by J. P. Larson
Pamela didn’t look very surprised. “List them, Alex.”
“I tell you what. I’ll list two. Okay?” She nodded. “Alicia helped rescue me when my ship was broken. She and her older sister repaired my ship. Alicia, I never properly thanked you.”
“You’re welcome, Alex. It was our pleasure.”
Alex continued. “My wife has saved my life at least twice, and probably three times.”
“Oh, do tell, Alex,” she said with a smirk.
“The first time, when you noticed I was in trouble. If you hadn’t found me, Alicia couldn’t have fixed my ship, and I wouldn’t be here anymore. The most recent time was when she discovered I had a few extra holes and patched me together long enough for a doctor to get to me. It’s also possible I wouldn’t have made it through my earlier medical difficulties without her help, but I’m not sure.”
Pamela blushed. “Ms. Leider?”
She got all the names. “That’s Alex Grey, formerly Swanson. He needs watching over, as he’s always getting himself into trouble. I am Gina Leider. Please call me Gina. I’m 35. I’m doing security and logistics. Leider is from an old Earth language. It means singer.”
“Is the name especially appropriate, Gina?” Gina thought about it, then shrugged.
“Don’t let her fool you, Captain,” said Jimbo. “It takes a direct order, but she’s got a beautiful voice.”
“I won’t order, Gina, but I do hope you’ll share your voice with us.” Gina nodded. “Jimbo, would you explain how you know about direct orders to a Captain in the navy?”
“It’s a long story, Captain.”
“It’s okay to abbreviate.”
“Well, the night the Admiral presented my knife?” Pamela nodded. “Well, it was sort of a party. Alex asked Gina to sing. She said no. So Alex’s mother asked. Gina still said no.”
“Alex’s mother is the Prime Minister of Random Walk,” Pamela pointed out. “You refused the Prime Minister?”
Gina nodded.
“So then Alex whispered in his father’s ear, and his father issued a direct order. She complained, but she sang. She sings real nice.”
“Well, that’s everyone.” Pamela easily listed the names. “Our last speaker is Gina Leider, which means singer. She seems to be shy about her voice. Gina does security and logistics. Gina is 35. My name is Pamela Grey. On duty, you call me Captain. Off duty, I am Pamela. I’m 28, and this is my first command, but I’ve shipped with many of you in the past.” She thought for a moment. “I like watching my husband in the gym.”
Alex blushed.
“Alicia?”
Alicia ran through all the names. “You’re Pamela Grey. We call you Captain almost all the time, because it’s safer than using Pamela. You’re 28, this is your first ship, and you like to embarrass Alex as much as he likes to tease you.”
Pamela had each person do the names again, then picked on the ones who had made mistakes. “Linda, tell us about one of the weapons Jimbo has, not counting that huge knife.”
“He’s got a flecette machine pistol. He didn’t show it to us.”
“Did he have anything more unusual?”
“He said he had several things he could throw, and he mentioned a couple of weapons that I didn’t recognize.”
After a few more minutes, Pamela smiled at everyone.
“We’ll have another melt down leaving StarInc Station. I expect each of you to get to know everyone else a little bit. In particular, you should be able to tell us something about at least two people you haven’t met before. That means the Walkers and the DSers will need to talk. Does anyone have any questions for me?”
People looked around a bit, then finally Mary Grey looked at Pamela expectantly. Pamela nodded at her. “Captain, I might be out of line. But do we expect any trouble on this trip?”
“Why do you ask?”
“We seem to have a heavy security contingent.” She glanced at Jimbo and Alex.
“Alex has promised me we will all get back to Dawson’s Star, safe and sound. He’s taking his duties extremely seriously. You will notice that the entire Random Walk contingent is composed of RWN personnel on their walkabouts. As such, you can expect a higher attention to security than might otherwise be expected.”
Mary looked at her uncomfortably. “That wasn’t a straight answer, Captain.”
“Captain?” Alex asked her. Pamela nodded to him. “Mary, you already know about the prior difficulties. The Prime Minister has issued a direct order to make sure nothing happens to her daughter. Seeing as how I have a vested interest, you can bet I’ve been well-prepared. If we do encounter troubles, and that’s a very big if, I want you all to remember that I’m very good at my job, regardless of my ability to walk. And remember, at that point the Captain defines policy, but I implement. The chain of command shifts.”
Pamela jumped in. “Alex is right. And his priority is to get us all home, alive and unhurt. I do not expect to change that policy under any circumstances. In a combat situation, everyone will do exactly as he says immediately and without question.”
“If we run into any difficulties while on a station,” added Alex, “which I am not expecting, but I’m always anticipating, I would encourage everyone to trust the Walkers. These are all experienced military personnel, and they share my priorities.”
“I’m sorry I asked,” Mary said. “Ignorance was bliss.” The laughter was polite.
“You’ll be home in six or seven weeks, Mary. I know my job.”
“If there’s nothing else?” Pamela asked. There wasn’t. “I declare us melted. First shift, back to it.”
Conflagration
Alex rushed back to the bridge. He’d been checking his comm throughout the melt down, but he liked seeing the boards themselves. He got to his station and settled in. Then he checked the search logs.
“Interesting,” he said very quietly. “Very interesting.” He smiled.
Alex looked up and saw the remaining bridge crew at their stations. He noticed Pamela regarding him carefully.
“Captain, point of protocol?”
“Yes, Alex.”
“I think you just answered it. Janice?” Pamela nodded.
“Yes, Alex?”
“I am somewhat familiar with the deep scan, but not entirely. Can you tell me how much space you have checked?”
“Before the melt down, I checked our path for about two hours out. The search grows larger as I look further out, and that’s as far as I got.”
“Will you be starting up again?”
“Unless the Captain tells me otherwise. I was just getting settled here.”
“Just so I understand… You will clear the area immediately in front of us, expanding forward from our flight path?” Janice nodded. “And you’ll get to, say, 4 hours out, in how long?”
“Normally, it’s fifteen minutes. Being careful, it’s closer to an hour.”
“Alex,” said Pamela. “There’s no way she and I can keep up that tight a search for the entire voyage.”
“I’m mostly concerned in the first few hours leaving a system. If we use my flight plans, I’m not so worried about system entry.”
“First, if you’ll start your scan? Navigation, how’s your board?”
“Green, Captain. We’re on course.”
“Security?”
“Green, Captain.”
“You two with me.”
Pamela swept them out and headed for her cabin. The three entered, and Alex immediately sat down. Pamela and Spades joined him.
“Spades, have you looked at Security’s flight plan?”
“Yes. It’s weird. We head out for a while, then we dive off in a strange direction that takes us hideously close to a star. We then drop out of hyper, pause there for a while, then jump off in another direction. We jump around a bit more, then head for a point on the far side of StarInc before turning around to backtrack. His path adds several days.”
“
Alex, I don’t think I like this path.”
“It only adds eight hours. After that little trick with the star, we can speed up a little. If anyone is following us, we’ll have lost them.”
“And the fuel, Alex?”
“The engines are pretty efficient, and we’re still in a flat performance/efficiency range, but the extra distance will burn some fuel. I think it’s worth the security.”
“Is that the finance officer speaking, Alex? Did I make a mistake giving you competing duties?”
“Captain, I am accustomed to balancing multiple priorities.”
Pamela smiled. “Spades? I’m inclined to humor him.” The navigator shrugged.
“Anything else you want to say about this, Alex?”
“Yeah. Make sure the crew is fresh and alert when we do the maneuver with the star. It’s a little tight.”
“How tight, Alex?”
Alex smiled. “Let’s just say we want to come out of hyperspace right on time. And let’s also say absolutely no one is going to be able to follow us. I have a simulation on the computer.” At her nod, he stepped over and keyed in some numbers.
Pamela watched the simulation, then blanched.
“Absolutely not!”
“Pamela, I’ve done this before. No one could possibly follow us.”
“I’m not running through a star!”
“Pamela, I have other simulations. Watch what happens to anyone chasing us.” He hit more buttons. On the screen, a ghostly ship rapidly approached a sun. “Look, we don’t go through the star. We drop out of hyperspace right here,” Alex said as the simulation ship became more real and slowed down. “We hit the thrustors and zip around the sun. Now, I’ve done this simulation with three pursuers. The first is right on our tail and never drops out of hyperspace.” Another ghostly streak appeared, and dashed right into the star. “One down. The second one exactly tries to follow our path.” A second streak appears, becomes more solid, and begins to chase the first one, but eventually is consumed by the sun. “Isn’t gravity a wonderful thing? Now, the third one is smarter. They break off early.” A third streak appeared. It became solid earlier and turned to the right.
“As soon as we’re out of sight from ship number three, we go hyper again.”
“Why don’t we precede ship number two?”
“Our thrusters are of a higher caliber than theirs are likely to be.”
“The acceleration?”
“About 14 gees sustained, a bit higher during some of the maneuvers.” He paused. “Our inertial dampeners are also quite good.”
“Alex, is there anything on this ship that isn’t quite good?”
“I haven’t tried the cooking. Entertainment may leave something to be desired. And the Captain doesn’t trust me. Pamela, this was a military refit on a relatively light merchant ship. And Dad gave us all the extra cool new toys. I still can’t believe Mother allowed it.”
“I suppose we’re packing a bunch of super canons big enough to destroy entire worlds, too.”
Alex thought about it for a moment. “You know, I never thought to ask. I’m usually sneaky, not direct. I wonder if we can get Dad to add one.”
“You will kill us, Alex.”
“Tell everyone to wear sunscreen, Pamela.”
“Spades, we’ll use Security’s flight plan. Alex, increase the margin of safety on this maneuver. If I’m still not happy, we’re not doing it.”
Alex paused. “I have another sim.”
Pamela smiled. “I thought you might.” Alex showed it to her. When it was done, she turned to him. “That’s increasing margin of safety?”
“We never exceed 9 gees. If the dampeners drop off line, we’ll still be okay. Hull temperatures never exceed 500C. And ship number two might, with really good timing, be able to follow us.”
“We’ll do it this way.”
“Thank you, Pamela.”
“Back to your stations, you two,” Pamela ordered. Mary and Pamela both got up and headed for the door. Alex stayed where he was. The women got to the door, with Mary in the lead. She disappeared into the corridor.
“Pamela?” She turned around. “Would you get my cane? Please? It’s in my cabin.” She looked at him with some alarm. “It’s okay,” he went on. “I’m just starting to wear out a little.”
Pamela nodded and disappeared. She returned nearly immediately.
“Your door is locked.”
“Captain’s override, Pamela. You can open any door on the ship.”
She smiled. “Oh. I had forgotten.” She disappeared again, then returned with the cane. “I can get your chair.”
“The cane and a hand standing would be great.”
* * *
Four hours later, the Ghost dropped briefly from hyperspace. Alex was still at his post, watching the security scans. He smiled as the Ghost reentered hyperspace in a radically new direction.
Several minutes later, another, much larger ship performed a similar maneuver.
* * *
“Captain?” Alex said shortly afterwards.
“What is it now, Security?” Pamela sounded tired.
Alex didn’t say anything, so Pamela turned to look at him. Her eyes got wide.
“Sorry, Captain,” he said. “It’s been a long day.”
“Get your relief up here, Alex.” Alex punched a button, and Gina immediately entered the bridge. She was pushing Alex’s wheelchair.
“I don’t need the chair, Gina.”
“You will use it, Mr. Grey,” said Pamela.
“Aye-aye, Captain.” Alex slowly got up and collapsed into the chair.
“Gina, you have security. People, I’ll be back shortly.” Pamela got up and pushed Alex from the room. She turned into his quarters.
“Pamela, I could use something to eat first. Johnson has something hot for me.” Pamela said nothing, but pushed him into his quarters. The door closed behind her.
“Mr. Grey, I will not have my crew collapsing at their stations! If you can not handle a full shift, you had better tell me right now.”
“No one needs to carry me, Captain. I’ll do my duty.”
Pamela fumed for a minute. “How can I depend on you if you won’t tell me when you’re about to collapse?”
“I did tell you. Several hours before it became critical.”
“You wouldn’t have lasted several hours if I had actually needed a tactical officer.”
“Gina was standing by, Captain. I needed to see that maneuver through. And I had this.” He held up a hypo. “Battle drugs.”
“Oh, great. Do you know what those do to your system?”
“I’m familiar with the effect, Captain. I wouldn’t have used it if I hadn’t needed to. If someone jumped us, it was ready. If no one jumped us, then Gina was ready.”
“I expect to be kept apprised of your physical status, Mr. Grey. When you are starting to wear out, I want to know early, so I can plan. Do I make myself clear?”
“I’m sorry, Captain. I thought you already did know.” He fingered his necklace. “You’ve been watching over me so much for the last several months, it didn’t occur to me you would have your mind on other things. I just figured you were letting me set my own limits when you didn’t ask how I was doing. I’m sorry.”
Pamela’s expression softened.
“Pamela, this is my fault. On that bridge, I’m just another crew member. I don’t expect you to be watching out for your husband. I’ll keep you apprised of my status. Gina and Jimbo can handle the boards most of the time. I just want the six hours on either side of a station entry or exit. By the time we get back to DS, I think I’ll be completely holding my own.”
“Alex, what’s more important? That you’re on the boards when we detect we have a problem, or that you’re fresh and available to handle it once it’s detected?”
Alex looked at her in surprise.
“Alex, I want you to oversee to the security of this ship. You will not overdo it at any time, including you
r workout sessions. I expect you to take whatever rest you need so that you will be fully available in the case of an emergency. Gina and Jimbo can handle the security boards. Give Sue a chance to learn them, too. You may take the boards for brief periods to relieve your support staff, but I do not want you standing watch.”
Alex thought about it. “Aye-aye, Captain.”
Pamela looked at him. “Something to eat now, Alex.”
“In a minute. Pamela, I’m very proud of you. I like the way you run a ship. I liked melt down. That’s an excellent tradition. Thank you for letting me be part of this.”
Pamela smiled, then kissed him. “Thank you, Alex. It’s nice to hear that. I can’t tell you how nervous I am that I’m making tons of mistakes.”
“Pamela, you were right to dress me down. And I like your solution to the problem. You listen to your officers, but then you make up your own mind. That’s an excellent style. You let people know they can speak up. You have command presence, but your crew still likes you. We’re eight hours from lift off, and there’s not a soul on board who doesn’t know who the captain of this ship is. Keep this up, and they’ll follow you anywhere.”
Pamela’s smile grew as he spoke. “Let’s go feed you, Alex.”
She was practically skipping all the way to the galley. “Kevin,” she said, entering. “Will you feed this crew member, then make sure he goes to bed?”
“Captain, I have a workout scheduled with Jimbo before going to bed.” Pamela gave him a look. “You know I always feel better after a light workout. Johnson will feed me a small sandwich. Jimbo will work me over. Johnson will feed me some warm soup, and Jimbo will trundle me off to bed.”
Pamela keyed her personal comm. “Jimbo, can you come to the galley?” He appeared a few moments later.