Chapter 2 page 2
01 Sep 2020Spud_
The Black has a way of sucking you into it, where and when this happens you are not quite sure but it becomes a part of you at that point. I had gotten to the point where I could only stand to be dirt side or station side for maybe seventy two hours and that was it, had to be on the ship. We were all changing, this war with the Federation had aged everyone, even though we were not at the forefront of it, the endless shifts of two mate watches, the Commander and our only fighter pilot being worn to the ragged edge often put us through the wringer. The day came when Ceubo was finally a solidly settled system and Sweeny called it. She took an honorary promotion to Admiral and put in her papers, it was a fine retirement party.
I had made pilot second class, engineer third, and was in line to take Mickey's spot as he was moving to the real Navy, but in the wisdom of all things government that is not what happened. Instead I got a hot dog green astrogator who was also an aspiring pilot and nick named BottleCap after his love of beer. Then rather then me taking the engineer slot, they sent me an engineer 2 pilot 2 named Robert M'Cleary. He was a terrible foe, nothing was ever as good as it should be for him. But wait, when reading those orders whats it mean for me? A transfer? No, Your not going anywhere Spud, you are now Captain Junior Grade, Master of the ship. I did not expect that. Everyone at Sweenies retirement congratulated me, I was happy for all the confidence but personally scared as hell. It did not matter though, scared or not thirty six hours later we got our first mission as a crew....