Chap. 2
Disclaimer the second: I own nothing.
Admiral Plovk stared intensely at Captain Amelia, but the gaze from a man with 13 eyes could sometimes seem worse than it really was meant to be. Add that to the fact the Amelia hadn't slept all night, and it was understandable that she wanted very badly to leave the Admiral's office and steal a few hours of sleep before they had to launch.
"I hear you've had difficulty in finding a full crew complement," the Admiral's deep voice said as he pulled all 13 gray eyes from her down to her composed list of crew members.
"Well I did recieve only 12 hours notice," Amelia defended crisply, "I feel I did quite well for someone on my time constraint."
"I agree, Captain," said Plovk, setting 6 of his eyes back on the feline captain, "But I want all three ships accompanying the royal family to have a full roster. Security is of the utmost importance. Should you run into trouble, I want as many hands as possible working to defend the heads of state."
"Understandable."
"However, with quite a few of our officers either in the middle rim fighting the I.O.A. or helping with cadet training, I feel we may have to resort to extremes in order to fill our need for reliable men."
"Extremes, sir?" Amelia's eyebrows rose. Just how extreme was he willing to get?
"The senior class has a few exemplary students that may fill the positions well."
"Academy cadets? Absolutely not." *Students?* she thought, * Next he'll tell me we'll use the ex-pirates in the prisons to help man the sails.*
Plovk gaped at her. "Why not? They're less than a year behind that new lieutenant you got last week."
"You haven't heard about my sail, have you sir?"
He grinned. "I believe the exact words Captain Raymond used were, 'The vein was visably pulsing on her beautiful forehead'."
Amelia rolled her eyes. "Yes, well, if a GRADUATE can commit such simple errors, what about cadets? No offense sir, but I'm an officer, not a baby-sitter. I don't want to be responsible for a bunch of children in a potentially dangerous area of the etherium."
"They're all legally adults, and they are highly qualified, Captain. I assure you, I'm sending nothing but the best."
"Sir, what about their schooling?" *Ha. I've got him now.*
"Basic training in senior year requires a field run, you know that. THIS will be their field run."
*Damn.* "Quite the highly advanced field run," she pointed out.
"They're highly advanced cadets," he countered, smiling widely at her, flashing all 58 glistening white teeth at her.
Amelia sighed. The extra hands would be nice, but the pressure on her to return the Legacy unscathed would be even greater. *What's the lesser of two evils: potentially losing a young cadet in space or being short-handed in an emergency?*
"You will have two other ships accompanying you, Captain."
"Somehow any ship run by Raymond is not what I'd consider to be a strength to our operation," she noted sarcastically.
"Cannon fodder."
She laughed at this. *Hmm, maybe he IS useful after all. The visual is tempting anyway.* "Sir, his iguana..." she said with mock concern.
"Filthy thing bit me. I'd just as soon see it back to the hell from whence it came."
She shook her head. With the extra help from the two other ships, she may be able to get those kids home safely. But still...could she tolerate the insubordination? The rebelliousness? And what if that attitude got them killed?
"So," Plovk prodded, interrupting Amelia's thoughts, "I should send the cadets up to the Legacy at 10 00 tomorrow, correct?" He gave her a stern look with all eyes, as if daring her to say no to his request.
"Are you ordering me?" she raised her chin. *Please don't...*
"If I have to," he narrowed his eyes at her, knowing full well he had her right where he wanted her. She was never one to outwardly disobey an order from a higher ranking officer.
She sighed, defeated. "Very well. 10 00 sharp."
***************
Jim heard the shuffling of feet against the cold wood floor and the hot breath of four mouths before he heard them speak.
"Hawkins! Hey, Hawkins!"
"Rise and shine over-achiever!"
"Up and at 'em bubble butt!"
"Bubble butt?" Jim Hawkins groaned into his pillow. He turned one sleepy eye toward his roommate, who was the source of the...interesting comment on his posterior. Next to his double-mouthed roommate Xhor was his neighbor from across the hall, Chris, and his frightfully bald roommate, Zek. Zek punched Xhor.
"That was dumb," he said, referring to Xhor's rather pathetic insult.
"What?"
"Bubble butt. That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard."
"YOU'RE the stupidest thing I've ever heard," Xhor shot back. Zek trained his eyes on Xhor, who glared back, a snear on both sets of lips. Both looked ready to pounce on the other.
"Enough guys," Jim said, breaking the death glares being shot between the two would-be combatants. "We don't want to get any demerits," he said, dragging himself out of bed, "Besides, this is supposed to be the start of the best two weeks of our schooling. We finally go on field training, we get away from a bunk watched by drill sergent "killjoy," AND best of all, I've got a ship assignment aboard the Justinian with 'Hot Veronica'."
"I still don't know how you lucked out with that Hawkins," Chris said, plopping none to gracefully on Xhor's bed. "All the guys on the floor hate you even more now," he remarked vaguely, half distracted by his unpure thoughts of the blonde enchantress that was "hot Veronica."
"Even more?" Jim questioned, shrugging into his white uniform pants, "They hated me before?"
"Yeah," Zek said, finally ignoring Xhor, "Remember how your A+ essay inspired Captain Yu to give us that project? The class still hasn't forgiven you for that."
"Neither have I," Xhor quipped, "Do you have any idea how long it took me to do that?"
"Shut up, you did it the night before," Chris spoke to Xhor, then turned back to Jim, who was fastening the buckle on his belt, "But really, how DID you manage to convince them to let you on the Justinian?"
"Simple. I'm top of the class. The teachers love me and are willing to oblige," Jim joked.
"Brown-noser."
"Butt kisser."
Zek made kissing noises. "Oh, sure Corporal Stenton, I'll do your extra credit," he mocked, "Of course I got an 'A' or your exam Captain Dow, I ALWAYS study. I never party and always always study. Kiss kiss."
"Hey, unlike you, my admittance into this place was riding solely on a recommendation from a friend," Jim said, pulling on the shirt to his cadet's uniform, "If I don't perform, she'll probably kill me."
"SHE? Hawkins, you're afraid of a girl?" Chris asked incredulously.
"You've obviously never met her," Jim smiled at his friends, thinking of the Legacy's sharp-tongued captain. *I'd bet my next week worth of rations they wouldn't last ten seconds on Amelia's ship...*
"What makes you say that?"
"You're NOT afraid of her." Jim smirked and stood up, grabbing his bag that he had packed the night prior. "Well boys, it's been fun, but I've got 2 weeks away with the great and benevolent Captain Horvath and 'Hot Veronica.' See ya." He hadn't even made a full footstep out of the door when...
"HAWKINS!" a booming voice resounded through the bunk.
Jim stood at attention, suppressing his frown as Sergeant Olvisby (aka 'killjoy') entered Jim's room.
"Yes sir?" Jim glanced back at the Sergeant, who was glaring at Jim like he was some bug in jar, there to be scrutinized.
"Change in plans for field training. You won't be aboard the Justinian."
"WHAT?!? Why not?" Jim shouted, disbelieving. *But I specifically asked for it...! What about my hot spacer girl?*
"No questions, cadet," Olvisby spat, obviously disgusted that a cadet saw fit to question him, "You will report to the Legacy at 10 00 sharp, is that clear?"
"The what?"
"Are you DEAF, son?" the Sergeant roared, fed up with such a negligent cadet, "Report to the Legacy, 10 00!"
"Yes, sir," Jim grumbled. With that, Olvisby turned on one heel and marched briskly out of the dormitory. The four stood in slience until Xhor broke it with a cough.
"Oooh," his top mouth said, "That hurts. No hot spacer for you buddy."
"That's the least of my problems," Jim groaned. "Remember that friend I was telling you about...?"
*************
When Amelia finally woke the sun was peaking through the windows on the left side of her quarters. She shut her eyes firmly again, blocking out the sunlight and trying to ignore the pounding headache she had. She lay still in her bed, thinking about the voyage that lay before her: two weeks to Nexus VII, followed by three weeks to the Procyan nebula, and two and a half more to bring them all home again. She glanced out the window to see the waking spaceport outside. *Seven and a half weeks until I see it all again,* she sighed to herself. Her heart sank as she thought more on the time span of the journey. Seven and a half weeks away from the spaceport meant seven and a half weeks away from Montressor, and, consequently, seven and a half weeks away from Delbert. Could she hold out that long? Without a doubt--after all, she had been gone longer in the past. *Still,* she thought, *I never had a lover waiting for me when I returned before.* Since they had begun seeing each other, Amelia had surely been separated from her less articulate half; her job required long trips--such was the life of a spacer... A life she loved and Delbert never once asked her to give up. But those times away from him usually never took any longer than three weeks or so. He had even accompanied her on some of the longer ones. The thought of him and the prospect of the empty bed awaiting her each night for 52 lonely nights made her somewhat dispirited; she did love the man after all, and wasn't so unfeeling as to not miss said man over the course of a long, potentially stressful trip.
She sighed and pulled herself out of bed, slipping out of her sleep wear and into her crisp Captain's uniform. However she might feel about leaving, and however her head may be furiously and unforgivingly pounding, duty called, and Captain Amelia of the RLS Legacy ALWAYS answered. She treaded into her stateroom, which was only half-repaired and therefore in a terrible sort of disarray. The contractor had managed to replace the glass windows with their fine golden trim, and had somewhat patched up the nasty hole in the floor. With well over a year, one would think that such repairs would be long finished, but this particular contractor was a bit overzealous in his decorating, and not so much in his construction. Though the gold trim he picked out for the windows was very nice indeed, Amelia hardly found it worth the two months and the near half of her budget he used to pick it out, or the six months he spent trying to properly fit in sturdy windows around it on his dramatically slimmed monetary limit. Some of the ceiling also needed to be re-set, and had been once, until a small disaster on a routine cargo mission revealed that the cracked buttresses that held the ceiling up ALSO needed to be replaced, and thus sent the newly painted ceiling crashing. Thus the work had to be started over, only after convincing the central naval command that they should appropriate the funds for repairs. She sat at her new desk, where a hot cafe lattoid was already awaiting her. *Like clockwork,* she smiled to herself, taking a sip. While the drink was tasty and utterly satisfying at such an early hour, it wasn't exactly the best she had ever had. She smiled wryly to herself as she remembered an earlier day when the lattoids she got were simply heavenly. *Damn that pirate. To think such a vile brute could make such a fabulous coffee.*
A brisk sounding of three short knocks sounded at her door and she looked up. She knew very well that her first mate would be on the other side, a large reptilian man with a quiet demeanor and a deep, thickly accented voice.
"Come," she called to him.
He stepped into the room and stood at attention. "Reporting vor duty, Capton."
Amelia acknowledged this with a short nod. She rose from her chair and stood looking out her ridiculously expensive window, her back to her second-in-command. "Turgevny," she started, "Has the crew arrived yet?"
"Zey are mostly here, Capton. Ve have only to vait vor za cadots and za navigator."
"Good. I trust the ship is in order and will be ready for launch at 11 00?"
"Aye, Capton. Ve vill be vaiting vor your command."
"Very good, Turgevny. Dismissed."
The reptilian turned and left the stateroom without so much as a single noice. Amelia continued to gaze out of her window, all the while thinking of her old first mate. God, how she missed Arrow sometimes. While Turgevny was loyal and a fine officer, there just wasn't the chemistry that she and Arrow had had. He was the finest assistant she could ask for, and the finest friend she could ever want. His death had hit her harder than anyone could possibly imagine; only Delbert knew that behind the gruff exterior, she still badly mourned the loss of one of her oldest and dearest friends. Shaking off the last of the melancholy nostalgia, she turned and left her stateroom, bound for the deck, so that she may inspect the ship before the final members of her crew arrived.
*************
Jim led the small group of cadets down the docking bays of the spaceport. Though they had all been there many times before, none of them had yet seen the Legacy. The others seemed awed at the honor and somewhat nervous about meeting a Captain they had never seen before and boarding a ship they had only heard about...one girl was even chewing nervously on her nails. Jim smiled inwardly at the blonde nail-biter; he knew that Amelia was mostly bark and little bite...*(er...mostly meow and little scratch?)* He smiled at her reassuringly, "Nervous?"
"Yes!" she burst, "Aren't you?"
"Aw, it won't be that bad."
"Won't be that bad!" a tiny voice chimed in from Jim's right pants pocket. Morph came flitting out at that moment and nuzzled Jim's cheek affectionately.
"You brought a pet?" the girl exclaimed, "Are you DAFT? The captain'll kill you!"
"Kill you! Kill you!" Morph piped up.
"Who? Morph? He's harmless. Trust me, it'll be fine."
"Whatever you say hotshot."
"Haven't seen you around much," Jim remarked, "I'm afraid I don't know who you are. I'm..."
"Oh, I know who you are Jim Hawkins."
Jim gaped at her, then led the group around a few crates of Arcturian solar crystals and to the far left. "How do you...?"
"Know you?" she smirked, "Everyone knows the culprit behind Captain Yu's big project."
He blushed. "Oh. Terrific."
"Rumor has it you're quite the student."
"I try," he smiled.
"Sure. So, why are you so darn confident about this voyage, hotshot?"
"Yeah, I wouldn't be, Jim," a short Galaxian spoke from behind him. He leaned in close and looked in all directions, pivoting his head 360 degrees on its axis, to make sure no one was listening. Then he said, "I heard this captain has so many medals that he can't wear them all because together they weigh more than he does."
"That's nothing!" a Canian female broke in, "I heard he was so ruthless that he made his WHOLE crew work 76 hours straight during a solar storm. No food! No sleep!"
"I heard he's been married 5 times and each time his spouse left him because they said he was crazy," a human male mumbled, "The BAD kind of crazy."
Jim laughter was joined only by Morph's giggle. "I'm telling you," Jim said knowingly, "Those are all false rumors." He led the band of students up the ramp to the ship.
"Oh yeah?" the human male challenged, "How do you know?"
"Yeah, Hawkins," the Canian mocked, "What did you do? Write a report on him?"
The Canian and human laughed, but were quickly silenced by the presence of a large reptilian officer.
"I take it zat you are za cadots."
"Yes, sir," Jim spoke up when no answer came from the others.
"Vell, ve are about to get undervay. I vill be giving you posts to attend to, and you are to report to zem immediately."
"Aye, aye, Captain!" the human and Galaxian rang.
"Aye, sir!" the Canian and blonde female saluted.
Jim waited a few moments, then looked at his classmates as he stressed, "Yes, sir, COMMANDER."
Turgevny nodded once and handed each student a sheet of paper with job assignment and bunk position on it as the students looked, shocked, at Jim.
"What have you done?" the human male hissed, "You've just undermined his rank."
"By ze vay," the reptilian spoke again, "I am not your captain. Ze captain is busy at ze moment inspecting the ship."
Jim's smirk to the others was almost blinding as Turgevny walked away. "Who's got the wrong rank now, Calden?" he referred to the human.
"How the hell did you know he wasn't the captain?" the Canian demanded.
"Because SHE'S the captain," he said pointing to the bridge where Amelia was speaking with her helmsman.
"Her? She doesn't look very viscous to me," the Galaxian said.
"She's not viscous --strict, hell yes-- but not cruel. She's won a lot of medals, that's true, but doesn't flaunt that. As for the marriage thing, she's never been married OR crazy."
"Dammit, you really DID do a report on her, didn't you, Hawkins?" the Canian gaped, "You stupid over-achiever."
"No!" Jim said, frustrated, "We've met before. She's a friend of my mom and myself."
The human male took that opportunity to look at his assignment. "Aft gunner's assistant? How do you assist a gunner? 'Oh yeah, sir. You've got a great shot! Take that you dirty pirates! Yeeeaahh! Who's your daddy?' A load of bull."
"Better than mine," the blonde one sighed, "I've got lookout duty. Yea."
"Navigational assistant," the Galaxian smiled at his paper, "Hey, I get to be on the bridge."
"Oh, gunner's assistant ....grrreeaaat job. 'Oh Mr. Gunner-man, how do you do it? Oh, you mean PULL THE TRIGGER?! Gee, never woulda guessed...'."
The Canian smiled widely as she read her assignment, "Engineering assistant. There we go, a REAL job."
"I can just see the credibility coming off of this field training assignment, 'Yeah, Calden is real good at encouraging gunners. He's a great gunner's assistant...' A gunner doesn't need a damn assistant!"
"Well, hotshot here probably got a great job since he know the captain so well," the blonde said, folding her paper and tucking it into her pants pocket, "Go ahead, read it."
"Yeah they probably made you a Lieutenant or something," the Galaxian said glumly.
"Yeah, so you can boss the lowly GUNNER'S ASSISTANT around!"
Jim opened his paper, expecting to see something at the very least as good as Navigational assistant. After all, his voyage to Treasure Planet should have more than proved to Amelia that he was very capable. And she DID recommend him to the academy. "Well ladies and gents," he said, opening his sheet and holding it at eye level, "You are now looking at the Legacy's newest...CABIN BOY!?"
The group of students burst out laughing.
"Cabin boy! Cabin boy!" Morph sung.
"No way," the blonde said, pulling the paper from his hand. She read over it:
James Hawkins
Bunk 17a
Assignment: Cabin Boy
Please report to Capt. Amelia.
"Wow, not bad, hotshot, you get to handle the mop."
"Yeah, don't strain yourself, Hawkins," the Canian laughed, heading toward the bowels of the ship, where the head engineer would likely be.
"Sorry," the Galaxian shrugged, as he happily headed for the bridge.
"See you in the galley, I guess, C.B.," the blonde smirked, leaving to report to her superior.
The human male stared at him a minute. "Wow," he finally said, "Our jobs suck."
"Tell me about it."
"But there is a bright side," the male cocked his head.
"Oh?" Jim asked, petting Morph on the stomach, "And that would be...?"
"YOUR JOB SUCKS MORE THAN MINE!!" he laughed and headed for the gunner's station.
To be continued...
Ch. 3...the Legacy gets underway, Jim gets a better job, and maybe I'll get far enough to meet the royals...depends on how lazy I feel :)
I appreciate the first two review I got...I'm glad you like it and am really thinking about how to incorporate some of your suggestions in to what I already have planned. Until next post...r/r and toodles!
Aloha
J.
Disclaimer the second: I own nothing.
Admiral Plovk stared intensely at Captain Amelia, but the gaze from a man with 13 eyes could sometimes seem worse than it really was meant to be. Add that to the fact the Amelia hadn't slept all night, and it was understandable that she wanted very badly to leave the Admiral's office and steal a few hours of sleep before they had to launch.
"I hear you've had difficulty in finding a full crew complement," the Admiral's deep voice said as he pulled all 13 gray eyes from her down to her composed list of crew members.
"Well I did recieve only 12 hours notice," Amelia defended crisply, "I feel I did quite well for someone on my time constraint."
"I agree, Captain," said Plovk, setting 6 of his eyes back on the feline captain, "But I want all three ships accompanying the royal family to have a full roster. Security is of the utmost importance. Should you run into trouble, I want as many hands as possible working to defend the heads of state."
"Understandable."
"However, with quite a few of our officers either in the middle rim fighting the I.O.A. or helping with cadet training, I feel we may have to resort to extremes in order to fill our need for reliable men."
"Extremes, sir?" Amelia's eyebrows rose. Just how extreme was he willing to get?
"The senior class has a few exemplary students that may fill the positions well."
"Academy cadets? Absolutely not." *Students?* she thought, * Next he'll tell me we'll use the ex-pirates in the prisons to help man the sails.*
Plovk gaped at her. "Why not? They're less than a year behind that new lieutenant you got last week."
"You haven't heard about my sail, have you sir?"
He grinned. "I believe the exact words Captain Raymond used were, 'The vein was visably pulsing on her beautiful forehead'."
Amelia rolled her eyes. "Yes, well, if a GRADUATE can commit such simple errors, what about cadets? No offense sir, but I'm an officer, not a baby-sitter. I don't want to be responsible for a bunch of children in a potentially dangerous area of the etherium."
"They're all legally adults, and they are highly qualified, Captain. I assure you, I'm sending nothing but the best."
"Sir, what about their schooling?" *Ha. I've got him now.*
"Basic training in senior year requires a field run, you know that. THIS will be their field run."
*Damn.* "Quite the highly advanced field run," she pointed out.
"They're highly advanced cadets," he countered, smiling widely at her, flashing all 58 glistening white teeth at her.
Amelia sighed. The extra hands would be nice, but the pressure on her to return the Legacy unscathed would be even greater. *What's the lesser of two evils: potentially losing a young cadet in space or being short-handed in an emergency?*
"You will have two other ships accompanying you, Captain."
"Somehow any ship run by Raymond is not what I'd consider to be a strength to our operation," she noted sarcastically.
"Cannon fodder."
She laughed at this. *Hmm, maybe he IS useful after all. The visual is tempting anyway.* "Sir, his iguana..." she said with mock concern.
"Filthy thing bit me. I'd just as soon see it back to the hell from whence it came."
She shook her head. With the extra help from the two other ships, she may be able to get those kids home safely. But still...could she tolerate the insubordination? The rebelliousness? And what if that attitude got them killed?
"So," Plovk prodded, interrupting Amelia's thoughts, "I should send the cadets up to the Legacy at 10 00 tomorrow, correct?" He gave her a stern look with all eyes, as if daring her to say no to his request.
"Are you ordering me?" she raised her chin. *Please don't...*
"If I have to," he narrowed his eyes at her, knowing full well he had her right where he wanted her. She was never one to outwardly disobey an order from a higher ranking officer.
She sighed, defeated. "Very well. 10 00 sharp."
***************
Jim heard the shuffling of feet against the cold wood floor and the hot breath of four mouths before he heard them speak.
"Hawkins! Hey, Hawkins!"
"Rise and shine over-achiever!"
"Up and at 'em bubble butt!"
"Bubble butt?" Jim Hawkins groaned into his pillow. He turned one sleepy eye toward his roommate, who was the source of the...interesting comment on his posterior. Next to his double-mouthed roommate Xhor was his neighbor from across the hall, Chris, and his frightfully bald roommate, Zek. Zek punched Xhor.
"That was dumb," he said, referring to Xhor's rather pathetic insult.
"What?"
"Bubble butt. That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard."
"YOU'RE the stupidest thing I've ever heard," Xhor shot back. Zek trained his eyes on Xhor, who glared back, a snear on both sets of lips. Both looked ready to pounce on the other.
"Enough guys," Jim said, breaking the death glares being shot between the two would-be combatants. "We don't want to get any demerits," he said, dragging himself out of bed, "Besides, this is supposed to be the start of the best two weeks of our schooling. We finally go on field training, we get away from a bunk watched by drill sergent "killjoy," AND best of all, I've got a ship assignment aboard the Justinian with 'Hot Veronica'."
"I still don't know how you lucked out with that Hawkins," Chris said, plopping none to gracefully on Xhor's bed. "All the guys on the floor hate you even more now," he remarked vaguely, half distracted by his unpure thoughts of the blonde enchantress that was "hot Veronica."
"Even more?" Jim questioned, shrugging into his white uniform pants, "They hated me before?"
"Yeah," Zek said, finally ignoring Xhor, "Remember how your A+ essay inspired Captain Yu to give us that project? The class still hasn't forgiven you for that."
"Neither have I," Xhor quipped, "Do you have any idea how long it took me to do that?"
"Shut up, you did it the night before," Chris spoke to Xhor, then turned back to Jim, who was fastening the buckle on his belt, "But really, how DID you manage to convince them to let you on the Justinian?"
"Simple. I'm top of the class. The teachers love me and are willing to oblige," Jim joked.
"Brown-noser."
"Butt kisser."
Zek made kissing noises. "Oh, sure Corporal Stenton, I'll do your extra credit," he mocked, "Of course I got an 'A' or your exam Captain Dow, I ALWAYS study. I never party and always always study. Kiss kiss."
"Hey, unlike you, my admittance into this place was riding solely on a recommendation from a friend," Jim said, pulling on the shirt to his cadet's uniform, "If I don't perform, she'll probably kill me."
"SHE? Hawkins, you're afraid of a girl?" Chris asked incredulously.
"You've obviously never met her," Jim smiled at his friends, thinking of the Legacy's sharp-tongued captain. *I'd bet my next week worth of rations they wouldn't last ten seconds on Amelia's ship...*
"What makes you say that?"
"You're NOT afraid of her." Jim smirked and stood up, grabbing his bag that he had packed the night prior. "Well boys, it's been fun, but I've got 2 weeks away with the great and benevolent Captain Horvath and 'Hot Veronica.' See ya." He hadn't even made a full footstep out of the door when...
"HAWKINS!" a booming voice resounded through the bunk.
Jim stood at attention, suppressing his frown as Sergeant Olvisby (aka 'killjoy') entered Jim's room.
"Yes sir?" Jim glanced back at the Sergeant, who was glaring at Jim like he was some bug in jar, there to be scrutinized.
"Change in plans for field training. You won't be aboard the Justinian."
"WHAT?!? Why not?" Jim shouted, disbelieving. *But I specifically asked for it...! What about my hot spacer girl?*
"No questions, cadet," Olvisby spat, obviously disgusted that a cadet saw fit to question him, "You will report to the Legacy at 10 00 sharp, is that clear?"
"The what?"
"Are you DEAF, son?" the Sergeant roared, fed up with such a negligent cadet, "Report to the Legacy, 10 00!"
"Yes, sir," Jim grumbled. With that, Olvisby turned on one heel and marched briskly out of the dormitory. The four stood in slience until Xhor broke it with a cough.
"Oooh," his top mouth said, "That hurts. No hot spacer for you buddy."
"That's the least of my problems," Jim groaned. "Remember that friend I was telling you about...?"
*************
When Amelia finally woke the sun was peaking through the windows on the left side of her quarters. She shut her eyes firmly again, blocking out the sunlight and trying to ignore the pounding headache she had. She lay still in her bed, thinking about the voyage that lay before her: two weeks to Nexus VII, followed by three weeks to the Procyan nebula, and two and a half more to bring them all home again. She glanced out the window to see the waking spaceport outside. *Seven and a half weeks until I see it all again,* she sighed to herself. Her heart sank as she thought more on the time span of the journey. Seven and a half weeks away from the spaceport meant seven and a half weeks away from Montressor, and, consequently, seven and a half weeks away from Delbert. Could she hold out that long? Without a doubt--after all, she had been gone longer in the past. *Still,* she thought, *I never had a lover waiting for me when I returned before.* Since they had begun seeing each other, Amelia had surely been separated from her less articulate half; her job required long trips--such was the life of a spacer... A life she loved and Delbert never once asked her to give up. But those times away from him usually never took any longer than three weeks or so. He had even accompanied her on some of the longer ones. The thought of him and the prospect of the empty bed awaiting her each night for 52 lonely nights made her somewhat dispirited; she did love the man after all, and wasn't so unfeeling as to not miss said man over the course of a long, potentially stressful trip.
She sighed and pulled herself out of bed, slipping out of her sleep wear and into her crisp Captain's uniform. However she might feel about leaving, and however her head may be furiously and unforgivingly pounding, duty called, and Captain Amelia of the RLS Legacy ALWAYS answered. She treaded into her stateroom, which was only half-repaired and therefore in a terrible sort of disarray. The contractor had managed to replace the glass windows with their fine golden trim, and had somewhat patched up the nasty hole in the floor. With well over a year, one would think that such repairs would be long finished, but this particular contractor was a bit overzealous in his decorating, and not so much in his construction. Though the gold trim he picked out for the windows was very nice indeed, Amelia hardly found it worth the two months and the near half of her budget he used to pick it out, or the six months he spent trying to properly fit in sturdy windows around it on his dramatically slimmed monetary limit. Some of the ceiling also needed to be re-set, and had been once, until a small disaster on a routine cargo mission revealed that the cracked buttresses that held the ceiling up ALSO needed to be replaced, and thus sent the newly painted ceiling crashing. Thus the work had to be started over, only after convincing the central naval command that they should appropriate the funds for repairs. She sat at her new desk, where a hot cafe lattoid was already awaiting her. *Like clockwork,* she smiled to herself, taking a sip. While the drink was tasty and utterly satisfying at such an early hour, it wasn't exactly the best she had ever had. She smiled wryly to herself as she remembered an earlier day when the lattoids she got were simply heavenly. *Damn that pirate. To think such a vile brute could make such a fabulous coffee.*
A brisk sounding of three short knocks sounded at her door and she looked up. She knew very well that her first mate would be on the other side, a large reptilian man with a quiet demeanor and a deep, thickly accented voice.
"Come," she called to him.
He stepped into the room and stood at attention. "Reporting vor duty, Capton."
Amelia acknowledged this with a short nod. She rose from her chair and stood looking out her ridiculously expensive window, her back to her second-in-command. "Turgevny," she started, "Has the crew arrived yet?"
"Zey are mostly here, Capton. Ve have only to vait vor za cadots and za navigator."
"Good. I trust the ship is in order and will be ready for launch at 11 00?"
"Aye, Capton. Ve vill be vaiting vor your command."
"Very good, Turgevny. Dismissed."
The reptilian turned and left the stateroom without so much as a single noice. Amelia continued to gaze out of her window, all the while thinking of her old first mate. God, how she missed Arrow sometimes. While Turgevny was loyal and a fine officer, there just wasn't the chemistry that she and Arrow had had. He was the finest assistant she could ask for, and the finest friend she could ever want. His death had hit her harder than anyone could possibly imagine; only Delbert knew that behind the gruff exterior, she still badly mourned the loss of one of her oldest and dearest friends. Shaking off the last of the melancholy nostalgia, she turned and left her stateroom, bound for the deck, so that she may inspect the ship before the final members of her crew arrived.
*************
Jim led the small group of cadets down the docking bays of the spaceport. Though they had all been there many times before, none of them had yet seen the Legacy. The others seemed awed at the honor and somewhat nervous about meeting a Captain they had never seen before and boarding a ship they had only heard about...one girl was even chewing nervously on her nails. Jim smiled inwardly at the blonde nail-biter; he knew that Amelia was mostly bark and little bite...*(er...mostly meow and little scratch?)* He smiled at her reassuringly, "Nervous?"
"Yes!" she burst, "Aren't you?"
"Aw, it won't be that bad."
"Won't be that bad!" a tiny voice chimed in from Jim's right pants pocket. Morph came flitting out at that moment and nuzzled Jim's cheek affectionately.
"You brought a pet?" the girl exclaimed, "Are you DAFT? The captain'll kill you!"
"Kill you! Kill you!" Morph piped up.
"Who? Morph? He's harmless. Trust me, it'll be fine."
"Whatever you say hotshot."
"Haven't seen you around much," Jim remarked, "I'm afraid I don't know who you are. I'm..."
"Oh, I know who you are Jim Hawkins."
Jim gaped at her, then led the group around a few crates of Arcturian solar crystals and to the far left. "How do you...?"
"Know you?" she smirked, "Everyone knows the culprit behind Captain Yu's big project."
He blushed. "Oh. Terrific."
"Rumor has it you're quite the student."
"I try," he smiled.
"Sure. So, why are you so darn confident about this voyage, hotshot?"
"Yeah, I wouldn't be, Jim," a short Galaxian spoke from behind him. He leaned in close and looked in all directions, pivoting his head 360 degrees on its axis, to make sure no one was listening. Then he said, "I heard this captain has so many medals that he can't wear them all because together they weigh more than he does."
"That's nothing!" a Canian female broke in, "I heard he was so ruthless that he made his WHOLE crew work 76 hours straight during a solar storm. No food! No sleep!"
"I heard he's been married 5 times and each time his spouse left him because they said he was crazy," a human male mumbled, "The BAD kind of crazy."
Jim laughter was joined only by Morph's giggle. "I'm telling you," Jim said knowingly, "Those are all false rumors." He led the band of students up the ramp to the ship.
"Oh yeah?" the human male challenged, "How do you know?"
"Yeah, Hawkins," the Canian mocked, "What did you do? Write a report on him?"
The Canian and human laughed, but were quickly silenced by the presence of a large reptilian officer.
"I take it zat you are za cadots."
"Yes, sir," Jim spoke up when no answer came from the others.
"Vell, ve are about to get undervay. I vill be giving you posts to attend to, and you are to report to zem immediately."
"Aye, aye, Captain!" the human and Galaxian rang.
"Aye, sir!" the Canian and blonde female saluted.
Jim waited a few moments, then looked at his classmates as he stressed, "Yes, sir, COMMANDER."
Turgevny nodded once and handed each student a sheet of paper with job assignment and bunk position on it as the students looked, shocked, at Jim.
"What have you done?" the human male hissed, "You've just undermined his rank."
"By ze vay," the reptilian spoke again, "I am not your captain. Ze captain is busy at ze moment inspecting the ship."
Jim's smirk to the others was almost blinding as Turgevny walked away. "Who's got the wrong rank now, Calden?" he referred to the human.
"How the hell did you know he wasn't the captain?" the Canian demanded.
"Because SHE'S the captain," he said pointing to the bridge where Amelia was speaking with her helmsman.
"Her? She doesn't look very viscous to me," the Galaxian said.
"She's not viscous --strict, hell yes-- but not cruel. She's won a lot of medals, that's true, but doesn't flaunt that. As for the marriage thing, she's never been married OR crazy."
"Dammit, you really DID do a report on her, didn't you, Hawkins?" the Canian gaped, "You stupid over-achiever."
"No!" Jim said, frustrated, "We've met before. She's a friend of my mom and myself."
The human male took that opportunity to look at his assignment. "Aft gunner's assistant? How do you assist a gunner? 'Oh yeah, sir. You've got a great shot! Take that you dirty pirates! Yeeeaahh! Who's your daddy?' A load of bull."
"Better than mine," the blonde one sighed, "I've got lookout duty. Yea."
"Navigational assistant," the Galaxian smiled at his paper, "Hey, I get to be on the bridge."
"Oh, gunner's assistant ....grrreeaaat job. 'Oh Mr. Gunner-man, how do you do it? Oh, you mean PULL THE TRIGGER?! Gee, never woulda guessed...'."
The Canian smiled widely as she read her assignment, "Engineering assistant. There we go, a REAL job."
"I can just see the credibility coming off of this field training assignment, 'Yeah, Calden is real good at encouraging gunners. He's a great gunner's assistant...' A gunner doesn't need a damn assistant!"
"Well, hotshot here probably got a great job since he know the captain so well," the blonde said, folding her paper and tucking it into her pants pocket, "Go ahead, read it."
"Yeah they probably made you a Lieutenant or something," the Galaxian said glumly.
"Yeah, so you can boss the lowly GUNNER'S ASSISTANT around!"
Jim opened his paper, expecting to see something at the very least as good as Navigational assistant. After all, his voyage to Treasure Planet should have more than proved to Amelia that he was very capable. And she DID recommend him to the academy. "Well ladies and gents," he said, opening his sheet and holding it at eye level, "You are now looking at the Legacy's newest...CABIN BOY!?"
The group of students burst out laughing.
"Cabin boy! Cabin boy!" Morph sung.
"No way," the blonde said, pulling the paper from his hand. She read over it:
James Hawkins
Bunk 17a
Assignment: Cabin Boy
Please report to Capt. Amelia.
"Wow, not bad, hotshot, you get to handle the mop."
"Yeah, don't strain yourself, Hawkins," the Canian laughed, heading toward the bowels of the ship, where the head engineer would likely be.
"Sorry," the Galaxian shrugged, as he happily headed for the bridge.
"See you in the galley, I guess, C.B.," the blonde smirked, leaving to report to her superior.
The human male stared at him a minute. "Wow," he finally said, "Our jobs suck."
"Tell me about it."
"But there is a bright side," the male cocked his head.
"Oh?" Jim asked, petting Morph on the stomach, "And that would be...?"
"YOUR JOB SUCKS MORE THAN MINE!!" he laughed and headed for the gunner's station.
To be continued...
Ch. 3...the Legacy gets underway, Jim gets a better job, and maybe I'll get far enough to meet the royals...depends on how lazy I feel :)
I appreciate the first two review I got...I'm glad you like it and am really thinking about how to incorporate some of your suggestions in to what I already have planned. Until next post...r/r and toodles!
Aloha
J.
