Tramp Wars: The Enemy

by Larry Roberts

  Captain Cook could not believe her ears or eyes. Though she was relieved that he would never be a problem stuck in the engine room as he wanted and could even make Chief engineer someday if he worked hard. Maybe. She would never have to explain to him why an officer with glasses could never make flag rank. The fact that she had no clear cut reason herself was beside the point.

  It took her a few seconds to put her thoughts together as she took a long puff on her cigar and let it out. Putting everything she had learned in the last few hours to together. “That is a load of CRAP Mr. Collins! You give orders all the time to your little squad of buddies and talking anyone that would listen and some that don’t, into doing things your way. Just orders you didn’t have to be responsible for when things fuck up. Orders you didn’t have to claim when they didn’t come out like you planed. Oh sure you didn’t call them orders because you mostly suggest. Which is a crap load of semantics. This needs to be done. That would be better. Maybe something else makes more sense like bla bla. BLA! Hell, they are all orders Mr. Collins without responsibility. But you are a man now and men take responsibility for their actions and words. Especially on ships, where consequences can kill.”

  Sitting back the Captain smiled. “You have been through Cadet Training since you were 8 years old and yes most of it is bullshit repetition to teach you how to be a ships crewman with some of the worst officers the ship has. But in spite of that, you have done well when you wanted to. Earning you officer training since you were 10 even though we don’t tell cadets that they are on the list. Making a few of the officers lean on you a bit trying to get you to do better or worse depending on their ethics."

  Taking a puff on her cigar as she shook her head. Remembering the stories she had heard about the officers trying to drive him out of the cadet program making him do things others did not have to while never being good enough when he did good. Though she had put a stop to it each time she found out about it (more from pity than any desire to see him do well). Most of the time she only found out long after the fact. Blowing a smoke ring from the side of her mouth and away from Mark. "And you can drop that shit about not taking orders that may endanger the ship. No one wants or expects you too. That is why good officers have brains and are trained to use them. Something that is going to take you a long time to work on but I know you will excel at; eventually. If I don’t space you first.”

  Taking another puff on her cigar. "As for designing equipment; only an officer of the ship will get the extra College training and degrees needed to become a real Engineer and not just a glorified mechanic. We don't waste money on civilians that can leave the ship at a whim. That goes for Doctors as well as all the ships higher education related positions." The sight of the Medic pining over Mark topped her mind when she said that. She had been trying to get that girl sworn in as an Ensign and then into the doctor training program for years. She was a natural. If nothing else maybe love could get her in. Getting Doctor Wells off her back. She was sure of one thing that if they kicked the Collins kid out the hatch the girl would probably go with him.

  Leaning forward again, the Captain spoke softly. “Let me give you a history lesson Collins. I remember a student much like you many years ago that was a lot selfish and liked to ignore consequences as long as they did not affect him. He even indirectly killed a crewman much like you but it was outside the ship doing the nose whip; the stunt you pulled as well. Remember. What; two years ago? He boasted about how great he was, lying about how fast he went and how long he got his cable. Then egged another in his class to finely try it but she wound up flying off when the cable he gave her broke from the stresses when she tried to match his lying claims about velocity and gee's. It broke at the worst possible instant and she was killed falling into a planet's atmosphere before the ship's rescue boat could get to her. And the Captain and Council forgave him at the time hoping he would change. For years after he continued to cost the ship money and time and lost cargo with all his selfish tricks and schemes and scams to make himself rich or life better for himself. With no regard for the ship or anyone else and the ship kept forgiving him. At least you do think of the ship eventually when it is convenient. But 21 years ago this ship was fat and sassy rich, headed to purchase a second ship to split the crew when we were taken by a pirate ship. This man again only thinking of himself turned over our Pot to the pirates and cost the lives of hundreds of crewmen when he warned the pirates of the false Pot we had set for them in exchange for a percentage of the real gold and help to leave with one of our boats.”

  “I would never do that Captain. Not in a million years.” Mark blurted out.

  “There you go.” Slamming her fist onto the desk. “You had to add that million years caveat boy. So if you lived a million and one years you would be free to do it. Not your fault, you told the truth. But if then; maybe in a hundred. If then why not after ten. And if you forget or thought of a good enough excuse in a year why not then.”

  Sitting back, biting off the end and lighting up another Cigar as her other stogy laid smoking in the ashtray to the side of her, the Captain blew another smoke ring, this time directly toward Mark. “Let me tell you how it is going to be young man. You have three choices. 1; you take the offer and become a damn good officer obeying orders and protecting and advancing the welfare of the ship and crew and forget this shit about getting the stupid implants. 2; you walk out that hatch and don’t stop until you are off this ship. I don’t care if it is out the quarter deck or off of the open hatch of A-hold. Or 3. Since you have not changed your ways. We arrest you for the involuntary manslaughter of your buddy Criss since you did give him the tools to pull that stupid stunt. Possibly pitching you out the airlock in orbit when we lift.” Picking up the glass of whisky the Captain took a puff on her cigar and then a drink.

  “But I tried to stop him!”

  The Captain pitched the whisky glass from her lips across the compartment past Marks head, without blinking. “Don’t give me that crap boy!” She spit out as the carbon glass bounced off the hatch far behind Mark. “You should not do that.” She said in a winy mambee pambee voice. “I don’t think that is a good idea and please don’t. Pretty please.” Then growling the Captain roared at Mark. “You could have stopped him somehow! You could have told him in no uncertain terms not to. You could have beat the shit out of him to stop him from stepping off. You could have reported him to someone, but NO; you had to even give him your gloves and boots to use. Did you even think of not giving them to him, that maybe the boots were a little big for him so instead of all the heat going into the friction pads a lot of it went into the side of the boots when they twisted just enough to push into the ladder rail until it burned through the boot down into his bone making his last few seconds of life hell or didn’t you care?” The Captain suddenly stopped; frowning. She needed to destroy the boy to remake him into an officer but now was not the time.

  By the looks of it the boy was about to lose it anyway and the last thing she needed was for the boy to completely break down now of all the times and throw himself off the damn open cargo hatch. Kicking herself for going too far she tried to smooth things over. “No, I think you actually were trying to help by giving him the equipment you had used to do that stupid stunt in the hope that if he used the best available, he could do it safely. Beside testimony back then had made it clear that the boy was determined to do it after his best buddy, you, had done it even though you told him several time not too. That you had screwed up and almost died yourself and not to try it.”

  Sitting back down and relaxing for a second thinking. “No. You were just a stupid snot nosed boy then but now you are going to have to decide how you are going to spend the rest of your life paying for what you did and did not do.” The Captain relit the dead stogy from the ashtray (as the fresh one sat smoking next to it) taking a puff. “Do you jump ship selfishly saving your miserable good for nothing ass? Make me Court-martial you into breathing vacuumed to pay your miserable pathetic life f
or his and what you are predestined to do on your own without guidance? Or do you take this commission and spend the rest of your life trying to make up for your selfish stupidity by sacrificing, working hard and diligently making sure that your best friend’s family, the rest of the ship’s family's and the crew are well taken care of and safe from this day forward?”

  The Captain was suddenly worried that she had pushed too far and the boy wracked with guilt would choose to, god forbid, walk off the open A-hold hatch. But there was not much she could do about it as she watched grief and sorrow take over the boy's face. She suddenly remembered seeing that same grief stricken face years before, after an airlock accident that Mark was involved in.

  A little girl had died in an airlock when an officer refused to let Mark stop the air lock from cycling into vacuum after Mark had noticed the girl’s broken airline and no one else had caught the problem. Mark had been devastated, going between bawling and shocked stupor during most of the investigation reinforcing Captain Cook's opinion of him being a moron now that she remembered the incident. Finding out from other witnesses what had happened. The officer in charge ignoring Marks please even when he became violent trying to stop the lock from cycling while the Officer had simply taken it for granted that the retarded moron did not know what he was talking about and had Mark restrained and put on report electronically before the lock finished cycling and then the girl died in front of everyone in the lock.

  She had sided with the officer at the time putting it down as an unfortunate malfunction. After all, what could the catatonic handicapped moron in front of her, throwing a tantrum in the lock, really have known? But know years later after that same officer had cost the ship possible millions and several more lives she was realizing she had screwed up badly giving the officer a pass back then instead of killing his career over the incident like she should have done. The officer had gotten himself killed with half his crew in an accident that the officer could have prevented if he had simply listened to several of his crewmen or had even an ounce of common sense. Now that she remembered it, she did not blame Mark for hating officers after that incident and the way he had been treated over the years. But if he added the guilt of that little girl’s death to his friend’s death he could do something stupid.

  Leaving the Captain nothing she could do except maybe give him a little hope and another reason to become an officer and to live. “In the next year Mark; thanks to the fact that this ship’s family produces babies like rabbits and every time one of them marries someone from another ship, most bring them home instead of leaving with them to live on the other ship. Does not matter; female or male. Not that I blame them as this is a damn good ship. But that just means we are going to have to split this ship soon or face being stranded on some dirt ball world when our fuel and credits run out.”

  “To do that, we are going to have to start weeding out the bad officers and forming two separate crews with the best officers I can find. Crews with officers that are trained engineers that love to get dirty as this ship changes to become more efficient by repairing the automated systems we have let decay to provide jobs for our large crew. We need to start making these repairs now to allow the ship to run with a smaller crew. And it also means we are only going to be able to buy a ship that is more junk than ship even at the prices I see ships being sold at on this planet, and then rebuild it to safely carry its share of the family. It is going to be a monumental task that will require the best out of everyone aboard this ship including you.”

  The Captain let a little smile cross the corner of one lip as she saw Mark’s eyes slowly go from vacant self-loathing despair, to interest at getting his hands dirty on a new junk ship. "And just between you, me and everyone in this compartment. With as fat as our family crew is, we need to eventually buy 2 ships to actually get the crews small enough to really be profitable which means we are going to have to work extra hard when we get the new ship to buy a second ship as soon as possible." She was just talking to sooth and give the boy time to think, though it was all true, the rest of the ship did not need to know. "With two ships working together it should not take long, not to mention being a lot safer in the Outback being able to support each other. What I have seen about cargo requests on this planet since it is a major hub for everything going into the Outback; filling two ships to the same system consistently should not be a problem with us returning to this port often for a while."

  Sitting, smoking her cigar, as she babbled on about the future, the Captain finely wound down and stopped talking as Mark's face turned to hope and started showing even excitement. The Captain waiting for Mark to finely say something. Preferring that the boy show he had made that one little step to become a man of commitment and volunteer. But after another eternity with no sign of anything except that he seemed to be talking to himself as his face turned to indecision and self-doubt and even stubbornness creeping back in; the Captain sighed shaking her head sadly as she went through the rest of his file. Maybe he was a little retarded after all in spite of his high academic and IQ scores. Or maybe a little immature still. She finally took a deep breath to speak. Hoping he was just stubborn, as she remembered his father and mother both being stubborn about some things.

  But Mark suddenly spoke up. “Ah Captain Sir. I think, I ah... I want to be a real engineer and pilot, but no… No implants?” The Captain gave him a dirty disgusted look as Mark touched his glasses and resignedly smiled. “Ok Sir. No implants. I want to take you up on your offer if it is still available. I want to be an officer of the ship sir. I promise to do my best to redeem myself, earn your respect and trust and to serve the ship and crew and family. Sir.”

  “Now that is more like it Mr. Collins and that is a good oath but let’s get a little more formal. Raise your right hand and repeat after me.” The Captain proceeded with the reading of the Commissioned Officers Oath of service.

  Chapter 11 Trying hard to make Enemy’s

  Marks parents, after finding Mark’s and his friends’ workshop/club house at the entrance to Tramptown to their surprise. Watched his hearing along with Jolleen, Peter, Tom, Dick and the rest of the Clubs gang. Mark’s parents none too happy as they watched and listened, finding things out about their son they had no clue about. Everyone’s apprehension building as they figured out long before Mark that he was in real trouble.

  The Captain finally (to everyone’s surprise), asked Mark to become an officer and the screen blacked out for a few seconds but then came back on showing an unsteady picture of a screen as the Captain proceeded to chew Mark out and continued until the feed changed back to a direct broadcast from the Wardroom and Mark raised his right hand for his swearing in ceremony. By the time the oath was finished and the Captain came on to introduce the ships newest Ensign, the party was back into full swing. And Marks parents decided that it was a good thing after all, kicking their son out of the cabin instead of letting him sleep on the couch and proceeded out to tour the new town while they waited for their newly appointed Ensign son to arrive to what had turned in to being his party as far as they were concerned.

  Diane sat out in the Ward room reception area watching on the wall screen. Her face going pale during most of the hearing. Her emotions swinging from surprise, shame, pride, fear and even love as Mark decided to take the oath. As the hearing started to break up she put her phone away just as an Ensign walked into the compartment, gave Dian a quick smile and then stood on the other side at parade rest starring at the hatch to the Ward room.

  After Mark had been introduced to all the senior Officers and their half sincere congratulations where done, the Mast brook up with the Captain stopping to talk with several councilmen before leaving with them, followed by the officers by seniority and rank down the line. Finally leaving Mark alone in the Ward room still in shock. Rushing in Diane gave Mark a big hug as the Ensign fallowed her to stand by the hatch.

  “I was afraid we were going to get kicked off the ship Mark. And now you’re an Ensign I can�
��t believe it.” She had been impressed with the results that had shown up at sickbay after several of Mark's pranks on bullies she had grown to dislike over the years. Now she was in love with Mark after what had happened over the last two days for the first time after ignoring the dozens of guys that seemed to always be following her around. With her new hormone flooded emotions, the suddenly crowded cramped bedroom with her 2 sisters and sharing the head with 3 boys in her family's 3 bedroom cabin was surprisingly and suddenly beyond intolerable to even think of any longer, driving her to love Mark beyond any reason or doubt in her mind. She was ready to follow Mark anyplace he went at that moment without a single thought of family or her life. Or if they even liked each other yet.

  "We?" Mark started to say as Dian shut him up with a lip lock, hugging the life out of him. Mark responded sliding his hand down onto her butt and squeezing.

  The Ensign at the hatch Coughed, getting their attention then said. “He is an Ensign out of uniform Mam and since we don’t want him getting court-martialed his first day, we better get him properly dressed. If you will please come with me Mr. Collins we will get you outfitted and assigned a cabin.”

  Dian squealed and planted a big one on his lips wrapping her arms around his neck and her legs around his hips again. She knew what spacious cabins Officers were assigned, making her hormones serge even faster driving her faster down that well of no return. Surprised, it was all Mark could do to keep them from falling over. His hands on her butt going a little farther between her legs and she started moaning as they kissed.