"Thank you for the compliment sir," he said with a nod.
He listened to Masako's comments, acknowledging that they conflicted with his own for the most part. "Ah, I hadn't taken into account that you've spent a lot of time with the two and are a better judge of their character," he said. "I'm glad to have your input. There's only so much the mission data can show."
A moment later, he shifted his attention to his screen. "Continuing."
The video went to Kimura Takuma, who was fighting effectively, shooting nekomachina and following his orders. But then came the fateful hacking attempt and the loss of limb.
"Takuma-Heisho had a very hard day," Tom said with a shake of his head. "But, as Claymere-Taii said, he has made efforts to fix his mistakes. I will defer to your judgement on how he should be handled, but I have to admit his performance does not look good in comparision to the enlisted below him. Still, a demotion may only serve to discourage him further. I recommend consulting Sanjuro-Heisho for a character analysis before making this decision."
The screen turned black with the name Saito-Heisho on it.
"Since Saito-Heisho was on the bridge of
Miharu during the mission, I am incapable of commenting on her performance. In regard to your problem, however, Taisa, I completely agree with Claymere-Taii. Let her grow into the role of Heisho before considering moving her further up the ladder."
He looked to Yukari.
"The Shosa's imput, however, will supercede any commentary on my part, since she was by the Heisho's side for all of the mission."
The screen changed to Sanjuro. It showed the no-nonsense doctor at his best, tending to the wounded. "Sanjuro-Heisho. My opinion on him is conflicted."
"No! You must no move th-" of course, Sanjuro spoke before noticing that Tom had already picked up the prisoner he had mentioned earlier through the communication links. Sanjuro stood up, having already considered his options and the obvious conflicting priorities between his doctoring and the overall mission. "Freeman-Juni, we cannot move the critical patients without first attending to them," Sanjuro stated firmly, kneeling next to Wazu and starting working on the bonds on the mans' wrist.
"This one is obviously delirious to the point of not knowing where he is," the doctor argued. "The woman in the next cell is fighting for each breath, and the one in your arms has several grave injuries. As a doctor, I cannot move these patients until they are stable." Sanjuro declared in defiance of Tom's order.
~~~~
Doctor Sanjuro," Tom began, continuing to carry his patient as he overlooked the movement of the prisoners and crew he was thrust in charge of. "We're down 2 on our assault team with more enemies coming. They have weapons capable of damaging armors, and they are swarming to this location. I want to help these people as much as you, doctor, but we cannot hold this location for long. WHEN the enemy breaches, casualties suffered will be unacceptable. We have very little time left. Stabilize who you can, but you WILL obey orders."
~~~~
"What do you expect me to do? Leave the severely injured here while we escape? We cannot take them with us because they will not survive the journey back unless I stabilize their condition, and to do that properly I need to work on them here. I can treat these people. I just need time."
The video stopped. "Sanjuro-Heisho is absolutely dedicated to his profession and is a model for how a doctor should behave. As already stated, his ability to handle the injured prisoners was extremely important in our successful extraction. However, this argument happened at a critical juncture where the assault team was holding back an oncoming horde of nekomachina. His altruism here may have turned the mission sour had the assault team not performed so admirably. And, in both of our defenses, we each had our reasons for our words."
The video paused and he turned to face everyone.
"As support team leader, I was aware of the depleted numbers we had and was unsure of our team's ability to hold the area. With this in mind, I was willing to cut our losses and extract everyone who was ready, at the risk of adding fatalities to our mission. It is not something I am particularly proud of, but had our walls not held, it could have been a massacre."
"Sanjuro-Heisho, on the other hand, acted according to the demands of his profession at the possible expense of mission success. I could not fault him for that, so I made the compromise of extracting those who were ready and having Hasegawa-Juni protect the doctor. I am grateful that it paid off, but it was an uncomfortable decision to make. As officers, I would like your input on how this situation could have best been handled after I conclude this presentation."
Click. The screen moved to Hasegawa-Juni, the samurai. The silent death dutifully and expertly cut through lesser foes and mishu before the video switched to his climactic battle with the Eve clone.
"Hasegawa-Juni is an absolute expert in combat and was a key asset in our mission success. It is hard to find fault with his performance. But I feel his length of service to be a bit too short to have formed the necessary requirements to be an officer. Although he is cordial and polite, frankly, I don't think he has a strong enough bond with the crew to warrant the promotion."
He paused a moment, hesitant to continue.
"In light of recent developments... I think promoting another Samurai to this circle could also prove potentially dangerous. He is as duty bound to protect the empire as Kosuka-San, and as already been stated, his commitment to Ketsurui-Shoi would complicate things greatly. After my conversation with him, I... believe he could compromise the entire ship in the pursuit of that commitment. This is also why I agree with the demotion of Ketsurui-Shoi. Their mutual entrapment would only serve to complicate the difficult decisions we have to make."
Finished, he put away the screens and silently awaited responses.
