"... and so they didn't know whether to give him a medal or clap him in irons. Luckily for Uncle Thomas the Admiral owed him a favour, something to do with an Academy prank that didn't quite go as planned. And that's how Tom got his bit of ribbon."
Archibald Sumner looked up with wide eyes. "That's not what Uncle Tom said!"
There was a mighty guffaw. "Ofcourse not! Which version did he give you son?"
"Well... the Fink Hypercruiser which..."
"I always thought that one was a little overblown even for Uncle Tom. And you believed him? Tch, ofcourse he 'embroidered' the truth, he'd do that even if it weren't so embarassing. Why, if it ever got out about... well, it'd be like a third former taking a Primer's Computer to school!"
Archie turned red. "B-but..."
Mre Sumner appeared in the doorway. "Oh father, stop teasing your grandson. Sorry Archie, I told him about that." She returned to the kitchen.
"And I bet you wish she hadn't, eh Archie? Still, you can stop turning red now, wouldn't want you to burst." Bill Travers motioned his grandson closer, and lent forward. He whispered in a conspiratorial manner. "Do you know how my young lassie met your dad? No? Now there's a tale that needs no embroidery! Remind me to tell you it sometime..." He relaxed back in his armchair and eyed Archie speculatively. "...perhaps when you're older." Bill reached for his newspaper. "And when Janet isn't listening!" Crockery began clattering again.
Archie sat still for a while, then began reading the back of the newspaper. The business page held little interest for him, though, and before long he was up looking at the faded photographs on the walls of his grandad's flat. There were a couple of holos of recent family portraits, but Archie paid little attention to them. He peered at the photo of the first Mars landing, taken the year Bill Travers was born, and stood in awe before the great space ark, the Mayflower II, bound for Jupiter. Only... the frame must have slipped slightly, because a small triangle of white was poking out of one side. Archie glanced behind him and, satisfied that his grandad was buried in his newspaper, nudged the picture frame. As the fragment grew, Archie began to make out something that set his heart racing. Something sleek and silver. And with it, a scrawled bit of writing. "To Bill, thanks, Admiral..." Archie couldn't make out more than the first letter of the signature, but then he didn't need to. There was only one Admiral with that first initial! His mind reeling, he tapped the exposed photo back and slipped back to his seat.
After a moment's silence, he could contain himself no longer. "Grandad!"
"Hmm?" Bill muttered from behind his paper.
"What did you do in the war?"
The paper came down. "Eh? Wrong piece of propaganda, I think. Well, wrong war anyway. Me? Ah, me, I played a very minor part. I used to polish spaceships."
Archie's eyes opened wide.
"Now, now," Janet called out. She carried a tray of tea (string enough to stand a spoon in for Bill, "weaker than water" for herself, and very sweet for Archie) and biscuits. "Don't believe a word he says, Archie. Commanders don't polish spaceships, they get little squirts like you to do it. And as for 'a very minor part' it was enough to get him a G.C."
Archie's eyes were nearly popping. "Commander!" He squeaked. "Golden Comet!" He calmed down a little. "But I thought they were only awarded posthumously?"
"Hmph, most were. It took a particularly stupid kind of gallant bravery to get one, and not many lived to collect."
"Gosh! How did you get yours?"
Bill eyed Janet reproachfully, and then gripped Archie's shoulders and squinted at him. "Now, promise this gets no further than your two little ears, else I won't tell you."
"Promise!"
"Cubs honour?"
"Absolutely!"
"Hmm, well, okay. You know how force fields were introduced during the war?"
"Yes! History Part Two, B."
"Huh, well what 'History Part Two, B' probably didn't mention was that the Finks beat us to it. They got them first. Anyway, the first known use of fields was in a little discussed encounter way out towards Barnard's Star. The Finks, being the depraved cowards they were..." Bill scratched his beard. "...well, some of them were brave enough, but the higher echelons were rotten to the core. Uh, well, they attacked a cargo convoy, pinning them with their force fields. Only these fields had some peculiar quirks, like they hadn't hammered out all the bugs yet. You couldn't jump when you had one on you, too unpredictable, twisted wormholes or something. Nobody ever returned. Also, the enemy couldn't use a complete screen, some instability or another, which meant they couldn't jump either. What they did was to surround the convoy, pin them with the force fields, and only use frontal screens.
"Fortunately, one of our ships managed to scramble an S.O.S - nothing more, before being jammed. We received it, and being the closest unit, I gave the order to jump at the double. The Mathematicians got cracking, and we broke the record for the fastest computed Jump. I keyed the numbers in, we jumped, and Pow! We obliterated the Fink fleet with no loss of life or damage to our ships."
"Wow!" Archie exclaimed as images of great space battles flew around his head. Bill relaxed back in his chair.
Janet smiled wryly. "Tell him how you obliterated the Finks, Bill."
Bill shifted in his seat. "Well, er, you know how I said the enemy's backs were unscreened? Well, with screens there is no need for radiation shielding, except from their own drives, and these ships had only recently been adapted for force fields. We, er, Jumped out of hyperspace with our drives pointing directly towards the enemy. The blast of neutrons, gamma rays and less pleasant stuff as we set our atomics off, completely sterilized the enemy ships. And for that I got the Golden Comet."
"But grandad, that's brilliant! Saved a cargo convoy and captured a Fink fleet in perfect condition!"
Bill looked surprised. "Well, that's sharp of you. Yes, an undamaged Fink fleet, WITH the secret of force fields, that's what tied the matter. Maybe I would have only got the Sol symbol otherwise. Which, perhaps, I could have refused. But they wouldn't let me refuse the G.C."
Archie looked stunned. "Why would you want to refuse it?"
"'Cos I didn't deserve it. Think a little, it was the first encounter using force fields. We didn't even know they had them. Well?"
Archie hesitated. "I... I don't follow."
"Tch. How did we know that tactic would work!" Bill thundered.
Archie's face brightened again. "Gosh! I guess you were just too clever for the Finks."
"Hmph, well that's one way of putting it, but it isn't what I'd call it, and that's why my G.C. is hidden away." He glanced sharply at his daughter. "Well, here it is. Not a word, right?"
"Not a word!"
"You see, hyperspace was relatively new then, and we hadn't developed superconducting chips. Because of the radiation, we couldn't even use normal chips. We had to use valves! Valves for Pete's sake! Outdated by a century. Mind you, they were good valves, small, compact, and much more reliable, but they were still a pain in the..." He caught his daughter's disapproving eye. "...neck. Took up half the ship and over half the personnel, but we needed them to calculate the Jump. Only we didn't have a lot of faith in them, and that's why they weren't input directly to the Quernally Hyperdrives. First they had to be checked by rule of thumb approximations by the commander, me. And, well you know math was never my strong point. I couldn't even use a calculator, damn things quit within seconds of entering a Jump ship. So there we were, rushing to an S.O.S. and I was fumbling around with a pad and pencil as the Mathematicians watched. I ran the check, was extremely relieved when it gave the right ball park, and punched the numbers through with a flourish. Only... they weren't the numbers the Math boys gave me."
"You mean..."
"Dead right, lad. I punched in the wrong blasted numbers!"