Metal Boxes (12 page)

“I don’t care that you set a new ship’s record for operations during a
general quarters call. I don’t care that you actually achieved a 157 point something rating. It doesn’t matter. You didn’t follow procedure to get it, so I am wiping it off your record. How you managed to finagle the data to get better than perfect is going to take a full-on investigation!” Vaarhoo was red in the face with anger. “I have to explain how a lowly midshipman in my division screwed up this badly. And I have to explain that to the admiral himself.”

Stone said, “
Lieutenant, my men, Spacers Rojo and Ramirez did as I instructed. I understand about having the 157% rating wiped from my records, but they didn’t do anything wrong. I respectfully request that both men be allowed to keep the score in their records.”

Vaarhoo screeched, “How in the name of the Great Green Earth can I give them a more than perfect score when their
watch officer’s record shows an incomplete? You don’t have an answer for that do you? If you had been thinking of their future instead of just yours, you wouldn’t have to worry about those men. And they are not ‘your’ men. They are my men.”

Stone wanted to laugh. He was feeling almost giddy with excitement. He had scored well over perfect on an actual
navy general quarters call. Whether it showed in his record or not did not matter to him. He had succeeded. But, he kept any hint of happiness from leaking through to his expression.

Vaarhoo checked the time on his
personal assistant. It was obvious he wanted to dismiss Stone. Instead he said, “Okay, sit. Show me your progress in math.”

The next fifteen minutes w
as taken up with the lieutenant looking for any area or any mistake he could find. Stone was pleased that as hard as the lieutenant tried the man was failing miserably to find mistakes, so he changed tactics and was having Stone explain the math problems.

Stone was in the middle of an explanation when the
lieutenant interrupted. “Enough. Get out of my office. You have about thirty minutes to get to your duty station. I suggest you go straight there. No. I strongly suggest you go straight to your duty station. An officer should arrive before his crew and not leave until they have all left.”

“
Aye, aye, Lieutenant,” Stone said as he stood and snapped to attention. “Thank you, sir.” For once he executed a perfect about face and marched from the office, through the cluster of enlisted desks in the outer office and into the corridor. Once in the corridor, a big grin split his face. He did not care if anyone else saw him grinning like some kind of idiot. He got an official 157% score on a live fire g.q. exercise. It would not be on his record, but he would know.

He almost whistled to himself as he headed down the elevators to
the tower three crossover tunnel. He would miss breakfast, but he could grab something quick during a mid-shift break. He was feeling so triumphant he knew he could wait for the mid-shift meal and then he could celebrate with ice cream.

The thought of ice cream made him think of Allie. He knew why she was mad at him. He knew he should have trusted her and been honest with her, but he had been afraid she would react exactly like she did. He really wanted to call her and share his happiness, but he could
not. His conflicting emotions felt like a kick to the stomach and he stumbled as he passed across the anti-gravity threshold between the tunnel and into tower three. Then, the kick in the stomach was for real.

The kick in the stomach came just as he was coming around a blind corner in the corridor and it doubled him over. He knew if he had eaten he would have lost his lunch. Rough hands grabbed him.
The sack pulled over his head was heavy enough to block out all light. He was dragged a short distance and through a hatch. His arms were twisted behind him and he was held up so that only his toes touched the deck. Stone was struck three more times in the stomach. He was hit across the face.

“No marks on the face. No bruising that shows, you idiot
,” a voice said. Try as he might Stone did not recognize the voice. It was not PO Watkins, but he was sure he had heard the voice before. It was gruff and uncompromising.

“Listen up,
numbnuts. Quit screwing around. Quit rocking the boat. Leave the marines alone. You just show up on your job and let your crew do their jobs. Do nothing else. I know you understand what I am saying. Understand this: our little meeting here is as pleasant as it gets. Next time we will not be so nice.”

Another punch in the stomach would have caused Stone to double over except he was being held up. Suddenly, he was let go and he dropped heavily to the deck. He heard the hatch close.
He groaned loudly. It hurt. He had been in a fight just once before. He and his cousin Jimbo had been wandering around a station just looking to be looking. They were jumped by a couple of local station brats looking for trouble. He had been punched a few times before the stationers ran off, but he could not remember it hurting this bad. He and Jimbo had laughed it off.

Stone levered himself to his feet and pulled the sack of
f his head. The room he was in was almost pitch black except for the small red dot over the hatch indicating where the exit was located. He stumbled to the hatch, silently willing the hatch to not be locked from the outside.

He stepped into the corridor. It was empty. He leaned against the bulkhead and breathed deeply. His breath caught and he tried not to breathe so deep. He checked the time on his personal assistant and was surprised to see he still had twenty minutes before
third watch began. He stood as straight as he could and walked the rest of the way to his station.

He waved to the
ensign on duty, but did not speak. Their routine was for Stone to show up for duty and the ensign left. The ensign had not required Stone to speak since the first day. He had not ever waited for his crew to be relieved; he just left without a word.

Spacer Ramirez was the first man to come on duty. Ramirez smiled, but when Stone did
not return the smile, he shrugged and went off to his duty station, relieving the spacer from second watch. A few others came on duty, some nodded, some did not and some looked as if they were walking in their sleep.

Stone watched each of his crew carefully as they came on duty. Each man reported to Stone and he assigned each man to a station. Stone spread them out to various duty stations without his usual
thought or concern. Some of his crew had duty stations at consoles in the room. Others were spread about at consoles around the warehouse complex. As each man replaced the second watch warehouseman, the faces on the consoles in front of Stone changed. Stone looked at each face. Some stared back, some did not and some looked as if they had gone back to sleep.

When Spacer Rojo reported for duty he grinned wildly at Stone. He looked confused when Stone just gave him his duty station and said nothing else.

Petty Officer Watkins was the last man in the door, barely reporting on time. Stone stared at him without giving him his duty station, but the man refused to look Stone in the eye. He just stood quietly looking at the deck.

Stone checked the console displays. As always there were more warehousemen on
second watch than were assigned to the third watch. He also knew that first watch had more warehousemen assigned to it than the second watch and third watches combined.

He spoke into the department intercom. “All
second watch crew are relieved of duty. Thank you for your service to the Emperor.” He looked up at the petty officer. “PO Watkins, your uniform has a stain on the knee.”

Watkins shrugged, “So?”

“So?” Stone mimicked the man. “So? Petty Officer Watkins, is that all you have to say?”

“You never cared before
,” Watkins replied. “That stain has been there for a couple a weeks.”

Stone stood up and faced the man. He wanted to stare at Watkins eye to eye, but he was about four inches too short. None-the-less, he stepped within inches of Watkins and stared at the man’s face, willing the enlisted man to flinch.

Watkins looked away, still not meeting Stone’s eyes.

“Petty Officer Watkins, you will come to attention when reporting for duty and you will report wearing a serviceable uniform
,” Stone’s voice was cold.

“What?” Watkins replied.

“PO Watkins, how long have you been in the Emperor’s navy?” Stone asked, keeping all emotion from his voice except for an ice cold edge to his words. He could feel the others in the room watching his back, both those in the room and those watching through the monitors. He even imagined he could feel Lieutenant Vaarhoo watching the same video feeds. Right now he did not care who was watching. His stomach hurt and the side of his face stung.

“I guess about sixteen years or so. Why?” Watkins mumbled.

Stone’s voice became colder. “Sixteen years and in all that time you haven’t learned how to stand at attention, is that what you are telling me, Petty Officer Watkins?”

“Uh, no. I mean, I know how to do it, but I just-”

“Petty Officer Watkins, if you understand how, then you should be standing that way now, should you not?”

Watkins straightened his back in a semblance of standing at attention.

Stone looked the man over. “Petty Officer Watkins, you will address me as Mister or Mister Stone when you speak to me or you will not speak at all. Do you understand?”

Watkins nodded.

“Thank you, Petty Officer. I appreciate your attention to these minor details and as the senior enlisted man on this watch I trust that you will discuss this with each member of this detail, so every enlisted man will be within regulations.”

Stone left Watkins standing at attention and turned back to check each monitor to be sure each enlisted man was watching. “Third
watch, I have an announcement before we begin. During the recent general quarters live fire exercise the third watch crew, consisting of only Spacer Third Class Rojo and Second Class Ramirez, achieved a rating of 157%. That number is under review as it may be some kind of record. Whether their performance will stand with that number or whether it will be downgraded to a lower number, I cannot say. I will note that number in the duty officer’s personal notes section of their permanent record. It was an outstanding effort by both spacers and I thank them for it. As a reward, both men were given the watch off.”

He thought, “Take that Vaarhoo! I hope you are listening.”

Stone looked at Rojo in the monitor. “Spacer Rojo, thank you for coming in, but it was not necessary. Why are you here?”

Rojo grinned. “Mister Stone, I was so excited about how well we did on the exercise that I couldn’t sleep. I just wanted to get back to work. Is that okay?”

Stone nodded, but did not return the grin. “Yes, Spacer Rojo, it is more than okay. Your enthusiasm will be noted in your record.” He looked across the room at Ramirez sitting at a console there. “Spacer Ramirez, why are you here?”

“Um, Mister Stone, the same reason I guess. I couldn’t sleep and didn’t have anything else to do as everyone I hang out with is on watch
,” Ramirez replied.

“Thank you, Spacer Ramirez, your enthusiasm will be noted in your personnel record.”

Stone looked at each monitor before he spoke again. “Third watch, we have a large number of containers stored in temporary in-coming slots. These items were received when we docked at Paramount Station. We will review these items and move them to permanent storage for disposition and activation. We also have a large number of items stored in the disposal area. We will also work to review each item prior to sending it for scrapping or destruction. Please begin.”

He turned back to Watkins and made a show of shutting the sound off and turning his back on the video pickup feeds to all of the enlisted on
third watch. He deliberately left his personal assistant set to record and made sure the main input/output feed to Vaarhoo’s office remained open.

He looked at Watkins closely. Someone had just punched him in the face, he had his suspicions Watkins was involved, but the man’s knuckles were not bruised or skinned up.

“Petty Officer Watkins,” Stone said. “I will note in your file that you missed another general quarters call by showing up to sickbay for detox. That is your right by regulation. However, to my certain knowledge this is the third g.q. call that you missed for detox. I am giving you formal notice that I intend to review your records. I will recommend you be suspended from duty for a drinking problem if you show more missed duty over the past twelve months for detox. Do you have a drinking problem, PO Watkins?”

Watkins looked startled. “Hey, you can’t-”

“My name is not ‘hey’ Petty Officer. And I certainly can. You have your rights, but so do I. Are you abusing alcohol or drugs?”

Watkins didn’t say anything, but his ‘at attention’ stance sagged a bit.

“It is your right to not say anything. Please take the front console,” Stone nodded, more to himself than to Watkins.

The PO
almost saluted, thought better of it, spun on his heels and seated himself at the console directly in front of Stone. When left to his own devices, Watkins almost always gravitated to a console away from the main duty room.