Metal Boxes - Rusty Hinges by Alan Black

Author:Alan Black [Black, Alan]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Tags: Science Fiction & Fantasy, Science Fiction, Alien Invasion, First Contact, Military, Space Fleet
Amazon: B01EYXDKGY
Publisher: CreateSpace
Published: 2016-04-28T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

“Master Chief Thomas on the bridge,” someone shouted.

Thomas wasn’t an officer, so no one jumped to their feet or snapped to attention like they would for the captain or a watch commander. As the highest ranking enlisted on the ship, acknowledging the master chief’s presence was a tradition dating back a few hundred years when a woman of similar rank took over a navy spaceship after all the officers had died, saving the ship and crew. No one expected Captain Butcher or the other officers to die, least of all Captain Butcher and those officers, but everyone knew it could happen. No one doubted Master Chief Thomas’s ability to guide the ship to safety, if needed.

Thomas patted Stone on the shoulder on the way past. “How’s it going, boy?”

Stone smiled up from his seat. Since Thomas wasn’t assigned to babysit him like his early days on Lazzaroni Base or his first few months as governor on Allie’s World, Stone decided the man wasn’t a complete pain in the rear. “It’s slow, Master Chief. Whizzer and his team have had their computers cranking through the inventory database of the Hyrocanian warehouse ship for a week now. Nothing unexpected has popped up, so now we’re manually trying to match any visuals to words or numbers that we don’t have in our database.”

Stone noticed Lieutenant Missimaya waiting at the hatch. Without the captain’s permission, he and the three officers with him, couldn’t set foot on the bridge. That was fine with Stone; he hadn’t liked the man even before he’d dragged him before a captain’s mast. His smile of greeting to Master Chief Thomas turned into a grin as he remembered Captain Butcher’s punishment: having to stand at attention in front of the captain’s desk for ten minutes — time off given for time already served. There was an official letter of reprimand in his file. It had an expiration date and would be expunged in six months, assuming the Hyrocanians didn’t discover them and kill them first.

Lieutenant Missimaya was obviously antsy waiting in the corridor, shifting from one foot to the other. Lieutenant Barnes, the officer who had countersigned the complaint against Stone, looked relaxed and comfortable. Tander wasn’t one of the officers. The two midshipmen looked too old for their rank and appeared more than a little nervous about coming to the bridge without a specific invitation.

Stone nodded to Missimaya, recognizing the man’s rank. He actually had to put a calming hand on Emily’s head to keep the drasco from hissing at the man.

The master chief hadn’t slowed his stride, since his first real order of business on the bridge was to report to the captain or watch commander, depending on who had the con. Coming to a stop slightly to the side of Butcher, so as not to block the Captain’s view of the bridge, the monitor, or the conference table, he said, “Captain. We have —”

Communications blaring from the monitor interrupted him. A fat Hyrocanian, naked from the waist up, wearing hideously colored pants popped onto the monitor.

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