by S T Xavier
CHAPTER SIX
I love my job. Truly, I mean that. However… sometimes it just isn’t very glamorous. The times when I get to pass out command decisions are pretty glamorous. Being the face of the ship to admirals and planetary dignitaries can sometimes be glamorous. Resolving issues before they become major catastrophes is usually glamorous. (Although resolving major catastrophes before someone dies is more fun and tends to get more attention… not that I’d ever wait on purpose for something to explode before I resolved it! I’m not as ‘efficient’ as the Admiralty.)
The rest of the time, being Executive Officer of a starship is doing paperwork and cleaning up messes no one will take credit or blame for. There’s nothing glamorous in that. Especially when the mess is actually in the mess hall, and the crew that would normally handle it is busy cataloguing inventory so we can know we have enough to actually be able to eat during this mission. Feeding almost six hundred crew members for even just a few weeks takes a lot of food. Some days they don’t seem to have enough flavor to go around. Food you can survive on, yes; flavor, not as much.
I’m not even sure how long this mess has been here, since it’s in the sectioned-off room reserved for visiting captains/admirals/other VIPs. We haven’t had to use the area in months, which someone on the crew obviously took as freedom to use it for their own purposes. Ale stains on the walls and floor, bones from some edible creature stacked up in the corner, and… is that cake on the ceiling? How does that even happen? I’ll have to ask around to see if I can find out what happened. I wish I had some way to monitor who comes into this area. I’ll submit a report to the Admiralty to see if they have any solutions.
In the meantime, the solution is Commander Rylae Westiel on her hands and knees with a rag and bucket. Not at all glamorous. These are the things that have to be done, though. And I’m the only one who would even think to look in here to verify cleanliness before an admiral comes on-ship. At least everything else on-ship seems to be in working order right now, and everyone’s generally too busy preparing for the mission to cause any more issues.
You’re probably wondering why I don’t just use a spell to clean the room. You’re wondering that because you forget that we have to reserve our mana for things like travel and life support. Non-essential magic is one of the daily luxuries we have to give up when we join a ship. When you’re out in the starfield, the only mana available is in the batteries, and that’s all being carefully managed. Even adept crewmembers can’t access it without authorization. The security and monitoring of the mana flow is one of the most important aspects of Engineering. Tanna isn’t going to let her best friend siphon off some of our necessary mana just to clean ale and cake off some walls. Her best friend would absolutely fire her senior officer ass if she did allow it.
Some adepts do bring their own batteries for their own personal use, but personal batteries only hold enough mana for a handful of high-level spells or a double-handful of low-level spells like cleaning or light. Most adepts are able to refill their own batteries on-world, so it’s not much cost to them, but for regular folk the cost of that kind of battery can be immense. It’s much easier to just train yourself to do things the manual way.
There is that story about the one adept who tried to chain together a bunch of communicators and spellshooters to tap into their batteries. Small tech batteries are designed to only be able to use the spells that normally run that piece of tech and nothing else. Not only did the adept burn himself up when all the spellshooters released fireballs, but at the exact same second all the communicators connected across the ship so everyone could hear him scream in agony as he died. I’m still not sure if that story is a legend or if it actually happened. I’ve known enough stupid folk that it absolutely could be true, but it sounds too much like one of those stories-with-a-moral to have actually happened.
Regardless, I don’t have access to my own battery and wouldn’t know how to really use it if I did. I know some basic spells, and as an elf growing up I was expected to learn some basic magic for everyday use. I couldn’t have written my school reports if I didn’t know how to use spellsand. However, I am absolutely not an adept. Using magic just doesn’t feel right to me, and even on-world I’d rather clean by hand than use a spell. As adults, we try not to discuss magic usage because it’s a highly personal matter, so I don’t know how common it is to have your feet and hands itch when you cast a cleaning spell. With my luck, it’s probably super-rare and they’d want to study me in a lab somewhere.
I’m really involved in one particularly difficult ale-and-cake stain on the floor when my communicator beeps behind me. I left it up on the table, which I pushed to the edge of the room so I could clean. I don’t have anything to dry myself on, and I don’t want to grab the communicator with wet-and-dirty hands, so I shout “Connect, Audio Only, Full Volume!” to the device. It beeps.
“Commander? Are you there?” Calgonnel’s voice comes out a bit loud, but it’s okay since I am halfway across the room. The walls in this room were made to block sound anyway so VIPs can have private meetings over meals.
“Hey, Calgonnel. Currently at long range on the communicator. Can you hear me okay?” I speak loudly, but I try not to yell. The long range pickup function should get me at a normal tone of voice, but I’m also facing the floor so I don’t want to risk it.
“Indeed. It’s picking you up just fine. Are you on-ship right now? I’d like to come talk to you for a minute.”
I nod, then remember that audio-only doesn’t come with a holographic head that can show that response. “I am. I’m in the VIP area of the mess hall trying to clean up a mess. I’ll be here for a bit if you can meet me here.”
There’s a moment of silence where I’m sure Calgonnel just nodded and remembered like I had. “I can. I’ll be right down. Ambassador out.” With that, the connection closes and it’s just me and a rag again. I figure it’ll take Calgonnel a few minutes to get down here from Command or his quarters, so I’ll just keep scrubbing until he gets here. I could clean off instead, but that seems silly if I’m just going to have to get dirty again afterwards.
The door chime startles me. I managed to get so involved in cleaning again that I wasn’t even thinking. I have no idea how much time passed. Calgonnel might have stopped for lunch or had a meeting or two before coming down to see me and I wouldn’t have noticed, but it’s probably only been a few minutes. I turn my head as far as I can to see it from the corner of my eye as it opens.
The door fades out and Calgonnel comes in. It always amazes me how regal he looks, even when in just a basic ship uniform. He’s handsome enough, for an elf twice my age, but he always looks like he’s in control of the situation. I suppose that’s what makes him a great diplomat. I’m not sure I’d be that composed if I had to talk to kings and sit in meetings to determine the fate of worlds. For Calgonnel, that’s just the way he normally looks, no matter what. I should learn that.
It also amuses me that the age difference sometimes makes him uncomfortable. I’m still on my hands and knees on the floor. He looks around the room at the mess, sees me, notices he’s looking directly at my ass, and turns away. I chuckle to myself and push myself off the floor.
Calgonnel seems to have taken a lot more interest in the mess in the room. He glances around, then looks up. His eyes get wide. “Is that cake on the ceiling?”
“That’s what it looks like to me, too. I’m going to have to ask the mess hall staff if they have something that can scrape it off. They might have a spellshooter for stuff like that, or maybe just a long garden implement that would work. If we had more time, I’d find whoever made the mess and make them clean it.”
He stares at the cake spot for a second, then turns to me. “I know who did it. I didn’t know it would be this bad when I agreed to it, though. Ensign Tker Scumstick in Tactical and some of his buddies were throwing a bachelor party and wanted a place to hold it.
They said you were too busy to help them and asked if they could use this room. And I’m sorry I forgot to check on it afterwards. With all the docking details, it slipped my mind.”
“I remember that request. I wasn’t ‘too busy’ for it. I specifically responded to him that he should wait until we were docked and use an on-world location. I’m a little irritated that the Ensign took the ‘Mommy said no so let’s ask someone else’ approach.”
He nods. “In that case, he did lie to me about your status, and I should have checked with you. I apologize.”
I wave my hand in a motion for ‘brushing it off’. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll have a word with Aelon about his Ensign. What did you need to speak about?”
He motions to the table, so we walk over and grab a couple chairs to sit, turning them to face each other. “I wanted to check with you about the upcoming mission; specifically our part of it. The addition of this spectacular screw-up on my part,” he says as he gestures to include the dirty room, “makes my questions a little more relevant.”
I nod. I know where he’s going, but I’ll let him get there, as that’s part of the point anyway. He continues, “I know the roles of XO and Ambassador can be weird at times, and this is the first time it’s been weird with us. Normally when I’m working, you’re still on-ship managing that, so we don’t have any questions about command. This time, we’ll be working directly together on-world, and I want to make sure we’re clear on how we’re going to operate.”
I nod again. I can be a good little girl when I need to be one, and this is one of those times. I could make some quick comments of reassurance and maybe a joke, but regardless of the informal setting this still feels like a very important meeting about very important matters. That’s another thing Calgonnel does well that I wish I could learn. How does one go about learning charisma?
“I understand, Ambassador. I’ve given this a lot of thought over the years, and I’ve researched other XO-Ambassador relationships. I fully recognize that when we’re on the mission, you outrank me and your word is my rule. As of yesterday, I follow your lead on anything mission-related. I am support for you, just like I’d be support for the Captain. I do recognize the seriousness of what we have to do, and who we have to work with on Stenchstone to make it happen. You’re the expert in diplomacy. I only step in where you want me to.”
He smiles and reaches out to pat me on the shoulder. “Thank you, Rylae. I was worried about that. I’m still going to be a little worried about it, because I know how you like to jump in things if you get ideas, but it’s very comforting knowing you’re going to have my back. It’s been about seventy-five years since I’ve been in a mission this sensitive, and while I’m not talking to the King, I’m still aware about how we can cause a lot of problems.”
I chuckle at that. “I’m glad you’re aware of those problems, because I’m not. I just want to yell at folk until they let the LC go, then lock him in a room on-ship where he can’t start another war.”
That makes Calgonnel chuckle. “Once we’re back on-ship with him, I promise not to have any more recommendations or requirements. You can lock him up wherever you want.” He looks around the room again. “Maybe we could have him clean up this mess for you.”
I sigh. “That won’t work. I have to have this clean before the Admiral comes on tomorrow. Maybe we’ll make a new cake-on-the-ceiling mess specifically for the LC.”
He stands up, so I do as well, and he shakes my hand. “That sounds like a good plan. If we get out of this one, we’ll have enough cake to fill the storage bay and have everyone throw some on the ceiling. I’ll get with you again when we’re off-world so we can start planning the mission.”
I nod, and then I remember. There’s a holoterminal in this room, so I walk over to it and log in. “I just remembered something important that I need to send to you. I spoke with Admiral Aldamiel, and this morning she sent me the LC’s personnel file. I’ll forward it along to you. You’ll probably get more out of it than I will.”
I enter the commands to forward the message from Mom, then log off. Calgonnel smiles. “Excellent thought, Rylae. I hadn’t yet considered details on the LC. I was focused on the Overseer. Goblins are rather ‘neutral evil’ at the best of times, but the Overseer… I’ll catch you up on him later. He’s a handful.” He throws me a half-salute, which I match, then leaves the room.
I look back up at the ceiling cake, then the rest of the room. I should really go bug the mess staff about something to take care of this. Then I need to send LC Onoviel a note about a certain Ensign who broke the command chain after a certain XO denied his request, and how that certain Ensign left a certain mess which would have been seen by a certain Admiral if a certain XO hadn’t cleaned it herself. I am sending it to Aelon, though, so I should probably be a little more straightforward than that or he won’t understand it. Maybe if I acted it out with two toy starships instead… Ha. Now I’m just being mean.