The Long Black (The Black Chronicles Book 1)

by J. M. Anjewierden

  The Captain’s office was just past the main hatch, the door open and inviting, a placard above the door reading simply Captain Harold Rain. Jacob strode right in, not even pausing to see if Morgan was following him.

  As she entered the room she was surprised to see it sparse and utilitarian, one chair behind the smooth desk and three in front, a dedicated computer uplink on its uncluttered surface. There were no decorations in the room. Perhaps because it was his office on the station rather than the actual ship?

  Morgan left off wondering as she realized Jacob had already launched into an explanation for the captain.

  “Morgan’s friend is a mom. Assigned to Daystar. Either she or Morgan here will quit before they put the girl in care there. Which ship is opposite Daystar?”

  He didn’t respond at once, giving Morgan a moment to at least look at her captain, however temporary the arrangement turned out to be. He was seated, so she couldn’t be sure, but he looked to be fairly short, at least by Zion standards. He would still have a number of centimeters on Morgan, of course. Bald with wisps of white hair on the sides and back of his head, his face seemed wrinkled into a perpetual smile around his eyes. When he did talk it was directed at her, not Jacob.

  “So. You must be out new crewman, Morgan Black.”

  “Yes, sir.” Morgan fixed her gaze on the desk rather than the man, an old reflex to dealing with people in authority. Maybe he was a nice man, but then again, maybe he wasn’t. Potentially antagonizing him wasn’t of any benefit.

  “And you would really quit in order to help out your friend?”

  “Yes. She’s the only family I have left.”

  “What’s her position with the Daystar Fading?”

  “Work Crew Leader.”

  “Your accent. Hillman?”

  Startled Morgan looked up before answering.

  “How did you know?”

  He waved a hand dismissively.

  “I’ve been working freight lines for, well, longer than you’ve been alive anyway. You pick things up, including an ear for accents. It’s a useful skill, especially for anyone interested in being an officer. Are you?” He paused for a moment, considering her. “Interested in being an officer, that is?”

  Morgan wasn’t sure how to respond. One moment he was asking if she’d quit to help Gertrude, the next if she want to be an officer?

  “If I can. I want to work in space.”

  “Felt the call of the long black, did you? Good.” The captain gestured to Jacob, a subtle signal Morgan didn’t understand, but Jacob just nodded and closed the door. “I don’t talk about the other ships or their captains, and I suggest you don’t either. Gossip is always rampant on any ship, but it shouldn’t be encouraged. Still, that doesn’t mean we can ignore problems when they come up. Kindly keep quiet unless asked a question, Crewman Morgan.”

  The captain pushed a few buttons on his desk, activating a large screen behind the desk. He turned about so he could see it. After a moment an icon appeared on the screen, the stylized freighter on a red circle that was the sign of the merchant house.

  “Who can I connect you with?” It was a female computer voice, but not the standard uplink voices Morgan had heard before. It spoke English with a slight accent, not unlike the one of Morgan’s neighbors whose first language was Japanese. Why they had programed a computer to have the accent she couldn’t imagine.

  “The AIC, plus the Captain of the Fate of Dawn.”

  “Priority of call?”

  “Medium.”

  “Please hold.”

  The screen’s hidden speakers actually started playing music as they waited. It wasn’t the normal bland nothing Morgan was used to hearing as hold music, rather a soothing piece with some kind of flute Morgan wasn’t used to and some drum like instruments that sounded a bit like bits of hollow wood knocked together.

  Morgan stood there, fidgeting nervously. She had been tense enough to meet her captain, and here she was about to be faced with a second captain plus whatever the ‘AIC’ was, presumably someone in charge.

  After a minute or so of waiting the captain turned back to Morgan and Jacob.

  “This might take a bit. Jacob, go ahead and let her crew chief know that he might be short-staffed. See if you can work with him on adjusting the schedule to cover the absence. This close to our departure date we’re not likely to get a replacement, unless it’s from the other ship.”

  Jacob snorted.

  “Not likely.”

  “I know. Stranger things have happened though. Off you go then. Crewman, you can take a seat if you’d like.”

  Morgan settled down into one of the chairs in front of the desk. It didn’t do anything to ease her nerves, but it at least it stopped her shifting her weight back and forth from foot to foot as part of her subconscious thought about bolting.

  The captain was quiet, spending the time waiting by looking at a few documents on his other screen. Morgan couldn’t read them from her seated position, but there were little pictures of people at the top, so probably personnel files.

  The large screen split into two halves, the left still showing the sign of the house, the right fading to black with a single line of text saying the captain of the Fate of Dawn was standing by.

  The Fate of Dawn.

  Morgan had heard that ship name before.

  Where. . .

  . . .It hit her after a moment. The woman in the interview. Captain B- something. Emily had said the Fate of Dawn was her ship. Inwardly Morgan groaned. Why was that woman, out of all the ship captains being included?

  The left side of the screen changed abruptly, now showing an office that looked similar to the one Morgan sat in, only much more lavishly decorated and appointed. The woman looking out at them was older, her hair steel grey and her face lined. The right side of the screen changed as well, and it was the woman who had interviewed Morgan.

  “Problems, Captain?” the woman on the left said without waiting for any introduction or explanation.

  “You could say that. One of our new hires finds our childcare facilities wholly inadequate, and is considering quitting for the good of her child.”

  “This woman here? She hardly seems old enough.”

  The other captain narrowed her eyes, looking to the right a bit. Telling where someone was looking in these split calls was never easy, but Morgan was pretty sure she was looking at Morgan on her own split screen. It wasn’t a friendly gaze.

  “I remember you,” she said, clearly to Morgan. She then turned, looking to the left. “Administrator Amori, this crewman did not mention any child during the interview process, nor in her paperwork.”

  “No, she didn’t,” Morgan’s captain said, not quite cutting off his peer. “Her friend is the one with the daughter, her friend for whom she’d give up her career to watch the child if it came down to it. I can’t speak for you, Administrator, but I’d rather not lose a new young crewman and the decades of service she potentially represents, not when it can be avoided. Especially someone who will be easier to train on the old systems I have on my ship.”

  “If not your ship. . .” the other captain started saying, pausing for a moment as her brows knit in concentration. “You want to dump her off on me? The woman’s the new hire for the Daystar, isn’t she?”

  “Yes, Captain Bogard, that’s exactly what I’m suggesting.”

  Bogard was about to reply, but stopped the moment the administrator made a move to speak.

  “Not unheard of, but this is rather short notice to be changing crew manifests around,” Administrator Amori said, holding up a palm to quiet the captains while she thought. “Why not just change the other woman to work the ship opposite yours, Captain Rain?”

  “It’s easier to move a crewman first class than a crew chief. Also, I won’t oppose the transfer. I can be patient.” Left unsaid was the clear implication that the captain of the Daystar might object.

  Captain Bogard was muttering under her breath, clearly not meant
for anyone to hear, though Morgan thought she heard something about ‘never should have hired the wife in the first place.’

  “I don’t need her on my ship, and I don’t have anyone I can spare for yours. Not with the skill set you need, anyway. To be frank I don’t really want her, either,” She added for everyone to hear.

  “I appreciate your candor, Captain, but there are the needs of the house as a whole to consider. You’ve only just got back from your last run. By the time you return from the next, it will be easy enough to arrange things for the crewman here to return to Captain Rain’s crew, and for the new chief to take up duties on one of the ships on the opposite rotation. We do such transfers all the time.”

  “Very well, but I can’t take her on as a first class. Fourth class is the most I could offer for what duties I have to be done. Otherwise I’m risking jealousy and damaged morale from the people who’d be doing more and getting paid less.”

  Morgan wanted to protest. Crewman fourth class was usually reserved for trainees with no practical training or job experience. It was also a lot less pay. She clenched her jaw to keep from saying anything, and from the look on his face Captain Rain wasn’t too pleased either.

  “You know your crew better than I do, of course,” the administrator allowed, speaking slowly, before adding, “Though I would recommend you work on their work ethic and morale to lessen this tendency in the future. Disaffected crewmen can cause a lot of damage on long voyages with their petty grievances.”

  Captain Rain nodded in agreement, and then added a few words of his own.

  “I’d like it in writing that she’ll be bumped back up to first class at the end of her cruise on the Fate of Dawn. Loyalty is to be rewarded, even if it is loyalty to something besides the company.”

  “Easily done. Is there anything else that needs to be addressed?”

  “I don’t think so, administrator,” Captain Rain said.

  “Just one thing on my end,” Captain Bogard said, once Rain was finished. “My crew spaces are fairly full already. Perhaps it would be prudent for the crewman to share quarters with her friend in Daystar’s section? Especially since she’ll be caring for the child the next ten months anyway?”

  “That seems prudent,” the administrator agreed, “I’ll let the Daystar’s captain know to move the chief over to quarters with three bedrooms. It is just the one child, correct?”

  Captain Rain turned to look at Morgan and gave a very tiny nod.

  “Yes. Chief Suoh and her child, Haruhi,” Morgan said succinctly.

  “Thank you. I expect to hear good things about you. Welcome to Takiyama.”

  The left side of the screen went black as the administrator ended the call.

  “My third lieutenant will get you your job assignment and any relevant details. Right now we’re just doing systems checks and maintenance, routine after returning from our last voyage. Port work schedule is designed to be compatible with school hours,” Captain Bogard said, her screen going black just as abruptly.

  Captain Rain swiveled his chair back around, a slight frown on his face.

  “This doesn’t leave this room, but I do believe that captain dislikes you.”

  Morgan couldn’t help but let out a small laugh at this completely unnecessary observation.

  “Yes, it was quite obvious, wasn’t it? Her reasons for demoting you made her crew look bad in front of the administrator in charge, which no captain likes. Have you met her before? This is your first job, correct?”

  “She interviewed me. She didn’t seem to like me then either.”

  “Unfortunately, there is nothing for it. I only bring this up because I want you back after this is all sorted out. That won’t happen if you give her reason to fire you. Do your job well, and be polite, always. Putting you in Daystar’s section means you’ll be at least twenty minutes’ walk from the Fate of Dawn. Leave early each morning, do not be late. It will also make it harder for you to get to know your shipmates, and for them to get to know you. Do what you can to earn their trust. I’m sorry this has happened, but life seems to trend towards maximum perversity.”

  “I don’t know what you mean by that, sir.” Morgan said after a moment trying to work through his meaning.

  “Old saying from my home planet. In part it means that life isn’t fair, but also that life seems to like going with chaos and the absurd more than not.”

  “That I can agree with. If I can leave, sir, I need to go talk with Gertrude.”

  “Yes, of course. If you’re lucky she won’t have unpacked too much yet. I’ll see that your things get moved over to your new quarters today by one of my crew. I imagine you’ll be busy enough as it is.”

  “Thank you, sir. I look forward to being able to serve under you.”

  CHAPTER 14

  It’s simple really. The single biggest factor in people quitting their jobs isn’t the pay, nor the benefits. It’s their boss. If you see a department losing people left and right, look to the management.

  - Lisa Brilhead, Nova Shipyards HR Director

  THREE WEEKS LATER

  MORGAN WAS SURE she’d been more tired than this back on Hillman at the end of her shifts. She was positive she had been. It just didn’t feel like it after the relatively pampered years she’d spent in school.

  She staggered through the hatch to their quarters and through the door just to the left leading to her cozy bedroom. Her bed was a simple low ceilinged bunk set into the wall with a retractable privacy screen. Not even bothering to take off her skinsuit Morgan sprawled onto the mattress, one leg dangling off, the heel resting on the floor below.

  If this was only the lighter work load for a ship in port, Morgan wasn’t sure she’d survive a month of the full time cruise, let alone ten.

  Even her heavy-worlder strength had turned out to be a hindrance more than an asset. Once her crew chief found out she was from a High-G world, he’d simply given her more and more of the heavy lifting to do. Morgan finally was forced to point out that she’d been living in lower gravity for several years and had lost some strength. Plus, despite some growth over the last few years, was still under a hundred and fifty centimeters tall. This had only caused him to agree with her, and then arrange for time for Morgan to spend in the gym with the gravity cranked up to more than twice Earth standard for her to work off her ‘baby fat.’

  Privately Morgan was actually glad of the gym time, in theory. It had bothered her to watch her strength slowly ebbing away, but there hadn’t been any easy – or rather, any cheap – way to counteract it while living on the ground. The problem came in that her choices were a grueling workout before her daily shift, making her tired before she even started, or at the end when she was already tired. She had chosen the latter. Work was the more obvious priority, after all.

  The first couple weeks hadn’t been so bad. Without a skinsuit of her own she’d been limited to assisting with minor maintenance, the kinds of things she’d learned in the first months in school. Like her or not, the captain hadn’t been lying about the kind of jobs Morgan would be doing. It was hard work but not mentally challenging.

  The appointment to get fitted for her skinsuit, on the other hand, had been one of the most profoundly uncomfortable events of her life. There was an understandable urgency to get all the new hires fitted, though Morgan was towards the bottom of the list because her ship wasn’t due to leave port for months yet. This still only pushed her back to her third day of work.

  She’d had the process explained to her a couple times in school, but the explanation hadn’t quite done it justice. The suit had to be skintight and individually fitted, nanofabricated to order. A quick virtual scan wasn’t good enough because of the elasticity of flesh as the suit was donned, and the better hyper-accurate scanners took far too long to be used on a living subject, even if simply breathing wasn’t enough to foul it up.

  Needing to do the fitting naked, Morgan had expected. The room was private and operated by machines, so it wasn’
t embarrassing or anything.

  Having to shave off every bit of hair below her neck had not been mentioned in class, however. Once she had been told, she understood why. Not that it helped her dislike it any less. The pattern for the suit was made by standing in a narrow tank and the liquid mold material added until the person was submerged up to mid-neck. With the final suit, hair (or lack thereof) wouldn’t matter. For the fitting it would make the mold less perfect.

  Moving was also a potential problem, both while the liquid was poured in and while it hardened. While it was possible for some medical procedures to give the patient something to temporarily induce paralysis, the mold process had to be done standing. It was simply up to the person being fitted to keep still. Most were highly motivated to do so, since messing it up just meant doing it all over again.

  Morgan was used to tight places, but standing there, holding as still as she could, as the lukewarm liquid slowly poured in around her. . . well, it wasn’t something she wanted to dwell on.

  So much so that Morgan found herself rather uncomfortable now lying on her bunk with her skinsuit still on. Groaning she swung herself upright, leaning forward to keep from banging her head on the ceiling of the bunk.

  She’d been out on the exterior hull again today, inspecting the port radiator sail of the ship, so she had the bulkier magnetized boots on over the skinsuit’s softer booties.

  Wearily she pulled them off, dumping them unceremoniously to one side.

  Her uplink followed, though it was placed carefully on the small table attached to the wall just above the head of the bunk. The sturdy military unit would likely survive being dumped on the floor, but Morgan had never been one to abuse her tools.

  Next she carefully pulled her pistol out of the right hip pocket of the suit, followed by the magazines in the left. Even with the tiny Iridium Special weapon it was a tight fit. Getting it out in an emergency would be a bit tricky, but it still beat being unarmed.

  Checking the magazines over Morgan set them aside, then pulled the trigger guard off the pistol, checked that everything was still clear, then put it back before putting the pistol on her bedside table. Before she left her room she’d need to put it in the more secure drawer, but that meant standing up, which she wasn’t quite ready to do. Though she could at least secure the room.