Chapter 5
Needless to say I had to explain the whole thing to Emily. Good news, we got her registered as the ship's chief engineer and added to the net. We then spent the next four hours running around checking all the internal sensor to make sure the ship was functioning properly and make sure the sensors would tell us if it wasn’t remarkably the long period of time free floating in space hadn’t done the ship many disservices only a few small issues were found and the spare parts we found all worked. We were just finishing the last spot when the overhead chimed.
“ captain two vessels on approach” I looked at Emily “Alex and Alysha must be back” I ran up to the bridge but the sensors were picking up the hauler and one much larger ship about a third of the size of the Paladin “ and that’s why you have a crew” I muttered to myself the computer could dutifully alert me to a new vessel on sensor but couldn’t know it wasn’t the one I was waiting for. Emily had already sat at the sensor station “ut oh” I grew concerned “ what kind of ut oh?” she looked back at me “ that’s the wide load one of the company transports''
I was surprised, and wondered why Alex would bring one of the company ships. They were expensive to run and taking one off its normal trade route would cost time and money. The light on the com’s panel began to flash and I walked over “ go for the Paladin” I heard a voice I easily recognized “ well I’ll be damned you actually got her up and running when Alex brought my shuttle back and I saw it was missing two of my three grandkids I almost didn’t believe what he told me!” a smile lit my face “ grandpa what are you doing here?”
the old man laughed “well I wanted to see your new place also brought a few people to help us sort out this little project of yours the company decided to send Rick and a few retired marine buddies of his for some refresher training, you know marines do damage control on navy vessels when not kicking in doors? And look here a ship that could use maintenance.” I got a little choked up just pulling the ship off rotation was already going to cost the business a few thousand let alone paying Rick and his boys over time. “ Grandpa, I don’t know what to say I… well” I heard the com switch from the bridge to being relayed through a comm.d as grandpa went to another room.
“ son, this is what families are for, we help each other when we can and I know part of the reason why you didn’t join the company is because your last name is Miles and not Morison but in thirty years when Emily’s allowed to date and get married “ ,”hey” Emily complained from the sensor station but grandpa kept going “her last name will be different too doesn’t make her or you any less family and I know your aunt and uncle feel the same.” I wiped my eyes quickly “ thanks grandpa, Paladin raise the port elevator” the mechanical voice replied from the overhead “ yes captain”
it was grandpa’s turn to be surprised “ you got it to register you as captain? This will be a lot easier we are on our way over with a shuttle it will off load about a weeks worth of supplies for all of us I’m too damn old to be eating meal packs at my age when there is a perfectly good kitchen onboard” I laughed “ your just worried grandma would find out and get her wooden spoon” we all laughed at that “to true see you in a bit, wide load out.” The freighter dropped off the supplies and returned to its regular route.
It turned out Grandpa had rented the hauler for the whole week which really helped out. Rick and his team along with Emily managed to get the old engines detached. We then used Paladin’s thrusters to move it away from the old engines so the new ones could be moved into place. The whole process took about a week. Grandpa also pointed out my license didn’t cover such a large ship, an obvious oversight on my part. Turns out my little stunt with the shuttle had made the news. I learned the old man had survived and made a full recovery. It turned out he was well liked retired marine officer.
None of Rick's guys had served under him but it still got me some credit with the old guys. Finally we got under way the hauler leading the way. grandpa was sitting in the pilot seat and looked over at me “ it's your ship son I’m just the pilot” I nodded to him grateful he was allowing me to give the orders even if he was the licensed operator the repair crew was manning the other stations while Emily was in engineering with three others. “ navigation set course for the gate if you would'' the man sitting at the console called back “aye Captain course plotted”
I turned to grandpa “ helm take us out at your convenience please” grandpa let out a woot “ home tonight for my wife’s cooking aye captain” we all got a good chuckle out of that. The transit back to the gate was shorter than the trip out with the shuttle but still longer than it would have been if we weren’t following the hauler. “transiting the gate now” grandpa said. We popped back into Paledes and began our transit into the system.
“Captain incoming com from orbital on general channel.” I acknowledged and asked him to put them through “ unidentified vessel this is Paledes control please state your name and purpose for visit and also your vessel type we don’t have it on file.” I looked around at all the confused faces. I was just as confused but I did my best “ummm orbital control this is the Paladin we are here to register this Derelict as salvage in accordance with Paledes law. We are requesting a legal officer to confirm the claim as for model umm you should have a match in orbit at coordinates” I rattled off the coordinates of where the Longbow sat parked.
” Traffic control was clearly as confused as we were '' confirmed Paladin assessor will meet you at the following coordinates as well as an inspection crew we will find... somewhere.” the inspector theoretically had to be familiar with that type or similar vessel so that would be interesting. “confirmed Paledes control be advised we are requesting a military ordinance crew to verify the stability of 12 mark two missiles.” ,”Paledes control copies all.” Grandpa flew us twenty minutes to the holding position.
About an hour later a shuttle approached us, our stand-in operations officer activated the elevator and began to guide a shuttle in while grandpa and I went to hangar to meet our guests. Yellow strobe lights started flashing as the shuttle lowered thru the elevators airlock. to keep the hanger pressured during flight operations the elevator had two doors one flush with the ships exterior and one in the roof of the hanger the airlock was pumped up or down as a ship was launched or recovered.
The pad lowered and slid over to bay three who’s automatic gate was closed until the pad settled into place. The gate slid open as the pilot finished shut down procedures and a side door opened. Grandpa and I quickly pushed one of the fighter ladders over to the shuttle's airlock. A man in a full pressure suit stepped out and looking down saw us in our working utilities.
”Well don’t I feel a little silly?” The man said while taking his helmet off. He climbed down the ladder and shook our hands. “ my name is James Moore with the bureau of ships” he looked at grandpa “ I assume you are the one registering the claim Mr. Morison?'' Our family wasn’t instantly recognizable to the average Paledes resident but Grandpa had done a lot of business with the government and we handled a lot of government contracts so James knowing my grandpa wasn’t a surprise.
“Two more people had come down the ladder behind him, another man and woman. “Actually Mr. Moore, the claimant is actually my grandson here. I’m just here because I have the license to fly it” Grandpa said, pointing at me. Mr. Moore looked surprised but recovered quickly. “my apologies Mr. …”, “Miles, Benjamin Miles but call me Ben '' Mr. Moore then introduced his other two associates.
“ Mr. Miles, if you could take us through how you acquired this vessel the ummm '' he quickly checked his tablet “Paladin wait, The Paladin?” he asked, emphasizing the last two words to which I agreed. Mr. Moore looked around with much more interest, noting the two fighters and shuttle. “Do you plan to claim those as well?” I agreed quickly “ yes the mark one that has been maintained was my great grandfathers and a ship this size needs a shuttle as for the other mark one I don’t know I don’t have the need or money to fix it up. Maybe use it for parts? It isn’t functional so I could only register it as scrap.”
Mr. Moore nodded along “ that makes sense to me. I may have an idea that would work out but I need to call some people first, but let's get the legalities out of the way. If you'll show me to the bridge I will verify the transponder. Due to the unique ship type, small number of hulls, and all but one before today being confirmed destroyed or scrapped, the Longbow was pulled from the universal ship register and placed on the archive list over thirty years ago. My shuttle has a one time use code to reset the transponder to read as an independently built Armed Transport its actually easier to register the Paladin that way then to send out a galaxy wide notice unarchive a ship class.”
Mr. Moore checked over the computer's meta code and checked the numbers physically written on the transponder hidden behind a panel on the bridge and checked a few more things. “Mr. Miles the Paladin was a military vessel and the system does have the ability to turn off the transponder since you are a member of the Militia we will not be replacing the transponder to remove that feature, however I must remind you that unless it is authorized military operation turning the transponder off is a serious crime. please sign here to acknowledge you were informed and to receive the official ownership papers.” I quickly reviewed and signed the tablet.
“ Congratulations captain Miles” my com.d pinged with the ownership documents. “Anything else I can do for you captain?” Mr. Moore asked me. “Yes actually we were going through the ship's crew compartments and officer rooms and came across quite a few personal effects that got left behind in the evacuation. We made careful notes of the names of each locker or room the effects were found in but we have no way of finding their descendants.” Mr. Moore got a thoughtful look. “ I don’t have access to those records but I do know who to call. We sometimes have to find out who has a claim on a vessel if the owner dies in transit and the crew doesn’t know the family.”
He pulled out his com.d “ Craig its George from ships, hey is it ok if I give your contact info to a ship captain? He found the Paladin, yes that one, he wants to get the personal effects back to the people who deserve to have them, yeah now that the official parts are done I’ll try to find out.” Mr. Moore hung up his com.d “so Ben now that the official part is done call me George” my com.d pinged “ that is Craig in personal’s com.d code he should be able to help contact the next of kin and see if they would like their families stuff. Now how on earth did you find her and get her flying again?”
We went into the Captains office and over a half hour and a cup of coffee I told George the story starting with my final school report and ending when we arrived through the gate. George loved it and couldn’t wait to tell Craig over beers that night I showed him and his associates to their shuttle and watched while it was raised through the roof and disappeared.
The next two weeks went by quickly the only interesting events were when I paid 1000 credits for another weeks worth of fuel the flight in and docking served as my final check flight and grandpa checked me off and submitted my simulator scores for review a day later I was certified to fly and captain a medium size vessel. I also took the time to run through the available training for the tactical station I doubted I would need to use it but I wouldn’t buy a pistol and not know how to operate it so I was going to apply that to the guns on the Paladin though we only had ten rounds for the Mark 9’s the Destroyer size guns the Paladin used as secondary armaments.
The main gun was out until we could get the plasma generator replaced but our PDC’s or point defense cannons were working and almost fully loaded so that was good. The military also sent over a team and were nice enough to swap our Mk II missiles out for some surplus mk III’s they had in storage. The mark three’s fit on the same pylon mounts as the mark II’s unlike the new mk VI. They only had six but they threw in a Mk II-T, a torpedo type ordinance that could be attached to an under belly attachment point on the betty.
Modern League doctrine called for a multi-role design, slower, more heavily shielded, able to carry a mix of ordinance; the Panthers were space superiority fighters designed to meet and destroy enemies before they could launch a strike on allied ships. Today I was having a meeting with Emily in the conference room on deck two.
“So in summary we have five days of fuel, four of one hundred and fifty crew and no way to afford anything else?” I asked to summarize our current situation. Two of Rick's guys had decided to stay on with us; they had no families and living on board didn’t require rent; one was a licensed helmsman and the other was a class C engineer. “and we have three days of food left for the four of us” Emily helpfully added. “right and I got about a thousand credits to my name to pay everyone and keep us flying and fed.” Emily nodded “ yep might be time to get us a job, boss.”
I sighed “ I wish it was that easy but E,but I don’t know the first thing about that!” Emily rolled her eyes “ then just call grandpa!” I blinked then cursed, of course it was that easy, I pulled out my com.d “ hey grandpa it's me got a minute?” grandpa's voice came across the com “hi grandson what can I do for you?” I put the com on speaker “the ships running low on fuel and I’m almost out of money, I need to find a job but I don’t know how” grandpa sounded like he had just found a missing puzzle piece. “ oh, that makes a lot more sense. I was wondering why you hadn’t picked up a contract.”
my com.d pinged “ that’s a link to the station bored should work in any system your in it has a lot of features but you will be locked out of most available contracts until you have a reputation, Paledes the League and League protectorates share a system if you take contracts outside of the League you will have to build up a reputation there as well.” I pulled up the contract board and entered the ship's information. Our lack of a dedicated cargo bay knocked out a lot of options leaving us with four two would have taken us a few weeks to complete and were out because of our lack of fuel and funds to pay my two employees.
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“here!” Emily exclaimed, pointing excitedly at one of the few contracts and pulling it up on my office wall. I read the contract details. It was a run from Paledes to Consorsha; the client was the Paledes military; it was an ongoing contract for about two months to Joint Station Morgan in Consorsha. It was the distribution point for the new Cora class training fighters to be shipped out to bases throughout the League but they needed to be moved from the manufacture at Paledes shipyard to J.S. Morgan.
The contract only offered 400 credits a run but the part that got Emily excited it came with two days worth of fuel the round trip would take us about 36 hour.s so we gained a half a day of fuel after each trip the runs themselves would cost about 150 credits between food and crew pay for Emily and the other two as well as setting money aside for wear and tear repairs. The trainers needed to travel with a flight crew and pilots so a ship with a dedicated hanger and crew berthing would make it much easier for us to load and transport than for other freighters.
I quickly locked in our acceptance. Grandpa must have also been watching the board because he said “good choice short trip so doable with your limited crew and well matched for your ships unique characteristics.” I thanked him for his help and hung up. Leaving the office Emily headed back to engineering and I went for the bridge. “Good morning, sir” Max, my other authorized pilot, said from the pilot's seat as I walked in. I had told him he could use the captain's seat but he had just said it wouldn’t be proper.
“ Good morning Max we have our first contract” Max got out of his seat and walked over to where I threw the details up on the screen of my station. “ Oh nice boss, that's a good starting run but might I recommend hiring one more watch stander so we can do 8’s instead of 12’s” I thought about it, eight hour shifts would be better and now that we had a contract I could afford it but there was still a problem. “ I agree Max but I don’t know anyone looking for work do you?” Max shook his head “ no boss, we should check the boards”
I looked over and raised my eyebrow “ right forgot your new at this” my com.d pinged “ that’s the link to the employment board” I threw it up on the screen and Max walked me thru how to navigate the bored I set the filter for someone who was qualified to stand watch on a medium size vessel that left me with about hundred candidates. I then set it to look for personal willing to work long deployments that left 90 “hmmm what about” I mumbled to myself and on a whim set the filter for Militia personnel figuring it might be interesting to have a light cruiser full of Militia show up at the training exercises and see how the military liaison reacted.
There were three potential officers left and one caught my interest “ an Asinali here?” Asinali were an independent race with about twenty five planets on the other side of League space; they had features most similar to a fox kin from old fantasy novels. big fluffy ears and a fluffy tail they were well known outside the League as mercenaries. There were two camps, Asinali traditionalists with a strong sense of honor and outcasts who were willing to do anything for a payday. which had led to problems with the League due to the nature of politics. False promises from small-time league politicians led to small skirmishes that broke out every decade or so when their promises fell flat.
The last major engagement was about thirty years ago when a politician promised lower tariffs on trade for the support of Asinali living in the border region in his bid for the senate he won but “delays” stopped his effort to combat tariffs. The Asinali were not unreasonable so said they would not declare a Kesanari or honor debt if he publicly declared his opposition to the tariffs. It wasn't until the politician refused that the Asinali declared Kesanari and launched an invasion across the border.
The conflict lasted three months with fierce fighting on both sides but fortunately before the war could escalate the politician in question caved to public pressure and resigned and the League senate issued an apology. “Ashley Tieruki, father was an Asinali Commando captured in the battle of Antara 4 honor intact.” Asinali could be captured and retain their honor in certain circumstances such as facing over welling odds, being injured, or receiving orders to stand down or ,as happened a few times in the League, if a contract was found to be dishonorable.
Many times criminal elements had tried to hire Asinali mercenaries to assassinate a nosey cop or judge only to have the Asinali dismantle the organization upon investigating the contract and surrendering to local law enforcement when they arrived investigating the disturbance.
“ ah here it is mother was a Paledes nurse serving on a League hospital ship that….” Searching the public net for government records, it arrived as a part of a League relief column when the conflict ended. Boy gets blown up, meets a pretty nurse, settles down and raises a family on her home moon.” Max nodded “ looks like that to me too, boss.” I looked over her resume.
“qualified watch stander, Corporal in the militia exemplary marks in CQC looks like her dad taught her a few tricks, has her own gear including suit and armor only asking for standard watch stander pay Max what am I missing why does it show her as shore side the last four months since she qualified?” Max sighed “ if I had to guess prejudice, most folks don’t understand Asinali culture that well, the only thing they are more loyal to then their nation is family most see an Asinali signing on anywhere other than Asinali space and think they must be a spy or a mercenary between jobs not understanding their honor system, if a traditional Asinali takes the militias oath that means their honor dictates that oath supersede any lingering loyalty to one of the Clans only really military and long haul traders know the difference between traditional Asinali like Ms. Tieruki’s father and the wandering guns for hire. Also take a look at her chosen Gerahi.”
Gerahi were the Asinali traditional weapon of honor this could be any weapon that an individual Asinali felt a connection to in a semi religious manner. They kept them within arms reach at almost all times Asinali like all traditionalists kept her Gerahi listed as a part of her kit. “ a GRR-87C never heard of it” I ran a search and the web popped up an answer I read out loud. “ Gerandoi repeating rail 87 close variant based on the GRR-87 main battle rifle, an automatic patterned rail rifle known for its stopping power and accuracy at the expense of a slow fire rate compared to similar models. the close variant has a shorter barrel and collapsible stock as well as a rapid fire mode that reduced the power behind each shot but significantly increased rate of fire… oh.”
Gerahi were normally personal weapons, knives, pistols, and rarely but sometimes submachine guns or swords. but a full battle rifle a crew member carried around all the time might make a regular merchant nervous not to mention the headaches carrying it in the inner League worlds would cause. They generally considered firearms as something uncivilized barbarians carried; some stations had even tried to outlaw them although it never seemed to work.
“ Looks like a good fit for us, I have no issues with a well armed crew” I said to Max who nodded his agreement and I sent the offer letter to her com.d. I messaged the contact in military logistics and found out why we were uniquely suited. It turned out that the fighters were supposed to be complete at the same time as the Paledes new fighter transporter but construction delays had pushed delivery back by two months but the Carrier P.M.V. (Paledes Military Vessel) Vigilant was due to dock at Joint station Morgan in three weeks to pick up the first load of Cora’s so the Military needed a transport to move enough fighters to fill the Vigilant. why they didn’t just divert the Vigilant to Paledes for the pick up I didn’t know and wasn’t about to ask in case someone thought that made too much sense and I lost the contract.
We agreed to transport an element ( four fighters) at a time along with a shuttle for the ground crews and the pilots kit bags as well as a squad of marines to maintain a watch on fighters since we weren’t a military vessel nor was my militia status being activated. Once the basic time tables were worked out the logistic officer sent me a link to the element leader for the transfer team. These pilots would stay with us for the duration like the marines while the ground crews would follow the aircraft each time they offloaded the pilots would ride back on a shuttle to the Paladin and we would return to Paledes to repeat the process.
I showed Max the messages and he had a small frown “ Captain may I make a suggestion?” I looked over to him “ of course Max you have much more experience then I do.” ,”Well sir, I recommend you ask the element leader before he brings the first run of fighters over if he might want to have the pilots and crew chip in for some foodstuffs and use one of the kitchens. The contract says the military will provide food for their personnel but I would bet a week of pay that it will be battle rations and I bet the passengers would be happier with real food.”
I thought about it for a moment food for another 20 people for two days would be only about 10 credits “ negative Max, a good suggestion but I am willing to eat the cost if you would lay in an order for two weeks worth of food with the station chandlery I’ll take our shuttle over and pick it up the least we can do is feed these folks” Max nodded approvingly “ no worries boss I’ll get that sent in.” my com.d pinged Ms. Tieruki had accepted the contract as a watch stander; she would make the same as Max and Emily 150 credits a week. A lot smaller than a planet or station side job but food and housing were included.
I informed her I could meet her on the station in two hours for a pick up explaining that we had a contract if she couldn’t be ready by then we could pick her up when we were back in system in a day and a half she responded that she could be ready. After giving Max some time off to run to the bathroom and make something to eat I headed down to the hanger and boarded the shuttle. I did a quick pre-flight and called Max up on the coms he activated the elevator from the operations station on the bridge and the pad lifted the shuttle to the launch position.
I released the magnetic landing pads and slowly floated away from the vessel using just a tiny burst from the maneuvering jets once clear I flew the half hour to the station and after getting a hangar assignment I docked and contacted the chandlery and told them what hanger I was in. Ten minutes later the groceries were delivered. I began loading them on board and was about halfway thru when the hanger door open. A woman with red hair in a tight bun walked in the orange ears with black tips and the bushy tail behind her gave away who my visitor was.
“Ms. Tieruki nice to meet you” I said walking down the ramp to meet her. Her voice was pleasant and warm not at all as serious as I was expecting “ please call me Ashley I maybe half Asinali but I was born and raised Paledes and while I’ve accepted quite a bit of my fathers traditions” she gently tapped the butt of the rifle slung across her chest as reference “ the formal styles of address and attitudes were not one.” She smiled and held out a hand for a handshake which I accepted.
“Well that makes me a touch relieved to be honest the crew is a little small right now and I’m not sure we would be able to keep a formal setting all the time, is that all of your kit?” I asked, pointing to the rolling auto sled following her. It had a matte black large case that looked like the cases the marines kept their armor in. The Paladin had three sets left over when we found her two were damaged and one fit Max, Emily had gotten another one working that fit her by taking parts from the last one.
Ashley also had two of the olive green military duffels that seemed to have been used since man invented fire. “yep that’s everything” she replied cheerily. “Great, let's get it loaded on board and when I get these groceries on we will be good to go.” Ashley loaded her gear then helped me with the rest of the groceries. We strapped into the cockpit and after I got clearance from station control we took off and I flew us back to the Paladin. We landed on the elevator pad and it descended into the flight bay.
Ashley spotted Betty and the other fighter and she turned to look at me “ what kind of vessel is this again? I looked it up in the League registry and it just had it listed as a generic Armed transport and said it was hull two of two but when I clicked the link for active hulls to figure out the ship type it just showed this one.” I thought for a moment then put it together.
Longbow wasn’t an active hull but did still technically exist so the office of ships labeled it two of two, funny. I smiled and asked “ have you ever looked up the longbow in the registry?” Ashley looked at me confused and said slowly “ yeah last year when I graduated I did the same report as everyone on it why?”, “ Can you do me a favor and pull it up again? I bet there has been a change.”
Ashley gave me a funny look but did it anyway after a few moments “ wait a minute that’s new hull one of two” she paused for a moment and her tail stood up straight behind her” no way but how?” she stared at me in disbelief as I gave her a quick rundown of how we found the paladin and restored her. By then the pad had settled into its spot and I dropped the ramp and unbuckled Marcus Trenton, Emily's engineering assistant and also the elected ship's cook, met us in the shuttle cargo and we all carried the food to the mess hall and kitchen.
Once we had finished unloading I showed Ashley to the officers berthing so she could put away her stuff but she had a different idea. “ Do you mind if I use the marine officers quarters instead? I will probably spend a lot of my free time in the armory.” I shrugged “ sure I don’t see an issue this way” we went down to deck one and she stored her gear in the marine officers berth. Then I gave her a tour of the ship just as we finished when my com.d pinged.
“ Captain, the first Cora is about to land. I figured you would want to meet the element leader” I thanked Max and left Ashley to get settled in while I went to the hangar to meet our guest’s. Both elevators were active and two brand new fighters lowered into the hanger and into two of the parking spots and two more pads raised up the shafts for the next two fighters I ran over and pushed one of the ladders over to one of the fighters and then the other. The Cora were two seater spacecraft with a pilot and sensor officer as the four spacers exited their craft I walked up to the one with the highest rank.
“ hello Commander I’m Ben Miles Captain of the Paladin “ the officer reached his hand out and I shook it “ Jim Monroe nice to meet you Captain” the elevators began to lower with the next pair of fighters “ I showed LtC Monroe the flight bays, briefing room and pilot berthing and explained we would have food available for his people during meal times “ thank you captain we were not looking forward to eating BatRats every other day” Monroe then noticed Betty “ no way is that an original Panther mark 1?” I walked him over and popped the canopy so he could take a look inside.
“ yeah it was my great grandfathers, my Chief engineer got it running for me although I have only gotten to take it out once so far everything else has been in a simulator.” Monroe climbed the short ladder and leaned in to take a look but was careful not to touch anything “ you have a full spec simulator?” I chuckled “ yeah turns out the militia ground school simulators are the same base code as the ship simulator it required a week straight of running updates on the ships program but it's finally up to date, ironically I had to re-add the Panther because one of the updates patched it out.”
Monroe called down “ yeah they don’t make them like this anymore, the Panthers should be classified as Interceptors high speed thanks to the plasma shielding high maneuverability the only problem is it can only mount four missiles before you have to return to the hangar to rearm.” I made a light noise of disagreement. “ I think you're forgetting the twin railguns commander, Betty doesn’t have to retreat after launching her ordinance like a modern fighter.” Monroe nodded “right they haven’t built guns in for the last 20 years they are considered old fashion on a battlefield full of missiles.”
I could tell by his tone of voice he didn’t really agree but he wasn’t about to bad mouth the government while in uniform. We talked for a bit while the other two Cora’s and the shuttle of staff landed. Then Monroe took command of the military personnel and got everyone organized and I returned to the bridge. Ashley was in the pilot seat when I arrived so I sat in the captain's chair. “Take us out on our first run when you're ready Ashley.” She turned and gave me a grin “aye, aye captain” I rolled my eyes as the Paladin engines increased to a noticeable but not loud volume as we began our first voyage.