[Galaxy] War Stories: Wu, Michaels, Henry

[Robert]

[ Captain's Ready Room, NCL-12 Nautilus ]

"Sorry to rustle you up out of bed, but I figured you'd want to see this 
yourself sooner rather than later," Singh said, offering Wu a seat as he 
pivoted the screen over for a better viewing angle.

Scanning over the written orders, Wu picked out the most important 
parts. Bobby Singh was right. This was worth getting up for, even if he 
had been sleeping.

"Does this...?" Wu asked tentatively.

"As far as I'm concerned it does," Singh confirmed with a nod, 
"immediate means immediately, especially in a war. I don't intend on 
making a longer detour to drop off a good officer I could use in this 
fire fight."

"Thank you, Captain," Wu replied, relief and gratitude plainly evident - 
something he normally fought hard to keep under wraps. It wasn't a 
change of orders, much less a command slot, but it'd be at least one 
last kick at the can.

"Forget it. Those bean counters need to stop poaching good officers to 
man desks. We've got just under thirteen hours before we arrive. Does 
that leave enough time for some work ups and drills?"

"Definitely. I'll have the plans back to you before the top of the hour. 
We can easily slip in a few exercises before we break for some rest and 
arrive on station."

"Then make it so, XO."

"Aye aye, sir."


----------


~~~ESS Ludington SCL-11~~~

"Status report, ensign."

Ensign Jennifer Sunkes  jumped at the sound of her captain’s voice, had 
she been snoozing?   After six days in warp, the captain really couldn’t 
blame her.  "Holding steady at warp three-point-one-four, Captain. 
E.T.A. to Gamma Sagittarii ninety-six minutes.  We should get there just 
in time for lunch."

Captain Douglas Michaels suppressed his smile, as he tapped the ensign's 
report into the datapad in his lap.  If it wasn't against 
regulations--and a terribly bad idea in wartime--he'd have nodded back 
and taken a nap himself. The whole crew of the Ludington could use a 
nap, after seven months of wartime escort duty.

But if they had taken a nap every time they'd needed one, neither the 
Ludington, nor her Sol class pair the Revere, would be here today.  That 
was always when the Romulans seemed to attack.  So Captain Michaels 
tapped at his datapad, and did what he always did when he needed to keep 
his mind sharp and his crew awake.  He talked.

"Can anybody tell me what's special about today?" Douglas asked, to no 
one in particular.

"Meatloaf day in the mess?" Lieutenant Ali Parker asked from her science 
station.

"Commander Jim Finney's birthday?" asked comm officer Ensign Gabrielle 
Falkes.

"April Fool's day?" offered Ensign Sunkes.

"Monday?" asked Commander Paul MacDonald from the Armory station.

The Captain of the Luddington smiled at his bridge crew's answers.  All 
quick, all fairly creative, and all very clear.  Either none of the rest 
of them had been nodding off, or he'd been getting predictable in his 
routine. "'Thanks for the warning,' 'I'd almost forgot,' 'that was 
yesterday', and 'yes'.  But with apologies to our chief engineer, none 
of those are quite as special as what I was thinking of.  Today is the 
one-hundredth anniversary of Zachary Freebird's theory of chief economic 
impact."

"What?"

Douglas laughed at the chorus of confusion.  "Zachary Freebird was an 
economist is the mid twenty-first century.  He studied the economic 
history of his century and that of the twentieth, to help him develop 
his theory.  In short -- I promise short--every single thing that people 
do has one chief economic impact.  Farms produce food, factories produce 
goods, and militaries produce order."

"That sounds kind of obvious."  Commander MacDonald was the first to 
speak this time.  "I mean, they teach in grade school that factories 
make goods and farms grow food."

"Economics is a lot like that," said Lieutenant Parker, who remembered 
this theory from the academy.  "It's all full of stuff that seems really 
obvious when you say it, like 'people do things that benefit 
themselves.'  The hard part is stating it formally, and doing it with 
numbers.”

“Exactly right, Lieutenant,” the Captain interjected.  “And sometimes 
what’s obvious isn’t the right answer.  For example, what do you think 
the chief economic impact of a lawyer is?”

“Maybe trials?” offered Ensign Falkes.

Ensign Sunkes snorted in laughter.  Her father’d been a lawyer back on 
earth.  “No, justice.  My daddy always said that.”

“And he was right, Ensign.  Lawyers produce justice, at least when 
they’re doing right.  Anyone know what the chief economic impact of New 
Darwin colony is?”

“Science?”  “Food?”  “Hope?”

“Nope.”  Captain Michaels smiled, and waited a bit to see if anyone 
would get it right.  “Opportunity.  New Darwin’s chief economic impact 
is opportunity.”

There was a chorus of understanding for a few minutes.  The entire 
bridge crew was used to Michaels doing this, dredging up some obscure 
theory and talking about it for hours on end.

So for the next hour, they talked about Zachary Freebird’s theory and 
tried to figure out how it applied to any random topic.  What was the 
chief economic impact of doctors?  Was it longevity or good health?  The 
luna base?  Recreation, manufacturing or was it bragging rights. 
Sometimes there wasn’t one right answer.  Sometimes it wasn’t all that 
easy.  And sometimes it was.

“Captain?” asked Lieutenant Parker.  “What’s the chief economic impact 
of war?  Doesn’t it spur creativity and patriotism?”

Michaels offered without missing a beat, or a smile on his lips.  He 
didn’t want any confusion about this one. “No lieutenant.  This one’s 
core to the theory, and only has one answer. The chief economic impact 
of war is death.”


----------


[ ESS Shenandoah, Captain’s Ready Room ]

John James Henry was known as “The Hammer”.  Mostly it was because of 
his namesake, John Henry the hammer-swinger and steel driver.  Also, it 
had something to do with his “appropriate diplomatic response” to 
opening any combat scenario – his Armory Officer had gotten used to the 
order “full salvo, fire for effect”.  When it came time to select a 
commanding officer for the Starfleet warship /Republic/, “The Hammer” 
was a natural choice.

And it helped that he never once heard, “Please Hammer, don’t hurt them.”

“You’ll be with me,” Hawke was saying.  “We won’t be part of the main 
formation.  Intel has gotten a bearing on the incoming Naussicaan 
flotilla, and the Admiral has charged me with making sure they don’t 
make it to the primary engagement.”

“So the bulk of the fleet will be dealing with the battlefleet of 
Romulans and Klingons,” Henry reasoned, “while we’ll be making sure the 
Naussicaans don’t jump in and tip the scales.”

The Fleet Captain nodded, “Affirmative.”

“That’s a delicate balancing act, Sir,” Henry said as he rubbed his 
chin.  “How many are being pulled from the fleet to do it?”

“We’re going in small but heavy,” Hawke replied.  “Shenandoah, Republic, 
Intrepid, and maybe one more NX.”

“I like it,” Henry nodded.  “We can cut those small Naussicaan raiders 
in half, then hook around and join the main battle to do some scale 
tipping of our own.”

“That’s the idea.”

Henry raised an eyebrow, “Are we expecting any surprises?”

“You mean Super Sabers?”

“Crossed my mind.”

“Intel says, ‘No.’  Apparently the Naussicaans haven’t been doing all 
that well with them, so the Rommies aren’t giving them any more tech 
until they start pulling a little more weight.”

“Suits me fine,” Henry snorted.  “Three sets of bad guys and only two 
are worth their salt.  I’d almost say that ordering Republic to swat 
them down was a misallocation of war resources.”

“Sometimes the brute force approach /works/,” Hawke smiled.

Henry shrugged.  “If brute force /doesn’t/ work, then you’re not using 
enough.”

Hawke couldn’t help but grin.  “Just enough to get the job done, John. 
Remember, we’ll be headed from one brawl to another, so save a little 
for the Klingons and Romulans.”

“Oh, I’ve got plenty for them,” Henry said.  He turned very serious. 
“I’ve lost too many friends in this war to not to share the wealth.”


-----
Cmdr David Wu
First Officer
NCL-12 Nautilus
(apb Rick)

Captain Douglas Michaels
Commanding officer
ESS Ludington SCL-11
(apb Rachelle)

Capt John J. Henry
Commanding Officer
FCL-02, ESS Republic
(apb Robert)