Every Last Mother's Child
Page 127
Chapter 1: The Boatman II
“Captain on the bridge,” the chief bellowed as Captain McNally came onto her newly renovated bridge. As she did the entire twenty man complement, along with their passengers, doctor Klond and her staff for the Outpost One clinic, came to attention.
“As you were!” she snapped. She felt much too formal for her little rescue boat and crew.
“Captain,” Therese nudged their young apprentice who turned beat read and stepped to the captain and handed her a crystal goblet filled with Champaign, and said, “Tradition back on Trena, in the Maritime Patrol requires that when a boat is put back to sea, or put in service for the first time that the apprentice offers this toast
“Back to the Sea, where we begin anew the ancient struggle of men against the Sea. May our journey on the seas of this new world hold no more peril, or any more struggle than that of our old world. Captain and Crew we now go back to the sea! ”
“To the sea!” the captain called softly, tossing her drink back placing the empty glass on the tray. The others followed suit and when they had placed their goblets on the tray she said. “I will now read my orders.
“By order of the maritime authority of Home, the Deliverance is to be made ready to embark and transport Medical Outpost Team 1 to Outpost 1. The Deliverance will home port at Outpost 1. After securing docking, and quarters for the crew of Deliverance, the Deliverance will embark upon its first tour of the River.
“I hear by acknowledge my orders.” She concluded.
“I have recorded the orders into the log Captain McNally,” the rescue boat’s AI repeated.
“Captain will you initiate the log?” The chief asked.
“Aye chief,” The captain didn’t know where the chief had gotten the book; but it was a brand new bound log book with the image of the Deliverance hand tooled into the leather cover. She took the log book wrote the date and time in it and stated that this is the first entry for their first cruise and patrol on Home. She signed the log and handed it back to the chief. The chief handed it to everyone to sign including the retired admiral who was now Outpost 1's chief surgeon.
“Is the boat ready for sea chief?” the captain asked as the last person signed the book.
“It is captain, all passengers have been embarked, all cargo has been secured, and the plant is ready to answer all bells.” the chief reported.
The captain looked around her bridge, looked at bright gleaming brass work. There was nothing out of place. The Deliverance look as good as the day it went in service twenty years ago. The yard dogs at Homeport had spent two weeks getting her ship ready. They had reloaded the computer with new charts, checked the AI to see if it was healthy. Had rebuilt and reinstalled not only the lift engines, but had put a brand new power plant on the boat. The sick bay had been restocked and up dated. The boat was ready to roar.
“Chief, pipe us away and man the sides.” She ordered, “Timmy take us out at one quarter speed.”
The chief took out an ancient boson’s pipe and piped the ancient call to man the side. The AI’s voice boomed out over the PA system amplifying the pipe and calling, “Deliverance! Departing! All hands man the side. Honors to port!”
With that command the crew dressed in their dress whites assembled on the port side of the rescue boat. Timmy gingerly backed the hover craft out of its landing, and turned it down the main channel of the River, the large river that the space port was near. As they got out in the channel several fire trucks of the Homeport Fire Department began streaming water from their deck guns and laid on their air horns and sirens. The beginning of an era, the first patrol of the Home Maritime Search and Rescue Service was now underway. The captain took her chair watching her rescue craft make its way out of Homeport towards its new base at Outpost One. She was rather concerned because she knew nothing of this planet’s seas or weather. Neither did anyone on the boat. She hoped she was up to the task of conning a boat on this world’s water ways.