The Apprentice Starship Engineer: Book One The Link (19 page)

She slid the pad over to me. “Start.”

The screen lit up, and I took off. I’m a very fast reader. The only thing I worried about was making stupid mistakes. I handed her the pad back after one hour and twenty minutes.

She looked at me and smiled, then tapped the screen. It displayed one hundred and twenty-seven correct. I need a ninety to pass. “Very good. Would you like to take a break or continue?”

“I’m good. Let’s do it.”

She passed me back the pad. “Start,” she said.

The only way I can describe it is it’s a runner’s trance. After an hour and a half, I slid the last test to her. She tapped it. The screen displayed one hundred and fifteen correct. I was shocked. How I could have missed ten questions? What the hell?

“Well, congratulations. You now will be getting journeyman pay, and provided another journeyman is on ship, you may ship out as a journeyman. Very good, Drake. This will look good on your record as an officer with journeyman training.” She held out her hand. “And I’ll toss anyone into the brig who says you cheated. “ I shook her hand. “Now go get drunk with your friends. Have a drink for me.” She walked out the door.

* * * *

Jack was alone in the shop when I arrived. He looked up and sighed. “Finished so soon? I told her you’d finish fast. Never seen or heard of anyone finishing those test so quickly.” He smiled. “So, how did it go? Are you getting journeyman pay now?”

“Yeah, I just got a pay raise. Jack, the captain proctored the test, and said she wanted to make sure I didn’t cheat.”

“No shit? The captain? Wow.” Jack got up, went over to his cabinet, pulled out his bottle and poured two cups. He handed me one. “To Drake, who’s costing the company way more than he’s worth.” He took a sip of his drink. I took a small one with him. He poured another cup when Kathy entered the shop. He handed her the cup. “Drake, our newest fourth-year apprentice,” he said. As he hoisted his glass, Kathy shook her head and joined us.

“Hey, Kathy, maybe tonight you and Jack will sleep on my couch,” I said with a laugh.

“In your dreams, Drake. I’ll sleep on the floor of my office rather than that little couch of yours.” Jack filled my cup. “So I heard you want to be an officer in fleet. Best of luck to you. Margret, you should record this. I was a grade-nine enlisted man for ten years. I broke four junior officers and trained seven good ones. You’ll be good so listen up. I’ll tell you stuff that will save your ass, boy.” He staggered back to his desk. “First thing, boy, officers and enlisted aren’t friends. Never cross the line. You can respect them, but you’ll never be their friends. Tell them jokes, yell at them, curse them and praise them, but never ever complain in front of them. You got that? Don’t ever complain in front of an enlisted man. The four officers I broke complained in front of me about their superiors, among other things. I broke them for that. If you give someone responsibility, you support them, and never let people you’re in charge of fight each other.” He leaned back, obviously plastered, but I listened and told Margret to record everything. Jack would never be so open when sober.

Kathy laughed. “Are you going to give him you’re training in leading people when you’re drunk, Jack?” She crossed the room and poured herself more.

Jack laughed. “Hell, why not? He’s the smartest person I’ve ever met. Drake, I’ll tell you war stories that’ll keep you from making the worst mistakes.” He started to sing.

I listened to Jack as he told his stories. Sometimes I stopped him and asked questions or we’d laugh.

“Jack, I wouldn’t have done that. Why did he do it?”

Jack laughed. “Biggest mistake you can make is to assume someone else is going to do something because that’s what you’d do. We’re different. We each respond to the same circumstances differently. You can never know how someone else will react. Crap, you hardly know how you’ll react. Another big mistake is to think you can tell what someone else is thinking or if their honest or liars by looking at them. Shit, if you want to know what someone is thinking, you’d better ask them. If you want to know if someone is a liar, check their story. You aren’t a mystic. You can’t read minds. Ask, look and investigate them. You’ll know. The proof about someone is in their actions, not in words or expressions.” Jack was silent for a while. “So many times I wish they’d asked.”

Jack looked over at Kathy. She was snoring. Her head leaned over to the side. He got up and staggered over to her.

“Give me a hand, Drake. We have to get this fine woman to her room,” he said.

I staggered to an upright position and almost fell on top Kathy. We each grabbed an arm and hoisted her to a standing position. She muttered a complaint as we steered her through the office door. With great concentration and nerves of steel, Jack managed to keep us on course, and after several wrong turns, we miraculously arrived at her apartment. I refused to come in, and left Jack and Kathy at her door.

I have no idea how I managed to get home or why I slept on my bathroom floor. I just wanted to die. Margret blasted out an alarm. I could swear my head split in half. Staggering, I almost made it to the stool to heave. After pulling off my clothes, I climbed into the shower and came to life.

On my way to breakfast, Margret reminded me I had an appointment with Dr. Weston after lunch. She also told me the best way to get over a hangover was to drink lots of water, take vitamins and eat lightly, and no sugar.

Jack looked like I felt. Kathy laughed at him, telling him to go back to bed. Nothing was so important that it couldn’t wait. She handed me her hangover medicine, which I thanked her for and drank right away. I spent the morning in the shop, mostly not doing anything. I grabbed a sandwich at a cafeteria and got to my appointment with doc early.

Dr. Weston shook his head. “Drake, why are you doing this? Just to get a girl back? Be honest.”

“I’m going to join fleet and go to officer’s school. I want to be more than ready. I’m good mentally, but not physically.”

He looked me up and down. “The only reason I’ll help is I know how hard a worker you are, and it’ll be hard work. So I’ll start you out with a combination of steroids and enzymes to make your body grow. To get the results you want you’ll have to train, and train hard. Every morning and night you’ll need to take a protein mix. Four scoops a day mixed with a liter of water. It tastes like shit. Choke it down, and I don’t want to hear any whining about it. You can get it at the ship stores.” He sent a note to Margret. “Meet me at the gym at six in the morning and at five at night. Miss one time and I’m done with you, okay?” I nodded. “I’ll be right back.”

Crap, what had I gotten myself into? I expected to get a shot and sent on my way. Now I had to go to the gym twice a day with the maniac doctor.

He returned and gave me a shot. “You might experience growing pains and discomfort at night. Tough shit. See you in the morning, kid.”

Brice was his usual happy self. He looked at the note and went over to his console. After a few minutes, he came to the counter with a large bag. “So bulking up, macho man, huh? I’ve thought of doing that, but too much trouble. Doing it for a girl?”

“No, not me. Nothing as cool as that. I’m going to enter the fleet officer’s training and I don’t want to wash out.”

“Good god, why? You have, what, a year left of your apprenticeship? My brother tried to make it in officer’s school. He got the shit kicked out of him. You’ll need to fight to make it. They make you fight.”

“Yeah, so I heard. I have to get self-defense training. I have a year. I’ll be ready.”

“Hmm, yeah, so what you need is to fight not spar or shadow box. You need to fight, kick, scratch, punch and bite, a knock down fight. One on one, may the best man win. That’s what you need.”

“Yeah, who’s crazy enough to do that?”

“Well, I know of a bunch of guys who like to gamble, drink and fight. I used to do martial art stuff. It’s good, but nothing like the real thing. A fight isn’t a match, not a competition decided by judges, but by the first man to hit the mat face first. You’ll never know how you’ll do in a fight before you’re in one. Go do your martial arts for six months, then come see me and we’ll get you ready to make it through OTS with honors.”

On the way to my room, I stopped in to see Bob. For a crazy man, he was very wise and smart. I don’t know how he did it, but he managed to get the whole story out of me in a few minutes.

“Let me get this straight. You think you alone must find a way to destroy the Link. It’s you against the Link, one-on-one, man-to-man, toe to toe and all that rot?”

“Ah, yeah.”

“Drake, you saved a lot of people’s lives planet side. If you hadn’t stepped in, it would have been a disaster. All the scientists on this ship know that and respect you. If you go to them, they’ll help you. They want to help you. Go ask them.”

I paused. He was right. I could ask. That wouldn’t relieve me of the responsibility, but I’d be more productive.

Margret chimed in. “Should I place a call to Dr. Livingston?”

“Yes, Margret, and put it on speaker,” I said.

“Drake, what a pleasure to hear your voice,” Diane said.

“Diane, can I meet with you?”

“Of course, any time.”

“How about fifteen minutes?”

“Oh, okay. Is this personal?”

“No, it’s the Link.”

“May I invite a few associates?”

“Yeah, anyone you want.”

“Hmm, I’ll keep it small, less than ten. I’ll send Margret directions. See you in fifteen minutes.”

I turned to Bob. He looked smug and smiled. “Thank you! You were right.”

“Drake, you’re a leader. Use people. Get their help.”

“Thanks, Bob. Please get well, I have to run. I want to get there ahead of them.”

“Good luck. You’d better run fast.”

I sprinted to my room and to pick up the ball, then following Margret’s direction’s, I arrived at a small conference room. Everyone turned and went quiet at my entrance. Diane pointed to the empty chair at the end of the table.

The room went silent as I walked to the chair. I felt my face flush. As I sat, I placed the ball onto the table. “This was given to me by Sandra. It’s central to the Link. Tangent could find no record of any research or design effort to build this device. Margret, display the close-ups of it.” The wall was covered with a picture of the core. “I’ve looked at it and can see nothing that’s common to any other Monisa technology. I think it’s an alien device. The more I look at it the more I believe it’s not from Monisa. I need your help to find out how it works, how to destroy, neutralize or stop it.”

A wiry man sitting across from Diane looked at the ball. “Looks like pieces are missing,” he said.

“Yes,” I said. “Octella wanted samples to study. I scanned them first. Margret, show them the scans.” The rest of the walls showed enlargements of the scans.

“What’s the scale of these scans?” Margret displayed the scale.

A large man jumped up from the table and circled part of the display and enlarged it. “Baxter, you see? I told you, didn’t I, huh? Look at that!” He turned and looked at a tall man who was still seated and laughed. “A string computer processor.”

The other man laughed as he got out of his chair. “Mason, I’ll say it again. You’re a fool. Nothing suggests what you’re saying.” The two men faced off and talked louder. Other men and a woman joined in. The room erupted in loud, excited conversation.

Diane placed her hand on my arm. “These are my people. I’ll get this sorted out. Don’t worry. I’ll let you know what we find out.”

“Thanks, Diane. I have to go. Margret, give Diane everything you have about the core.” I nodded at Diane and then slipped out of the room.

I thought about what Brice had said. I’ve never been in a fight, never hit someone to hurt them. Shit, he was right. I need to be in a real fight. I entered the dojo, removed my shoes, then sat on my knees and bowed.

TJ saw me and came over. “What up, Drake?”

“Hi, TJ. I’ve come to learn how to fight. I’ll be entering fleet officer’s training and I want to be ready.”

TJ nodded. “Okay, I got it. Torance told me everything.” She paused. “I’ve just the woman for you. She’s an ass, but if anyone can get you ready she can. Hey, Lorenda, come here. I have someone you need to meet.” She waved at a very petite, pretty woman.

“He’s too pretty,” she said as she walked over to us.

“Lorenda, I need your help,” TJ said.

“What for?”

“Lorenda meet Drake,” TJ said.

“Yeah, I know. Hi, Drake. What do you need?”

“Drake is going to officer’s training and wants our help,” TJ said.

She shook her head. “You’re a nice kid, but they’ll beat the crap out of you and then wash you out.” She looked me up and down. “Not a chance. You’re dead meat.”

“Not what I asked you. He has to make it, so I’m asking you to help him, train him, to get through it.”

Lorenda looked at me. “Why, Drake? You’re just about a full-fledged starship engineer. Why OTS?”

“The Link is coming. They say I’m the one who can stop it. They also said I’ll need help. I need to get into the Rodriguez Academy of Science, and being an officer is the quickest route.”