by D G Hervey
“I like it,” responded Captain Fran loudly enough for all to hear.
Jon requested, “Now all, please rise and repeat the pledge of allegiance.”
The assemblage of women rose and said Jon’s pledge of allegiance verbatim, without him having to dictate it to them.
There was a murmur in the crowd as they sat. Jon looked at a holograph of the auditorium in Hidden and saw they were similarly chatting with their neighbors as they took their seats.
Jon figured out that the women had said the oath of allegiance without him giving it to them line by line, as he had expected, because they all had Parrots which could give it to them in his stead. “I should have guessed your ability to respond without being spoon fed, line-by-line the way I expected,” commented Jon. “Thank you.”
He heard a smattering of, “You’re welcome.”
Addressing the assemblage, Jon announced, “The oaths that are about to be administered and taken by these women are made freely, publicly, and are meant to be without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion. They are to convey the commitment to support, abide by, and defend the compact that has been agreed to in the formation of the government of this community of Calypso, against all enemies foreign or domestic. In the functioning of the various offices being taken here, there is to be service for the benefit of the community at large, with faithful discharge of their duties.”
“That is as it should be,” responded Captain Simona.
Jon then turned to Agnieszka and asked, “What, if anything, do you hold to be sacred?
“I hold Calypso and my life to be sacred,” replied Agnieszka.
Jon no longer expected to give the oath to her line-by-line. He requested, “Please repeat after me: ‘I, Agnieszka, born of Poland, but now irrevocably of and with unquestioned allegiance to Calypso, swear by what I hold to be most sacred, that I will faithfully execute the office of President of Calypso, and will, to the best of my ability and understanding, abide by, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of Calypso.’”
President Elect Agnieszka repeated the oath after Jon had said the entire thing. Jon understood that her Parrot whispered the exact wording to her for her to say.
Jon announced, “I now pronounce you President of Calypso. May your tenure in office be productive and fair for her citizens.”
To Jon’s surprise, the orchestra struck up a spirited march that he did not recognize and he wondered if it were original.
When the song ended, Jon turned to the holographic projection of the Vice President Elect and asked. “Jelena, what, if anything, do you hold to be sacred?”
“I believe in God as the most sacred,” she answered. “But along with Agni, I hold Calypso and my life to be sacred as well.”
Jon requested, “Please repeat after me. ‘I, Jelena, born in Latvia, but now irrevocably of and with unquestioned allegiance to Calypso, swear by what I hold to be most sacred, that I will faithfully execute the office of Vice President of Calypso, and will, to the best of my ability and understanding, abide by, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of Calypso, so help me God.’”
Vice President Elect Jelena repeated her oath of office verbatim. Jon would have been slightly disappointed if there had been any different result.
Jon then announced, “I pronounce you Vice President Jelena. Welcome to your office. May you execute your duties with honor.”
Jon now hesitated, and was pleased when the orchestra again struck up the same spirited march they had just played. He decided that it must be a new national anthem that he had not known about.
Jon then turned to Captain Simona and asked her, “Simona, what if anything do you hold to be sacred?”
“As with our president,” Captain Simona replied, “I hold my life and Calypso to be sacred. There have been other things that once seemed sacred to me, but in our present circumstances, these now seem the most sacred.”
“Simona,” Jon asked, “will you accept, without reservation, your appointment by President Agnieszka as Admiral of the Fleet of Calypso?”
Captain Simona responded, “I will.”
Jon requested, “Then repeat after me: ‘I, Simona, born in Romania, but now irrevocably of and with unquestioned allegiance to Calypso, swear by what I hold to be most sacred, that I will faithfully discharge the duties and responsibilities of the office of Admiral of the Fleet, that I accept this appointment without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion, and that I will defend the community of Calypso against all enemies, foreign or domestic, and abide by, uphold, and defend the constitution of Calypso to the best of my understanding and ability.’”
Simona then said the oath of office that Jon had composed for her.
Then Jon announced, “Congratulations, Admiral of the Fleet Simona. May you keep us all safe from all external threats, problems, and difficulties.”
Jon wondered if the national anthem would be played again, so he paused. But it was not forthcoming.
Jon then faced the holographic projection of Captain Naqvi. “Captain Naqvi,” he asked, “will you accept, without reservation, your appointment by President Agnieszka as Admiral of Calypso, second in command to Admiral of the Fleet, Simona?”
“I will,” answered Captain Naqvi.
He then asked, “What if anything do you hold to be sacred?”
Captain Naqvi on Hidden replied, “I believe in Allah, but as with our President, Vice President, and Admiral of the Fleet, I hold my life and Calypso to be sacred as well. There are other sacred things in my life, but in the present circumstances, these seem the most sacred to me.”
“Captain Naqvi,” he said, “repeat after me: ‘I, Naqvi, born in Qatar, but now irrevocably of and with unquestioned allegiance to Calypso, swear by what I hold to be most sacred, that I will faithfully discharge the duties and responsibilities of the office of Admiral, that I accept this appointment without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion, and that I will defend the community of Calypso against all enemies, foreign or domestic, and abide by, uphold, and defend the constitution of Calypso to the best of my understanding and ability, so help me Allah.’”
Naqvi then repeated her oath of office.
Jon announced, “Congratulations Admiral Naqvi. May your term of service be successful.”
The orchestra on Hidden now struck up a medley of tunes from some space-faring movies of the past. They then ended with the Colonel Bogey March. Jon recognized every one, and Marie knew which movie went with each space-faring tune.
Chapter 5 - Readying the Fleet
Simona’s Parrot awakened her so she could follow her habit of doing exercises while she ‘watched’ Jon do his. She noticed that he did his full morning regimen without panting. She aspired to that goal, now that she was able to do almost as much of everything as he did. She could not yet lie flat on her back and hold ten-pound dumbbells a few centimeters off of the floor the way Jon did. He did it with outstretched, straight arms for six repetitions of twenty-five seconds each, resting for fifteen seconds between lifts. She wanted to be able to do that. She thought, how archaic Jon is, using dumbbells that are in pounds instead of kilograms. She understood, however, that ML had provided Jon with those ten-pound dumbbells on Spaceship 1, duplicating what he had used back in Texas. She also wanted to be able to do the rest of his three different morning routines as effortlessly as he seemed to do them.
Simona had acquired a mat similar to the ones that Jon and Marie used. She even made herself a small, quilted, satin pad for her upper torso that was similar to his. She thought, I should ask him what the purpose of that pad is. She had noticed that, like Jon, she tended to slide toward her feet when she did the reverse crunches, but she could conceive of no benefit in such sliding.
Simona knew that today Jon should do 160 of the reverse crunches. That happened every third day (unless he forgot what he had done the day before). On the other days he did only 130 of them. She guessed that he was intending to keep a uniform to
tal time of his morning workouts and that is why he did 30 more on every third day, when he reduced his crunches from 111 or 112 to 84. She thought that those were strange numbers, but they are what he did. They are also what a large fraction of the women on Calypso were aspiring to achieve. Most of them were not there yet, but she was, almost.
When Jon was ready to lie on his mat, Simona was ready, too. Her Parrot counted for her, timing it to match Jon’s performance. Jon’s lips moved excepting during crunches, counting the seconds or number of repetitions. But he made no sound. Jon’s timing of seconds seemed to vary only slightly. He got a bit faster when she judged that he was in a hurry.
Fifty-two minutes and Jon was finished, right on time. They and a lot of others were through with their morning workout.
Simona had called a meeting of the fleet officers and pilots for today. She thought, Admiral of the Fleet sounds so nice. Now Calypso is past Jupiter’s radiation zone. The sensors of Calypso are almost all back up or replaced and on line. It is time to set up procedures for what Jon had put in my oath of office, ‘that I will defend the community of Calypso against all enemies, foreign or domestic.’ Well, the foreign enemies that had chased ML shouldn’t be able to catch up with us any time soon. We are confident enough that the nice asteroid ML had brought to us is now secured in the trailer of Calypso.
So the foreign enemies on Simona’s mind were the naturally orbiting asteroid and comet bits that were too big to be absorbed safely by the aramid-fiber type of covering on the conical shield in front of Calypso.
It is time to set up our scouting operations, to address what speed we can safely achieve, while we are still so close to the plane of the ecliptic, and most important, to begin to recruit sufficient staff.
Admiral Simona dressed in her uniform with its newly created and sewn-on Admiral of the Fleet insignia. Her Parrot had helped her find appropriate samples in the database to use as a concept. She took an even bolder step into a space-based design with images of both ML’s Spaceship 1 and the bot-operated remotes that were now available for her to use.
Simona thought about the assets at her disposal. She already has two of the Spaceship 1-type spaceships in the fleet and has plans for a third. One of the three, renamed Dui, had been ML’s actual Spaceship 1. It had been upgraded when she stopped at her Development C6 on the way to Calypso. The Calypso spaceships were newer than Dui. The ones built at Calypso included some upgraded technology, but with ML’s being worked on later, Dui might have improvements Simona did not know about. Simona wondered whether ML had incorporated more changes into the retrofit of her former Spaceship 1.
Simona ate her breakfast and took the moving walkway to the bridge.
Admiral Simona arrived early for the meeting. She had time to compose herself and check that the holographic projection would be working to include Hidden personnel in the meeting. In all, twenty-seven women were expected to be in attendance, thirteen from Subtle’s crews, thirteen from Hidden’s crews, and Simona had invited Captain Fran.
The entire Subtle staff was expected to be present on the bridge. Lieutenant Garbine and Lieutenant Elina were already there, early for their shift on duty on Subtle’s bridge. Captain Himadi, Lieutenant Hsiano, and Lieutenant Paksie were about to end their 12-hour shift on duty on the Subtle bridge, and would stay late for the meeting. The third Subtle bridge crew included Captain Besses, Lieutenant Hetem, and Lieutenant Tikoa. Captain Amudo, and Captain Zvanie, both pilots of Spaceship Ek, and their lieutenants Vaseg and Belis arrived together.
Spaceship Ek was one of the two completed vessels of ML’s Spaceship 1 class. The other, Spaceship Dui, staffed out of Hidden.
Captain Fran arrived just before the appointed hour. She greeted everyone, but was unsure regarding why Simona had invited her. She elected to stand before a seat, away from the table at which the thirteen staff members from Subtle would sit, six on each side of Simona. The holographic projection came on, showing a similar arrangement of the thirteen in Hidden. Admiral Naqvi had six women flanking her on each side.
Moving to take her seat Simona instructed, “Please be seated. I appreciate that everyone is in attendance on time. We have important business to discuss. There are several items on our agenda. First, we are currently understaffed. With the new positions that Admiral Naqvi and I now occupy, there are openings for two shift captains, one on Subtle and one on Hidden. If either of the two captains on Ek desire a transfer to duty on Subtle or the two captains on Dui desire a transfer to duty on Hidden, now is the time to request a transfer.”
No one spoke up. Simona continued, “I will allow no pregnant woman to have duty off of Calypso, and duty flights of Ek and Dui are expected to be on the order of a two-month duration. So if any of you Ek or Dui officers are pregnant or expecting insemination within the next two months, now is the appropriate time to request, shall I say, a temporary transfer to duty on the Subtle or the Hidden bridge.”
Captain Amudo spoke up, “I am due for insemination in that time frame. Thus, I request temporary transfer to the Subtle bridge.”
Lieutenant Belis stated, “Obviously I am already pregnant, so I also request temporary transfer to the Subtle bridge.”
Lieutenant Ebesh on Hidden replied, “I am also pregnant and request temporary transfer to the bridge of Hidden.”
Simona responded, “All requests for temporary transfers will be granted. So there are now two vacancies in the rank of captain, one to replace Admiral Naqvi on Hidden’s duty roster and one to replace me on Subtle’s duty roster. All lieutenants will be considered if they so desire. There are flight simulator tests that must be taken without a Parrot. Each of you may endeavor to master these tests in your off-duty time in the next week when you are not on off-Calypso duty. Your performance on these simulator tests will be a major factor in the selection of those promoted to captain, one for Subtle and one for Hidden. Any of you who aspire to that promotion may note that there is an unbiased, superbly qualified trainer who may be hired to help guide you through the simulator tests. Captain Fran holds the record for the highest scores ever achieved on those simulator tests. I have arranged for any simulator tests and any training to be conducted in the offices of the President on Subtle or the Vice President on Hidden with no external communication to the rest of Calypso. So you cannot observe another taking a test or get a leg up by not being first to take the tests. Holographic communication via quantum computer will be available on Hidden for any wishing to avail themselves of Captain Fran’s expertise.”
A murmur among the lieutenants quickly died.
“That will leave us with at least two vacancies on the staff of the fleet,” Simona continued. “So, we will accept applications from any interested citizens, for example, athletes, performers, teachers, secretaries, or clerical staff, who aspire to join the fleet. We will be pleased to get applications from other groups as well. Physical, emotional and psychological parameters must be satisfied, of course.”
After a pause, Simona said, “Any applicants may desire the services of Captain Fran as soon as she has time. I suspect that she may be rather busy for the next week or so. Furthermore, it would seem advisable that you be neither pregnant nor expecting insemination within the next nine to twelve months if you want to join the fleet. With a nine-month pregnancy, and a likely nine-month lactation, it seems that, for a nominal expected time between pregnancies of three years, we need to at least double our staff.”
Simona nodded to Admiral Naqvi.
Admiral Naqvi stated, “Admiral Simona and I will review the service records of all aspirants to the rank of captain. We intend to have a frank discussion of our evaluation of the readiness of those seeking that rank for the responsibilities incumbent on captains. So, promotion is not entirely dependent upon your scores on the flight simulation tests. But, as Admiral Simona indicated, your scores will be a significant component of my recommendation and her decision. May each of you reach a new peak of performance.”
“The next
topic I will address,” stated Simona, “is safety. You may remember that the oath of office that Jon had me take included, ‘that I will defend the community of Calypso against all enemies, foreign or domestic.’ I take that oath seriously. I interpret the foreign enemies rather generally. I take them to be anything, whether living or not, that may adversely influence the safety of the community of Calypso. Thus, I address my uncertainties regarding the safety of Calypso to the mathematicians, the astronomers, the materials scientists, the physicists, the instrumentation specialists, and all who have any expertise to contribute to the issues I am about to raise. I raise these issues in ignorance and seek assessment of the risks that may be expected and of remediation measures that may mitigate those risks.”
“I don’t like to focus on the risks we take,” responded Lieutenant Paksie.
Admiral Simona paused to allow a bit of whispered conversation to stop before proceeding.
“Obviously,” Simona continued, “we shall be struck by material in space. That includes cosmic rays, the solar wind, grains of dust and ice, and probably small asteroids. We have a cone in front of Calypso with an aramid-fiber-type shield to capture the small particles of dust and ice. We continuously replace the shield to maintain a high level of protection from such particulate materials. But clearly the rate of the impact of such material depends upon numerous factors. They include our proximity to a large gravitational attractor such as Jupiter, our position relative to the ecliptic plane, and our velocity. I suspect that the risk is at present more accurately characterized as a function of our velocity relative to the velocity of the material in the general prograde rotation in the ecliptic plane, and of the volume of space swept out by Calypso per unit time.”
Lieutenant Ebesh remarked, “That’s scary. With our speed always increasing, the faster we go the greater will be our rate of sweeping out volumes of space.”