The Privateer/Promotion

Base commander’s log entry #894 DE: Col. Virgil Heidegger RE: Promotion

I’m sure they’ve put it off for a very long time now, but owing to the lack of any other real authority on board the Orenomah, the Solar Liberty Coalition has finally given me a promotion to Colonel. I had to stop myself from putting “Lt.Col” in the byline. It’s strange. I don’t feel that much more authoritative; I’m sure nobody else aboard the Orenomah will notice or care. I certainly don’t. I’ve long since decided that this ship is hell, and although I’ve bonded a bit with my crew, few of them truly understand my situation. My chief engineer sympathizes, but he is only one man. I’m tired of serving here. I don’t get respect, I get resentment. The SLC is supposed to represent the colonists and the downtrodden, those who were forced from Earth by prohibitive cost of life. The men, women, and...everyone else aboard....well, that’s certainly where they came from, but the Coalition is not interested in protecting these people. They’ve been screwed by both their homes and the Coalition now, and since I am effectively the face of the Coalition to them, they believe me to be responsible. I try to act in their interests, I really do, but it is not easy to identify their interests outside of contradicting me at every turn.

On that related note, more supplies are going missing. I have no evidence - it certainly helps that the culprit has been more or less destroying the supply rooms after looting everything useful from them - but the civilian colonists may be doing it to protest my new rationing ordinances. Something else has to be done about this; we won’t get anywhere otherwise. I’ve spoken to my new navigator, a junior lieutenant who enlisted on the spot last month, and he believes my superiors may not notice if we relocate the Orenomah closer to some kind of marketplace.