Culture Shock - 5. Basking the the sun's rays at heliopause

While Gen-tril-pah'o and Ol-ya-trin spent the rest of the day playing kfara, Robbie Blake was dealing with issues of his own. Captain Volod had called and informed him that he had a ship's matter to discuss with him. Right after he finished talking with the Captain over the ship's intercom system, Robbie stowed his mail reader and decided to take a quick shower before his meeting in the Captain's office.

Robbie had visited the Captain in his office before, but he had never been called to discuss “a matter” with him before. After knocking and being shown in immediately, Robbie stood quietly waiting while the Captain finished reading the report he had in his hand. The Captain added a note to the bottom of the report, pressed is thumb on the biometric id pad and handed the data screen over to the aide hovering around the Captain's chair.

Once the aide left the office and the Captain was alone Robbie, a small sigh escaped the Captain's mouth. He reached his arms above his head and stretched until a muffled crack echoed lightly through the office. Robbie shifted a tiny bit as his nerves began to get the bets of him. “Please, have a seat,” the Captain said to Robbie

The Captain smiled at Robbie and broached the subject that caused him to call for Robbie. “Lieutenant Blake, I understand that you're here in an official capacity only to ensure the safety of the scientists once we arrive at Hester-b and we actually make planet fall.” The Captain watched Robbie as nodded, confusion plainly written on his face. To avoid any further confusion the Captain continued “We have been experiencing problems here on board the Argos and I was hoping that you might be able to assist in some small way.” The Captain looked hopefully at Robbie.

Robbie tried to hide his confusion and trepidation as he nodded. “I would be more than happy to assist you but I'm not sure what I can do for you Captain.”

The Captain rummaged through the pile of report tablets on his desk until he found the one he was looking for. He pressed his thumb on the id pad and slide it across his desk to Robbie. Robbie picked up the pad and begin to skim through the words that glared up at him. His brow furrowed, causing wrinkles to appear around his eyes.

“I'm not sure what you'd like me to do about this Sir. I'm not part of the Investigations Division”

“I don't be a fool Blake, and don't ever assume that I am either. I know that you flew through the Academy and received your commission in a matter of months. Would it surprise you to know that I attended the Academy, albeit briefly?”

“You did sir?”

“Yes, and after three years I was a whole twenty percent through the workload. That's not to say that I'm a slouch when it comes to things like handling weapons and counting out the number of meals I would need for a campaign, but when it comes to anything vaguely resembling tact or subtlety I just couldn't get it through my thick skull.

“My family had a bit of money to pay for my college education but the military paid for that while I tried to figure out if I wanted to be military in order to have a chance to make the world a better place or if I wanted the military as a means to an end, allowing me to fly space ships. In the end, common sense and a D minus average were enough to get me to leave the navy and use my education funds as a way to get into the interplanetary spacing business. Withing a few years I had bought my own ship, equipped her as best as I could and a decade later I'm Captain of the Argos on her maiden voyage into unknown reagions.

“And now something comes up that leaves me speechless. Someone on my ship has been stealing from the storage room on Deck C. Taking a significant volume of goods actually. I was hoping that you would be able to find the time to go over that proposal and let me know what your impressions are on the matter?”

Robbie sat up a bit straighter in the seat and realized that perhaps he could help. In a span of less than a second, Robbie transformed from the hesitant boy to the precise Marine that was awarded this command upon graduation from the Academy. He turned his full attention to the report and began a more thorough reading.

Captain Volod noticed the change come over Robbie and his left eyebrow crept up fractionally in surprise. The man was not awarded command of the Argos because of his good looks, he was an excellent judge of character and his apparent sleepy gaze was a carefully crafted artifice. The corners of his mouth creased slightly and those people that were not intimately understanding of Anton Volod would have taken the small sign of amusement as disdain. He cleared his throat after observing Robbie for five minutes.

Robbie tore his eyes away from the reading tablet and blinked a bit in surprise. As he read through the report he was already working on the problem. He gave the Captain one of his charming smiles and gave his thoughts. “Well, preliminarily I would say that nothing is missing.”

The Captain's eyebrows shot up in complete surprise. “How do you come to this conclusion after such a brief reading?”

“Actually, Sir, I have read through the report a couple of times. I've always been a fast reader, books were a favourite escape of mine growing up. I have noticed a few inconsistencies in the report.”

The Captain watched the man across his desk as he tried to make sense of those comments. “Ok, so you've read through a report that I've be reading and re-reading for the past 18 hours and there are inconsistencies?”

“Yes Sir, could I access your computer terminal for a moment?”

The corners of the Captain's mouth began to tug upwards as Robbie flashed his an ingenuous smile. “Of course. Please, sit here and use my terminal. I take it you would like my access to the system?” Captain Volod stood up and made his way around the desk, freeing up his own chair for Robbie to use.

Robbie circled around the desk and sat down. He smiled, “Not really necessary Captain, my own position of Security would give me the same access but it would save time not having to log you out and me in.” Robbie's fingers flew over the keys as report after report and file after file were opened and some were closed again.

The Captain grunted as he watched Robbie's deftness with the computer system that he hated so much. He recognized some of the files that Robbie scanned through and some of them made no sense. Instead of asking why the initial fuel consumption reports were important enough to merit being printed off as hard copy, the Captain sat back and watched Robbie with hooded eyes.

Robbie stood up, apparently satisfied, and retrieved the stack of print-outs from the printer sitting on the shelf beside the Captain's desk. Robbie made his way around the desk and stood beside the chair that the Captain was sitting in.

As Robbie spread the various documents across the desk, the Captain stood up and watched in fascination as Robbie pointed to first one document and then another as he began. “When you said that someone was stealing from storage room number two and I saw the amount involved I was immediately suspicious. That is in the lower port side of the ship, the last one to be loaded. It's also right down the hall from the Marine's quarters. Now, I'm not saying that Marines never sleep, but if the sheer volume of goods were stolen from that close to our bunks, someone would have noticed it. I was also trying to figure out who would have felt the need to remove something like a scanning electron microscope out here in the middle of nowhere. That's a pretty damned big piece of electronics that would have a very limited market.”

Robbie smiled as he went on “That's when I started to form an idea that was confirmed when I accessed some files and details of the flight so far. I may not understand how the Argos generates the energy needed to move itself around, and there's no way I could repair the damned thing but I DO know ballistics. The hardest force needed to start a controlled trajectory is the initial push, and that can be calculated pretty easily based on mass.

“You've commented on how we've used about one half of one percent less fuel than was originally calculated and you were proud of the efficiency you crew was able to tune the Argos. While that's not a large number it is significant, the ship builder's craft today is so precise it is telling. I hate to have to break the bad news but the reason that we've used less fuel is because the mass of the ship is approximately three and a half tonnes less than it should have been. I have no concrete proof, but I don't think that storage room number two was emptied out by thieves. I think it was never filled at dry-dock before we set out. It looks to me as if our entire compliment of back-up scientific recording and detection equipment is probably still sitting on a dock somewhere waiting for orders to move it to its final destination.”

The Captain checked the figures and numbers over, switching he attention between the reports spread across his desk. After some quick mental calculations he looked at Robbie out of the corner of his eyes before standing up and turning to face him. The Captain stared at Robbie for several minutes, trying to discern any return of the hesitant young man. Robbie-the-Marine-officer met his gaze calmly and confidently.

With a shake of his head, the Captain sat down on the edge of his desk, shifting the papers around a bit. “Mister Blake, I am truly impressed. I have gone over that report, even to the point of losing sleep over it. There is no way I ever imagined that the equipment missing had been missing from the very start of the voyage. I'm at a loss as to how you figured that out based on some off handed comments I have made once or twice but I can tell you that you have done something that very few have managed to do.”

The smile of pride that began to appear on Robbie's face disappeared immediately and the hesitant Robbie-the-young-man started to return. The Captain did not miss the rapid change that came of the man standing beside him. “You have managed to surprise me. Actually I think it might be more accurate to say you've shocked the hell out of me. I don't know what's gone into your make-up but I just watched you change.

“I have thought to myself that you are awfully young and inexperienced for this important of a mission. I have read your file of course, I have to know everything about the crew on my ship. But you have surprised me. At first I thought that the hesitant and fearful young man that was assigned as my security officer was yet another political plant. Now I don't think that any more.”

Robbie smiled shyly, wondering what the Captain was getting at. “Sir, I am sure that my posting here was a political move. I know that the project was starting to lose public support and that the financial plug was soon going to be pulled. But with the Hero of the Hour assigned to the crew, public support rose to such levels that politicians were able to allocate even more funding to get the ship built faster. I am just trying to do my best and I hope that I don't disappoint you or anyone else.”

While Robbie didn't shift from foot to foot thanks to his Marine training, he did look highly uncomfortable. The Captain watched him for a few more seconds before he guffawed loud enough to have the peals of laughter echo off of the walls of the office, startling Robbie. “Mister Blake, I have never seen anyone's mind process data as quickly as you did. I've also never encountered anyone able to read through such a long report and be able to understand its import like you have just done, and you claim to have read it several times.”

Robbie opened his mouth to protest and the Captain held his hand up to prevent the useless insistence. “I am quite confident that you have read the report over at least three times. The person that wrote the report loves to use convoluted sentences and rambles around the point so often that I am considering oral reports from now on.”

The Captain smiled as Robbie's stance changed once again to one of obvious discomfort. The Captain thought to himself that Robbie does not like being complimented because he's not used to receiving them. He shook his head sadly at that thought.

“I can assure you that I will put in a notice of commendation to your personal file. I don't know if that will have any bearing on your military file but it sure as hell will help you if you ever want to leave the service and take up any position in the civilian world. I will have to try and confirm your analysis but I have no doubt in my mind that you have solved in less than thirty minutes what has been giving me a migraine for the past day!”

Robbie allowed a small smile of nervous satisfaction to crinkle his mouth. “Thank you Sir, it is nice to know that someone trusts in my abilities. I know that the entire senior staff of the Argos, yourself included, have a very low opinion if me. I can't blame anyone, I realize that I'm very young for such a position of authority. My position here is one of political expediency after all.”

The Captain pushed himself off of the edge of his desk with such force that the heavy desk managed to scoot backwards away from the explosion of anger. “Now you see here Mister Blake, I may have had some doubts but after this performance I no longer harbour any! I will also see to it that everyone on my crew understands exactly how proficient you are at analysis and from this point onwards you will receive the full level of respect you deserve, both outwardly and in the minds of everyone I meet. If I have to beat it into some of the denser minds you can be assured that I will!”

Robbie took a tiny step backwards at the vehemence of the Captain's outburst. Suddenly his mouth was very dry. Captain Volod's temper was a well known fact, the reason why his crew turnover is so high.

The Captain realized that his mis-directed anger had a huge impact on the young man standing in front of himself. He forced a warm smile on his face as he stepped forward and put a comforting hand on Robbie's shoulder. “I didn't mean to direct that at you, but you can be well assured that you have most certainly earned my respect and I will make sure that everyone on this ship knows this before this duty shift is over.”

Robbie relaxed cautiously as the Captain finished talking. He allowed the small smile to creep back on his face as he said “Thank you Sir. I always try to do my best, no matter what I'm doing. My fear is that it will never be enough.”

Captain Volod startled Robbie again as he barked out a loud burst of laughter. “I only wish that my crew's best even approached the level of competence your best aspires to! I think that after this, I will be consulting you on a much broader range of topics. I don't know if you will ever see any of it because you're military, but I'm also going to put a financial bonus into your file and I'm going to push through a ship-board promotion. I know that won't change your military rank but your position on this ship has just improved greatly.”

"Sir, I don't know what to say about this.”

“You'll say thank you and then get out of my office so that I can start knocking heads. The stores master should have noticed this empty storage hold before now. And, Mister Blake, if you have the time I would like to meet with you for a few minutes at the end of each daily duty shift to go over the summary reports. Just in case there are any more of these inconsistencies you may notice.”

Robbie clicked his heal together, stood taller and smiled at the Captain before turning to leave.

[The following is an excerpt from a report by Chief Special Adviser to Captain Volod of the Argos, Robert Blake.]

...Crew morale seems to be high in anticipation of finally arriving in high orbit around Hester-b. We've spent the last 11 days just inside the heliopause of Hester-b's system. Nothing has been detected by any of the ship-board instruments and the few probes we've sent toward the planet detect nothing before their weak transmitters pass out of range and we lose contact. The scientific compliment seems to be running on nerves, adrenaline and caffeine. Double duty shifts are common now and the previously sedentary crew members now are showing a level of excitement consistent with small children before their birthday party. A rivalry has appeared between different science teams with a rather shocking prize having been put on the block. The first team to detect even the hint of a reason for the obscure lack of radiation from Hester-b will be able to select the first two people for the primary landing party. This announcement has galvanized the entire science contingent into relentless study of the data streaming in from a variety of sources. I am starting to worry that the effect this constant high-level of study, with no regard for any form of rest or relaxation, will start to manifest itself in negative psychological outbursts and possibly even schizoid breaks. When I discussed this with Dr McCraken I was awarded with howls of laughter and an assurance that scientists work best under these conditions. I am positive that I will never understand scientists and that I also prefer the dependability of a Marine discipline and routine. In spite of Dr McCraken's assurances, I will continue to watch for potential outbursts and I have already ordered my Marines to begin circulating through the ship armed with concealed non-lethal stun guns with the excuse of exercise....