Page 56 of Clan and Command

The Nobek chuckled. “No, sheer boredom caused that. Too many rules and regulations in the sport, with more added all the time. I felt I’d gone as far as I could go in that profession.”

Lokmi grinned. “Now you play with the bigger ships instead, ignoring fleet rules and regulations until your engineer stops you.”

Kila laughed outright. “Or I shake a ship apart because I gave it too much juice.”

Piras gasped. “Did you actually do that?”

“I came close with the first engineering job I was assigned to.”

“Go on,” Lokmi invited, his smile growing larger.

“It was on board a courier ship. We had a rush delivery, and the captain told the helm to give it all she had. No one knew I had changed the ‘all she had’ setting to a much higher rate of speed. That poor little courier possessed more power than a destroyer once I had gotten to its engines. The damned ship nearly tore itself apart in the two seconds it took for helm to bring her to a stop.”

Lokmi roared with laughter. “Ancestors help us, you still haven’t learned a thing since then. Hopefully our dear admiral can teach you a little bit about finesse.”

Piras shook his head, though he laughed too. “I somehow doubt that’s possible. Kila is too much the brute. How about you, Lokmi? How did you end up in this great fleet of ours?”

Lokmi pushed his hair back. “Like you, I’m something of a builder. I loved creating models of ships and alien buildings I saw in vids. Nowhere near your level of model building, but I had fun with it. Seeing my interest, my parents steered me towards architecture.”

“Interesting that we have that in common.”

“I enjoyed it, but then I became fascinated more with mechanics than form. I love engines, the intricacies of how they work. It’s like this masterfully choreographed dance. When everything meshes together just so, you get the most amazing performance.” He reddened, seeming to note how he rhapsodized about his love for engineering.

Piras smiled in appreciation. “It’s all right to show how much passion you have for it. I always feel better working with people who are invested in their career.”

“Speaking of passions, ask Chief about his musical past,” Kila snickered.

Lokmi tossed a napkin at the Nobek. “Damn it, don’t bring that up.”

Piras could tell there was an interesting story there. “Are you a musician as well? How cultured of you.”

Kila roared with laughter. “Cultured!”

Lokmi gave him a disgusted look before sighing at Piras’s interest. “I was in a lemanthev band that had a hit song a million years ago. It’s not a big deal.”

Piras blinked. “Wait, is that why I keep thinking you look familiar? I thought I recognized you, but decided it was because you and I were on the same ship at some point.”

“You don’t strike me as a lemanthev fan.”

“No, I can’t say I am. Sorry to be such a snob, but it sounds like a noisy mess to me.”

“That’s fine. It was a tiny part of my history. Not important at all.” Lokmi gave the still chuckling Kila a dour expression.

Piras didn’t want him to downplay his success. “If it was a hit, you have every right to be proud. What was the song’s name?”

Lokmi’s face flamed. He ducked his head and mumbled. Piras heard him anyway. “It was called ‘Forget Love, I Just Want to Fuck’.”

Shocked silence hung over them for a beat. Piras stared at Lokmi, trying to reconcile the determined and dutiful Imdiko with the song title. Then he shrieked gales of laughter, and Kila joined him. Lokmi buried his face in his hands as they bellowed humor at his misspent youth.

They calmed after a little while. Between chortles, Kila choked, “By lemanthev standards, it’s an embarrassingly sentimental tune.”

Piras hiccupped and added, “Mother of All, Chief, I’m so glad you decided to go into the fleet instead of continuing your music career. The whole Empire is better for it.”

Lokmi stopped hiding behind his hands. He managed a humiliated smile. “Yeah, most likely.”

Chapter 17

Afternoon found captain and chief engineer hard at work in Lokmi’s section. They had cordoned off a small area near the shielding instrumentation, warning off the engineering crew. It was again a case of the less others knew of certain activities, the better off they would be if suspicion fell on Kila.

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