Chronicles of the Stellar Corps: Sassy by Bernard Paul Glover

Author:Bernard Paul Glover [Glover, Bernard Paul]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: UNKNOWN
Published: 2017-02-10T00:00:00+00:00

Space

Three months later Sarah graduated from the Stellar Corps Academy with highest honours, and at the ripe old age of twenty-two, she was assigned as Third Engineer aboard the LSS Kennedy, a Jump-one class vessel under the command of Captain Louis Hanley. It turned out not to be the easiest first assignment.

For the first five months Sarah performed to her usual high standard. Normally, she’d been told, she would have some feedback from the captain or the executive officer, but so far, she had heard nothing. The chief engineer, however, had told her many times that he was making a favourable entry about her in the log. She believed that all was going well despite the lack of feedback.

During one duty shift, Sarah was making an inspection of the conduits on one of the lower levels of the engineering section, when she overheard a female crewman and her male co-worker being dressed down by the chief tactical and security officer because the female grunt had torn the back of her coveralls crawling in between the conduits. The rend clearly showed that she was not wearing any underwear. To spare the two crewmen greater embarrassment Sarah held her position out of sight until the chief security officer had left. As she approached, however, she heard something else that distressed her.

As the officer disappeared from view, the male crewman turned to his female counterpart and griped, “He thinks he’s so high and mighty. ‘The great Commander Buttocks’ never did a maintenance tour in his life. He has no idea what it is to crawl through a service way to check conduit integrity or clean the check valves…”

He was just finishing his diatribe when Sarah approached. He could see that she was not pleased.

“Crewman Helson,” she began, “while I can appreciate your loyalty to your crewmate, as well as a you sense of indignation at what you perceive to be an injustice, Commander Maddox is an officer. You will show proper respect, or I will put you on report myself. Do I make myself clear, crewman?”

Crewman Helson snapped to attention. “Ma’am, yes ma’am!” he replied formally.

“At ease crewman,” Sarah responded, continuing more informally. “Helson, you need to remember that Commander Maddox took his OC training twenty-five years ago. He has no idea what conduit duty entails, and he doesn’t need to know. It’s not a part of his job, but you need keep in mind that he is a senior officer. He has earned your respect, and mine. It’s okay to be pissed at the seeming injustice of it, but it’s not okay to disrespect an officer because he is a stickler for the regs.”

“Understood, ma’am,” Helson answered sincerely.

Sarah turned to the female crewman. “Crewman Reid, Mr. Helson, here, was too busy admiring the view, it seems, to notice that more than your coveralls were torn. That gash on your butt appears to be bleeding quite freely. Report to Med Bay. When your finished there, report to the duty officer, I’ll ask him to reassign you for the next day or two to be sure that that gash has completely healed.

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