Uncommon Purpose (The Hope Island Chronicles Book 1) by P J Strebor

Author:P J Strebor
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Tickety Boo Press Ltd
Published: 2015-12-28T19:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 29

Shortly before midnight Nathan entered the Environmental Control Center. Tivendale had posted an amendment to his running sheet. ECC substituted for the more stimulating environment of bridge orientation.

The environmental control officer looked up from her console.

“Welcome to my parlor of miracles,” Cmdr Barbara Grimmett said, spreading her arms wide to encompass her domain. She sat comfortably before a huge instrumentation console spread across the starboard wall from deck to overhead.

“Thank you, ma’am. I'm pleased to be here.”

“Rubbish.” Her good-natured smile set his mind at ease. “You young people want to be anywhere else on the boat except boring old ECC. But thanks for the polite bull.”

Her accent definitely came from a colony world. A large, solid woman of late middle age, her robust physicality evoked images of a kindly aunt with a killer right cross. Her eyes checked his nametag. “So handsome, you're the one who's been upsetting our supply officer?”

“I couldn't help myself, your honor.”

Grimmett roared with laughter.

“Come over here, sit on my lap and tell me all about it.”

She adopted a grief-stricken expression when he declined her kind offer and took the only other chair in the room.

Grimmett chuckled occasionally as he recounted his tale. “I assumed you were asking a rhetorical question,” she parroted. “I bet you're going into flight training after you graduate.”

“Cor-rect.” He frowned. “How did you know that?”

“Figures. Fighter pilots, all balls and bravado and little in the way of common sense. My third husband was a fighter jock. Magnificent bastard.”

“What boat is he on now?”

“Got killed, eight years ago. Headhunter wolf-pack on the frontier. But he nailed the bastard before they got him. A genuine hero.” Her eyes bore into him with an intensity that surprised him. “But the silly bugger didn't stop to consider the odds he was facing.”

Her attention returned to her readouts. “You need to watch your step around Tivendale. The prick can be a nasty bit of business. His record is one of unbridled ambition punctuated by fits of sadism against anyone he perceives as a threat.”

“So I've heard.” Nathan said.

“And why am I telling you this? Grimmett asked.

Nathan suspected this too was a rhetorical question.

“Bottom line son, he is a commissioned officer and you are a midshipman. So do not antagonize him further, no matter how much fun it is. I can get away with it, you can't.” She cocked an eyebrow. “Don't take on an opponent who outguns you. It could kill your career.”

Nathan managed to nod.

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