On one occasion there seemed to be a significant disagreement brewing between two of the crew about how to proceed with the job. The discussion was becoming heated enough for me to intervene and order them inside the pressurised area to cool off, eat and sleep. All of us, almost the entire crew were working much longer hours than normal and we were all becoming exhausted. I found myself worrying that this exhaustion would cause someone to make a mistake resulting in injuries, or even deaths. Space is a very unforgiving work environment so our people could not afford to make those types of mistakes.
When I thought about it, I realised we had by now, been working almost non-stop for nearly two weeks. Because so many of the crew were currently out of commission with injuries sustained during the battles with the pirates, the shifts were longer as well. I knew every one of us needed a break, at least a day off. We now had some of the thrusters operational although by no means all. When I checked the time, I realised I was overdue a meal so I quietly made my way down to the mess for food as requested, no ordered by Eri. Afterwards I went to the medical bay so I could talk to Eri about the crew. I arrived to find her sitting in her office, eating and doing some paperwork. She smiled at me as I entered, pointing to a chair. Clearly, she knew I had something on my mind I needed to talk to her about.
I sat and said, “I have noticed some of the crew are becoming a little short tempered. They are working very hard, perhaps too hard. I think some of them are not taking enough time for sleep as they should.”
Eri nodded, before replying, “Colin, they all have so much respect for you, they all look up to you. They see what you do and feel they should be keeping up, working as hard as you are, or at least trying to. You seem to have a very strong constitution; you can continue much longer than most Tangesha without sleep or food though when you do stop you completely collapse from exhaustion and hunger. I notice you have been losing weight recently as well.”
I ignored the weight loss comment and instead asked, “Do you think they would stop for a day, just to rest if I ordered it? Would a day be enough?”
Eri replied, “A day would certainly help a lot. We do still need to keep the ship running though. Some of us won’t be able to have any downtime, not for a while at least. But yes, a day off would do a lot for the wellbeing of the crew, even more so if you also took it, or at least could be seen to be taking it a lot easier.”
“OK”, I said, “we will have a day of downtime for the repair crew’s tomorrow. That will I hope, diffuse a few of the tensions and let people catch up on some of their rest.” I asked, “How is Shasi behaving?”
Eri laughed before replying, “Well, she is behaving. She had a shock when I told her what was happening. She started to worry about you, I had to reassure her that you were being given adequate support. You have this effect on all of the people around you, including me. You make us feel like we want to please you, to do what you want, but also to take care of you. It is uncanny, I have never come across anything like it before even among the other humans I have met.”
Once again I wondered at her words. I’d honestly never noticed this ability in myself before.
I wanted to argue but instead I asked, “Can Shasi take a visitor?”
Eri said yes before shooing me out of her office. I went to find Shasi who’d managed through sheer determination and bloody mindedness, to sit up in bed.
As I walked in she smiled at me before saying, “Hello Captain.”
I was not used to being called Captain so I looked around, expecting to see Captain Carlon. Just momentarily, I felt happiness, that some miracle had taken place, perhaps even that this whole situation was some kind of horrible nightmare. God only knew, I‘d been having enough of those lately. Then I suddenly came down with a thump as I realised Shasi was addressing me.
Feeling embarrassed, I looked back at her to see a look of concern on her face. “Sorry”, I said, “I forgot for a second there that I am now the Captain. How are you feeling now?”
She replied, “Tired, sore, hungry and bored. I wish I could escape this bed.”
I told her she needed to stay a little longer so Eri could make sure she was fit for duty. She grumbled about that but I could tell she knew it to be true. Really, all she could do was to suffer it out. She was not strong enough yet to stand on her own. I didn’t mind though, not really, I could tell she was just venting her frustrations, I knew how active she normally is.
I said, “Look on the bright side, another day or two and you should have Ani to keep you company. That at least, will give you someone to talk to during the day.”
Shasi smiled at that, agreeing it would be a welcome relief to have someone sensible to talk to. We carried on with the banter for a while longer till I noticed Shasi was beginning to look increasingly tired. I told her to go to sleep before I left to arrange the next day’s stand down.
After leaving the medical bay, I made my way back to the bridge so I could check our current status. On the way, I noticed we had some of the pirates repairing the damage that was done to the internal bulkheads during the fighting. They’d actually made quite a bit of progress, especially when I considered our shortage of raw materials for the parts fabrication machinery. Clearly, the recycling equipment was working overtime. Thankfully, the pirates were doing as they were told without giving us any problems at all. Of course, they knew I was now in command of the ship. They’d seen me with that mad gleam in my eye when I was still hyped on adrenalin just after we defeated them so they genuinely feared me. They knew, or at least thought they knew, that I would have absolutely no sympathy for them if they caused us any trouble, especially if I was pissed off.
I wanted to utilise a carrot and stick approach so I made sure they were treated humanely as long as they behaved and did as they were told. I also made sure they remembered what would happen to them if they didn’t behave. All in all, they gave us no trouble whatsoever, so I never had a cause to be angry with any of the ones we were using to help around the ship after they surrendered. I think they even started to experience something like Stockholm Syndrome. They seemed to be starting to identify with us, it was almost as if they felt themselves to be part of the crew. I made a point of rotating the guards regularly so there was not much time for relationships to form or for the guards to become too complacent with our prisoners. I also made sure the guards knew to keep their distance.
As soon as I reached the bridge I asked our communications technician to let the crew know we would be standing down to minimum crewing for the following day, commencing at the next shift change. The crew were ordered not to do any work outside of work deemed absolutely necessary to ensure the continuing safe running of the ship. They were ordered to rest instead. I then asked the bridge crew to report the ship’s current status.
At this point we only had three stations constantly manned, sensors, communications and navigation. Helm was currently locked out, both for safety reasons and because the ships helm controls were not working yet anyway. The sensors operator reported no changes, as far as he could tell, nothing had entered the system, and we were not about to collide with anything. He did however report they located the third pirate ship, drifting seemingly dead in space near the jump point we intended to exit the system with. I filed that fact away in the back of my mind for future reference then asked him to make sure it was on the plot so we could avoid it when we exited the system. The navigation station reported they now knew precisely where we were within the system and we were not likely to collide with any mapped body within the next few days. The communications station had little to report except for some distress beacons coming from near the pirate ship. He thought the pirates may have launched escape pods when our missiles damaged their ship. Other than that, he only had to monitor external communications channels for any signal, monitor the internal ships security system and to make sure internal communications remained available for the crew.
By the time I finished receiving all the reports, the shift
change was rapidly approaching. The replacement bridge crew arrived to relieve those who were currently on duty. I briefed the fresh crew on what was happening then ordered them to call me if anything important changed. I accepted that they were both professional enough and experienced enough to know when they would need to call me. With that, I left the bridge to go eat then rest. By now, I knew better than to skip meals, I am pretty sure Eri had the crew reporting my eating and sleeping habits to her because she seemed to know very quickly if I missed a meal or neglected to sleep. When it happened she would bully me into doing what I should have been doing all along. From my perspective, the last thing I wanted was to give her reason to waste her time chasing after me when she had so many injured patients to care for. After eating I headed down to my quarters for sleep while I had the chance. Once again, I slept very well. I can’t remember dreaming though I probably did. I woke naturally seven hours later, feeling both refreshed and very hungry.
I climbed out of my bed to clean myself up before going for food. While I was in the shower, I wondered why I’d not needed to do any laundry for some time now. I thought someone must be coming in here when I’m out to clean up after me. At first, I felt a little bit uncomfortable with the idea, but then I thought, so what, I am busy with other things, like trying to make the ship functional again and looking after the crew’s wellbeing. Surely it is reasonable for someone to do this for me. I decided I needed to find out who was taking care of this. Not to cause them any trouble, but to make sure they were OK with what they were having to do, and to thank them. When I arrived at the mess I found Eri and Kari eating in the corner. They both smiled at me as I entered so when I had my food, I sat with them, partly just for the company, but also to see how the injured people were holding up. I wasn’t there for very long when Sarolin entered. After he collected his food I waved him over to sit with us.
When he was settled I asked him, “So how are you getting on at the moment?”
He gave me a quizzical look before replying, “I’m fine Sir.”
So then I asked him, “What exactly are your duties when you are not piloting a shuttle?”
He replied he was just a Trooper. I asked if he could pilot a ship the size of FNS Destiny. His reply was that he could indeed but while he was licensed to do so, he’d only practiced in a simulator so may not be as good as someone who did it for a living. We all laughed at that but I was grateful to have another qualified helmsman, with Captain Carlon out of commission we were short-handed in that department. We chatted on for a while till we were all finished eating.
After breakfast, both Eri and Kari needed to return to medical so they could go back to work. Unfortunately, their workload would remain pretty solid until a few more of their patients could be discharged. I expected their workload to decrease gradually but that was likely to be weeks into the future. For my part, I took things relatively easy for the rest of the day, making sure I led by example. Of course, I went to the bridge to listen to the department reports. Thankfully, there were no changes and no surprises with any of those. We were still clear of obstacles, still moving through space on our ballistic trajectory. The pirate ship still seemed to be dead in space and the distress beacons near the pirate ship were still broadcasting. After listening to the reports, I took to quietly wandering the ship. I stopped from time to time to talk to groups of crew I came across. Eventually, I went down to the squad bay to do some exercise. I’d been neglecting my exercises lately because I was so busy with my other duties. I quite simply had not had the time for exercise. Of course, I was well aware this was no excuse, but even so, it was still true.
By the time I’d completed my exercises, I realised I was feeling both hungry and a little fatigued. After eating, I returned to my quarters where I once again slept soundly, waking the next day feeling fully refreshed. Immediately after I eating my first meal for the day, I made my way to the medical bay so I could check on the patients there. Ani was to be woken later in the day and I wanted to make sure she was OK. When I arrived, Eri was about to call me. Ani was awake, seemingly on the mend. She was still very weak and a little groggy but awake and keen to escape from her bed just as Shasi was. Shasi had already filled her in on all the events that had occurred after we defeated the pirates.
When I walked in, Ani tried to sit up in bed, just the same as Shasi did at first but Eri and I quickly restrained her. I told her not to be silly, to take it easy till Eri told her she could leave her bed. I noticed Shasi quietly smiling to herself. Of course, the same happened when she woke so she could afford to smile. I thought, at least now, Shasi will have someone to keep her company. I chatted to both of them for a while before I turned to leave. As I turned to leave, I found I needed to stop and repeat the orders I gave to Shasi a few days earlier but this time directed at Ani. I told her I needed her well again and this would happen much more quickly if she did what Eri told her. She subsided then so I left them to continue their recovery while I headed up towards the bridge.
On my way to the bridge, I could see the crew were already back at work after their day of light duties. I noticed they seemed to be much happier, more focused and I realised how important it was to make sure we all had adequate downtime for rest. We’d been pushed so hard over the last few weeks since we entered this system, we completely lost sight of the need for rest. I arrived on the bridge to see everything was still normal. Once I knew nothing had changed, I left to go check on the progress of the repairs. On the way up to the outer hull, two members of one of the repair crews approached me, asking to talk to me about a repair they were trying to make. I directed them to one of the nearby meeting compartments. As soon as we entered they started explaining, they had a difference of opinion about the best way forward on a repair they were trying to make. I asked one of them to explain the required repair to me. He did so, followed by his ideas on the best way to proceed. That quickly degenerated into an argument between the two. I held up my hand, stopping them in their tracks.
I said to them, “Right you two, arguing like this will not get us anywhere, it is completely counterproductive”, before I stopped to let that sink in.
After a few seconds, I continued, “You are both to put a presentation together, detailing the damage, the issues surrounding the repair and what you think should be done about it. You have two hours, then you are to find me and you will take turns to present your ideas to me. Do you understand?”
They both acknowledged my order before leaving. I sat there for a few more minutes then left to continue touring around the repair crews, checking on their progress and dealing with the minor issues as they continued to crop up. Once again, I donned my vacuum suit before cycling through the airlock. Once again, I visited each of the repair crews to see how they were progressing. I was pleased to see the progress was good, actually, the progress was better than I could ever have dared hope. It quickly became apparent to me, we were rapidly approaching the point where we would finally be able to unlock the helm and stop the ship’s slow tumble through space. After talking to the various repair teams I estimated we would only need a day or two to finish the remaining repairs on the maneuvering thrusters and their associated power feeds and control systems. After those repairs were completed, our intention was to stop the tumbling motion of the ship as soon as we could, then begin work on finding and repairing the problems that were stopping the main drives from operating. I thought I could give these people some more time off while we stopped the tumbling and faced the ship in the direction we wanted.
The crew members I sent off to prepare presentations for me found me to present their thoughts as I’d previously ordered. I led them back to the same meeting room we’d used earlier where we all took our seats. I set out the ground rules for them, making sure they understood what I considered to be acceptable behaviour. While one of them was presenting his understanding of the problem and his plan to fix it, the other was forbidden to interrupt. I chose one of them at random, asking him to tell me
what he had.
He went through his presentation, explaining what I needed to know as far as he understood the problem then told me his approach to resolving the issue. Once the first presentation was completed, I told the second crewman to give me his presentation.
Almost immediately it became obvious to me, these two each had quite a different understanding of the problem. This disparity in their understanding was why they were arguing. I listened till he completed his presentation then told them both to come with me while I found a more senior maintenance crewman to come have a look. We found the senior engineering rating I was looking for then went to take a look at the damage. When we inspected the damaged area, even I could immediately see they were both right to a point. Each of them was missing part of the problem and neither of them seemed to be willing to listen to the other. Once the senior engineering rating saw the problem we all went back into the pressurised part of the ship to discuss the issue further.
I didn’t want to order them to do anything for two reasons. First I didn’t know enough about Federation technology to be able to make an informed judgement call on my own. The second reason was I needed the crew to respect and listen to each other. After a lot of discussion, I and my senior technician managed to lead them to agree with each other on a viable way forward. After telling them I wanted a word with them both after the shift change, I sent them off to make their repair.
I was sitting at the desk in the Captains ready room completing logs and reading reports when the door chimed to let me know someone wished to see me. I looked at the chronometer realising the shift change had occurred so I pressed the button to open the door and watched as my two argumentative crew-members entered. They stood in front of the Captains desk, staring at the wall behind my head, I think they were waiting for me to yell at them. By now, I’d been able to give this talk quite a lot of thought. I thought yelling at them would be counterproductive, they were already expecting that. I checked, it was clear they were working as hard, or even harder than anyone else on this ship. Instead, I decided to try to lead them to the point where they understood how they needed to respect and listen to each other.
Star Man 1: Star Bourne Page 24
