“That’s it,” the machinist said, turning it back and forth. “That’s five kilos of purest osmium.”
“Right,” Berg said, sighing in relief and looking around. The dragonflies were still at it, cutting carefully into a car-sized chunk stabilized by three very nervous Marines. More Marines were cutting the smaller pieces smaller and smaller. But they had what they’d come for.
“All teams,” Berg said. “Suspend EVA operations. Marine teams, move back to the ship by the numbers. Team Two, recover the mirror and start breaking it down per procedure. Madame Colonel, your people are your own.”
“I think we can make it back to the ship, Lieutenant,” the colonel replied. Even with the Hexosehr translator the humor was evident. “We’ve done it enough at this point.”
“Safety first, Colonel,” Berg said, surfing over to where four Marines from his own platoon were carefully recovering the large mirror. “Good job, Shingleton,” he added as the team leader corrected a hold by one of his people.
It was the most time Berg had spent with his platoon since the voyage started and the necessity of his position had forced him to treat them just like the rest of the company. But the individual members and teams had performed flawlessly, doubtless a result of having the exacting Gunny Juda in charge.
“Thank you, sir,” the corporal replied.
Having no clue what an officer said next, Berg surfed off to check on the teams reentering the ship. Guys did the stupidest things in the airlock, it was amazing.
“So that’s the Old Man,” Dupras said. “ ‘Good job, now get back to work.’ ”
“What do you want?” Shingleton growled. “A medal? You break this thing and I’ll make sure you get a medaclass="underline" right up your rectum.”
“Two-Gun Berg,” Lyle said, jumping team frequencies. “Don’t cross him or you’ll end up in a world of hurt.”
“I’ve never seen him down on the troop level,” another Marine chimed in. “Not even in the gym. What’s he do all the time?”
“Practices killing people and breaking things,” Sergeant Corwin said. “So like Sergeant Lurch said, don’t cross him. Hell, even Top thinks he walks on water.”
“I heard that march to Richmond was his idea,” one of the Marines said. His tone was, if anything, respectful. You didn’t join Force Recon if you didn’t to an extent love pain and there were few things more painful than an eighty mile forced march.
“Wouldn’t be surprised,” Lyle said. “He’s a glutton for punishment.”
“Oh, grapp,” Berg said, collapsing in his bunk. “If I never have to smell the inside of my Wyvern again, it will be too soon.”
“Dude, you just oversaw more hours of space-walk than NASA has done in its entire history,” Lieutenant Morris said. “With zero incidents of any note. Hell, NASA has had more seal accidents in less time than you just had under worse conditions! As a second lieutenant, if that right there doesn’t get you a walk-on-water evaluation, the CO’s just got it in for you.”
“He’s got it in for me, all right,” Eric said. “You’re not going to believe this, but…”
“What did I tell you, sir?” First Sergeant Powell said.
“You were right, Top,” Zanella said. “That kid really can walk on water. Jesus. I was just comparing notes. In fewer man-hours, NASA had four times the level of life-threatening incidents. And they never tried to mine an asteroid with jury-rigged alien technology.”
“And, of course the penalty for a job well done…” First Sergeant Powell said, grinning.
“I told him to have the entire mission report on my desk by the beginning of next watch,” the Marine captain said, grinning. “Now, if he can do that, I’ll give him an OER that makes him look like Jesus Christ come back to life, rapture and all…”
“So,” Captain Prael asked, first thing next shift. “When are the guns going to be back up?”
The ship had left the unnamed F type star as soon as the fabber was secured below and was back on the way to the target area. But with the destination less than a week away, and starting to enter potential Dreen territory, the CO wanted to make sure his guns were going to work.
“Oh, they’re already up, sir,” Weaver said, yawning. “The fabber finished spitting out the last of the critical molycirc about an hour ago. We’re continuing the run to make sure we have spares in the event of another emergency. And of course we’ll need it if we take combat damage; that’s not the only place that requires molycirc.”
“Wait,” the CO said, blinking. “What about the rest of the guns?”
“They were fixed before we even started mining, sir,” Bill said. “And you haven’t lived until you’ve seen Miriam in a coverall and four-inch heels, bent over a hatch running molycirc…”
“Miss Moon…”
“Participated in the reconstruction, sir?” Bill asked. “I think that would be a yes. I had Chief Gestner log her hours and I ended up forcing her to work no more than eighteen hours at a time. I’d say that she probably did about twenty-five percent of the work herself, sir. Chief Gestner and the Eng agree on that estimate, by the way.”
“What, do I have to make an all hands announcement?” Prael asked, throwing his arms up. “Okay, I get it. She’s amazing.”
“And cute,” Bill said, grinning. “Don’t forget cute.”
“Fine, I want to have her love child,” the CO said, shaking his head. “I’ll add that to the announcement.”
“ALL HANDS, ALL HANDS…”
“What the grapp?” Chief Gestner said, his eyes wide.
“Hey, Chief,” Sub Dude said, clapping him on the shoulder. “Welcome to the Space Navy. Things are different here.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
“I simply have to get some sleep,” Miriam said. “And Tiny won’t leave me alone.”
“You’ve been so busy, lately,” Red said, sympathetically. “He misses his mommy.”
“I know, but he won’t go to sleep,” Miriam said, her eyes red. “I need to finally get these contacts out. I need to sleep.”
“We’ll take care of him,” Red said.
“No, he’ll just come scratching at my door,” Miriam said, desperately. “Here,” she added, handing the machinist a package with Japanese kanji characters on it. “Give him some of this and he won’t leave you.”
“What is it?” Red asked, looking at it dubiously.
“Japanese catnip,” Miriam said, yawning. “He likes it.”
“Shiny,” Red said, patting her on the shoulder. “Get some sleep.”
Miriam finally lay down and closed her eyes, glad to have the dreaded contacts out as well. Unfortunately, she was blind as a bat without either glasses or contacts and she hated doing mechanical work with her glasses on. She needed to get some safety glasses in her prescription, but they looked so dorky and she’d spent too many years being considered an ugly geek…
“…uncertainty levels within the vacuum fluctuation will interact at causal nodes whereas metric control becomes distorted via…”
“Shhh! Not now, I’m tired.” Miriam told the voice. It obediently subsided as her head hit her pillow.
It occurred to her just as sleep enveloped her that she probably should have pointed out to Red that he shouldn’t give Tiny too much of the Katty-Man, which was to catnip what super-concentrated hash was to marijuana. Even with his size, even one of the little silver packages could make him…
But by then it was too late.
“Wow, he really likes this stuff,” Red said, chuckling.