Still Paying For It
…
The day finally came when the Grand Sails was due to return to Skyrider Port, and Link was relieved that his incarceration with Line was about to end. That morning, he stole away to the showers so that he could make himself a little more presentable. There, he met Lieutenant Greg and was asked to be informed when it arrived. Link offered to escort him to the ship instead, since he and Line would be reporting for duty the moment it docked. He agreed, and they met later after lunch.
They walked the promenade built along the Skyrider docks, mostly in silence. Greg carried a large duffel bag on one shoulder, filled with spare clothing and whatever personal effects he felt necessary to bring along. This caused the bag to make a clanking sound as he walked. Link and Line, being already stationed to the ship, only carried some extra clothes each had rolled into a blanket. Link also had a bundle of letters tucked in the body of his tunic, mail which had been sent to Captain Alfonzo from some of the companies the Grand Sails had previous dealings with. He was not sure what to think of them; there were plenty of people across the kingdom that liked and hated Alfonzo. When he considered that Alfonzo was a very hard man to approach, he guessed them to be complaints.
Greg readjusted the duffel bag on his shoulder. "Does he always dock so far from the office?" he asked aloud.
"No, this is actually kinda new," Line replied. He leaned forward to look past Greg to Link. "Think he's still mad at us?"
Link shrugged. "If he is, he's really doing more to torture Lieutenant Greg than us," he answered. Then he shook his head. "No, I don't think he did it on purpose."
"You sure?" Line asked as his eyes wandered the open air. "Because there's a lot of space he could've used instead of docking on the edge of the public area."
"If you guys don't mind me asking," Greg said, "what did you do to get yourselves assigned to shore duty for three months?"
"We attacked this jerkface of an engineer's mate on deck," Line replied. "Personally, I thought it was a great way to end movie night; the movie wasn't all that good."
"You attacked a crewmate?" Greg asked.
"He showed pictures of us wearing dresses," Line said.
"After we shaved and polished his head," Link pointed out.
"After he took our uniforms and made us wear the dresses," Line argued. Greg, about to ask why they had been wearing dresses, clapped his mouth shut.
"After you blabbed about what he did while he was drunk," Link replied, his voice getting a little agitated.
"The guy was calling himself 'Guay-face the Superbeer'!" Line declared in his defense. "How do you not mention that for the rest of your life!?"
"Drunk?" Greg asked Link.
"From what we heard," Link replied, "the guy wasn't sober throughout the whole festival."
Greg raised his eyebrows. "Not the Founding Festival," he said.
"Yep," Link said with a nod.
"He was really kinda pathetic," Line said. "I mean, you could call us brats, but this guy bitched and whined more than both of us combined."
Link held up a hand to point. "There's the Grand Sails," he said.
Greg let out a whistle as his eyes wandered over the white-clad hull. "A beauty," he commented. "I think I'm gonna enjoy this assignment."
"If you can stand to put up with us," Line added.
"Speak for yourself, Line," Link told him as they stepped onto the gangplank.
All three looked forward to find Captain Alfonzo standing at the end of the gangplank. Link and Line shrunk back, almost hiding behind Greg. From the scowl on his face, they gathered that whatever discussion they were about to have, they were not going to like it.
Alfonzo looked up from the clipboard and glared at Greg, who jerked to a stop short of stepping onto the ship. "Who the hell are you?" Alfonzo asked.
Greg set his bag down on the gangplank and offered a salute. "Lieutenant Greg, sir," he answered. When Alfonzo continued to give him a confused glare. "Uh… your-your replacement second-in-command?"
"Oh," Alfonzo uttered as he looked down at the gangplank. "All right, Greg. Take your shit and claim a cabin. C'mon up to my cabin once you're settled in." He glanced up to find Greg still saluting him. He gave a salute and said, "Welcome aboard."
"Thank you, sir," Greg said as he dropped his salute. He picked up his bag and stepped onto the deck. He gave the boys a quick glance before hustling to the hatch.
Alfonzo eyed the boys for a moment. "Airman Line, we've got a week's worth of dirty deck for you to swab. I expect it to shine in two days."
"Oh, man…" Line groaned as he walked past Alfonzo. "Aye aye, Captain."
"Airman Link, you're going to go through our inventory and double-check that everything is accounted for," Alfonzo said. "And when I say everything, I mean everything in use as well. Fire equipment, spare parts, the surgeon's crap, everything." He pulled five pages' worth of inventory list from the clipboard and gave them to Link. "And let me make one more thing clear," he added, pointing the blunt end of a pen at Link. "If you ever start a fight with a crewmate again, I'm gonna make sure you're stuck on a junk hauling fertilizer for the rest of your sailing career. Understood, boy?"
Link gulped and nodded. "Yes, sir."
"Get outta my sight."