Fish and Wine

07 December …

I am thankful today was Sunday, as it was relaxing to get away from our usual hard labor and drop a line in the water. Sergeants Garcia, Cromwell and I caught fourteen Venusian Flounder today; one was three feet in length! As we were reaching the reef's edge we were soaked by a water geyser from some type of whale (hopefully of a non-Texican eating species). It was only about thirty feet away from our whaleboat and it took us about two seconds to head away from the reef's edge and back in towards shore and the safer, shallower waters along the beach. Lady Venus was barking and looking over the edge of the boat as if she wanted to play with the thing. Crazy dog.

Sergeant Thibodeaux smoked the fish for us and gave the rest to the crew during the evening meal. The flounder was very tasty, but I can only imagine what it would taste like smoked over genuine Texican mesquite, rather than the Venusian hardwoods we have been using. I might have to talk with Chief O’Malley about bringing some here when the Santa Fe returns in January.

Father Flannigan joined us for dinner and brought two bottles of Fredericksburg wine with him to our NCOs' Mess. According to him, "fish is not fish without the taste of the grape." I'm no fancy wine drinking fellow like some of the officers, but I have to admit that the white wine did go well with the fish. He had us rolling with tales of his youth. Seems as though he was a private in the Connaught Rangers before getting his call to a priestly vocation. At one point, Corporal Jones was even blushing in embarrassment.

The RTS Santa Fe is logging unthinkable miles as they are making return trips here monthly. With the flight time taking a little more than a week each way they spend more than half the month floating in the airless ether. Chief O’Malley was telling me about a new class of ethership the Republic is building. They are purpose-built gunships with a crew of thirty and are meant to serve as escorts against a growing Hun threat. The "Lucky Santa" only has two cannon for defense - hardly capable of defeating an Imperial German Luftschiffe. They won't be able to carry much in the way of cargo, though, so we will still depend on the Santa Fe for most of that. There is also talk of bringing material to make an airship here on Venus, for scouting, exploration and observation purposes.

Well, I must close as it is time to fall into my bunk and get ready for another hard day at work.