McKnight's Mission by Caleb Wachter

Author:Caleb Wachter [Wachter, Caleb]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pacific Crest Publishing
Published: 2015-11-17T08:00:00+00:00

“Have a seat, Pen,” Tiberius gestured to the bench situated opposite where he leaned against a vertical support strut.

“Ok…” she said with faux apprehension as she clearly attempted to lighten the mood. After she had seated on the bench, she asked, “What’s this about, boss?”

“I’ve decided to give Horgan the job of Chief Engineer,” Tremblay said bluntly, watching her expression carefully as she first looked surprised, then resigned, and finally smiled as she usually did.

“Horgan is a great engineer,” she said approvingly. “It’ll be great working with him.”

“I didn’t arrive at this decision lightly,” Tiberius said neutrally, keeping his eyes fixed on her as he dropped the proverbial bomb, “but, in spite of your outscoring him on every test, he’s got the command experience and that’s going to matter.”

Her expression froze momentarily when he mentioned that she had outscored him on all of the tests. She had, in fact, failed to surpass his scores in every major field of examination to which he had subjected them. But her reaction was the final nail in the coffin of doubt he had harbored since tabulating those scores—she had sandbagged and performed poorly on purpose!

“If that’s your decision, I know it’s the right one for all of us,” she said cheerfully, her veneer of indomitable positivity returning to her countenance.

“Why did you sandbag the tests, Pen?” he asked abruptly.

She looked taken aback, “I…I don’t know what you mean.”

“You know blasted well what I mean,” he snapped. “You know more about wave form harmonics than the rest of us put together, but somehow you managed to underperform Horgan on a test?” He shook his head severely, “I don’t get it—but more importantly, I don’t like it. I thought I could depend on you.”

“You can!” she protested in alarm.

“I’m not so sure,” he countered. “I’m trying to establish a team in Engineering that can run this ship, and in order to do that I need my people performing at their best.”

“I am,” she said defiantly. “When have I ever failed to outwork our crewmates?”

“How about we start with your performance on that test?!” he snapped.

She winced and visibly backed down before saying, “That’s different…”

“Why?” he asked with equal parts exasperation and curiosity.

She looked down at her work boots for a long moment before finally lifting her eyes to meet his. “Isn’t it obvious?” she whispered as she held his gaze firmly with her own.

He furrowed his brow in confusion. “Honestly, Pen, I can’t for the life of me figure out why you wouldn’t want to be a Chief Engineer in your own right… You’re the most talented power room tech in the fleet—it’s time you stepped up into something that will push you out of your comfort zone. So no,” he shook his head, but forced himself to relax as he finished, “it’s anything but obvious—at least not to me.”

Her previously neutral expression flared with anger as she bolted up from the bench. But instead of speaking, she lunged across the narrow space between them,

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