by Ryk Brown
“Not much of a comfort, I’m afraid,” Captain Poc said.
“I’m not very good at explaining it,” Nathan admitted. “The fact is, I don’t really understand it myself. You might want to spend some time with one of the Corinairan specialists on the Karuzara. They actually understand it better than the original inventor did.”
“What about your cheng, Kamenetskiy? Surely he understands it?”
“Yeah, but you don’t want to get him started talking about it, trust me. The Corinairans will be far more succinct.”
“I’ll try to remember that,” Captain Poc assured him.
“Captain?” Nathan asked. “Can I ask you something, off the record, as it were?”
“What’s on your mind, Scott?”
“It’s about Captain Roselle. The man seems to outright hate my ass, and I’m not sure why.”
“Why do you think?” Captain Poc asked.
“Because command fell into my lap? Because I’m the son of a rich politician? Because I’ve made a lot of mistakes since I took command?”
“Yeah, that pretty much covers it,” Captain Poc agreed. “Look, Scott, Roselle doesn’t hate you. He doesn’t know you, so how can he actually hate you?”
“Then why does he seize every opportunity to chew my ass?” Nathan wondered.
“Don’t tell me you never had your ass chewed, Scott.”
“Of course I have,” Nathan assured him. “Plenty of times, in fact.”
“Roselle doesn’t hate you, Scott. He hates that events have placed all our fates in your hands. Let’s face it, you’re not exactly trained for this. Hell, none of us are, really. Sure, we may have more time in service, more command training and experience, but as you pointed out the other day, we haven’t really seen combat. At least not in space. But here’s the difference between you and us. We want command. We’ve trained for it our whole lives. It’s what we do. By your own log entries, you never wanted to command anything, let alone the ship that is supposed to save the galaxy.”
“Trust me, sir, I would…”
“…Don’t say it, Scott,” Captain Poc warned, cutting Nathan off in mid-sentence. “Don’t you fucking say it.” Captain Poc looked Nathan straight in the eyes. “Whether you want it or not, the responsibility is yours. You have the experience, you have the trust and relationships with our allies, and you have the ability. Captain Roberts knew you had it in you, otherwise he wouldn’t have accepted Fleet’s last minute transfer of you to his ship. He had too many friends in high places to allow himself to get dicked around like that. Fact is, son, it would take any of us months to get up to speed and become better qualified than you are right now to run this ship, under the current circumstances. That’s what Captain Roselle hates about you.” Captain Poc turned back toward his ship. “That, and all the other things you listed. But mostly that.”
Nathan stood there, dumbfounded.
“You know, when we were first reading that synopsis of events you gave us, we thought you were making it all up. Roselle himself said ‘There’s no way a week-old lieu-ee could pull all this off.’”
“I’m not sure how to respond to that, sir,” Nathan finally replied.
“Like I said, Scott, you’ve got talent. Roberts knew it, and we know it. I’m pretty sure your crew knows it as well, which is why they’re so loyal.” Captain Poc turned and looked at Nathan again. “You’ve also had some pretty good cards dealt to you along the way, though. Don’t forget that. Remember, there are only so many good cards in the deck. That’s why Roselle and I will be jumping your shit every time you fuck up. And you will fuck up, I promise you. Just see that you don’t fuck up such a way that you get my ass killed.” Captain Poc smiled. “I’m shooting for second-oldest man alive.”
“Understood, sir,” Nathan answered, “and thank you.”
“Well, if you’ll excuse me, Captain, it appears my crew and I have a lot of work ahead of us.”
“As do we all, sir,” Nathan replied.
* * *
“You’d think with all the crap they want us to learn that they would pull us out of the rotation once in a while,” Josh complained.
“Everyone else is flying the same number of hours,” Loki replied as he studied the sensor displays in front of him. “Target course and speed are unchanged.” Loki looked away from the sensor display, glancing at the jump-nav display. “One minute to next jump point.”
“You know, you don’t have to report ‘target course and speed unchanged’ to me at the end of each cycle. If you say nothing about the target’s course and speed, I’ll just assume that the platform is still headed for Earth.”
“Just following procedures, Josh.”
“That’s another thing,” Josh said, turning to look over his shoulder at Loki in the seat behind him. “You’ve become way to ‘procedural’ lately.”
“We are going to be tested, you know.” Loki glanced at the jump-nav display again. “Thirty seconds to jump.”
“Yeah, I know. Why do you think I’ve been spending so much time in the simulators these days?”
“I heard.”
“What did you hear?”
“That you keep busting. Ten seconds.”
“If by ‘busting’ you mean ‘surviving’, then yes.”
“Jumping in three…”
“…Besides…”
“…Two…”
“…Their maneuvers are stupid…”
“…One……Jumping.” Loki pressed the button to execute the jump. “By ‘stupid’ you mean ‘you don’t agree with them’.”
“No, I mean they’re stupid.”
“Starting scans.”
“Jesus, they had me low and outside on a tight left ascending turn the other day. Neither one of us could pull it in any tighter, and the bogie knew it. Breaking right and coming around on the opposite angle got me the kill.”
“And left your leader uncovered,” Loki reminded him.
“That’s another thing,” Josh said. “If I’m tight on my leader’s ass, how the hell am I protecting him? By putting myself between my leader and the guy sneaking up behind us? Seems like a better idea would be for me to hang back and let someone come in behind him, and then jump that fucker from behind.”
“It’s about everyone doing what everyone else expects them to do,” Loki reminded him.
“Including the enemy.”
“Josh, it’s about learning how to do these maneuvers. It’s about practicing formation flying, even in combat situations. It’s about your leader knowing that you know how to stay tight on his wing when he needs you to. It doesn’t mean he’s going to ask you to take fire to protect him.”
“He might,” Josh disagreed.
“Well, maybe, but you’re missing the point.”
“No, I’m not,” Josh disagreed. “The point is that there is no point.”
“When we flew through that waterfall on Tanna, how many meters did we lose before you recovered?” Loki asked.
“I don’t know. Forty, fifty, sixty?”
“Two hundred and eight-four,” Loki said. “I remember, because we used up exactly half of the distance between us and the ground at the time.”
“Forgive me, Loki. I didn’t have any practice at reacting to suddenly have a few million liters of water dumped on us from above.”
“And if you had, would we have lost less altitude?”
“Of course.”
“That’s my point.”
“So, you’re saying, that by practicing shit that I’m never going to do, I’ll be better prepared to never do it? Yeah, that makes sense.” Josh turned to look over his shoulder again. “Hey, I’ve got a crazy idea! What if, we first practice what we will be doing, and then practice the shit we will never do? Crazy, I know, but I think I’ll suggest it to Major Prechitt when we get back. Could be no one’s thought of it before.”
“It gets back to that whole everyone having the same body of knowledge and training thing,” Loki explained. “Just
do us both a favor, Josh, and do the maneuvers the way they want you to do them. Once we graduate, then you can go back to doing your usual crazy pilot shit.”
“I’m going to remember you said that,” Josh declared.
“I knew that you would.”
After more than a minute in silence, Josh spoke again. “So, no change in course and speed?”
“Nope. I didn’t say anything, just to prove you wrong.”
Josh rolled his eyes. “Hey, I heard a rumor that they’re going to turn Porto Santo into a full-blown spaceport, not just a base for the Ghatazhak.”
“I heard the same rumor,” Loki said.
“I also heard that they were going to move all of us down there while the Aurora and the Celestia go into Rebel Rock for overhaul. That would be nice, huh?”
“A few green hills, ocean breeze, white sandy beaches…”
“Tan girls frolicking in the waves in those skimpy bathing suits. What did they call them?”
“Bikinis,” Loki replied.
“Yeah, bikinis. Tiny pieces of fabric that barely cover a girl’s body. One of the Earth’s finest traditions.” Josh turned to look over his shoulder again when he got no response. “Loki?”
“Something is going on,” Loki said in a serious tone of voice.
“What?”
“The platform’s light isn’t frequency shifted anymore. I mean, it is, but nowhere near as much. They must have dropped out of FTL. Accelerate to two five seven.”
“Why?” Josh asked as he turned forward and entered the new speed into the Falcon’s auto-flight system.
“I want to match their velocity and see if the frequency-shift goes away.”
“Two five seven in one minute,” Josh reported. “What do you think they’re doing?”
“I don’t know.”
“Maybe they have a problem with their FTLs?”
“Maybe.”
“Maybe we should jump back and report this, Loki,” Josh suggested.
“They’re definitely not in FTL anymore, but they are changing course. Slowly, but definitely changing course.”
“How much?”
“I don’t know yet. They’re still turning.”
“Maybe they spotted something in their way, like a rogue asteroid or something, and they’re trying to steer around it?”
“Matter goes around them when they’re in FTL, remember?”
“Oh, yeah. Maybe they changed their mind, and they’re not going to Earth after all? Or maybe they got new orders?”
“Or maybe they’re just executing a basic, random zigzag maneuver so that the captain can’t knock them out of FTL at will.” Loki’s eyes left the sensor display and looked forward at his friend. “They just went back into FTL.”
“Are they still headed toward Earth?” Josh wondered.
“Technically, no. They only changed course a few degrees, but at this distance it’s enough to completely skirt the Sol system.”
“Then that’s good news, right?”
“Maybe,” Loki agreed. “Unless they’re just zigzagging, or they want to slide by and then try to surprise Earth by coming in from another angle.”
“But they’ve got to know that we’re tracking them. I mean, with all our jump flashes, we’d be kind of hard to miss. We’re not that far behind them.”
“Possibly,” Loki replied, “but remember, when they’re in FTL, they’re traveling away from us faster than our light is traveling toward them. The only way they’d see us is if they spotted our flash while they are out of FTL.”
“Either way, we should report this,” Josh insisted.
“Not yet,” Loki argued.
“This is important, Loki. The captain would want to know.”
“You just want to cut our mission short,” Loki said. “Besides, our orders are to track until relieved, until we reach bingo resources, or until directly threatened. That means we continue tracking for three more hours.”
“Damn,” Josh mumbled.
“Give me a moment to calculate a new track,” Loki said as he turned his attention to the navigation computer. “Look at it this way, Josh. At least you won’t be flying a straight line anymore.”
“Oh, whee. Three degree course changes,” Josh said. “How exciting.”
* * *
“Permission to come aboard?” Jessica called from the main salon hatch.
“You forgot the sir, Lieutenant Commander,” Captain Nash answered.
“Put some golden eagles on a guy’s shirt and he gets all full of himself,” she replied as she entered the compartment. “Where is everyone?”
“Two of them are down on the surface, hooking up with family your captain’s sister found for them. My cheng is crawling around in the services spaces aft, making sure everything is ready for the jump drive install, and to be honest, I’m not sure where the rest of them are. I think they’re in your mess hall. Apparently the food is better there.”
“Not by much,” Jessica said as she sat down across the table from her brother. “At least they finally ran out of molo.”
“The mushroom-tofu-like crap?”
“Yup. Nasty shit.”
“Agreed.”
“What’s all this?” she asked, pointing at the various data pads lying about.
“I’ve been studying up on the jump drive. Operational parameters, tactics, limitations. The damned thing is pretty amazing. It’s also a bit frightening.”
“How so?”
“Limitations are a good thing, little one.”
“Please, don’t call me that,” she protested.
“Sorry, but you’ll always be ‘little one’ to me.”
“Fine, but if that catches on, I will kick your ass, golden eagles notwithstanding.”
“Duly noted.”
“You were saying something about limitations?”
“Limitations are often what keeps us from getting ourselves in over our heads. This jump drive—especially the minis that can jump repeatedly without recharging—it changes everything, and I mean everything.”
“Well, obviously…”
“No, I don’t think you get it,” Captain Nash said. “I’m not just talking about interstellar travel. I’m talking everything.”
“Such as?”
“Well, take this ship, for example. Built on the ground then blasted up into orbit, at great additional trouble and expense. With a jump drive, you could build it on the ground, on a track… A track that runs downhill just enough to go up a bit at the end just before you jump to orbit. No propellant, no rocket boosters. You could crank ships out on a production line at a fraction of the cost. Same thing applies to building larger ships. In fact, you could probably build an Explorer-class ship on the ground the same way… Again, a hell of a lot cheaper. Even intercontinental travel would change. Jump up, jump over, jump down, and land. Hell, you want to eat Italian for dinner, go to Italy. You’d still be able to sleep in your own bed that night.”
“The ship thing is pretty cool, I have to admit,” Jessica said.
“There’s more,” Captain Nash continued. “Resources. More wars have been fought over resources than anything else, except maybe religion. That’s all a thing of the past, now, as is the destruction of the world you’re living on due to the harvesting of resources. Too much garbage building up around you, jump it away to a system with no planets, and send that garbage toward the star to be incinerated. Everything you can think of, every industry, every facet of human existence, will be changed by this technology.”
“Come on, Bobby,” Jessica said, “don’t you think you’re stretching it a bit?”
“Pick something.”
“Okay… The movie industry.”
“The biggest expense for them is transportation. Equipment, actors, crew. The cost of moving all of that around to different locations is enormous. Reduce that cost, and movies can be made more cheaply. Cheaper production costs, more new movies, more ticket sales…”
“Okay. Sp
orts.”
“Everyone always roots for the home team, because that’s the team that they can go and see live. Same thing as the Italian food analogy. Jump over and see your favorite team, anywhere in the world, and be back in your own bed that night.”
“I get your point.”
“The cost of life itself is all tied up in the cost of moving people, goods, and resources from place to place. Cost is the number one thing that stifles development. The reason we didn’t have more warships is because it costs so much to get the materials and people to orbit to build them. It’s all in the cost of transportation. All of it.”
“I didn’t realize you were such an expert in economics.”
“It doesn’t take one to figure this stuff out, Jess.”
“So you’re on board with Nathan’s plans?”
“I don’t know that I’d go that far.”
“You too?” Jessica asked, shaking her head. “Jesus, what is it going to take to get you three meatheads to realize what a great leader he is? You saw the logs, you read about all the things he did. Hell, Bobby, the guy saved my ass more than once. He’s saved all our asses more than once. He’s saved the Earth… Twice!”
“He’s had a lot of lucky breaks, Jess…”
“Luck is worthless unless you’re able to recognize the opportunity and be willing to take advantage of it.”
“Dad?”
“Dad.”
“The guy was holding himself up as a savior, for crying out loud. Surely that’s got to set off some warning bells in you?”
“That wasn’t his doing,” Jessica argued, “that was that bitch, Jalea.”
“That’s another thing that scares us,” Bobby said. “That your captain is more likely to think with his dick. She played him from…”
“Jesus, Bobby!” Jessica yelled. “You’re dumber than I thought. Nathan played her. He may not have known entirely what she was up to, but he knew she was trying to play him and he flipped it on her. Who the fuck do you think gave me the order to terminate her once we finished our mission on Takara?”
