"David Feintuch - Seafort 01 - Midshipmans Hope" - читать интересную книгу автора (Feintuch David)

Lord God forbid. If they'd squirted Captain Haag rather than Mrs. Donhauser, Alexi and Sandy would
see the barrel, if not the brig. For good measure, the Captain might break me all the way down to ship's
boy. Mr. Cousins was right. I could think of no way to placate him, so I said nothing.

It was a mistake. "Answer me, you insolent pup!"

To my surprise, Lieutenant Dagalow intervened. "Mr. Cousins, Nick was on watch. He couldn't have
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known--"

"It's his job to keep his juniors in line!"

I did, when I was present. What more could I do? For some reason Ms. Dagalow persisted. "But
they're young, we're moored to Ganymede Station, they were just letting off steam... "

"Lisa, take your nose out of the puter long enough to remember the rest of your job. We have to teach
them to act like adults!" From another officer it might have been a blistering rebuke, but Mr. Cousins's
acid manner was well known to all, and she took no notice.

"They'll learn."

"When our shaving cream runs out?" Cousins glared at us with withering contempt before turning back to
Ms. Dagalow.

"Consider that by the end of the cruise at least some of them should be fit to be officers. I grant you, it's
unlikely any of these fools will ever make lieutenant. But what if one of us is transferred out at Hope
Nation? Do you want silly boys standing watch, fresh from shaving cream fights?"

"We've time to teach them. Nick will issue ample demerits." I certainly would. Each demerit would have
to be worked off by two hours of hard calisthenics. They'd keep Alexi and Sandy out of trouble for a
while.

Lieutenant Cousins's voice grew cold. "Will he?" A chill of foreboding crept down my rigid spine. "Nicky
should never have been senior, we all know that." Even Lieutenant Dagalow frowned at the blatant
undercutting of my authority, but Mr. Cousins was oblivious. "He'll wag his finger at them, as always."
That wasn't fair; I'd kept wardroom matters from the attention of the other officers, as was expected.
Except this once.

"Will you cane the two of them, then? After all, it's a wardroom affair."

"No, I'll let Nicky handle them." From the corner of my eye I saw Alexi's shoulders slump with relief.
Then Mr.

Cousins added sweetly, "But perhaps I can teach Mr. Seafort more diligence." He sauntered toward his
cabin. "Come along, middy."