The Captains First Day
The Captain was sitting behind his desk, he had been there for some hours.
Having not been able to sleep the night before, he caught an early flight on
a supply shuttle, and had been there since 8am.
He arrived at the platform, and climbed down from the shuttle, the first
thing he noticed was the engineers, the ship was crawling with them, they
were supposedly doing the last minute checks, but a sense of urgency was in
the air, like half the ship had collapsed and everything was running
smoothly.
Apart from the engineers, no other crewmembers were onboard; they were
scheduled to arrive at 7pm, apart from the commander, Seymore Nipels, who
was to arrive at 5.30.
The Captain had a history with the Commander, and hadnt seen him since the
two parted on non-speaking terms. Of all his commands, he new this would be
the trickiest.
After taking a stroll around the ship, the captain went to his office, as he
stepped through the door, the computer terminal at his desk ordered,
You have 2 new messages.
Followed by a message, that had obviously been dubbed by a technician, with
a strange accent,
Are you gonna listen too em or wot??
You could distinctly hear sniggers in the background as the heckle was
recorded.
William walked around the giant marble desk and fell into his leather chair,
he knew after today, he probably wouldnt get another chance. He tapped the
screen, the computer barked,
Message one,
The image of a man appeared on the screen, he started moving and talking, it
was the assistant who had helped the captain get through his checking in
procedure back on earth.
I just wanted to let you know, that your luggage will be with you at 12
noon.
There was a short pause,
Oh yes, and BoBoh will be with your luggage, ok? Thanks bye.
As soon as the man said BoBoh, William corrected him,
Its BoBo, not BoBoh!?
It was a recording, so the man couldnt hear him.
He tapped the screen again, and again the computer barked,
Message two.
It was Williamss wife, holding up his young son,
Say hello to daddy she said,
dida the young child gurgled,
Will smiled,
I just wanted you to know, everythings alright, our flights at 5.45, so
well be there at platform 5 at 6.45, ok cya later honeybun.
She blew him a kiss,
He smiled again, as though she could see him, he caught the kiss and blew
one back.
As he went to end the message his wife announced,
Oh yeah, that man rang again, he said theyre still looking for a shrink
for you,
Wills smile dropped, the message ended.
It was 11.50am, Will received word that his luggage had arrived and was
being taken to his quarters, as he stood up, he noticed how clean the room
was, it was like one of the rooms he had seen in the brochures when he went
to join the JMC Corp. He thought to himself, By tomorrow, I wont be able
to see the color of the table, for all the paperwork.
He paced towards the automatic door, he noticed through the glass panel,
there was an engineer kneeling by the side of the entrance, William held his
head high, and forced his shoulders back, he would show the crew, he wasnt
one to be trifled with.
He then realized the man was fiddling with the electronics to the door, but
it was too late, he hit the door and fell to the floor, bounced five feet
back. He rubbed his head, opening his eyes, he saw standing at the now open
doors, a huge man with a screwdriver in his hand. The man hadnt reacted in
anyway, so William stayed quiet while he thought of something smart to say,
which would hopefully pull back a little respect, and maybe even some
admiration.
Before he had time to say anything, the man proclaimed,
You didnt want to do that see
The voice had a strong Welsh accent, and didnt seem to fit this huge
colossus standing in front of William.
You see, the door was jammin so it was, so I had to fix it didnt I.
The voice seemed condescending as though it was one engineer talking to
another.
I had to turn off the power to the door, so I did, so I didnt get me a
nasty shock.
William stood, he wasnt wearing his uniform, so the man didnt notice who
he was talking to, so he was dismissed. William could have disciplined the
man, but after this incident, and the sheer size of the man, he didnt think
he had the face to do it.
He set of again, towards his quarters, he stopped when he reached the doors,
just in case. The doors opened, giving off that strange hissing sound, like
hed heard on those old Star trek videos.
The room was huge, as he walked in, scanning the room, a huge window greeted
him, stretching most of the way across the wall. Through the window, he
could see earth, the giant planet stood proud for him to gaze upon. He
stared at it, as though he wasnt to sure when he would next see it, or if
in fact he would.
His luggage was set down next to the leather sofa, which was strategically
positioned, like the rest of the furniture. Will liked the layout of the
room, but new his wife would change it within a week, she was fanatical
about feng shui. He smiled when he remembered the time she tried it on the
garden, and ended up flooding the house when she burst a water pipe, digging
a hole for a wind-chime support.
He counted the bags of luggage, picking up one of the small carry cases as
he did so.
All present and correct, he said to himself.
There was a rustling on the table behind him, he turned to see a steel pet
cage, and walked towards it, looking at the bag he had picked up.
He placed it on the table, next to the cage, unzipping it, he said,
Hey up BoBo, and how are you today?
There was a small screech, which Will took to be a full sentence.
Good, good, happy to hear it.
He folded the top of the case back, to reveal a number of different designs
of Chinese worry balls, they were all in sets, with a heading above each
pair.
Office, Home, Spare time, Emergency.
Each pair had a backup pair, and there were some extra, for special
occasions.
Will spent the next four hours unpacking his bags, and getting to know his
new home. He was making himself some dinner, while watching the TV, the
news was on, he turned to take something out of the fridge, as he did so,
the TV changed, the figure of Colonel Green appeared.
Captain Cannon?
Will didnt hear him.
Captain Cannon!?,
Will jumped to attention, banging his head on top of the fridge at the same
time. Will new Colonel Green, hed been taught by him when he was in JMC
college.
Hello David, he replied.
I have some good news, and some bad news.
Will drew a look of anticipation.
Go on he insisted.
The good news, Ive found you a chief security Officer.
Oh brilliant, and the bad news? he started to smile,
Its Major Frank Harris.
The smile dropped.
The man responsible for the assault on Alan Morris??,
he asked,
Oh great, so now Ive got a Commander who probably wont talk to me, and a
security Officer, who lists one of his past times as breaking noses. This
is going to be a right mission this is.
Colonel Green smiled,
Just thought you should know.
He disappeared, and the news came back on.
Will picked up the worry balls marked HOME and collapsed into the sofa,
the only sounds which could be heard were BoBo scratching about in his cage,
and the relaxing hum of the worry balls.
It was 5pm, Seymore would be arriving in half an hour. William put on his
uniform. Before walking through the door, he picked up the cage BoBo was
laying in,
Come on BoBo, Ill show you daddies new office.
BoBo squeaked.
Will arrived at his office, he noticed the door had been fixed.
He set BoBos cage down on the marble table, and opened the gate.
He walked around the table and once again sank into the leather chair. BoBo
crawled out of his prison, and started to explore the table. Will tapped
the screen in front of him, it lit up.
He started to search through the crew files. The first he came across was
Seymore.
Seymore Niples, he smirked,
Nipels, Nipples more like
He started to read through the file, he found it was Seymores first
assignment as commander.
He glanced over at the clock, 5.15pm, he then glanced at BoBo, he had a
tendency to disappear.
The next file he brought up was Major Frank Harris, AKA, the Nutter.
His file read more like a police record than a crew file.
He then went on to Mahok Yolandon, a 95-year-old scientist, who would be
joining the crew. He picked up that Mahok was born on a Gelf Planet, and
was considered to be one of the great minds of his planet.
William had had run ins with the Gelfs in the past, and wasnt surprised to
hear this.
He was just about to tap for the next file, when the screen went blank. The
power had gone, He looked round, BoBo!!
He could see a pair of hind legs, sticking out from a hole, where the screen
stand went into table. He stood up and ran around the table, he grabbed the
legs, and started pulling, he could feel BoBo pulling away, so he started
yanking the legs.
Come on BoBo, Come on Baby!!
There was a knock at the door, will didnt hear it, but the computer
misheard the captain, and the doors slid open, in walked Seymore, greeted by
the back of Captain Will, pulling back sharply and shouting,
Come on Baby, Come on!!.
Captain Seymore announced.
William heard the voice and jumped to attention, letting go of the legs.
Ah, Commander Seymore, how are you, its good to see you.
The commander stared at him,
Fine thank you sir
Its a little dark in here isnt it sir? he asked, trying to make a tricky
moment more bearable.
Yes, well, I couldnt find the light switch. The captain said, trying not
to look to stupid.
Thats because there are no light switches sir, look,
At that moment he shouted, lights , There was a bang, and BoBo flew out
of the hole, and through the air towards the commander. Seymore caught the
creature, without even flinching.
The captain smiled, nervously, good catch
The commander handed over the miniature beast, and replied,
Ill be in my office
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