“You said father a bit back. Is your father Marshal Wilson?” Mitch asked taking a hard-boiled egg.
“We all have burdens we have to carry,” Jill said in a dead pan voice, “I was asked to help out here.”
Mitch pondered what the girl had said to her and what the Thonians had told her the night before, and how she had been brought to see this girl. As she finished, she looked at the girl before her.
“Okay! Sign me up,” Mitch finally stated, “It can’t be any worse than the
Adventure. At least we don’t have to worry about someone falling overboard!”
“Thank you,” Jill replied, “You will come in as a master sergeant. Right now you’ll have a barracks. Later you might have a company. We’re still trying to get organized. It’s a day to day thing.”
She thought for a moment. When she had left the adventure she had just been promoted to chief petty officer. She was trying to compare the two grades. With no reference to compare she gave it up and asked, “So what’s next?”
“We to get you formally signed into the corps,” Jill replied, “Once that’s done, there’s a couple of people who’ll want to talk to you about what you might know about any other children who might be avoiding the authorities.”
“I am not certain if I know anything,” Mitch said, “but I’ll share what I know.” “Good enough,” Jill replied. “You done?” Mitch nodded.
“Let’s go see Lady Hawthorne,” Jill stood up. Soon both girls were climbing the steps to the administration wing. Jill knocked on an office door on the second floor.
“Enter,” a woman’s voice called from inside the office.
They entered the office and found young woman of thirty, sitting behind a desk, “One second Jill.”
Jill nodded. She noticed that the noble woman was on her com. Lady Hawthorne finished shortly and turned to the girls standing before her desk. “Good morning Jill!” “Good morning Lady Hawthorne,” Jill returned the noble lady’s greeting.
“And this must be Valarie Mitchum,” She turned to Jill’s companion.
“Yes ma’am,” Jill answered, “Lady Hawthorne let me introduce you to Valerie Mitchum. Our newest cadet. Mitch let me introduce you Lady Deloris Hawthorne,
Commandant, Queen’s Own Royal Corps of Cadets Academy.”
Mitch came to attention when she heard the word commandant. Delores was quietly impressed when she saw the girl come to attention. “Stand easy cadet.” Both girls flowed into the at ease position.
“Please sit down,” Delores asked.
“I can’t,” Jill replied, “I got to get to class! Mitch I leave you in good hands.”
Delores nodded. One they were alone, Deloris gestured to the seat. Once seated Delores hand her a data pad. “What I am handing you is the paper work needed to formally enter you into the Corps. It won’t take long.”
And it didn’t. Within half an hour she had finished the application and Lady Hawthorne escorted her to an office where the rest of her in processing began.
By the end of the day she had been debriefed by a couple of people who were obviously not cops; but were working to find all the kids who might be runaways or hiding from the authorities.
One of the adults, who was a counselor discussed with her in private about what happened at the shelter. At first Mitch didn’t want to discuss what happen. When the counselor said okay, letting Mitch know that if she needed someone to talk to someone about what happen, just ask to see her. When Mitch saw that the woman knew what had happened to her; but wasn’t going to press her about it opened up about what happen and her fear of it repeating. An hour later Mitch felt better about the incident, realized that it most likely would not happen again.
The counselor turned her over to another adult who took her to get out fitted. Unlike on the boat, she didn’t have to get anything adjusted to fit her. It all fit her.
After she went through Sergeant Green’s supply room, the same adult briefed her on her duties. It wasn’t too much different than being a berthing space leader back on the Adventure. It wasn’t until the after diner muster that she was introduced to her dorm’s residents. There was one young man who was not happy about losing his squad leadership job. But the kid was only fourteen years old. Jill and Lady Hawthorne had put him charge until they found someone else. Until she showed up he was the oldest cadet in this dorm.
“Gene,” Mitch said coming into the kid’s room. As barracks boss he had one of the two private rooms in the barracks. “I can’t run this place by myself. Will you help me?”
The kid was sullen. Mitch didn’t get upset, she just said, “Okay Gene. Have it your way. We’ll talk in the morning. Have a good night.”
Mitch left the kid’s room to find Jill waiting for her in the hall.
“How you settling in,” She asked.
“I have been so busy that I haven’t a chance to settle in.” Mitch said, “Looks like
Gene’s going to be a problem.”
“He’ll come around.” Jill said, “I heard what you said, it’s the right thing.”
“I hope so,” Mitch returned. Then she saw what Jill was carrying. A guitar, “do you play?”
“No. It would be first degree assault and battery if I tried to play it.” Jill smiled, “One of the companions brought it over today. He said it might belong to you!”
“Oh,” Mitch said trying not to reach out for it, “It’s not mine. I lost mine a few nights ago. One of the people sharing my squat stole it”
“Well until we find the real owner it’s yours!” Jill said handing her the instrument. “Thank you,” Mitch took the guitar to that Jill offered her.
“There’s a meeting for all dorm NCOs at lunch, most days. Your assistant can take the kids to lunch,” Jill continued.
“I’ll be there captain,” Mitch addressed the young woman wearing the eagles like the captain of the Adventure of Learning wore.
“It’s Colonel,” Jill reminded the girl, suppressing a yawn, “Okay time for me to get to bed, I have an early morning. Try not to play too late into the evening Sarge.”
“Thank you Colonel,” Mitch saluted the young woman before her. That evening the barracks was filled her soft soprano and the quiet strands of the acoustic guitars tones.
As Jill went over to the teacher’s quarters where she slept when she stayed at the academy, her detail didn’t want her sleeping in a dorms, (they were not sure the barracks were safe enough for her,) she ran into Millie Green. She had been down only for a day or so getting the supply rooms organized. It seemed like something that should have been delegated to someone besides a Master Gunnery Sergeant.
“Good evening Colonel,” the sergeant said. She was seated on one of the many benches that dotted the grounds. She had her journal open on the bench beside her.
“Good evening Sergeant,” Jill asked, “mind if I sit a bit?”
“Not at all,” The sergeant said. She looked up and saw the woman who was always within eyesight of the girl. She had not seen much of Jill the last couple of days. She had been very busy in the supply center. She had met with Deloris Hawthorne a couple of times, and had found out that the young woman had never been in the military, but had a good heart and wasn’t afraid to ask questions. She suspected that Lady Hawthorne was no slouch when it came to brains, “How’s it going?”
“Sometimes I think I am out of my league,” Jill said to older woman. “I am doing this by what feels right!”
“Has it been right?” Millie Green asked.
“Yes,” Jill said, “I think I did the right thing most of the time.” “Then it most likely was,” the fortyish sergeant commented.
Jill thought about what she had done so far and nodded. Even though she wasn’t certain she had done the right thing with Mitch, she felt that eventually it would prove to be the right thing. Sergeant Green’s voice broke into her thoughts.
“Starting tomorrow you can start cycling a
ll your cadets through the supply room so they can get outfitted.” Green said.
“I thought you were already open?” Jill asked.
“Yes and no,” the sergeant replied, “I let a couple of the cadet NCOs in to get them outfitted. Tomorrow we can do the entire school.”
“Thank you sergeant. I’ll leave you to your journal.” Jill said getting up, “It’s going to be a long day tomorrow.”
“They are all long days colonel,” Millie said, “And they won’t get shorter.”
Jill nodded as Millie picked up her journal. Millie wrote in her journal, “Finished getting the cadets’ supply room set up today. I have been working with a combination of older children, and adults. None of them know anything about the military. Well that’s not true a couple of them do. But I liked working with them. The cadet commander has got her head on I think. I talked with Sergeant Lucas the other morning, and he seems to think she is the best hope for these kids. So is Lady Hawthorne. Somehow, though we have to help make her into a commandant. She is young for the job, maybe thirty. Most commandants are in their sixties. Usually on their last duty post before retirement. Lady Hawthorne is much too young for that. I wonder where this is all going to end.”
She ended the entry and went on to the quarters where she sleeping.
###
Lady Hawthorne didn’t know that there was a network both official and unofficial that the sergeants and noncoms were part of. Sometimes known as the sergeant’s net, it was working its magic at the academy. During the next few days as Lady Hawthorne and her people got the old boarding school up and running as a cadet academy, NCOs just started showing up. They began to make things happen for the cadets. A militia combat engineering unit, coming back from another assignment stopped by the school and with their heavy equipment graded and dragged the athletic fields fixed all of the gates and other outdoor equipment. In addition to the CE unit, a couple of retired black guard sergeants began showing up every morning. They worked with getting the kids out on the green in the morning for roll call and had started to identify kids who would make good cadet officers. Not only retired marines had just shown up, some Interstellar Rescue Service NCOs and officers, and Thonians as well. Not just retired military but serving military, police officers and fire fighters began showing up also.
Jill was there when Lady Hawthorne decided to get to the bottom of what was going on.
“Gentlemen,” Lady Hawthorne approached the two men who seemed to be the ring leaders of all the help she was getting. She had to know what was going on. More so since Jill’s principle agent didn’t seem to have a problem with any of the people who were helping out. She didn’t worry about the active duty military as they spent only their off time at the school, but the others she felt that she was using them. “I have contracts for you and your friends, sergeant.”
“We don’t want contracts,” the older of the two said, “Our pension covers our expenses. Especially if we eat here every day!”
“Then how do I pay you?” Lady Hawthorne asked.
“Ma’am,” the younger of the two spoke softly; he was old enough to be her grandfather, “we owe a few people a lot of favors. They took care of us as we were coming up. We heard that you and the young lady needed help and so we thought it might be a good idea to make sure that you got that help.”
“Lady Hawthorne,” Jenny, Jill’s agent commented, “Your network is only second to the Noncom’s network. I’ve been checking up on what’s happening. The sergeants for whatever reason have made this place a project.”
“Why?” Lady Hawthorne asked. She noticed that Jill was listening to them intently.
“The kids,” the younger man said, “They deserve the best we can give them and you folks while very good at what you do, Lady Hawthorne you need as much help as you can get. A couple of Marshal Wilson’s friends from the police academy will be here tomorrow they are PT instructors. They have a couple of days so they’re going to lead the kids through a series of PT drills.”
“But these are kids,” Lady Hawthorne said.
“Yes ma’am,” the old marine said, “They’ve been looking over your population they have the kids divided into groups and have developed a specific PT Drill for each group. The fifteen to 18 year olds will be out of your hair most of the day, the twelve to fifteen year olds will be on the athletic fields all day, and the little guys will be in the gym.” “What are the older kids doing,” Lady Hawthorne asked.
“We have ten trucks coming in with more clothing and sundry items for the kids. They’ll be stocking the warehouse and the store room. The Gunny will be back for a while to check on things. I hear she’s getting assigned planet side on the Princess’ staff. The Gunny said it was okay to load the warehouse; but it better be to her plan!”
“You know the crown has some ferocious laws concerning child labor.” Lady Hawthorne said half seriously.
“UCMJ has even more ferocious law concerning the care, feeding and handling of cadets.” The older man said. “Trust us, my lady, those kids will be worked, and some of them will find they have muscles that they didn’t know they have, they’ll be back by evening chow. But they will not be harmed even though they might think are!” “Okay,” The young woman said.
“What happens to these kids when we get to Home,” The younger of the two asked.
“I am working on it now.” Lady Hawthorne answered. She had no idea what was going to happen on Home; but she was already wondering would it be big enough to have a boarding school.
The two men looked at each other as if coming to a decision.
###
“Met with Valerie Mitchum today,” it was late in the day and the princess was reading form her grandmother’s diary in her room, “There is something about the girl I can’t place. She’s not like Lamile, or some of the other girls I know. Although soft spoken, and a little shy I think, there seems to be some great inner strength about her. She seems to observe a great deal.
“I read about her guitar and how she lost it; so I found a company that was still in business and told them what I wanted.” Jill had written, “I asked for the best and hope that is what I got. The look on Mitch’s face when I gave her the guitar was worth it. I understand she has wonderful voice. I wonder when I will hear it myself.”
The princess closed the diary. She had seen and heard Mitch’s singing. It was indeed wonderful to hear.
“Mitch became a very close friend of your grandmother,” the School Mistress appeared to sit on her bed. “And of mine.”
“I’ve read of some of Mitch’s exploits,” The Princess commented, “She seemed to be a born to be police officer. She was decorated as many times as granddad was.”
“Yes,” the School Mistress commented, she missed Mitch. Mitch had become a very good friend. Her last duty post had been at the academy as the chief of instruction for police officers attending the academy. “But you know what she says her greatest achievement was?”
“No?” the princess asked.
“Being your Grandmother’s friend and being there when things became crazy.” The School Mistress replied, “She, your grandmother, and Lamile Atomi were very close, closer than what the written record shows.” “I see,” The princess said.
“Don’t read too late Lisa,” the school mistress appeared to get off of the princess’ bed, “it’ll be there in the morning.”
Chapter 19: A Quiet Conversation
The next Monday, the general was back and ready to continue with the class. She was looking forward to the next few sessions as this was how the academy was really founded, and talked more of the Jill Wilson she had come to know.
“Queen Jill had her hands filled,” the general began, “She was trying to live up to Sergeant Green’s expectations and her own desire to be the best she could be.
“She always pushed herself a bit; but always found a way to reign it in.” she said, “We think that L
ady Wilson had a great deal to do with this.”
###
Lady Wilson knocked on her step daughter’s bedroom door before she entered the teenager’s bedroom. She expected to see the teenager sleeping soundly. It was time to wake her up so she could go to the academy. She was still staying at the palace although she spent more and more time at the academy, sometimes overnight. Lisa was pleasantly surprised that her step daughter was stepping up to all the responsibility. She also seemed to be keeping her good humor. But the kid was over doing it. She was at the academy by 0500 most mornings and not home to well after 2200 most nights. Lisa was concerned that Jill was over doing. She didn’t want the young woman to wear herself out. She found Jill awake studying.
“Not getting your usual A.” Lisa asked.
“Oh hi Mom,” Jill greeted her step mother as she looked up from her desk.
“Think you might be over doing it a bit?” Lisa asked.
“I don’t know,” Jill said replied, “But this stuff I have to learn.” “What is it?” Lisa asked.
“Customs and Courtesies of the Royal Trena Militia,” Jill said.
“But don’t you know this?” Lisa asked. “I mean living around the military all your life you should have a feel for it.”
“I do have a feel for it,” Jill said, “But Trena has stuff from Earth, Thonia, and half a dozen other places.”
“Why not let the academy staff help you get it right. Aren’t they there to help you,” Lisa asked.
“Yes but…” Jill said and Lisa interrupted her, “You are your father’s daughter all right Miss Perfect!”
Jill looked at Lisa sheepishly and knew she was busted.
“Look Jill,” Lisa looked the girl in her eyes, remembering what the sergeant on the supply ship had said. “I know you want to be perfect, that you need to be better than your cadets. But don’t pay a price you may eventually be unwilling to pay. Do the best you can and try to do better when your best doesn’t measure up.” Jill listened.
“Your father’s nickname, Mr. Perfect, has come at a price.” Lisa said, “He is expected to be almost super human in what he does. So he has to work harder so no one can say he isn’t on his game.” Lisa said, “You concentrate on being Jill. Don’t worry about being Miss Perfect. We need only one prefect being in this family and your father already has that title! Sometimes I wonder how perfect he is!”