He paused for a moment as he organized his thoughts.
"You will indeed serve as the crew of this vessel and be treated as such. Senior Cadet Petronovich will act as your platoon commander. All queries to me must first be directed through him."
He fell silent again and started to turn as if in dismissal, then stopped and looked back.
"I want to make this clear. You are duly sworn personnel of this fleet. This is not the Academy, where officers more fit for a classroom than for command are in control. Given the fact that this ship was designed for patrol and is fully combat-capable, I shall expect instant obedience without question. As you know, this ship carries a full compliment of weapons, including twenty Valkyrie space-to-space and space-to-surface nuclear warheads. The power to use them is in my hands if the situation warrants it."
Justin stared at the Captain. It was a curious statement. The USMC did indeed have control over humanity's stockpile of nuclear weapons. Part of its reason for existing was to serve as a deterrent to any nation on Earth that might secretly attempt to develop nuclear weapons and then threaten a neighbor with them. He wondered why MacKenzie felt it necessary to mention this power and the fact that he controlled it.
"Those of you from Mars or the outer colonies, raise your hand."
Justin looked over at Matt, who put his hand up along with half a dozen other cadets.
MacKenzie's gaze slowly swept the room. Justin watched the Captain while he stared intently at Matt for several seconds, as if memorizing every detail about his friend.
"If we should be called upon to react to certain elements in this solar system, I will expect instant obedience to my orders or you shall face the consequences."
The room was silent, Justin wondering if a threat had just been issued.
"You will find this ship to be very different."
MacKenzie said with a smile. He then turned away and disappeared through the door.
"Prepare for departure in ten minutes," the senior pilot announced. "Acceleration chairs will be found in your rooms fold them down from the wall and strap in. Once clear of the Academy, burn time at four gees will be twenty-two minutes, then one gee for three hours and eighteen minutes, so if you need to hit the head better do so now. Ship's company dismissed."
Justin looked over at Matt.
"What do you think that was all about?"
"Shoot, I thought he'd burn a hole in me with his eyeballs," Matt replied, shaking his head. "Darned if I know but I don't feel good about it, old buddy, not one bit good."
Matt moved easily about the tiny galley, accompanying Ship's Cook Kelly O'Brian in the last stanza of " Gerty of Ganymede" while slipping a container full of chopped beef into the rehydrator.
Justin looked at the two in surprise as they finished the words, glad that Tanya and Madison had not pulled kitchen detail this first night out. On such matters he was still decidedly old-fashioned and wondered if Matt would have joined so lustily in the song about an overly friendly tavern owner if females had been present. Somehow he suspected that O'Brian would have kept on with his unending stream of invective and songs no matter who was present, including Thor Thorsson himself.
"You know a zero-gee galley like the back of your hand," O'Brian announced in his strange lilting lisp. "Serve aboard ship before?"
"My Uncle Dan owns a solar sailing ship, grew up on it."
"Which one?"
"Corona Wind, six-master, twenty-nine hundred square klicks of sail and out of Ceres."
"Not Dan Everett?"
"The same."
"So that's how you know the songs. We tangled lines a few times. Beat the tar out of me once and that's somethin ' I don't normally admit, but being his kin and such I tell you he's a friend to have in a scrape. So you're a sailor then."
"That I am and proud of it," Matt announced. "Why, I'd been to near every asteroid mining camp in the system before I was twelve. Even did a Mars to Jupiter run once in eleven months twenty-three days, and not many been that far and that fast. Ol ' Dan navigated among them moons by dead reckoning, and not a single burst of thruster."
O'Brian whistled good-naturedly at Mart's boasting.
"And you're an Earthsider," he said, looking over at Justin.
" Indiana."
"Never been there. Hey, watch them potatoes."
Kelly shouldered past Justin and snatched several hot potatoes that had drifted out of their container. Cursing soundly, he pushed them back in and snapped the lid shut.
"You ain't no galley rat yet, that's for certain. Quick way to get burned if you don't pay attention in here."
"All hands, all hands, starboard watch prepare for chow in fifteen minutes."
The loudspeaker momentarily interrupted Kelly's tirade about clumsy midshipmen and, worst of all, first-year plebes. Justin just listened; he was fascinated by the man's command of vocabulary.
"Sergeant O'Brian."
O'Brian shot a quick glance at the loudspeaker.
"Here, sir."
"I'll have my dinner now."
"Aye, sir."
O'Brian looked over at Justin and Matt. His gaze shifted from Matt and then focused on Justin.
" Bell, you'll have to take His Worship's dinner forward."
"His Worship?"
Kelly casually reached over to the wall and turned up the music coming from the computer so that the sound all but drowned out their conversation.
" Ice' MacKenzie, the ' Ice Man. ' "
Justin, a bit startled by O'Brian's disdainful tone, said nothing.
"Now listen here, you young idiot. Just mind your P's and Q's in front of the Old Cuss. Don't speak unless spoken to. Lay his dinner out and for heaven's sake don't spill anything or let anything get loose. If you're lucky he'll just dismiss you, then scurry back here and help me set the spread."
Brian hesitated.
"And another thing, young sir. If he starts asking you questions just tread careful-like. Don't just go giving the first answer that comes to your mind, think it all through."
"Why?"
"Just do as I tell you. He's a strange bird. Something about youngsters sets him off at times. For the life of me I can't understand why Thorsson sent you kiddies on this trip. MacKenzie had a fit when the orders came in."
"Thought he'd like the extra hands to command," Matt interjected. "This ship seems empty without us."
"Designed a long time back, thirty years ago," Kelly replied. "Needed a lot more hands to run her then than we do now. She's an old one, she is, but a beaut. At least empty there wasn't much to stir MacKenzie up. So just be careful something seemed to be troubling him right after we shipped out from the Academy."
O'Brian snapped a container of soup into a carry tray, followed by a container of beef hash and a cup of hot black coffee.
"Don't spill anything."
With an almost fatherly gesture O'Brian straightened the collar on Justin's jump suit, buttoned a breast pocket and finally nodded his approval.
"Now get."
O'Brian opened the door and ushered Justin out into the corridor.
Justin wove his way down the corridor, stepping cautiously. Cadets of the starboard watch were starting to drift out into the main corridor, some walking with sticky-bottom boots, others floating along.
"Gangway," Justin cried, using the ancient term that announced he was on official business aboard ship and thus others had to clear the way. He crossed the small assembly room and stopped before the cadet guarding the doorway leading forward.
"Captain's dinner," Justin announced.
The cadet opened the door and Justin stepped through. For a moment he looked around, confused. Steps led upward towards the flight control center and cockpit. A narrow corridor turned to his left and at the end of it he saw a handrail leading down. That must he the stairway leading to the lower deck where weapons storage, combat control and the hydroponics tanks were located, he thought.