“Fine,” Klein said. “What do you propose we do first?”

Rogers walked around the desk to show the admiral his datapad, on which was displayed a personnel roster of all of the sections of the Flagship.

“I have no idea what that is,” the admiral said.

“That doesn’t surprise me in the slightest,” Rogers said. “If you’re going to run a ship, you’re going to have to start paying more attention to where your people are and what they’re doing.”

“That’s what I have you for,” Klein said.

“And that’s why I’m showing you my suggestions,” Rogers said. “For example, you can’t have a master engineer running the kitchens if you want anyone to eat anything that isn’t going to poison them.”

“I guess that makes sense,” Klein said.

Deet, who had been relatively quiet during the whole exchange, peered into one of the old clocks on the wall and started mimicking the ticking noises.

“Why do you have a rusty old droid following you around, anyway?” Klein asked.

“Hey,” Deet said.

“Deet is my orderly droid,” Rogers said. Droids didn’t really function as personal assistants very often, but it seemed like the most likely explanation for keeping the robot close.

“I’ve already assigned you an orderly,” Klein said.

“Which brings me back to my point,” Rogers said. “Tunger is an idiot. He’s spent his whole career tending to monkeys on the zoo deck. There’s absolutely no reason he should be assigned as my assistant.”

“Well, then, why did you request it?” Klein asked, throwing up his hands in exasperation. “Why did any of these people request their transfers if they didn’t want to be there?”

Rogers paused. “What do you mean?”

“I want to keep everyone happy,” Klein said. “That’s why I keep approving anything that anyone sends me—it keeps my job easy. And if someone from the zoo deck wants to work in Supply, or someone from the engineering bay wants to work in the kitchens, why not? It’s a broadening experience.”

Rogers thought for a moment. Based on his conversations with everyone on the ship, there was no way that anyone had requested their transfers. Mailn hadn’t even been medically qualified to be a pilot, yet they were ready to give her a starfighter and live munitions for no good reason at all.

“How do you get these transfer requests?” Rogers asked.

“They come in through my daily read files,” Klein said.

“Do you read them?”

“No,” Klein said. “I have you read them and approve them. Haven’t you been getting any of my messages?”

Rogers chewed on the inside of his lip. Clearly, Klein had no idea where all the transfer requests were coming from, and they probably hadn’t come from the personnel themselves. So then, from where?

“Well, we’re going to start with moving some of these people back to places where they’re actually going to do useful work,” Rogers said. “And the absolute most critical thing you must do first is move Captain Alsinbury to the room directly next to mine.”