Free Randoms by David Liss Page B

it stand out against space.
    â€œWow,” I said. “That’s it. That’s our starship!” I sounded like a total dork, but I was beyond caring. I was in space, looking at a starship that would take me light years from Earth. I wished my dad could see this.
    â€œThat is the Dependable ,” Dr. Roop said.
    â€œWhat a ridiculous name!” I blurted out.
    â€œZeke,” Ms. Price cautioned me from the back.
    â€œHe may speak if he wishes,” Dr. Roop said. “However, I must admit I don’t understand your grievance. Do you not think dependability a worthwhile trait?”
    â€œSure,” I said. “For a washing machine, not a spaceship.”
    â€œThen what, in your opinion, is a good ship name?”
    I was about to say Enterprise , but then I thought about it and I realized that it was, in fact, a pretty boring name. You don’t notice how boring it is because it’s always been the name of the most awesome starship ever. So what else? The Normandy ? That’s just a place in France. The Millennium Falcon ? It sounds cool, but what exactly does it mean? Do you really want to name your ship after a thousand-year-old bird?
    I rooted around in my memory and dug something up from the larger Star Trek universe: Captain Sisko’s ship. “The Defiant ,” I said. “That’s a good name.”
    â€œI can understand that, under certain circumstances, defiance is an honorable trait, but under others, isn’t it undesirable?”
    â€œI guess.”
    â€œAnd isn’t dependability always good?”
    â€œYeah, but that’s not the point. What about”—and now I was just making things up—“the Victorious . Something like that?”
    â€œThat suggests belligerence.” Dr. Roop said. “It’s better never to have to fight than to name your ships in anticipation of winning.”
    â€œMaybe it’s a translation issue,” I conceded. “It might sound better in your language.” What I was really thinking about was Ms. Price’s little lecture outside the library. The Confederation was made up largely of nonaggressive species. Giving ships names that celebrated victories might sound horribly unpleasant to them. Maybe I should be glad it wasn’t the Cud Chewer .
    I looked at the ship again as we approached. I saw doors opening on the side—a shuttle bay—encased by a blue energy field. My heart hammered and my stomach flipped. It was a beautiful ship, full of aliens who traveled across the stars, and I was about to go on board.
    â€œYou know what,” I said. “I changed my mind. I think Dependable is a great name.”
    â€¢Â Â Â â€¢Â Â Â â€¢
    It looked to me like the Confederation of United Planets took its new recruits seriously, because the captain of the Dependable was waiting in the shuttle bay to greet us, along with several members of her crew. They all wore black uniforms with maroon trim, each with a gas-giant symbol on one sleeve. These six creatures who lined up to greet us represented a wide variety of forms, from one that looked like a giant stick insect to another that was sort of like an otter with a beak. One was almost human in appearance, but with bright orange skin and—this was evenmore surprising than the rest of it—weird cranial ridges along his head, like they have on science-fiction shows that want to create aliens on a budget. Go figure.
    Captain Qwlessl’s appearance at first struck me as a little silly. She was about as tall as I was, but about half again as wide as a human of her height. She had yellowish-brown hide that looked pachyderm tough, and her hands were huge and meaty. Her eyes stuck out on protuberances almost as extreme as a hammerhead shark’s. Then there was the short elephant-like trunk that served not as a nose, but as a mouth. She raised it and spoke to me, and I saw that it contained a series of broad