First Command (The John Grimes Saga II) by A. Bertram Chandler

Author:A. Bertram Chandler [Chandler, A. Bertram]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction, General, Space Opera, Adventure, Fiction
ISBN: 9781439134573
Publisher: Baen
Published: 2011-08-02T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 14

Grimes did not believe the card reading, of course. Nonetheless it added to his growing uneasiness, and when he was uneasy he tended to snarl. He knew that his officers and crew resented his attempts to maintain minimal standards of smartness aboard the ship, and that the scientist, Dr. Brandt, regarded him as a barely necessary evil. He refused to admit that in taking command of Discovery he had bitten off more than he could chew, but he was coming to realize, more and more, that his predecessor had taken the easy way out, had made arrangements for his own comfort, and then allowed the vessel to run herself in her own bumbling, inefficient way.

Meanwhile, as the ship steadily narrowed the distance between herself and the first of the two possible stars, Flannery, with all his faults, was pulling his weight. Straining his telepathic faculties, he had begun to pick up what could be construed as indications of intelligent life on one of the worlds in orbit about that sun.

“The skipper of Sundowner was right, Captain,” he said. “There’s somethin’ there, all right. Or, even, somebody. There’s—there’s a sort o’ murmur. Ye can’t hear it, of course, but Ned’s hearin’ it, an’ I’m hearin’ it.” He grinned. “T’is a real Irish parliament. Everybody talkin’, an’ nobody listenin’.”

“Except you,” said Grimes.

“Exceptin’ me—an’ Ned,” agreed the PCO.

“Human?” asked Grimes.

“That I couldn’t be sayin’, Captain. T’is too early yet. But humanoid, for sure. Somethin’ with warm blood an’ breathin’ oxygen.”

“Or its equivalent,” suggested Grimes doubtfully. “After all, the essential physiology of chlorine breathers is very similar to our own.”

“A bridge we’ll cross when we come to it, Captain. But even if they, whoever they might be when they’re up an’ dressed, ain’t human, ye’ll still have discovered a new world for the Federation—may all the Saints preserve it—an’ that’ll be a feather in yer cap!”

“I suppose so.” Somehow the prospect did not cheer Grimes, as it should have done. “I suppose so.”

He got up to return to his own quarters, where he was to preside over a meeting of his senior officers and petty officers.

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