by Alan Black
Stone snapped to attention at the edge of Butcher’s desk. He didn’t need to look at Hammermill to know the man didn’t have an ounce of extra fat anywhere on his body. The man was still recruiting poster perfect. He doubted Escamilla had forgotten any of the skills she’d learned as a marine sergeant before accepting an officer’s commission. Numos was exaggerating, but he got the point, as did Butcher.
Allie often complained about the same thing. Marines were built from the brain out for combat. Moving his gubernatorial seat to an island made sense considering how dangerous the rest of the planet was to humans, but it also made for soft marines. Soft marines were useless to the corps and to the emperor. CPL Tuttle was even frustrated as part of his security detail because no one tried to kill Stone often enough to suit her tastes.
Butcher waved Stone into a chair. He sat, even though it felt strange to be sitting when the marines were towering over him and Butcher.
Seated, he looked at the three marines closely. Numos was angry. Escamilla was concerned about the two men shouting at each other, echoing his concern. It felt like being in the room when his parents argued. Hammermill’s face was impassive, but rather than watching Numos and Butcher, his eyes flicked to Escamilla and back.
Stone almost laughed. Hammermill was smitten. Stone could smell it. Waves of dark wet chocolate washed over him. 2LT Rainne Escamilla wasn’t as tall as Hammermill, but she was as fit as any marine. Her dark hair framed her dark eyes and mocha colored skin. He tried to look at her objectively, but he couldn’t help comparing her to Allie. Escamilla’s skin was smooth and without blemish. She was taller than his girlfriend, but no less muscled.
Allie’s damaged eye had been replaced with a marine issued bio-unit, giving her enhanced vision upon command. Allie had elected to keep the deep scar running across her face. She said it reminded her that the Hyrocanians were still out there and that they’d given her the scar.
Butcher said, “I’m not at liberty to say where Rusty Hinges is being ordered to go. I can’t until we sail. But, we have a good working relationship. I want you with me.”
Numos shook his head. He turned and looked at Hammermill and Escamilla. Both looked back at him silently, “I can’t even run this past my second in command. First Lieutenant Vedrian is on leave, goofing off on Peach’s Rest.” He hooked a thumb at Stone. “Where he should be!”
“I can’t help Stone with that, Dash. Anymore than I can give you what you want. I’m just asking you to volunteer.”
“I’m not volunteering my marines to go on some whirlwind media tour around human space selling war bonds and showing off our shiny medals.”
Butcher said, “Dash, just wait a minute, please.” He turned to Stone. “Ensign, I have the same question for you. I’ve been given command of Rusty Hinges and I’ve been ordered to collect an all volunteer contingent for an unspecified voyage.”
Stone hadn’t slept all night, wondering about his next assignment. It could be anything from data processing on the ice world of Thule to supervising the mucking out of pig barns at the navy supply depot on New Iowa. As a low ranking officer, he doubted he’d be offered a choice.
Butcher continued, “I have a slot for a tactical officer. It requires at least a senior grade ensign. Since you had enough special tutoring to pass your college boards, Admiral Temple can promote you, regardless of your time in grade.”
Stone almost jumped up and shouted yes. Anything would be preferable to being assigned to answer civilian complaints about drunken sailors on Wratchet. He held his tongue, trying to look as if he was considering the offer. “Sir, may I ask about the drascos? I don’t need them as a protective detail, but I would hesitate to leave them behind. There are eight of them, sir.”
Butcher snorted. “Look around Ensign. This was the smallest office I could find on Rusty Hinges. You could bring a dozen times that many drascos and it wouldn’t put a dent in the open bays we have. If you volunteer for this assignment, I was going to offer you a bay on deck sixteen. It’s an overgrown hydroponics area that even the Hyrocanians didn’t have much use for. There is a small closet for you to convert to sleeping quarters, but there should be plenty of room for all of your friends.”
Stone jumped to attention, “Commander Butcher, I volunteer for service on Rusty Hinges.” Contrary to what Numos wanted, he thought a nice long voyage through the safety of human space sounded like a good idea.
Butcher smiled. Nodding, he entered Stone’s name on the ship’s roster. “Thank you —”
Numos interrupted, “Okay. I’ll volunteer, too.” All his earlier hostility had melted away. The major looked at his two officers.
Hammermill said, “Yeah, what he said.”
Escamilla just nodded.
Numos said, “I’ll send a recall notice to Vedrian, but knowing Allie, she’ll go along as well. Since this is a volunteer only assignment, I’ll ask each marine in my company. With as many ships in the system as we have, I can replace anyone who doesn’t volunteer quickly.”
Butcher said, “Okay, Dash. I appreciate that. It’ll make my job so much easier. Why did you change your mind?”
Numos pointed a jagged finger at Stone. “Marines are the point of the spear, the sharp end of the knife. If you’re taking that boy along with you, you’re going to need the toughest marine company in the corps, ‘cuz our Ensign Stone is a trouble magnet.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
The last ten days were trying and today wasn’t any different. Stone didn’t need to pack much before taking his billet on Rusty Hinges for … whatever the navy planned.
Newly appointed Queen Danielle of Allie’s World was harder to keep off the beach than his drascos. Time after time, he’d tried to show her records, reports, and registers covering the solar system, but every time he turned around, she and Maggot were off playing in the sand and surf. She pooh-poohed the idea that she needed to know everything, only that she needed to know how to hire the right people.
Stone said, “But Grandpa always says that you don’t pay someone to do something for you that you can do yourself.”
Danielle snorted, “He isn’t my grandfather.”
Stone thought about reminding her that one of her past hires, a young officer named Skippy, had tried to kill them both. He didn’t say anything about it because by the time he thought of it, she and her royal consort had scooted off to Cyrus Bay on the leeward side of the island for a luau with the piglets.
His failure this morning was trying to get his drascos to troop up the shuttle ramp. The ramp was built for Rusty Hinges’s old Hyrocanian shuttle and ended six feet off the ground. The tetrahedron shuttle hung overhead about twelve feet above the ramp.
The drascos didn’t need the ramp. They could jump the eighteen feet without any effort. They had done so a dozen times before. Stone would need a running jump, but he could get high enough for the shuttle’s artificial gravity to grab him.
All the drascos, Jay and Peebee included, liked to run up the ramp, catch the gravity shift rim along the edge of the shuttle, trying to fly along the edge, flapping their vestigial wings, seeing who could ride the tiny gravity wave between the two opposing forces. Tee was able to swing along the wave for dozens of yards before flopping back to the ground in a tangle of arms, legs, tail, and long twisty neck. Jay and Peebee, heavier than their daughters, were not able to catch as much of the shift, but tried time after time anyway.
Stone threw his few personal belongings up. Before the planet’s gravity dragged them back down, the shuttle’s artificial gravity caught them. They crashed to the outside of the shuttle. He pushed his way into the drasco line, but rather than try to catch the gravity wave, he leaped up, twisted in mid-air and came down feet first near his gear.
Shouting down — or up — at his drascos, “That’s enough.”
“One more, Mama,” Peebee shouted.
“Not yet. Tee is in first place, but there is a tie for second,” Emily added.
“Come on, girls. It�
�s time to go.”
“No,” Bea whined. “Let’s go to the beach next.”
“Yeah, like, you know. We’ve got time, right?” Anne added.
Stone decided to try a different tact. “I’m not in command anymore. I can’t order the shuttle to wait for you. If it takes off without you, I will send a message to Queen Danielle that you are staying on Allie’s world and won’t be going with me.” He glanced at the spacer on hatch duty and shrugged. He didn’t recognize the young girl and she obviously didn’t recognize the drascos.
She tore her eyes away from the drascos. “Sir, the pilot says we don’t leave until you say so.”
Stone could smell the spacer’s minty fragrance of loyalty, but the odor was tinged with a bit of citrus overlay indicating she was a little fearful about something. Stone knew the fragrance well. Most people exuded that odor when seeing drascos up close for the first time.
He shouted again. “The shuttle pilot says he’s going to leave without you if you don’t get up here now.”
Jay wonked in laughter, “Liar.”
“Mama, you can’t fool us.” Peebee joined in. “Besides, we can’t leave until Shorty and Sissie get here.”
Stone was surprised. He hadn’t seen the two piglets since he’d been deposed as governor. He assumed they were either serving the new queen or had taken an early retirement. Nodding, he wondered if the two piglets were coming to say goodbye. He wasn’t familiar with piglet customs. Communication with them was difficult, not because he didn’t have interpreters. One or more of the drascos was almost always around to help translate, but the drascos were not the most patient or accurate in helping. They were good in a fight, all of them having trained for the past two years with the marines. They were good at playing, as that was their normal state when not eating and sleeping. They were good at eating, as that was their favorite pastime. But, getting them to actually perform a standard duty like interpreting was like trying to hold a rope vertically by grasping only the bottom end.
Stone turned to the spacer, “Please ask the pilot to be patient with us. A few piglets are coming by to say good-bye to their drasco friends.”
The spacer held her hand about piglet high. “You mean the little vent runners, sir? Yeah, we have a few of them already on Rusty Hinges working with the engineers. Smart little fellows. They can get into places the human engineers can’t. I’ve seen them a couple of times in the chow hall.”
Stone nodded. “Vent runners? Yeah. That would be right up their alley. I hadn’t realized there were any on the ship.”
“Sir, they are friends with — um, those?” She pointed at the drascos.
Stone smiled, “Yes, spacer. Those are drascos. They’re an intelligent species, although I have my suspicions that the piglets — vent runners, are a bit smarter.”
Bea shouted, obviously overhearing Stone’s conversation, “They are not.”
Ell wonked in laughter “Smarter than you, sister.”
Emily huffed, “Smarter than all of us.”
“Are not.” Charlotte added.
Stone continued as if his drascos hadn’t interrupted. “A few piglets have been quite close to—”
The spacer interrupted and pointed a finger across the spaceport. “That ain’t a few, sir.”
Stone looked. He hadn’t had much to do with the piglets since setting them free from the Hyrocanians. With the exception of Shorty and Sissie, who had volunteered to follow him around, his plan for the piglets was to allow them to lead their own lives, doing whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted.
A platoon-sized group had glommed onto Allie, with other groups attaching themselves to various people. A second platoon-sized group attached to Hammermill and a trio of piglets followed and helped S1C Tim Dollish in the kitchen. A dozen piglets following Doctor Kat Emmons, the emperor’s assigned behaviorist, in such a symbiotic relationship he wondered whether Doc Emmons was studying them or they were studying her.
This morning, it looked as if all the piglets were marching in neat, orderly ranks and rows across the spaceport headed for his shuttle. “Well, I believe they’ve decided to say good-bye a little bit formally.” He was surprised at the number of piglets. A complete census of their population had been attempted and proved to be a futile exercise as the piglets refused to stand still and be counted.
The spacer shrugged as if to say that what officers did wasn’t any concern of hers. She tapped open her dataport, sending a quick report to the shuttle pilot, adding in a wide-angle vid of the approaching piglet formation.
Over the last couple of years, Stone managed to learn to give speeches without much preparation. As governor, he’d been called upon many times to say a few words. Today wouldn’t be any different. Nice to have known you. Thanks for coming by. Live long. Prosper. Good health to your children. Blah. Blah. Blah.
He was about to vault back to the ramp, when the piglet ranks reached the bottom of the ramp. Before he could jump. Peebee, Tee, Anne, and Emily jumped up to join him on the shuttle. Ell grabbed the first piglet and tossed it into the air like an under-inflated ball. The piglet crossed the wave from the planet’s gravity to the shuttle’s artificial gravity, spun in the air and dropped upward toward the deck. Emily caught the piglet, set it down gently and turned back to catch a piglet thrown by Bea. Before he could react, piglets were tossed skyward by Jay, Bea, Charlotte, and Ell. They were caught without fail by the four drascos on the shuttle deck and set on their feet.
Each piglet had a bundle of goods held tightly in their arms. They turned and raced through a dilating shuttle hatch, disappearing below. The spacer called the shuttle pilot, shouting into her dataport. “It’s raining vent runners, sir. Just hold her steady for a bit.” She stepped back, away from the drascos and stood watching as if it was a common occurrence for huge scorpion-like dragon-things to toss small piglet-type creatures across a gravity shift.
It might be normal for her, but it was a surprise to Stone. He wanted to say something, but he wasn’t in charge anymore. He hoped if CDR Butcher already had vent runners on Rusty Hinges, he wouldn’t mind a few more, assuming anyone anywhere considered about five hundred alien creatures just a few. The man hadn’t minded Stone bringing eight drascos along, surely he wouldn’t object.
Finally, the piglet rain ended and his drascos clustered around him on the shuttle deck. Shorty and Sissie stood next to Stone. Their little shoulder pouches bulged with odds and ends. Dark, mirrored sunglasses reflected his image when he looked at the two.
Peebee said, “Shorty says if you’re going. He is, too.”
“All of them?”
Jay shook her head. “No, Mama. Only about half are here. The others wanted to stay and follow the new queen.”
Peebee added, “Sissie says they like it here and want to make it home. They don’t understand what queen means, but we told them Danielle is nice and in charge now.”
“Do they understand that we don’t know where we’re going?”
Shorty and Sissie looked at each other and shrugged.
Stone said, “Well, I guess they don’t care.” He looked at the spacer. “We’re good. Tell the pilot to release the brakes. Let’s get this floating menagerie on the road.”
The spacer made the call and dashed inside before the shuttle moved. Stone settled on the deck. The trip to Rusty Hinges was short, so he leaned against a gun port, putting his feet up on his backpack. Jay and Peebee hustled their daughters inside. The younger drascos were full grown, but no one was sure they were smart enough to not jump too high when the shuttle was in the vacuum of space. Life support extended only so far past the shuttle’s exterior deck.
Stone watched Allie’s World move away. The shuttle was moving, but without the sensation of motion it looked as if the planet was shrinking away. In no time, he could see the ocean surrounding his large island. Smaller island. Smaller yet. Tiny. There in the distance, surrounded by blue water was the island prison of the Hyrocanian prisoners. The flat horizon cu
rved and rounded as the planet receded. Before he could see the full sphere of the planet, the shuttle spun like a four-sided die rolling across the black felt of space.
Rusty Hinges popped into view, surrounded by UEN spacecraft. The navy ships were heavy and ominous, all angles and jutting protrusions compared to the huge egg-shaped Hyrocanian ship, but they didn’t look threatening. The navy vessels looked like big brothers watching over their none-too-smart baby sister. The pilot aimed one of the shuttle points at a square shuttle hatch in the ovoid ship and guided it expertly inside.
Stone’s ears popped slightly with the change in atmosphere as the shuttle adjusted its life support to match the internal conditions on the ship. A cluster of human shuttles lined up in neat rows filled the huge bay. The Hyrocanian shuttle with its unusual tetrahedron shape slid over to its usual deck space.
He glanced below him, remembering the first time they’d entered the enemy ship. A desperate cluster of walking wounded had attacked the Hyrocanians with a suicidal fury that, to the surprise of everyone, succeeded in capturing the ship. They’d begun their attack by falling from the shuttle deck to crash onto the hangar deck.
Now there was a large series of nets stretched below them. Stone threw his gear into the nets and quickly followed them with a huge leap, turning in midair to land in the nets. He grabbed his belongings, vaulted off the hanging nets, and slammed flatfooted onto the hangar deck.
He was surprised when Dollish grabbed his belongings. The spacer said, “Hey, sir. I’ll wrangle your stuff to your new digs. Jay and Peebee can follow me, too.”
“Spacer Dollish, what are you doing here?”
“Volunteered, sir, just like you. What did you expect, sir? You saved my life and I ain’t done paying you back yet.”
“Nonsense, Tim —” He was interrupted by a rain of piglets and drascos dropping off the edge of the nets. “I’m going to have to check with the captain about getting a place for Shorty, Sissie, and their people.”
