Metal Boxes (6 page)

Stone looked startled. “The whole tower?”

Wright said, “Yes, Mister Stone, the whole tower from top to bottom. Well, except for the command bridge at one end, the emergency engines in the backend, the hanger decks and a few gun emplacements here and there. Where do they have you working, Mister Stone?”

“I am in t
ower three, whiskey deck, Commander.”

“Whiskey deck? I imagine that sounds like more fun than it really is.
Then you know that the central tower is broken down into decks and offices with enough corridors to keep a person busy full time just trying to map it out. Six of the seven outer towers are broken into various warehouse components depending on storage requirements. Well, my tower is all hollow in the middle with the artificial gravity set so the inside of the cylinder is down. Most of the deck has six to ten meters of rocks, sand and soil planted with grass, except where we have planted crops. All figured in we have a huge amount of farmland. As a midshipman, you are still working your studies, correct? So we have a sixteen kilometer long cylinder with an eight kilometer diameter. What is the surface face of the interior of the cylinder?”

“Um,
sir, well…math is pretty much my weakest subject, but isn’t it pi times the radius squared times the height?” Stone tried to answer.

“Don’t ask me, Mister Stone
,” Wright laughed. “I am a vet. I can tell you which end of a pig to feed and which end the fertilizer comes out of, but I don’t know math. That is why I have a whole staff of officers and a whole office full of computers.”

Allie shook her head. “Stone, you are close, but that is not quite right. That equation will give you the volume of a cylinder. You want an equation that gives you the lateral area, although in this case
, I believe there is a negligible difference between interior and exterior surfaces. Try two times pi times the radius times the height.” She looked at Wright. “I assume you were asking about the sides only as the ends are taken up in storage, offices, bridge space and the aft docks.”

“Wow. I knew they grew them big in the
marines,” Wright grinned. “But, I didn’t know they made them into math whizzes.”

“I
received a teaching degree in math,” Allie shrugged. “But teaching didn’t allow me the opportunity to kill anything, so I joined the Empire’s marines.”

“They frown on killing your students where you come from?”
Wright asked with a laugh.

Allie nodded. “Strange isn’t it? That was frustrating as all
get out on some days.”

“I get
80,384 square kilometers,” Stone said.

“
Not even close, Stone,” Allie said. “I got enough spare time I can help you if you are having math issues. What say you to a bit of special tutoring?”

Skippy whooped. “Hey, Vedrian, you can tutor me any day.”

“Skippy, you wouldn’t last the day,” Allie replied with a snort.

Wright said, “Allie, if you and Mister Stone need a
quiet place to study you can come by my office. We’ve got plenty of spare space. Hey, there is nothing like studying math under an open sky.”

Stone shuddered involuntarily at the thought of open sky.

“What, Stone? You don’t like open sky?” Allie asked him.

Stone shook his head. “No. Not so much. I grew up on ships and stations. I haven’t had much to do with being outside without a deck over head.”

“Well, tower one really doesn’t have open sky,” Wright said “It just looks that way to keep the goats from going crazy, and some of the marines we have on board too.”

Allie smiled, “Goat-
girl has been letting us bring over some of our transient marines for exercises in the open farm air. It does them good, rather than keeping them cooped up. It would be good for you too, Stone.”

“I’ve got an opening on my staff. How about I wrangle a transfer for you, Mister Stone?”
Wright asked in agreement.

A smile leapt to Stone’s face at the thought of getting away from
tower three-whiskey deck and Lieutenant Vaarhoo. Grandma said the navy would help him broaden his experiences. After all, he had grown up on freighters and had been doing warehouse work for as long as he could remember.

“Commander Wright, I think I would like that very much. However, I don’t know anything about
working with live animals or doing any farm work,” Stone replied.

Wright laughed a
nd pointed at Skippy. “Neither did he when he came to us, but he spent most of last night shoving his arms up to his shoulders inside a cow’s backend to help with a breach birthing.”

Stone had a sudden urge to brush the back of his uniform where Skippy had patted him on the back.

“I’ll teach you to farm,” Wright continued. “And Allie can teach you math, because if you can’t figure out how much grass you have then you can’t figure out how many goats you can put on it to graze. And with that lesson, we have got to go.” She raised her voice. “Okay, children, saddle up. We got chores to do and only so much daylight left to do them.”

Stone stood, came to attention and said, “Commander Wright. It has been my pleasure to meet you. Thank you for the invitation to join your table.”

Wright smiled, “Thank you, Midshipman Stone. You are always welcome at my table.” She raised a quizzical eyebrow at Allie.

“
Yeah, yeah, Goat-girl. What he said.”

After nodding in acknowledgement
to each of the other officers that had been at the table, Stone watched until the group was out of the room. He sat back down and looked across at Allie. “Please excuse me, Allie. I don’t mean to sound rude, but I have never seen anyone eat so much as you just did and still keep an attractive figure.”

“It is really a matter of math
,” Allie answered with a smile. “It is calorie intake minus calorie output. We just have to balance them. I do have a large frame to carry plenty of bulk.”

“Large is nice. I think I like large
,” Stone said.

“Thanks Stone. I think you are nice
, too,” Allie replied.

“And you have nice friends.”

“Yeah, I think so too. Of course a marine has to be careful who she is seen with. Goat-girl isn’t really very navy-like so I guess she’ll do.”

“Do you really think she will ask to have me transferred to her tower?”

Allie nodded. “Absolutely, if Full Commander Danielle E. Wright says she will do something then you can bet your last dollar that she will do it. Not me, though; seems I am a terrible liar.”

Stone looked crestfallen. “You really won’t help tutor me in math?”

“That? Hell yes, I am gonna do that. However, I was supposed to meet a group of marines in rec-area one-wts-3159 for a going away bash. We have a couple of transient officers passing through that are departing when we get to Willet Station tomorrow.”

“So what is the lie
?”

“I said that I would go to this bash, but now I don’t want to. I think I would rather spend the time with you. I am awful, aren’t I?”

Stone stood as his mother had taught him. He was really glad she had made him practice over and over again. Now that he was out in public it seemed that using manners made communicating much easier.

He said, “Allie, I wouldn’t feel slighted in the least if you fulfilled a prior obligation. Believe me, the pleasure in dining with such a charming and lovely companion has been all mine. I am grateful for what time we have had and grateful to the max for your willingness to tutor me.”

“What?” Allie laughed. “Sorry, I quit listening after ‘charming and lovely’. How often did you practice that little speech?”

Stone dropped heavily to his chair. “Um, well, honestly Mother did make me stand up and say things like that for practice at every meal. But, hey, that doesn’t mean I didn’t mean it.”

“I know Stone. It sounded practiced, but very sincere,” Allie smiled.

“Practice is good, right? Just because I practiced doesn’t mean I was forced to say something I didn’t want to say. It just means I was better able to say what I mean when I meant to say it…I think.”

“You should have been a marine. That is exactly why marines are always training and it is what we try to teach the F.N.G.s. Just because we train you to kill doesn’t make you a killer. But, when you are in a kill-or-be-killed situation it gives you the skills to survive. Same thing.”

“I kind of see what you mean, but really, I don’t think I would ever equate killing to a beautiful woman
,” Stone said.

Allie shook her head. “That is hard to say. Have you ever killed something?”

Stone looked horrified. “No. Certainly not.”

“Well
then, I don’t see that you are in the position to judge the comparison.”

Stone looked thoughtful for a minute.
“Point taken. I bow to the argument I don’t know about killing. But, you must agree that I am in a position to judge a beautiful woman.”

“You just keep sweet talking me like this Stone and you are going to be the best tutored
midshipman in the fleet,” Allie said.

Stone said, “One thing before you leave for your going away party-“

“Who said I was going?” she interrupted.

“I did
,” Stone replied. “Grandpa always says ‘face time is the down payment on money in the bank.’ We always listen to Grandpa.”

“Grandpa sounds like a smart man.”

“Well, honestly we listen to Grandpa because Grandma would kick our tails if we didn’t, but that is a whole different family issue. Anyway, my question is: what is an F.N.G? You said it was someone you train?”

“The N.G. is the New Guy
,” Allie smiled.

Stone nodded. “Okay, new guy, the trainee. I get it. But what does the F stand…
oh…never mind. I understand.”

“The F
.N.G. is the guy who is so new he is liable to do something stupid to get himself and everyone around him killed,” Allie replied with a laugh.

“I guess that would be me
,” Stone laughed with her. “You know Allie, normally by now I would be dragging myself into bed to catch up on sleep before tonight’s watch, but I have enjoyed myself enough that I am wide awake. Honestly, thank you for letting me join you. This has been the best time I have had since I joined the navy.”

“This is your best time?!” Allie looked shocked. “Oh hell no
! You’ve got to have been in service for eleven, maybe fourteen months and this little thing is the best? New orders, Mister Midshipman Stone. You are comin’ with me to a marine soirée. You can’t drink with the big boys. No, I know by law you are old enough to drink because you enlisted in the navy, but you can’t drink today because you have to go stand third watch in ten hours or so. Believe me, stayin’ sober is much to be preferred over a regimen of detox just before an eight hour work shift.”

Stone really wanted to go. He would have followed Allie anywhere, but he asked, “Are you sure? I mean, will a
navy midshipman showing up at a marine function be welcome?”

Allie reached across the table and grabbed his hand. “Stone, you are going as my guest, as my escort, as my date. No one will even question who you are beyond that.” She gave his ha
nd a squeeze and let it go. “However, since you are the ‘man who eats marines for breakfast’ you are a celebrity of sorts. I imagine even Lieutenant Heller will want to buy you drinks.”

Stone stood again. “
Lieutenant Vedrian, although you have ordered me to go, I must decline the order. I will go because I want to go and for no other reason.”

Allie stood and led him out of the room. She said to him over her shoulder, “You have had a strange military career so far if you think orders are only
good if you don’t like them.”

Allie led Stone to the eleva
tors, where they shot down the central tower going deep into marine country. It was a part of the ship Stone had been told to avoid. It was not exactly off limits, like the bridge or the engine rooms. It was just that he had been told marines did not like navy.

Stone did
not see any evidence he was unwelcome. Most of the enlisted ranks in the corridors simply plastered themselves against the bulkheads to give them room to pass. Most of the enlisted also spoke to them, pleasantly, friendly and apparently doing so because they wanted to speak, not because regulations required them to do so.

Allie was giving Stone a running commentary on the
Ol’ Toothless’ marine country. He was surprised to learn this deck was a mixture of officer quarters and enlisted barracks. He was more surprised Allie expected it to be that way.

She said, “Look, the enlisted grunts need to have access to their officers and the other way around. Each man has to trust who leads him. Each leader has to trust those in his command will follow where he leads.
Anything less is unacceptable in a combat unit. Where did you grow up, Stone?”

Stone hesitated. He was
not ashamed of where he grew up. It just was not as glamorous as he would have liked. He wanted to impress Allie, to show her that he was not just a freighter’s kid.