Chapter 3 The captain

Before he had left the yard the master shipbuilder had sent messages to all his employees, warning them that the captain of the black ship would be a woman. He had ordered them to look their best, wear gloves over any deformed hands, and bloody well be on time. All three had listened well. They looked acceptable, dressed in proper clothes and one even smelled nice. No sooner had all three taken their seat near their small consoles, the porch opened and a Landarian came into the ship yard.

"Oh no, " was all the shipbuilder could say. Landarians were difficult, short tempered, big, strong, ugly and the genders were impossible to keep apart. This had to be the captain, as well as the worst day of this month.

"You the builder?" the Landarian asked as the ground had stopped trembling.

"I am. You must be the captain."

"Yeah. Bridge. Now." The monster pointed at the black ship. "Move!" She did not wait. As she stomped towards the lift the master shipbuilder ran after her. He feared for the well-being of his material. The lift held, as did the ramp. The gangway moaned precariously as the Landarian walked over it but even that kept its shape and place.

Inside the bridge three robotic units were waiting outside with all the equipment that was standing outside, waiting to go inside. As the builder and the captain entered the bridge the robots moved to the side. Their self-preservation routines were programmed to recognised Landarians. The captain pointed at places and called out the name of the thing she wanted there. "Steering, compass, speed, viewer, monitor, chair, maps, library, comms." This went on for a while until the builder wondered where they would put all that stuff. On second thought he wondered if they even had all that stuff.

"Got that?" the Landarian asked, her stony grey eyes trying to pierce through his head. It felt to him that they made a lot of progress in the process.

"The robots recorded it, ehm, ma'am." Best to stay polite with such a thing. The shipbuilder had heard stories of angry Landarians and those were not funny.

"Fix it. Done tomorrow." With no further comments or remarks the Landarian beauty stomped out of the cabin that made up the bridge and subsequent shudders told the man that she had found her way off the ship. A loud cracking noise and an even louder thud told the man that the gangway had sped up the Landarian's leaving of the ship. He ran outside and leaned over the side of the proud ship just in time to see the solid captain get up, climb from the lowered floor and then walk toward the porch. One really did not play games with Landarians, so much was obvious.

The robots manoeuvred a spare wooden plank onto the ramp so the master shipbuilder could get off the ship and to the ground again. Once there he ordered his employees to reprogram the robots in order to get the bridge prepared. In the meantime he would make himself useful to design an image that would go on the bow of the ship.

***

The noise inside the bridge-room had ceased since a while already when the shipbuilder appeared with a large sheet of paper. On it was a large black blob which he proudly showed to his employees.

"Wa's that?" the one who smelled nice asked.

"The black flower. It goes on the bow."

"Isn't that kinda dumb putting a black flower on a black ship?"

"I, ehm, plan on making it a different shade of black."

The three in the seats looked at each other and then focussed on their consoles, even though they had nothing to push there. Everything was better than risking to make fun of the boss. He was not Landarian but strong enough to do serious damage to a person. "Yeah, you go do that, boss."

As the shipbuilder paced off to the dock, the sheet in hand, he wondered if his employee had a point. Black on black. It sounded like the most amazing thing to do, but... He looked up at the looming hull as he reached it and held up the drawing. He absolutely needed a different kind of black, otherwise this would be a bad idea.

The boss of the ship yard turned and walked back to his employees as he remembered the suit. "Did any of you remember to order a suit?"

The three men, sitting in their chairs outside the 'office', shook their heads and all said "I didn't."

"Great. You. Order the suit." The shipbuilder's index finger pointed at the man in the centre seat.

"Again? I always have to order the suit! Why can't one of the others do it for a change?"

"Because you know how to do it properly."

The middle man sighed. "I deserve a bonus for this, " he muttered as he pressed a button on his console. After a while two lights lit up, one red, one green. He pressed the red one. "A decent bonus for that. It's going to be here tomorrow."

His employer looked thoughtful. "I think I can arrange something for you." The man was satisfied with his solution for the situation: he'd simply pay the other two a bit less this week. That would take care of the bonus in a fortunate way. As business was slow that day he sent his employees off and withdrew into his office to rethink the colour of the flower.

***

A few days later Blokman Rufer received a call from the ship yard. The vessel was ready and he was asked to come and have a look at it, preferably with the entire crew. That was a positive sign. The credits had already been transferred and he wanted some value for that, value that could only be brought about by putting the ship to good use. With some luck they could take it out of the yard that very day and start doing some serious business.

As the group of eight arrived at the ship yard, there was a nasty surprise. "No, no, you cannot take her out for real yet! We have to do some training on board, you see, so everyone knows how to do things with this particular model. It's a new model, new technology, so it has new quirks and habits, " the master shipbuilder commented.

He was immediately lifted off the ground as the Landarian captain took charge of the situation. "We take her now, " was her summary of events to come. Then she dropped the shipbuilder. His employees, all three present in their seats, were relieved to be in the protective bubble that shielded them from the influences of the weather on the planet and momentarily also from the impact of the big and not so subtle captain.

Blokman told the captain that he appreciated her concern to get business going but that at least one test run and some information would be a good idea. Despite being her boss he knew he had to approach her carefully. Landarians were not known for being understanding, contrary to the rest of the crew that consisted mostly of Amandians. The captain nodded but didn't help the shipbuilder to his feet.

"Let's proceed to the ship then, " Blokman broke the tension. They all moved to the lift and the ramp. The captain considered the gangway and shook her head. Then she jumped and landed on the deck, to the shipbuilder's surprise. The planks of the deck shuddered and rattled but held. The ship bobbed under the sudden impact. The other people used more regular means to board the Black Flower and once the gangway was hauled in the shipbuilder informed everyone about the cabins, the engine room and - "Oh. It looks like the captain has already found the bridge." The huge shape of the Landarian was positioned in front of the window that looked out to the bow. She looked content as far as a creature with a near stone face could show such an emotion.

There were three men who would have the engine room as their workplace, so the master shipbuilder told them how to enter the massive metal suit and demonstrated the controls inside the thing to make it move. Every victim (as that was what he called them silently) walked the suit around the deck to make sure they had control of it.

By that time Blokman Rufer and the woman who was to man the helm had joined the captain and they discussed a first trip. "Unfortunately this will be without cargo but we cannot risk this man to endanger our operation, " he said as he watched the shipbuilder point left and right with the crew nodding like puppets. "The greedy bastard."

"Everything paid?" the captain asked in her usual terse way.

"Yes, everything is paid for in full. Why?"

"Toss 'm."

Blokman frowned and looked around. The ship was still in the dock but had been lowered into the water already. Throwing the man overboard would get him wet but leave him furthermore undamaged. "You might just have given me an idea..." The proud shipowner left the bridge and walked down the short staircase. "Dear sir. I need a word with you."

The master shipbuilder turned in mid-sentence, his hands in position to add weight to a specific action. "I'm sorry?"

"I need you to leave my ship, " Blokman came to the point. "You can leave by gangway which we can accommodate, or by a short flight that ends in the water."

"But..." The master shipbuilder looked dismayed and uncomfortable because he was not done yet and was threatened in this way. As the Landarian captain appeared outside the bridge, her mighty arms folded over her even mightier chest, the builder pulled out his tablet. "Fine. Please sign here to accept responsibility of the ship if you want to leave now."

Blokman signed the slightly grubby screen and wiped his hands on a handkerchief. On a sign from him the gangway was extended and the owner of the shipyard left, muttering under his breath. The gangplank was retracted. The captain was already on the bridge on its high platform and a shudder went through the Black Flower as the engines were activated. Through the loudspeakers that were everywhere the rough voice of the Landarian captain barked commands that made the crew run left and right. It was almost surprising that they knew what to do. Ropes were cast off, someone at the bow gestured and the ship moved out of the dock, sailing off safely.

More commands were barked and a few sailors quickly climbed the rigging to lower the sails. Blokman gasped as he saw they were red. What fool had allowed that? But it was too late to complain now; his signature on the tablet was set and final. That colour however was something to deal with sooner or later.