The swirling clouds of dark smoke swept around Jack as he stood at the airlock door of his survey ship watching the last of the aircraft taking off from the island. The sound of their prop and jet engines came first, followed by the aircraft passing through the smoke above him. The radio crackled and a young man spoke. “This is Lieutenant Kethan, we are in the air. Starlight, you are clear to take-off. Captain Dagas keyed the microphone. “Well done, Lieutenant. Refuel at Sunth City, then head for the Gobia Desert.” “Yes Sir, Lieutenant Kethan, out.” The Captain keyed the mic again. “Commander Martus, is everyone off the upper flight deck?” “I’m getting rea..” an older voice began. Commander Martus was the RS-40’s Flight Commander, and responsible for the evacuation that had taken place on the top deck of the burning RS-40. Commander Martus must have had his hand wrapped so tightly around his radio that the mic was still on and they could hear all the chaos happening up on the top deck. “…roll him on the ground… get a fire extinguisher…” The background sounds of the hell occurring up on the flight deck made Luca start crying. “My daddy’s up there…” Captain Dagas reached a hand out to comfort the boy. Commander Martus could still be heard shouting orders. “…okay, get him in a stasis pod until we can transfer him to a burn unit…” There was a pause before Commander Martus returned to the radio. “Sorry Sir, we’re wheels up in…” Another voice broke through in the background. ‘Sir, there’s someone trying to take-off on runway B-North.” Commander Martus voice became distant again and the sound of wind rushing past made the radio difficult to hear, but not impossible. The Commander must have been standing on the ramp of his aircraft as it raced down the runway. “… come on boys, you can do it, you can do it…” The sound of an explosion came over the radio. Jack, still standing in the doorway didn’t need to hear it on the radio, he’d heard it from somewhere far above him. “Damn it! Sir, that’s it, we’re the last ones out, nobody else is getting off that ship, there’s not an inch of ground that isn’t burning,” reported Commander Martus. “Did you get to the sleep-pod?” asked Captain Dagas. “I’m sorry, Captain, I was down on Deck 176 trying until the last possible moment.” “Understood Commander, you did all you could, take care of your people, out.” Captain Dagas got up from the pilot’s chair and went to the door. Jack was standing at attention, and even had tears in his eyes. Jack swiped his hand across his face. “It’s just the smoke, Sir.” The Captain laid a hand on Jack’s shoulder. “Do you know what to do?” Jack nodded and handed the Captain a portable radio. The Captain took the radio and stepped out of the ship onto the sand. He turned his eyes to the RS-40 and lifted the radio to speak. “This is Captain Dagas of the RS-40. I am the last living soul remaining at the site of the RS-40 attack. The ship is engulfed in flames and burning. The X.O. has taken command of the airlift and is headed to Sunth City. The RS-72 has completed what rescue operations they could and are now taking the survivors to the Gobia Desert facility. There are no further rescue operations I can conduct. I am declaring the RS-40 lost at 1432 hours and abandoning ship.” Captain Dagas knelt in the sand and bowed his head. He remained kneeling for a full minute before standing and returning to the Survey ship. He handed the radio to Jack and stepped aboard. Jack lifted the radio and spoke into the microphone as Captain Dakari had instructed him. “This is the Survey Ship, Starlight, we have the Captain, changing name designation to RS-40.” The Captain laid a hand on Jack’s shoulder. “Well done, son. Let’s get in the air.” “Can I fly?” asked Jack. “No.” Captain Dagas sat down in the pilot’s seat, and Jack in the co-pilot’s seat. Luca took the navigator’s seat. “There might be a problem,” said Jack. “I can see, how did the control panel get fried?” “No clue?” replied Jack with a guilty half-grin. Captain Dagas pressed a button. The panel in front of him slid aside and a manual yoke lifted out of the compartment. “Oh come on, I pushed every button on that control panel,” said Jack. “Where did that come from?” “There’s a scanner that determines if a child is in the pilot’s seat, it’s a safety feature that was added after some teenagers took one of these on a joyride. Buckle up, boys.” Jack watched everything Captain Dagas did to start the ship. He had also watched his grandfather fly the ship, but Lord Aestar hadn’t used any controls, but instead had held his hands over the control panel and maneuvered the ship using phantom controls that weren’t there. Jack wouldn’t be able to mimic that as he didn’t have the same internal augments that his grandfather had, but there would be a few years to try to convince Lord Aestar to give Jack wrist implants similar to his. Once they were out of the smoke, Jack could see just how bad it was on the RS-40. It was amazing how long the search crews had remained aboard the massive ship, hoping to find just one more survivor. Rolling clouds of oily black smoke were rising from fires that now covered the entire vessel. “There they are,” said Captain Dagas. “I see them,” said Jack. “Wow, that’s a lot of shuttles. They must be spread out over a hundred miles from front to back.” Captain Dagas pointed. “There’s the prop aircraft over there.” Jack twisted his head around to see outside the window on Captain Dagas side. “Why do you use prop aircraft?” “They’re more efficient in the atmosphere, space shuttles use too much fuel for atmospheric flight.” The radio crackled, followed by an urgent call for help: “Mayday, Mayday, Mayday, this is Cargo Shuttle C-139, I’ve lost altitude control. I’m declaring an emergency. We must have taken more damage than we knew when that storage tank blew on the flight deck, we’re going down.” “This is Commander Martus, say how many souls on board, over?” “We have eight souls on board, over,” replied the Cargo Shuttle pilot. “Rescue 25, this is Commander Martus, can you turn around and pick them up?” “This is Rescue 25, I’m already way over my weight capacity, if I land on the water, I’m not getting up again. You’ll have to send a rescue boat for us.” “This is Cargo Shuttle C-139. Sir, we’re not designed for atmospheric flight, and we certainly can’t float. We’re going straight to the bottom, we’ll need divers to come get us.” “This is Commander Martus, do we have any divers available? Come on people, work the problem.” “This is Rescue 14, we’ve got divers onboard, but we left the tanks behind to make more room for survivors.” “This is Captain Dakari, I can send a float plane back, but we don’t have any divers.” Captain Dagas pushed the radio talk button on the yolk. “Break, break, break. This is the RS-40. I’m right behind you, C-139. You have flames coming from your port engine. Go ahead and set her down while you can still make a relatively safe water landing. I’m in a Survey Ship, she floats, and we’ve got dive tanks in storage. The ocean depth here is about 80 feet, I’ll send Dolphin down with the tanks and leave them in your airlock. I’ll be on the surface waiting for you.” “This is Cargo 139, Dolphin?” Luca grabbed the microphone at the navigator’s console. “This is Luca Aestar with Search and Rescue, the Captain just gave me my call-sign, I’m Dolphin. You’re going to be okay, just remain calm, I’m on the way.” “Thank the Great Tree, and congratulations on your call-sign, Dolphin,” responded the pilot of Cargo 139. Someone in the background could be heard shouting, ‘They’re sending Luca and his wolf to come get us.’ The announcement was followed by cheering. Jack rolled his eyes. “Seriously? You couldn’t mention my name? Now they’ll think Mr. Buckles is Dolphin Two. I guess I’m nobody.” “Mr. Buckles is Wolf, everyone already knows that,” said Luca. “You can be Blobfish.” Captain Dagas looked at Jack. “Jack, take this advice the way it’s intended. Luca has been working hard to earn a reputation for reliability, he’s earned a call-sign.” Jack feigned a hurt expression. “But I’m the one that risked my life to go back to Aeden to get someone to help save everyone from the missiles.” “Jack, that isn’t why you went to Aeden,” said Captain Dagas. “You went to get your grandfather to save your skin after you did something very stupid. It worked out well, but don’t pretend you were doing it for any other reason than yourself.” Jack’s shoulders slumped. “I thought you were my friend.” “I’m the best friend you’ve got, boy, and I’ll admit you’ve done a lot of good things, but you do them because you’re arrogant and self-centered and like to play the hero for your own gratification. If I had a son, he’d probably be like you, because you are like I was when I was your age.” “You turned out okay,” said Jack with a pout. “That’s because a lot of good people saw something in me I couldn’t see in myself, and never gave up on me.” Jack gave the Captain one of his charismatic smiles he used to get people to stop lecturing at him. “Does that mean I’ll be Chief of the Boat someday?” Jack caught a shifting glance from the corner of the Captain’s eye. The glance only latest for the briefest of moments, but in that moment it felt like the Captain was looking into Jack’s soul. Jack fell silent and watched the struggling Cargo Ship descending in front of them. There wasn’t any chance that Jack would ever be Chief of the Boat. Senior positions on a Ruk ship, just like Aeden ships, were hereditary. The only thing Jack was going to inherit from Tan was a spatula and a box of Gruggle worms. Something occurred to Jack. “You asked Commander Martus about a sleep-pod, but he wasn’t able to get to it. We’ve lost the other Chief of the Boat, the one that takes over when you’re in a sleep-cycle, haven’t we?” “Chief Alan and I were friends since before we could walk,” said Chief. “I’m sorry,” said Jack. “He lived a good life.” “Not a very long one, that’s not fair,” said Jack. Captain Dagas turned an amused look at Jack. “Chief Alan was the same age as me. How old do you think I am?” Jack shrugged. “I don’t know, thirty maybe.” “Jack, I’m seventy-two.” “What…? No way, you do not look that old.” Captain Dagas banked and slowed to match direction and speed with the Cargo ship that was heading to a crash landing in the ocean. “I eat right, work out, take my vitamins.” “Very funny. So, who’s going to be the new Chief of the Boat?” “It’s not a simple choice.” “Why?” “Chief Alan didn’t have any children to replace him, and my daughter isn’t interested in the job.” “I get it,” said Jack. “You have to choose someone to start training.” Captain Dagas changed the subject. “Alright, the Cargo Ship is landing. Once it’s down, I’ll land in the water over it, then you two hustle those tanks down to them.” “Just follow my lead, Blobfish, you’ll be fine,” said Luca. “Oh shut up, Squid face, you’re not in charge of me,” retorted Jack. Thirty minutes later Captain Dagas was helping the last of the Cargo ship personnel board the Survey ship. He watched to see which of the two boys would insist on being the last out of the water; it was Luca, as he could have predicted. Jack immediately sealed the airlock door after Luca was onboard, then started dragging the tanks back to storage. Luca however, started moving among the survivors with his first aid kit. Captain Dagas called out to the pilot of the Cargo ship. “Lieutenant, that was an excellent landing, are you fit to fly, or do you need rest?” “I’m good to go, Sir,” replied the Lieutenant. “I trained on this model at Flight School.” “I need you in the First Officer’s chair, you’re flying. The controls on my side are damaged and this thing flies like a brick.” “Let me take a look at it, Sir.” The lieutenant entered the flight deck, wiggled the yoke, and then popped the control panel open to look inside. Captain Dagas kept his eyes on the boys. Jack appeared more concerned with securing the ship for flight, assigning seats, and getting everyone buckled in, while Luca, just finishing his medical check of everyone, was now passing water bottles out and taking a moment to stop and assure each person that everything was going to be okay. Captain Dagas filed his observations away for future reference. He needed a candidate to begin the training program that would one day lead to becoming Chief of the Boat. But the problem was made even more complex because he also needed to start training a Captain candidate. “Sir, I can fix this in five minutes,” reported the Lieutenant. “This is a Survey ship, they practically carry enough spare parts in the storage locker to build a whole new ship.” “Do it,” replied Captain Dagas absently as he kept his attention on the boys. Only one of the Aestar brothers appeared to have the personality to become a Master Chief someday, the other was ideal for the Fleet Force Preparatory Academy, followed by the Officers Academy, and then a Commission. But, would putting the two boys on such polar opposite career paths cause tension between them, or would it strengthen their relationship by putting them where they truly belonged? He had to make a choice. He had the evacuation to still deal with, and finding housing, food, water, and medical care for twenty-five million people, but this was also important. The people needed to know they had a Chief of the Boat, even if just a boy that would take many years to train; the Chief of the Boat would be a point of moral and great pride to the people of the RS-40 as they watched him grow into his position. They would also need a young officer to watch grow into the Captain of the vessel. Captain Dagas was both Captain of the Boat, and Chief of the Boat right now. It was his responsibility to choose the two candidates. Though, if he chose one of them as a Captain candidate, he would still have to sell the Fleet Admiral on his candidate. Captain Dagas watched the two boys. One boy was compassionate and focused on the needs of the people, while the other had the ability to be cold and make hard decisions, and even kill in defense of the ship without any guilt. This could be the new blood they needed. He made his decision and retrieved his phone from a pocket. He tapped the buttons to speak to a man he wouldn’t wish on his worst enemy. A man with the voice of a snake answered. “It’s about time, you lazy rock slug, you’ve been the Captain for twelve hours.” Captain Dagas took a deep breath, he’d hoped never to hear that voice again. “I’ve decided.” “The two Aeden boys?” “Yes.” “Bring them.” “Where?” “I’ll find you, it won’t be difficult, you probably still smell like a four day dead dung beetle.” Captain Dagas pressed the button to disconnect the call. “Sir, we’re ready to take-off,” said the Lieutenant. “Alright, I’m coming.”