Captain Chaos - Nelson S. Bond

Captain Chaos

The Callisto-bound Leo needed a cook. What it got was a piping-voiced Jonah who jinxed it straight into Chaos.
We picked up our new cook on Phobos. Not Phoebus or Phoebe; I mean Phobos, Mars' inner moon. Our regular victual mangler came down with acute indigestion—tasted some of his own cooking, no doubt—when we were just one blast of a jet-tube out of Sand City spaceport. But since we were rocketing under sealed orders, we couldn't turn back.
So we laid the Leo down on Phobos' tiny cradle-field and bundled our ailing grub-hurler off to a hospital, and the skipper said to me, Mister Dugan, he said, go out and find us a cook!
Aye, sir! I said, and went.
Only it wasn't that easy. In those days, Phobos had only a handful of settlers, and most of them had good-paying jobs. Besides, we were at war with the Outer Planets, and no man in his right senses wanted to sign for a single-trip jump on a rickety old patrolship bound for nobody-knew-where. And, of course, cooks are dime-a-dozen when you don't need one, but when you've got to locate one in a hurry they're as difficult to find as petticoats in a nudist camp.
I tried the restaurants and the employment agencies, but it was no dice. I tried the hotels and the tourist homes and even one or two of the cleaner-looking joy-joints. Again I drew a blank. So, getting desperate, I audioed a plaintive appeal to the wealthy Phobosian colonists, asking that one of the more patriotic sons-of-riches donate a chef's services to the good old I.P.S., but my only response was a loud silence.
So I went back to the ship. I said, Sorry, sir. We're up against it. I can't seem to find a cook on the whole darned satellite.
The skipper scowled at me from under a corduroy brow and fumed, But we've got to have a cook, Dugan! We can't go on without one!
In a pinch, I told him, I might be able to boil a few pies, or scramble us a steak or something, Skipper.
Thanks, Dugan, but that won't do. On this trip the men must be fed regularly and well. Makeshift meals are O.Q. on an ordinary run, but when you're running the blockade—

Nelson S. Bond
Содержание

О книге

Язык

Английский

Год издания

2020-05-15

Темы

Science fiction; Short stories; War stories; Space ships -- Fiction; Cooks -- Fiction

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