As the cheering died down and the main course, some kind of baked local seabird, was bought out on large platters Sabatine looked around for Kaiden. He had made some excuse but she had imagined it was just to go the jakes. Naturally now there was work to be done, he was no where to be seen. She ate quickly, finding the spiced meat to be surprisingly good but wishing to get a head start on what looked to be a long night. If Welkins really did expect the corvettes to lift first thing in the morning they had better start preparations now. Micha seemed to be in no hurry to move, talking in hushed tones with Captain Harkins of the Grandwing with a great deal of head shaking. Sighing she tossed off the rest of her drink and stood, moving to the side of the room.

"Fi..." she paused and took a second to reorient her drink fuddled mind. She wasn't Ship 5 anymore, that was Kaiden now he was XO. Micha was Ship 6, Kaiden was 5 and she was, once again 4.

"Four to Bosun," she said into her lapel mike.

"Uhh Higgs here, go ahead ma'am," the bosun's voice came back a little bleary, as though he had been awakened from a nap. 

"We are scheduled for lift off at 0600, I need you to start rousting the liberty party now," she told him.

"Is err Mr Carewalden with you ma'am I'd like to..." the bosun began. Sabatine felt a flare of anger.

"I don't give a good god damn what you would like bosun, take Klave and carry out my orders this second or I'll break you back to landsman," she snapped. The start that went through Higgs was almost audible.

"Ma'am, yes Ma'am! Higgs out!" he blurted. Sabatine twisted her head from side to side with a satisfied crack. She wasn't best pleased to have a new bosun she knew nothing about, but she tried not to let he fact he had arrived with Kaiden color her opinion of the man. It might be good to put him on notice now that she wasn't to be second guessed. Even with Klave's help it was going to take Higgs half the night to round up spacers who ranged from drunk to paralytic drunk in the various dives and brothels of the strip. At least if the Vickie got a head start, they wouldn't need to chase down runners in every rat hole in the city.

"Lieutenant Hickoring?" a voice came from behind her, she turned around a trifle unsteadily and was shocked and a little horrified to see Commodore Welkins standing a few feet away from her with an outstretched hand. Self consciously she sat her glass down on a sideboard and shook the officer proffered hand. Welkins smiled grimly.

"Not to worry Lieutenant, I don't trust an officer who dosen't spend time with a bottle when in port, will you walk with me a minute?" When delivered down a gradient of four ranks, that was not a request, but it was courteous of him to phrase it that way.

"Of course sir," she said, following the senior officer out onto the veranda in front of the armory. The complex stood on a slight hill and looked down over the embayments which held the vessels of the small flotila, running lights winking at various points on the starships hulls. From Grandwing there were the occasional actinic flash of a spot welder putting to right some minor imperfection.   

"I see you are getting a head start or rousting your crew, good thinking that," the Commodore offered sounding genuinely approving.

"Thank you sir," she replied, the slightly chill night air and the presence of the squadron commander sobering her up faster than coffee and a cold shower.

"You have served with Lieutenant Micha for nine months now, how do you find him?" Welkins asked bluntly. Micha like Harkin's was a captain by courtesy though he held the official rank of Lieutenant, by using that rank Welkins was asking her to speak freely about a fellow officer rather than about her commander specifically.

"No complaints sir," she answered as truthfully as she could. Micha was well liked by the crew and able if a little uninspired. Certainly he had treated her well enough during their association.

"I seem to recall you felt differently about that pirate that gave you the slip of Tenacrous three months ago," Welkins observed. Sabatine flushed slightly. They had been chasing a pirate who had hit a shipment of medical supplies using the Vickie and a small anti pirate cutter. When the pirate had taken refuge in a dense asteroid field. Sabatine had been confident she could use the cutter she was commanding to smoke the pirate out and the Vickie could either finish her or force her to surrender but Micha had ordered her to stand down. She hadn't filed any official complaint though anyone who read the after action report could have listened into the transmissions. It was hard to credit the fact that Commodore Welkins had dug that deeply, except, apparently, he had.

"The Captain thought the risk of the cutter being destroyed was too great," Sabatine temporized unwilling to criticize Micha's actions to a superior.

"But not you Hickoring?" Welkins prompted. Sabatine shifted uncomfortably.

"I thought... and think that my gunners are faster and better than anything a half assed pirate sloop might have sir, unless the guns were dead amidships when we cleared the rocks, I think we could have taken her."

Welkins nodded and seemed to file that away without further comment. For a few long moments he merely stared at the ships in harbor, perhaps wondering how they would fair if the Alliance came as he suspected they would. Dispersing his ships was a bold move, the orbital minefield would keep the Alliance out for a while, but they could easily blockade the squadron while they slowly chipped away at the constellation of orbital defenses.

"And what about Lieutenant Carewalden, I understand you too know each other? What is your opinion of him?" Welkin's asked. Sabatine was tempted, truly tempted to deliver a backhanded compliment which would leave Kaiden's reputation in ruins with her commanding officer. It would be so easy to craft a few sentences which seemed polite on the face of it but dammed her one time lover to the dog house for the rest of his commission. In the end she couldn't quite bring herself to do it.

"He is a competent officer sir, I've not served with him, but from what I know of him he will make a good XO," she stated somewhat grumpily. Welkin's arched an eyebrow.

"You don't sound that confident of that Lieutenant," Welkins commented cooly. She shook her head.

"I knew him at the academy sir, we weren't well you know we are very much not old school chums, but he is or at least was an able spacer and a good officer," she replied, the words tasting like ash in her mouth. Welkins nodded and something in his eyes told her a door had been closed.

"I'm glad to hear it Lieutenant," Welkins told her. Down at the docks white and blue lights began to flash. Welkin's chuckled, and she was reminded that he had started his career as an enlisted spacer.

"It looks like your spacers are just getting the word that their leave is canceled," he commented with a smirk.

"Or the shore police are getting the word that they just got the word," Sabatine agreed.  

"Well as a senior officer I suppose I ought to express the wish that law and order are quickly restored, but as a spacer I can't say I've ever had much use for the shore police," Welkins admitted. He turned and offered her a slight bow.

"Good night Lieutenant, and good fortune," he said simply.

"You too sir," Sabatine replied, but Welkins was already vanishing back into the knot of officers inside the Armory doors.