It only took a few trips back and forth between Gabriel, along with the shore leave, for me to finish up the half-year I had been deprived of from my third-year classes. I even sent the lessons, that the work entailed, back to the Sarge for him to critique or grade, if he was so inclined. If nothing else, I wanted to let him know that I was actually doing the class work from the textdisks and trying to learn. He didn’t send me any remarks about how well I was doing on the work until I finished that half-year of classwork. Then I got a note saying that the fourth-year textdisks would be forthcoming and encouraging me to keep up my efforts because I wouldn’t be disappointed.
Not too long after that, I got promoted to Gunner First Class and moved to a Mark III quad because of my gunnery skills. We had another skirmish with a pirate whom we destroyed. The combat videos revealed that not only had I hit the pirate, but that it was my shots that destroyed him. The bonuses I got were enough to swell my credits to where I could leave my job and not do anything else for the next two years. There was also another salary increase with the promotion. I was feeling real good about myself and applied myself even more to my books. It was starting to look very possible for me to someday be the captain of a gun ship. Certainly, the Sarge had been right in stating that I would see more action there than anywhere else. Not only that, I felt good about what I was accomplishing.
Chapter 3
The Navy announced the discovery of a new planet along with the important discovery of the first intelligent alien life form. Because of the discovery, diplomats went into action. They soon started negotiations to put trade agreements into effect and work out various problems and such that diplomats normally do. If nothing else, the entire galaxy, let alone the business community, was abuzz with the news. Every business saw a chance for profit in dealing with those new people who weren’t too unlike ourselves in biological terms. Save for their blue skin and the fact that they weren’t as technologically advanced, they were just like us in temperament, personalities, and the placement of vital organs.
Of course, they were far off the beaten path, so any company having business dealings was going to have to use a shipping company that had armed escorts available, especially if the cargo was valuable. Because those discovered people were new to all this, it meant that some commodities suddenly became more valuable simply because the Blues, as they became known commonly, were willing to pay for those things with cargoes that were just as valuable to us. Pennyweight Shipping Company got one of the cargo runs that were granted by both governments. That meant that the Thurman was going to have to include a run to their planet once each month in addition to our run to Gabriel.
Even though the Blues were very much like us, they still had major cultural differences. Shore leaves on their planet wouldn’t be happening until the differences were fully understood and we could be briefed properly so that we wouldn’t create a diplomatic incident. If nothing else, it meant that some of the other crew members would be forced to save some of their pay that they would have otherwise spent on having a good time. For me, it made no difference. I spent very little time on shore when not in space. I was trying to complete my fourth-year classwork.
Because of my studies, I was granted an upgraded badge that allowed me to do some of my work on the bridge of the Thurman while it wasn’t involved in a critical procedure. I imagine that it was probably the Sarge’s efforts again that got me that privilege since I didn’t tell anyone in the company that I was studying. I only know that I got a call while on Beulah to report to Jim in the office and he asked for my badge. For a moment, the look on his face betrayed nothing. I thought that I was being fired. I took off the badge with some reluctance and handed it over, thinking that my world was about to crumble, again. I was about to take off the gunbelt and return it as well when he held out his other hand with the upgrade badge while he smiled at me. Then he only said, “Wear it in good health. We’re rooting for you.” I felt more embarrassed then than I had the first time in the shower with Wellesley. I numbly accepted the new badge and placed it in position carefully as if it were made of delicate, expensive crystal before saying thanks and returning to the ship to resume my studies.
Somehow, I expected it to happen and I wasn’t wrong. Our company received the salvage rights to the second pirate ship as well. It took a few months for the ship to be recovered and then rebuilt into another gunship. Of course, part of what I expected to happen was for us and the Edmund to have to transfer some of our crew members over to the new ship in order to man her with some experienced people. I almost got selected to go to the smaller ship, but for some reason I wasn’t. I wouldn’t have objected since it would have been an opportunity for me to work with another size gun ship and perhaps pick up some more education along the way. It might have led to a more rapid promotion for me. Instead, our ship gave up the lion’s share of personnel to help man the new ship, though I stayed on board the Thurman. We saw a whole new influx of personnel to replace those people who moved over.
She was commissioned as the Theodore and took over the Gabriel route since it was a shorter route. We faced both her and the Edmund in mock-battles, winning three out of three, even when it was two to one. I guess it was when she was commissioned that the company’s fortunes took a turn for the worse. The Theodore only lasted three months before it was taken by pirates. From what we learned later, she was captured almost without damage because they managed to get some people on board as part of her new crew.
When she was lost, our ship resumed working the Gabriel route as well as the monthly Blues route. To say that we were hustling all the time to keep both routes running smoothly was an understatement. We also went through a personnel adjustment to make sure that we didn’t have anyone unsavory on board who might have slipped through at the same time. I’ll admit I didn’t mind seeing one or two of the personnel, whom we had, given the boot. They didn’t strike me as caring about the work they were doing. I think our efficiency went up as a result. Certainly our morale improved after the devastating loss of the Theodore. But it wasn’t the end to our problems.
The former Theodore was later fought by the Edmund. Both ships were damaged, though the former Theodore, then a pirate, escaped without taking any of the Edmund’s convoy. It did put the Edmund into repairs. We were once again covering all the routes. For the next three months, we sweated it as we covered all the routes as best we could while seeing some valuable cargoes go to other shipping companies because we couldn’t cover them all. Then the shit really hit the fan.
We were three days out on the Blues route when the former Theodore showed up again. We immediately went to battle stations. I had just gotten out of the shower with Sarah. We were each clad only in our mesh undies when the alarm went off. We dashed off as we were. I had a premonition or gut feeling then that we were in for a bad one again as I reached my Mark III quad and slipped into the gunner’s seat while hitting the exposure button that slid the panel out of the way. I was firing at the former Theodore immediately. My second shot hit her, damaging her badly. At the same time, I felt the vibrations of a hit from her on our ship. I only hoped it wasn’t the shower again, not that I was naked this time, but I was nearly so. My fourth shot also hit the former Theodore squarely. It was enough, I noticed, to damage her engines so that she wasn’t going to perform any more evasive actions against us. I felt a couple more vibrations in the Thurman from more hits before my sixth shot hit and ripped the former Theodore apart, stopping them from shooting and hitting us anymore. Battle stations ended. I pressed the exposure switch to shut the panel that hid the Mark III quad from sight. Then I made my way amidst some smoke back to the shower area, which thankfully wasn’t hit, and put the rest of my clothes on beside Sarah who was actually putting on more than I was.