Part 16 (1/2)
”Where are you going?”
”I can't tell you that.”
”How long will you be gone?”
”I can't tell you that, either.”
”What can you tell me?”
Rogers took a deep breath, glanced around again to imply that he was suspicious of spies in the ranks, and whispered. ”It's a Foxtrot Alpha Kilo Echo mission.”
Suresh's eyes widened. ”A Foxtrot Alpha Kilo Echo mission?”
”That's right. You understand the gravity of the situation now, don't you, Corporal?”
”Not even a little, sir.”
”Good. If you did, Admiral Klein has given me strict orders to kill you. That's why I have to use all these code words. Now, you're aware that every position is critical to the war effort, aren't you?”
Suresh straightened, looking proud-except that the ribbons on his uniform vibrated with his post-cryo tremors. ”Of course! All the posters say so.”
”Good. Then you understand that I need those Sewer rats.”
The supply chief hesitated for a moment, frowning. ”I'm not sure that makes any sense.”
Rogers banged his hand on the counter, causing Suresh to completely stop moving for the first time since they'd been speaking.
”Sierra Hotel India Tango!” Rogers screamed. ”Operation COMPLACENT PLATYPUS commences at twenty-eight hundred hours sharp!”
”I don't know what you're saying!” Suresh cried, his face twisting into a mask of horror, confusion, and perhaps a little bit of excitement.
”That's because it's cla.s.sified,” Rogers said again. ”I'm running out of time, Suresh. Are you going to give me the foodstuffs I need for a long and arduous journey through enemy territory, from which I may never return, during which my only solace may be that I have standard rations to chew?” Rogers leaned in close. ”If not, we all might be slurping our soup someday soon.”
Suresh's face hardened. He leaned over, held an arm in the air, and ceremoniously pressed a single key on the keyboard in front of him.
”The STEWs will be delivered to your stateroom. G.o.dspeed, sir.”
”You want me to do what with the targeting computer?” Lieutenant Commander Belgrave, the Flags.h.i.+p's helmsman, said.
”I want you to shut it down at 1500 hours today for a half hour,” Rogers said. ”I need to clean it.”
The targeting computer would have to be shut down if Rogers was going to get out of here without being traced. If they kept the computer on, it wouldn't matter where he entered Un-s.p.a.ce; they'd calculate his trajectory and send a patrol to meet him at his destination. He couldn't have that.
”What do you mean, you need to clean it?” Belgrave looked at him sideways, then narrowed his eyes. ”Aren't you the admiral's new executive officer? Don't you have more important stuff to do?”
If you only knew, Rogers thought. His fingers were permanently stained off-gray from polis.h.i.+ng so many b.u.t.tons.
”We're short on staff,” Rogers said. ”I need to go outside the s.h.i.+p to clean it manually. It's got s.p.a.ce bugs on the screen and I need to wash them off. If you keep the computer on, the cleaning fluid will short out the system.”
”s.p.a.ce bugs?”
”Yeah. s.p.a.ce bugs. Don't tell me you've never heard of s.p.a.ce bugs?”
”It's just that I didn't think that bugs could survive in-”
”Oh my G.o.d,” Rogers said, slapping his forehead and leaning back dramatically. ”He's never heard of s.p.a.ce bugs. How have you never heard of s.p.a.ce bugs?”
Rogers walked up to one of the large windows in the bridge and put his finger to the gla.s.s. When it came away, a small speck remained (it was a drop of Lopez's vile concoction).
”This!” Rogers said. ”This right here. You've got s.p.a.ce bugs on your window from flying around, and you don't even know it.”
”How is that possible? We've been stationary for years,” the helmsman said, but he was starting to look a little worried.
”Only relative to yourself,” Rogers said. ”Didn't you study orbitology at all? The square of the orbital period of a planet is proportional to the cube of the semi-major axis of its...o...b..t!”
Rogers took a few steps toward Belgrave, who was definitely getting nervous. He kept s.h.i.+fting his eyes between Rogers and the smudge on the window.
”Do you want the admiral to find out that you've never heard of s.p.a.ce bugs?” he nearly shouted.
”Keep it down!” the helmsman hissed, crouching into his seat. ”Do you want the admiral to find out that I've never heard of s.p.a.ce bugs?”
”1500 hours,” Rogers said. ”Shut it down for at least twenty minutes. And go study Newton's laws of interplanetary relativity!”
”You want me to give you what?” Ensign McSchmidt said.
”I need a pressure suit and a vacuum mobility unit. With a full air chamber.”
”I'm not giving you a VMU,” McSchmidt said.
Rogers pointed to the s.h.i.+ny new rank on his collar.
”I'm not giving you a VMU, sir,” McSchmidt said, his face turning down in a scowl. ”Our maintainers need them for repairs on the outside of the s.h.i.+p.”
”Didn't I say I was going to help you with running the engineering squadron and all that?”