Ezra's First

Part 4

After two weeks of the new shift arrangement, Ezra was feeling a lot better about the day to day interactions of the mission, but he was still growing bored and wondered how he would survive the full journey without going mad.

They had been allowed to bring a small collection of books and craft supplies like paper and paints, but all entertainment devices were prohibited and the ships onboard collection had a limited set of film and tv shows, the idea being that the mission was the focus and they didn't needing distractions.

"How do you do this?" Ezra asked out loud, as Daniel calibrated the next set of scans.

"What do you mean?"

"How do you not go insane, how have you done this eleven times?"

"Well every mission is different, different lengths, different COs, different level of involvement. One mission required manual flybys of all planets, those were long shifts, didn't have time to be bored."

"But, how have you been passing your time here? I've read all your books, you don't work out that much, do you just sleep extra or are you working on a sculpture in your room?"

Daniel looked at him, and his eyes narrowed, clearly he was thinking something over.

"I have alternative....entertainment options that I have provided myself." He said carefully.

Ezra looked at him for a bit.

"Alternative entertainment options?"

"Yes...."

"You have contraband don't you?"

"Yes..."

"Was that the bag I saw you give the engineer?"

"No that was actually cat treats."

Ezra didn't know whether he believed him on that point as while he had just admitted to something against regulations didn't mean he needed to drag others into it.

"Right, so you know that is illegal right and I could get into trouble if I don't act on this?"

"Yes... however, hear me out." Ezra gestured for him to carry on.

"Its the answer to your question, how do I stay sane, I have my own magic box of contraband containing games devices, tv, film, porno, comics etcetera etcetera. I also have multiples of everything so I can provide you with you whatever you want so you can benefit to."

Daniel paused for a bit and carried on.

"I've done this many times before, and each time my CO at the time has known, and said the same things you have said, a few even threatened to write me up when we got back, but at the end of the day, everyone benefits, command never reviews any of the tapes without a really good reason and if they did five months of tapes is an insane amount to review, so even if they do they will sample, I've never gotten caught and it makes the mission way more bearable and its never gotten in the way of duty."

Ezra thought about it for a moment, he really was swayed by Daniels explanation, and he was genuinely quite bored and would kill to watch a movie or even an adult movie, provided Daniel had what Ezra liked, he just wanted to make sure he wasn't making a mistake or being taken advantage of. On the other hand Ezra had been given a mission he felt disrespected his skills so he wasn't feeling very loyal to his command chain at this point in time.

Ezra smiled softly.

"I'll allow it, now show me this 'magic' box of yours, and please tell me you have the latest Quantum Magic movie..."

Daniel lead Ezra to his room and removed the panel below his bed and pulled out a massive box that Ezra genuinely wondered how he got it in, certainly the engineers were in on it, how much does he pay them?

He opened the box and grabbed a handheld entertainment unit and powered it on and handed it to Ezra, here you go this is yours for the remainder of the journey, it contains a recent snapshot of the entertain-net as we left base, so it should have all tv, film, and other entertainment up until a certain point.

Daniel turned back to his box and rummaged around a bit more,

"Also, here..."

He chucked him a chocolate bar.

"First chocolate bar in a month, hope you enjoy."

Ezra may have thought he had been excited about the movies, or even the porn, but the chocolate bar actually was the highlight.

—-

A few weeks had passed and Ezra noticed that Daniels Magic Box, well primarily the entertainment unit had really lifted his spirits and he was generally warming up to Daniel.

However, on this particular morning, for some strange reason, he had woken up on the wrong side of the bunk and could feel a foul mood growing inside of him.

All through his morning workout, shower, and breakfast he was stewing on the mission and the fact that the admiral had just ghosted him, ignoring his calls and messages.

He kept running through all the possibilities of what this could mean in his head and it was making his mood fouler and fouler.

As the hours passed, Daniel who was nearing the end of his shift could sense Ezra's terse mood and tried to lighten the mood.

"What's up Ez, did that Quantum movie you liked not live up to your expectations?"

Ezra allowed a small smile to acknowledge the joke and the attempt.

"No sorry, just in a rotten mood today."

"What's up? Talking about it might help, I doubt plotting jump trajectories is helping."

"It's just the mission, it wasn't what I expected."

"Yeah you mentioned"

"Well its also because I was top of my class, had personal commendations from the Admiralty, I expected to be put on the front line, like the adverts and the propaganda have been telling me my entire life. I expected to be doing something worthy of my skills and abilities, something directly helping the war effort."

"Do you not think this is helping the war effort? We are literally further than than the frontline and could stumble upon a Preshk garrison or even their home world."

Ezra sighed.

"I'm not saying this isn't helping the war effort, I'm saying its not what I expected."

"You keep saying that. What on earth were you actually expecting?" Daniel asked again.

"Not this!" Ezra

"Sorry, what is this?" Daniel asked.

"You know... this??!"

"No I don't know what you mean Ez, what do you mean this?!"

"Babysitting some washed up non-com, while we watch tv and scan planets!"

The second he said it, he knew he had gone to far. Daniel powered down his console and walked off.

"My shift is over."