Warship, Part 2 "The Beginning, Finally"

Jimmy Smith grew up on Earth, thirty years following what was still called the “E.T. Calamity,” when contact with the Danab first caused humanity to finally learn that it was not alone in the universe. So much had happened since then, yet in many ways, Jimmy could still pretend, when he was a boy, that he was just a boy.

In many ways, it’s because life continued on pretty much as normal. Humans were still humans, no matter how radical life changed, just as humans had always behaved in the aftermath of a drastic change in their lives. They simply adapted to the new circumstances, and reverted to their typical, human behavior. Jimmy’s parents didn’t much care for aliens, never actively encouraged him to pursue his secret dream of traveling through the stars, a dream that had died in a previous generation of humans, when it proved too difficult to fund without a driving vision behind it. Jimmy trained whenever he could, even when he had no idea what to train for, did whatever he thought was necessary, what could possibly help.

When he graduated high school, Jimmy said goodbye to home and hitchhiked with the first transport off the planet, a Bithian freighter, as it turned out. He was terrified, and tried not to show it. He was the only human, but in many ways, that made it easier. The more he was forced to adapt, the more he would develop. There were many other species who had bothered to learn English, and who had learned many other languages besides. Jimmy felt a little guilty because he’d never tried to learn any others, and he didn’t feel that he would ever motivate himself to change that. If there were those who were willing to accommodate him, that would be a welcome change, and that would be good enough.

His first friend in this new life was Stiegel Dex, who shared with him the hidden miseries and shared entertainments Jimmy had never anticipated. Dex disappeared before long, because he didn’t share Jimmy’s vision of the future, didn’t believe it was possible for a human to join the Space Corps. Even Dex wondered aloud why Jimmy hadn’t at least joined the NER first. Jimmy never had patience to explain. He didn’t have a lot of patience at all, in fact, and so was constantly frustrated. He didn’t understand why other people didn’t share his vision. He did recognize the irony of that. He had enough patience, though, kept fighting for what he wanted, no matter how many people made it difficult for him.

He finally broke down and signed up for the NER program, far away from Earth, saw his first humans in years, how many he could no longer calculate without using his hands. His body was numb, but his dream was alive. It was his best attribute and his worst failing that Jimmy so easily stood out from his classmates, could never fit in, not because he was a brilliant student, but because he was so unorthodox. And so someone finally had the bright idea to propose Jimmy as the first human candidate for admittance in the Space Corps.

And wouldn’t you know? He got in. It was the worst break of his life, because that was the last great adventure Jimmy Smith ever undertook.

Warship, Part 1 "The End, Eventually"

His name was Jimmy Smith. He was the first human to ever be accepted into the Space Corps, the vast fleet of the Galactic Alliance, an ancient institution whose origins were shrouded in legend before Lord Phan ever visited Earth. Jimmy didn’t get a lot of respect. In fact, you could say his credentials in the Naval and Exploratory Research program didn’t impress his captain aboard the Sequent at all.

The Sequent, by the way, was Jimmy’s name for the ship. It’s actual designation was the Seq Nod, a Welborn term meaning “fair horizons.” Jimmy just spoke to his girlfriend, Olga Gemm, for the last time, without even knowing it, after receiving word of the assignment to the Danab border. Jimmy knew all about the Danab. He wasn’t sure if Olga could appreciate his situation , because she isn’t human, couldn’t possibly feel the sting of the mere mention of the Danab in the same way he did. He didn’t want to scare her, though. He was scared enough for both of them.

The Danab border is basically the last place any human wants to be, considering the long history of war between the two races, but Jimmy must have known it was always a possibility, must have had it gnawing at the back of his brain like bad Bith’mari stew, which he learned far too much about, just serving aboard the Sequent, even though he’d long grown accustomed to discovering strange new alien sensations as he fought to be that first lucky human in the Space Corps. He had to keep reminding himself that he actually volunteered for it, that he actually wanted to be there, that he’d asked for all of it. It only worked sometimes. Most of the time, he was simply wishing it could be so much easier. Shouldn’t there at least be a little more respect for his accomplishment?

Well, there would be other humans after him. Maybe they would bask in glory. Maybe they would make the whole experience a little more recognizably human. He just shook his head whenever he even tried to think about the toilets on the ceilings of the bathrooms aboard the Sequent…

He’d somehow survived as a member of the crew for several years. Actually, it had been three years. He had no idea how that’d happened. He was enough like you that when he saw that the year was 2069, he chuckled a little to himself.

A lot had happened to humanity before this point, and a lot more would happen later. For now, let’s just respect poor Jimmy Smith, because he endured martyrdom for his dream. The ship was lost, just as he’d feared. But there were times where he could believe in that dream.