Within a few hours, McComb piloted the shuttle back into the sky and away from Impact.
He was relieved to finally be leaving. McComb knew that, while unavoidable, the delays would reflect poorly on his new commanding officer among the rest of the crew.
As much as he knew that to be likely, he sincerely hoped the rest of the men would let it go without taking action against Junior.
It did not hurt that McComb had posted several vid files of the combat he had witness along with footage of when Stevens had won three galactic championships on every available screen on the G5496.
McComb, for the first time in his career, genuinely liked his commanding officer. He just had to keep him alive. Between Junior's direct nature and a ship full of power-hungry competing officers, that seemed almost impossible as a long-term goal. Of course, Junior's recent exploitation of the regulations to bring his friends aboard spoke highly of his adaptability.
Junior and Trixie May stared out the view port at the diminishing view of Impact. Dank spent more time watching the controls and computer systems and asking too many questions of McComb for him to fully answer any of them.
Trixie May and Dank were both impressed with the size of the G5496 and they admitted it as the shuttle landed in the hangar.
Cargo sleds were in place to offload the personal effects the three EcoHope 11 locals had brought with them, so there was nothing to delay the fully tour for all of them. Junior had only seen a very small portion of the vessel on his previous trip.
McComb took them through the engine room, the weapons access corridor, the crew level, the training deck and the cafeteria. Dank had a number of questions in each of them:
"This where the fusion generator is?"
"These weapons fired from here or just fixed when they get busted?"
"All them people sleep in them tiny bunks?"
"Y'all send people into a fight who ain't never hit anything real?"
"This here machine make jerky?"
After a while McComb just grabbed a Data Terminal from an equipment locker, typed in a few commands and handed it to Dank.
"I'd be happy to answer all your questions, but you might have more fun getting them answered through this."
Dank was extremely impressed. As he typed away on the tiny keyboard integrated into the unit, he lapsed into a contented silence.
Trixie May remained silent until they reached the medical bay, which sent her into a flurry of questions and activity as she examined equipment. McComb was impressed at the amount of knowledge she possessed about current med tech, and Dr. Jackson, while initially put off by her presence, seemed to find her enthusiasm refreshing. He promised to send some tutorial software to the terminal in her cabin as soon as he found something she would find interesting.
The cargo hold was the last stop on the tour. It was a vast, cavernous area with neatly stacked equipment and racks of devices, most of which Junior had no hope of identifying much less using.
Situated in the middle of the otherwise spotless metal deck stood Firebird, completely powered down and leaking gummy black oil in a slowly widening puddle.
Dank smiled, "I'll be here for a while. I'll meet y'all in the cafeteria later."
Chapter Thirty Interlude
File: Datanet Core Server Gamma Alpha thirty six, Galactic Technologies, Era: Modern -0, Index Earth Prime Protection Force, Computing, Data Supplied by Datanet Tech Officer's Manual
Welcome and congratulations on your acquisition of a model DT43928 Data Terminal. You hold in your hands access to every valid bit of data created by humankind in the history of Earth Prime which has not been dismissed as heresy.
Should you wish to search for a specific bit of information, simply input your access code and the search term for a list of valid results. Search codes which access forbidden or Un-Faithful data remnants will automatically be reported to Benevolent States United officials to save the user time and effort.
When your search is complete, the DT43928 will store your query and results until the contents of the cache can be uploaded, all with no interaction from the user.
If you require assistance, the DT43928 will automatically notify the nearest computing support personnel based on the integrated tracking chips in all electronic devices. If you have suggestion for improvements, please immediately notify [message reducted]
Dank set down the terminal and poured some more bacteria on the spot that had leaked. He could imagine that he could hear the tiny creatures happily chewing away on the petroleum, digesting it and releasing carbon dioxide, which is, in turn, processed by the algae scrubbers and released into the atmosphere of the ship.
As much as Dank could breathe, he needed to eat, so he scrubbed a polite amount of grime off his hands and wiped the dry on his jeans, which almost undid all of his work washing them.
He entered the hallway and followed the illuminated signs back to the cafeteria, where he fell into line behind a bunch of troopers with matching haircuts.
He was scanning the room for Junior and Trixie May when the soldiers in front of him started laughing. He'd missed the joke, but after a few minutes of listening he started to get the impression that he was the joke.
He picked out the words "Dirt farmer" and "Junk picker" and "Sub-human" before he actually started to get angry about it.
He had expected a little period of adjustment to his new environment, but these people were just mean-spirited.
He turned to face the man in front of him in line and took some small note of the fact that his eyes were at the level of the trooper's shoulder. He rolled them upwards under his eyebrows before saying, "What's funny?"
"You are, little man," the trooper and his friends erupted into further laughter so boisterous they barely heard Dank's soft-spoken reply.
"I suppose I am," he said, the smile thick and insincere on his face, "But I ain't sharing a tiny bunk with a bunch of over-muscled dudes, neither."
The laughs slowed to a trickle.
The trooper who had addressed Dank before explained, "We sleep in shifts."
"What about the open showers? Do ya shower in shifts too?"
The big fellow glared at Dank and his friends fell ominously silent. There was a long gap in the line in front of the group and some troopers had started to route around them.
"Don't think just because you are our new C.O.'s pet monkey you are immune to EPPF traditions," he said, his voice carrying a warning.
"Not much interested in immunity," Dank shook his head, "To be truthful, and I always am, I ain't much interested in yer traditions, neither."
"How about you meet me in the training deck in an hour?" the soldier asked.
"Ain't a date, is it?" Dank asked, looking meaningfully at the crowd pooled behind the big man.
"We can settle this according to EPPF regs, little man. Unarmed combat. Man to man."
Dank appeared to consider this before replying, "You sure this ain't a date?"
"Just be there."
Dank discovered that the food aboard the G5496 was awful.
