Metal Boxes (22 page)

Stone found himself sitting in water next to Commander Wright attempting to
clean his only uniform and underwear by scrubbing them on the rocks around him. He tried to pretend sitting naked next to a naked woman was an everyday occurrence but he failed. He tried to keep his eyes averted but he failed.

Wright
laughed. She said she would be okay if he looked. She said she knew she was not much to look at; she was no beauty queen. She also knew enough about teenage boys to know he could not help but look, but he had to keep his hands to himself.

Stone stuttered and sputtered trying to say he thought she was beautiful and well worth looking at. He tried to say that if he
did not miss Allie so much he would make a pass at her, but he failed miserably, suddenly becoming tongue tied. He was saved when Peebee cannonballed right in front of them.

Now he found himself hauling bucket of water after bucket of water
. They parked the pod almost in the stream but there was no way to suck up water directly into the tanks. The inflow connections were all designed to hook up to pipes and hoses in a pod maintenance bay. Each connection on the pod had a universal female intake coupler. However a universal female intake coupler did not mean anything without a universal male feeder coupler.

They emptied the holding tanks into the stream, waiting until the natural flow
of the stream cleared away any stale liquid. They hauled water by hand and poured it into the sink, allowing the water to run through the recycler, cleaning it before it went into the holding tanks. They let the first dozen buckets run through the system and flush out into the stream before they closed the petcocks and filled the tanks.

Just when he thought they were done, Commander Wright insisted they haul bucket after bucket
to sluice down the deck. The goo from the momma drasco had long since dried into a fine powder that settled into every corner. The air in the pod was clear and clean, but you could not say the same about the decks. Wright cut some brush and used it as a broom, mop and scrub brush.

Stone
was ready to quit cleaning two or three times. He was sure it was as clean as it was going to get. Each time Wright sent him back for more water.

He set his buckets down at the top of the ramp and sighed. It was comforting to have a roof over his head again. The pod was
a very small metal box, but it had an inside.

“Commander?”
he asked. “We have another ten buckets full, sort of. It looks like the girls spilled as much as they usually do. Are you ready for another rinse?”

“Almost, Stone. I think this will do it. I know this is a pain for you but my mother
is a cleaning wizard. I picked up the habit from her. I know you may think this a strange thing for a farm veterinarian since we are almost always up to our knees in dirt, but being clean also helps keep us healthy. We are going to be in this pod for the Emperor knows how long. At least we can start off clean. Okay, rinse it down, Mister Stone.” She tossed the brush brooms to Jay and Peebee, who practically swallowed them whole.

“
We should be able to keep this pretty clean. We may have to spend a week or two in here, but there is just us,” Stone said,

Wright snorted. “Ha! You may have house
trained Jay and Peebee but you haven’t taught them to use the toilet, not that they could fit in the bathroom.”

“What? I am not going to have to clean up their messes.”

“Why not? I am sure not cleaning up after your pets,” Wright replied.

“We’re not taking them with us.”

“Really?” Wright said. “If we don’t then you might as well just cut their throats before we go. I guess we could cook them down. We have gathered plenty of the vegetables and fruits, still we could use some more jerky for protein to get us through this trip.”

“Cut their throats? Eat them? Are you nuts? Sorry, Commander, but what are you talking about
? I was just going to set them free. Why would I want to kill them?”

Wright shook her head. “
I am sorry, Mister Stone. These are not wild creatures. They are house pets. That is all they have ever been from the day they were born. They are smart, probably smarter than most earth creatures. If my brain scans are correct, they are on the borderline for being too smart to classify as pets at all. As smart as they are, unless they are taught how, they are not smart enough to survive on a hostile planet. You and I don’t know enough about this planet to teach them how to survive. You have practically hand fed them for their whole lives. If we don’t take them, they will die.”

“I didn’t think about that.”

Wright grinned, “That is why I am a commander and you are a lowly midshipman. We take the girls with us. I actually thought that was why you made so many of the ooze bars for them.”

Stone shook his head. “No. I did that so I could reseal the engine if we need to.”

“Well, we won’t need to worry about completely tight seals with drascos on board. They are better filters than the life support system. You are going to have to bring in a lot of brush for them to snack on. There isn’t any way we can bring enough to feed them on leaves alone, but you can supplement them with ooze bars.”

“Wait. Won’t they starve when we get back to human space? I don’t know of any place that has plants like this place.”

“No. That is not a problem. Just like their lungs can breathe just about anything, these girls have digestive systems that can break down just about anything. Any competent engineer can reprogram a recycler to generate ooze bars out of a lot of different earth based materials. It is pretty close to a compound similar to jellied goat feed infused with carbon dioxide.”

“Okay
,” Stone said. “I don’t want them to die, but midshipmen aren’t supposed to have large pets. And these two are large and getting larger.”

Wright laughed. “Yeah, if either one of them converts to a male drasc
o he will get a lot bigger. The rules say you get pets if you want them. We will just have to deal with the size issue when it comes up. Besides Midshipman Stone, you are dead. What do you care what the rules say?”

“Strange
,” he grinned at what had become a standard joke for them. “I don’t feel fully dead, just sort of dead.”

Wright laughed. “At least
you don’t smell dead anymore. Still, I can’t wait to see the navy’s collective face when we show up. We have probably been dead for, what, four weeks?”

Stone counted on his fingers. “Yes,
sir. We jumped out of hyperspace at the exact time as the Periodontitis. Our disappearance was reported to the next navy base in communications range. That sounds about right, give or take a few days.”

Wright’s smile disappeared. “We joke about it, but on a more sober note, our families have been told of our deaths by now.”

“There isn’t anything we can do about that until we get back to communications range somewhere in human space,” Stone said with a shrug.

“That is true
, but I still don’t like the idea of causing needless pain to my family. Then again, Mom always thought going off to space meant I would never get home again anyway.”

“I wonder whether we died from an accident or
if our deaths were marked down as an unsolved mystery,” Stone mused for the hundredth time.

“Now you’re just stalling for time. You have plenty of daylight left.
Go feed Jay and Peebee, and then we can both cut leaves until we stuff this place full. If we work at it we can lift off before sundown.”

“
Aye, aye, sir.” Stone spun about and gave a small shudder at the top of the ramp. He still did not like going outside. He had already been outside most of the day and was truly tired of all the open sky. He was happier at their earlier dig site. It had a cliff bulkhead along one side and it was a long way to the tree line. Here along the stream, the pod’s roof almost brushed tree limbs. It was hard to see more than twenty or thirty meters through the forest.

The drascos bounded down the ramp. They were good watchdogs…watchmen…watch-creatures, but Stone hesitated. It always took a few seconds to steel his resolve to leave the pod. He would have hesitated longer
, however Wright strode down the ramp with a sigh. She glanced up at the sky, spreading her arms and breathing deeply as if soaking up the outside, storing it for later use. Stone stepped two steps back into the pod, imitating her, trying to soak up the feeling of being inside and followed the Commander down the ramp. It did not help to soak up the inside feeling.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Stone winced as he tapped a hand against the controls.
They had managed to fill the aft cabin of the pod, but at a painful cost. He was sure he found a new type of thorn with a hinged barb. It slid in easily and the barb grabbed at the flesh when he tried to pull it out.

Wright winced in sympathy. “Does it hurt that bad? I think we got all of the thorns out.”

“I guess I will just have to man up,” Stone shrugged. He slid the engine throttle forward, slowly feeding energy into the charging system. “There isn’t much we can do about it. I tried to smear some of the golden ooze on my hands and forearms and let it dry. It looked like it might work like a liquid bandage. It took the sting out, but Jay and Peebee held me down and licked me clean before it completely dried.” He tapped the throttles forward, sending a trickle of power from the charging system to the blast rings. From the outside, the pod appeared to rock back and forth. Inside there was not any movement.

“It took the sting out? Humm…We will have to remember that.”
She spoke into her p.a. “Run an analgesic analysis on the golden ooze.”

Stone looked through the view screen and saw the
trees wobble back and forth in the last rays of the sun. “Commander, we have visual confirmation that the inertial dampeners are operational.” He pointed at the trees wobbling and then used a finger to flick a switch moving the inertial dampeners to full force.

“That
makes me queasy watching those trees moving about while we sit as still as if we were parked on solid rock.” Wright refused to look.

Stone grinned and stopped the wobble. “
Sorry, Commander, according to the manuals I read in midshipman’s school, it is not protocol to get a visual on inertial dampeners before take off, but Grandpa always says it is better to see a little wobble now than feel that boost of inertia when you jump to a hundred gravities or so.”

“I am good with the caution, Mister Stone. I trust that you have looked. How do we get a visual reading on shields and
artificial gravity?”

Stone shook his head, “
Shields? Well…I guess you could go outside and throw a rock to see if it bounces off or hits us.”

Wright looked shocked. “You’re kidding
, right?”

Stone grinned. “Sorry Commander, I don’t really know how to manually check
artificial gravity and shields.”

“You don’t know, Mister Stone?”

“No, sir. I realize that I come across as an amazing genius, but there are some minor gaps in my education. That is why Grandpa sent me to the navy and why the navy made me a midshipman instead of an ensign or-”

“Or the
admiral that you so richly deserve,” Wright interrupted with a laugh.

“
Admiral? That is not likely to ever happen, but maybe full commander. They seem to give that rank out to just about anyone.”

“Oooo, them
’s fightin’ words, Mister Stone. I might be offended if we weren’t about to take off for space in a pod that is probably going to kill us.”

“Yes,
sir. I presume we are ready? On your order, Commander Wright.”

“Okay, Mister Stone. What is the appropriate command? ‘Engage’,
‘Make it so’, ‘Full speed ahead’, what?”

Stone laughed. “Grandpa always says ‘head ‘em up and move ‘em out’. I prefer Captain Allnut of the Space Rangers
who says ‘up, up and away’.”

“I think he stole that from someone else, but let’s just say
it is time we get off this planet.” She pointed through the view screen at the sky above them. “Go that way, Mister Stone.”

“
Aye, aye, Commander.” Stone eased the throttles forward. The thrusters pushed the pod away from the ground. “Course set for straight up. We could just blast away at escape velocity and hit space fast, but I would rather not waste fuel. We can start slow and increase speed at a constant rate.”

Stone shifted a foot and propped it on top of Jay’s back. Both drascos were lying on the bridge
deck, their heads hanging down into the engine compartment. The two had grown to almost half their mother’s size and took up most of the available deck space.

The
y had to close the hatch to the main cabin in order to keep the drascos on the bridge. It had been a guessing game as to whether the drascos were more interested in a fresh flow of CO
2
or a roomful of red leaves. Peebee was so undecided she had almost spun in place trying to decide where to go.

Having the drascos underfoot made the cabin crowded, but Wright was sure if they were left to their own devices the girls would eat themselves silly. They
had to stay in the bridge cabin unless Stone was with them to ration their feed.

“
Does she make a good footstool?” Wright asked.

“Nope. Sorry.
I mean, no sir. Jay is lumpy and rough, kind of like a sandpaper bag full of sharp rocks, but she lays much more still than Peebee does. Peebee is a wiggler.” He added, “We are coming to upper atmosphere in ten seconds. Escape velocity in ten seconds after that.”

“Well, this is a lot easier ride
going up than it was coming down,” Wright said. “I have to admit that I am not looking forward to a stay in this metal box for another few weeks, but it is the only way to get home, right?”

“Right as Grandma’s fudge at Christmas.
On the other hand, we might not have to spend weeks in this pod.”

Wright glared at Stone, “What are you talking about, Mister Stone? We just busted ou
r hump for over a month getting prepared for an extended voyage. I mean, look at this.” She held out her arms and wagged her hands. “I have permanent burn marks from that cursed oven and I don’t have a decent fingernail left after digging for tubers.”

“Yes, Commander, that does look bad.
We had to prepare to be in here for a while, but it doesn’t mean we have to be here that long. We just don’t know at this point.”

“Okay, correct me if I am wrong, Mister Stone. We have to spend
four days getting back to our jump point-”

“Correction, Commander
,” Stone interrupted. “We don’t need to get back to the original jump point. We only have a rough estimation of the jump coordinates anyway. The pod’s navigation isn’t designed to calculate the jump with any kind of precision. And no offense, but neither of us has the math skills to do it without a computer, and your p.a. doesn’t have the necessary navigation apps.” Stone decided he was going to send an apology note to Senior Chief Tsosie. He had finally come to understand why the Senior Chief was so insistent on his improving his math skills.

Stone continued. “All we need to do is get out of this planet’s gravity well. We can jump to hyperspace anytime after that. We have cleared atmosphere. We ar
e only about eight and a half minutes now to reach a null gravity point.”

“Great
,” Wright said, “then we have to spend the week in hyperspace to match the time we spent there the first-”

“Co
rrection again, Commander. Since we don’t have the exact calculations used by the Periodontitis we don’t know how much time they spent in hyperspace. So the week we spent in the gray is totally irrelevant. We are just shooting to reach any volume of human space. I believe by reversing our original coordinates we should come out near where the Periodontitis emerged after dumping us. However, we don’t know when they jumped out of hyperspace. I mean we know when, because we jumped out at the same time they did. We just don’t know how much more relative time they spent in hyperspace. They could have jumped into normal space minutes after jettisoning this pod. If that is true then we wouldn’t have to spend more than a short time in hyperspace.”

“Are you sure you know what you just said?”

“No sir. That whole time thing gives me a headache. For all I know Peebee understands it better than I do.”

At the sound of her name Peebee raised her head and wonked happily.

“See? She agrees,” Stone said.

Wright replied, “No. She said she thinks we are nuts and we should have stayed on the planet and lived our lives out without having to think about hyperspace time
puzzles.”

“Speaking of the planet, I
set the pod to generate a stable star fix on its location and to download those coordinates to your p.a.. I suggest we agree now to split the ownership 65/25.”

“What? Ownership of what?”
Wright looked startled.

“The planet, of course
,” Stone answered. “What do you think I meant?”

Wright shook her head. “We can’t own a whole planet. That’s absurd.”

“Not really all that crazy, Commander. How do you think the rich got that way? Finders keepers. We have a couple of things to do first and then maybe, just maybe, our claim will hold up in the Emperor’s court.”

“Okay, I’ll play along, but I am sure you have finally gone insane.”

“First we have to have a stable star fix on our planet’s location. Done that. It is on your p.a. Second, we need to agree to a partnership split.”

“Alright
Mister Stone, why do I get 65% and you only get 25%?”

Stone grinned, “Um, no Commander. I suggest that you get 25% and I get 65%. Now before you shout about m
y being unfair I want it understood that I am representing the entire Stone family in these negotiations. We get 65%. We get that much because we have the resources and the skills to exploit this planet. It would not be the first planet owned by us. In fact, I have a couple of cousins who are specialists in carving up new planets. They are real whizzes at squeezing out profit and this planet should be exceptionally profitable because it is habitable by humans. This gives the Stones a controlling interest so we won’t have boardroom squabbles. You know a 50/50 split never works, right? I mean, how do you resolve arguments that way?”

“I get 25% of a whole planet?”

Stone shrugged. “Or the profit we take from working it, managing it, leasing it or selling it. Ownership doesn’t mean you have to be in residence. You can trust my family, really. Any partnership with us is carved in Stone.”

“Ha! Very funny. Okay, I
am in, Partner Stone. However, I know your math is bad. But it is not so bad you can’t count to a hundred. We only have accounted for 90%.”

“Well, it seems to me we have a couple of big
‘ifs’ as to whether our claim will hold up. One, we are in the Emperor’s navy. Anything we discover rightfully belongs to the navy and therefore to the Emperor himself. Second, we discovered this planet in a navy pod. However…” Stone let his voice trail away.

“What? Go on,
Partner.”

Stone continued.
“Well, I guess it depends on what the Periodontitis did when they hit their next station. If they reported us dead, then as far as they are concerned, we weren’t in the navy during the time we discovered the planet. We might have to forgo any navy back pay or benefits for our missing time. I think that is a fair trade off. I don’t see any reason why we would not be reported as dead. Nobody should come back from hyperspace, or at least I never heard of anyone every doing it. And if the navy reported this pod as missing and non-recoverable they would have struck the pod from the inventory manifests. That would mean the pod wasn’t navy property at the time we were using it, right?”

Wright shrugged, “I don’t know. I understand
naval law less than I understand the hyperspace time thing. However, that doesn’t explain where the missing 10% goes.”

“Oh, I thought it did. That goes to
the Emperor as our minority partner. If he is in from the beginning for 10% without any outlay or any effort, he is less likely to challenge our rights to the planet. And if we happen to need military support for the planetary pacification we are more likely to get his direct authorization if he stands to gain from it.”

“Wait. I can see being partners with the Stones, but the Emperor. I don’t travel in those circles.
Oh, my…I…”

“Relax, Commander. The Emperor isn’t a bad guy when you get him away from his throne
room. He is really a pretty good sport on the tennis courts, that is if he wins.”

“You’ve met the Emperor
?” Wright stared at Stone in amazement.

Stone shrugged. “Yeah
, a few times. We are sort of related, by marriage, that is. He isn’t a Stone, but he is ok. You’ll like him when you meet him.”

“I can’t meet the Emperor. Are you
kidding?”

Stone laughed. “Oh, you’ll meet him. You are going to outrank him in our partnership
. Your 25% to his 10%, remember? He will definitely want to meet you.”

“Oh, crap!”

“One last thing, we need to name the planet,” Stone said. “Got any suggestions?”

Wright shook her head. “I don’t know. Do we have to decide now?”

“Yes.” Stone pointed at her p.a. “We are really recording our first partnership meeting. Naming the planet is one of the steps necessary to claim it. I would name it Allie’s World if you leave it to me.”