Command Decision by Elizabeth Moon Read Free Book Online

old ship?”
    “Yes. Although there’s also a potential problem with some of the crew you hired later. I don’t know if you’re aware of it, but you’ve created a situation in which the ship crew is entirely civilian in background and attitude—except for me as your exec—and the fighting crew is entirely military.”
    Ky scowled. “I’m not sure I follow—why is this a problem?”
    “Attitude, mostly. This latest incident is an example of what can go wrong.”
    “The probable cause came in with one of the fighting crew,” Ky said. “And he wasn’t immune to it.”
    “True. The problem spreads…look, just let me explain.” Ky nodded, and he went on. “Take your pilots, for instance. Lee, your senior pilot, is a highly skilled technician in his field, and you have used him as one of your personal guards at times. I know he has adequate weapons skills, and he takes pride in that assignment.”
    “So? He and the others performed well in that fight with Osman—”
    “Yes. But in fact it required nothing of him but acting the part of a traitor, if I understood you rightly. He has never had military training. He is an amateur, at both security functions and at combat. He follows your orders—you are the captain and he’s known you for some time—but I sense a certain resentment to orders I’ve given. Not disobedience—he’s too good a man for that—but he always wants an explanation, or even just to discuss what should get simple obedience.”
    Ky thought back to her experiences aboard Spaceforce training ships. Of course everyone had been military, and military discipline had prevailed. Only the cadets asked questions, for the most part, and they were expected to obey orders without such questions at the time. But was that necessary here, for people without military training?
    “My concern,” Hugh went on, “is that when we’re in combat again, your civilian crewmembers may be slow to respond to orders they don’t understand, or—for those with more initiative—may do something unexpected, and either of these could put themselves or the ship in peril.”
    “You’re really worried about this?” Ky said. “After we’ve been in combat and nothing like that has happened?”
    “Captain, the last post-battle analysis, from the most recent engagement, shows that twenty percent of the crew with civilian background either questioned orders, delayed response, or engaged in unordered activity. Now, as it happens, none of those things was critical in the event—but that’s not something we can depend on. And this latest incident—bringing aboard uninspected food items, failing to enter them on the ship’s stores list, distributing them at a party neither you nor I knew about—shows that a casual attitude toward standard rules has spread even to some of the military crew. You’re going to have to decide what to do about it.”
    Ky frowned. She had not made any connection between the crew’s performance during combat and the food poisoning incident, and for that matter she hadn’t thought of the crew’s behavior as below standard. If Hugh was right…“You have a recommendation?”
    “You’re not going to like it.” Hugh rubbed his nose. “We would be better off with an all-military crew. Retraining this one is going to be difficult, partly because the original crewmembers are in some way associated with your family—with your civilian identity—and partly because you have two distinct groups: the old crew, who have one kind of loyalty to you and your family, and the new crew, who haven’t.”
    “Um.” Ky steepled her hands to give herself time to think. “I hadn’t realized there was this problem—”
    “You haven’t really had time,” Hugh said. “You’ve been dealing with other crises. But it’s something you need to consider.”
    “I don’t want to get rid of people who’ve served with me through the whole thing,” Ky said. “Loyalty cuts both ways.”
    “I thought