Metal Boxes - At the Edge

by Alan Black

  Numos said, “These quarters are coded to only six of us, both for your safety and for your privacy. That would be us four, plus our communications officer. Unfortunately, that means when Jay or Peebee want in or out, you’ll have to get up and let them in…or out.” He sighed. “Of course, they already know how to open and close doors, so we may need to get a tech up here to figure out how to bio-code the locks for them.”

  Stone nodded and looked around. The quarters looked large enough to have four separate bedrooms. “Who get’s which room?” He squeezed Allie’s hand, hoping her plan was for the two of them to share a room.

  Numos snorted. “Oh, hell no. These are your private quarters, for you and your pets only. I have quarters on Kilo Deck near the bridge. Vedrian?”

  Allie said, “My official quarters as a deckhand shift supervisor are on Charlie Deck.”

  Numos replied, “With our new passengers, your official quarters had better be more actual than you planned.”

  Vedrian said, “As long as Stone doesn’t forget who he’s engaged to.” She jabbed Stone in the ribs with a sharp elbow.

  “Forget?” Stone leaned in and kissed her on the neck. “Not even after I’m dead and long gone.”

  Hammermill said, “Not that anyone cares, but my quarters are all the way down on Tango near the deckhands on my shift.”

  Stone said, “Okay. Can I assume that somewhere I have something else to wear besides this piece of crap, powder blue jumpsuit?”

  Allie smiled, “Of course. The master suite has a walk-in closet filled with everything that a celebrity playboy gadabout will ever need.”

  “But I’m not some playboy—”

  Numos interrupted, “That’s what we need to talk about, Stone. The rest of this conversation is classified.” The doorbell chimed. “I called our comms officer to join us. She’ll help fill you in on what the emperor and your grandfather did to screw you over and what you have to do to save the day—again.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  Stone clamped his jaw shut and restrained himself as EMIS Agent Tammie Ryte walked into his quarters. She was the agent responsible for investigating the charges brought against him by the UEN. He had thought of her as a friend, but she sandbagged him. Her slanted report forced him to plead guilty. He wondered, as part of his legal team, had she worked to prevent his dishonorable discharge or had she sabotaged his defense?

  She smiled, waved, grabbed a beer from the fridge, and sat on the edge of the fireplace, grinnng at Stone. Noticing his anger, she smiled bigger. “What? Oh, you haven’t told him yet?”

  Numos said, “We were just about to. Do you want to start us off?”

  Ryte sighed. “Okay, Signore Stone, are you willing to listen to me?”

  Stone’s anger flared, the turmoil of the last few days finally boiling over. “Why should I listen to anything you have to say? Get off my ship. Get off now before I throw you off.”

  Numos said, “Um…sorry, Signore Stone, but we’re already in transit to our first jump point.”

  “Turn around or throw her out here.”

  Numos said, “I don’t even recommend joking about spacing any living creature and I can’t turn around. We have somewhere we have to be and I’m not willing to explain to my boss why we delayed our departure.”

  Stone glared at Numos. “This is a Stone Freight Company ship. You said I was the boss.”

  Numos smiled, “You are, Signore Stone. But before you order us to delay our departure, please hear us out.”

  Stone shouted, pointing at Ryte. “I won’t—”

  Allie jabbed him hard in the ribs. His breath whoofed out of his chest and he gasped for air. Her voice was cold and hard. “Shut up, Stone. Quit acting like a childish butthead and listen.”

  Stone nodded, but he kept his mouth closed only by grinding his teeth.

  Ryte said, “Keeping you in the dark until now wasn’t my idea. That was your grandfather’s idea. He thought you would play your role better if you didn’t have to act. The biggest problem with their plan is that they both expected you to fight back a bit more during the trial.” She shook her head. “Don’t blame him. He and Emperor Garza thought this operation must be kept on a need-to-know basis, and up until now, you didn’t need to know.”

  Numos said, “Stone, I’m sure you remember the methane explosion on Rusty Hinges while we were behind enemy lines.” It was not a question.

  Of course, he remembered. An explosion of the ship’s expulsion port ruptured the decking at the main hatch due to a poorly routed conduit. Having a methane explosion at the main hatch had not been funny when he was covered in human waste, but it had become the punch line to more than one out of control giggle-fest during off-duty hours since then.

  Ryte continued. “Intelligence analysts filtered through the massive amounts of data Butcher sent back on the first shuttle before Rusty Hinges returned. Your chief engineer’s conclusion at the time was that the UEN’s retrofit team left the waste systems under the main hatch for expediency, rather than reroute them to a more efficient location.”

  Stone nodded. He was not done being angry with her, but he was interested in where she was going. He did remember the pipework being done in UEN standard colors. He also remembered the explosion gave them the excuse to rescue humans and piglets from the Hyrocanians. It also resulted in LTSG Missimaya being relieved of duty. That seemed to be whitewashed and swept under the rug as the man received an undeserved promotion from lieutenant senior grade to lieutenant commander, while Stone received a dishonorable discharge.

  Ryte continued, “A simple check of UEN retrofit records proved that the yard dogs never touched those systems.”

  Stone frowned, “That doesn’t make sense. I saw the color-coding myself. They were—”

  Ryte interrupted with a nod. “Exactly. That simple disconnect raised red flags. My EMIS bosses sent me in to investigate if the yard dogs were falsifying reports. They were not and there was no evidence that any UEN repair technician ever touched those systems. There is plenty of evidence that human hands were all over that piping.”

  Stone squeezed his eyes shut trying to replay the timeline of who had control of the Rusty Hinges. It did not make sense. If he had not ordered it done as governor of Allie’s World—and he had not—and the UEN had not touched…he opened his eyes, deciding to shut his mouth and listen.

  Ryte looked him in the eyes and said, “Now you’re getting it. I dug through enough repair reports on the retrofit to recognize a pattern. Human hands were all over that ship before we—” She jabbed a finger at Stone, gestured with open hands at the three ex-marines, and hooked a thumb at her own chest. “we—all five of us were there—when we captured the Rusty Hinges from those four-armed freaks.”

  She looked angry as she spat, “Some human son-of-a-bitch built that ship for the Hyrocanians.”

  Numos nodded. “We saw more than one ovoid ship designed like the Rusty Hinges when we were in their space. This wasn’t a one-and-done operation. Someone is supplying the enemy with weapons of war.”

  Ryte said, “We continued to scour the reports coming back on the shuttles Commander Butcher dispatched before your return. One report was yours about rescuing three humans on the warehouse ship.” She did not pull up the recordings on her P.A., but recited from memory. “The man said, ‘All seventeen were from the skiff we were on. We was out past Holliman’s Rift headed toward Epimides Four….we was running from Holliman’s Rift. Had to, it was either deny our God or be slaughtered by the Prophet. We surely never expected to be scooped up by alien devils.’”

  “And he said, ‘The Prophet’s men would have put us through the testimonies.’”

  She took a deep breath and said in one quick repeat, “And— ‘The Prophet is the self-appointed leader of Holliman’s Rift. He says he was appointed directly by his god and has a right to rule. He says his obligation is to convert all of human space to worshipping his way. His testimonies are how he done gets folks to convert. I te
ll you many a person come out of the testimonies with their eyes poked out, missing fingers, toes, or a whole hand. Some folks, who refuse to give in, don’t come out at all. We-uns was running from that, but I guess we should of stayed; death by these animals or by the Prophet be all one and the same, excepting the Prophet wouldn’t have eaten the children first. I don’t guess getting eaten would be much worse than being worked to a slow death in the Prophet’s spaceship factories.’”

  She raised a telling eyebrow at Stone. The tilt of her head let him know this was what she was getting at. “And finally the man you rescued said, ‘The Prophet and his men are building a huge fleet of ships. He says he has to spread his gospel across human space, but he’s already built more ships than he has people to use them. I don’t rightly know where all his extra ships go.’”

  Stone was still angry with Ryte. He did not deserve what she had done to him, just because there was human scum in the universe. He was already angry with this Prophet person. Now he was doubly upset, but that did not excuse Ryte.

  Stone was still angry with Ryte. He did not deserve what she had done to him, just because there was human scum in the universe. He had already been angry with this Prophet person. Now he was doubly upset, but that did not excuse Ryte.

  She sighed. “The EMIS sent an agent to Holliman’s Rift. He sent back one coded report letting us know he’d arrived, but nothing since. We followed up by sending a pair of agents to the Holliman’s Rift. They disappeared even quicker than the first agent did. I didn’t know if there was a leak in the EMIS offices, so I took the report directly to the Emperor.”

  Hammermill laughed. “Gutsy thing to do, Tammie.”

  She shook her head. “No, not really. I’ve lived on Allie’s World with you grunts and fought Hyrocanian’s with rocks and sticks. You remember our old friend Doctor Triplett, the traitor selling secrets to the Hyrocanians? My investigation into her contact led me straight to Holliman’s Rift and this Prophet. That bitch practically got us all eaten by Hyrocanians, so I took this whole investigation kind of personal. Emperor Garza might not have listened, but he wouldn’t have tried to have my carcass for supper.”

  Ryte drained her beer. Offering to bring back more, she went to the refrigerator to get another. Continuing, she raised her voice to be heard from the wet bar. “I met with Emperor Garza. Nice man. He had an idea and introduced me to your grandfather.” She came back, pointing a long neck bottle at Stone to indicate whose grandfather she meant. “You’re a minor celebrity, so the media outlets were fed story after story about your exploits to pump up your popularity. This is the part that will hurt, Stone. The emperor and your grandfather had me rig up every charge I could wrangle against you. The plan was to have a quick, but eye-catching court-martial to capture the attention of the populace and the media. Your cousin Bethy Stone couldn’t have played into our hands any better if she’d been told what was going on.”

  “Beffie-pie isn’t part of this conspiracy to ruin my UEN career?”

  Numos said, “No, Stone. She is completely clueless, but helpful to our purpose none-the-less.”

  Stone said, “You deliberately got me dishonorably discharged from the UEN? Why would you do that, publicity or not?”

  Ryte said, “We wanted a trial that we could feed to the public to fuel your popularity, but you ruined that plan when you up and pleaded guilty. You made us speed up our plans quite a bit, young man.”

  Stone snorted in derision. “I ruined your plans? You destroyed my navy career. And for what?”

  Ryte answered, “We needed someone to go undercover at Holliman’s Rift to investigate the prophet.”

  “You want me to go undercover?”

  Ryte smiled, “No. I’m going undercover. You are my cover. All of you. Stone, you’re now the epitome of a disgraced wealthy playboy. Look around you. Real freighters don’t live this way. Wealthy children with more money than sense do. Your cousin is now a part of our team, although she won’t get filled in on our real mission. She’ll continue with her vidcast showing the two of you gallivanting around the universe, while theoretically looking for new Stone Freight Company shipping lanes. No one expects real work from you, just attending parties and receptions, sightseeing, and shopping.”

  Numos said, “A few of our crew are real civilian spacers. They don’t know about this mission. All they know is that you’re a playboy party animal, so play that part with them. However, our deckhands are all Galactic Marshals, Q-Force deputies. Vedrian and Hammermill’s teams are briefed on our real mission. They’ve been vetted at the highest levels. They don’t have all of the details yet, but enough to know we’re heading into a potential hornet’s nest.”

  Stone pointed at Allie and Hammermill. “You’re Galactic Marshals, Q-Force? You left the marines?”

  Allie smiled, looked at Hammermill, and glanced back. “We didn’t exactly leave the marines. Galactic Marshals, Q-Force is a classified team of the best military personnel. We specialize in…um, well, operations that can’t be done with civilian oversight. We work directly for the emperor. In fact, his personal guard are all Galactic Marshals deputies.”

  Stone looked at Numos. “Your marine retirement isn’t real either?”

  Numos laughed, “Oh no. I took early retirement when your grandfather dangled this ship and a rather huge salary to go along with it under my nose. He wanted the best to watch over his grandson, so he wanted me.”

  Stone asked, “But I’m the one who got a dishonorable discharge?”

  Ryte answered, “Don’t worry. Your grandfather said it won’t hurt your career in the family business and the emperor has a pardon and an order of reinstatement already signed for you when—or if, we survive this mission.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  Stone had other questions, but Bethy was on the patio with her cameraman and a gaggle of hanger-ons. Although there was no noise, she was knocking on the glass doors.

  Stone almost laughed as Gonzo, Bethy’s vidcast producer, shook his camera and poked buttons trying to get his camera to work. The look on his face was complete confusion as he pointed it at the glass doors to the living room, apparently getting nothing. Gonzo stared into the camera lens and then poked a few more buttons.

  Numos said, “Don’t worry about that. We have military grade scramblers in here. Even your fancy personal assistant won’t record anything that goes on in your quarters without your say so.”

  Bethy continued pounding on the glass doors, shooing people around to look for other ways into Stone’s quarters. They could see her quite well, but she evidently could not see or hear them. The noise canceling windows were better at blocking sound than advertised, her knocking did not produce any noise at all.

  Ryte nodded at Numos’s comment. “This meeting didn’t happen. We do everything we can to keep Allie, Hammer, and myself off camera. So…” She stood up, turned, and was out the front door, followed quickly by Hammermill, who delayed only to grab a beer from the fridge.

  Allie kissed Stone quickly before trailing the other two out.

  Stone asked, “Major…I mean, Captain Numos, you can be photographed?”

  Numos nodded. “I’m not undercover. Remember, I’m a retired marine who’s the captain of your floating space party. As such, meeting with the owner isn’t unexpected. By the way, I’m qualified to captain a private vessel. I’ve had lessons, taken the sailing master tests, and everything.”

  “I never doubted your abilities, Captain—”

  “Dash, if you please, Signore Stone.”

  Bethy’s pounding became more insistent, she was beginning to get red in the face. The front doorbell chimed and a vid screen popped up in front of Stone showing a pair of Bethy’s entourage poking the button. Stone took a cue from Numos about ignoring the interruption. He waved a hand through the disregard visitor button on the screen. It shrank and slid to the side, continuing to show the two taking turns pushing the doorbell button, but all sound was muted.

  “Okay, Dash.
But, only if you call me, Stone. You can drop the signore.”

  “No, sir. You’re still my boss, even though I am under orders from Emperor Garza and your grandfather for the long haul. Signore Stone is appropriate. Even civilians have rank, sir.” He pointed at Bethy standing on the patio. “You better let your cousin in.”

  Stone looked. Her pounding had changed from furious to on the verge of panic. Smiling, he saw Jay and Peebee rising from the lake like giant sea monsters. Water cascaded off them as they rose up on their hind legs, knee deep in the lake, their vestigial wings flapping. They appeared to be wonking and bellowing at the crowd gathered on his patio.

  Bethy glanced over her shoulder as Jay and Peebee tromped from the lake, moving up the slight slope to Stone’s quarters. She frantically pounded on the windows with both hands, screaming in alarm. Most of her entourage bolted, choosing to run away rather than be eaten by wild sea monsters. One young lad fainted, his head bouncing on the thick wooden patio planks.

  Stone was in no hurry to get to the doors. He was about halfway there when three of Bethy’s entourage stepped between her and the drascos. They made an ineffective barrier, but he had to admire their courage. He would have peed his pants if he was not familiar with Jay and Peebee.

  The drascos had reached the patio before Stone got to the doors. Jay towered over Bethy’s center protector. She huffed loudly, blowing off the young man’s tri-cornered, tri-colored hat, sending it and its feather away.

  Riley Lowther stood his ground, although he winced as Jay’s breath blew across his face. He rose up on the balls of his feet, one hand digging desperately into a deep pocket. He pulled out a knife, but Jay bellowed in his face, blowing his hair back, causing him to squint. He dropped the knife, but gamely stood his ground, clenching his fists.