Sunday April 13, 2008
Book 10: The Longshoreman of the Apocalypse — Prologue: Drydock

Transcript

Narrator: Company assembly aboard the mercenary warship Touch-And-Go. . .
Captain Tagon: We've got some new faces with us today. Welcome aboard.
Captain Tagon: If you're here, it's because you're qualified to be here, and we're glad to have you.
Ennesby: He's doing pretty well so far.
Thurl: He knows how important first impressions can be.
Elf: Hush, you two.
Captain Tagon: Chief Warrant Thurl has prepared a roster. Each new recruit will be paired up with one or two "old-timers" for orientation and training.
Captain Tagon: Some of you new recruits have almost as much experience as I do. But that experience means nothing if we can't work as a team.
Captain Tagon: See, it's not enough for you to lay covering fire for your comrades, they have to know you're laying that fire and they have to trust you not to accidentally shoot them in the head.

That's what training and orientation are for.

Ennesby: Authority without condescension, fiat without offense. He's doing fine.
Captain Tagon: Thurl's "Buddy Roster" is the key, in the old Earth circuses, they took the new, untrained elephants, and put two trained elephants on either side of them to teach them to stay in the pachyderm parade.
Captain Tagon: It worked for dumb elephants, and it works for people too.
Corporal Chisulo: AHEM.
Ennesby: Aaand it's time to cut to the "Chief Warrant's Minute."
Thurl: Sure, I'll just throw myself between them. Great idea.