Hard Luck Hank: Delovoa & Early Years by Steven Campbell

Author:Steven Campbell [Campbell, Steven]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2014-09-08T00:00:00+00:00

DELOVOA’S SCHOOLING

It took nearly ten years for Delovoa’s tide pool of DNA to finally settle down.

At that point he had joined a shipping company as a mechanic. In a year he was managing the maintenance bay. The following year a different company had poached him for engine design on their heavy interstellar transports.

Engineering was incredibly easy for Delovoa.

If he looked at a design once, he could not only remember it, but instantly improve it and incorporate it into other designs.

He still, however, had large gaps in his personality. This led to him frequently getting beaten up, or threatened, or blowing up vessels because he thought it would be fun to try something new and not tell anyone.

Word got out about the brilliant inventor and he was visited by the Colmarian Navy Department of Plumbing and Lighting.

In Colmarian Confederation fashion, the Department of Plumbing and Lighting was the most prestigious branch of the Engineering Services. Maybe a thousand years ago they had actually done Plumbing and Lighting but they had since only concerned themselves with the most advanced of advanced technologies—it was just too difficult to change their name.

They were the ones who had built the Portals that linked the galaxy; and built the teles used to communicate across it; and designed the dreadnoughts, the Navy’s largest capital ships.

“Do you have a doctorate?” the recruiter asked.

“No.”

“Would you like one?”

“Not really.”

“I can offer you the chance to work for the empire and really make a difference.”

“Why would I want to make a difference?”

“Well…” the recruiter asked, momentarily stumped by the blunt response. “What do you want?”

“To build stuff and make money.”

“We work on the biggest projects in the galaxy. We,” and he lowered his voice and looked around, “break the Tech Laws all the time.”

This interested Delovoa!

Every time he got a great idea it seemed it was illegal. He had already been visited by the police and only escaped arrest when he dumped his project into an acid bath—though he doubted it would have lived long anyway.

“So what do I have to do?” Delovoa asked.

“You have to pass Exam Fourteen. It’s the standardized test for all candidates. You can take it once a year if you don’t pass the first time. It’s fairly rigorous.”

“I’ll look it up.”

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