from my boys. Willard did it for a while, but I hear that some of those foreign-headed men in the Protector's Own got to him. No offense, Phin, I know you aren't like those foreigners. They just happen to be wearing your uniform.”
The master chief stilled in not quite parade rest and held the fixed gaze of a long-time military man who clearly intended to ignore a conversation between officers that, from the slight flare his eyelids, did not fit his view of military courtesy and customs.
Captain Ayres barely even paused for breath, “Pleased as punch to be a straightforward GSN officer myself these days.”
Claire mentally ran through the lists of GSN and Protector's Own ships memorized while she was at Saganami Island. The Manasseh like Ephraim was definitely a normal Grayson Space Navy ship and not one of the elite squadron directly under Protector Benjamin Mayhew. That made Phineas Greentree one of those exceptional officers requested by the GSN from the Protector's Own to fill command slots.
Commander Greentree listened with a calm, controlled smile as Captain Ayres continued to apologize for Claire's transfer, or possibly for her existence. There had been a Grayson Midshipman Greentree at the Saganami Island Naval Academy a couple years behind her, and Claire gritted her teeth at being sent to yet another ship commanded by an officer with a family interest in preserving tradition.
The Bedlam family had been beaten with the stick of tradition too many times to have developed the reverence for it that imbued so many naval families. Egalitarianism in the service was a beautiful Saganami fantasy, but Aunt Jezzy had taught her better than to believe in fairytales.
Captain Ayres said often enough that women were not meant to serve in uniform. His family had been in service with Captain Hugh Yanakov himself on the founding voyage to colonize the Planet Grayson, so an Ayres could be counted on to know. Of course, every Grayson's lineage went back to that colony ship, and it had been run mostly by automated computers, with the colonists and crew in cryostasis for the trip. Claire hadn't argued. She'd learned not to.
Captain Ayres finally wound down with, “And don't take her blather just now too seriously. I had her watched closely. She never once coupled up with any of my boys, though a number of them did offer for her. Not the officers, of course, which might be what she's been holding out for, though some of them would have had some fun if she'd been willing. The girl's naive is all. You heard her describing building a love nest behind the infirmary on my ship just now, innocent as the dawn, thinking that anyone would want to allow a midshipwoman some out of the way cubby for a sleep space where no one could keep a proper eye on her activities.”
“Midshipwoman?” Commander Greentree glanced from Ayres to Claire with a tight-lipped question, “Are you out of uniform, Ensign or is it Midshipwoman?”
Claire was certain that she was scarlet by now. “I—uh—” She looked to Captain Ayres. He had the grace to flush.
Captain Ayres shrugged in a decidedly unmilitary way waving his hands at Claire. “She kept asking, Phin. I wasn't going to allow her onboard or anything like that, but it was about the time that most of the middies get bumped up to ensign. That and the Office of Personnel was asking, too. They wanted a Letter of Instruction to file in her record as to why she wasn't made an ensign after the first T-year.
“I gotta tell you that I put together a draft of the letter. I figured that if all of us in the fleet just stood strong and didn't promote the poor girls that got pushed into this mess—Well, their families would have to take them back to do right by them. My XO had this idea, though, you see, if she were just to stay on Blackbird she could be laterally transferred to the yardbirds, but they don't take transfers for middies. Only officers.
“So—” Ayres shrugged. “I'm sorry again, Phin, I don't know what to tell you. You could strip the rank, I suppose.”
“Your XO. Right.” Commander Greentree's lips had thinned even more. “Sir.”
Claire felt like throwing up. Manasseh's CO looked almost as angry as the ATO had been.
“Did you at least do a board?” In one small mercy, Commander Greentree stopped looking quite so much like a vid star when he was furious, but Claire flinched at his