Metal Boxes (43 page)

Jay raised her head and looked at the machine. Peebee jumped to her feet and hovered over the machine causing the
petty officer to back up a few steps. The stewards scurried from the room.

“It is okay, Petty Officer
,” Stone said. “They won’t hurt you. How long does it take to work?”

“Seconds
, sir. It should be done now. All you have to do is lift the lid.” She pointed but refused to come closer.

Stone flicked the latch on the hopper containing the vegetables. Jay jumped up next to Peebee. The two drascos spen
t the next few seconds trying to get their heads in the hopper at the same time. They emptied the hopper, but did not touch the second tray of vegetables.

“That looks like a success, Petty Officer
,” Stone grinned. When the woman grinned back he almost invited the woman to sit with him for a while, but Peebee let out a loud wonk. That sent the Petty Officer racing from the room back to the kitchen.

“
She is just saying thank you,” Stone shouted.

Pe
aked around a hatchway the woman grinned back, but would not come any closer.

Stone dumped the second tray of vegetables
in the hopper and pushed the button. When the processing was done the girls snapped up the food with abandon and wonked for more.

“Maybe later
. You two gluttons just finished lunch in tower one and now this.” Stone shouted into the kitchen. “Petty Officer, can I take this with me?”

“Of course,
sir. We made it for you.”

“Thank you. It is
very kind of you.” Stone made a note in his p.a. to write up a commendation to the woman as well as send a personal written note of thanks.

He wandered back up to his temporary quarters on
Bravo Deck. It was a huge suite of rooms, designed to accommodate travelling VIPs. He parked the carbon dioxide generator in a corner. It might come in handy when he transferred back to midshipman’s quarters where he could not control the oxygen levels in a room. But here in the guest suites, the atmosphere dials could adjust the CO
2
levels to make his drascos happy and still leave him healthy. After all, the two of drascos breathed out oxygen that was more pure than what was filtered by the life support systems.

He tried to read, but could
not. He tried to watch a video, but was too restless. He settled on doing some paperwork and personal correspondence to home. He stretched the little work he had for as long as he could. Then, he showered and went to bed. Sleep came late and was fitful. So much so he was grateful when 0500 hours came and he could get up.

It was earlier than he normally g
ot up, but Jay and Peebee were up and eager to get out. They knew that after sleep came a quick breakfast and a romp in the park. The drascos might strip a tree bare if he let them. He planned on giving them as much time in the park as he could this morning. It would be a long day even if everything went perfect with the jump into normal space.

He grabbed a burrito out of the refrigerator in the small galley and at
e it cold. He pulled open the hatch and shooed the girls into the corridor. He nodded at the marine and navy escorts standing duty at his door.

“To
the park, please,” Stone said.

The
navy guard trotted forward along the empty hallway and called an elevator. When it came, he checked the interior and waved Stone forward.

Jay and Peebee tumbled over each other in their eagerness to get to the park. They jostled each other
with wild abandon. Stone followed slowly behind the drascos, the elevator was not going anywhere without him, so he was not in a rush to get there. The guard held the door until he and the marine following got aboard.

The park was empty at this time of the morning except for a few runners moving along a foot path. Stone sat on the bench and watched the drascos graze on a patch of grass near a small pond. He could feel his escort standing behind him, but he did
not turn and look.

He sat and watched a fake dawn creep into the tower’s fake sky.

“Crap!” he thought. “Melendez says we can do a load out to the whole fleet in a week or so. Then, we have five weeks back to Lazzaroni Station before I can give these captain’s collar tabs back and I can go back to being me.”

A small electric cart whizzed up to him and Commander Wright jumped out.

“Hey, fellow castaway!” she grinned. “I see the girls are doing well. Peebee is looking positively fat.”

Stone grinned back. “Hi, Commander, it is good to see you.”

“You too, Captain,” she looked behind him and waved at the marine guard. “Hi Allie, it is good to see you too.”

Stone spun about just as the
marine escort raised an arm and waved back. “Hi Goat-Girl, did you get it all wrapped up like you thought you were going to?”

“Yep. All done
,” Wright answered with a nod. “Tower one reports all ready for hyperjump to normal space, Captain.”

Stone ignored her and stared at the
marine. He was so used to having a marine and navy escort that he had stopped looking at them. He blushed bright red when he realized he had not even recognized Allie. Not that there was that much to recognize; one set of ceramic combat armor looked like every other set.

“Um…
,” he stuttered. “Yeah, okay Commander.”

“Do you think I can sit through the hyperjump on the bridge? My normal
general quarters is in tower one, but with most of the animals gone there isn’t any reason for me to be here.”

“Sure, come along. I would welcome the company.”

Wright lowered her voice to a whisper. “Problems between you and Allie?”

Stone grimaced. Even
navy combat armor had hearing enhancements. Allie would have heard Wright’s whisper from a thousand meters away.

“There is nothing wrong that a change of command won’t cure
,” Stone said in a normal voice.

“Ah that
,” Wright said.

“That
,” Stone agreed. He checked the time on his p.a. “We might as well head up to the bridge. If we leave now we can get there before the general quarters call and miss all of the traffic.”

Wright talked all the way to the bridge, but Stone could
not remember a word she said. He nodded and grunted at what seemed like the appropriate times. He was feeling overly conscious of Allie at his back. She was so close, yet still so untouchable.

They were in the atrium when they spotted Maggot hurrying to the bridge conference room.

Wright said, “Oh…um…Mister Stone. Do you mind?” She pointed in the direction Maggot had taken.

Stone frowned, but nodded.

Wright followed Maggot into the conference room.

Allie’s voice came from right behind him. “She is a little bit sweet on Agent Storovitch, you know.”

Stone looked shocked as he glanced up at Allie. She had her face plate open and was looking back at him. “Danielle likes Ivan Storovitch? That’s weird.”

Allie smiled and rolled her eyes. “It is just a matter of taste; that is all. Look who is talking. I am a bit sweet on you and that is no weirder than the Goat-Girl and Maggot.”

They stepped onto the bridge just as Melendez ordered Gubicza to call general quarters.

Melendez smiled and called out “Captain on the bridge.”

Stone smiled back, he was as happy as he had been in weeks. He had Allie at his back, his drascos at his side and he actually knew what to say next. “As you were.”

“Does the Captain want to take the con?”
Gubicza asked.

Stone laughed, “The Captain does not want to take the con. He wants to sit quietly in a corner and see how the real professionals do a hyperjump.”

“There isn’t much to see, Mister Stone,” Melendez said. “Oops, I forgot you have done this from the bridge of an escape pod.”

“Yes Commander
, as a matter of record, I have done this twice from hyperspace and once back in.”

“Well, you won’t see anything you haven’t seen before
,” Melendez said. He pointed at the blank bulkhead on the bridge. “We have the external cameras on so you can see.”

Stone looked at the
bulkhead, “Huh. Looks like a familiar shade of gray.” He dropped into a seat.

A speaker announced “Ten minutes to
normal space.”

Stone watched the flurry of activity on the bridge. He had learned which display on the table matched which workstation, but he could
not make heads or tails out of most of them. He tried to figure out what all of the activity was, but he did not want to interrupt to ask. He remembered every jump he and Commander Wright had made. They were terrifying, but it was a simple matter of a power level dial and a button. The bridge of the Golden Boulder was not much more complicated.

“
Perhaps the larger the ship the more complicated things became,” he mused to himself.

In the final seconds
, Stone swiveled his chair around to watch the blank gray bulkhead. He expected that at the count of zero the gray would disappear to be replaced by the black blanket of space sprinkled with stars. He was not disappointed. What he did not expect to see was a large cluster of spacecraft packed into a tight ball. It did not matter what he had expected, there they were and they were surrounded by a swirling circle of ships moving at impossible speeds in a tight dance around the interior cluster. The whole thing was only a few thousand kilometers away and filled the bulkhead before him. Flashes of light burst all across the shields of the interior ball of ships.

Voices began shouting.

The Hyrocanians had contained the navy fleet and were pounding away at them.

T
he room became quiet. Stone had his back to the bridge crew looking at the disaster on the huge screen. He could feel all of the eyes on the bridge looking at him. He knew they had been at cruising speed going into hyperjump back at Tamvor Station. They would have exited at the same speed.

Stone watched a couple of Hyrocanian warships peel away from their frantic dance around the fleet. They would be on them in
seconds. He could see a burst of light flashes as the warships shot a series of mines in their direction.

He heard Gubicza shout, “Tactical, get some gun crews on those mines. Keep them off our shields.”

Stone swiveled around and calmly asked “Commander Melendez, does navigation have a jump coordinate established.”

“Yes, Captain.”

Stone nodded. “Jump to hyperspace, Commander Gubicza.”

A voice from the third tier
yelled, “You can’t abandon them without trying to get to them. We have a dozen calls for help.”

“Belay that
,” Gubicza shouted. “Aye, aye, Captain. Navigation, take us to jump now.”

The gray returned to the blank
bulkhead.

The bridge was quiet. No one spoke until a quiet sob was heard from the second tier.

Stone felt a hand on his shoulder. It was Melendez. Stone looked up at the man.

Melendez gestured to the crying woman and spoke in a voice that did
not carry. “Her husband is in that fleet.”

Stone stood and replied quietly, “I don’t know anybody over there and I feel like crying.
Get someone in here to replace her if she needs to leave the bridge.”

He turned to look at Allie, but she had her face plate closed. Her fists were clenched.

Stone took a deep breath. “Commander Melendez, please join me in the conference room. Commander Gubicza? If you would join us please?”

“Yes, Captain.” Gubicza said. “Tactical, did you keep our shields clear of mines?”

“Yes, Commander,” the tactical officer replied.

“Tactical, you have the con. I will be with the
captain and the first officer if you need me.”

“
Aye, aye, sir. Tactical has the con.” Tactical replied. “Secure from general quarters.”

The corridor was just a few short paces from the
bridge, but it took an eternity to walk it.

The only people in the room were Commander Wright and Maggot.

She smiled up at them. “How soon do we start load out to the fleet ships?” She saw their expressions. “What?”

“We jumped back into hyperspace again
,” Stone said. “The fleet is contained by the Hyrocanians and is being hammered to pieces. We couldn’t stay.” He looked at Gubicza. “Commander, where did navigation take us?”

“There is a small sun
not too far away. It doesn’t have any planets. As such it was deemed a perfect safety valve as well as a rally point for this sector of the front. For this purpose it is called Point Beta.”

Melendez asked. “What is our hyperspace time?”

“We have a relative week of transit time, sir. What was the enemy doing? I have never heard of them racing around like that in a containment shell. How could they even time such a swirling mess without hitting each other?”