The prestige of the Royal Navy in an island nation still drove a certain kind of snob into its officer ranks. So when Captain Prashant Bhade met new officers like John Hunt, he instinctively balked at how clearly he fit the profile of what a naval officer ‘should’ look like that had so plagued a younger, more junior Prashant.

John Hunt had known about, and had been prepared for the captain’s disdain for his carefully cultivated officer look. Courtesy of the AI listening from above, John had heard the details of the captain’s call to his superior at Britannia Royal Navy Officer School, and the ensuing discussion of the then trainee’s list of prolific skills.

Based on his reading of the captain’s closed personnel file, John was far from surprised when he was initially assigned to one of the few parts of the ship that he had not demonstrated excellence at. Standing in front of the captain the day he had presented himself for duty, John had seen the glint in his eye when he said, “I see you are moderately proficient in a lot of the … easier parts of the duty roster. No doubt you will end up on the bridge in due course, but before that I think it would do you some good to take a more proactive role in the ship’s operation.”

Captain Bhade had smiled as he handed the fresh-faced new lieutenant over to his head of engineering, and watched him be led below to the engine room. That should wipe the smirk off his clean-cut face.

In truth, John Hunt never smirked. He never squinted or wept or wheezed or coughed or sweated even a drop unless it suited his purposes to do so. He had taken the assignment without complaint, and set to downloading the necessary data he would need for this job from the AI’s data banks.

In truth, the role had been advantageous in many ways. The first of which being that it gave him ample opportunity to smuggle his relay on board the advanced destroyer before they left port. In the three days they had left to provision the ship for sea, John had been the first to volunteer for every task under the sun, including the arduous loading and fitting of several new and reconditioned parts for the engines.

Taking the usually unwanted role of supervising these jobs, John had been able to simply add his relay, coated in a wooden crate, to a pallet of equipment being lifted from the dock and then lowered down into the waiting mouth of one of the ship’s holds.