The Wrong Man for the Job

[Tachyon 0]

“The Wrong Man for the Job”

Stardate 0603.29

Lieutenant Arthur Dent

---------------------------------------------

 

Synonyms sprang to Dent's mind, a cumulative overreaction from the events in the past few hours. “Disaster” was one; “spectacular failure” was yet another. After laying in a course back to Aegis, he indulged himself in some self-pity. He had been in command of the Pandora's Box at the advent of the battle with that pirate raider, and now the Pandora's Box was heading back to Aegis rather than continuing its investigation.

 

Anyone might have told him that it was not his fault. He could not help the fact that a pirate raider had appeared and started a fight, nor that the Pandora's Box had incurred some damage. That did not help Dent reconcile with himself, however. He felt as if great trust had been put in him to competently direct the Pandora's Box to the Cyremba system. Instead, they were limping home to Aegis with an injured Lieutenant Commander Brown.

 

It had not been a good day.

 

Dent wondered if he were just naturally incompetent or if this were just incredibly bad luck on his part. He had never particularly like command—his Kobayashi Maru had been, to put it lightly, disaster, and his professors often used words such as “diligent” and “reliable” to cushion the fact that he was not exactly a leader. Dent had known this long before them and had always been waiting for someone to break the news without sugarcoating it.

 

Consider the news broken.