NAVY BRAT by Kay Kenyon

Religion is such a problem; or I guess, I should say, humanities desire to believe that there is something larger than themselves is nasty bug in our operating systems that I hope with be fixed with in couple generations of upgrades.

In this story, the reader is introduced to young female Navy Brat who struggles to adherer to the principals and regulations of the Navy. She knows the regulations and wearing a blue armband to honor the memoir of dead Admiral is not one of them. Her disobedience leads to her discharge.

The Navy creates a religion around the dead Admiral as if he were some kind of profit or god meant to lead them through the stars to the promise land. The intent is to blind the passengers of the galactic space ship to the fact that they are in orbit around a new habitable planet. The Navy does not want to loose control.

What is fascinating to me about this story is that religion has been long condemned as a dangerous social igniter that lead to the failure of the first few missions seeking new worlds. And then, the Navy purposely tries to use the conventions of religion to control and obfuscate the truth. I’m glad the heroine and truth win out in the end, but the story is sad in that Humanity has still not risen above the need to clamor after deities and empty spiritualities.

Kenyon’s writing is excellent. The story grabbed me from word one. The character’s are lively and rendered well. I wasn’t ready for the story to end when it did. It feels like it could be part of a longer more complicated work.

I highly recommend talking time to listen to this story.

Kenyon, Kay. Navy Brat. Escape Pod. 180, October 17, 2008