Future Fur-The Racosan War

Chapter 7(21) Rebellion of Arcadia(unedited)

The wind howled through the walls of the city of Jericho, a sound that seemed to never cease. Once in a great, while the sound would disappear only to pick up in a few minutes. The natives would warn us that the doors need to stay sealed because a sandstorm would create a continuous amount of ruckus. In an effort to drown the noise I focused on the task at hand, retreating to a dreamlike state to plan our attacks with Argos. Everyone else was working and the doctors were fixing up Kandor.

The Racalnas would know that we would lock down our defenses, especially with a rising storm. This base was meant for a long fight against our own but the Racosan Army was a different type of threat, one that would use everything they have to take this planet, capable of supporting life if possible but destroying it without a second thought if the task started to seem impossible.

I heard Zane call out my name, "Tanem!" He was yelling, with a hint of concern. I go up and walked over to the console he was syncing up to our defenses, the computer had more than one thing running but it didn't have to guess that the heat signature coming from the wall of sand and dirt was too high for it to be only a sand storm.

Collin came up on Zane's left, "Captain, I will try to get the external defense cannons online before they get here. This is very bad!" With that he walked off, forgetting the reason he came over in favor of saving that reason. I knew he wanted to hold Zane right now, they were always side by side until a fight started, this was different, they were not together. It hurt me to see Zane force his concentration and to watch Collin walk away as if he didn't want to cling to his husband, all because of the Racalnas. All because I the war they started.

I tapped Zane's shoulder, "I can sync the defenses, go help Collin! That's an order!"

Before I could respond Zane jumped up and hugged me, whispering his thanks into my ear before he walked toward Collin. It was a small gesture that showed I cared and I know that the two would get the job done before they would allow themselves to do anything else with the extra time to themselves.

"Excuse me captain Jax, can I ask a question?" A young female officer, a lizard but I'm not sure what type of lizard, with gray and yellow scales asked.

"Go ahead, you may not get another chance to ask it, I don't know how this war will end but I don't think it will last much longer, one of us may end up dead in the meantime!"

"Why did you reassign commander Dedran so he was closer to a person he is romantically interested in?" So she is an analytical officer and it sounds like she is analyzing command styles, she is right too, Zane does like Collin but she missed their rings!

"I take it you are looking to be a captain one day with how you are looking at the situation. Am I correct in that assessment?" I said as I looked her in the eyes.

"Yes, Captain Jax!"

I smirked, "Just because someone wrote it down, don't follow it. Command is about making your crew work to their finest. Zane and Collin, for example, you are right but you missed something, they are married. I found that if you learn your crew, sometimes the best thing is to let them figure out how to approach a problem, guide it but don't control it. Let your crew not only respect you but trust you. Collin and Zane are competent officers and work well together even if their strengths are elsewhere, they push each other forward. Like they decided to get engraved on their wedding rings, 'Explore tomorrow', as long as I outrank them I plan to keep them on my crew to see how far they can push each other."

"So it's about getting the most out of your crew, without lowering the moral on your ship?"

I linked up the last set of defenses and allowed the console to take over, "something like that, I encourage my crew to make mistakes, as a society we have always grown from making mistakes. Why make a crew any different? We are just a smaller section of a giant society."