'Buck up. You've got less than two years left, now.'
'The first year was bad enough.' The first captain of the Michaelson whom Paul had encountered was Peter Wakeman, a frustrated and impulsive officer who had caused innumerable headaches for his crew and ultimately ordered the mistaken destruction of another ship. The resulting court-martial had turned on Paul's testimony about the ambiguous orders the Michaelson had been operating under, testimony Paul had reluctantly concluded he had a moral and professional duty to volunteer.
'That was your fault,' Carl observed. 'Okay, not entirely. But any baggage you picked up from Wakeman's court-martial came from your own freely reached decisions.'
Paul smiled. 'Part of that baggage is Jen.'
'Well, if you complain about that, you'd really be a cretin.'
'Jealous?'
'Not at all. Jen Shen would have me for breakfast. I prefer my girlfriends a little less, um…'
'Careful.'
'Dynamic?'
Paul laughed. 'Jen's dynamic all right. Also dynamite. I hope her ship's in when we get back.'
'If you want to date another space warfare officer you have to be used to a lot of goodbye's.'
'We know that. So far the hello's have more than made up for the goodbye's.'
'Please. We're under zero gravity right now and my stomach's already a little queasy. Speaking of which, do you think our new captain has his space legs, yet?'
Paul changed his smile to a look of mock disapproval. 'My own struggles to get my stomach to accept zero g and occasional acceleration are recent enough that I don't make fun of anyone else going through that.'
'You've got a point there. It's hard to believe Captain Gonzalez is leaving us already. We always knew she'd have a short tour as commanding officer since she was a fill-in for the job after Wakeman got relieved for cause, but I'd miss her if I wasn't leaving, too.'
Paul snorted. 'After Wakeman, anybody could look good. But Gonzalez has been okay. And there'll be some continuity in command since we'll still have Kwan as executive officer.'
Carl rolled his eyes. 'You lucky dogs. But he's not all that bad. Depending on which Kwan you happen to get.'
'Even Good Kwan is no Herdez.'
'Ha! You're the only one on this ship who'd say that as if you missed Herdez.'
'She was a good XO!'
'No question. Also so tough she could've been tossed out an airlock naked and climbed back in an hour later no worse for wear. They only made one Herdez, Paul, and then they broke the mold before any more could be generated by accident. Of course Kwan's not Herdez. I give thanks for that every day. You should, too.'
Paul smiled to avoid answering. Commander Gwen Herdez had been incredibly demanding and a perfectionist as the ship's executive officer, but she'd also been so thoroughly professional and fair that Paul had ended up admiring her. It's like that old saying about what doesn't kill me makes me strong. I learned a lot from Herdez. 'Do you know anything about the new captain?'
'Hayes?' Carl shrugged. 'Nope. He's been real quiet.' Hayes had been on the ship for the last week, turning over responsibilities with Captain Gonzalez and observing the crew's performance underway. 'But I don't think he misses much.'
'I've noticed that. You think he's just kind of hanging around, then you notice his eyes are following everything real close.'
'Speaking of following stuff.' Carl pulled up the checklist for the firing test. 'What exactly is a pulse-phased laser, anyway?'
'I heard the contractors who installed it talking. Apparently it shifts color randomly to counteract protective filters.'
Carl looked unhappy. 'It's a blinding weapon?'
'Just against ship sensors.'
'That's the only way it can be used or that's the only way it's supposed to be used?'
'I don't know.' Paul looked at the checklist. 'This doesn't say.'
'Of course it doesn't. Well, there's lot of stuff onboard that could be misused. I guess this is one more.'
'Yeah. At least it's not a weapon of mass destruction.'
'Did you ever think you'd be grateful for that?' Carl indicated the checklist. 'Let's get going on this.'
A few minutes later, Commander Kwan, the ship's executive officer, entered the bridge, pulling himself over to the seats occupied by Carl and Paul. 'How's it going, guys?'
Paul caught Carl's surreptitious wink. I guess this time we got Good Kwan. I won't complain. 'Doing fine, XO. Just running down the final checklist for the test firing.'
'No problems, I take it?'
'No, sir. There's one unidentified spacecraft in the vicinity, but he's outside our operating area.'
'Okay! Keep up the good work.' Kwan scanned the panels where data on the Michaelson 's systems overlay displays showing space around them. Smooth arcs traced the paths of every spacecraft being tracked by the Michaelson, while a series of lines outlined the sector of space where the weapons test would take place. 'Paul, what's the maximum effective range on this new phased laser?'
'One moment, XO.' Paul called up the test firing plan and looked for the weapon's data section.
Kwan frowned, his good nature vanished in an instant. 'Mr. Sinclair, you mean you don't have that information memorized?'
Paul felt a chill that had nothing to do with the temperature on the bridge. Uh oh. I'm 'Mr. Sinclair' now instead of 'Paul. ' 'It's right here, sir. The maximum range is — '
'Mr. Sinclair, if the Captain asks you that question, or anything else pertaining to this test or the weapon, she isn't going to want to wait while you look things up. Is that clear?'
Paul didn't bother looking to Carl for help. He'd screwed this up all by himself and nothing Carl could do would divert attention from that. You'd think I'd know better by now. If Herdez had still been here I'm sure I'd have memorized that stuff already. But she's not, and I knew I was making jg and I just got a little sloppy. Stupid, stupid, stupid. At least I know enough not to try any lame excuses. There's only one thing I can say that won't make things worse. 'Yes, sir.'
Kwan pointed to the data Paul had called up. 'The captain will be up here soon. I'd recommend you start memorizing that real fast.'
'Yes, sir.'
'I'm going down to check with Weapons Division and the contractor personnel. I'll be back in a few minutes.'
'Yes, sir.' Paul watched the XO leave the bridge, then rapped his forehead with one fist. 'Maybe I ought to be busted back to ensign.'
'That'd be one for the record books,' Carl noted. 'Ensign to jg to ensign within a few hours.'
'I can't believe I slacked off like that. Just because Herdez isn't still here doesn't mean I still don't have the same responsibilities. Getting careless could literally cost somebody's life.'
Carl pretended astonishment. 'I never thought of that.'
'Oh, go to hell. Can you keep an eye on things while I speed-memorize this stuff?'
'First you insult me and then you ask for favors. You're a born space warfare officer, Paul. Go to it. I'll scream if something's about to blow up. And don't be too hard on yourself. I've still got a lot to learn, and I've been doing this longer than you.'
Paul ran through the test firing plan quickly, using his Academy-honed last-minute cramming skills to commit as much of it as possible to memory in the shortest possible time. He glanced up occasionally, feeling guilty at being absorbed in the task while he should be attending to his duties as Junior Officer of the Deck, but the bridge remained quiet, nothing breaking the routine of a normal watch.
The bosun mate of the watch brought himself to attention as Captain Gonzalez entered the bridge followed closely by Captain Hayes. 'Captain's on the bridge!'
Paul thumbed off the test firing plan, converting his screen to a maneuvering display, while breathing a silent prayer that everything he'd packed in would remain in his memory until the test was over.
