Earth - Commander Richard Smith
From Create Your Own Story
Commander Richard Smith, the thirty-five year old Commanding Officer of the United Planet's Cruiser 5-EX sat patiently in the waiting area of Admiral Thorndike's suite of offices at Celestial Command. The Yeoman behind the desk was busy inputting data into the Desktop when the intercom buzzed.
"Is Captain Smith out there?" a voice asked from the speaker, and when the Enlisted Man replied in the affirmative, the Admiral said to send him in. The Yeoman relayed the information to Commander Smith, although he knew he had heard it for himself. Smith nodded and rose from one of the straight back chairs lining the wall and headed for the door leading into the Admiral's inner office.
"Richard!" the Admiral boomed and came around from behind his desk, his hand extended. "How are you? How was your Leave?"
"I'm fine, Sir," Commander Smith answered as the Admiral vigorously pumped his hand. "And Leave was nice. But it's good to back."
"Excellent!" the Admiral replied, ushering Commander Smith to a chair facing his desk. "Cigar?" he offered, taking out a wooden box from a lower desk drawer and opening its lid as he placed it on the desk top half way between himself and Smith.
"Those things are illegal," the Commander smiled.
"I know," the Admiral smiled back and picked up one, holding it beneath his nose to inhale the aroma before clamping it between his teeth. "That's why I had a special exhaust system installed." He flipped a concealed switch hidden beneath the edge of his desk and a steady low hum started. The Commander glanced upwards, towards the source of the noise, and also selected a "stogie".
"I'm not even going to ask how you came into possession of these things," Commander Smith said as he brought the cigar up to his mouth.
The Admiral grinned through a cloud of gray smoke as he lit the cigar with a desk lighter that was cleverly concealed as a model of a spaceship. The pointed nose section was hinged and could be flipped back to expose the lighter mechanism. Commander Smith was well aware of Admiral Thorndike's resourcefulness. It had first been exposed to it as a young Lieutenant onboard the Space Ship Orion, Commanded by then Captain Thorndike. Smith, like nearly all the Regular Officers of the EX ships, had been hand-picked by Admiral Thorndike for service onboard the new ships. Even the Ensigns assigned fresh from the Academy were interviewed by the Admiral first. If he was not satisfied with a potential candidate, the Ensign would not be accepted into the EX program. The standing joke was that an interview of a new Ensign by the Admiral was the surest way for the new officer to loose five pounds by sweating it off.
Once Smith had his own cigar lit, the two men sat back in their chairs and had a long pleasant talk about the 5-EX's upcoming voyage. This was not an official briefing. That would come later. In fact, there would be many such briefings. But for now, the Admiral just wanted to paint a picture in broad-strokes, to be filled in later as the thirty-day period of refresher training progressed.
"I guess most of your `regular crew' will be reporting in tomorrow or the day after," the Admiral said towards the end of the half-hour conversation. "The scientists and researchers finished their three month basic training in Brasilia last week and were given ten days Leave before having to report here to inter-face with your people."
The Commander nodded at that and then added. "On the sub-orbital flight here, I was looking over the list. I see that I have been assigned an Archaeologist?"
"Um, mm," the Admiral nodded, stuffing out the short remains of his cigar in an ashtray (also normally kept hidden in the same drawer as the cigar-case). "Forty years ago a team of Archaeologists from Troy University on Mars made the journey to Planet M-114 on a `sleeper ship'. They were in suspended hibernation for twenty years and have spent the past twenty studying the remains of a long-dead alien civilization on that planet."
"Really?" Commander Smith responded, sitting up straighter with piqued interest. He leaned forward to also grind out the end of his cigar butt in the ashtray. "I'm curious about what all they found."
"Of course," the Admiral agreed. "There first transmitted reports are just now filtering back. And a lot of it is garbled. Xeonologists, Historians, Psychologists, Biologists, are all very excited that you and your ship will be able to bring back the results of their studies in just a few months."
"I really envy you and the other Skippers," the Admiral said, returning the tobacco contraband to its hiding spot and rising, signaling the interview was over. Commander Smith understood exactly what Admiral Thorndike was saying. Although the Admiral had made the initial four-day trip from the Solar System to Alpha-Centauri onboard the EX-1, the "Father of the Hyper Space Navy" had never commanded one of the new crafts. He had originally hoped to have the EX-1 as his ship, but his talents were needed too greatly planet-side for that.
Admiral Thorndike escorted Commander Smith to the door of his office, and when he opened it, the Yeoman in the outer office looked up.
"Admiral, your daughter called about fifteen minutes ago," the Yeoman announced. He had known better than to interrupt the Admiral while he was having a one-on-one chat with one his ship's Captains. "She said to remind you that you two are scheduled to go out to dinner this evening."
"Blast!" the Admiral exclaimed. He had completely forgotten about that. He glanced at the clock on the wall of the office and realized he would never get out in time for that tonight. There was too much left to do to prepare for his testimony before a Committee of the Planetary Council due to start the day after tomorrow. Then he looked at Commander Smith. He knew Smith was not married; he was not sure whether he had a steady lady friend or not.
"Richard, you, uh, wouldn't happen to free tonight, would you?" Thorndike asked. This time he was talking as a father and not as a Superior Officer.
"Uh, yes, Sir," Smith replied, not sure of the meaning of the question. "I just got in this morning and I have no plans for this evening."
"My daughter Constance is home from college. She just started her first year at the University last fall and is home on break. Most of her High School friends are also away at College or have taken jobs," the Admiral explained. "So, she's sort of at `loose ends' for the weekend. I had promised we would go out for dinner tonight. Some place nice. But…" his voice trailed off as he once more looked at the clock.
"It would be my privilege, " Smith gallantly volunteered.
"Excellent!" the Admiral smiled happily. "I'll call Connie now. I'm sure she'd rather go out with a dashing young Starship Commander rather than her Old Man, anyway."
"I'm afraid thirty-five will hardly seem young to a nineteen year old, Sir," Smith replied.
The Admiral was already heading back to his private office, his thoughts now totally focused on the next task on the day's agenda.
