What frustrated me was that my own rise into space was, for me, painfully slow.What frustrated me was that my own rise into space was, for me, painfully slow. I had taken classes in orbital and special mechanics, starship maintenance and so forth, but I wasn't as quick a learner as many. I had expected more from myself. I blinked at the controls, forcing myself to think of what I wanted, reached for the keyboard and dialed a plus-z overhead view of our ship's predicted path, closing in on a time-tolerant view of the approaching ex-hyperspace window. Eight minutes to go. As I watched the clock tick down, a thought that had been nagging me for the past day finally clicked in my head. "K'meh?" "Sir?" "Uhm..." I paused to collect my thoughts. "Neither P'nyssa or anyone else with whom I feel I have a comforting relationship with came with me on this trip. I, uh... well, first of all, I want you to stop calling me 'Sir.' That 'Kennet' you addressed me with earlier is fine." I swallowed hard, thinking about how sometimes dealing with people was so very easy, and then at times like this I couldn't get out a single word. |