Opening scene between Ory and Bella
Ory checked his last answer and touched the “submit” button. He smiled as he leaned back in his chair, stretching after the long exam. Assuming he passed, he had completed the last of the competencies to be a ship’s captain, all before he was eight kilo-cycles old. He furrowed his thick brows and closed his eyes as he did one more calculation, one his people didn’t do very often. Six cycles shy of eight kilo-cycles is 7994 cycles. The Earth goes around the sun once every 315.6 cycles… That’s about 25.3 orbits of the Earth. Satisfied with the answer, he pondered briefly whether something like his accomplishment would be a significant achievement in the life of an Earther. Then the door chimed.
Ory went to the door and opened it. Bella smiled at him. “I got the auto-message you programmed in that you finished your exam. Want to celebrate?”
He leaned against the door frame, crossing his arms and smiling back. “Not in any big way. I don’t want to jinx it. I should get the results next cycle. Then, hopefully, we can celebrate.”
Bella shook her head, still smiling. His eyes drifted to her loose shoulder-length nut-brown hair. “Always cautious, even though you’ve never failed an exam.” She put on a bigger smile. “Are you at least going to ask me in for cup of jai?”
Ory made a serious face, stood his full 1.8 meters, and extended an arm inward for Bella to enter. He put on a small smile as he said, “Of course.”
Bella sat at the small round table in Ory’s bachelor’s quarters. Ory poured out the hot jai on the kitchenette counter and brought over the mugs. Bella held her mug with both hands beneath her nose and inhaled deeply. “Ahh. Fresh, hot jai. It smells great.” She set it down on the table, but kept her hands wrapped around it. “So, what was the hardest part of completing the captaincy’s certification?”
Without hesitation, Ory replied, “My hecto-cycle rotation with the Executive Officer.”
Bella tilted her head to one side and knitted her brow. Ory responded to her unstated question. “No, no, she treated me fairly, though she quizzed me hard. It was the section heads. In staff meetings or out on rounds, some of them were clearly unhappy that I was working toward this certification. Come to think of it, when I did my deca-cycle rotations with the section heads, Dardános was the only one harder on me than Kalindi was for the Executive Officer rotation. “
“Well, you are younger than all of them and most of them haven’t completed the captaincy certification themselves. And you haven’t been a section head yourself yet.”
“I was hoping to be section head by now, but there haven’t been any openings. I figure Dardános or Talitha will become Executive Officer next when Kalindi either becomes captain or moves to become captain elsewhere.”
“Or Dardános could retire,” added Bella. “He’s the oldest of the section heads and older than Kalindi.”
He smiled ruefully at her. “He’s awfully young to retire. He’s just over thirteen kilo-cycles and Kalindi is just under thirteen kilo-cycles.”
“OK, but the captain isn’t even sixteen kilo-cycles yet, which means that Kalindi isn’t likely to become captain here anytime soon. Do you really think she might move to another ship? Her family has been here for generations, and her oldest is nearly 4 kilo-cycles.”
Ory nodded. “It’s not all about age though.”
It was Bella’s turn to smile. “You don’t think the captain will fail her next reappointment vote, do you?”
At that, Ory slumped in his chair. “No, she’s a great captain. And the others aren’t likely to fail their reappointment votes either. I guess I need to be content working under Talitha.”
