Chapter 623

... With a sigh, the Prime spoke aloud to Ship. “Please tell First that I am ready for the meeting with his full crew. I’ll be waiting in your lounge for them.”

“Yes, My Prime.”

A few minutes later, the First Officer, his bridge crew, together with the Chief Engineer and his sub-engineers, came into Ship’s lounge.

“Let’s sit at the big table,” Jeff told First while motioning. After turning to the others and raising his voice so everyone could hear, “Please, find yourself a seat and order your drink of choice. I have some things to go over with you.”

As they were ordering and receiving their drinks, Jeff sat listening to the easy chatter between the aliens, and they were doing it in English. Then it hit him. Their accents are much, much better. While he was thinking about that, he realized that several of the aliens ordered iced tea instead of their usual stim – and they ordered the tea sweet with crushed ice. Jeff, Diana and most of the wives preferred crushed ice in their iced tea because it seemed to make the drink colder. Ship had apparently provided the same type of ice for the aliens, and they must have enjoyed it since they were ordering it now.

When they had settled, Jeff came to his feet at the head of the table. “Gentlemen, as you know, the First and I have discussed all of you becoming my crew. You have had several days to think about it and discuss it among yourselves. First tells me you agree, and it is unanimous, but to make absolutely certain, are there any dissenters? This isn’t something that you can back out of – at least easily, because, frankly, I don’t have any other jobs for you. You certainly can’t work on Earth. You wouldn’t last a day after the people found out who you are.”

When no one spoke, First slowly came to his feet. “Captain, we have discussed this, and we are thankful for this opportunity you are giving us. We know that it would have been easier for you to destroy us while we were in the escape pods. We have known you for only a short time, but I assure you that all of us are already loyal to you. My assurances are probably little more than meaningless to you at this point, but over time you will realize that my people and I will remain loyal to you and Ship. I have explained how our loyalty to you is a natural process from your having destroyed our Ship and its Captain in battle. You are our Captain, and that loyalty now belongs to you and your Ship. Nothing will ever change that.”

“I appreciate that, but I must hear it for myself. However, I want to discuss rank aboard Ship first. Each of our armed forces on planet Earth tend to have different ranks and designations, but there has never been a space force before; therefore, I have decided that our rank designations will be our own with a smattering of Miadax ranking thrown in. Each shift/watch will have a combination of rank from Second Officer to Third Officer but there will be only one First Officer rank, and he will normally be on the First Shift, but he will have authority over all shifts. The same for Chief Engineer. Science Officer and Navigator will have a ranking of Second Officer, but will respond to their titles rather than their ranking. The Pilot will have the rank of Third Officer, but will be referenced as Pilot or Helm.

“Now, back to where we were. Ship is recording this meeting, and she will know if any of you are not telling the truth. I’ll start with you, First. Plain and simple. Do you swear your loyalty to your Captain and to Ship, agree to obey the Captain’s orders and perform your duties as First Officer of Ship to the best of your abilities?”

First came to rigid Attention. “I do, My Captain.” Even as his last words were spoken, his uniform faded into Ship’s uniform with a double gold bar below a gold FIRST on his collar. Jeff’s collar brass was a gold eagle with a gold CAPTAIN above. Ship’s personnel do not salute aboard Ship except for special occasions. This is one of those occasions. Jeff came to attention and saluted his First Officer, who instantly returned a near-perfect salute.

“Congratulations. At ease, and be seated, First Officer.

“Second Officer, please stand,” Jeff said. After the question and his response, the Second Officer’s uniform changed and his collar brass was a single gold bar with SECOND above it. His salute was also near-perfect. First has obviously had them practicing.

After each of the Bridge Officers received their new uniforms marked with their rank, Jeff turned to the Chief Engineer. After he had received his new uniform with its stylized atom and its circling electrons with CHIEF above it, Jeff worked through the sub-engineers.

Eventually, the only person left was the Steward. Jeff had reviewed the First Officer’s files – converted to English by Ship. “Steward,” Jeff called out to see the being rocket to his feet and come to Attention. “The First Officer and I have gone over your record aboard the Raider and your Academy files. I understand that you disappeared from the Academy a couple of days before your finals, leaving a note that gave the reason as ‘personal.’ Is that correct?”

“Yes, Sir,” the Steward responded.

“You dropped out of the Officer Candidate Academy, yet your grades were good. Care to expound on that?”

The Steward’s face seemed to pale, but after a moment, he quietly said, “I would rather not, Captain.”

The First Officer sucked in a breath and started to speak, but Jeff motioned for him to wait. “From Ship’s search of your Academy’s records, there was another student who disappeared from the academy, coincidentally, at approximately the same time you did, but there is no record of a note of explanation from him. Still care to remain mute on the subject?”

The Steward seemed to be on the verge of panicking, but he continued to stand at rigid attention without uttering a sound. “Once you applied for the position of Steward on the Raider, the First Officer, being conscientious, did some investigating on his own. Again, coincidentally it seems, a female was ‘damaged’ according to the report and at roughly the same general time that this other Officer Candidate and you disappeared – he, never to be heard from again. You returned too late and missed your exams. There was no second chance, but they offered you a ... consolation prize, I suppose you could say. Since your grades were excellent and you had no demerits on your record, the Academy offered to allow you to graduate with the rank of Steward – probably the most educated Steward ever to graduate the Space Academy. You accepted.

“After the female was healed, she was assigned to the Raider. Shortly afterward you applied, were accepted, and joined the Raider’s crew with the rank of Steward, again coincidentally, of course,” Jeff finished with a smirk.

The Steward was trembling slightly, and his face was white, but he continued to stand at rigid Attention. “According to the First Officer, your academy’s courses are well known to the fleet, and the study material – we would call them books – is part of the Raider‘s memory banks for reference material. The memory banks were automatically copied to each of the escape pods and frequently updated to keep them current – with the exception of the females’ pod, of course. Still, the course curriculum is there for anyone who cares to look – and the First Officer cared.” Jeff paused for a couple of heartbeats before continuing, “A Lieutenant’s rank is waiting for you to pass those final exams. First?” Jeff said as he nodded to the First Officer.

“The Captain tells me that Ship’s academy is time dilated, and the Captain has graciously consented to allow you to use this time dilation to study for your exams in what would be off-time from our studies at her Academy where we will all learn about her systems. Consequently, you will have very little off time, but you will be studying Ship’s systems at her Academy, or studying for your Miadax Academy finals – basically all the time. The Captain has agreed to give you some time to think this over...”

“Sir. I do not need any time to decide. I would be a fool to turn it down. Yes, Sir. I humbly accept.”

“Very well,” Jeff responded. “I’ll leave it to the First Officer and Ship to get you scheduled and started.”

“Sir. Uh, again, thank you for the chance, Captain. And you also, First. I will do my best.”

The First Officer came to his feet. “With your permission, Captain.” At Jeff’s nod, the First turned to the Steward and said, “I will arrange for some alone time with you and the female you ... saved. No sex, per the Captain’s rules, so I suggest that you meet in the rec room where you will not be tempted. Do not let me down,” the First Officer snapped out.

“I will not, Sir. And again, thank you, First. And, thank you, Captain.”

“Put him in a uniform similar to the one Selina used to wear. When he passes his finals, you can put him in a regular uniform.”

The Steward’s normal uniform was suddenly gone, and he was standing in a uniform similar to what the rest of the crew was now wearing, but ... his did not have the subtle shifting to the primary color of the gleaming material that the normal uniform displayed, nor was the star field on the shoulder active. The collar was adorned with a single silver bar with O.C. above it. (Officer Candidate).

The Steward had to have felt the change of garment, but he said nothing about it. “Sir?” he said as he addressed the First Officer. “What of my Steward duties?”

“Well,” the First said with a grin, “when you graduate with that gold bar on your collar, you will not be a Steward then, so I imagine that the rest of us might as well get used to doing everything for ourselves. You no longer have Steward duties; however, should you fail your finals...”

“I will not fail them, First Officer.”

Do aliens faint? Jeff worried as he stared at the Steward’s face that seemed to grow paler by the second. “You may be seated,” the Prime quickly told the Steward before they all found out. Despite his appearance, the Steward saluted and held the salute until Jeff returned it.

After sitting abruptly, the Steward reached a trembling hand out to grasp his ice tea glass and took a sip.

As they discussed what to expect from Ship’s academy, Jeff noted that, despite his having tried to put everyone at ease, they were obviously still uncomfortable around him, and not just the Steward. He knew that human troops would probably be a bit uptight with rank present, but he suspected this was more. Their manner here and in the past proved that the aliens respected their First Officer, but none appeared to fear him. That wasn’t necessarily true of the way they responded to Jeff – their new Captain.

The Prime glanced around the table at the tense faces that even he could detect, despite their being a different race. Dammit, that piece of work that was their Captain is still influencing them. They have all just received a chance to continue with basically the same jobs they had on the Raider, yet, unless I misunderstand, they’re all still much too tense for the circumstances. I don’t want puppets that say what they think I want them to say. The people on my team didn’t act like this, and still don’t, even though my rank was bumped up a couple of notches. Nor did the others at the base, even after I killed Buckmann in that knife fight with everyone watching. I want people who obey my orders without question, of course, but I also want people who will think for themselves and offer their ideas and opinions. Damn that asshole Captain of theirs. First said that the bastard ruled by the terror of their being executed for the slightest supposed infraction of the rules. How long is that stigma going to be around?

“Ship?“

“Yes, My Prime.”

“I want you to monitor this group while they’re at your Academy – and any other time, for that matter. Since I’m the Captain, I know I can’t be one of the guys, so to speak, but neither do I want to be seen as a replacement ogre for that asshole Captain they had. I’m open to suggestions, because I’m damn sure fresh out of ideas.“