The View from the Imperium (9 page)

“Miserable job, isn’t it?” my neighbor asked, sympathetically.

“Terrible,” I agreed. “How any normal, living, breathing, intelligent life form can do this day after day without losing one’s wits is beyond my comprehension.”

“It won’t last forever,” she offered, with a kind smile. I noticed how like a couple of forget-me-nots her lovely blue eyes were. “It’s punishment duty, but Wotun hardly ever leaves anyone on it for more than a couple of days.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of,” I said desperately, plunging my hands through my hair. My cameras were out of reach in the lockup. My datapad was in my cabin. Besides, I had given my word not to duplicate the screens that I was reading. Could I scratch the words “fire extinguisher” into my skin with my nail? I bared my wrist and made an attempt.

My neighbor looked at me in alarm as red weals rose on my flesh. “No! It’s not supposed to be torture,” she said. “If you’re really stressing out on it, you can ask Wotun to reassign you next shift.”

“No, don’t!” I exclaimed. At her open stare, I explained, “I don’t
want
to be taken off this duty. This is the greatest source of humor I’ve come across in years! It’s the veritable mother lode. The very
wealth
of it is overloading my neurons. I love jokes. There is nothing better to while away the endless hours of official formal parties than a shaggy dog story or two in a corner with a circle of friends. I am
always
looking for material to stave off boredom. Some of these are the best things I’ve ever heard, and they’re nearly all new to me, so I’m going out of my mind trying to memorize them all. Look, do you suppose you could remember the words ‘fire extinguisher’ for me until the end of the shift?”

Her eyes widened, and she began to laugh. Tears dampened the forget-me-nots of her eyes, and her dainty hand slapped the desktop.

“So that’s it!” I must say that she chortled. “I know that joke. It’s really old, but you’re right, it is a hoot. I first heard it years ago. It keeps making the electronic rounds, probably whenever someone new comes aboard. Everyone sends those attachments to one another.”

My heart filled with hope. “Then you wouldn’t mind?”

She shook her head. “We’re not supposed to pass any kind of information. Wotun would have my intestines!”

“Oh,” I said, disappointed. “Please? It’s just two words.” I fixed her with my most melting gaze, guaranteed to warm the heart of any woman. Her shoulders relaxed and her head tilted sideways as she reveled in my regard, and she began to look wistful. “I would consider it a real favor.” The corners of her mouth turned up and her eyes unfocused. Her lovely lips parted. I leaned in a little. She leaned in, too. I could smell the faint aroma of perfume. I thought it was Silver Lilac, one of my sister’s favorite scents. I smiled. “Pretty please?”

Her eyes dreamy, she nodded.

At that moment, something plastic clattered to the floor. Her eyebrows flew up in alarm, and we both looked in the direction of the disturbance. Another officer on punishment detail sheepishly retrieved the stylus he had been twirling in his fingers. The mood broke.

“Oh, afterburners!” she swore. “Back to work! Here comes Wotun.” She fixed me with a sympathetic expression. “Look, everyone sends those things all the time. After reading them a few times you ought to be able to memorize them just out of sheer repetition, shouldn’t you?”

I shrugged. “That’s true. I hope. Are you sure you couldn’t . . . ?”

“Hush! Here she comes. Buy me a drink later, and we can talk.”

I returned to my screen.

I wondered if there was any way to rig the station so it performed my job for me, without my having to pay attention to it. Not that I would dare to suggest out loud that I could streamline the operation of a department in which I had so recently arrived, nor under such a cloud. Perhaps after a shift or two, I’d be in a position to offer my notions of efficiency.

It was a blow that I couldn’t record the items I wanted, but my attractive neighbor was right. I had a good memory for a humorous anecdote. I should be able to ingrain those stories after a few more rounds. Now that the onus of trying to store up funny material was off me, I could concentrate more deeply on the fine points of erasing message files. Each person aboard an Imperium Navy vessel was issued with a communications device, the viewpad, for which a pocket was provided in the small of the back or, in the case of Gecko recruits, to one side of their ridged spines. All personnel received orders on the small scope a minimum of one time per shift, usually text. An implanted conduction speaker somewhere on the skull provided multiple audio channels that could not be heard by anyone close by unless they were sitting cranium to cranium. Mine was behind my right ear. A few messages contained full video and audio, often when one communicator was sending a piece of entertainment to another, or something special that was worth sacrificing the bandwidth, such as the picture of a newborn child.

The usual method, though, was text transmission. Where silence was necessary, one could finger-spell one’s message into the device, either by stylus or a series of contortions of the fingers before the video capture lens. Like Morse code, which had survived these many thousand years from Old Earth because of its simplicity, the Sang Li hand signs had become indispensable in the centuries since pocket comps were invented. The software translated the signals into text readable at the other end of the circuit, and an experienced speller could carry on a rapidfire conversation by comp as swiftly as if he, she or it was speaking aloud. Subvocalization was the last of the most commonly used means of conveying information. The software picked up those subtle sounds made within the closed mouth, as well as dozens of other methods. The whole purpose was to convey information from one person to another. These people liked to communicate. Frequently. And in detail. They sent messages during off-shift hours, but also during mealtimes, meetings, and—daringly—during training exercises when many of the senders complained of carrying heavy or dangerous equipment. I was impressed.

I scrolled quickly through reminscences and commentaries, consigning those that were appropriate to the disposal bin of eternity. It was up, Lt. Wotun had instructed me, to each “logger” to record his or her daily log into a permanent, personal nonline database. The essence of the ship’s circuit was ephemerality. The dilatory among the diarists were out of luck. I was certain by the witty nature of many of the entries that the authors downloaded them on time. I came across countless observations that were so well thought out that I wished I’d made them, had I been in the same situation at the same time. I learned a great deal about the inner thoughts of my fellow officers and servicebeings. To my surprise, I decided that they would be interesting to know. I’d had little contact with those below my station. I am sure I wondered how different they were from my friends and relatives. I discovered they worried about the same things, fell in and out of love, made bad decisions for good reasons, argued about culture and mass media with the same fervor as anyone with whom I had grown up.

The time-codes embedded into each message didn’t take into account the particular conversants, alas. I found myself reading multiple exchanges going on at the same chronological time. Most, if not all, were silent gripes over the useless nature of a meeting or a course of duty. Replies, which I deleted without hesitation, consisted almost invariably of agreement, laughter or sympathy. The ancient symbols appeared in serried rows descending from the original statement. “Yup.” “Yeah.” “Me, too.” “(g)” “Grumble, grumble.” Just for fun, I kept track of the number of “grins,” and came up with 1,243 before Wotun’s voice jerked me back to the present.

“You’re making progress, Mr. Kinago,” she said approvingly, noting the time-code on the latest “Yup” I was erasing at the time.

I glanced at the chronometer and discovered that four hours had passed since I had discovered the entry containing the first breathtaking joke. I had overstayed my shift by two hours. I should have felt annoyed for missing out on some of my leisure time, but the truth was that I had enjoyed myself greatly in the process.

“It’s a very interesting task, Lieutenant,” I told her, from the depths of my heart.

She peered at me, approval giving way to suspicion. “Sucking up doesn’t impress me, Mr. Kinago.”

“I’m not . . .” I protested.

Her full lips twisted sideways and one eye narrowed. I saw that any attempt I made to persuade her otherwise would fall into the pit of excuses she had been offered by previous consignees to her care.

“Fine,” she said. “Then you won’t mind reporting back here tomorrow morning at oh-eight-hundred.”

I stood up and snapped my hand to my forehead. “Aye, ma’am!”

“Fine. Dismissed.”

I left her shaking her head.

* * *

I sat in the officer’s mess, nursing a cup of very strong coffee from the endlessly refilled pot sitting on a heat element near the door. The contents of the screens that had passed before my eyes were a jumble in my memory. Desperately, I cast through them, hoping to resurrect even a single quip, a humorous remark, or a notable observation that I could cherish and pass along to my friends at home, but all I could see before my mind’s eye was a series of grins and dittos. I could not remember a single thing. I ground the heel of my hand into my forehead, and a moan escaped my lips. Ten hours, and not a decent joke to show for it!

“Fire extinguisher,” a voice suddenly whispered in my ear. “And you didn’t hear it from me.”

I looked up in surprise and delight. The fruits of my labors came rushing to my memory at once. The attractive lieutenant sank gracefully into the chair opposite me in the officer’s mess. I reached for my pocket secretary and scrawled into it as many of the jokes I had learned as I could. The lady waited patiently until I saved my file and glanced up, the frenzied moment having passed. She smiled.

“Better?” she asked.

“I owe you a debt,” I said, fervently. “The beauty of your countenance is surpassed only by your kindness. By the way, my name is Thomas Kinago. Ensign.”

“I’ll take that drink you offered instead,” she said. She extended a hand. “Sedona Alianthus. Lieutenant.”

I entered an order for each of us into the table screen and touched my wrist insignia to the block to pay for it. The screen turned red and began to flash.

“What did I do wrong?” I asked.

“Violation of protocol,” Lt. Alianthus said, scrolling the screen with a finger. Lines of print came up facing her. She read through them, her lovely features sinking into a frown. “You shouldn’t even be in here, Ensign Kinago. I should report you, or I’ll get in more trouble.”

“More trouble?” I echoed, then wished I hadn’t. Of course! She didn’t work in the Records Department, any more than I did. She was there on punishment duty, too.

“Must you?” I asked. I leaned forward, invoking all my charm in the wistfulness of my expression. I didn’t want to refer to the fact that she had already bent the rules on my behalf once just a few minutes before. That would be ungentlemanly. “Please?” The lovely lady hesitated, but her features hardened. She didn’t want her punishment expanded for any reason, no matter how appealingly wistful. My heart sank as I pictured the inside of the admiral’s study once again. I dreaded the aftermath if I should have to be brought before Podesta again. I had no doubt that he would take the promised action. I would never get to see my personal ship, and I would go home in disgrace. My mother would send me into exile, perhaps to my Uncle Laurence’s wilderness cabin on a nameless planet in a lonely system at the far end of the galaxy. “It was an honest mistake.”

“You are responsible for knowing all pertinent naval regulations,” the lieutenant said, her lily cheeks hardening into porcelain. She touched the screen with her identification, and a console pattern appeared.

I was in despair. Admiral Podesta would not hesitate to drop the boom, as it were, upon me. I could feel the long arm of the military police dragging me off to the brig. No, that was a real sensation. A hand had applied itself to my shoulder and tugged upward.

“There you are, my lord ensign,” Parsons said, face and voice expressionless as usual, as I rose unwittingly to meet his eyes. “It was good of you to wait for me. I regret my tardiness.”

“No fault of yours, Parsons,” I said, pulling my wits into some semblance of order. “May I introduce you to Lieutenant Alianthus?”

“Is he in your custody, Commander?” the fair lady inquired, ignoring me as if I was the table between them.

“That would be the perception,” Parsons said, calmly. “We must go now,” he added to me.

Alianthus, for her part, looked relieved and wiped the images off the table. She seemed to have no more interest in reporting me to the admiral than I had in being reported. I allowed myself to be carried off into the corridor.

“Whew!” I said, permitting myself a low whistle of relief once out of earshot. “You saved the day, Parsons. I forgot that the officer’s mess would be off limits to me while I was in Admiral Podesta’s bad books. I just wanted a drink before dinner.”

“The admiral’s strictures on your activities were fairly comprehensive, sir,” Parsons said, steering me firmly toward a lift. “You must stay in your cabin except for meals and work.”

“Meals, yes!” I exclaimed. I put my hand to my stomach, which I fancied felt flatter than it usually did. Pangs duly appeared to remind me of hunger. “What is the time? I missed supper.”

“I observed as much, sir.”

I ignored his smug tones. “And I didn’t stop for a moment while on duty just now, for nourishment or any other form of bodily relief, not through my entire shift. Not that it occurred to me. I was too wonderfully occupied. By Forn, Parsons, you would not believe the marvels I have just beheld!”

An eyebrow mounted that epicene brow. “Marvels?”

I went aloft on rhapsodies of bliss. “This ship, Parsons, this ship! It is the repository of the finest collection of untapped anecdotes that it has ever been my pleasure to experience. Some of them replete with music, video, and minigames. I regretted that I was there as a destroyer of data, when I should have been placing the very best of them into the Emperor’s library itself, as memorials of the gigantic wit of his most loyal subjects—most loyal with the exception of the noble houses, of course,” I corrected myself.