Mardusk looked around and made sure everything was squared away and the Skipper had three pots of coffee. The meeting requests had gone out yesterday, and the giant Orion had spent the next day sweating bullets. He knew the Captain was supportive of his and Cochrane’s CRIT team initiative. And the Brass had applauded him and Alex on the idea and gave them their blessings. But now… now is where the rubber met the road.

And Gravel was nervous.

He had gone over the potential candidates time and time again. And he knew the new CIO had the background and experience he was looking for. The question was: would he want to take the job? It was going to be hard enough coming onto a new ship, not just to him but to everyone, and settle in. Now along comes Mardusk to drop a new team with massive responsibilities and leeway to operate in his lap. A team that he would be responsible for, but who he also had to trust enough to hand the reins over to if someone was better geared to handle the specific situation. And it was the leeway that worried him. Cochrane was a ship’s Captain. It was his idea to have the team only answer to the CO. He said it would ‘cut down on the bull@$#t’ if they didnt have DH’s and off-ship authorities tugging at the team all the time. And he was right… but that meant a CO had to be willing to take it on the chin if the team screwed up. And so did the team leader. It was a lot to ask of Kelly and the new CIO.

“Double edge sword much?” he said out loud to no one in particular.

Mardusk, CoS