THE SULKIEST NAVAL OFFICER.

[sssiiiiirrrrr]

Good Mundane,

Glad though I am to be held in your high esteem, I am... concerned about your intentions for me.

Do not forget that I am first and foremost, an officer of His Majesties Royal Navy. I have a duty to my country and to my captain, and I cannot have you pursuing some alternate commission for me beyond the navigations of the heavens! Not any more than I could stand idle while you linger upon your indecision of my fate.

Will all due respect, you could offer me no landscape so wondrous as the sand and sea of the Indies, no adventure so great as the war on France, and no duty more honorable than my service to my country! I must insist that you allow me to return to it at once!

Now please, let's have no more of this talk. I wish to return at once to my ship.

Yours
Lt. Horatio Hornblower

Comments

[heartbreaking]

Your talk of 'debt', sir, sounds far more like 'enslavement' - which is indeed the sum an English education's teachings! I'm afraid it will serve you rather poorly when you realise that there are worlds beyond our skies that would not care to wish a single damnation upon the English, purely for lack of knowing they even exist.

[ A prim smile. At least he has stopped Sir-ing. ]

Neither your King nor your fine King's Commission will aid you against the perils to be found amongst the stars, lieutenant. Perhaps you had best remain on your boat after all.

[sssiiiiirrrrr]

What melodrama! If it were enslavement then you would be as subject to it as I, and this debate itself could not occur!

[A deep breath. He should try to be more composed, really.]

I believe you wholeheartedly, Sir, when you say that neither King nor country reaches here, but there is no soil in heaven or on earth that can be better charted without the gifts of reason, mathematics, and the basic precepts of navigation. Those are the sum of an English education.

[Also, you can show off to your friends with a little ancient Greek.]