Task Group One, 0112 hours
Isaac Gauss blinked hard as the overhead light in his Flag stateroom went on suddenly. He turned his head slightly, prepared to unleash his Jovian wrath at whoever invaded the Flag quarters. He relaxed slightly on seeing Captain Jensen standing there, wrapped in a worn Air Force Academy bathrobe.
“What’s up, Jerry?” Gauss sat up, yawned, and rubbed his eyes.
“Sir,” Jensen said, his voice noticeably tense, “There’s a privateer ship just popped through, they want to send a lander over to the flagship. The Captain wants to talk to you personally.”
“Which ship?”
“The Shade Tree, sir, out of Earth.”
“Good ship. They’re the ones that took out that Occupation ship. All right, signal them to send their lander over in thirty minutes. We’ll meet them in the Flag office.”
Jensen nodded. “Yes sir. I’ll have some coffee and sandwiches sent up.”
“Good idea.”
Jensen left, leaving the light on.
Gauss stood up slowly, stretching out his sleep-tightened muscles. Little after zero-one, he thought, staring at his wall clock. I really am getting too old for this shit.
A static-jet shower, a shave, and a clean uniform took him twenty minutes. He used the remaining ten minutes before the Shade Tree Captain’s arrival to review the data the Navy had on the privateer.
The ship had been commissioned at Earth’s shipyards only three years earlier. Smaller than the Navy’s Pritchard-class frigates, the privateer carried a crew of twenty-five, and mounted particle beams and Shrike missiles. Captain Jean Barrett had also purchased two almost ninety-year-old thermonuclear magnetic mines, Navy Intelligence had learned; Gauss had personally discouraged further action on the illegal purchase after the privateer had used one of the mines to knock out one of the Grugell’s Leviathanic Occupation ships.
Mounting one of the newest marks of the Gellar Star Drive along with a rather unique, charcoal black polymer hull, the Shade Tree would be fast and stealthy, although rather cramped for her crew. The Navy could use a few like those, Gauss told himself.
The clock clicked over to 0142. Gauss stood up, straightened his green shipboard uniform jacket, and headed for the Mountain View’s Wardroom.
Captain Barrett was a surprise. She was young, no more than forty. Gauss thought that very young for a starship Captain – even for a privateer. Gauss remembered a rumor he’d heard on Tarbos that Captain Barrett was involved with his own friend and the Navy’s patron in the Confederate Senate, Michael Crider (L-Forest.)
Barrett stood as Gauss walked in. He smiled disarmingly at her, shook her offered hand – he was tempted to bow over it; Captain Barrett was undeniably attractive – and motioned for her to sit as he took a chair at the side of the table. “Pleasure to meet you, Captain Barrett. Good work you’re doing out there. What can the Navy do for you this morning?”
Jean Barrett was as impressed by Admiral Gauss as she’d expected to be, but she didn’t let that distract her. “Admiral, I’ve got something you need to see.” She tossed a small plastic chip on the table.
“A phoebe,” Gauss said, picking up the tiny data chip. “Where’d you get this? The Navy’s only been using them a few months.”
“I got it from the wreck of the Giles Davies, Admiral. I’ve got their survivors aboard the Shade Tree now – my lander should be on its way back there now to transfer them over here to the carrier. The Bob Pritchard was already a total loss when we got there; the Giles Davies was dead in space. We boarded it…”
“The Giles D’s Captain – what about him?” Gauss snapped the question.
“Dead, sir. He gave me this phoebe before he died.”
Gauss frowned. He’d known Jim McAllister from the old USAF days. “All right. Go on.”
“Sir, the Giles D had hacked the main computer of a wrecked Grugell frigate the day before they were hit by a Grugell Task Group. The chip contains the data they retrieved, plus our interpretation and analysis of some of that data – sir, the big thing is that the Grugell have located Earth. There’s an operations order in there detailing their plan to strike at Earth with the better portion of their Fleet. It’s got rally points, jump coordinates, everything. My Navigator was able to convert most of their course – we’ve got it there on a standard Confederate star-map, along with the original data so your own people can double-check his work.”
“Good God,” Gauss breathed. “They’re ambitious bastards; if they could do to Earth what they did to New Albion, that would pretty much take us out of business. But if we can ambush them at a rally point…”
“You could take out the better part of their Fleet.”
“Jerry,” Gauss barked. He tossed the phoebe to his ever-present aide. “Take this up to Intelligence. I want a full analysis by noon. Get them going.” Jensen caught the chip and left.
“Captain Barrett, I have to thank you for this. You may have just single-handedly won this damnable war. You know,” Gauss said, “I could use another ship on this ambush. Frankly the Navy can use every ship it can find. If you’re willing to put yourself under the Navy’s tactical control, I’d be pleased to have you come with us.”
“I’m flattered, Admiral, but I’ll have to decline,” Barrett said gravely. “I’ve got a plan of my own, one that I’m just in the middle of. Once we’re done with the task at hand, I’ll make best time to join up with the Fleet, but not until.”
“Very well. May I ask what it is you’re up to?”
“You may ask,” Barrett grinned. “But I’m afraid I’ll have to keep it to myself for now.”
“Suit yourself. Just the same, I’d like you to talk to my Intel watch staff about your finding our two frigates; we didn’t even know anything was wrong with them until a couple days ago, when they missed a routine transmission. You’ve brought the first news.”
“I will be glad to, sir, preferably quickly. I do need to get back to my ship.”
“I’ll walk you up there right now.”
A rally point in space, near the Grugell/Confederate border
Group Commander Kaddaschik II looked carefully over the holographic representation of the Fleet in his flagship’s main scanner tank. Almost eight ships in ten were being sent to join the strike on the Confederate’s home world, leaving behind only a few small ships for local defense of key planets and installations. In what amounted to another Grugell month, the attack force would be assembled, and the Fleet would jump for their target.
To see more of Animal’s writing, visit his page at Crimson Dragon Publishing or Amazon.
YEAH!
Lots of big booms coming!
One extremely big boom, I suspect. Mentioning the *TWO* thermonuclear magnetic mines, of which only one has been used…even if I didn’t know what Chekov’s Gun is, I’d know it when I see it.
Hmm, didn’t one get used in an earlier story (of a later timeline)? Also a situation the Navy decided it wasn’t interested in investigating.
Yee haw!
From dead thread.
I can not describe my hatred for the Smithsonian.
They are everything the left thinks of the British museum. They see something they like and take it, haul it 3000 miles away from the people that own it or discovered it and put it in a dusty drawer in DC never to be seen again.
Locally there was a mammoth dig several decades ago, several complete skeletons. What did the Smithsonian do? Made sure to flood the site so those uneducated rednecks couldn’t find any more moth bones, take the complete skeletons to DC and put up a little shed off the highway with a plastic skeleton in it for the rubes to gaze on.
The Smithsonian should have the replica Wright Flyer, the real one should be at Kittyhawk. They should have the plastic mammoth and the real one should be in Graingevill Idaho.
Centralized east coast government needs to stay over there and gaze at their navels and leave the States the fuck alone.
I’ve worked in the museum exhibit business for better than twenty years now. My name is on multiple Smithsonian Museum exhibits.
My contempt for the Smithsonian Institution and its leadership may well exceed yours.
It has to.
I’ve never been there, even though I lived fairly close when I was at Ft Campbell.
Most of the stuff that I know is like to see that they have is locked away in some back room. A lot like the land in the western states is locked behind some forest service gate, it belongs to the jerk that has the keys. Not the little people.
FTFY. 😁
Dayton, Ohio already has an excellent aviation museum (and is right down the road from the equally excellent Pro Football Hall of Fame.) Let Kitty Hawk have some love too…
Not until NC takes “First in Flight” off their license plates. 😛
Dayton isn’t exactly “right down the road” from Canton….
https://x.com/esrtweet/status/2100964397745119596
Does anybody else hear the Peter Gunn theme song in their head while watching this?
I’d have to know who Peter Gunn was first.
Are you saying you never played Spy Hunter?
Played cowboys and Indians.
Played cops and robbers.
My kids play spy.
“Are you saying you never played Spy Hunter?”
Or watched this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irX54diwNn8
Blues Brothers yes.
I am today old as to learning that Spy Hunter is/was a thing. I’m assuming it was a tv show.
It was an arcade machine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93ds1VldZGI
They borrowed the theme from the old Peter Gunn TV show.
Well, that looks fun.
It’s not quite the return of the WRC, but it’s an interesting enough driving problem.
Chaos! Destruction!
Fewer, pricier flights. Freight surcharges. Manufacturers hoarding inventory. Even bankruptcy.
For American companies large and small, the combination of tariffs imposed under President Donald Trump’s trade policies, surging fuel prices from the Iran war and, now, rising interest rates is forcing executives to make tough choices.
Allen Eden has been holding onto extra inventory for his 25-person business, the Original Saw Co. in Britt, Iowa, which makes industrial power saws for wood and metalwork, as he grapples with spiking prices for aluminum, steel and essential parts.
One example: A “little bracket” used for his saw motors more than doubled in price this summer, surging to $87 from $42, he said.
If only we could go back to the good old days of Obamanomics, with zero interest rates and importing deflation from China via free trade. Nobody who mattered didn’t like that.
Why the hell would I buy a new $6800 radial arm saw when I can pick up a used Craftsman one at a yard sale for $100?!
Hardly anyone uses them anymore.
These guys make high end niche products. https://originalsaw.com/shop/page/2/
Sure, it is fine to mock the morons that think Obama was the greatest thing since sliced white bread. That doesn’t justify any of Trump’s idio-economics (all of which trace to the biggest dumbshit to split his time between the federal govt and federal penitentiary – Peter Navarro).
Where’s the payout from our latest imbecilic adventure in the middle east? Just neutron bomb every one of those fuckers. And that includes (((you know who))).
Biden?
Hey – you don’t go pissin’ off God by messing with His chosen people.
But a risk of Warsh’s efforts is that higher rates don’t directly address the root causes of inflation: the Iran war, the Trump administration’s tariffs, and the AI boom, which has driven up the prices for everything required to build and run data centers, from electricity to memory chips, copper, and land.
Root causes of inflation, like completely unconstrained government spending?
Not all price increases are “inflation” but why would we expect a “business journalist” to comprehend that?
Does anybody else hear the Peter Gunn theme song in their head while watching this?
More like Three Stooges.
Entrance of the Gladiators.
Benny Hill
Jeopardy theme song?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAQv1pxrpy4&list=RDzAQv1pxrpy4&start_radio=1
The outrage junkies are at it again
Gen-Z bristled at the scolding. A former social media operations manager who is looking for a job said she and her peers face obstacles far more pressing than their approach to daytime refreshments.
“We are already navigating ATS systems, AI screening, keyword matching, automated assessments, multiple rounds of interviews, take home assignments, personality tests, ghosting, and rejection emails that tell you absolutely nothing,” Albanery Badia wrote on LinkedIn. “We finally make it to the human part of the process and now we’re analyzing the fact that someone walked in holding a $6 iced coffee?”
Another Gen-Zer was even more blunt. “What if I said I don’t want to f—ing work for you if you’re not gonna hire me because I brought an iced coffee—how about that?” said kodishhh on TikTok. “You people have psychosis.”
You have navigated all those hurdles and booby traps to get to a face to face interview, but you can’t bear not having your emotional support your cup? Why not bring some Froot loops, too?
Seriously. I’m not showing with an iced coffee in my hand for an interview.
Nor hot coffee nor tea nor a soft drink nor a bottle of water. Caffeinate and/or hydrate on your own time, Snowflake.
Me neither but that recruiter is asshoe. Judge people on competence in the interview.
Y’all need Jesus, or something. I’m going in for an interview. I have no idea what (possible) Free Refreshment they may offer me. Being foresightful, I know I’m gonna want to have the option for a drink while we’re talking. Newman may have me parched under those hot lights. So I’ll definitely have a Gatorade or bottle of water or something. Why go in without a backup? Why would anyone investigate someone’s hydration choice? Logos on their bottle would be more revealing.
Who has time to ‘think’ about what each prospective chose to bring? Rorshach Test for the interviewer. Again, if they want to pay me to do this gig, I’m happy to do it better than they think they do it themselves. *checks watch* I’ve got time.
Evan – in my world the interview works both ways.
First thing I’m doing with a candidate is offering the person a drink water, coffee, tea and our machine spits out a mediocre iced coffee.
Somebody that doesn’t offer you a beverage is a clue for you.
I also see ‘both.’ No way I’d show up with a just-purchased iced coffee. Not just that I don’t drink ’em, but it looks far too casual. *shrug* A bottle of water doesn’t.
I’m quite sure a time or two I’ve been offered something, or it was available, but I didn’t ask cuz I was already prepared. Goes both ways: I’m respecting your time by coming prepared with what I may like to have. It’s not an open house.
Also true, *cue humorous trombone* I’m not in the position to look for tiny clues like ‘Did they offer you a drink’ as being anything remotely resembling important enough to focus upon. In some sense, I purposefully ask questions to ‘Interview the interviewer’ about my potential job, but with few exceptions, that was mostly for show. The most important question I (secretly) had was ‘What will it take to hire me?’
(I think the real ‘clue for me’ is I’m not interviewing for any ‘important’ jobs. Does make the ‘iced coffee judgment’ feel even more petty, contrived, IMO.)
Are there really that many people who can’t go for an hour without pouring liquid down their gullet?
@GT: It’s a tic of mine. Unless prohibited by sleep, work, or other activities, my fingers, mouth and tongue kinda always gotta be doing something. Why not have something to drink when you can? I also think it’s part of my ‘I never get hungry’ reality. There’s always something going on in my stomach. And with my hands. And face.
I can turn it off, but when expected to have an important conversation under pressure? Why not? I think I toned it down, but I’m sure UCS saw I have a very expressive face. All my energy needs an outlet. A physical prop is helpful. I make sure I town it down in interviews, but it’s always there. *shrug*
I had a guy roll up in his pickup. Get out, Stub out a cigarette (at least he didn’t leave it in my driveway) and open a monster. About 20’ from where I was standing.
He didn’t get the job.
I would say, “Cool, there are plenty more where you came from. Enjoy paying for your $6 iced coffee with your unemployment check.”
I saw that. Everything about it is stupid. Ya know who gives a shit? People who have time to give a shit, which isn’t as many folk as they like to imagine.
Ya see, if ya *pay* me to give a shit, I’ll suddenly start acting like I care a lot more. (Speaking of, I contacted work to let them know about the lab test, just to make sure they’re aware that I’m aware. So, folk still have a few hours to hook me up with a gig telling folk my first impressions of them for job interviews and such. I’d look over their offer with enthusiasm. Coffee-drinkin’ bitches.)
While I probably wouldn’t bring an iced coffee with me, I understand the argument some.
It’s pretty stupid to not hire someone just because they brought some iced coffee. Especially since we live in a world where (almost) everybody brings some sort of beverage with them everywhere. Whether that be water, a white monster, coffee, etc. They’re going to bring it with them to work, so why should they not be able to bring it with them to an interview? There’s also the argument that because they went through all of those hurdles, they should be able to bring it with them.
Now do these people probably have some sort of other fatal flaw (like going on social media to blast about this) that led them to not be hired? Probably, that’s not the point.
“This debate is not about the beverage,” she wrote. “Hiring managers are not disappointed in you because you chose iced coffee instead of hot chocolate….They’re judging your ability to be fully present, prepared, and respectful of their time during your interview slot.”
You need to devote your undivided attention to stroking the ego of some self-important dipshit from HR. That’s what the
interviewaudience is about.^this
I guess asking “Do you mind if I smoke?” would be a little over the edge.
Will the HR person be more or less impressed if my coffee was made with artisianal orphan labor, or is vegan-organic the better ECO play? OR! Their Starbucks displays their negative corporate mindset, while the nurse with McDonald’s is just a hard worker in a hurry. I need pictures with their resumes to make a fully impactful diagnosis of their character. Hot is good (for me, bad for Employer), brown is better, and as a white man, I certainly can’t hire any of ‘my’ kind. Something queer something would help, esp in edu.
Dammit. I’m good at this, Prospective Employer. *checks watch* Still tickin’!
What about if it was made from href=”https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MIuLjPGAGM2yawHduMrS8nOf_teIAucz/view”>unionized 22 year old idiots?
god dammit i cannot code apparently
unionized 22 year old idiots
I ain’t reading all that.
TL;DR
Basically the workers were trying to force this small very left coffee shop in my hometown to release their financial records to the workers
release the wage or salary of every worker along with this “We demand that every employee’s wage is transparently displayed in the back, and must be updated the same day that any change of any nature is made.”
All policies from top to bottom must be voted on
forcing people to be promoted
whatever the fuck this is
We demand equitable guidelines regarding the distribution of shifts, specifically
granting no more than one additional shift to a given employee when more shifts
are desired by another employee. For example, it would not fulfill scheduling
guidelines for employee A to have 5 open shifts totaling 32.5 hours when
employee B has 3 opens totaling 19.5 hours. It would fulfill scheduling guidelines
to grant 4 open shifts to employee A and 3 open shifts to employee B, as the
disparity between these two is no greater than one shift, or 4 open shifts to
employee A and B as there would be no disparity. These guidelines will only
apply to employees who desire more than 2 full shifts per week, or greater than
13-15 hours per week.
And also forcing the shop to donate partial earnings of drinks to specific charities etc if they’re named after someone
We affirm that the use of these names primarily serves your financial
benefit, given the complete lack of historical summaries, educational resources,
or financial solidarity otherwise provided. We recommend either changing the
names, or, 1) donating a percentage of drink sales every month to multiple
organizations involved in the liberation movements each individual belongs to,
and, 2) further platforming each organization with an informational tab on Third
Street’s website including: information on how to donate, how donations are
used, and Third Street’s log of respective donations.
LULZ
How it starts:
https://boston.eater.com/2021/9/15/22675401/darwins-ltd-cafe-cambridge-workers-organizing-union
How it ends:
https://www.wcvb.com/article/darwins-coffee-sandwich-shops-closing-cambridge-massachusetts/41954777
The balls on those people.
I consider bringing a beverage in a plastic cup to an interview to be tacky. If the interview is for a halfway professional position, I’d expect them to offer water or coffee. If they don’t, make a mental note in the “con” list for the job. But I’m old.
I’m old, too. (Probably older. 😞) To me, showing up to an employment interview with an “emotional support sippy cup” (Love that, Brooksie!) just seems unprofessional. You wouldn’t bring food or show up in your pajamas. (I hope!) Of course, we’ve heard about young people who show for the interview with their mom. 🙄
“not having your emotional support your cup”
That was supposed to be “emotional support sippy cup”. Oops.
My cup emotionally supported by balls in Little League. *shrug* That’d be a way better employee test. Have ’em rap a bat on their balls to audibly check if they’ve got their jock on. Those who didn’t, interviewing to cover the ‘Excessive MAiD Terminations in Canada’ beat, clearly didn’t prepare for the nut punches they’d be battered by.
What’s Aleppo?
Had to do it.
They just can’t let it go, can they?
“Xhaka has now admitted that he obtained false paperwork.
The 33-year-old said he would take responsibility for actions he now accepts were incorrect and has been left out of his side’s squad to face Scotland, North Macedonia and Slovenia in the international break.”
Well, I’m glad he submitted. Now hey can keeping teasing him with giving him his balls back. His lawyer got paid for this fucking pussification:
“”At the time, I was deeply unsettled and had serious reservations regarding the Covid-19 vaccination. I harboured a deep mistrust of the vaccine and was gripped by fear and uncertainty.
“In that state of emotional turmoil, I obtained a vaccination certificate instead of addressing my unresolved questions through the proper channels.
“Today, I clearly see that this was the wrong course of action. It was a mistake. I am sorry. I accept responsibility for this decision, am facing the process of addressing the situation, and am cooperating fully with the relevant authorities.”‘
“Emotional turmoil” works when ya strangle your three kids as a woman, not when you’re refusing experimental ‘vaccines.’ Ya see, I should get a Doc’s Slip with “ET” so I can get outta everything.
I’ve arrived outside of Cedar Rapids in Sour Spirits.
What is the obsession whoever designs hotel rooms has with sticking mirrors where they do not belong? There should be one in the bathroom, and that’s it. There should be none in the main room, especially not behind the desk so that anyone using the desk is stuck with their reflection staring at them while they try to focus on anything. It’d almost be worth the room damage charge to smash the damn thing if not for the risk of being banned from the chain.
Is this the kind of motel that offers hourly rates?
No. It is every damn hotel room in the world as far as I can tell.
I suspect they put mirrors up as the easiest/least objectionable option. The other two being a blank wall or some kind of inoffensive pablum art.
I’ve also noticed that bizarre mirror placement. It vexed me. I understand the ‘least objectionable’ argument, but why put something fragile and a safety hazard?
Maybe back when people felt shame, they were put there so visitors would feel bad about themselves and clean up, tip more. Just the tip.