The Interview.

“Thank you.” Dillgar heard the lock release on the door. He pressed another button and the door slid out of the way. As he walked up to the ship he could see that she had taken damage recently. One of the cargo doors had been removed and was apparently under repair. There was no one visible in the landing bay, nor was there anyone in the cargo bay. It appeared that all of the crew was off duty. He continued forward and walked up the steps to the main airlock. Both the inside and outside doors were open. He stepped inside but there was no one there.

“Hello? Is there anyone here?”

“Can I help you?” Dillgar turned around to see a strikingly beautiful woman standing at what appeared to be the bridge hatch.

“I’m here for an interview.”

“Ah, yes. The captain is expecting you. This way”

Her hair was jet black with dark eyes that seemed to look right through him. He followed her around a corner to a door that seemed heavier than normal. She hit the call button and the door slid aside. She motioned for him to go in. As he stepped inside he found himself in what seemed like a museum. There were all sorts of weapons behind a glass wall. The furniture appeared to be all hand made from real wood and the fabrics were all rich and vibrant. This captain obviously liked antiques. On the desk was a small crystal statue of a knight in armor. As he looked more closely Dillgar realized that the statue was moving. The head was turning and following him as he moved around the room. Dillgar found himself enthralled with it and never noticed the person walk into the room behind him.

“It’s a living crystal statue. They’re quite rare.”

Dillgar felt his spine stiffen as he turned around to see the captain standing in the doorway.

“I’m sorry sir, I was just admiring it.” Dillgar’s voice came out a little strained.

“Don’t worry about it. I get that kind of reaction a lot with these kinds of statues. They’re very hard to find these days. That one was handed down to me by my father. He got it from my grandfather. It’s a pre-collapse carving. That’s a replica of a crusader knight from a planet called Earth.” The captain moved across the room and sat down behind the desk. He motioned for Dillgar to have a seat. “I apologize for making you wait. I was trying to get my engineer here for this meeting but he’s still out looking for some parts. As I’m sure you’ve already noticed we took some minor damage recently and need to fix a few items here and there.” Dillgar nodded. “Can I get you something to drink before we start?”

“No thank you. I just had lunch a little while ago.”

“Alright then, let’s get down to it then.” The captain began by asking Dillgar some standard questions about his past. The kinds of things he had done, the problems he had encountered and how he handled emergencies. As time progressed the questions got more in depth and harder. Dillgar found that some of the questions he didn’t know how to answer. He also noticed that after some of the questions the captain would frown slightly. He was really starting to think he had blown his chance.

After about 3 hours of questioning, Dillgar felt exhausted. This captain really knew his stuff. He had grilled him on all manner of systems from simple electrical problems to quantum mechanics. The interview had not gone well in his estimation and Dillgar had resigned himself to the fact that he would have to go home and tell his father that he had failed.

The captain was typing some notes on the terminal at his desk when the call buzzer went off. He picked up a small ear piece and held it up to his ear. “I’ll be right there.” He responded to the person on the other end. “I apologize Dillgar, I need to tend to something. Please stay here. I’ll be right back.”

Dillgar nodded and stayed in his seat as the captain left the room. He noticed that the computer terminal had been left on. He couldn’t quite make out what the captain had entered on the screen. Curiosity got the better of him though and he leaned forward over the desk to get a better look at the notes. It was ugly. He found himself staring at a long list of his shortcomings. A bit depressed now he slumped back into his chair. The list was very long and showed that the captain had severe doubts that Dillgar was right for the position.

As he was sitting in the chair thinking of ways to tell his dad that he had failed the interview, the door once again opened.

“Dillgar?” The woman standing in the door was a young looking thin blond wearing a simple ship’s suit. She looked a bit Arion but she seemed short for that race.

“Yes.”

“The captain asked me to escort you. Please follow me.”

“Wonderful!” Dillgar thought to himself. “Well, at least I can always go back and look at the want ads on the search board.”

The woman motioned for him to go down the hallway toward the aft of the shift. Dillgar was a bit confused since this was not the way he had come in. When the reached the aft bulkhead she told him to wait a moment and she disappeared through an iris hatch in the floor. Now he was really confused. What was going on?

He stood there for several minutes when suddenly the light went red and alarms began to sound throughout the ship. Dillgar recognized the alarm. It was an antimatter leak alarm. His pulse quickened. He had to get out of here.

The door to engineering opened and a droid came out missing several pieces. Smoke poured out of the engineering compartment. He moved toward the droid as it collapsed. When it hit the floor more pieces came off including the head which roller away. Dillgar could barely make out the engineering suite on the other side. He thought he saw a body on the floor in a radiation suit.

For a brief moment he was unsure of what to do. Should he go for help? Should he try to help? Should he just run for his life?

Dillgar decided to help. If this leak got out of hand the star port could be in danger. He leapt into action. Running through the door he grabbed one of the breathing masks that he saw hanging on the wall. The consoles in the area were showing a great many angry red lights. Quickly scanning the console he found the main shut off valve for the fuel flow and turned it off. On this console he also found the control for the radiation foam. He hit the emergency release but nothing happened.

“Damn!” He shouted over the sound of the alarms.

He raced to the body on the floor and started to drag him out of the area. The body was rather small and light. This allowed him to get this person out of the way quickly. He went back into the engineering area and sealed the door. He could hear the life support system straining to clear the smoke from the engineering spaces. Scanning the consoles he was able to discover where the manual control for the foam was located. The smoke was thick and burning his eyes. He made his way along the edge of the bulkhead in the direction he needed to go. After several frantic moments he finally located the control and tried to spin the wheel. It wouldn’t give. He tried again using all of his strength and weight to force it. It still wouldn’t give. If he didn’t get this thing open he would surely die from radiation in short order. He fell to his knees to look beneath the smoke. He saw a metal bar nearby and crawled to it. It was incredibly heavy. Dragging it back to the valve he realized that it must have been made of chromacryst. It was very difficult to lift but he managed to get it into place and use it to force the wheel free. But when he did there was no foam coming from the nozzles in the walls and ceiling. It was just water. Dillgar began to panic. He would have to find some real foam or a medical facility fast.

Then the alarms stopped and he could hear what he thought was clapping coming from above him. As the smoke cleared with the help of the sprinklers he could see two figures standing on the roof of the office looking down at him and applauding. They were wearing Vacsuits, normally used to go into open space. One of the figures began to climb down the ladder that was on the wall. The smaller figure simply jumped to the floor and waited. Both of them walked to where Dillgar was standing.

The first figure raised the face plate to reveal the captain face. He was smiling. “Congratulations Dillgar. You’ve passed the practical exam.”

“What?” Dillgar was still running on adrenaline. He looked back at the captain with a confused look.

“Very nice work.” The other figure said. The voice sounded familiar.

“So Dillgar, how would you like an engineering job on my ship?” The captain was looking a bit more serious now.

“Um…..” Dillgar’s head began to clear. “I mean yes. I’d like that very much.”

“Good. Let’s get you cleaned up and squared away.” The captain removed his helmet. “I would like you to meet my chief engineer. We call him Monkeyboy.”

As the other figure removed his helmet Dillgar finally realized where he had heard the voice before. “Maki?”

“Great job kid. Of course you do realize that your first job is to clean up this mess?” Both Maki and the captain chuckled.

More applause was heard by the engineering hatch. Angel and Bruno were standing there looking at him, smiling.

“Angel, would you please escort our newest crew member to his quarters?”

“Yes captain. I’ll take good care of him.” She turned to Dillgar, “C’mon sweetie, let’s get you squared away and cleaned up.”

Dillgar was still in a bit of shock. How had all of this happened so fast? He started toward the door and stopped. Turning to the captain he said “I won’t let you down sir.”

“That remains to be seen.” He smiled back at Dillgar and jabbed his elbow into Maki.

After Dillgar was out of sight the captain turned to Maki, “Are you sure about this one?”

“Yes sir! This kid has what it takes. I’ll get him into shape, don’t you worry.”

“It’s my job to worry. It is my ship after all.”