few minutes early so I can get over there.”
“You better hope Kaplan doesn’t catch you,” I said.
“I don’t think I have to worry. Kaplan sleeps through my shift and yours,” he said, and I laughed. We’d both come to the conclusion that Montgomery Scott was the actual chief engineer, and Kaplan wasn’t letting him transfer out because with Scott around, Kaplan didn’t have to do any work.
A few days later, I came on shift ten minutes early. Ben was anxious to get going, and quickly brought me up to speed on the maintenance alpha and beta shifts had performed on the ship’s fusion reactor. *
After Ben left, I started my routine, which involved studying the engineering consoles and checking the status of the systems. I immediately found a vent circuit to the fusion chamber had been left open. It was contaminating the air in the engine room, and, more important, if the bridge had to shift to fusion power after another five minutes, it could’ve blown up the ship.
I immediately closed the circuit. Kaplan’s words “I don’t want you waking me up unless the ship’s about to blow up” echoed in my head, so, since the ship was no longer in any danger, I decided not to alert him. But regulations stated that I had to log the incident.
I hesitated. This would get Ben in trouble; he should have noticed the open circuit during his watch. My guess was that he’d been too preoccupied about getting to speak with Jamie. I considered leaving it out of the log and just telling Finney privately what had happened. But though Finney had not noticed it being open, it wasn’t necessarily his fault that it had been left open in the first place. If the responsible parties weren’t found, mistakes like it could almost certainly happen again. I felt I had no choice but to log it. Looking back, I might have had a slight bit of resentment that I had had to do Finney’s job for him, that he had put all our lives in danger because of his own personal needs, which may have led to my going to sleep at the end of my shift, rather than trying to find him to tell him what had happened. That was definitely a mistake.
“Wake up, you bastard!”
I’d probably been sleeping for three hours, and before I could fully register the voice that was yelling at me, I was yanked out of my makeshift quarters under the staircase. Shirtless, half-asleep, I stood in the middle of engineering as alpha shift watched in confusion. A furious Ben Finney confronted me.
“What the hell did you do?!”
“Ben, I had no choice …”
He wasn’t interested in listening to me. Kaplan, as he did every morning, reviewed the engineering log from my shift and became furious. I hadn’t calculated that Kaplan would be embarrassed too; the fact that one of his staff had been this negligent reflected poorly on him, and he brought the full weight of discipline down on Finney. Ben had been severely reprimanded and put at the bottom of the promotion list.
“I spent three extra years at the academy teaching idiots like you computers, and now thanks to you I’m going to stay an ensign forever!” I’d never seen him this angry.
“I did what I had to do—”
“You didn’t have to do it. You could’ve looked after me the way I looked after you!”
“I’m sorry …”
“You’re not sorry. You’ve been competing with me since the day we came on board, and now you’ve taken me down! Congratulations! Does it feel good?” He was ranting; it sounded almost paranoid. Everything I tried to say made him angrier, so I just stood quietly as he continued to yell at me. Finally, he stormed off.
I tried to process what had happened. I assumed that once some time passed, Ben would calm down and understand that, had he been in my position, he would’ve done the same thing. But I was wrong. In the days to come, when I would relieve him on engineering duty, he would give me a by-the-book rundown of the engineering situation. I tried on several occasions to
“You better hope Kaplan doesn’t catch you,” I said.
“I don’t think I have to worry. Kaplan sleeps through my shift and yours,” he said, and I laughed. We’d both come to the conclusion that Montgomery Scott was the actual chief engineer, and Kaplan wasn’t letting him transfer out because with Scott around, Kaplan didn’t have to do any work.
A few days later, I came on shift ten minutes early. Ben was anxious to get going, and quickly brought me up to speed on the maintenance alpha and beta shifts had performed on the ship’s fusion reactor. *
After Ben left, I started my routine, which involved studying the engineering consoles and checking the status of the systems. I immediately found a vent circuit to the fusion chamber had been left open. It was contaminating the air in the engine room, and, more important, if the bridge had to shift to fusion power after another five minutes, it could’ve blown up the ship.
I immediately closed the circuit. Kaplan’s words “I don’t want you waking me up unless the ship’s about to blow up” echoed in my head, so, since the ship was no longer in any danger, I decided not to alert him. But regulations stated that I had to log the incident.
I hesitated. This would get Ben in trouble; he should have noticed the open circuit during his watch. My guess was that he’d been too preoccupied about getting to speak with Jamie. I considered leaving it out of the log and just telling Finney privately what had happened. But though Finney had not noticed it being open, it wasn’t necessarily his fault that it had been left open in the first place. If the responsible parties weren’t found, mistakes like it could almost certainly happen again. I felt I had no choice but to log it. Looking back, I might have had a slight bit of resentment that I had had to do Finney’s job for him, that he had put all our lives in danger because of his own personal needs, which may have led to my going to sleep at the end of my shift, rather than trying to find him to tell him what had happened. That was definitely a mistake.
“Wake up, you bastard!”
I’d probably been sleeping for three hours, and before I could fully register the voice that was yelling at me, I was yanked out of my makeshift quarters under the staircase. Shirtless, half-asleep, I stood in the middle of engineering as alpha shift watched in confusion. A furious Ben Finney confronted me.
“What the hell did you do?!”
“Ben, I had no choice …”
He wasn’t interested in listening to me. Kaplan, as he did every morning, reviewed the engineering log from my shift and became furious. I hadn’t calculated that Kaplan would be embarrassed too; the fact that one of his staff had been this negligent reflected poorly on him, and he brought the full weight of discipline down on Finney. Ben had been severely reprimanded and put at the bottom of the promotion list.
“I spent three extra years at the academy teaching idiots like you computers, and now thanks to you I’m going to stay an ensign forever!” I’d never seen him this angry.
“I did what I had to do—”
“You didn’t have to do it. You could’ve looked after me the way I looked after you!”
“I’m sorry …”
“You’re not sorry. You’ve been competing with me since the day we came on board, and now you’ve taken me down! Congratulations! Does it feel good?” He was ranting; it sounded almost paranoid. Everything I tried to say made him angrier, so I just stood quietly as he continued to yell at me. Finally, he stormed off.
I tried to process what had happened. I assumed that once some time passed, Ben would calm down and understand that, had he been in my position, he would’ve done the same thing. But I was wrong. In the days to come, when I would relieve him on engineering duty, he would give me a by-the-book rundown of the engineering situation. I tried on several occasions to
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