Monkey Business (Bob and Nikki Book 10) Page 14

  I said, “I think he’s old enough to make up his own mind, Morning Flower. If he doesn’t want to go, I won’t make him.”

  “But he thinks he did a bad thing, that he didn’t do. Can you help me find out why he thinks he did bad?”

  “I’ll talk to him. If he doesn’t want to tell me, I’m not going to pry. I won’t promise you anything.”

  “Thanks, Bawb.”

  I went over to where Walking Skunk was sitting. I asked, “Mind if I sit here?”

  “Since my Granddaughter sent you, I probably will, but sit anyway.”

  “She just wants you to go back to the village with her.”

  “If that was all there was to it, I would go. If I go back, they will want me to be their elder. I am not wise and brave enough to be an elder.”

  “Funny you mention brave. That’s not usually the first thing people think about when they think of an elder.”

  “If I didn’t have the courage to do the right thing, all the wisdom in the world wouldn’t do any good.”

  “So, something happened that makes you think you don’t have enough courage to be an elder, and you don’t want to admit it to Morning Flower. That about right?”

  “Are you sure you can’t read minds, Smallfoot?”

  “I’m sure. It’s just the only way I can make it fit together in my head. Let’s see now. It was something she doesn’t know about, but you do. You think it makes you too cowardly to be an elder, but nobody else in the village feels that way. You saw her get taken, didn’t you? Too many Smallfoot, with weapons, and you couldn’t find a way to get her back. You think you should have charged in, even if you couldn’t have done any good. That’s what you blame yourself for, ain’t it?”

  “How did you figure that out, Bawb? I didn’t tell you a thing.”

  “You were fine till Morning Flower showed up. Then you started acting a little down. I mostly guessed the rest. I got pretty close, then?”

  “Right on the head, mostly.”

  “Let me ask you this. Would you want an elder who rushed in, and got stunned or killed, without helping the situation at all? Just because you didn’t have a way to help doesn’t mean you didn’t do the wise thing.”

  “It just feels like I was a coward. The village deserves better.”

  “Don’t you think I feel like the folks who I lead deserve better? Every day of the world? That’s part of the job, Walking Skunk. If you ever think you are the man for the job, you better take a close look at what you’re doing. All you can do is give them the best you have.”

  “You think I should go and be the elder they want me to be, don’t you?”

  “I think you would be better at it than you give yourself credit for, but you need to make up your own mind.”

  “I can see why Morning Flower thinks so much of you, Bawb. You are a good man, for a Smallfoot.”

  “You do alright yourself, for a hairy old fart.” He laughed. “I like you, Bawb.”

  I replied, “Remember that, when we play ‘Loser Stinks’.”

  “I couldn’t do that, Bawb. ‘Loser Stinks’ is serious business.” It was my turn to laugh. I said, “Whether you believe it or not, I think the village could do a lot worse than having you for an elder.”

  He got serious, and said, “I really couldn’t have done any good, trying to rescue Morning Flower that day, could I?”

  “Not a bit. I’ve been shot with a stunner before. There isn’t any way to push through it. You’re down, and there ain’t a thing you can do about it.”

  “I’m glad I met you, Bawb. I’ve been hiding out here being silly. It’s time I did what I should.”

  “Glad to be of service. If you need anything, Morning Flower can always get ahold of me.”

  “Thanks, Bawb.” I got up and went back to sit by Nikki. Morning Flower came over and took my spot. Nikki asked, “What was all that, Caveman?”

  “Apparently, Walking Skunk decided he wasn’t brave enough to be an elder, because he didn’t try to rescue Morning Flower when the slavers took her.”

  “You got him straightened out?”

  “I suppose. Just explained that charging in when he wouldn’t have had a chance wouldn’t have accomplished anything.”

  “You got him to understand that he will be a wiser and better elder, because he wouldn’t rush in?”

  “He already had it figured out. I just gave him an excuse to admit it to himself.”

  Morning Flower and Walking Skunk came strolling up. I asked, “You two get your disagreements worked out?”

  Morning Flower said, “Yes, Bawb. Grandpa needs a ride back to the village, but I don’t have room in my fighter. Could somebody fly him over?”

  I asked, “Do you need to go back to your camp for anything?”

  Walking Skunk said, “The only thing I left behind is a flint ax. This one from Taz is much better. I don’t need to go back there.”

  Nikki said, “I could fly you over. Are you ready to go now?”

  He replied, “Probably better, before your man’s convincing wears off.”

  She got up and took him aboard the Evans. Morning Flower said, “Thanks, Bawb. It will be good to have his wisdom back in the village.”

  “Go easy on him. He felt like he had good reasons for what he did.”

  “I know, but it would have been silly for him to try and fight the slavers. Before you came and helped us, we didn’t have a chance against them.”

  “He still felt like he should have tried, for you.”

  “I know. I better get back, and help him settle in. The rest of the village will make a fuss. If I’m not there to keep him calm, he might run off again.”

  “Take care of him. I like him a lot.”

  “He likes you, too, Bawb. See you later.”

  “Bye.”

  Beatriz saw me sitting by myself, and came over. “No wallflowers at this party, Captain. Get up and shake your booty.” I danced with her till Nikki got back. When she finished shutting down the Evans, she came over and asked Beatriz, “May I cut in?”

  Beatriz replied, “Of course. I was just keeping him from thinking too much.”

  Nikki and I danced a few, and then she said, “It’s been a long day, Caveman. Do you think we could shut this party down?”

  “I think it has run its course. Several people have already wandered off. I’ll go tell Topper to wind it up for tonight.”

  “Just text him, Caveman. You don’t want people to see you as a party pooper.” I did as she asked, and Topper called out from the stage, “Okay, folks, this is the last song. If you’re going to ask someone to dance, do it now.” Nikki and I danced one more, and she headed for the house. I found Snitz, and we started our nightly patrol. Steve caught up with us and said, “This is a nice little place the bots built.”

  “Yes, it is. I didn’t realize you and Bucky had come planetside.”

  “We didn’t have much to do on the ship, and it seemed like a chance to take a nice break.”

  “Things have been busy lately, haven’t they?”

  “You’re telling me. Some days I still wake up and reach for my leg. Then I wake up and remember I don’t need it.”

  “You two have a house picked out?”

  “Yeah. There were still a couple of empty ones when we got here. Bucky checked the computer to make sure nobody had dibs, and we moved in.”

  “Marcelle like it here?”

  “I think he can smell something back in the woods. He doesn’t seem interested in getting too far from the house.”

  “Was there something you needed, or are you just being neighborly?”

  “Well, Boss, I don’t want to stir up trouble, but I notice that Bill Richards isn’t here.”

  “No, he’s studying with Sally, trying to get up to her standards to be a captain.”

  “Do you think that’s a good idea, Boss?”

  “Not as good as talking you or Diego into it, but not horrible, do you have a different idea?”

&n
bsp; “Nothing concrete, Boss. Just a couple of things he said didn’t feel right to me. I get the feeling he wouldn’t be nearly as opposed to waking up the Navy and taking charge as you are.”

  “Thanks for letting me know, Steve. I’m sure Sally will be able to figure out for sure if he has a problem in that area. She didn’t think he was the best candidate, either.”

  “What would we do if he turns out to be unsuited for the duty?”

  “I guess we would have to put him ashore, wouldn’t we?”

  “Where?”

  “That’s the big question, isn’t it? Sending him back to Earth is just going to cause problems, and we don’t want to leave a mess like that for Morning Flower to deal with. Maybe one of the outlying Commonwealth planets? The fact he has dependents complicates things.”

  “Yes, it does. Did I hear you say you’d rather have me in the big chair?”

  “You don’t want it, do you?”

  “Nope.”

  “Don’t think you are good enough? Sally says that’s what makes me good at it. She mentioned John and Diego, but I’m sure she’d be happy with you, too.”

  “I knew when I signed up there would be ‘other duties as assigned’, but I never thought you would try to sit me in the big chair, Boss.”

  “Sally thinks that enough people know about the Gene that, sooner or later, somebody is gonna go looking for the Navy yard, and she thinks we need to get there first. I think that if we are going, we need to have captains ready to fly those ships out, when we get them woken up.”

  “Is she trying to sell you on the whole ‘Emperor Bob’ thing?”

  “She seems to think that as long as it’s me going after them, there’s at least a decent chance nobody will be emperor. If it’s somebody else, she’s not so confident.”

  “Even with you in charge, the temptation to bring the fleet out of FTL in orbit around somebody’s planet, just to get their attention, is going to be pretty strong.”

  “You’re telling me. Why do you think we haven’t gone and woken them up yet?”

  “You know I’ll do the captain’s training if you ask, right?”

  “I hoped you would. How do you think Bucky will take that?”

  “Actually, she might be the better choice to take the training, if you get down to it.”

  “Isn’t she still in the Guide?”

  “Yep, but your probation is almost over, and she plans on retiring as soon as it expires.”

  “Obviously, we can only have one or the other of you as a captain, but who gets to be captain, and who gets to be XO, that is between you two, if you can get past Sally.”

  “Dangit, Boss. You’ve almost got me talked into this crazy plan.”

  “Good. You can work on getting John onboard.”

  “Crap! Really? You know how much he hates command.”

  “I do. I’m guessing you know why, and I don’t. Therefore, you’re better qualified to talk him into what we need him to do.”

  “Boss, I truly hate it when you get logical. My head is full enough for tonight. I’m going to bed.”

  “See you in the morning.”

  “See you then, Boss.” Snitz finished his contributions to the local ecology, and we headed in. When we got there, Nikki asked, “What kept you, Caveman? Beatriz want another dance?”

  “Nope. Steve had some worries he wanted to talk to me about. I think I managed to talk him into taking the training to be a captain.”

  “He asked you about training to be a captain? That doesn’t sound like Steve.”

  “No, he came to me with concerns about Bill Richards. He thinks Bill wants to wake up the Navy and be Emperor Bill.”

  “You’re not going to let that happen, are you?”

  “Not like I have much choice, if I want to keep sucking wind. If Bill had any sense at all, the first thing he would do once he seized power would be to make sure I was dead, and that would probably include you and the kids.”

  “So, you have to make sure he doesn’t get power?”

  “Unless I miss my guess, Sally will be more than happy to take care of that for me. One of the things I had to get certified on to become a qualified captain was suppressing mutiny. Her captain wouldn’t have certified her all those years ago unless she were certified in that as well.”

  “You expect him to make his move before we get back, don’t you?”

  “Would be the logical way for him to go about it, don’t you think?”

  “I suppose. It’s hard for me to get my head around someone we trust turning against us like that.”

  “It was hard for me, too. Why do you think I haven’t done something before now? I just couldn’t believe what I thought I was seeing.”

  My comm rang. “Captain Wilson.”

  Topper said, “Boss, Sally called and asked us to stand guard over the house tonight. I thought you might want to know.”

  “Thanks, Topper. I was thinking about asking you myself.”

  “What’s up, Boss?”

  “I don’t know for sure that anything is, but Murphy is our shepherd.”

  “Understood, Boss. See you in the morning.”

  “Talk to you later, Topper.”

  Nikki asked, “What was that about, Caveman?”

  “Sally is as paranoid as we are. She asked Ruth and the boys to stand guard tonight. Topper thought I might want to know.”

  “I’ll sleep better knowing that.”

  “Me too. Andre thinks that bunch will give us better security than his Marines, just because they are more motivated.”

  “He might be right. They do like their Boss.”

  “Let’s get some sleep.”

  “Ahh, nope.”

  “That works, too.” I was sleeping hard when the comm rang again. “Captain Wilson, this better be good.”

  Topper said, “No, Boss, it’s bad. We had to keep someone out of the house, and she had an Earth-style pistol. Ruth needs to go to the Gene for repairs.”

  “What about the intruder?”

  “She was damaged, but she is still alive. We would be more than happy to fix that for you, Boss.”

  “As much as I would like to take you up on that, Topper, I think we need to make sure we do this properly. I’m guessing it’s Jennie Stone you caught?”

  “Yes, Boss.”

  “You made sure she didn’t trip over any communicators after her mission failed, I assume?”

  “She didn’t get any messages out, Boss.”

  “Do you have any reason for me to take care of this right now?”

  “No. We put one of Mr. Branham’s nighty-nights on her. She’s not in any medical danger, and she’s not a danger to anyone.”

  “Thanks for taking care of that for me. I doubt there will be any more excitement tonight, but do you mind staying at your post just in case?”

  “We had planned to, whether you approved or not, Boss.”

  “Nanny protocol, come back to bite my hind end, huh?”

  “Right on the first guess, Boss.”

  “See you in the morning, Topper.”

  “See you then, Boss.” I hung up. Nikki asked, “Who was that, Caveman?”

  “Topper. He caught a pest trying to sneak into the house and took care of it.”

  “Oh. Come back to bed, I’m cold.” I did, and the next thing I remember was Snitz licking my ear. I got up, and took care of what I needed to. Then we went out to see what the world was like today. Topper met us at the door. He said, “Morning, Boss. We didn’t have any more excitement, but Sally would like you to call in, when you get a chance.”

  “Thanks, Topper. Where did you put our guest?”

  “She’s in one of the extra rooms aboard ship. Ruth is watching her, in case she manages to wake herself.”

  “I thought Ruth was hurt?”

  “She is, but as long as she doesn’t have to chase anyone, she’ll be fine.”

  “Well done.” Snitz and I wandered off to take care of business, and I dialed Sally.
She answered, “Morning, Boss.”

  “Give me the report, please, and don’t try to make it sound better than it is.”

  “Bill Richards attempted mutiny overnight. Diego was hurt capturing him, but he is in the autodoc, and Mr. Branham expects a full recovery. Angus has him locked down in the brig, and his dependents are being looked after.”

  “Since you warned Topper, I’m assuming you had some sort of advance warning?”

  “I did. Are you saying I should have let you know?”

  “I left you in charge, you took charge, what is there to complain about?”

  “Thanks, Boss. Are you okay?”

  “I didn’t even wake up till Topper called to let me know they had caught her.”

  “He didn’t need to do that, if she was already in custody.”

  “His biggest concern seemed to be whether or not I wanted her to survive to be questioned. I think he’s been hanging out with mean old hillbillies too much.”

  “You give yourself too much credit, Boss. I looked up his records, he was like that in the Navy, too.”

  “Are you going to elaborate on that?”

  “Not my story to tell, I think you would say.”

  “Good answer. We have these idiots dead-to-rights for mutiny, then?”

  “We do, Boss.”

  “If we were in your Navy, I’m guessing we could send them for a walk.”

  “Yes, Boss.”

  “Do me a favor, and figure out where we stand, as a commercial operation.”

  “I’ll take care of that. I’m assuming you want to be aboard before sentence is carried out, whatever it winds up being?”

  “Yes, please. My ship, my responsibility.”

  “Understood. Anything else you need to know?”

  “How long is Diego expected to be in the autodoc?”

  “You would have to talk to Mr. Branham for that answer, Boss.”

  “I’ll do that. Do you have one of the nanny bots looking after Bill’s dependents?”

  “I do.”

  “See if they can figure out what the kids would like to do, as far as a place to stay. I know they like their Uncle Bill, but I don’t know right now if we are going to be able to keep them together.”

  “I’ll see what I can do about that, Boss. Anything else?”