Maing of a Starship Captain

[Note: This Science Fiction story is an

intense character study

with occasional sex scenes.]

They progressed.

In the middle of their second year at the Academy, they began advanced training. They were on Space Station NL-1, in orbit around the earth. They had trained in spacesuits in simulators, but this was to be their first actual test in zero g maneuvers.

Taylor felt a wave of panic as he stepped out of the airlock. The world outside was simply so

large

. The Earth was big in the sky. For a moment, he felt like he was going to fall into it. But then he mastered his fear, and his panic, and reached for a handhold on the side of the ship.

Most everyone had that reaction when they first stepped into space, but some experienced it more than others. The writer Ernie Maslarov was one of them. He refused to step out of the airlock.

"Come on, come on, Maslarov, we don't have all day," Sergeant Chappie snapped.

"I can't do it," said Maslarov.

"What?"

"I can't come out, Sarge!"

"I want your RFD!" said Chappie. "I need your voice print. Say it, Maslarov! R... F... D!"

"RFD," said Maslarov.

"Thank you! You can go back inside now."

Everyone's jaw dropped inside their spacesuits as they realized that Ernie Maslarov was suddenly gone... just like that.

Chappie turned to the other 24 space suited figures. "Does anyone else want to join the world famous author?" He was met with silence. "Good! Then let us begin the exercise!" He pointed with a heavily armored glove. "Does everyone see that red blinking light, about a thousand feet younder? That is Space Buoy Alpha. Each one of you is going to go out there on your jetpacks, grab the buoy, turn around, and come back. Got it?"

No one answered.

"I asked a question!"

"Yes Sergeant!" they all said.

"Good! Martin, you're up first!"

Joanna Martin, took a deep breath, and activated her jet pack.

"I don't know if I can jet out into outer space like that," said Cherry, as they watched Joanna.

"You can," said Taylor.

"Fascinating," said Sophie Astor.

"What exactly fascinates you, Sophie?" Cherry asked.

"Well, it's just that what you fear is an absence of matter. That's what agoraphobia is, a fear of open spaces. The absence of nearby visual stimuli makes you ill at ease."

"

You

make me ill at ease, Sophie," Cherry snapped. "Doesn't this strike awe in your heart?"

"My heart is not capable of feeling awe, or fear, Cherry," said Sophie. "It is a simple muscle which serves a cardiovascular-"

"She made it! She's at the buoy!" said Paula Kenobi.

In the distance, they could see Joanna's spacesuit, at the flashing red light.

"All right, Martin, what are you waiting for, applause?" Chappie growled.

"Coming back, sir," said Joanna.

"Sir?" Chappie roared.

"Sorry! I mean Sergeant, Sergeant!" said Joanna, who for an instant forgot her fear of open spaces.

A moment later, Joanna started to get closer. But it seemed she was heading for another section of the space station.

"We're over here, Martin!" Chappie growled.

"Adjusting, sir, I mean Sergeant," she said hastily. She made a horizontal burst with her jetpack, and in moments, she was back. Allyson Harshbarger grabbed her as she floated by and helped her get a handhold.

"Thanks, Ally," said Joanna.

"Najjar! You're next!" Chappie said.

Mohammida took a deep breath, and launched. But something went wrong. She overshot the buoy, and when she tried to adjust, she started spinning.

"Stabilize, Najjar, stabilize!" said Chappie.

"I can't!" Mohammida yelled, as she spiraled out of control. "Laquinta, help meeeee!" she cried. They watched her tiny space suited body spiraled end over end, heading out into deep space.

"Ain't no Laquinta is going to help you, Najjar," said Chappie. "You want my help, you got to ask for it."

"Help meeeee," Mohammida.

"All you got to do is say three magic words. Come on, Najjar, I know you can say it."

They waited in silence for a moment. Then they heard, over their comm circuit, "R.. F... D...."

"That's my girl!" said Chappie. "All right, retrieval team, go and get her." He checked an internal readout. "Who's next? Farber, you're up!"

Andrea Farber tried to contain her anxiety as she launched towards the buoy. She felt panic bubbling up into her brain as she launched into interstellar space. She tried to will herself to be calm, but it wasn't really working. She had enough sense of mind to decelerate as she got close to the buoy, and grabbed it for dear life when she got there.

"All right, Farber, we're not handing out any prizes," said Chappie. "Come on back."

"I... I can't," said Andrea.

"And why not?"

Andrea Farber was having a panic attack. She couldn't move. Space was so big, so vast. She gripped the buoy tightly. "I can't move!"

Chappie sighed. "Cadets are dropping like leaves today, aren't they? All right, Farber, repeat after me: R... F...D.!"

Andrea looked out into space. She realized she was lost. "R, F, D."

"No, wait!" Taylor cried. He activated his jetpack, and launched into deep space.

"Excuse me? Moon Hero, did someone give you permission to go?" Chappie asked.

"I'll get her back," said Taylor.

Cherry watched, half holding her breath, as Taylor shot out to the buoy. He was going too fast! Even she could see it. If he overshot the buoy...

Taylor decelerated at the last minute, but still came in too quickly.

"Grab my hand!" Andrea shouted. Taylor did, and soon there were two people grabbing onto the buoy.

"You can do this, Andrea," said Taylor.

"No, Mike, I can't."

He looked at her through her helmet. "Yeah, you can."

"She's terrified," said Andrea's Ambition.

"We're all scared. Tell her to get over it," said Taylor's Ambition.

"I can't!" said Andrea's Ambition.

Meanwhile, on a different plane, another conversation was occurring:

"Stop frightening her," said Taylor's Fear.

"Why would I do that?" Andrea's Fear.

"I was supposed to deliver a message. From Taylor's Ambition," said Taylor's Fear.

"And what message would that be?" Andrea's Fear asked.

"If you don't release Andrea right now, he's going to kick your ass."

Andrea gasped, as she suddenly regained control of herself. "All right! I can do it! I think I can do it now."

"All right, get parallel to me. Parallel, that's right. Start your jets for a seven second burst... now!"

They activated their jet packs. Initially, they were travelling parallel to each other, but their paths started to diverge.

"Andrea, you need to adjust. Tilt a bit towards me and give a two second burst," said Taylor.

Andrea followed his instructions.

"Good, that's better."

But it wasn't quite good enough. As Taylor saw the space station rushing up to greet him, he realized that Andrea would overshoot it. He looked at the way she was facing. "Andrea, tilt 12 degrees down, and give a four second burst."

"Twelve degrees?"

"Do it!"

Andrea did it. Her course started to change, and before long she was gently impacting the outer skin of the space station, not far from the other cadets. She grabbed a handhold and started to work her way over. Taylor landed a few seconds before she did.

The other cadets congratulated them. "Mike, how did you do that?" Cherry asked.

"Do what?"

"Determine exactly how many degrees she needed to turn, and how much thrust she needed?"

"It just seemed right to me," said Taylor.

"Good work, Moon Hero," said Chappie. "Your performance was impressive. I will be sure to note it when I issue you a demerit for launching without orders."

"Sergeant!" Cherry cried.

"And as for you, Farber, you can go inside now, and thank you for your RFD!"

"Sarge, she came back on her own!" said Taylor. "Surely that counts for something!"

"She gave her RFD," said Chappie.

"It's not fair!" said Taylor. The other cadets quickly chimed in.

"Quiet!" Chappie roared. "The next one who speaks-"

"It's not the Survey Service way."

"What was that, Taylor?" Chappie snapped.

"The Survey Service way. To be compassionate. To give second chances," said Taylor.

Chappie laughed. "Wherever did you get the idea that second chances are the Survey Service way, son?"

"From you," said Taylor. He didn't say more. He didn't have to. They both knew that Chappie had given him another chance to fulfill his pushup requirement. They both knew that Chappie had stood in for Black Bart to give him an easier opportunity to fulfill his body throw requirement.

"All right," said Chappie, after a moment's pause. "Farber, I'll give you another chance tomorrow."

"Thank you, Sergeant!"

********

Andrea gave him a deep hug after they got out of their spacesuits. And the others looked at him in a new way. Was that pride in their eyes?

The only one who didn't look entirely happy was Cherry. She was frowning all throughout dinner. Taylor waited until they were in private to discuss it.

"Are you attracted to Andrea?" Cherry asked bluntly.

"What?"

"You risked your Survey Service career for her. Are you attracted to her?"

"No!" said Taylor, lying emphatically.

"Then why did you stick your neck out for her?"

"Because it was the right thing to do."

Cherry looked at him uncertainly. She touched his arm. "Are you saying you would have done it for anyone?"

Taylor reached out and started to stroke her breasts. He started to play with a teat. "Anyone."

Cherry moved her lips closer to his. "Even Allyson Harshbarger?"

Taylor smiled. "Especially Allyson Harshbarger."

Cherry smiled and laughed.

Taylor kissed her.

She looked up at him lovingly. "Convince me, Mike."

He kissed her again.

"Convince me more," she said pleadingly.

Mike lovingly took off her clothes and fully convinced her. After he had given Cherry a healthy two pound serving of erect penis, over and over, she began to feel reassured.

********

No one ever survived the

Mitsuyaki Maru

.

It was a test of combat abilities, to see how many enemy ships one could destroy before one in turn was destroyed by the enemy. The background of the simulation was that a Survey Service cruiser received a distress call from a freighter called the

Mitsuyaki Maru

, coming from inside a gas cloud where sensors couldn't penetrate. When the Survey Service ship went in to investigate, it gets ambushed by Ramadhan corsairs, who generated a phony distress call. The best scoring pilots destroyed three Ramadhan corsairs; the most common scores were zero or one. But in all situations, the Survey Service ship was destroyed.

When it was Taylor's turn to be captain of the USS

Potemkin Village

, as the simulator was called, he resolved to do better.

The simulation always began with a distress call.

"This is the

Mitsuyaki Maru

, we are four light years inside the Lesser Magellan Cloud and our engines are out. Can you assist us?"

Taylor unhurriedly activated a link to the ship's database, and started searching.

"I say again, This is the

Mitsuyaki Maru

, we are four light years inside the Lesser Magellan Cloud and our engines are out. Can you assist us?"

Taylor felt all eyes on him. He activated the comm. "This is the USS

Potemkin Village

. We copy,

Mitsuyaki Maru

. Can you tell us the name of your first officer?"

"-need assistance... what?"

"Your first officer. Surely you know the name of your first officer."

"... no time for that, engines failing, life support failing."

"Sorry, no name, no help."

"But Captain!" said one of the cadets.

"No, not interested," said Taylor. "Navigator, set a course in the opposite direction. Full speed."

Suddenly the simulation stopped, and the readouts went blank.

Captain Robertson, who was administering the test, came onto the bridge. "Cadet Taylor, come with me."

********

"I think I acted perfectly properly," said Taylor. "If they can't answer basic questions about their own crew, it's obviously a trap. Shouldn't we be on the lookout for things like that?"

Robertson drummed his fingers on his desk furiously. "That's not what this simulation is supposed to test."

"Respectfully, sir, then maybe you should change the simulation."

Robertson gave Taylor a long look. Then he said "All right, Taylor. Return to duty."

And so Taylor became the only cadet to ever survive the

Mitsuyaki Maru.

But then other cadets started to use the same tactics, asking probing questions that couldn't be answered, forcing the Academy to withdraw the simulation until it could be properly retooled.

********

Taylor had never been on an asteroid before.

The surface of Vega was jagged, filled with all kinds of sharp edges that could easily puncture a spacesuit. But it also offered the perfect environment for near zero G combat training.

They all had pugil sticks, long wooden poles with padding on the ends of them. They looked a little odd, wearing spacesuits and holding long pieces of wood.

"Sarge, I don't understand this," said Bernard Wilson. "We're not going to be fighting in outer space with pieces of wood; we're going to be fighting with blasters and compression rifles."

"Oh, really?" said Chappie, turning slightly as he hit Bernard head on with his pugil stick. Bernard went flying into the air. He yelled as the feeble gravity of the asteroid started to pull him back down again. "You were lucky, Bernard. I was aiming to hit you out of the park. Now listen up, everyone! If you become Survey Service officers, which I extremely doubt, you will encounter a wide range of environments. Some of them may be low or no gravity. You have to be prepared to engage in combat, even without blasters and compression pistols. Kenobi! Oteri! Demonstrate!"

Cherry raised her pugil stick half heartedly and tried to hit Paula. Paula blocked it.

"What are you doing, Oteri?" Chappie shouted. "Are you trying to hit her, or hitting her?"

"A little of both, Sergeant," Cherry said, as she narrowly blocked an attack from Paula.

"Then hit her!" Chappie shouted.

Cherry and Paula battled for a long moment. Paula landed a glancing blow on Cherry's shoulder, but it only pushed her back slightly. Then Cherry saw an opening and connected with Paula's body, sending her flying ten feet back.

"Better, Oteri, better," said Chappie. "All right, who's next?"

He paired them off in teams of two and had them practice fighting each other.

Taylor proved to be exceptionally well skilled in pugil stick fighting. He had never done it before, but found it just came naturally to him. He was pared off with Dave Sebastopol and beat him easily.

Too easily.

"One opponent isn't enough for Moon Hero, isn't it? All right, Harshbarger, give Sebastopol a hand!"

Allyson Harshbarger jumped into the fray. Now Taylor had to fight on two fronts, fighting Dave and Allyson at the same time. But still he parried, sending blows that send them scurrying back. When he connected with Allyson's torso, sending her flying into the air, Chappie said, "Still not enough of a challenge, I see! All right, Sensenbrenner, join the fray!"

Bob Sensenbrenner frowned. "Three against one, Sarge?"

"You know how to count! Get moving!"

And then Taylor found himself with three opponents. Taylor quickly found himself outflanked. So he adapted. He started jumping in the air, hopping from rock to rock, forcing the others to follow. But their pursuit was not coordinated, leaving him able to battle one or two at the time while his other opponent(s) caught up.

Chappie frowned. The boy still wasn't going down! Then he got an idea. "Oteri!"

"Sergeant!"

"Take Taylor down."

"But Sergeant-"

"Move!"

Cherry made a large hop in the air, to close the distance as rapidly as possible. Taylor was battling two other cadets while standing on a large boulder. The third (Allyson?) he had just knocked into the air. Not only was Taylor being unfairly overwhelmed, but she realized she would have the advantage of surprise.

As she landed right behind him, she yelled out, "Mike!" as she swung her pugil stick. Her warning came just a second too late. The stick struck Taylor in the midriff, and he went flying.

"Finally!" said Chappie. "All we needed was someone who knew where his weak spots were!"

********

"I'm so sorry, Mike," said Cherry, giving him a back massage to try to make up for it.

"It's all right," said Taylor.

"Chappie was making us gang up on you like that, and then he used me to take you from behind."

Taylor, who, like her, was topless, reached up and gave her a strong kiss. "I said, it was fine."

And then, he proved there was no hard feelings.

Except the kind that Cherry liked.

********

They were put into a new simulation without being told what the purpose of it was. Once again it was the USS

Potemkin Village

, but this time they were riding in the passenger section, sitting in rows of seats across from one another. The voice of their Captain announced they were lifting for Delta Minor, and for several minutes nothing happened.

"Maybe we're being trained on how to be good passengers," said Cherry.

"Nothing to see and nothing to do," said Joanna Martin.

"On the contrary," said Sophie Astor. "There is plenty to see."

"Lyke whot? We don't even have windows," said Joanna.

"You can count ceiling panels. You can count the wavey pattern of the fabric in these chairs. You can look at how each person's head is aligned in the chairs. You can look at shadows created by the lighting fixtures. You can-"

"Be bored out of my mind," said Joanna. "Do yew really do oll that stuff, Sophie?"

"It never hurts to be attentive to detail," said Sophie.

"Not if you're going to be a decorator, I s'ppose," said Joanna.

"I miss Mohammida. At least we could always count on her to chop off some heads to make our day more interesting," said Andrea Farber

"That's a very Laquintaphobic comment, Andrea," said Allyson Harshbarger.

"Why thank you, Allyson-"

Suddenly, the "ship" buckled, and they were plunged into darkness. As cadets cried out, the dim red emergency lighting kicked in, and suddenly, gravity was gone. They were floating in the air.

"What's happening?" Allyson cried.

"Nothing good, I expect," said Cherry.

"Let's get to the bridge and find out what's happening," said Taylor. He floated out of his seat, as did some of the other cadets. Taylor saw Andrea Farber floating upwards, her beautiful melons bobbing up and down pleasantly in zero gravity.

"Our assignment was to remain here," said Allyson.

"Fine," said Taylor. "You stay here. Who's with me?"

About half the cadets followed him to the bridge. It was slow going, as they were floating in zero gravity. The

Potemkin

Simulator must be inside a Perkins field which allowed them to reset gravity, because they knew they were still on Earth.

Their practice in zero gravity maneuvers suddenly came in handy. Taylor noticed that most of the crew lagged behind, though Sophie Astor was able to keep up with him. When they got to the bridge, it was a mess, filled with burned out consoles, and bodies all over the place.

They were all simulated bodies, of course.

Taylor checked the sensor readings. "It looked like we impacted with something. A meteor, maybe."

"Engines are damaged," said Sophie. "So is life support."

"Then that's the first thing we need to fix," said Taylor.

"Just a minute."

Allyson Harshbarger had entered the bridge. "I think we need to elect a leader first."

"Fine," said Taylor.

"I'm glad you agree! First we should hold caucuses and select candidates who embody the spirit of-"

"You're in charge," said Taylor quickly.