Captain PEABODY
BY ROG PHILLIPS
He carried the monkey of fear on his back for
all to see; and until he could shake the beast
he knew he would be a captain in name only....
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Worlds of If Science Fiction, December 1957.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
The gavel rapped sharply, and the murmur of conversation throughoutthe banquet room drifted into hushed silence. The occasion wasthe seventy-fifth meeting of RETSCAP, the organization of RetiredSpace Captains; the place, a banquet room in the Empire Club on thehundred and sixty-fourth floor of the New Empire State Building inManhattan; the time, approximately nine thirty in the evening, August9, 2231 A.D.; those present, the four hundred and eighteen membersof RETSCAP—or rather, four hundred and nineteen, including the newmember, Captain Arthur Peabody, who had reached his ninety-fifthbirthday just two weeks before, and by doing so had been automaticallyretired from active service and thereby become eligible for membershipwhile still in the prime of life.
"Quiet everybody," the Secretary and master of ceremonies, Captain JohnEvers, said good-naturedly, rapping the gavel again. He turned to thenew member, sitting next to him. "Captain Peabody," he said in hisloud clear voice, "The time has come for fulfillment of a traditionalpart of our get-togethers—one we all look forward to with greatpleasure and anticipation."
There was a subdued clapping of hands, then Captain Evers cleared histhroat loudly and continued. "Each of us here has become a member ofRETSCAP only after a lifetime of space travel, much of that time asa Captain in charge of the destinies of our crews and passengers andships. Inevitably each of us has had some unusual experiences in histime, and we like to talk about them, boring each other to death, nodoubt, as we repeat the same stories among ourselves meeting aftermeeting. So it's always a treat to us to get a new member and by sodoing get some fresh stories to listen to. I am about to give you thefloor, and what we would like to hear is the one experience you havehad which you think is the most unusual, in some way, of your entirecareer. The floor is now yours, Captain Arthur Peabody!"
Arthur Peabody stood up slowly, a tall man, long legged and shortbodied in his seven foot height, his sharply bridged nose and highforehead giving his features the stamp of authority comfortablyworn, and waited, a quiet smile on his firm lips, until the applausesubsided. Then he began his speech.
The one experience that stands out in my mind more than any otherreally began about five minutes after I was assigned to my first ship,the Alabama, when I was given the list of my officers and crew tocheck over. Half way down the list I came to a name, Oscar Resnick,and suddenly the thrill of being a captain was gone. For two cents,at that moment, I would gladly have become a retired Space Captainbefore I started. I was fifty-two years old then, and it had been aboutthirty years since I last saw Resnick. His rating was still spacemanfirst class, and I knew if he had ever risen higher he had been demotedagain, as was inevitable, sooner or later. He was an incurable bullywith the worst streak of sadistic cruelty in him I've ever run across.
Even the sight of his name on that list sent an instinctive fearthrough me. Once, when I was still a space recruit he had whipped me towithin a