“Lead on,” Peters agreed.
“I predict a good deal of metal polishing in the future,” said Todd as they turned on the O-3 landing.
“Cleaning has not been done yet,” Dee commented. “We didn’t want to expend the effort if the rooms were not suitable.”
“Sailors’ll be cleanin’ and polishin’ stuff all the time anyway,” said Peters. “It’s part of our tradition, you might say.”
There were two more levels above the officers’ sleeping quarters. Todd looked up at the overhead. “Five levels above the operations bay. Three meters a level, more or less, you think?”
“About that,” said Peters. “Call it twenty meters.”
Todd waved. “This morning when we landed we figured the ship was eighty meters high. Here’s a quarter of it. Where did the rest go? Dee?”
The Grallt cocked her head to one side, looking up. “I have never heard of anyone going to the area above here, so I assume it is empty. Llapaaloapalla is very large, and this side is not used much. We don’t have enough people to need it.”
“How many of you folks are there, anyway?”
“There are about one and a half sixty-fours of sixty-fours of people on the ship. Can you convert that to your numbers?”
Peters worked it through. “Six thousand, more or less,” he concluded. “That ain’t all that many, really, in somethin’ this size.”
“Yes. The ship is the same on both sides, except reversed—” Dee floundered for a phrase.
“Mirror image,” Todd supplied.
“Yes, thank you. The ship is the same on both sides, except that it is a mirror image. The other bay is used for storage of trade goods, and most people live in the sections alongside it, or in the center. Much of this side is not used, as I said. That is part of the reason your quarters are here.”
“Makes sense,” Peters observed.
“Have you seen everything you need to see?” Dee asked. “It is time for the next meal, and then the llor will be over. I am hungry and tired.”
“I was beginnin’ to think we wasn’t goin’ to ever get to that point,” Peters said with a smile. “Lead on.”
They stopped outside the pressure doors and looked around. Sunlight flooded the after part of the bay, slanting upward at a small angle, picking out the intricacies of the overhead in sharp relief, and silhouetting Dee against the glare.
“You know,” Todd remarked in a low voice, indicating the Grallt, “She wouldn’t be bad with a sack over her head.”
“You may be interested to know that I feel much the same about you,” Dee said calmly, without turning around. There was a trace of amusement in her voice.
“No insult intended,” Todd said a bit desperately.
“Ssth. That is not insulting. We of the kree often find one another attractive.”
“What’s a kree?”
“Most of us in this, ah, volume of space,” Dee said. When Todd just raised his eyebrows she continued, “We generally look much alike. The same number of limbs, the same general arrangement of the body, and similar chemistry. Details of appearance are often quite different, as you and I are, but there is similarity too.” She waved her hand around. “In this volume of space most races are of the kree.”
“Will most of the folks we meet on this trip be kree?” Peters asked.
“All of them, or so I understand. I do not know all the plans.”
“What about you?” Todd asked. “Do you find the others of the kree attractive?”
“No, I am quite conservative,” said Dee. “Not all of my friends are so. If you wish a companion, you should ask. If someone doesn’t care for it, she will simply say no. Some may ask you. You should respond the same way.”
“We’ll probably wait until we know more before we ask anyone,” Todd said after a pause.
“That is a sensible policy.”
“So what’s next?” Todd wanted to know when they’d finished eating.
“‘Next’ is whatever you like,” Dee said, still “amused.” “The work for this llor is finished. Someone, I think Dreelig, will meet you in your quarters at the first ande.”
“When’s that?” Peters asked.
“Ah. You do not know our time system. Here. You may borrow this.” She pulled the watch off her wrist and handed it to Peters. “When the larger pointer is here—” she pointed “—then it is the beginning of the first watch.” She stood, clearly ready to be done with sailors for a while. “Can you find your way back to your quarters?”
“I reckon it ain’t that hard,” Peters told her.
“That is good. I will see you sometime tomorrow.”
They waited until they got back to their quarters to examine the watch more closely. Peters was a little puzzled when he thought he heard a noise. Sure enough, when he held it to his ear it made a rhythmic sound, like some kind of tiny, delicate machinery.
There were two scales: an outer one with six marks, and an inner with eight big marks, each interval broken into eight smaller ones. Three needles turned at graduated rates in the direction they thought of as “left-handed.” One small mark of the inner scale seemed to be worth about half a second, so a full turn of the smallest needle would be a little over half an hour.
If the ratio was one big mark per turn of the next needle in, the next division was five hours or so, and a revolution of the biggest needle took thirty hours. “Long day,” Peters observed.
Todd was fiddling around by the window. “It’s been a long day for me, too, but I gather that’s not what you’re talking about.”
“Yeah, well, it looks like the big needle goes around in about thirty hours.”
“That’s pretty long, all right.” Todd was still fiddling with the window frame. “Come here, I think I figured something out.”
“Hey, don’t fuck with that, you might—” The mechanism snicked and the window swung open around a point about a quarter of the way from the left, so the biggest part swung into the room. “Break something. Oh, shit.”
There wasn’t even a breeze. Peters dropped the watch on the bunk, grabbed the frame, and pushed gently; the window rotated back into place, seating with an authoritative click. “Wal, ah reckon they gotta worsh th’ windas sometimes,” he said mildly. “Todd, I’d take it right kindly if you didn’ do no more of that shit. Ain’t neither one of us too young t’ have a heart attack. If you don’ know what it does, don’ fuck with it.”
Todd hunched his shoulders, shivering. “Haah. This place slips up on you, you know? One minute it’s swabbing the deck like back on the carrier, next thing you know it’s outer fucking space.”
“Yeah.” Peters stared for a moment, then shook his head. “All right, I’m gonna time this watch out a little more and set the alarm for what, an hour before we’re supposed to meet somebody?”
“Fine by me. Uh, just out of curiosity, what time is it now? Back home, I mean.”
Peters flipped his handheld open. “2047. Day’s over with, almost.”
“No chow till morning.”
Peters considered. “They probably have midrats at the next big mark, if you want. Once I get in the rack I probably won’t need anything else.”
“You say it.”
“Yeah. Catch you later.”
“Later.” Todd headed for the toilet and his own room. Alone, Peters looked around. First order of business: make the bunk. He did that, then programmed the handheld for a wakeup at his best guess of the right time.