Midshipman (21 page)

For a long moment he glared at me, his eyes every bit as cold and hard as those of the Imperials his father had once fled. Then he stared down at the deck. Finally, though, he raised his eyes to meet mine once again. “Thank you, David. For showing me that the navy has a heart after all.”

I smiled back and turned to leave, but he stopped me. “At first I had my doubts about you,” he continued. “I was afraid people would laugh when they heard I’d been your classmate. Just like everyone else was afraid. But now… I’m
proud
to be graduating alongside you, Captain. And I want you to know that you’re one of the tiny handful I’ve met that I’ll willingly serve under. And would die for.”

Then, almost miraculously, the navy-hating cadet who’d attended the Academy against his will and done everything he possibly could at every point to make a mockery of military discipline stood rigidly straight and executed a perfect parade-ground salute.

39

The professor had told me to get our team “back aboard the ship”, but he was still too sick to really know what he was about. Instead the Geneva people led us to His Majesty’s Courier
Whippoorwill
, an exact clone of
Hummingbird
save that all armament had been deleted so that she could legally operate in Genevan space. According to the security people she’d been standing by for dispatches, but by now I knew how to see through the cover stories. The navy had kept her there to get James out if it seemed necessary. The giveaway was the fact that fact her captain didn’t seem to have been at all taken by surprise by our sudden boarding. The tiny sick bay was already set up for two severe influenza patients, all stores were complete, and no personnel were on-leave in the Station. The other cadets and maybe even Professor Lambert might not’ve tumbled to it, but I’d seen a few up-ships as a crewman already. Things just didn’t go that smoothly without a plan already in place.

Which made it sting all the more when Captain Sir Joseph Devers bedded me down with the ships’ two Rabbits. “I’m sure you’ll be more comfortable down there with your own kind, David,” the ship’s commanding officer explained with a condescending smile. How many times was I going to have to refight this war, anyway? But I wasn’t a billeted officer, which meant that I didn’t have a solid claim to even a shared stateroom. Therefore it was my duty to sleep wherever and whenever I was
told
to sleep. “Aye-aye, sir!” I replied with a smart salute, which rather caught the captain by surprise—clearly, he was surprised that I was capable of it. I was just making up a nice straw pallet for myself when Heinrich and the Yans came trooping down after me with their own personal gear. “He offered us cabins,” Ho explained. “But then we explained that we’d rather be with you.”

“Then he got
really
mad,” Chang continued for his twin. “And said that we could damned well rot down here if we felt that way about things.” He smiled. “Can you show us the ropes, David? I get the idea we’re going to be bedding down together for the entire passage.”

And they in fact did exactly that; Sir Joseph was apparently an even more stubborn bigot than Sir Leslie back aboard
Hummingbird
. The man didn’t even break down when first Professor Lambert and then James moved in with us after their recoveries. That left us all terribly overcrowded, including the two original Rabbits for whom the quarters were intended. To help compensate for the discomfort I pitched in to help them with their work, insofar as I could without running into the captain any more than necessary. Soon all of us cadets were helping Kanren and Armitage scrub pots, shine shoes, and all the rest. “They say that an officer should know the jobs of everyone under them,” James pointed one day while he was mopping the mess deck. “I wonder why they never taught us this stuff?”

“Because it’s considered beneath we humans,” Professor Lambert replied as he spit-shined the First Officer’s right shoe. “I imagine the rest of the crew thinks we’re quite mad.” Then he smiled at me. “But James is right; it’s been a wonderful learning experience.”

Though Captain Devers grew angrier every day, he wasn’t prepared to push matters any further than he already had. Indeed, on Graduation Day, at the very moment when our classmates were throwing their hats in the air back home, the captain formed us up and handed us our new rank badges. Now were true naval officers at long last, full midshipmen every one of us. Ready for our first assignments and to begin really learning what the navy was all about.

“I bet you’re going to Engineering school like you want,” I told Heinrich a few minutes later, while we all sat around and ate celebratory ice cream cones courtesy of the ship’s cook. Or all of us except me, that was. Kanren and Armitage had gotten hold of some banana chips somewhere and saved them for me. They were a treasure beyond price for a shipbound slave. I almost cried, I was so moved by their generosity. “You’re plenty good at math. And it isn’t like they’ll want to make you a line officer. Not with you so near the bottom of the class.”

He smiled for a moment, but it didn’t last. “At first,” he admitted, “that
was
what I wanted. I didn’t care for the navy as a career, and engineering school seemed like a good way to start learning advanced physics even if I couldn’t go to university. Now, though..,” He sighed. “I guess it’ll be okay if they send me there. But I’d really rather do something else.”

I nodded, understanding the unspoken part. Heinrich had changed a lot during our little field trip. Meeting the Imperials first hand, then losing his first two matches to them (not to mention being robbed of an official victory in the third) was probably why. Ever since then his uniform had been super-sharp, and all the things about navy life he’d previously mocked he now took seriously. James thought our classmate was suffering from a bad case of growing up and finding a purpose in life, and perhaps he was right. It was just unfortunate that it hadn’t happened a few months earlier, when he still had the opportunity to shine and stand high in his class. Engineers trod a different career-path than everyone else—they followed a separate line of promotion and everything. Rare indeed was the officer who was rated to stand watches at both ends of the ship. And command always went to regular line officers.

I smiled back at him and laid a friendly hand on his shoulder. “It’s okay, Heinrich. Maybe we’ll be assigned together.”

“Maybe,” he agreed, brightening a little. Everyone at the Academy knew that I was already about as close as one could get to being qualified as a full-fledged engineer without actually being one, so it was a shoo-in that I was headed for engineering school. Anything else would be a terrible, stupid waste of my previous training.

“We all know where you two are going,” James interjected, nodding towards the Yans. By now I’d mentioned my suspicions that they were headed for careers in Naval Intelligence to our little group, and the Yans had carefully failed to either confirm or deny it.

“And you’re going to be the youngest admiral in the history of the Fleet,” Yan Chang replied with a smile. “Everyone knows
that
, too!”

James blushed a nice, soft pink. “Probably not,” was his reply, and I understood it perfectly. The fact was that James
did
have a knack for the navy, and given the chance likely would climb through the ranks like a skyrocket, just as his father Milord had done in the army. But His Highness was old, and it was highly doubtful that even a skyrocket could climb far and fast enough to achieve flag rank before the grand old man died. At which point my best friend would be done with the navy forever, of course. Indeed, what with the truth being such an open secret I could only wonder why he hadn’t yet been recognized officially as the Royal Heir. Probably high-level family politics, at the Ducal level and above.

“Well,” Heinrich said after finishing the last of his ice cream. “We’ll be home in a week. Then it’s three day’s leave, and the class will assemble one last time to receive our assignments. We’ll know then for sure, one way or another.”

“Yep,” I agreed, swallowing my last banana chip. “And I can hardly wait!”

40

For the first time in my memory the Academy was a happy place; we former cadets were all officers now, all of us, and at long last the petty persecutions and pointless harassments were at an end. Pretty much everyone else was on leave when we got back; all graduates received ten days, of which only three were left. James was off visiting the His Highness; he invited me along and perhaps I should’ve gone with him, but I still felt terribly uncomfortable around so many Heralds and Lords-Attendant and the like. He didn’t press the issue, and I was glad of it. I’d never fit in among the aristocracy, excepting always the easy-going Marcuses.

That left me pretty much alone on campus, except for the Yans (whose parents were offworld) and a handful of less wealthy spanking-new midshipmen who couldn’t afford a shuttle flight to anywhere less boring. So, after making my formal report on the tournament and the code-book affair, I used the time to brush up on navy engine-room practices and procedures. These varied in some small details from the merchant-marine methods I’d learned, so the time was well-spent. And, of course, I rested up and relaxed.

Somehow on the second morning I found myself wide awake well before dawn. I brushed myself until I shone, then slipped into a comfortable pair of slave-shorts. I’d been hitting the books pretty hard of late; perhaps my insomnia was due to lack of physical exercise?

It was a bit eerie, jogging around the Academy grounds in the dark, free now to wander wherever I chose without fear of demerits. But somehow the Mast drew me like a magnet; I remembered how magnificent the sunrise had been from its peak on that one memorable day that felt a lifetime ago. And who knew when I’d get another chance to experience it again? 

Climbing the thing was actually a bit more challenging now than it’d been on my first day of classes; where most of my fellows had grown tougher since then, I’d been in such excellent shape that the Academy routine hadn’t been enough to maintain my conditioning. Still it was a lot easier for me than most; making full use of a Rabbit’s leap-based musculature I bounce-bounce-bounced my way up to the crow’s nest in less than no time, then clambered up the last, hardest bit to the masthead. It was still plenty dark and there wasn’t much to see, but I felt warm and proud inside regardless. I’d learned a thousand vital lessons and skills over the last year, from how to march like a human despite my oversized feet to forcing myself forward to ask questions so that I could write newspaper articles. I’d learned to salute and stand at attention, and to properly groom and dress myself in class-A’s in a minute and thirty-seven seconds, just like the humans. I’d learned how to lie, cheat and steal in order to confound an enemy without losing my own sense of honor, and how to tutor the inept and ashamed without damaging their pride.

Most of all, however, I’d stood up to Commandant Drecher when he’d tried to break me. That’d been the most important lesson of all, I now understood; everything I did for the rest of my life would be built on it. For that was the struggle that had made me free and equal, both in my own mind and that of my fellows. Up until then my manumission hadn’t meant all that much to me, which was natural enough because I’d been a mere child. But now… Drecher with all his rank and years and all the power of his great office behind him had tried to degrade me, and with the help of those who’d chosen to stand alongside me I was the one who’d prevailed. He was dead, while I stood calmly atop the Mast, a newly-commissioned king’s officer awaiting the dawn of a beautiful new day.

What was this moment, then, if not total and complete victory?

Presently the sun rose behind me, just as it had on that other day not so long ago, and the creeping fingers of light reached out to reveal the Academy grounds. There was the parade-ground, focus of so much misery. The Academics building, where I’d discovered my knack for games and gaming theory. The Commandant’s office, where Drecher had taken his own life and his successor had made his formal apology on behalf of the entire service. It was all there, lying at my feet and soon to fade into the past, some for better and some for worse.

Then presently the Mast began vibrating, and I knew that my moment of solitude was over. “We’re to tar the upper rigging this morning!” the voice of a familiar Rabbit blared. “Cletus! You flufhead! What’re you doing with that bucket? Careful, or you’ll dump it on half your mates!”

I smiled, then laughed out loud. I’d been interrupted by this same crowd the
last
time I’d met the dawn atop this particular structure, and a welcome interruption it’d been. “Hello, Sergei!” I called downwards, making a trumpet out of my hands so that my voice would carry. “How’re you and the gang today? And isn’t it a beautiful morning?”

There was a long pause, filled with excited chatter and whispers. Everywhere I went, it seemed, I was a celebrity. Especially among Rabbits. “We’re fine, young sir!” the foreman replied. “And yes it is, though it’ll be plenty hot later.” There was another pause.” “Didn’t mean to interrupt you, sir! We can fix the gymnasium roof first today, then come back here later if you like!”

I laughed so hard that I almost tumbled off of my perch. “And make you carry up all those tools and tarbuckets again in the heat of the day? Not a chance!” I clambered down the Mast and met the elderly foreman partway. He was carrying a large brush and a bundle of rags. “Let me have those,” I ordered. “And if you’ll sway me up a bucket of tar, I’ll do the very top.”

He blinked in confusion. “Sir! I mean…”

I laughed again, then hugged him close as we Rabbits were prone to do when we cared about each other. “A year ago,” I replied, “you fed me and gave me water when I needed help very badly indeed. Then you stood alongside me all night long, risking getting into the very worst sort of trouble.”

His nose wrinkled. “Well… Sir, it was wrong! You were still just a kit, y’see! And after what you’d already done for the Masters…”