<strong>The Hawk</strong><br/><br/><hr/><br/>The Hawk had made Harden wait for a moment with a raised hand, even as Macauley put forward his suggestion. The captain nodded, acknowledging the point the Tactics officer had made, and how the same had been raised by Harden a few minutes ago. Hawkes was a tight assed guy, but he wasn't foolish not to see the point even when it was being beaten into his head with a hammer.<strong>"Now that I think about it, I can't disagree with you, Lieutenant. It won't go down well with the crew if I restricted the ladies to my stateroom at night. Not that I can't handle a few dissenting voices, but troubles can snowball themselves at times. Officer Harden had raised the same concern a while back." </strong>Looking at Harden, the captain continued,<strong>"Well, you win, Officer. Make arrangements in the bunk room for it to be the ladies' nightly quarters. And put your best two men on guard duty. You may go and get started with setting things up." </strong><br/><br/><strong>"Commander, I won't keep you here any longer too"</strong>, he nodded to Macheath.<br/><br/>And then he heard the radio guy's question about his treatment of the women. Not even attempting to hide his irritation, he said,<strong>"Young man, the day I want your inputs on how to treat the crew and others on the Triton, I'll admit you to the senior officers council. You'll do better to limit your thoughts to your domain till then."</strong>Not even waiting for his reply, he addressed the three men who'd come to collect their new assistants together,<strong>"Gentlemen, if you'd please wait outside while I have a brief conversation with the ladies."</strong><br/><br/>He turned and opened the door to let Eloise come out from the adjoining room too. Looking at the group, he said,<strong>"Now that things seem to have settled down, before you all are assigned to your stations, this is the best time to say anything you want to."</strong>