“That’s good, Snotty, because you just bought yourself a locker full of it! Now get out of my sight. Go directly to your quarters and remain there until I personally tell you differently!”

“Yes, Sir.” She came to attention, saluted crisply, turned on her heel, and marched off with her head high while the man with the power to destroy her career before it even began glared after her.

The hatch signal chimed, and Commander Layson looked up from his display and pressed the admittance button. The hatch slid open, and Lieutenant Santino stepped through it.

“You wanted to see me, Sir?” the lieutenant said.

Layson nodded, but he said nothing, simply gazed at his assistant tactical officer with cool, thoughtful eyes. His face was expressionless, but Santino shifted slightly under that dispassionate gaze. It wasn’t quite a fidget, but it was headed in that direction, and still the silence stretched out. At last, after at least three full minutes, Santino could stand it no more and cleared his throat.

“Uh, may I ask why you wanted to see me, Sir?”

“You may.” Layson leaned back in his chair and folded his hands across his midsection. He sat that way for several seconds, eyes never leaving Santino’s face, stretching the lieutenant’s nerves a bit tighter, then went on in a neutral tone. “I understand there was some… difficulty with Midshipwoman Harrington this afternoon, Lieutenant,” he said at last, his tone very cool. “Suppose you tell me what that was all about.”

Santino blinked, then darkened. He hadn’t yet gotten around to reporting Harrington’s gross insubordination, but obviously the girl had gone crying to the Exec over it already. Just a sort of thing she would do. He’d known even before the troublemaking, spoiled brat reported aboard what he’d have to deal with there, and he’d been grateful for the forewarning, even if it wasn’t considered quite “proper” for an OCTO to have private, pre-cruise briefings on the snotties who would be in his care. She and her wretched pet and the special treatment they both got had certainly justified the warnings he’d been given about her. He could see the arrogance in her eyes, of course, the way she was not so secretly convinced of her superiority to all about her. That was one of the things he’d been determined to knock out of her, in the faint hope that he might somehow salvage a worthwhile officer out of her. Yet even though today’s episode had dealt a death blow to that hope, he was still vaguely surprised that even she’d had the sheer nerve to go whining to the Exec after he’d confined her to quarters, which she knew perfectly well meant no com time, either. Well, he’d just add that to the list when he wrote her fitness report.

He blinked again as he realized the Exec was still waiting, then shook himself.

“Of course, Sir,” he said. “She was assigned to a routine maintenance inspection of Graser Three. When I arrived to check her progress, she’d instructed her inspection party to fall out and prepared to sign off on the inspection sheet. I observed, however, that the access panel for one of the power rams was still open in violation of SOP. When I pointed this out to her, she was both insolent in attitude and insubordinate in her language, so I ordered her to her quarters.”

“I see.” Layson frowned ever so slightly. “And how, precisely, was she insolent and insubordinate, Lieutenant?”

“Well, Sir,” Santino said just a bit cautiously, “I asked her if she thought she’d completed her assignment, and she said she did. Then I pointed out the open access panel and asked her if she was familiar with standard procedures and the requirement to keep such panels closed when not actually being used for inspection or repair. Her tone and manner were both insolent when she replied that she was aware of proper procedure. Only when I pressed her for a fuller explanation did she inform me that she had discovered a fault in the ram and reported it to Engineering. Obviously, I had no way to know that before she explained it to me, but once again her manner was extremely insolent, and both her tone and her choice of words were, in my opinion, intended to express contempt for a superior officer. Under the circumstances, I saw no option but to relieve her of duty pending disciplinary action.”

“I see,” Layson repeated, then let his chair come upright. “Unfortunately, Lieutenant, I’ve already heard another account of the discussion which doesn’t exactly tally with yours.”

“Sir?” Santino drew himself up and squared his shoulders. “Sir, if Harrington has been trying to—”

“I didn’t say I’d heard it from Midshipwoman Harrington,” Layson said frostily, and Santino shut his mouth with a click. “Nor did I say I’d heard it from only one person,” the Exec went on with cold dispassion. “In fact, I have six eyewitnesses, and none of them—not one, Lieutenant Santino—describes events as you just did. Would you perhaps care to comment on this minor discrepancy?”

Santino licked his lips and felt sweat prickle under the band of his beret as the ice in the Exec’s voice registered.

“Sir, I can only report my own impressions,” he said. “And with all due respect, Sir, I’ve had ample opportunity to watch Harrington’s behavior and attitude over the last eight weeks. Perhaps that gives me, as her training officer, somewhat more insight into her character than a petty officer and working party who haven’t had the advantage of that perspective.”

“The senior chief petty officer in question,” Layson said quietly, “has been in the King’s Navy for seven years longer than you’ve been alive, Lieutenant Santino. In that time, he’s had the opportunity to see more midshipmen and midshipwomen than you’ve seen dinners. I am not prepared to entertain any suggestion that he is too inexperienced to form a reasonable and reliable opinion of Ms. Harrington’s character. Do I make myself clear?”

“Yes, Sir!”

Santino was perspiring freely now, and Layson stood behind his desk.

“As a matter of fact, Mr. Santino, I asked Senior Chief Shelton to share the insight of his many years of experience with me some days ago when I began to hear a few disturbing reports about our officer candidates. As such, he was acting under my direct instructions when he gave me his version of your… discussion with Ms. Harrington. Frankly, I’m happy he was there, because this episode simply confirms something I’d already come to suspect. Which is, Mr. Santino, that you are clearly too stupid to pour piss out of a boot without printed instructions!”

The Exec’s voice cracked like a whip on the last sentence, and Santino flinched. Then his face darkened and his lips thinned.

“Sir, I resent your implications and strongly protest your language! Nothing in the Articles of War requires me to submit to personal insults and abuse!”

“But the Articles do require Ms. Harrington and her fellow middies to submit to your personal insults and abuse?” Layson’s voice was suddenly like silk wrapped around a dagger’s blade. “Is that what you’re saying, Mr. Santino?”

“I—” Santino began, then cut himself off and licked his lips again as he realized the Exec had set him up.

“Sir, the situations aren’t parallel,” he said finally. “Harrington and the other snotties are fresh out of the Academy. They’re still learning that the world isn’t going to stand around and wipe their noses for them. If I seemed—or if Senior Chief Shelton thought I seemed—abusive, I was simply trying to help toughen them up and turn them into proper King’s officers!”

He met Layson’s cold eyes defiantly, and the Exec’s lip curled.

“Somehow I knew you were going to say that, Lieutenant,” he observed. “And, of course, no one can prove you’re lying. If I could prove it, I would have you up on charges so fast your head would spin. Since I can’t, I will explain this to you once. I will explain it only once, however, and you had better by God be listening.”