Jethro: First to Fight Read Online Free

turned to the doctor.
Before she could say something he held up his hands. “I know, I know, get on
the lazy louts. Do mandatory medical exams and roust out our worst offenders.”
    “Right. And get sickbay cleaned and do
an inventory. Count all the tongue depressors. Same for stores,” the XO said,
glancing at the ops officer.
    “Right, I mean aye ma'am,” the ops
officer replied with a nod.
    “Helm, I know you don't have much to do
now since we're in dock but...”
    “Run sims, more sims, and more sims. I
know the drill. And lend a hand where needed,” Janice replied.
    “We need to bring everyone up on
proficiency. So quiz your people, check them. Any holes find ways to plug them
fast. Sleep teach, spoon feed them, whatever it takes,” Shelby growled.
    The group nodded. Shelby turned to the
tac witch. “Get weapons going. Inventory, weapons sims, everything.”
    “Can we expend some drones?”
    Shelby frowned. “I'll check with the
Captain and get back to you on that. Anyone else?” They shook their heads no.
    “Fine then, have a problem, let me know.
Then lets' get started people,” she said, getting up.
    ...*...*...*...*...
    Firefly shot out a memo asking about the
games and the scoring methods while Shelby shot one out to the crew and department
heads to increase physical training. She sent a second, this one a not so
gentle reminder about the upcoming exams and how fitness played a role in not
only the ship's point standings, but also in individual careers. A few days
later Jethro and the other Marines were amused that the exercise equipment was
now in heavy use. They were even more amused by the sour looks many of the
squids shot their way in passing.
    “The more you sweat, the less you
bleed,” Hurranna said, flicking her ears in amusement as she sniffed the air
    “Ah shut up,” a squid said, throwing a
sweat soaked towel over the cat's head. Hurranna yowled in disgust.
    ...*...*...*...*...
    Commander Horatio Logan received the
e-mail concerning the FARETEP testing parameters from Firefly and frowned. It
wasn't that they didn't have a plan, they did. The problem was the scoring, he
had yet to sit down with the command staff and iron out the points. There was
still a fair bit of wrangling over what came into play, and what standards were
more important for each ship to hit. Some things were pretty tough, and there
were a few officers who were concerned that not all would measure up.
    He understood it, and he didn't want to
have to bust someone if their ship crapped out. It bothered him a little, he
knew these people. Hell, he'd never signed on to be an officer! He'd learned
the role over time as Chief engineer of Anvil, but still!
    He sighed shaking his head. The admiral was
right, he had to let them hang on their own. If a ship screwed up there would
have to be an investigation. If the command staff was at fault they would
either have a chance to correct the mistakes, or, if it was bad enough, they
could face charges. Such a lovely thought.
    In a way it would help raise promotions.
The men and women who performed would show it. But there was a big threat of
back biting with so few command posts available right now. And it was all the
fault of Walker, his cronies... and unfortunately the admiral for letting
himself get exiled.
    He brooded, staring at the report
without reading it before he turned his thoughts to recruiting. That was
another problem, people were pushing to rise up the ladder faster than their
abilities allowed... and with few billets available. They had thousands of
people in uniform, and thousands more reading and willing to join. The problem
wasn't where to put them, it was what to do with them, they just didn't
have the ships.
    They did have the space stations,
hundreds of them now. Some of them really didn't need a crew, the sixty odd
storage depots for instance. They were glorified warehouses, and didn't need
more than a caretaker crew right now. If things picked up that might