The next day, I was hard at work in my office. Oh, who am I kidding? I was sitting there trying to come up with a single solitary thing that I was supposed to do. My morning was spent walking around looking for something that needed to be done, and as soon as I found something and started doing it, one of the Morganites would come along and take over.
I did manage to get a few minutes with Dr. Farn, and the process of copying, Dr. Farn called it exporting, the engine technical details took all of half a minute. I took the chip down to engineering, and handed it to a confused Chief Williamson because Petty Officer Smart wasn't around. I'm guessing he was off doing some work somewhere. When the Chief plugged the data chip in and looked at the contents he almost fainted.
"This is incredible! Where did you get all this? This is everything we need to work on the engines!" he exclaimed.
"It was all in my head."
I don't think he believed me.
So I was hard at work trying to figure out what I was supposed to be doing, when Cmdr. Barona knocked on the hatch. The whole thing confused me for a second, since I hadn't had anyone knock on my hatch before. Pete was master and commander of his vessel. He never knocked, and the few passengers that we've had over the years probably saw me as a thing rather than a person. So most of them didn't bother to interact with me, the ones that did didn't bother with such niceties as knocking.
"Come!" I said. Hey, that's what Pete always said. So who was I to buck tradition.
"I've come with some design ideas for a uniform for you Captain." She said, and showed me a data pad with some drawings.
The first drawing I threw out right off. It was basically a Morganite uniform, with a whole lot of frills and ruffles, and even a rope thingie around one shoulder.
"But, that's the standard Captain's uniform." Cmdr. Barona said when I expressed displeasure at all the frockery.
"No thanks! You said I wouldn't have to wear a Morganite uniform since I'm not a Morganite, and THAT mess would make me feel ridiculous." I replied.
I hoped I didn't hurt her feelings since I highly suspected that Cmdr. Barona was hoping to one day wear one of those Captains uniforms herself.
The next drawing was perfect. Blue, not too dark, but dark enough to not show every little smudge. The main part was basically a ship suit, but it had a jacket that made it look professional. On the jacket was the name "Haul-o-caster" above a pretty good likeness of Hauley, looking down on the ship from above, and a Morganite Captain's rank insignia on the collar.
It was perfect.
"You can blame Tine for that one." Cmdr. Barona said with disgust. "I told him to do a blue version of the Morganite maroon. Maybe if I get someone to add some decoration to it. That might work. Maybe some glowing orange wings on the back. You have to look like you're in charge after all."
It took me a moment to realize that she was kidding me.
"HAHA! Captain, the look on your face!" exclaimed the smiling Barona. "I knew you would like the blue one as soon as I saw it. For a hard looking man, that Lieutenant Tine sure is an artist. If you like it, I can get you set up with everything you need. Tine was nice enough to include specs for everything, and the Task Force has priority right now. I almost wish we had time enough for Tine to design up matching uniforms for the whole crew."
"How does that work? I thought you were all Morgan Fleet, so you had to wear Morganite uniforms."
"There is lee-way Captain." Cmdr. Barona replied. "It's common for Morganites who are working Outside to take on the uniform of the ship that they are crewing."
"Well, how much work does our talented Lieutenant Tine have? Is there way to abduct some help for him from somewhere? And how much priority do we have? Enough?" I asked.
Cmdr. Barona looked thoughtful for a moment, then said "I'll get right on it!"
We ended up receiving the shipment of a full ship's complement of uniforms, along with all the accouterments that anyone could dream of, and enough spares to cover any likely contingencies, mere minutes before we had to lift off to take our place in Task Force formation.
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