Truth and Beauty 12-7

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He did not find the Roth’s receipts on the table, and so crossed to the stern lockers, now mercifully shut and locked, the armorer and Mr Veidt having finished their work that morning. The sheaf of printed receipts lay on the pistol locker, bound with a red clip, and he returned with it to his table. 10,062 barrels grade AA carbon slurry, he typed, transp. XXX klicks Neva-IV to Achilles depot. The number of klicks he would fill in once he had actually off-loaded the cargo and had an accurate count off the odograph. He tapped through to the next part of the report: Roth’s Statement of Condition.

Originally a hand-written paragraph that would typically fit into a half sheet of foolscap, the Statement of Condition had over the years grown to a staggering 25 § monstrosity of checkboxes, radio buttons, and text entry blocks. For the check boxes, there were no ‘check all’ options; for the text entry, no copy-and-paste; for these might have bred laziness that might accidentally (or intentionally) ignore some trivial point of critical data. Instead, skippers numbly checked the 623 boxes, hoping to retain enough alertness to leave the appropriate boxes empty. By the time Bollwerk entered with supper, Jack’s hands had started to grow cold, a sure sign that he was spending too much time with the mouse and keyboard.

Nevertheless, after a hasty meal, he picked up where he had left off, clicking his way through the starboard gun deck gangway, the port gun deck gangway, the starboard spar deck gangway, the port spar deck gangway, the starboard boat deck gangway, the port boat deck gangway, pump room 1, pump room 2, pump room 3, the bridge, the rooms of the officers’ recreation suite, the hangar and each of its bays, the entry port, the cargo entry port, and the docking stanchion.

Time ground on. Bells rang. Occasionally, Jack stood to collect a glass of wine or mug of coffee, as much for the interruption as for the drink. Eventually, he reached the section regarding the crew.

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