The Power of Gnaris Read Online Free PDF Page A

snapped to
attention when the commander appeared. The ship was docked for a
stay of several days on a friendly planet, so there was no need for
the ship to be battle ready, or even prepared for its next journey,
but a skeleton crew always remained on duty on the bridge.
    Forster looked
around the room, and seemed satisfied that everything was in
order.
    “At ease,” he
said. “This is Elena. She has spent some time on Earth and has
learned the English language. She is my assistant during my stay on
the Karavec worlds. Elena, let me introduce you to my crew members.
This is my first officer, Captain Jonas LeClerc, and this is
helmsman Sergeant Silvano Rossi.” When each one was introduced,
Elena shook their hand.
    “Over there is
my communications officer, Lieutenant Avril Thom.” She waved. “And
the two gentlemen by the door are on-duty soldiers offering the
first line of defence should anything . . . er . . . untoward
happen.”
    “Captain
Forster, nothing is going to happen while I’m around . . .”
    “The truth is
that there are always guards on duty, whether we’re docked on a
friendly planet or under siege from an enemy craft. It is the
policy of the human race that we should always be prepared for the
unexpected.”
    “I see.”
    After a pause,
she asked, “Why are you here?”
    “To
investigate the murders.”
    “That’s not
what I mean. I mean, what is your ship doing in this solar
system?”
    “We are on a
routine mission around the galaxy. Our schedule brought us to Ogien
where we are on our way to investigate a strange phenomenon on
another of its planets.”
    “Where, and
what phenomenon?”
    “I’m afraid
that’s classified. Now, follow me. I’ll show you around the deck
where the officers have their quarters. A sliding door opened
automatically, and they passed into a corridor that stretched in a
slight curve into the distance, with doors on either side. Forster
stopped outside the first door on the left. “This is my quarters,”
he said.
    “May I take a
look?”
    “Of
course.”
    The captain
swiped his ID card and tapped in some numbers on the keypad outside
the door, and the door opened.
    “Please.”
Forster indicated for Elena to precede him into the room.
    She looked
around and whistled. “What a huge room!”
    “There’s more.
This is my living space. Through there is my bedroom . . .” He
pointed to a door that led off the main room. “. . . and that is my
kitchen . . . I get to prepare my own food sometimes, when I feel
like it, and through there is the bathroom, and . . . oh . . . I
almost forgot, that door leads to my private gymnasium.”
    “Wow!” she
said, plonking herself down in one of the plush green velvet
armchairs. “I could warm to this.”
    “The perks of
being a star ship captain.”
    “What’s
through there?” She pointed to the far side of the room where she
noticed a large window with the blinds shut.
    “As you would
expect, there’s not much of a view out there at the moment. When
we’re travelling, however, it’s often a different story. I get the
best views in the house.”
    “Are all the
rooms like this?”
    “No. My
officers have similar quarters, but rather smaller than mine. The
rest of the crew have to share, usually four or five to a room.
This is a large ship, but also accommodates a very large crew, so
space is rather limited.”
    “Can I see the
crew’s quarters?”
    “That would
not be possible. It is bad protocol for the captain, or any of my
officers for that matter, to encroach on the privacy of the crew
members. But I will show you their recreation area. They have a
large entertainment room, a gym, a swimming pool and a bar where
they can let their hair down when they’re off duty. Come I’ll show
you.”
    When they had
completed the inspection of the crew’s facilities, they returned to
the bridge where they retrieved their coats and climbed back down
onto the planet’s surface.
    “Well, that’s
my guided tour. Now