I hear a lot of jokes about us X-Boat pilots.
“Supercargo”.
“Passengers”.
“Legal requirements”.
Yeah. I’ve heard ‘em all.
But you know what? We cannot ever seem to get enough recruits for the job, or hold on to those we do get. You want to know the average length of service for a 'boat-jockey?
Six months.
Some might think it’s the loneliness, but really, that’s less of a problem than with courier work, where you might go months just hopping gas giants. At least in a ‘boat you get plenty of weekly downtime on tenders and bases.
The boredom? Well, someone else does your astro plot and fuelling. You’re not expected to do that much maintenance. So it can get kinda easy. But you have top end entertainment, and they make sure your rations are the best in the service. Bonus pay as well.
Sure, the boats could be fully automated – heck, they already mostly are. Now and again you might need to take manual control during docking, but really a tender could take you on board even if you were completely dead in space. I should know… that’s happened a couple of times over the years.
So why the live cargo?
Well, we’re not the astrogator. Tender Astro does your plots.
We’re not really a pilot… the old joke about a ship without an M-Drive, right? Yeah, that's not far from the truth.
We’re not even the engineer; a ‘boat with busted drive either doesn’t jump, or gets picked up, or no one ever finds out what happened. The ship’s computer does the actual jump stuff when you tell it to.
Nah, you’re more important than any of those day jobs.
You’re the captain.
You're responsible.
Any time you jump, it could happen.
Tender’s not there.
But someone else is.
Could be pirates. Could be Joes. Could be a damn corporate.
In any case, something went wrong and your data or cargo, the ONLY reason your ship exists, is suddenly threatened.
When that happens, friend, if you’re lucky you may have help on hand. The tender might only be under attack, but still in the fight. There could be Navy on their way who may or may not get to you in time. It’s happened to me that way a couple of times.
But if not… well, there’s a switch. Yeah, THAT kind of switch.
And it’s your job… no, it’s your sacred duty to prime that switch, flip the cover… and when the options really do run out... to push it.
And then they write you a commendation and maybe name a ship after you.
But I hear you ask, as everyone does, “Couldn’t the computer do that job too?”
Well, I guess so. But then it wouldn’t count as murder to interfere with the Imperial mail, would it? Figure that maybe stops some of the attempts. Maybe.
So yeah.
Laugh it up.
“Supercargo”.
“Passengers”.
“Legal requirements”.
Yeah. I’ve heard ‘em all.
But you know what? We cannot ever seem to get enough recruits for the job, or hold on to those we do get. You want to know the average length of service for a 'boat-jockey?
Six months.
Some might think it’s the loneliness, but really, that’s less of a problem than with courier work, where you might go months just hopping gas giants. At least in a ‘boat you get plenty of weekly downtime on tenders and bases.
The boredom? Well, someone else does your astro plot and fuelling. You’re not expected to do that much maintenance. So it can get kinda easy. But you have top end entertainment, and they make sure your rations are the best in the service. Bonus pay as well.
Sure, the boats could be fully automated – heck, they already mostly are. Now and again you might need to take manual control during docking, but really a tender could take you on board even if you were completely dead in space. I should know… that’s happened a couple of times over the years.
So why the live cargo?
Well, we’re not the astrogator. Tender Astro does your plots.
We’re not really a pilot… the old joke about a ship without an M-Drive, right? Yeah, that's not far from the truth.
We’re not even the engineer; a ‘boat with busted drive either doesn’t jump, or gets picked up, or no one ever finds out what happened. The ship’s computer does the actual jump stuff when you tell it to.
Nah, you’re more important than any of those day jobs.
You’re the captain.
You're responsible.
Any time you jump, it could happen.
Tender’s not there.
But someone else is.
Could be pirates. Could be Joes. Could be a damn corporate.
In any case, something went wrong and your data or cargo, the ONLY reason your ship exists, is suddenly threatened.
When that happens, friend, if you’re lucky you may have help on hand. The tender might only be under attack, but still in the fight. There could be Navy on their way who may or may not get to you in time. It’s happened to me that way a couple of times.
But if not… well, there’s a switch. Yeah, THAT kind of switch.
And it’s your job… no, it’s your sacred duty to prime that switch, flip the cover… and when the options really do run out... to push it.
And then they write you a commendation and maybe name a ship after you.
But I hear you ask, as everyone does, “Couldn’t the computer do that job too?”
Well, I guess so. But then it wouldn’t count as murder to interfere with the Imperial mail, would it? Figure that maybe stops some of the attempts. Maybe.
So yeah.
Laugh it up.
