Read Online For Honor We Stand by Harvey G. Phillips, H. Paul Honsinger - Free Book Online

a beautifully tended ornamental garden.  In the general vicinity of the now sturdily but roughly patched three meter section of hull that had been blasted out of existence by a Krag plasma cannon, there were six locations at which work was being performed, with two men installing parts and one man with a padcomp providing instructions and relaying requests for additional parts through Midshipmen who were fetching the parts from stores.  Other Midshipmen were fetching tools for the workers as needed, with a few burley Spacers and a man with a small hoist available to do heavy lifting as needed.  The Chief Engineer stood by, ready to answer questions and solve problems.
    Every man had a job.  Every man was busy.  No one was standing around waiting for a part or waiting for instructions or waiting for someone else to get out of the way so he could do something.  In short, it wasn’t chaos.  It was a symphony.  Max could not remember ever being so impressed by anything he had seen in any engineering space in his entire naval career.  No wonder Brown always seemed to get things done in record time. 
    Determining that he could contribute nothing by making his presence known, Max slipped out of the compartment without being seen and went back to his Day Cabin, a small but efficient space containing a washroom, changing area, office, and dining space attached to the area where he slept.  Max went straight to his work station and called up the utility for sending text messages to a crew member’s percom and wrote:  “Werner, I stopped by your work area and watched the proceedings for a few minutes.  You and your men are doing a positively brilliant job.  Please pass on my appreciation to everyone involved in the project and understand that I find your management of the situation totally outstanding and exemplary in every way.  If I had my choice of any engineer in the entire Navy, I would keep the one I’ve got.”
    He hit the SEND button, knowing that in a second or two his Chief Engineer would be flipping open the tiny communications device attached to his wrist and reading the message.  Men need praise for a job well done just as they need criticism for a job done poorly.  A few good words from the skipper can sustain a man’s morale for weeks, even months.   
    ***
    It turns out that the recently-lauded Engineer Brown had not been entirely truthful.  He had estimated that the construction of the new jump drive power junction would take at least 24 hours and maybe as many as 36.  The job actually took eighteen and a half.  According to the book, it should have taken 38.  Having seen Brown’s methods, Max now understood why Werner was so often able to complete repairs in less than the nominal time.  The jump drive repaired, Brown could turn his attention to completing repairs to the fusion reactor cooling systems so that the Cumberland could recover all of her remarkable speed—speed which the tiny ship needed desperately to complete the kinds of missions for which she was built. 
    Meanwhile, Max was writing the Contact and After Action Report relating the engagement in the Mengis system to be sent to his immediate commander, Admiral Hornmeyer, at Task Force Tango Delta, with a copy to the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations at Norfolk on Earth.  As usual, he was struggling with where to strike the balance between the two competing goals of any after-action report:  on the one hand, communicating to one’s superiors the commander’s aggressiveness, courage, dash, and daring while, on the other, reassuring those same superiors of this same commander’s prudence, reasonableness, caution, and circumspection.  Maybe it would be easier to write if he had Multiple Personality Disorder.
    Max was particularly keen on getting this report right.  The last time he had met with the Admiral, old Hit-‘em Hard had hinted that he had some sort of interesting assignment in mind for the Cumberland , and Max