The Worst Ship in the Fleet by Skyler Ramirez

Author:Skyler Ramirez [Ramirez, Skyler]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-08-25T06:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

Contact!

We had just arrived on station at waypoint eight, over a day later, and I was having an incredibly hard time not looking at Jessica Lin. Except it was for very different reasons than before. Now, when I saw her perfect features, all I could see in my mind was the abuse she’d sustained at the hands of at least two different men. If I could have wiped those videos from my memory, and not just my implant, I would have done so in a heartbeat. But even the alcohol wasn’t obliging me in that respect.

My guilt was overwhelming, as was my shame. Not just for what I’d seen done to her but for the fact that I had been leering at her almost nonstop since boarding Persephone. It made me feel just as dirty as the men who had raped her. I had already known I was a good-for-nothing loser, but I felt I had now sunk even lower.

Beyond the obvious, one other thing bothered me about those videos. I’d only known Lieutenant Commander Jessica Lin for a short time, but she didn’t strike me as the type of woman that would let those types of things happen to her. Despite some of her timidity on the bridge and with her fellow officers, she’d boldly called me out on my own leering looks at her. The type of woman who would call out her captain for inappropriate looks didn’t strike me as the type who would let herself be abused by a man under her command, even if her former captain was involved.

It just didn’t add up. It was like I was seeing two different people. There was a strong and direct woman who had called me on my crap, contrasted with the beaten down woman who had looked like a dog about to be hit in front of Petty Officer Jacobs in the corridor. And somewhere in the middle was the timid woman who had still had the courage to suggest the change to our patrol pattern.

I had rehearsed and discarded dozens of different ways to broach the topic with her. None of them felt even close to right. I found myself desperately wishing Carla was there so I could get a woman’s perspective, but alas, I was on my own.

“Sir, beginning sensor sweep,” Ingbar said lazily from the tactical station. I still hadn’t been able to force myself to read Jacobs’ file, but I had, after waking from my bender, read Ingbar’s and Yesayan’s, mostly as a way to distract myself from the terrible things I’d learned about Lin.

Ingbar’s had been more of what I’d expected to see for an officer assigned to Persephone. Low marks at the Academy, a lackluster service record afterward, and his promotions only coming for time-in-rank, never for performance or merit.

He was a dead weight on His Majesty’s Navy. Pretty much like I’d become, though without the killing of hundreds of innocents.

Yesayan’s record was a bit better, but at least some of my initial assessment about her had been right.

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