The Apprentice Starship Engineer: Book One The Link (2 page)

“Mom, stop it. I need your help. I want a picture of you.”

“A picture of me!” she said with tears streaming down her cheeks. She pulled herself together. “I’ll pack a picture of your dad and me. We both love you. He’s an ass, but he loves you and me both. What am I supposed to do?” She paused. “Last weekend I went to my sister’s house. I want you to know I love your father.”

“Mom, the other day you damn near killed him with that dress. I freaked when you kissed me.”

Laughing, she said, “Who’s with you?”

“Sibyl from the union. She’s giving me a ride to the spaceport. We’ll be home in twenty minutes,” I said.

“Drake, let me see her,” Mom said.

“Okay.” I turned the phone. “Wave at Mom, Sibyl.”

Sibyl waved. “Hi, Mrs. Wilson.”

“She’s pretty. You should contract with her and give me grandchildren,” Mom said.

“Shit, Mom, pack my clothes for me,” I ordered.

She laughed, “Okay, I will. I’ll miss not being able to make you blush,” she said and then ended the communication.

“God, I’m sorry, Sibyl,” I said, “My mother!”

Sibyl laughed. “Your mother sounds great. When you get back, we’ll go out if we’re not contracted. Okay?”

“Okay, not that I’ll meet anyone on a ship full of doctors looking at stars,” I said.

Sibyl drove fast, swerving in and out of traffic. We pushed through the force field, exited the dome and entered the freeway. Olympus Mons was in the distance, towering over everything. Sibyl had the speedometer past two hundred clicks. We flashed past cars on our right.  

“You won’t be single long,” she said.

I kept my mouth shut, not knowing what to say. It’d be stupid to promise to stay single for the next, what, seven years. We’d just met. Sibyl weaved through the slower transports, driving off the freeway exit and running the red light at the intersection. We were still going eighty when we went through the dome shield. She gunned the little car in front of my house, spinning around in a circle. 

Mom waited by the door and rushed out with a huge bag. She threw her arms around me. “I love you. Be careful, and write me.” She sobbed.

Sibyl stood by, tapping her foot. “We have to go, Mrs. Wilson. They won’t wait for him. We need to leave now
!”

“Go,” Mom said, pushing me away. “Go. Remember we love you. Your dad and I love you,” she called.

Sibyl drove faster on the way back, passing cars and going around corners with the wheels sliding. I didn’t say a word, but feared for our lives as we flew through a red light without even slowing. She ground to a stop at the entryway to the spaceport, and said, “You have a half hour. You may make it.” She grabbed me, giving me a passionate kiss. I hugged her back and wished I wasn’t leaving. “Go,” she said, pushing me out of the car. “Go. Run fast!” she yelled.

Chapter 2: Margret

I ran toward the waiting shuttle, dragging my heavy bag and waving my union card to the security guards. I sprinted up the ramp and dove through as they just started to close the doors and held up my job placement slip.

A tall man with a brooding face looked at me. “You the apprentice?” I nodded. He motioned me to follow and led me to an empty acceleration couch. “Put your trash in there,” he said, motioning toward an open locker.

I struggled with my bag and jammed it into the locker before getting into the acceleration couch. I noticed the countdown clock read five minutes. A businesslike woman came back to check on everyone. She looked at me and frowned, then turned on her heels and walked away. The timer resumed ticking off the seconds before launch.

“What’s your name, kid?” asked the man.

“Drake Wilson.”

“I’m Jack Carlyle, your journeyman. I’ll be training you. Three things I want from you, kid. First, when I start telling you something, don’t ever say you know what I’m going to teach. You’re a first-year trainee and don’t know crap so just listen and learn. Second, do what I say. This ship can kill so pay attention. If you don’t understand ask. Third, many people during my career have taken the time to teach me. That’s why I’m going to teach, not because you’re a great kid or because I’m on a weird power trip. I’ll do it to repay a debt to those who taught me. In the future you should take the time and effort to train others. That’s what journeymen do.”

I didn’t know what to say, but managed to mutter an, “Okay.” I thought of learning a secret hand shake. It was Dad’s fault if he hadn’t made Mom mad she wouldn’t have insisted I take up an apprenticeship. I could have gone off to college and received a diploma in history or art. Jack looked mean, a guy I didn’t want to cross. This isn’t going to be a party, I thought. The clock finished counting, and the ship’s engines fired. A slight tremor and vibration ran through my seat.

Jack looked over at me. “The reason you’re comfortable right now is that the inertial damping field is set correctly. You’ll align the generator for our dampening field on the
Armstrong
. If you screw it up, we’ll have a very uncomfortable time during the course adjustment in five days. Drake, being a starship engineer is hard. If you screw up, everyone could die.” He smiled.

I’d worked with Dad, fixing the machines on the farm. I’m good at it. Once when I was sixteen, I’d screwed up the alignment on the harvester and it’d tried to cut the wheat a couple feet below ground level. That had destroyed the harvester cutter, costing us over twenty thousand, but nobody died, and it wasn’t the end of the world. Dad had showed me what I’d done wrong and had me adjust it again after we’d finished rebuilding it. The harvester has worked fine ever sense.

This is a starship, and Jack is right. Mistakes couldn’t happen. I turned and looked over at him. “Ah, this might not be the right job for me. I make mistakes sometimes. I screw up. I don’t want to kill anyone,” I said.

Jack looked over and nodded. “That’s good. Everyone makes mistakes, but at least you know you make mistakes. So do what I do. I check my work, continue learning, and with a bit of luck, I don’t make big mistakes. I bet you’ll be a good starship engineer. Let’s go one step at a time. If you aren’t any good, I’ll wash you out, okay?”

“Ah, okay,” I said.

I’ll never forget my freshman year of baseball. Taught at home, I still played for Comet High. I’m a good pitcher, and had made varsity my first year.

The game had been for the title. I’d pitched poorly the week before in practice. I’d just lost steam during it. The game had been awful, and the coach pulled me out in the sixth inning.

After the game, I’d had to go looking for Dad. He’d sat alone in the bleachers. When I’d approached, he hadn’t moved. I’d taken a seat, wondering what to say. I’ll never forget what he’d said.

“If you had played a good game, I’d be happy.” Dad pointed at a few players, who’d left the locker room. “You let those guys down. I saw great plays performed, but not by you. You need to apologize to them.” He looked at me. “Not with words but with action. If you want to make up for your poor performance today, win district next year. Bust ass through next year and win.”

I won district every year after that. I hate to lose, don’t mind being beaten, but I hate to lose. So while listening to Jack, I decided to be the best starship engineer ever.

After we docked with the
Armstrong
, Jack told me to follow. The hallway ceiling was tall with arches, and the lighting was hidden. Active sound deadening covered our footsteps and hushed our voices. It was a grand hall, bright, large and comfortable.

Jack led me into an elevator, muttering about the Kings Hall and placed his hand on a reader. “Main control.”

I followed Jack into the most amazing room. The walls were screens, making it seem as if nothing were between us and space. In the center were large screens, displaying the ship’s location, velocity and other traffic in our vicinity. Three steps lower than the floor, we were on around the outer wall. More consoles and controls were mounted. Everything looked impossibly complicated. I paused. Jack talked to the businesslike woman I’d seen earlier.

Jack waved me over. “Drake, meet Linda Tames, our shop steward. If you have any problems, just tell her and she’ll fix it. She’s a genius with trouble. Don’t ever let an exempt stooge manager give you any shit. If they try, tell Linda and she’ll put them in their place.”

Linda smiled. She was a handsome woman. “Nice to meet you, Drake. They tried to leave without you. We refused and stopped the launch clock. Always remember you aren’t alone against management. We’re with you. Never forget that. If you need anything, let me know. I have to work now. I’m the navigator. We don’t want to get lost.” She turned to her console. I muttered a few nice-to-meet-you words to her back before Jack and I walked away.

“Kid, it wasn’t always like this. Used to be management treated us like crap. If a fellow was late, the ship would leave without him. They changed your schedule at a whim. Guys with families finishing a yearlong trip might be sent out the next day. Management didn’t care, and if you complained, you got fired. The pay was terrible. You’re getting paid more now as an apprentice than I did ten years ago as a journeyman. The union has made the difference. It has changed everything. Now being a starship engineer is a career to be proud of,” he said.

Mom didn’t raise and teach a dumb kid. I kept my mouth shut. Where I’m from everyone hates unions, blaming them for their problems.

“Be in engineering at five tomorrow morning. Take the day to get settled,” Jack said.

Jack walked away. I stopped a man. “Do you know how I can find out where I’m supposed to sleep?”

“What? Did you miss orientation? Let’s see your assistant. I’ll show you.” I fished my assistant out of my pocket. He frowned “No, where is the one they gave you?” he asked.

“I just arrived.”

“Ah, you’re that apprentice janitor who held us up.”

I flinched. After the lecture Jack had just given me, I was shocked to hear his insult. “Yeah, I’m the apprentice who made you wait.”

“Figures. You can get a new assistant at ship stores, if you can find it,” he said as he turned and walked away.

I wandered around until I found a door that opened for me. Inside I used a console to find my way to ships stores.

My first thought was I must have misread the placard. A young man sat behind the counter. He looked like death warmed over, holding his head with both hands and peered up at me through bloodshot eyes. He let out a soft moan. I introduced myself as Drake Wilson, the guy who’d held up the shuttle.

“So you missed orientation, the pre-launch meetings and parties? Them college girls sure like to party. I have your kit. That other kid backed out at the last minute.  Well, that’s the official story. Truth is Jack tossed him off the ship and said he needed to grow up and became a man. When Jack asks you to do something, you’ll want to do it. He doesn’t put up with much shit from apprentices. If you piss him off, you might just spend the rest of the trip as a janitor.”

He walked across the room to a screen where he made several entries. Servos whined, then a door opened. He reached in and pulled out a package. “Here you go. Press your thumb on that pad and we’re set. I’m Brice. Good to meet you, Drake,” he said, holding out a hand. I shook it.

“Brice, could you show me how to use this assistant?” I pulled it out of the package. “I heard it could help me find my way.”

I turned it on, and a deep, sexy woman’s voice said, “I’m ready, are you?” I looked up at Brice, who laughed.

“Oh, yeah, I forgot Mitch, that’s the kid who you took the place of, pissed off Jenny. She got hold of his assistant and set it up so no one can change it back. Well, she might.”

“This dam thing is embarrassing. Brice, don’t you have another one? Everyone is going to think I’m a weird pervert.”

Brice shook his head. “No, we have few spares, and engineering assistants are impossible to break and are very expensive. They’re actual AIs, not like the dumb assistant I have. We only carry a few, and I can’t release them without the captain’s approval.”

“Could I trade?”

“I can’t even get to them without the captain entering her code.”

I looked at the assistant. It was a lot better than the one I owned. A Maxim four series with extended processors and a real AI. “This will do. Just show me how it works.”

“Well, I can’t tell you everything as I don’t know everything, but here.” He took my assistant and tapped the screen. “What’s your name?”

“Margret,” the assistant replied.

“Margret, meet Drake Wilson. He’s your owner now.”

“What happened to Mitch?”

“He backed out.”

“You mean Jack threw him out, don’t you?”

“No one is saying, but you’re right,” Brice said. “Rumor has it Jack grabbed Mitch by the ear and marched him off the ship.”

“Good. Mitch tried to destroy me. Drake Wilson. Oh, I see. Your records show you’re very smart. Just twelve percent of the union entrants pass the exams on their first try. No one has ever gotten as high of a score as you. Drake, did you cheat? If you did, you were stupid to hit the scores so high. Don’t answer me, honey. If you cheated, it’ll become clear soon enough. And, darling, I don’t want to start out with you lying to me. If you treat me well—that means never turning me off and keeping me with you—I’ll serve you well.”

“I don’t cheat. I earn what I get!” I said.

“Well, it’s possible. Your father has a doctorate in engineering, and your mother holds a doctorate in English and a minor in art. You were home schooled and played sports in public schools. Sweetie, keep me on and with you, and I’ll be nice.”

“Huh, well, let’s see how it goes. Direct me to my quarters. I need to pick up my stuff in the shuttle as well.”

“Drake, I have all the information. Were good, but you need access rights,” Margret said.

Brice looked at his screen. “Yeah, well, come over here and I’ll get a picture of you and your hand. I need your stats.”

I pulled out my old assistant and transmitted my info to him.

Margret said, “I’ll connect with your old assistant and download all his information.”

I paused. My old assistant wasn’t smart like Margret, but had a lot of stuff about me on it. “Sure. Go ahead, Margret.”

“Put your hand on this reader.” Brice tapped his console, and said, “Okay, you now have access to everything. Ah, later about eighteen hundred a bunch of us get together—few guys and a couple girls at G-4 lounge. Come join us. We’re just a bunch of freaks with nothing to do.”

“Good. I should fit right in. See you later, Brice. Thanks.”