James jumped.  He hadn't realised Smith was watching him.  The back of his neck heated as he turned to face his commanding officer, realising that he had no choice, but to do his job to the best of his ability.  Connections, no matter how highly placed, wouldn't be enough to save him if his commanding officer wrote a negative review.  And besides, he had asked for it.

“She’s magnificent, sir,” he said, and meant it.  “How well does she handle?”

“Like a wallowing pig,” Smith said.  “There aren’t many real improvements we could make to the drives without tearing the whole rear section apart and replacing them completely.”

The shuttle altered course, allowing him to see every last detail of the carrier’s hull.  James had to admit that she looked good, if crude.  She might have been in the reserves, but her crew hadn't been allowed to slack off ... even if they had felt they’d been exiled to the ass end of nowhere.  He felt an odd flicker of admiration for Smith.  The man might have a reputation for drinking, yet he'd managed to keep his command in shape.

Smith keyed his terminal as the shuttle straightened out and headed towards the shuttlebay.  “I’m calling the senior crew to the shuttlebay,” he said, by way of explanation.  “There won’t be a formal welcoming party, I’m afraid, but I’ll introduce you to the senior officers.  You can meet the others later, once we’re more organised.”

“Yes, sir,” James said.  There were senior officers who would be furious if the formalities were ignored, but he saw Smith’s point.  Ark Royal’s reserve crew didn't have the manpower to put on a display.  He swallowed again as he realised the depth of his own ignorance.  Ark Royal’s crew knew far more than him about their starship’s condition.  “I look forward to it.”

Smith smiled.  The shuttle landed – there was a faint shiver as the shuttle’s artificial gravity field merged with the starship’s internal field – and the hatch hissed open.  James rose to his feet and followed Smith out of the hatch and into the shuttlebay, looking around with considerable interest.  The shuttlebay looked as crude as the starship’s interior, but it was clearly kept in good shape.  Two more shuttles, both partly cannibalised for spare parts, sat on the other side of the giant compartment.  They looked oddly pitiful to James’s eyes.

It took him a moment to realise that something was missing ... and several more moments to realise what it was.  The omnipresent background noise from the starship’s drives was simply absent.  James felt his eyes narrow, then realised that most of the drives and their fusion cores would have been shut down while the starship remained in the reserves.  There was no point in placing further wear and tear on equipment that was effectively irreplaceable.