The Glory Star Project

TEN PARTIAL

working on holocomputer lesson with MENTOR and Richards steps in...he's come to tell her about dinner with the other captains but I didn't get that far...

Three days later, Glory found herself daydreaming about Captain Richards when she should have been paying much closer attention to Lieutenant Bartholomew Nerys as he walked her through all the functions of the fancy holocomputer she was meant to learn how to use. Although she and Xav had spent two days tramping all over the ship so she could have a look around, today he’d assigned Bart the task of beginning her training.

“Almost every system on each of the four ships can be reviewed from this device when the links are engaged,” Bart was explaining. “When they aren’t, of course, the only systems shown here would be those associated to Nautilus I. Heating and cooling, the radiators, navigation and ship’s systems, and most importantly all of the cryonics gauges are monitored. You can even monitor the kitchen and all the latrines with just the touch of a button, right here.”

“That’s pretty useful,” she replied as she stepped forward and started testing out some of the functions. “But I sure hope you don’t use this thing to actually look into our rooms.”

Bart chuckled. “Not officially, no. And don’t worry, you have nothing to fear from me. I’m a very old man, you know. A hundred and eighty next month, in fact. And I’m not the sort who would overstep my bounds.”

Glory snickered. “Oh, come on. You don’t look a day over sixty.”

Grinning, he said, “Well, that’s what cryo can do for you, eh?”

“I only see one navigation grid powered on,” Glory said after a few moments.

“Good eye,” he agreed. “When the four ships are connected into their square formation, the main ship is the only one that’s needed. The other three captains have given over navigation, piloting, and even their command of their vessels to Captain Richards. In effect, right now he ranks as the Commander. Other times, when we go to planets he’s meant to negotiate with, they’ll tend to refer to him as Ambassador.”

“So Xav wears a lot of different hats.”

“Well, sure, and I ought to know,” he said with a nod. “I’ve known that man since he was a young boy and I was working for his father. Always knew he’d grow up and take over the family business someday. Most determined kid I ever saw, and now he’s built up his company into something his father never could have dreamed of. He uses a computer just like this one to help him keep all of the data he needs to know straight.”

“Really?” Glory exclaimed.

“That’s right, I do,” the man himself agreed as he stepped through the access doors and they slid back into place behind him. “I see Lieutenant Nerys is telling you all my secrets already. Hey, you do know this is just the first day of training, right, Barto? She needs to be up and running on that computer ASAP. Maybe you should save the history lessons for later?”

“Sure thing, sir,” he agreed.

“The two of you will also need to get all the mechanoids ready to monitor and control the ship while everyone is on ice for the next six months while we’re en route to the Gamlin Quadrant. Don’t know if he got around to telling you that part, Glory, but six months is a relatively short time when you consider the actual distance between Gamlin and Regulus. Because we’ll be travelling through a wormhole to get there, that six months is not spent in the hole itself, that’s just the time it takes to travel from there to the Gamlin Space Station. That’s always the first stop we’ll make whenever we enter this sector.”

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