Voyagers: SS Robert Heinlein

 

CHAPTER 7

GETTING TO KNOW THE HEINLEIN

 

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2122

 

1300

 

“So, tell me about what it is you’ve observed,” Kyle said after he and Devin took a couple of seats in Hal’s office.

 

Devin nodded. “Since you told me about them, I’ve seen that you’re worried about the strange encounter you had here at H-Q and the weird notes you’ve been getting, so I’ve been on the lookout. And I’m sure you’ve seen some things, too, even if you don’t know it.” Kyle felt that as first officer, Devin was his right-hand man and unless he was told otherwise by the upper brass, he would share whatever he knew.

 

“Tell me who or what you’ve seen, and we’ll go from there.”

 

“One happened just this morning and that was the comment about you being lame. I was standing near you. Even though it sounded like somebody was trying to muffle what they were saying, it could still be heard. From what I saw, the two crewmembers sitting in the area the comment appeared to come from didn’t look like they said anything. But like I said, the guy was trying to muffle it and might have had his head turned so you couldn’t see his lips.”

 

“Who was sitting where you thought it was coming from?” Kyle asked.

 

“One of them I didn’t recognize, but I’ll be working on finding out. The other one was Andrew Adams.”

 

“Interesting. I wouldn’t think of Ensign Adams as being someone who would try to muffle what he was saying. He seems to be very willing to make his opinions known.”

 

“Or maybe he knows something about the techniques of ventriloquism,” Devin suggested.

 

“Possible. Highly unlikely, but possible. Anybody else?”

 

“Nothing I’ve seen, but Lieutenant Don Nixon has rubbed a couple of senior officers the wrong way. As you know, one of those is Kage, who thought Nixon’s story about why he couldn’t come in for a live interview had some inconsistencies.”

 

“As in he thought Nixon was lying?” Kyle asked.

 

“Kage didn’t say so directly, but, yeah, he definitely hinted at it. But Nixon was a couple of rows away from where the voice came from. Plus, both Brad and Mituti have mentioned his sullen demeanor.”

 

“I don’t see Adams as anything more than a blabbermouth, although he does have a connection to H-Q, weak as it is. After all, his father is a passenger transport captain. Nixon’s background, on the other hand, is a mystery. I know he was interviewed for the Heinlein captain’s position. I don’t think Hal will share anything about that interview if I ask since he’s required to protect Nixon’s privacy.”

 

“What about your dad?” Devin asked.

 

“While dad gives me a lot of leeway, there’s no way he’s going to violate regulations to give it to me. The only person who can release that information is Mirah. For all we know, the threat could be somebody else, or there might not be one at all. While we’ll get help and understanding from the higher-ups, until we can prove something, we’ll get no private information.”

 

Devin agreed. He checked his communicator and saw it was time to prepare for the start of the afternoon session. “Have fun,” Kyle told him. “I’m going to fade into the background and interview some nursing candidates with Dr. Okoye and the virtual Dr. Tatsu.”

 

They left Hal’s office walking together to the meeting room. “I thought you were doing some interviews,” Devin said.

 

“I am, but I have plenty of time to get there. I think I’ll use some of it to get to know somebody on the crew,” Kyle told him. “I don’t want to be seen as the almighty captain living in his ready room and the bridge. I want to carry my open door with me and get to know some of the crew whether they like it or not. And who knows, my doing that might help put the screws to a festering situation.”

 

“I like it.”

 

As they neared the meeting room, Kyle saw two young crewmembers approaching the entrance. He noted that one was an ensign and the other a noncom.  They looked so much alike Kyle wondered if they were the brothers he had seen on the ship’s roster.

 

Kyle turned away from Devin and stopped the pair with a smile. He saw from their name tags that he had been correct about them being brothers. Caleb Brown was 12 and his brother Bobby was 11. Caleb was a voluntary transfer from the Darastix and Bobby had been a cadet at the Space Academy. But he had the classes and credits needed to qualify as a crewman, provided he attended virtual classes and worked with Ali to complete his course work. Bobby idolized his older brother and had bubbled over with happiness when he received the news of his new assignment.

 

“How was lunch, guys?” Kyle asked the pair. Their eyes almost bugged out when they saw that it was the ship’s captain who had stopped them.

 

“It was good, and we liked it, and thanks for buying our lunch, and did we do something wrong?” Caleb said rapid fire.

 

“You guys didn’t do anything wrong. I want to meet and get to know as many crew members as I can, and by stopping you two I get a two-for-one,” Kyle grinned. “Let’s see if I have you two right—you’re Caleb and Robert, right?”

 

“Right. I’m Caleb,” the older boy said. Caleb had brilliant blue eyes and glowing blond hair.  

 

“And I’m Robert, but everybody calls me Bobby,” the younger boy added. Bobby’s hair was flaming red and was offset by brown eyes.

 

“Captain David liked doing that, too, on the Darastix. He was way bigger than you, but he was really nice,” Caleb said.

 

“You’re nice, too,” Bobby said shyly.

 

“Thanks, Bobby. What department are you two in?” Kyle asked although he already knew the answer.

The lieutenant and his cohort, ensign Everett Belmont, passed the three and entered the meeting room. The lieutenant turned to Everett and said, “I see the little pissant captain decided to pick on two of the younger crewmen to show how tough he is. That dude’s gotta go. Simple as that—he’s gotta go and I’m gonna find a way to make it happen.”

 

“I’m with you all the way,” Everett said. They clammed up as they neared crewmates within hearing range.

 

Brad Kanye sat in the front of the meeting area for Information Systems, his area of command, as the crew filed in from lunch. He was shaking his head at the updated printout he had received. A new name had been added to the crew roster, a name he recognized and had no use for. The name was Ensign Benjamin Kennedy, who had been on the crew of the Sooloo. Brad wondered how Kennedy ended up on the Heinlein since it was no secret that they disliked each other or that there was no love lost between Kennedy and Kyle.  

 

Out in the main corridor, Caleb answered Kyle’s question. “We’re both in Science. I’m the horticulturalist.”

 

“I’m a botanist and I’m his assistant,” Bobby said proudly.

 

“I was the chief botanist on the Darastix. We grew and harvested the fresh vegetables for the crew to eat.”

 

“What got you boys interested in botany?” Kyle asked. He knew the answer to that question as well.

 

“We grew up on a farm in Iowa and I loved learning about what we grew, which was mostly corn,” Caleb said. “On the Darastix we grew Darastixian corn because it grew so fast. That let us have fresh corn more often.”

 

“But it didn’t taste that great,” Bobby added. “Not like Iowa sweet corn that we grew on the farm.”

 

“I wanted to transfer to the Heinlein because I saw how big the horticulture area was—twice as big as ours.”

 

“Why did you want to go into space instead of staying on the farm that you seemed to love?” Kyle asked.

 

“Because we have two older brothers who were going to take over the farm when dad retired,” Caleb replied. “I had really good grades and loved looking at the stars through my telescope. I thought about going to the Space Academy and when I saw you could study botany I quit thinking about it and got my mom and dad’s okay to go.”

 

“I went because Caleb went,” Bobby replied honestly. “And now they’re letting me go with my brother into space for a while.”

 

“You mean the Academy is letting you ship with him, right?” Kyle asked.

 

“Yeah, those guys. I can’t wait until we get to go on the ship. But I still have to go to class sometimes so I can become an officer.”

 

“It’s going to work out great for both of us. I want to tell you about something special I’m working on, and Bobby is helping me with. Since there’s so much room to grow stuff, I want to create a hybrid corn that will be fast growing like Darastixian corn but will be way sweeter like Iowa corn. I’ve got a couple of ideas I want to try. Logan likes what I want to do and is making sure we get plenty of kernels from both kinds of corn.”

 

“You’re due at your meeting in a couple of minutes, so I’d better let you guys go. Thanks for taking the time to talk with me,” Kyle said.

 

“You’re the captain, so we’d better stop and talk with you,” Caleb grinned. “But it was fun and you’re really nice.”

 

“Yep, super nice,” Bobby added.

 

“Thanks, guys. And good luck with your experimenting. I want to sample your first success.” Kyle started to walk away but stopped and turned around. “Tell Logan the captain says hi.”

 

“We will,” Caleb promised.

 

The three then headed for their afternoon destinations; the Brown brothers to meet with Logan and the science staff, and Kyle to sit in on the interviews with the nursing candidates.

 

 

1400.

 

Kyle’s two doctors, Riku Tatsu and Ben Okoye, were waiting for him when he entered the interview room. Riku was there virtually while Ben was live. Kyle wasn’t late. Nevertheless, he apologized for making the doctors wait. “I stopped to talk with a couple of new crewmembers—the Brown brothers. If you like corn, they think they have developed a hybrid corn we’re all going to love.”

 

Because Riku was in the room virtually, as were four of the candidates, Sharon Dayton, a civilian computer tech, was there to coordinate the virtual portion of the interviews. Kyle was so used to working in an all-male environment he found it odd to be dealing with a female. It didn’t take long for him to forget all about the gender difference. The fact that Sharon was extremely competent helped lessen any possible difficulties.

 

They would be interviewing for       two medical technicians, two nurses, and a head nurse. They would also be taking on a sixth member who would either be a nurse or, preferably, a combined nurse/medical technician.

 

The interviews went amazingly well. Kyle was impressed with his doctors, Riku Tatsu and Ben Okoye. They not only were articulate interviewers, they also were thoroughly knowledgeable about the duties of a ship’s nurse and a ship’s medical technician. Kyle’s part in the interview was to fill the candidates in on the protocols and procedures of the Explorer Program and the operation of the Heinlein. He and Riku both answered questions about life aboard a starship for the candidates who had never served on one.

 

When the interviews concluded Kyle listened as the two doctors gave their reports and their recommendations for whom to hire. After they finished, Kyle complimented Riku and Ben on their “amazing work. You totally impressed me with your professionalism and poise.

 

“As for your recommendations, as you recall, I gave you the authority to hire your nurses and techs. If I disagreed with any of your decisions, we’d discuss it after you gave your reports. Well, I’m happy to say that I completely agree with your conclusions and for the reasons you gave.”

 

“Thank you, Kyle,” Riku said. “You made the process easy by not getting involved in the medical part of the interviews and you helped us with your knowledge of life on board an Explorer starship.”

 

“All that said, you will now need to contact all of the candidates and tell them what you decided.”

 

One of the technicians hired was Cadet Kerry Spelling, who was completing his class work at the Space Academy medical school. He would turn 13 on Saturday. He spent three afternoons a week at the Pasteur Medical Laboratory, which was located across the parking lot from Gorgas Hospital. He would take his final examination in a week on the fifteenth and would join the crew the next day. The other one was Cadet Marvin Bailey, 14, who was working as a full-time technician at the Pasteur lab. He had completed his course work and exams at the end of July. Both of them hoped to pass their Ensign examination as soon as possible, but that was not necessary to hold the medical technician position.

 

The big prize in the medical technician interviews, however, was Ensign Felix Castillo, 15, who was qualified as both a medical technician and a nurse. He currently served as a medical technician on the Galileo. While Riku and Felix sat in the same room in the ship’s communications office, each was on his own screen in the HQ room for the interview.

 

Riku had talked up Felix with Kyle and Ben. “Working with him made my job so much easier. He is not only a top-notch medical technician, he is also a fully qualified nurse. Captain Morgan did not want Felix, or anybody else for that matter, to do both jobs, and assigned him to be a med tech only, even though I insisted he be a nurse, where the need was bigger.”

 

“I know the explorer class ships get fewer medical personnel because their crews are smaller than ours,” Kyle said after the interview, “but your head nurse must have been damned good to beat out Felix.”

 

“Oh, he was good. He was very good, in fact. But he was not as good as Felix. I’ve been talking to Felix about going back to medical school to get his MD, but he said he wanted to wait until he was at least eighteen. He could easily be our head nurse, but he likes doing both jobs, so for now that is what he will do.”

 

“As I observed you and Ben interview him, I could see what you liked in him. He’s definitely a keeper. Now we have to deal with the stubborn Captain Morgan.” Kyle was no longer mincing words when it came to Captain Morgan; the Captain of the Galileo had irritated him just as he had Riku. He knew Riku would know he was lying if he tried to sugarcoat Morgan’s actions.

They interviewed six candidates for the three nursing positions. Since their minds had been pretty much made up after reading the candidate’s personnel records, most of the interviews went quickly. They saw nothing in the interviews that changed their minds and stuck to the basics. The interviews for the two candidates they were considering for the head nurse position were a little more detailed, but it didn’t take them long to see who the better of the two candidates was. Even though only one of them would be head nurse, both of them would be hired on, however.

 

The two regular nurses were Lieutenant Scott McKay, who was 16, and Ensign Rory Jones, who was 13. Scott was one of the two head nurse candidates. One of the things Riku and Ben liked about Scott was that he had a specialty as a mental health nurse, someone they felt a hollow space craft crewed by 120 boys battling the throes of puberty could make good use of. He was currently serving on the Henry Hudson under the command of Ivan Petrov.

 

While Rory was young, he was energetic and personable. He was currently a nurse in the student sick bay at the Space Academy. As Ben put it after Rory’s interview was finished, “I think if I was sick or hurt in sick bay I couldn’t help but feel better just because he came into my room.”

 

Lt. Commander Evan White, 15, was chosen to be the head nurse. He was currently serving as a nurse on the Ender Wiggin and was highly recommended by Captain Dave Forbes. The qualifications of Evan and Scott were so close that it was little things that had the biggest influence in Riku and Ben deciding on Evan.

 

Scott’s mental health background, which he made use of at the Gorgas Hospital before shipping out on the Henry Hudson, made him ideal to concentrate on working with the crew. On the other hand, Evan had shown himself to be an adept administrator, taking on some of the administrative duties of the head nurse on the Ender Wiggin the past few months. He felt that doing administrative work would enhance his ability to become a head nurse. When the head nursing position on the Heinlein was posted, Evan knew that was what he wanted. He had no doubt that position was the one he had been working towards.

 

Since Explorer Program protocol required that high command in the program approve of medical appointments, Riku copied his list of choices for Hal, who went over them with Greg. They did a cursory look at the interviews to get a feel for what the candidates were like. They both had looked at the candidates’ files in detail earlier and it didn’t take them long to approve the choices.

 

“The boys did a great job with their choices,” Hal said. “I think that Evan White as head nurse was their toughest choice since he and Scott were both topnotch candidates. That was one they couldn’t go wrong with, but I’ll tell you, Evan White is going to be a force on the ship. He’s going to be a big factor in making Riku’s Wellness Center work, as will Scott McKay.”

 

Riku and Ben discussed how they would deal with their calls to the candidates who didn’t make the cut as well as those who did make it. Kyle thought about how much bigger the medical staff on the Heinlein was going to be than the staff on the Sooloo, which had one doctor, a couple of nurses, and a med tech. On the other hand, the Heinlein’s crew was almost twice the size of the Sooloo’s. If there was an emergency, the Heinlein would often be days away from any assistance. Plus, we’re a starship staffed by a crew of kids, especially the captain, he thought.  Even though we’re all near or above the genius level, we’re still 11- to-18-year-old kids. And as my dad likes to say, you put a lot of kids together, and shit is guaranteed to happen sometime, somewhere.

 

Kyle was brought out of his reverie by Riku. “Okay, we have a plan. Even though I am sure you were listening to what we were saying, we want to discuss it with you. I will make the calls with you with Ben listening in.” Riku told Kyle what he would be saying to the “outs” and the “ins”.

 

“Ben can answer any questions they might have. And then he will turn the candidates over to you, since we know you, our gallant captain, will want to have the last word with each person.”

 

“Sounds good,” Kyle said. “We’ll also need to discuss the logistics. Felix will be coming to the Heinlein on the Pegasus along with you, Riku, so you can discuss the procedure with him. The problem will be the replacement nurse for the Galileo since the Pegasus leaves Earth to meet them tomorrow.”

 

“We’ll talk to Hal about that as soon we’re finished here. It should come as no surprise, but Morgan cheated a bit by getting an extra nurse assigned to the Galileo. I do not know how he did it and I felt it was not a good idea to ask. After all, I liked the idea of having the extra nurse. I have a feeling that Captain Morgan will be asked to choose his new head nurse from the ones already on board.”

 

“So, hopefully that settles that. Which brings us to Evan on the Ender Wiggin and Scott on the Henry Hudson. I’ll have Steve Boyer work with Hal on those.”

 

They then took a break. Kyle and Ben went down to the cafeteria for snacks and sodas, and Riku went to the officers’ lounge on the Galileo for his.  When they returned to the interview room, Ben saw an envelope on a desk next to one of the computers. He saw that it was addressed to Kyle in block print and handed it to him. Kyle knew the contents would not be an invitation to a birthday party. Instead, they would contain the threats he had been hearing since he started to work at HQ. He quickly saw that he was dead right in his evaluation.

 

“HELLO KYLE. BE INFORMED MY BOY IS ON YOUR SHIP AND HE WILL BE SEEING YOU REMOVED AS CAPTAIN. DON’T BOTHER FIGHTING HIM. HE WILL WIN BECAUSE HE IS BIGGER, OLDER, AND SMARTER THAN YOU. HE WILL BECAUSE THE CREW WILL SUPPORT HIM OVER YOU AND THE LACKEYS YOU CALL YOUR SENIOR OFFICERS. YOUR OBVIOUS IMMATURITY WILL DOOM YOU. HE WILL WIN BECAUSE HE IS SO MUCH BETTER THAN YOU THAT YOU CAN’T POSSIBLY STOP HIM.       THIS WILL BE MY LAST NOTE. NEXT TIME YOU WILL BE HEARING FROM MY BOY WHO HAS ALL HE NEEDS TO BRING YOU DOWN. HUGS FROM YOUR FAVORITE COMMODORE.”

 

“Is that from the guy who you told Riku and me about?” Ben asked.

 

“One and the same, although there is evidence that he is a captain and not a commodore,” Kyle replied. “Whatever rank he is, he is a bully and a liar and won’t be getting his way.” Kyle contacted Hal, who contacted HQ security. Within minutes a member of the security team collected the note and the envelope and took them to the security office.

 

Over the next hour Riku, Ben, and Kyle contacted the candidates. They then finished their day at HQ meeting with Hal, who once again complimented them for their fine work. “I will have Greg speak to Captain Morgan regarding the extra nurse and how he will be expected to handle the situation,” Hal said. “And I will turn the logistics for getting Evan White and Scott McKay to Steve. I’m sure he will come up with a couple of good plans for me or Greg to approve.”

 

 

1745

 

Dinner that evening was pork chops, mashed potatoes, and steamed carrots, prepared lovingly by Alicia, Ronnie, and Koji. Ronnie liked to think he could engineer the kitchen with the same aplomb as he did a starship, while Koji was happy to play gofer.

 

After dinner, Kyle met in the den and talked about his latest threatening note with Greg, his father, Ronnie, his brother, and Danny, his husband. Alicia was invited, but she elected to let the men-folk talk and keep track of the young ones while she cleared the dining room, cleaned the dishes, and cleared the kitchen.

 

“Interesting that he signs this one as a commodore. He’s also appeared on video as a captain and told you the first time he confronted you on the stairs that he was admiral,” Greg said.

 

“It’s more like he’s a chameleon or something,” Danny said. “What do you think he is, dad?”

 

“Like everybody else, I have little information to go on, but as I’ve shared with Robert, Dave, Hal, and Bill, all of the information he’s been privy to in his notes tells me that he is an admiral. But as you all have no doubt figured out, he’s throwing us a lot of red herrings, and what his rank happens to be is one of them.”

 

“Wow, I would’ve gone with a really unhappy captain because he keeps saying how he and his ‘boy’ have been screwed,” Kyle said. “That’s what he’s been calling him lately—his boy, not his son.”

 

“Like I said, I have no idea for sure. What I just provided is simply my wild ass guess, don’t quote me. Please!”

 

“No worries, pop,” Ronnie assured him.

 

“I’ll leave it to you high ranking brass guys to figure out who’s been stalking me,” Kyle said. “What the rest of us need to figure out is who the crewman he calls his boy is. Think about it, just because he changed his wording from son to boy, doesn’t mean the boy isn’t his son. From what Steve tells me, eight crewmembers have parents in Space Fleet. Those are the three of us here, and then Nelson Mirah, Andrew Adams, Javier Diaz, Colby Douglas, and A.J. Crowly.”

 

“What do you know about them, Kyle?” Ronnie asked.

 

“Well, we all know that Nelson is Bill Mirah’s son. And since Bill is the Fleet Admiral, I think we can eliminate him as being the boy.

 

“Andrew’s father is the captain of a passenger transport. From what Captain Youngman said, his father had never been in the HQ building the same time the stalker has been active, so he’s eliminated as a possibility.” Captain Youngman was head of Headquarters security. “Andrew is kind of a pain in the ass, but that’s a different story than being a major problem.”

 

“Javier Diaz’s father is a commander and works in the HQ science lab as a specimen analyst. Javier is a science assistant. Logan says he’s been a model member of his staff in the short time they’ve been together,” Kyle told them.

 

“I served with him on the Victorious, and he was a fantastic crewmate” Ronnie added. “And, as you all know, he interviewed for the assistant science chief position.”

 

“I’m not familiar with Colby, but I know A.J.,” Danny said. “He’s my rookie fighter pilot. He’s only twelve but damn the boy can fly. His father is a commander and works as an orbit traffic controller at the Tiberius Space Center. I’ve been told he was quite a fighter pilot in his prime.”

 

“His father also rarely appears at HQ, if at all,” Greg said.

 

“Colby Douglas is a crewman who was struggling in the classroom at the Academy,” Ronnie said. “He wanted badly to go into space. He is quite adept at working with machinery, so he went to Commodore Hanson to find out what he could do. Hanson talked to me, and I talked to Kyle, and we all made a deal with him. He could ship out on the Heinlein as a crewman. He would be assigned to the shuttle bay to do maintenance and mechanical work. He would also spend four half days a week in the classroom with Ali where he would work toward gaining Ensign status. His mother is a lieutenant commander working in operations at the Space Cargo Office. So, while she works in HQ, I doubt that she is him, or however you want to say it.”

 

“Which puts us right back where we started from; we have no clue who the ‘boy’ is,” Kyle said.

 

“If there even is a boy like that who exists. He could be something our unknown stalker invented to create uncertainty, maybe even fear, in the senior staff of the Heinlein,” Greg suggested.

 

Kyle let out a long sigh. “Thanks for being a troublemaker, dad.”

 

“Anything I can do to help. But you have to admit, it is a possibility.”

 

“Yep, unfortunately it is a possibility.”

 

The group decided it was time to end their little meeting and return to the dining room before, “Koji, Tommy, and Duskin eat all of the dessert,” as Danny put it.

 

 

1915

 

Nobody’s dessert had been touched and the boys dug right in. Greg and Alicia elected to skip a somewhat late dessert. “I hope when I get as old as our nafli (grandparents) I will still want to eat dessert when it’s dark out,” Koji said as he dug into his peach cobbler and the generous helping of whip cream topping it.

 

Alicia ruffled her grandson’s hair. “As much as you move around, I have a feeling you’ll be having double helpings of dessert when you’re our age,” she told him.

 

“Oh goody. Can I have a double helping now?”

 

“How about saving the second helping for tomorrow?"

 

“But that’s not fair.” Koji had gone into full pouting mode.

 

“What does everybody say about life?” Kyle asked his son.

 

“That nobody said life was fair. But that still doesn’t make it right.”

 

“But it does make it the way it is, so finish your dessert and dream about that extra helping tonight. Then you’ll be more than ready at dessert time tomorrow.”

 

“Then can I have a double helping tomorrow?” Koji asked Alicia.

 

“No,” she responded sternly, wishing she’d never mentioned double helpings of dessert.

 

Koji was about to sulk again when Greg came to Koji’s rescue, and everybody else’s as well. “Well, how about this idea? The day after tomorrow is your birthday, so I bet if you asked your nafldask nicely she’ll let you have a double helping of any dessert you want.”

 

“Will you really?” he asked with a huge smile splitting his face.

 

“I think it can be arranged,” Alicia said.

 

“Wow! Double dessert. I can’t wait for my bieldrad (birthday).”

 

Koji wolfed down what was left of his single dessert. Five minutes later, Ronnie and Danny were the last to finish their desserts. Tommy and Kyle cleared the table and put the dishes into the dishwasher. Alicia thanked them and said that she and the admiral would finish the cleanup.

 

By 2015 all of the boys had retired to their rooms. Tommy had a room in the pool house that Greg and Danny had set up for him for his brief stay.

 

“How did things go with your pilots this afternoon?” Kyle asked Danny as they undressed and took care of their evening toiletry.

 

“It went great,” Danny replied. “They look like they’re going to be a fantastic group to work with. And, let me tell you, I wasn’t exaggerating about A.J. being an amazing pilot. He’s twelve but acts like he’s been flying for twelve years. I think his dad has taught him a lot. I guess he retired when A.J. was six and he went to work to help his son become a pilot. They even have a computer simulator. And all the work shows. He’ll be thirteen in December and is already a lieutenant junior grade.”

 

“And tomorrow morning while we have the crew meetings, your fighter pilots will each be flying their fighters to the Heinlein, right?”

 

“Yep, and I’ll be flying right with them. They’ll be shuttling back, and I’ll be staying on the ship for the afternoon work.”

 

Kyle and the senior officers would be spending their afternoon going over the details on the ship that they would need to know to efficiently run their departments. The Heinlein kitchen would be working with the Space Fleet cooks to get their introduction to the ship’s kitchen. Executive Chef Ian McFlynn was beyond excited about getting to know the big kitchen he would be running, under the guidance of Star Fleet professional cooks.

 

After dinner, the senior officers would get their instructions for operating the ship’s holodeck and participate in programming. They would then make use of those programs. After that they would have their first overnight on the Heinlein, with a breakfast in the morning prepared by the ship’s cooks with their mentors looking on.

 

After the two naked boys dropped down on their king bed, Kyle wrapped his left arm around Danny and the two young spouses shared a long, wet, loving kiss.

 

“Dan-O, I want do it with you so tomorrow on our second trip to the ship I will be full of your love,” Kyle said.

 

“In other words, you want me to fuck you.”

 

“Better yet, I want you to make love to me.”

 

“Do you want a quick romp or a slow romp?” Danny asked.

 

“Well, it’s not like our slow romps are all that slow, they’re just not as quick as a quick romp. How about a quick romp since we have an ultra-long and busy day tomorrow that will start awfully early.”

 

“A quick one it will be, but slow enough to make it special.”

 

However the two thirteen-year-olds wanted to measure their speed, when they finished with near simultaneous orgasms, they could agree that the most important thing was that the romp on their bed had been a satisfactory one and then some. They slept snuggled together, letting their love flow between each other all night long.

 

Next: Whose Ship is It?