by Ward Wagher
"Right, Skipper." Hopper shrugged and went back to rearranging the desk. He then disappeared back into the galley.
Franklin came out of the fresher and walked naked into the bedroom. He quickly dressed and then looked around. "Shoes!"
Hopper eased into the room carrying a brightly polished pair of shoes. "Here you go, Skipper."
"Trying to make up for ruining my desk, I see."
"We aim to please, Sir."
"That's what they all say," Franklin said as sat down to put the shoes on. “I assume you are aware of the life expectancy of smart-aleck stewards.”
"My granddaddy used to be a steward, and he warns me about that all the time."
"And how old is the fellow?"
"A hundred and ten, Sir." Hopper walked from the room with a smug look on his face.
Franklin shook his fist at the back of the departing steward, and then put his tunic on. "It's going to be a long voyage."
# # #
Louie the Woogie stood in the middle of the engineering area gesticulating madly with his five limbs. The engineering team stood in a semi circle around the pink alien expressing varying degrees of disbelief. Strapped around his middle was an odd shaped box with some indicator lights in what looked like a speaker grill. It looked as though Eckert and Boodles had come through once again.
Franklin walked over to the group. "Louie, it is good to see you."
Louie spun on his axis and brought his single bright blue eye to bear upon Franklin. "Very bland to be alive, Flipper."
"You have a new vocoder," Franklin commented.
"Yes, the Harmon found it for me. Not work too good, better than nothing."
"If we stay with our schedule we will be breaking orbit in a half hour. Will you be ready?"
"Quite. Engineering ready to set go anytime protrubulence masher," Louie said confidently.
There were a couple of snorts and a loud guffaw from the assembled engineering team. Ensign Chaplin cleared her throat loudly and glared at the offenders. They immediately stood up straighter and carefully looked straight ahead. An aroma of vanilla began wafting into the room.
"So sorry, the Woogie," Louie said. "Box not quite right."
"Are you capable of managing the group?" Franklin asked.
"Oh, yes. Ensign Lari Mari Tari Cari Seri Dari..." Louie made a rumbling sound like steam in the pipes and reached up to push a button on the box. It gave a squeal, and several clicks and finally a “ta da” chime.
"So sorry, the Woogie. Have to keep the box to reset. Ensign Lari to keep control of the menschen.” Louie raised his arms/tentacles in the air and spun around a couple times before emitting what sounded like a flaccid Bronx cheer. The vanilla aroma was now almost overwhelming. Several of the engineering staff stepped back involuntarily. "So sorry, should not swear. Makes the Redeemer unhappy."
"Okay, then," Franklin said. "Good to have you in the saddle. Carry on."
He turned, then, and walked quickly from the engineering bay. He pushed the button to call the ship's elevator and stood in front of the door waiting for it to arrive. When the door slid open he stepped in and selected a stop in the ship's central spaces. After the door slid closed again he leaned against the back wall and started snickering. This progressed to a chuckle and then to full throated laughter. When the door opened at the destination, he had recovered sufficiently to walk into the passageway.
The cargo team was still hauling boxes into the hold, only now there seemed to be a slightly frantic tone to their work. Daphne was standing to one side giving directions.
"No, no, no, Spacek! Those boxes are plainly marked perishable. They go into the stasis unit. I don't need spoiled steaks smelling up the hold." Daphne’s slightly exaggerated patient tone indicated she was close to losing it.
"Sorry, Exec. I just plain missed it." The crew member started stacking boxes on the floater again, so he could move them to the stasis machine.
One of the Chief Petty Officers was in the hold. He looked at Franklin, and rolled his eyes. Franklin nodded to him.
"Exec, can I see you for a minute?"
Daphne swung a fiery glare at Franklin, and opened her mouth to speak; then closed it again. Visibly getting control of her temper she finally spoke. "Sure, Skipper. Carry on, Chief."
“Aye, aye, Exec.” the Chief had a relieved look on his face as Franklin motioned Daphne out of the hold into the passageway.
"I don't have time for conferences right now, Skipper."
"I just need to know status, Daff. Will we be able to break orbit on schedule?"
"Yes... no. I don’t know. I seem to be having to do everything for this crew.”
Franklin placed his hands on his hips as he looked at her. “Daphne, you’re going to have to let the crew make their own mistakes. What mistakes are you making today?”
She glared at him again, but said nothing.
Franklin continued in a low tone. “We sail on time, Lieutenant. I don’t care if we have cargo strewn through all the passageways and hanging from a rope out the shuttle bay. We’ll get it straightened up eventually. I need you to do your job. Let the crew do theirs.”
She grimaced and shook her head.
“Do you understand what I am trying to tell you, Lieutenant?”
“Yes, sir. Aye, aye, sir. I suppose I’d better get to the bridge.”
“I’m headed that way myself. I'll go with you.”
# # #
"Chief Barrett, contact Cambridge Control for departure clearance, please," Franklin said as he leaned back in the command chair. "Navigation, is the course laid in?"
"Yes, sir. Course laid in."
Franklin pushed a button on the arm of his chair.
"Engineering, Lieutenant Louisville," came the electronic voice from the speaker.
Franklin glanced over at Daphne, who raised an eyebrow in return. "This is the Skipper, Louie. We will be ready for engines in a minute or two."
"Aye, Rye, the drives are ready, Blipper."
There were grins all around the bridge, and several crew people clearly had difficulty suppressing their laughter. Franklin bit down hard on the corner of his lip for a few moments; then pushed another button on the arm of his chair. A chime sounded throughout the ship.
"This is the captain," Franklin said. "We will be breaking orbit shortly and beginning our voyage as well as our mission. As you all know, we will be attempting to track down the pirates that assaulted Hepplewhite, as well as recover our Prime Minister and his wife."
"We all know we are a scratch crew, but you all have done very well over the past three weeks and I'm proud of you. But the easy work is done. We have a lot of drilling and training to do, and it will be tough work. But when we meet up with Mr. Pirate, we will be at the top of our form and he will be very sorry."
"Perhaps something just as important, we will be setting the traditions for the Ducal Navy of Hepplewhite. Our children and grandchildren will look back upon what we have done here, and they will be the judges of our effectiveness. Let's get to work."
Franklin pushed the button to break the connection. He looked over at the communications console. "Do we have our clearance, Chief Barrett?"
"Yes, sir. It just came in."
"In that case, Chief Sabbath, take us out."
"Aye, aye, sir." The helmsman’s fingers danced across the keys of his panel, and the star field swung across the screen as Canopus oriented herself to break orbit.
"Acceleration at one hundred gravities per flight plan, sir. Course and acceleration nominal."
"Very good, chief. Carry on."
"Aye, aye, sir."
Franklin leaned over to Daphne so he could speak to her quietly. "I'm deliberately taking it easy our first time out. We've got to get this crew settled in, I want to take the time to do it right. I've got the first watch here, so I'd suggest you walk the ship and make sure the department heads are on top of things."
"Aye, aye, sir," she said softly.
"An
d Daphne," he cracked a grin, "I think we have enough stevedores on board."
She blushed as she jumped out of her seat and left the bridge.
Franklin leaned back in his chair with a smile. If I can only keep Daphne from falling on a grenade, he thought, the rest of the crew just might come together fine.
chapter fifteen
The Canopus drove through interstellar space at an apparent velocity of several hundred times the speed of light. Because Mr. Einstein, nearly a thousand years previously, decreed that no one could exceed the speed of light, Canopus was actually moving at around twelve percent of the universal speed limit. The Berthold singularity drive created a string of quantum singularities and jumped the ship through them. As the drive created a new one, and squirted the ship through a quantum tunnel into it, the old one evaporated. While the distance between the singularities was not great, the elapsed time for the jump was effectively zero. This resulted in a practical faster than light drive. The upper speed limit was limited only by the frequency at which the BSD could create new singularities as well as by the power of the ship’s fusion reactors.
Franklin pushed communicator button on the arm of his command chair.
"This is the Exec," he heard Daphne's voice.
"Bridge, the Captain. Are we still on for the department head meeting at 16:00?"
"Aye, Skipper; and we have a lot to cover too."
"Hmmm, about a half hour then," Franklin said. He leaned forward in his chair towards the tactical officer. "Gabe, call general quarters, inter-space."
"Aye, aye, sir." He reached forward to hit the big red button on his console.
Daphne squawked and started to curse, then Franklin hit the button again to cut the connection to her quarters. The general quarters alarm chimed its raucous note throughout the ship. The current on-duty helmsman looked back at Franklin with a raised eyebrow.
"Problems, PO?" Franklin said with a smile.
"No, sir," Petty Officer Gosling said, as he turned quickly around to his panel.
Franklin imagined the crew to be getting quite exasperated with him after he had called general quarters four times in the past two hours. Daphne's reaction was probably mild compared to some of the others in the crew. He watched his status display as the individual departments on the ship winked green when the watch keepers signaled they were ready for battle. He then stepped into his Ready Room where Steward Hopper waited with Franklin's space suit.
"Back into your jammies again, Skipper."
"I can hardly wait, Hopper," Franklin said dryly as he climbed to his feet. He stripped off his uniform and stepped into the space suit. He winced as he made the plumbing connections. "Gosh, I hate that."
"Just a little reminder, Sir, that the Hepplewhite Space Navy owns all of you."
"Shut up, Hopper."
The bridge crew rotated off their stations to get into their suits. The space suits were uncomfortable and inconvenient, but if the bridge lost pressure during combat the alternative didn't bear thinking about.
Hopper finished sealing the suit for Franklin and the telltale lights on his cuff gave the green signal of a locked suit. “Okay, Hopper, go climb into your party wear.”
Back on the bridge Franklin racked the helmet behind his command chair and sat down again. Another window on his screen displayed weapons status as the missile systems and beam weapons came online. There was a two minute lag before engineering went green, and then damage control immediately followed. He scanned the bridge to see everybody at station and then looked at his status display again.
The blinking numbers on the display showed fourteen minutes from the time TacO Simmons hit the big red button and the last department signaled readiness. Franklin shook his head, and then rubbed his chin in thought. He leaned back, crossed his legs and gazed at the Star field in the main display for a full two minutes.
"Okay, Mr. Simmons, secure from general quarters, please."
"Aye, aye, sir."
Some of the crewmembers on the bridge secured their duty stations and drifted away. Others continued working, apparently taking advantage of the GQ to hone their skills. Tactical officer Simmons took advantage of the time to keep his people at their stations running simulations.
"Mr. Simmons?"
"Yes, sir?"
"Who will cover your station during the department head meeting?"
"The ATO, sir, Ensign Kane."
"And that's PO 3rd Riley on the other console?” Franklin said.
“Yes, sir.”
“Okay, Gabe. You and I have a meeting to attend. Ensign Kane will have the conn, and you know what that means about PO Riley.”
Simmons grinned. “It means the she and the ATO have to keep our chestnuts out of the fire while we’re locked up with you in the Wardroom.”
“Very good, Mr. Simmons. We will give you points for your powers of deduction. We will take them away for dinging the Captain.”
Franklin rose to his feet. “Mr. Kane, you have the conn.”
The ATO immediately stood up. “Aye, aye, sir. I have the conn.”
“Let’s go, Mr. Simmons.”
Franklin and the Tactical Officer left the bridge. Kane gingerly slid into the command chair. Amy Riley looked over at him with her eyebrows raised.
“Ensign, I can’t believe they left us in charge.”
“Well, PO, I guess we’ll just have to make sure we keep their chestnuts out of the fire,” Kane said with a grin.
# # #
"Is anybody tired of GQ drills?" Franklin said as he scanned the officers in the wardroom.
There was an undercurrent of sour humor, but no one volunteered to agree with him.
"That would've been the wrong answer. You are learning. Our best time today was thirteen and a half minutes. The record for this type of ship is six minutes."
Louie made a sound like a foghorn before he spoke. "Six minutes of not possible anthracite."
It got very quiet in the room as no one could determine an appropriate reaction.
"Does anyone care to agree with the CHENG?" Franklin asked.
"With all due respect, Skipper, you got us working like coal miners," Chief Petty Officer Harper Brace said. "Our GQ requirements in Damage Control are not nearly as strenuous as some of the other departments."
There was a nervous chuckle around the room, which was joined by the Woogie, who thought it was funny too.
"Uh huh," Franklin said. "I agree six minutes is probably not reasonable. But if we stumble across our pirate friends, we won't have fifteen minutes to clear for action. We'll be dead, people."
Franklin scanned the room again. The humor had disappeared and everyone was looking grim. He smiled.
"That's why we have drills, people. We all know we have a long way to go, but I'm confident we can make a lot of progress. The Exec is going to review the results of the drills." He looked over at Daphne. "Give us the bad news, Lieutenant."
Daphne leaned forward and pushed a button on the table in front of her. A chart appeared on the screen at the end of the room. "If you look at the breakdown of the steps in the drill, you can see the big spike in the space suit ingress. I think we can assume the new crew are skittish about the catheters."
"New crew nothing," the voice came from a corner of the room, to general laughter.
"Good point," she continued. "When the Skipper called the fourth drill in two hours, I wasn't terribly excited about it myself." The glare she laid on Franklin caused more mirth in the wardroom. "Many of you with regular navy background, however, probably remember skippers who ran nonstop drills all day. I believe the word discomfort, in that case, was probably an understatement." There were groans this time.
"We have people who are still slow in getting to their duty stations. As department heads, you know who they are. If you are not getting improvement out of them, get with me and we will set them up for additional training." She looked over at Franklin who raised an index finger. "Yes, Skipper?"
"Let
me remind you our goal here is improved performance. It's going to take a lot of hard work from everyone to get us where we need to be, but I am confident we can get there. Let me suggest you will not get the best performance out of your people by berating them. We have a green crew. The newbies have not gone through basic nor through the A-school. We're going to have to take them by the hand and teach them how to be effective in this job. On the other hand, the people in this room do have experience." A chuckle rumbled through the room. "I don't think I have to tell you that my expectations are very high for you. I am confident, yea even the Exec is confident we will not be disappointed." He nodded at Daphne to continue.
"Not to pick on the chief engineer," Daphne said, "but engineering has been the slowest department consistently."
"No excuses," Louie's cobbled together voice apparatus said quite clearly.
"And I was expecting none. How much of the problem may be attributed to your vocoder?"
"Again no excruciations. But, the equipment helps very brittle."
She looked over at Franklin. "Skipper, when we get to Harcourt I think we will need to go on a scrounging expedition to find something for Louie that works better."
"Lieutenant, consider the expedition authorized."
"Uh, what are the ground rules, sir?"
Franklin rolled his eyes and looked at each corner of the room. "Just don't kill anybody, or get arrested for larceny, Exec."
"Aye, aye, sir."
"I go along," Louie said. "I can summit mountain range breast fell shortly do." His sentence ended abruptly when he punched the reset button with one of his tentacles. The “ta da” chime sounded in the room.
A lot of forced straight faces carefully looked at Franklin as he struggled not to laugh. He looked over at Daphne who was similarly working very hard to maintain her dignity.
"Crap!"
With that single word from the Woogie the entire room dissolved into hysterical laughter. Louie flooped along with everyone else. It was several minutes before Franklin recovered enough to speak again.
"Louie, you indeed have my humble apologies. It is very rude for us to laugh at you. You can be very sure the exec will do her best to find a new device for you."
