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Chapter 62 - The Administrator[]
Officer's Promotion Board
LCN Naval Shipyard Greer
Antoinette Greer Station
Duran System
Lyran Commonwealth
3148
Vice Admiral Falcone came in last. "All rise. you may be seated. We have six candidates on the list, In the interest of serving the Public good, we do have to consider each candidate's record, deportment, and answers to interview questions." she shuffled the files and laid them edge-up in a grip-satchel. "Chief Warrant Vienh, will you shuffle the files?"
"Aye, mum."
"Interesting way to do this, Admiral. Is this how it's done in the Guard?"
"In the Guard, we generally don't get six qualified candidates who aren't already slotted for a ship, General Marsden." Emily said, "It's first-come, first served, but then, the Coast Guard's a smaller operation with not as many levels. We'll randomize the names and call them in, do the interviews, and that way your guy gets a fair hearing. I'm going to trust everyone here has already read the confidential files on the candidates?"
"There's some nightmare fuel in some of those." Rear Admiral Peters, a Donegaller who'd been a Commander with no chance of promotion before his superiors-including the ones who put the black ink on his file, suddenly found themselves unemployed and largely unemployable thanks to some targeted raids and a statement of charges for bribery, noted. "I'm not sure a couple of these people shouldn't be on suicide watch."
"Well, Quarantine duty is hard on everyone. The CNO herself's done multiple tours...so have I, but I take your meaning, everyone on the List has been vetted by qualified psychiatric examiners...which is why we're down to six names."
"Were they looking for the right kind of crazy?" Kapitan Iniego Ollivera, another man whose dead career was resurrected by the CNO's housecleaning and reforms, asked. His Buena Spanish accent was a lilting castellano instead of the harsh scots-influenced mehikano spanish of Arluna.
"We'll see. Chief! who's on first?"
"Kommandant..no, Commander Lukas Hoodman, the XO off the Iron Hills. mum."
"Show him in."
Each interviewer had a series of questions covering everything from a subject's past career, an emphasis on mistakes and errors, followed by a series of questions revolving around Warship operations, tactics, logistics, and then to further psychological and character-based questioning, finishing off with 'what if' questions to determine their decision making ability under stress.
said stress, of course, being the aggressive and negative tone of the interviews. Questions were blunt, confrontational and disparaging by design, and not one candidate was intended to leave thinking they 'nailed it'.
The idea was to observe how each candidate dealt with pressure. To that end, each set of questions was completely different, tailored by the best psychological warfare experts in LIC and Coast Guard's OCB, and behind the panel, in a concealed monitoring room, body-language and interrogation experts analyzed each candidate separately, looking for signs of Antisocial Personality Disorder (Psychopathy and sociopathy) as well as 'guilt tells'.
The procedure was grueling.
Despite Emily's assurance to her fellow senior officers, the Kowloon Coast Guard does use this method-along with narco-interrogation and physical discomfort, to screen out less than adequate officer candidates at the command level.
It's all about character, in the end. Honesty and Moral Courage.
Needless to say, four candidates washed out before the end of the first day.
"We've got two left." Emily noted after the last candidate was dismissed.
"You know, Admiral, I've sat on boards of inquiry that weren't that aggressive." Marsden commented, "Hell, I've seen Court Martials that were less aggressive."
"There is a purpose, General." Emily stated. "The biggest, most advanced ships in the fleet need to be helmed by qualified officers of outstanding moral and ethical character, above-cutline command qualities, and so on...you wouldn't want one of those grand battlewagons in the hands of some jackhole who thinks it's a battering ram or a way to get laid would you?"
"No, you're right...I think we need to pick now. Candidate one is...not the man for the job. Hoodman. Not our guy." Marsden said.
"Agreed." Kapitan Heinrich Freer commented. "A little seasoning is what he needs."
"Candidate Two, Kommandant Gerhardt Paulus?" Emily read off.
"I liked him...until the third phase. I don't see him being able to coordinate multiple ships, he froze up twice, too indecisive and he asks the wrong questions." Kapitan Laura Baker from LCS Riverrun noted.
"His solution was from a textbook."
"Yeah, he's not our guy either. Three looked good."
Kapitan (Commodore) Isaacs from the Frederic Steiner shook his head. "Looked good? Nah, he looked coached. He also tried to shift blame when confronted about that ex-wife of his. If anything we should have the Gendarmerie looking into the case to bring him up on charges. I don't know about the rest of you, but I don't want a man who uses his wife as a punching bag in the service one minute longer than necessary."
Emily didn't blink, "You think he did it too?"
Isaacs nodded. "Something in his eyes, and how defensive his posture got...or didn't get. an innocent man falsely accused will get angry, not have glib answers."
she made a note. "I'll have our people check in on that, put him on shore duty for the time being and see what he does."
"Four was good...we agree on her?"
"Aside from the god-bothering? yeah, Linda's a good officer." Isaacs said, "I'd say she'll make a fine Kapitan, but I'm biased."
Marsden cleared his throat, "So am I. She was on-point, humble, did not attempt to conceal, or shift blame for errors. Credited her crew for successes, showed genuine contrition over errors in her past, and accepted responsibility for mistakes."
"Alright...Linda Sithers-Minh-002 is one of our final candidates..." Emily made the note. "Who's our other one?"
"Not five?" Marsden said, "Please not five?"
"Whoo, you really didn't like that one."
"Insufficient technical and job knowledge, and insecure about showing it." Marsden said, "I can accept a Kapitan who has to learn their ship. I refuse to accept one who must learn and refuses to ask!"
"Leaves us with the sixth candidate...Peterson." Emily said.
"We can grab both?" Isaacs suggested.
"Both of them? A ship can only have one captain."
"One Captain, one Executive officer." he shrugged, "It's a new class of ship, it's not like we have a deep supply of officers experienced in them!"
"So which is which?"
"Peterson's younger, far less time in grade, far less space time. he should be in an XO position, acting as the Captain's right-hand." Isaacs said.
"Makes sense to me." Marsden said, "We were going to have to go through all of this all over again to fill that slot too-we can skip a round of hearings and endless reading by just assigning the two of them."
"So ordered." Emily said, "These hearings are completed. Let's go drink old man McQuisoton's booze and celebrate."
"When do we let them know?"
"Let's have a little 'final' exam." she said, "See how our candidates interact when they think the pressure is off?"