Admiral Conrad Cosina
From his personal journal
19 September
The orders I had received from my direct superior were explicit in requiring me to be inventive in reaching the company's objectives. That left me with a great deal of latitude in how I went about it. Most times it is much easier meeting stringent guidelines than finding a solution without any boundaries. Still, it was what it was, and I was determined that I would not only succeed, but do so in a way that no one could anticipate. Well, no one was likely to expect me to move ahead with phase three while phase two was less than halfway to completion.
That was the reason that I was walking down the metallic corridors of the Warner Naval Academy at 0015 hours. It had been a short jump to the school in high earth orbit, and no one but the duty officer knew of my arrival. That was about to change.
I knocked solidly on the door marked, 'VAdm Franks, C. W., Commandant', and waited for a response.
"Well, I'll be…" she said, abruptly changing gears from the scolding she had prepared for the cadet that didn't know better than to wake the old lady.
"Not exactly the response I was going for, Commandant, but I guess it will do," I rejoined.
"I apologize, Admiral, I meant no offense, I just didn't expect…" Charlotte said, trying to adjust her mind to where this might be headed. She had never worked directly with me, though of course we had met a number of times.
"Actually, Commandant, that is exactly why I am here. Do you mind if we speak inside?" I asked. I could see that she had not yet retired for the evening, as I had expected.
"Certainly, Admiral. Please come in."
Once we were seated, I got right to the point. "There are two things that I need to ask of you, both quite possibly are equally important to the future of the Warner Family," I said quickly.
"You will have my full support with anything I can be of help with, of course," Charlotte replied. Again, I had expected this response. I don't like dealing with unknown quantities, and I had scrutinized her record before deciding to proceed.
"First, there is a project we have been working on for quite some time. We are going to require some talented junior officers soon. What I want to do is screen for your five top graduates both from this semester and the next. Obviously, GPA and duty fitness exams will account for a lot of our evaluation, but I want you to interview each one on three separate occasions, with different officers in attendance each time, to make sure this is someone we want involved in a critical project. You may allow the students to know that there is a special posting to which the five best will go if you think it will help you," I allowed, "but no other information about the project may be given."
"That shouldn't be too hard, Admiral, we have a pretty fine crop of graduates this year," she said while taking some quick notes, "I will need some of the specifics sent to me on any special talents or criteria we are looking for, though."
"No," I said flatly. She stopped writing and stared at me. "When I said no information that was exactly what I meant. I want the ten graduating ensigns most fit for any type of duty from the next two classes, based on your assessment. I cannot allow any information about this project to become known, even that which might be inferred from my requirements."
"I understand, Admiral," she said courteously, though she clearly didn't.
"Thank you, Commandant. I also have another mission for you personally. I would like you to be my contact officer for another special project. It would mean you would be in communication exclusively with me and Gerry Warner about it, and no one else. I trust you will have a lot of questions, but I have to ask you to hold them until I have made security arrangements. Can I count on your absolute discretion?" I raised my eyebrow to indicate the question needed to be answered.
"Of course, Admiral. If almost twenty years of combat operations taught me anything, it taught me patience. I can wait until you are ready to ask the hundreds of questions on my mind," she responded with a small smile.
"Thank you, Commandant. I'll let you get some sleep now," I said, rising. I had a calm feeling as the interview concluded that I had selected the right person for this job.
xxxxx
The next morning, I entered the familiar office of Gerry Warner. He motioned me to take a seat as he finished a vocom call. I chose my accustomed wooden chair in the center of the semicircle of chairs facing the large antique desk.
"Okay, so what's your plan, Conrad," he said simply, standing and stretching. I didn't take it as a sign of unconcern, but a sign of comfort in working with me that he could be less formal than he was with other subordinates.
"Gerry, I think it's time we hedge our bets," I answered simply.
Warner gave me a patient look, waiting for the rest of the explanation. When I remained silent he asked, "Is there more to this plan, or is that all I get?"
"For now, Gerry, I'd like to keep the details where I know they can't be leaked." I tapped my temple to indicate my secure data storage arrangements. "I want to have complete autonomy to make it work. I don't want anyone to know what I am up to, so I will be working this from the front, if that is all right with you."
"All right," he agreed much more readily than I expected. "I assume that your idea is sufficiently outside the proverbial box that no one else would think of it?" Warner asked.
"I don't know, but I don't think so. I am going to go on a goodwill tour of some facilities and ships. I will be out of the Sol system for most of the next eighteen months," I said, smiling.
Gerry Warner looked at me for a while before responding. "You got me. I don't think that I expected that. If you can turn that into hedging our bet on the Argo project, I am all for it. We have too much tied up in this not to take every chance at success. If this project fails, we will have ten, maybe fifteen years before the Family is taken over by one of our competitors. Make it happen, and let me know personally if there is anything else you need. How are you handling communications, by the way?"
"I don't want anything coming directly here. I will be in contact with an officer in this system that no one would expect, and you will be receiving an increased number of personal letters from your niece containing a datachip. Standard Cosina encryption, your eyes only," I said, smiling at our private joke about 'your eyes only,' since standard Cosina encryption had an ocular biometric algorithm that would only decrypt for Gerry Warner's or my retinal eye scan. "I will leave in the morning."
"Good luck Conrad, and good hunting," Gerry said as I stood.
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