome back to outer space. I apologize for the delay, but travel, coupled with illness, along with other writing commitments have slowed me down some.
That said, Kyle appears to be fitting into his command position. The questions is, how long will this smooth ride last?
Your emails are always appreciated.
Douglas
CHAPTER 25
OPERATING SMOOTHLY
By Douglas DD
Assisted by Zarek Dragon
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 3
0630
Kyle was awake at 0530. He’d had a good night’s sleep. There was no doubt it was helped by the action enjoyed by him and Danny. While Koji and Duskin had separate rooms as well as their own access to the bathroom, the bulkheads weren’t soundproof. They blocked most low-level sounds, but loud noises could be heard through the bulkhead. As a result, Kyle knew that when the boys were sleeping in their own room, which was most of the time, he and Danny had to do their best to muffle the sounds of their sex.
After giving his still sleeping husband a kiss on his left cheek, Kyle headed to the bathroom to shower and piss. He had thought about trying to add another half hour of snoozing, but he was excited about enjoying the sights and sounds of the Heinlein as it made its way through the emptiness of space.
He was showered and dressed in his duty uniform by 0600. Danny’s alarm went off just as Kyle finished putting on his shoes. “Sleeping in, are we?” Kyle grinned.
“I thought we agreed we’d both get up at 0600, not be showered and not be in uniform” Danny yawned.
“We did agree on the wakeup time, but my body said otherwise. I decided that as long as I was awake, I’d get showered and dressed and do a solo inspection of early morning activities on my ship.”
“On YOUR ship? Oh my, the veteran captain is getting a bit possessive, is he?”
“It’s a common turn of phrase for a ship’s captain.”
“I know,” Danny said. “It’s just as common as me giving you shit whenever I can. Go ahead to breakfast and I’ll make sure the boys are up and getting ready. They have class at 0830. I plan on meeting with my pilots at 1030 at the fighter bay for an inspection of the fighters, which I haven’t done in a while, followed by a meeting in the holodeck to discuss the inspection results and the you- know- what.”
“I know-it’s the big surprise for Ace.”
“Bingo.”
“How about I meet you and the boys in the officers’ dining area at 0730ish?”
“I can live with that.” Danny blew Kyle a kiss as his husband exited their quarters. He then walked around the ship greeting various crew members as he came across them. The passageways were usually busy from around 0600 until 0700 when most of the crew would be either at their job, on a watch, or at breakfast.
One of the individuals Kyle came across during the early part of his walk was Steve Boyer. “Good morning, Commander Boyer,” Kyle said.
“Oh my, aren’t we formal this morning, Captain Kyle,” Steve grinned.
“I’m just practicing for the big time.”
“I’ve been told, and I know you have too, that ‘The Big Time’ is where you’re at.”
“Which simply means that I have to be ready for it twenty-four/seven.”
“Good morning, Sirs,” Gilbert Kirby and Chet Duncan said in unison. Both were assigned to Operations.
“Good morning, gentlemen,” Steve, who was Chief of Operations, said. “It’s good see Operations up early and ready to boogie.”
“Troy and Riley were up way earlier than us,” Gilbert said. Troy Adams was manning the Operations station on the third bridge watch and Riley Griffen had the third watch in the Operations office.
“How did you guys coordinate your good morning greeting?” Kyle asked.
“Hours of practice,” Chet said.
“With a big chunk of luck thrown in,” Gilbert grinned.
“Hey, I heard last night that the big chocolate chip cookie bake off has been scheduled for today.”
“You heard right,” Steve said. “Shasho, Ian, and Ben were busy last night organizing it. Shasho put together the schedule, and he’s taken that and the rules to Brad this morning. Brad will have the announcement sent out by 0900. The sampling will begin at 1100 and continue until 1500 after which the voting result will be announced.”
“And on that note, I’m going to move on to the bridge and give my regards to the watch,” Kyle said.
<Bridge>
0710
When Kyle entered the bridge, seven boys manning the watch turned to look. Lucias, the assistant chief of Operations, had the conn and right away he thought Kyle had come to the bridge to relieve him.
A.J. Crowley, who had duty at the communications station, called out, “Captain on the bridge!” as if everyone didn’t know. Still, it was one of his duties to inform the watch when the captain entered the bridge since much of the time the members of the watch would be focused on what was happening at their stations.
“At ease, everyone. Commander Hayes, you may continue manning the conn,” Kyle said formally. He was expected to make a formal statement when the watch was informed of his entry. Everyone on the watch was pleased that everything was done as expected. Even Mark Winters, who was a Guardian, was pleased the procedure went smoothly, although he would never admit that to Don Nixon.
Kyle didn’t think his entry onto the bridge and his by-the-book was a big deal. He’d gone through the routine before when he had come onto the bridge. This had been the first time since the day they arrived at Spencer Planet that the formal routine was called
for, however. The protocol was looser when a ship was in orbit since the bridge wasn’t fully staffed and nothing had been said about the watches returning to standard protocol after the ship left orbit. The watch simply knew what had been called for, which Kyle thought was the result of good training; training he credited his first officer for providing.
After a twenty-minute visit during which Kyle chatted with the watch officers, he left for the dining hall. He met with Head Chef Ian McFlynn, Bakery Chef Ben Maxey, and Jackson Davis, to go over the final details of the Great Chocolate Chip Cookie Bakeoff. Jackson had joined the crew in October just before the Heinlein had left Earth.
“Here is the plan that Shasho and our contestants devised,” Ian said. “I’ve read it over and approved it. I think they’ve come up with a good plan.” He handed the plan to Kyle.
Kyle read through it and nodded. “This a great plan,” he said. “Simple, but effective.”
“Most of the ideas were Shasho’s,” Ben said. “Jackson and I pretty much nodded our heads, told him to go for it, and take it to Ian for approval.”
“Yep, that’s how it went,” Jackson said.
Kyle was pleased with what Shasho and the bakers had come up with. Everybody agreed it was mostly Shasho’s doing, however. Since Shasho was the captain’s yeoman, Kyle was especially pleased by how his twelve-year-old assistant fared. But he was not surprised; he knew when he approved Shasho for the position that he was capable of great things.
The setup of the bakeoff was that Ben and Jackson would make their cookie doughs and create their cookies starting at 930 and then place them in an oven. Breakfast would have been served by then.
Once the cookies were baked, Ben’s cookies were placed in a container labeled #1 and Jackson’s went into container #2 to start the contest. They would be set out promptly at 1100.
Crew members could then report to the forward end of the buffet and receive a cookie from each container. The cookies would be served by a member of the waitstaff. The crewmember would have to scan his communicator upon receiving his cookies, eat them in the forward end, and then vote using his communicator.
The idea of eating the cookies upon receiving them rather than at their leisure was to make sure crew members couldn’t discuss their picks before they voted. Another way to make it difficult to discuss the cookies was to screen off the containers frequently and change the numbers. The contest would continue until 1500.
After making a quick check of the setup of the bakeoff, Kyle went to the Executive Dining room and sat at the table with Danny, Koji, and Duskin, who had already started eating.
“Sorry I’m late,” Kyle said.
“Opsolas should not be late,” Koji sulked.
“It’s called captain’s prerogative,” Danny said.
“What does that mean?” Duskin asked.
“It means when the captain is on duty, he can be late. He tries hard not to, but it can happen. Isn’t that right, Kyle?”
“Close enough. I had a lot of people to visit and talk to, with the most important one being the last one,” Kyle said.
“What was it?” Koji asked.
“Seeing how the cookie bakeoff was progressing.”
“That is VERY important. You used your peckerdrive exactly right.”
“It’s prerogative.”
“I like my pecker better.”
Kyle and Danny gave Koji simultaneous glares. They didn’t need to say anything as Koji gave them a sheepish look and a quick apology. “I’m sorry, Opsolas. I was wrong to say that. But it was kinda fun.”
The next double glare had Koji digging into his pancakes. Nothing more needed to be said—this time.
Kyle had ordered his favorite breakfast on his way to the executive dining room. A plate with two slices of French toast, two eggs over easy, two hickory sausages was laid down in front of him by Rowdy Molina. Tanner Offerman followed with a glass of orange juice.
Duskin held up his glass. “Could I please have another grape juice please?”
“I’ll get it right away,” Tanner said.
“Good job of using please, D-boy,” Kyle said, ignoring his young son’s double use of please as well as ‘could’ instead of ‘may’. He ruffled the little boy’s hair proud that Duskin had thought of using it at all. His etiquette tended to be ahead of Koji’s. Duskin flashed his beautiful grin and returned to his eating.
Danny finished his breakfast and stood up. "I'm going to head over to the fighter bay," he said. "I want to get started with my inspection of the area and then have a meeting with my pilots in the fighter bay classroom."
"Okay," Kyle replied. "I'll plan to stop by the classroom after my boys and I finish our breakfasts and I get them off to class."
"See you later," Danny said as he left the dining room.
Danny commanded the eight fighters assigned to the Heinlein. The fighters had their own bay, which had its own doors. The fighter bay had access to the shuttle bay, but was usually separated by closed airtight doors. The designers of the ship felt that in case of a sudden emergency it would be a good idea for the fighters to have more than one way to quickly depart the ship. Danny and his pilots were having a meeting in the small classroom discussing the result of his inspection.
Danny grinned when he saw Kyle enter the room.
“We have a guest, guys,” Danny said. “He must want to see what you know. Welcome, Captain.”
The pilots stood and turned to face the back of the room where Kyle was standing. “As you were, men,” Kyle said.
“Did you hear that? He called us men,” Brent Maverick grinned as everyone sat back down.
“Don’t let it go to your head, Lieutenant.” Kyle knew that Brent was a year older than he was; in fact they shared the same birthday.
“What brings you here, Captain?” Danny asked even though he knew the answer.
“I haven’t done a tour of the ship since we left Mars, so I thought I’d take care of that with a walk-through,” Kyle said.
“So, this isn’t an inspection?” Ace asked.
“No, it’s not an inspection, which doesn’t mean I won’t deal with something I find way out of order.”
“We’re just glad we only have to deal with one inspection today,” Red Lynch said. “One is enough for one day. Danny…I mean, Commander Robinson, is a real hard ass.” He looked over at Danny. “No offense, sir.”
“No offense taken, Lieutenant,” Danny grinned. “I see lunch is almost upon us and I have just a couple more things to go over with my pilots before we break for lunch. I will send a copy of the inspection report to the captain this afternoon.”
“And I look forward to reading it. I have a feeling it will be an outstanding report. I’ll leave now so Commander Robinson can finish with you, and you can all deal with your growling tummies.” Kyle turned and left the room. He knew he would be seeing them again real soon.
As soon as Kyle left the room, Danny told his pilots they would be heading to the holodeck where they would hold the rest of the meeting in a conference room. He instructed them to meet him in Holodeck room 4c in twenty minutes.
Danny had asked Perry Fox, the holodeck manager, to set up a conference room with audiovisual equipment and five tables for his crew for what would be an instructional meeting.
“Five tables?” Perry had asked. “You and your pilots together make up just nine people.”
“Plus, I have three shuttle pilots who will be joining the meeting. And to top it off, lunch will be served.”
“Now it makes sense. Well, either way I would have given you what you asked for. It will be ready at the time requested.”
<Holodeck>
1130
The fighter pilots were seated by 1120. The three shuttle pilots had been seated since their assigned time of 1115. Their jobs and experience levels were different than the fighter pilots, but Danny was certain the agenda he had planned would help them develop as pilots by giving them a broader understanding of what was involved in piloting a small ship in the vacuum of outer space. The pilots had menus laid out on the table in front of them which they quickly checked.
As soon as everyone was seated, Danny announced that Victor Hanson would be coming in a couple of minutes to take their lunch orders and then the program would start. A minute later Victor entered the conference room, took their food and drink orders, and left.
The shuttle pilots were disappointed that there were no desserts on the menu. They theorized that the cookie bake off was the reason.
The fighter pilots had a suspicion that the reason there were no desserts on the menu was because there would be a special dessert in honor of their “Ace”, Gabe Cardiff’s birthday.
Danny had planned to start the program at 1130, but since everyone was ready, he got it rolling at 1122. The presentation they watched on the big screen that made up most of the bulkhead on the bow side of the room had been made by the Space Fleet Public information department. It had to do with pilot etiquette and radio behavior in various situations.
After the fifteen-minute presentation, Danny asked the pilots questions. The questions came from the program handbook. Once they were answered, he opened the floor to general discussion. Lunch arrived at 1205, which ended the lesson.
Just after 1215 the pilots could hear voices out in the corridor. Danny knew it was the arrival of the birthday guests. He went out into the corridor to see who was there. He saw Kyle, Devin, Steve, Brad, Jesse Gross, and three of Ace’s best friends ready to accompany the birthday surprise. Devin led the group into Holodeck 4d, which was next door to the conference. It had also been created by Perry and was decorated with birthday displays wishing Ace a happy sixteenth birthday.
As soon as the crowd disappeared into the party room, Danny reentered the conference room. Perry was in the holodeck control room. He watched Danny enter and give a quick salute to the camera which was at the top of the bulkhead on the bow side of the room.
As soon as Perry saw the salute, he pushed a button that moved the starboard bulkhead to the right and revealed room 4d. What was on the other side brought a collective gasp from the pilots. They saw a room with a table in the middle holding a large cake with sixteen candles. Attached to the table and to other locations were sixteen blue helium balloons. Colored lights flashed from the ceiling. A big sign hung from the ceiling saying, “HAPPY BIRTHDAY ACE”.
Ace was obviously overwhelmed by what he saw. “Wow, I can’t believe this,” Ace said. “I mean, yeah the cake is a regular birthday thing…but the balloons and the sign and the special room and all my friends.” He stepped into the room. “And hi, friends, and hello officers, and whoa, welcome Captain.” Ace saluted Kyle, who smiled and said,” Happy Birthday and at ease, Gabriel.” Ace grinned at the captain’s use of his first name.
He checked the cake which said, “Happy Birthday, Gabe”. Well, at least they got the sign right, he thought. The group then sang “Happy Birthday and he blew out the candles. Each candle switched off when his breath hit a switch governed by air flow. He blew until all 16 candles had turned off.
Ace learned that the extra trappings for his party had been headed by Brent Maverick and involved all of the fighter pilots except for himself. “Thanks guys,” Ace said. “I couldn’t ask for a better group of friends than you, my fellow Heinlein pilots. And to the officers who showed, you’re the best in the fleet. And thanks to Perry for building this. He is a holodeck genius.”
They all dug into the cake and ice cream amid chatter, laughter, and pats on the back for Ace. That night, Brent received his reward for planning Ace’s special birthday party when Ace let Brent give his ass a hard fuck on a guest room bed.
<Captain’s Ready Room)
1330
Kyle met with his senior officers after Ace’s party. Devin, Steve, and Brad were all in attendance.
“That was an amazing production,” Kyle said.
Steve agreed. “Perry is proving his worth with the amazing job he is doing running the holodeck. I am going to place a positive report in his personnel file, not only for the party but for his overall body of work since the Heinlein’s official launch. It will all be noted in his annual performance review as well.” The official launch had taken place on October 25.
“The big bake-off seems to be progressing nicely. Nice job helping to organize that, Brad.”
“I didn’t do anything except make sure the announcement was sent out to the crew,” Brad said. “The real organization was done by Ian and Shasho. Ian took care of supervising the cookie creation and the baking process. Shasho was his usual efficient self and saw that everything else was organized to the nth degree.”
“You know, I’ve been thinking the last couple of days that for meals in the dining rooms menus are passed out and orders are given directly to a live waiter. On most Explorer ships even the senior officers order their meals virtually,” Kyle said. “But…”
“Are you saying we may want to do that on the Heinlein?” Steve asked with trepidation.
“No, what I wanted to say before my second officer panicked is that Devin, Ian, and I are in agreement that the Heinlein is NOT one of most ships.”
“And, oh do I agree with that,” Brad said.
“The captain, the first officer, the head chef, the third officer and me, the second officer, all agree that we are NOT most ships,” Steve grinned. “In fact, we’re not just ANY ship…we are the Heinlein.”
That brought a cheer from the senior officers, causing the department chiefs gathering outside in the main corridor to wonder what had gotten the captain and his three senior officers all worked up. Whatever, most of them thought it was good to hear the top brass laughing and having fun.
“Any new business?” Kyle asked. Nobody said anything or raised his hand. “Then there being no further business, today’s senior officer meeting stands adjourned. Let’s take a ten-minute break and then resume with the department chiefs’ meeting.” Since Steve and Brad were department heads as well as senior officers they would be staying for the next meeting.
1415
The agenda for the department chiefs’ meeting was mostly about finalizing the schedule for the next three-week period. This would include crew training, the duty schedule, the recreation schedule, and the entertainment schedule. The meeting was scheduled to start with reports from the leaders and organizers of various regular and special functions over the next three weeks.
Ali Bakabazi was the first to report. He oversaw the classroom schedule for dependents and those still needing to complete final academy courses as well as scheduling officer training. Almost all of the officer training was virtual with the lessons coming from Space Fleet Academy. He presented his classroom schedule, the two times he had scheduled all or part of the holodeck for lessons, and when he had the dependents scheduled for a tour of the galley.
The next report was from Danny, recapping his fighter inspection along with a report on Ace’s birthday celebration.
“I hope that Ace’s birthday doesn’t make everybody think that all of the birthdays will be celebrated like that,” Kyle said.
“It’s been made quite clear by Ian, as well as by Brad, that a group of pilots set it up and that a percentage of the extra cost would be taken out of their pay,” Steve replied. “And while it sounds like a big deal, the cost was minimal since it was mostly for the cost of the balloons and the sign split seven ways. Plus, Danny says they will each have to stand an extra maintenance shift sometime over the next three weeks to make up for the time used to set up the holodeck room.”
“In other words, sponsoring an extra big party won’t break the bank but it will require some sort of payment,” Kyle said.
“Exactly,” Danny said. “Also, the fact that it was a special team that Ace is a part of that made the event possible. It could happen again, but it is highly unlikely. Oh, and for those of you who are wondering, the next fighter pilot birthday is A.J. Crowley’s on December 20. Plus, you gotta wonder if maybe the fact that Ace is the assistant chief pilot might have been a factor in the extras.”
“Thanks, everyone,” Kyle said. “The last thing I have to say is I don’t think it’s a big deal, I was just curious about what exactly went into it. Now I know and we’ll move on a birthday at a time.”
At 1520 Ian McFlynn came into the ready room with the results to the chocolate chip cookie bakeoff. He was carrying a plastic food container. Kyle had let him know he was cleared to enter the room and interrupt the meeting if he had the results before the meeting was over.
“We have a winner,” Ian announced with a wide grin.
“Well, don’t keep us in suspense, what did the numbers say?” Devin asked.
“First of all, every crew member but three voted. And those three, as you no doubt have guessed already, we excluded from the vote by the rules.”
“Which would be Ben Maxey, Jackson Davis, and Ian,” Devin said, “just in case somebody hadn’t received the memo.”
“Memo? What memo?” Security Chief Gage Enzan grinned.
“Wow, a security chief who thinks he has a sense of humor. How can we be so lucky?” Brad asked.
“How about we continue on and find out who the winner is,” Devin said.
“The winner is Ben, who received just over 55 percent of the vote,” Ian said.
“That is a lot closer than everyone thought it would be,” Kyle said. “I’ll be congratulating both bakers on a job well done. Hmm, and I don’t think any of us have any doubt about what is in the container that Ian brought.”
“I brought cookies left over from the contest. They’re in packets of two with enough packets for each of you. You each will get two packets clearly marked which have Ben’s cookies and which have Jackson’s. Jackson has clearly displayed his mettle in this contest and we’ll be expecting a lot from him. Ben had done some tutoring since Jackson arrived on board and he says he’s ready to promote his protégé to master baker.”
Everyone thanked Ian for his great work and the head chef headed back to the kitchen. Kyle turned the meeting back to Devin.
The next hour and fifteen minutes were spent with the department heads giving their reports on the plans for the next three weeks. Devin and Kyle asked questions and made comments along the way. After they finished, Devin said there would be one more thing before the meeting was adjourned. “I believe that before we adjourn the meeting, Kyle has something he wants to say.”
“First, a big thanks to Ian and his assistants for their wonderful job of organizing the Great Chocolate Chip Cookie Bakeoff,” Kyle grinned. “I have one more thing to say before the meeting is adjourned. Granted, it’s not over yet, but our first full day of travel was very smooth. Let’s work hard to keep it that way. We didn’t give our friends, the Guardians, anything for them to stew over. As long as we keep our ship functioning smoothly during this stretch of time, we’ll be taking the steam out of Don Nixon and his minions”.
Kyle felt confident in that comment remaining private since he knew that none of his department heads were in league with the Guardians. Kyle told Chief of Science Logan Wilson that he wanted to meet with him briefly. He then adjourned the meeting.
A half hour later, Logan left his meeting with Kyle contemplating what he had been told. Kyle had told him to think about his proposal and to give him an answer 48 hours. The captain had given him a lot to think about, and he wasn’t sure how he liked it and what to do about it.
SS LIBERTY
(1340)
<Omicron Leonis star system, Planet OCL 3>
With all of the explorers and scientists on board, Captain Eric St. Pierre gave the command to leave the orbit of Planet OCL 3. While he wished they could have stayed a few months longer to complete their mission, he knew that he needed to get his timeworn starship back to Earth while it was still operational.
Lieutenant Commander Sarah Phinney, who was the chief of operations as well as the second officer, was scheduled to have the conn on the current watch. Since the Liberty was leaving orbit, protocol dictated that the captain would man the conn until they were the distance from the celestial object demanded by Space Fleet regulations. Various factors, such as the size of ship and the object, determined the speed and distances of the starships.
After the Liberty entered warp space and was operating at two-thirds full warp speed Eric turned the conn over to Sarah and left the bridge. He was pleased at the ship’s response to start the trip. While he wished they could travel at its full warp speed, he understood the need for the restriction.
Because of the Liberty’s age and current condition, Space Fleet was being cautious. The energy surges they’d experienced a couple of weeks ago were a source of concern. They had been told they would be restricted to three-quarters of their warp speed, but that morning Space Fleet said that further review of the ship’s condition made them decide to drop their speed to two-thirds of their maximum.
Eric went to his ready room where he met with Commander Arnie Baylor, the ship’s first officer. Eric had told him to communicate with Space Fleet HQ to get the specifics on their route to Earth as well as to Space Station 7 should they have to divert there.
“I take it Space Fleet let you know who the closest starships were in case we should need assistance,” Eric said.
“Yes, they did. At the moment only one ship is within three weeks of us. The next closest is five weeks away,” Arnie said.
“You’re joking. There’s almost always a starship or two hanging around a space station.”
“I said the same thing. They said it was just one of those things that can skew computer algorithms.”
“So, what is the closest starship?”
“It is an Explorer ship, sir. The Robert Heinlein.”
“Good lord! You mean we could end up entrusting our lives to children?” Eric spat.
“It is an Earhart class ship which makes it one of the fastest ships in the fleet.”
“I don’t care if it can travel between points instantly. It doesn’t take a genius to know that the entire crew has the life experience of one of those purple rodents scurrying around OCL 3. We’d better all pray daily that his old bucket holds together until we get close enough to real civilization that we can get competent escorts.”
“I’ll tell Dennis to be sure to have plenty of duct tape on hand,” Arnie said, referring to Chief Engineer Dennis McDonough. “But with all due respect, sir, I don’t think you give the Explorer Program enough credit.”
Eric held up his hand as he checked something on his computer. “Why couldn’t it at least have been the Yuri Gargarin with an 18-year-old experienced captain? Instead, we have the Robert Heinlein with a 13-year-old in command—a command he’s held all of two months. Thanks for the report. I’m going to go down to engineering and see if Dennis has some good news on our status.”
SS ROBERT HEINLEIN
1615
<HOLODECK, Room 3c>
“The mission seems to have gotten off to a smooth start,” Everett said. He and Don were waiting for Jim Maxwell, the third member of the Guardians’ executive committee, and Ben Kennedy who was rapidly becoming a key source of information.
“A smooth start is a good thing as far as I’m concerned,” Don said. “I wouldn’t mind seeing a couple more smooth days. It will give the infant captain and his lackeys a false sense of security. What we need to do today is start planning for a disruption or two this weekend.”
“Jim says he and Barney Werney are working on the minor glitches to engineering and some other operational functions. I’m sure he’ll have a lot to say about that,” Everett said.
Jim arrived two minutes later and Ben a couple of minutes after that. Don started right into their meeting, since he knew everyone wanted to get to dinner by 1730.
After half an hour of discussion, they agreed on a minor glitch they could initiate. Don said Friday would be a good time to start. The others agreed.
“Anything else before we head to dinner?” Don asked.
“I have an interesting bit of news,” Ben said.
“And that would be…?”
“I won’t say anything. But based on something I overheard, and a couple of questions I was asked, it is a possibility. There is a chance one of the department heads may be interested in becoming a Guardian.”
That brought a long period of silence before Don said, “No shit?”
“The chances are slim, but it’s possible. I told this person, who I won’t name in case I’m totally wrong, when our next meeting is. I don’t think I’m wrong, but I don’t know enough about it all to be a hundred percent sure.”
The meeting adjourned. Ben and Jim left for dinner leaving Don and Everett alone. Don asked Everett what he thought.
“I think it’s bullshit,” Everett said.
“But if it isn’t…holy cats what a big break that would be.”
“I wouldn’t count on it until it happens.”
“But we can plan on it just in case,” Don said.
Don and Everett would soon learn about a certain big break who was looking into a way he could surreptitiously meet with Don Nixon.
Next: Planning for Glitches