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Stories from the Verse
A Dozen Verses
Chapter 75: Cooper 97
Table of Contents
Previous chapter: Kondor 280
Cooper had heard some of the crew say it would take five weeks to get to Luna, and he wondered why. So he sought out the Neptunian Navigation Officer, Ortan, on a shift when both were free. Free did not mean wholly free. One might be grabbed by a superior sailor like Lodotti or Murane or Chief Engineer Ren, or the first or second mate or the usually unseen Captain, for some small tasks. Also, one was expected to stay out of the way of the working sailors, but these two restrictions still allowed plenty of time off in the long haul between planets.
In normal gravity, since they were boosting all the way, he rapped on the Nav’s door. The graceful swimsuited alien opened the door and smiled.
“Brother,” he said. Both were Christians, although they did have some doctrinal differences since most of the Neptunian’s religion of the Desert Walker came from a five hour conversation with Jesus two millenia ago, and Cooper had learned rigorous logic at the feet of men who had learned from the writings of John Calvin of Geneva, founder of Calvinism. But despite that, they shared far more than they differed, and Cooper smiled back with an easy friendship which nourished his soul.
“Brother.”
“So, come in?” Cooper did, and the Neptunian put out several drinks as was his culture’s way of being hospitable.
“We’ve talked some about Christ, is that what you wanted?”
Cooper winced. He had been a bit busy, and had neglected the chance. He resolved to make more time for that. Shaking his head, he spoke.
“No, it’s more about your other hat. Navigation.”
“Other hat? Oh, oh, I see. Clever. Yes, what is it?”
“We went from the Asteroid Belt with the pirates to Venus in about two weeks, and--”
“Why does it take so long to get to Earth which is just one orbit above Venus? Here, let me show you.”
He opened a cabinet, and after unlatching some locks pulled out a very extensive model of the Solar System. It was not to scale, as having the Sun be a million times larger than the Earth would be simply impractical unless you were in a very large park on a planet. He explained this, and Cooper nodded as he already understood that, but the important part was the relationships were accurate.
He showed them flying insystem at a ten degree angle to meet an oncoming Venus. Then he readjusted things, and showed that they would have to fly at a sixty degree angle a great way from Venus to meet the oncoming Earth which was well back along its orbital track. It had been trailing Venus by quite a bit. They would fly outside the orbit of Earth, and drop back to land on Luna.
As he talked he dropped in certain equations, and Cooper readily responded to them. Putting the model to the side, the Nav looked at Cooper.
“Just how much math do you know?”
“I have a college degree in it.”
“I’m sorry, brother; I’m not sure what ‘a college degree’ means. May I ask you some questions?”
Cooper readily agreed, and for the next thirty minutes the Navigator quizzed him.
“Hmmm, you have the math for an ironman or a nav, but also I think you should consider command track.”
“Really?”
“Yes, get a year or two as an Able-Bodied Sailor, and then go to second mate, and first, and in seven years you could be Captain of a tradeship. I can put in a word with First Mate Toko that you’d like to have a run at learning to be ABS if you like.”
“Let me pray and think about it,” Cooper said. “But also, what’s the difference between a Sailor and an Able-Bodied Sailor?”
“A Sailor can go from Level One, which you are, to Level 10. After that, you get seniority hashes. An Able-Bodied Sailor can perform any major job on ship. The vast majority of Level 10’s are also ABS. We have four non-officer ABS’s which is low for a ship like this. Captain would be glad to add more.”
“Who’s not?”
The Neptunian raised three fingers. “Almost all of them fit in three groups: those who cannot fight either due to religious objections, physical impairment, or mental weakness. That’s one group. Next is those who don’t have the math to do even basic ‘aim at the Sun’ nav. From some of our more primitive planets, they still don’t have zeros or algebra. Third is the agoraphobes. If you can’t do an EVA, or extravehicular activity, you can’t get your ABS.”
Cooper nodded, thinking to himself that he could manage all of that. After all, he had already battled pirates, gotten his degree, and wished he could go outside to look at the stars again as he had too fleetingly in the tube between his ship and the pirate ship.
“Thanks, brother.”
As to the old stories that have long been here:
