star nation had been brutally attacked by who knew who, and at least half the civilian populace was screaming for blood without recognizing that no one knew who to go kill.
“It's a family problem,” she said.
That sobered up Lieutenant Loyd quick enough. “Lockhart didn't—” He choked on the words and it took Claire a few moments to fill in the assumptions.
“Oh no. Not a pregnancy kind of family problem. A teenage head-of-household met the wrong new father figure kind of family problem.” Claire clenched her fists.
Lieutenant Loyd cocked his head to the side, clearly baffled.
Claire repressed a sigh. People didn't understand how much the rule of law could suck when they'd never lived on the bottom of it. She explained about how Noah had signed the initial authorization for her to work for the Academy stint and about the pay transfers.
His eyebrows rose.
With a blush, Claire admitted to hiding the pay bump that came with a promotion to ensign. And, she summarized the Burdette Steading altar call for a return to pious family values that had led to Noah's intent to revoke Claire's authorization to work.
Lieutenant Loyd's eyebrows stayed up. After a lengthy pause the sum total of his response was, “Wow.” He shook his head and repeated himself, “Wow.”
Claire felt compelled to point out, “You did say I was supposed to tell you about problems as they came up. That that was what department heads were for.”
Lieutenant Loyd snorted. “Remind me never to say stuff like that again.” He shook his head. “I've got no idea . . .” Then he stilled. “Oh, yeah, that'll work. You've heard what our latest orders are right?”
Claire rubbed her forehead vaguely remembering a navigation brief for the transit to Grayson, but she'd been given a day without watch to catch up on sleep and lost track of what the ship was doing.
Her department head shrugged. “I'm sure the wardroom gossip has it by now. The VIP we are picking up on Grayson is Michael Mayhew. We're taking his staff to Manticore. With the attack and all, I guess the Protector prefers to have him travel in a warship rather their usual yacht.”
Loyd broke off the conversation for a few moments to monitor Manasseh's final approach into orbit around Grayson,
Once they were in a stable orbit, Commander Greentree's voice rang over the ship's announcing system. “Manasseh, We're about to bring aboard a very important member of the Mayhew family. Please welcome him and support his staff as you would the Protector himself. I'm sure you'll do me proud.
“We've been attacked, and you all know how much we've been hurt. The Protector is sending his brother to Queen Elizabeth to plan this new war, and he chose the Manasseh to get him there. Grayson and Manticore have some enemies out there due a full measure of retribution. This is the first step in delivering it.”
The crew in CIC burst into spontaneous applause.
The usual ceremony of shuttles and personnel transfer went off flawlessly. Only Mayhew and a few staff members came onboard. The rest of his staff were still on Grayson engaged in last minute preparations for the trip and would embark on later shuttles after the Manasseh's crew had rearranged workstations and berthing assignments to make room on the warship for the elite passengers.
From the craning necks at the nearby consoles, Claire realized that the official party was actually touring the ship with Commander Greentree leading them around and introducing the crew rather than going directly to their cabins. The CO performed the introductions naming every spacer in CIC, and the tour stopped. Michael Mayhew chatted with several petty officers eager shake his hand, so that one day they could tell grandchildren that they had actually met a Mayhew.
Mayhew worked his way around with polished elegance staying just long enough with each spacer to exchange a few words but not so long that any appeared uncomfortable in his company.
Claire was ready with a fake smile when he reached out to shake her hand.
“Ensign Lecroix,” he said. “A pleasure to meet you. Commander Greentree speaks highly of your work in the recovery efforts.”
“Thank you, Sir.”
Then he dropped the conversational grenade. “So tell me about your cousin, Noah.”
She looked from him to the CO to her department head. Word traveled fast.
“Sir, my cousin is my head-of-household in Burdette. He signed an Authorization to Work Outside the Home when I entered Saganami, but he's been talked into revoking it.”
“So I heard. And does Steadholder Burdette generally feel