ONE
It had all started almost from the moment she’d come aboard her new assignment, an intergalactic police cruiser called Pride of Justice. She was young for such an assignment, young to be promoted to sergeant, but Tabitha had started her career in criminal justice with a bang. Still wet behind the ears from the academy, she had offered herself as bait in a vice sting in her home precinct on Mars. Her captain had been reluctant to let her do it but in the end he had agreed. Despite the danger, Tabitha had considered the results well worth the risk. The sting had brought down several well-known racketeers, proving her value as an undercover agent and an officer.
All at once the offers from other law enforcement agencies began pouring in but Tabitha knew what she wanted to do and it wasn’t to stay planet-bound her whole life. She wanted to soar and what better way than on an Intergal cruiser? The intergalactic crime fighting agency kept records on all of the galaxy’s most heinous criminals and tracked them down from planet to planet, dealing with the worst of the worst. That was where Tabitha wanted to be—in the thick of the action. So it was with anticipation and excitement that she stepped on board her new ship and accepted her new commission.
Pride of Justice was a multi-decked, deep-range cruiser that staffed around twenty officers and ten support crew. As the youngest and the lowest ranked officer on board, Tabitha knew she would have to prove herself. She just didn’t know how hard it would be.
Her troubles started almost immediately when her guide, an older officer with graying red hair named Sergeant Lindy Seamus, had shown her to the small, Spartan quarters with dull gray metal walls that was to be her home for the next five years.
“Bunk there and you can stow your stuff in the fold-out wall unit,” she said, nodding at a narrow cot with a thin foam mattress and a folded olive green blanket. “You’ll find your new uniform in the wall unit too. Bathroom’s in there.” She nodded at the narrow sliding door adjacent to the bed. “You can take an actual water shower since we’re in port right now but be sure you change the setting to sono once we leave planet-side. We have water restrictions in deep space and the captain takes ’em pretty seriously.”
“Okay.” Tabitha nodded, making a mental note. The room was so bare, nearly a cell, but she could brighten it up with the few personal decorations she’d brought. And as for the bunk and the shower, well, she hadn’t signed onto Intergal for lavish accommodations—she was here to catch the bad guys and make a name for herself at the same time.
Sergeant Seamus must have read the thoughts passing over Tabitha’s face because she smirked slightly and put one hand on her hip. “Ain’t exactly the lap of luxury, is it, rookie?”
Tabitha lifted her chin and gave her fellow officer a slight smile. “I’m not here for luxury, Sergeant Seamus. I just want to do my job and keep my nose clean.”
Seamus had made a slightly sour face, as though she’d hoped for a different reaction. “Huh. Maybe you’ll think differently when you’ve been with Intergal as long as I have. But as to keeping your nose clean, you can start by freshening up before you meet Captain Keer.”
“Uh, Captain Keer?” Tabitha frowned. She was almost certain the name of Pride of Justice’s commander had looked different on her transfer papers. In fact, it had been a long string of hard consonants and strange vowel sounds that she had worked hard to learn to pronounce. Keerklovshivnovitch. She’s said it over in her mind so often she was sure it would come right out the moment she saw her new commanding officer.
Seamus shrugged. “You can’t say his real name—it’s Zentorian, you know, so he goes by Keer, which is as close as most of us can get.”
We’ll see about that. Tabitha smiled to herself as she listened to the senior officer drone on. She had an idea that she already knew how to impress her new captain. So no one on board could say his name? She would show them. The minute she introduced herself to the captain she would call him by his true and proper Zentorian name. She knew a little about the race, which came from a distant system with a red sun. They were a stern, severe people who supposedly showed no emotion but nonetheless took a fierce pride in their heritage. Pronouncing the captain’s name correctly was a sure way to make a good first impression and make him remember hers as well when it came time to hand out assignments and promotions.
“Captain Keer will want to see you in the next thirty minutes before we take off,” Seamus said, breaking her train of thought. “And you’d better be in uniform and ready to salute.”