Duty from Ashes (11 page)

“Delta and Gamma Companies will continue training as well. However, after today’s events, those companies will have to prove to me that they are battle ready. Lt. Taffer, Lt. Rossi, you need to tell your people just that.”

“Yes, Ma’am!”

“Do you know where we’re going, ma’am?” Ortega asked.

“I do, but until we have relocated on base, I’m not at liberty to disclose it. Just know that it will be more than enough to get some of our own back from the enemy and to remind them of just how foolish it is to take us on.

“Now, here is what we know about the current situations in both the Cassius System and the Nystrom System. . . .”

*     *     *

“Major, they’re here.”

Ashlyn looked up at the sound of her XO’s voice. Then she glanced at the time. Two hours had passed since she’d issued the orders to find and bring Hotchner and Rhydderch to her office. That was longer than she’d hoped but not as long as she’d expected. Whether it meant they hadn’t expected her to take direct action or not, she didn’t care. All she wanted was to deal with them and get them out of her battalion before they managed to do any further damage.

But, before she did, she wanted to make sure she had everything covered. There would be no mistakes where they were concerned.

“Let Lt. Liu know they are here and ask if he will listen in. Assure him I will let them know he is taking part.” She chewed her lower lip, thinking. “I want MPs on the door, on the outside. Kevin and MJ are to be inside. You and I will deal with getting Hotchner and Rhydderch out of the battalion. Then I want you to be sure all recordings, documentation, interviews, etc., are transmitted to my mother and to General Okafor. Let’s make sure these two never see higher rank.”

“I’ll let you know what Liu has to say.”

Ashlyn nodded and turned her attention back to the list of potential replacements for Hotchner and Rhydderch. If she got lucky, she might find at least one officer she could transfer in as company CO. Preferably, it would be someone who had served with the Devil Dogs before. But as long as they had the needed combat and command experience, and the right attitude, she wouldn’t require it. Unfortunately, it was proving more difficult than she’d expected.

Ten minutes later, Ash sat behind her desk, her expression hard, as the MPs escorted the two captains into her office. She thanked them and then told them to wait outside. As the door closed behind them, Adamson and Talbot took up positions on either side of the doorway. Looking at their serious expressions, Ash found herself almost wishing the captains tried to make a break for it. She had no doubts her senior non-coms would make quick work of the two of them.

“What is the meaning—” Hotchner began, his face flushed with anger.

“Quiet!” Ortega snapped. “And stand at attention. You haven’t been put at ease.”

Rebellion crossed both men’s expression before they obeyed. Without a word, Ashlyn stood. As she moved around her desk, she made no attempt to hide her contempt. Nor did she try to disguise the fact she was inspecting every aspect of the men’s appearance. Standing close, she sniffed, her upper lip curling back as she caught the aroma of alcohol on them both.

“Captain Ortega, inform Medical that I require a technician here on the double to take blood samples from these two
officers
.” She spat out the word. “I have reason to believe they have been drinking while on duty and want to be sure they haven’t been abusing other substances as well.”

Rhydderch stiffened and looked like he wanted to speak. But one look from Ash seemed to quell whatever he’d been about to say.

“For the record, this meeting is being recorded. Lt. Jianyu Liu from the Judge Advocate General Corps is taking part via link at my request. Upon the conclusion of this meeting, copies of the recording as well as all other documentation relating to it will be forwarded to the offices of the commanding officer, First Division, as well as the Office of the Commandant of the Marine Corps. Do you each understand?”

She waited until they both answered in the affirmative.

“To begin, I have one question for the two of you. Did you receive the change in orders issued by Captain Ortega at my behest stating that the afternoon training session had been postponed and that you, along with your XOs, were to report for a briefing at 1500 hours?”

As she waited for them to respond, she returned to her chair.

“Answer aloud,” Ortega told them when Rhydderch nodded, his expression grim.

“Yes.” Anger roughed Hotchner’s voice.

“Yes what?” Ashlyn prompted. She would not allow their insubordination and lack of respect to continue.

“Yes, ma’am,” he ground out.

“Did you understand those orders?”

“Yes, ma’am,” they answered almost in unison.

“Was there anything in those orders that led you to believe you could skip the briefing?”

No answer. Not that she expected one.

““I think you can take that as a negative, Major,” Ortega said.

“Captain Ortega, at any time, did either Captain Hotchner or Captain Rhydderch inform you that they would not be at the briefing?”

“Negative, Major.”

“Do either of you have anything to say for yourselves that might excuse your actions? You have disobeyed orders and have been insubordinate and that’s just taking into account your actions today. Do you have anything you to say?”

“We’ve done nothing to deserve this sort of treatment,
Major
.” Disdain all but dripped from Hotchner’s words. “So we missed a briefing. We’d already been to one today. We made sure our XOs were present. If you said anything of import, they’d let us know. Whether you want to believe it or not, we had better things to be doing than watching you massage your ego.”

“Captain—” Ortega began. She stopped when Ashlyn shook her head.

“What was so important that you didn’t feel you needed to make the briefing?” Ash wanted to know. When neither man answered, she turned her attention to Talbot. “Master Guns, ask the MPs to come in.”

He nodded and stepped out of the office. A moment later, he returned with the MPs. They approached the desk and then braced to attention.

“Sergeant Morgan, where did you find Captains Hotchner and Rhydderch?”

“They were at the Officers’ Club, ma’am,” the older of the two MPs answered.

“Were they alone?” She wasn’t sure she wanted to know the answer. If they had been there with other members of the battalion, she’d have to look into those Marines as well and, damn it, she didn’t have time for it.

“Negative, ma’am. They were sharing a table with Major Thomas O’Brien.”

O’Brien!

Ashlyn’s head snapped up and her eyes flashed. Well that certainly threw a whole new wrench in the works.

“Major.” Lt. Liu’s voice interrupted her thoughts and she glanced at the display to her right. “Major Shaw, I am hereby authorizing the MPs to take Captain Hotchner and Captain Rhydderch into custody. They are to be escorted to my office where they can explain to me not only why they disobeyed orders but why they were consorting with someone currently under investigation.”

“Thank you, Lt. Liu.” She nodded to the MPs who moved to stand on either side of the two men. “Before you leave, there is one thing you need to understand. You are both relieved of your commands in FirstDiv and you will be transferred out just as soon as I can push the paperwork through. While you have your
discussion
with Lt. Liu, your offices will be cleaned out. Your personal belongings will be forwarded to you, just as soon as they have been checked.” She paused and wished she dared to more. “Sergeant Morgan, get these two sorry excuses for Marines out of my office.”

“With pleasure, Major.”

“Liu,” Ash began as Hotchner and Rhydderch were escorted out.

“Don’t worry, Major. I have every intention of seeing what connection they have with O’Brien,” the JAG officer assured her. “I will let you know what comes out of my interview with them. But rest assured, I will support your decision to remove them from the battalion.” With that, he ended the transmission.

For a moment, Ash stared at the blank comm screen. Then she turned her attention to her executive officer.

“Luce, let’s not take any more chances. Run a check on all officers and senior non-coms. If there is more than a passing connection with either Sorkowski or O’Brien, I want to know about it. This is one instance where I will let myself be paranoid. If we’re about to drop into battle, I need to be able to trust the officers under my command.”

“Understood.”

“Now, it’s going to make for a long night and a very early morning, but we need to find replacements for those two bastards and we need to finish filling out the HQ staff.” She leaned back, her expression thoughtful. “Luce, you and MJ get together first and set up training sessions for Alpha and Beta Companies for tomorrow. We’ll do a full battalion exercise day after tomorrow. Hopefully by then we will have new COs for Gamma and Delta Companies.”

Hopefully. If not, she was going to have to tell General Okafor that, for the first time, the Devil Dogs wouldn’t be able to answer the call to serve and that was something she intended to avoid, if at all possible.

C
HAPTER
S
EVEN

“M
A
’
AM
,
WOULD
YOU
MIND
telling me why we’ve come to the
Aisling
?” Talbot asked.

Ashlyn looked up from the report she’d been studying and set her datapad to one side. Then she glanced around the shuttle’s main cabin. She and Talbot had the first rows of seats to themselves. The next two rows had been left empty. But beyond that sat half a dozen men and women. They all wore naval uniforms. While their presence wasn’t unusual, it did make it more difficult to discuss not only the reasons for the trip but her concerns about it.

“There are several members of the Marine contingent onboard who have requested transfer to the battalion, Master Guns. I figured it was easier for me to come to them to conduct the interviews and discuss their service records with their CO than to have them brought to us.”

For a moment, she wondered if Talbot would ask something else. He didn’t. Instead, he nodded, his eyes flicking to the rear of the shuttle. Good. He’d understood why she was being a bit circumspect. Not that she’d expect anything else from him.

She wished there had been time to fully brief him, as well as Lucinda Ortega who was holding things down for her dirtside, before they had to catch the shuttle. But there hadn’t been. She had awakened to find orders from General Okafor. In no uncertain terms, she’d been instructed to make her way to the
Aisling
in its parking orbit. The public reason for her visit was to meet with those Marines who had requested transfer to the Devil Dogs. Since she had already planned to interview one of them as a replacement for Delta Company’s CO, she’d not objected.

Then she’d learned the other reason for her visit. Not only was she to evaluate the Marine complement onboard but she was to determine if the ship would meet her needs as battalion CO for the Devil Dogs’ upcoming mission. Okafor had made it very clear that only ships, and their personnel, that Ashlyn was comfortable with would be going on the mission.

That had surprised her. It hadn’t taken long after her return from Tarsus to realize that FleetCom was being very careful where she was concerned. The medical personnel she’d seen had almost all been associated with the Devil Dogs. General Okafor had made sure those first few weeks that Ash only dealt with Devil Dogs and former Devil Dogs. Ashlyn had a feeling part of it was to make sure she understood that they meant everything they were saying about knowing she and the others had been set up. Another part had to have been an attempt to reassure her that the Corps was now and always had been behind her. But this latest was almost too much. Then she’d gotten a quick message from her mother. Elizabeth had said it best. Fleet was simply acting as transport for this mission. Ash, as well as the task force commander, had to be confident that every ship, and every man and woman onboard, would do whatever was necessary for the successful completion of the mission.

The shuttle seemed to give a shudder and a moment later a soft chime announced the completion of the docking sequence. The red light over the hatch turned green, confirming pressurization of the compartment beyond. As the hatch slid open almost silently, Ashlyn climbed to her feet, Talbot at her side. It was time, ready or not.

Squaring her shoulders, Ashlyn stepped into the aisle. She took a moment to make sure there wasn’t a seam out of place or a medal hanging askew on her chest. Usually, she did all she could to do away with protocol that didn’t serve any purpose but to add unnecessary time to an assignment. She hadn’t had a choice this time. Okafor had
requested
she wear mess dress for her inspection. Hopefully, it would be enough to head off any trouble that might be waiting for her.

A few moments later, she stepped off the shuttle and into the docking bay of the
Aisling
. As she did, she glanced around. The sounds of a crew working on a nearby shuttle reached her. They appeared to be the only ones present, barring the BBOD and two Marine privates standing just behind the BBOD. Something about that seemed wrong but Ash didn’t dwell on it. This wasn’t her ship – yet – and she wasn’t Navy. The two branches might be related and they certainly relied upon one another, but there was no disputing that they did things differently.

But she was a Marine and the sight of the two privates did bother her. It wasn’t that they were privates, at least not completely. What bothered her was the fact they were the only Marines present. It was a breach of protocol to have privates there without an officer to meet someone of her rank. There could be a reasonable explanation. She simply couldn’t think what it might be, not under present circumstances at least.