Crineal Chronicles 1: In Hera's Service Read Free

than
Strieger’s diminutive, for a Galactic, five foot eight inches. Most Imperial
citizens easily topped six feet, not that size made any difference once you
were in a fighter.
    He
returned the salutes. “At ease, ladies and gentlemen,” Crineal said as he
lowered his hand. “Please be seated.” He waited whilst the pilots all sat down.
It still seemed strange to him after all this time that over half of his pilots
were women. But even back home it had been realized for quite a while that
women made excellent pilots. However, social prejudices still clung on and kept
many women out of the military. The Empire was far more broad-minded and it
selected for ability rather than gender, which he agreed with wholeheartedly.
It didn’t stop it feeling odd at times, though. All those millennia of a built-in
social and genetic need to protect women were hard to shake, he thought. “I’ll
keep this brief so you can get some rest, but we’ll hold a follow-up session
tomorrow once the major and I have had a chance to review the flight recordings.”
That brought a few groans from around the room. “On the face of it, your
performances today were good. We took no losses and only minor injuries. You’ll
be pleased to know that the major informs me that the injured pilots will be
well enough to join us tomorrow, though I’m not sure they’ll be as pleased.” He
smiled as some chuckles broke out. “Before you all go congratulating yourselves
too much, let’s remember that we faced an outnumbered enemy that was in a bad
tactical situation. We’ll do the review tomorrow with that squarely in mind.
We’ll meet here at thirteen hundred hours and go over everything. It will give
you all a chance to do your own reviews, and you’ll all be nicely ready for a
nap after lunch.” Crineal gave them all a reassuring grin.
    No
one was fooled for an instant. Sometimes the pilots joked that Crineal’s
debriefs were harder than the battles themselves. They knew they would need to
be alert tomorrow afternoon and not stuffed with food and feeling sleepy.
    “Does
anyone have anything urgent they need to raise now?” He waited for a few
seconds but no one spoke up. “Then we’re done for today, people. I’m heading to
medical but will be in my office after that for a couple of hours if anyone
needs to see me.” Strieger called the pilots to attention and they all stood
and saluted. Crineal and Strieger returned the salutes and then Crineal
dismissed them. Some of the pilots sat back down to chat amongst themselves
whilst others headed off to their rooms to change out of their flight gear and
into ship’s uniform. Strieger saluted Crineal and left the ready room as well. He
stayed behind for a couple of minutes to exchange a few words with the
remaining groups of pilots and then headed off to medical. Some senior officers
kept their distance from their pilots and usually ended up with very little
idea of what was happening within their squadrons. Others got too friendly and
were unable command effectively. It was a narrow line to tread and Crineal had
learnt from the best. His stop at the medical section was brief. None of the
four pilots were badly injured and all would be at least fit for light duty and
tomorrow’s debriefing session. Crineal sat with each one for a couple of
minutes, asked how they were feeling and made some small talk with them. All of
the pilots assured him that they would be fit for flight duty in just a few
hours and they were fine. It always reminded Crineal of a line from one of his
home world’s classic comedies, ‘it’s just a scratch’, and that raised a smile
for him. Underneath though, it showed that his pilots’ morale was good and that
he could be confident that they were giving their all.
    From
medical he went to his quarters to change out of his black flight suit and into
standard uniform. The normal ship’s uniform consisted of black pants and jacket
with silver trim, and matching calf high