A Just Determination Read Online Free PDF Page A

in search of Lieutenant Tweed. Several minutes into his search, he came face to face with Master-at-Arms Sharpe. "Good morning, Mr. Sinclair," the Sheriff announced cheerfully.
    "If you say so."
    "Don't forget, sir. XO's screening at ten hundred."
    "Uh . . ." How can I forget something I didn't know? I've got to remember to read the plan of the day as soon as I get up. "Ten hundred?"
    "Right." Sheriff Sharpe smiled. "That's ten A.M., sir."
    Paul couldn't help smiling back at the audacity of the statement. "I know that. They did teach me to tell military time."
    "Can't take anything for granted with a new ensign, sir. See you at the XO's stateroom at ten hundred."
    "Sure. Say, have you seen Lieutenant Tweed anywhere?"
    Sharpe paused, then used his thumb to point forward. "She might be in the classified materials vault."
    "She might be, huh? Thanks, Sheriff." Paul hurried along, vaguely recalling that the 'vault' containing the most sensitive classified material on the ship was located next to the ship's Combat Information Center. After asking a passing sailor for directions, he found the door and rapped softly. Getting no response, he rapped again, harder.
    "Wait." The lock on the hatch cycled open, then a lieutenant with a slim face and a guarded expression gazed out. "Oh. Paul, right? Whatever it is will have to wait. I'm doing an inventory."
    Paul nodded in apparent agreement, even though he could see Tweed blinking sleep from her eyes. "Commander Garcia said he needed to see us both. At once."
    "He did?" Tweed looked around as if seeking an escape route, then shrugged. "Okay. Let's go."
    Garcia's temper didn't seem to have improved in the brief period since Paul had last seen him. Their Department head glared at Paul and Lieutenant Tweed, then shoved a portable reader at them. "Where's the pre-ex for the simulated tracking drill this morning?"
    Paul stared at the reader while dread grew in him. A pre-exercise message laid out coordination procedures for drills involving more than one ship. Most of the information was canned, Paul already knew, and simply had to be spelled out again, but every exercise required a pre-ex message to every unit involved. "I . . . I . . ." Lieutenant Tweed was frowning in thought, then looking sidelong at Paul with a worried expression. She told me to take care of it. I remember now. Oh, geez. Commander Garcia's eyes were fixed on him, hard and angry. Paul swallowed, then spoke in a voice he knew sounded thin. "I was supposed to take care of it, sir."
    "You were supposed to take care of it. Why didn't you?"
    "I intended doing it today, sir—"
    "The exercise is today! Didn't you review the exercise material as soon as you got told to take care of the pre-ex?"
    "No, sir. I . . . didn't."
    Garcia's face reddened. Paul's department head looked as if he were barely restraining himself, then shook his head like an angry bull. "You'd better not screw up like this again, Sinclair. Now, I personally will have to coordinate all this on the fly. Do you think I'm happy about that, Sinclair?"
    "No, sir."
    "Were you planning on leaving the ship this evening, Sinclair?"
    Michaelson was due to get underway in the morning. Paul had already been invited out to a bar crawl with the other junior officers, but now he shook his head, knowing what his answer had to be. "No, sir."
    "Good. At least you got that right." Garcia stomped away, leaving Paul and Jan Tweed alone.
    Lieutenant Tweed tried to smile sympathetically. "It happens to everybody."
    Paul held back a bitter reply, angry with her for not warning him the message had been a short fuse item, but also knowing it had been his own fault he hadn't checked on it before postponing action. And at least she didn't blame me for it right off. I guess Carl was right. You can't count on her, but Tweed won't mess me over deliberately . "Yeah. First time for everything. I'm sure it won't be the last. Should I try to help the commander with fixing this