“You done with whatever the Ambassador had you doing, Peters?”
“Yeah, I mean, yes, Chief,” Peters said, and made an effort to suppress his accent. “We were just headin’ for the rack.”
“Well, sailor, I think you might have to delay your beauty sleep for just a bit,” Joshua ground out. “If it wouldn’t be too much trouble.”
Peters flushed. “Aye, Chief.”
“All right.” Joshua leaned back and folded his arms across his chest. “Do you suppose you could let us know a little more about what we’re supposed to be doing for the next few hours? The ambassador wasn’t too specific.”
Peters spread his hands. “Ain’t, ah, there isn’t much more to say, Chief,” he said apologetically. “Like the ambassador said, you folks got here just at the end of the llor, the workday you might say, and there ain’t much anybody can do ‘til first ande.”
“I take it ‘first anda‘ means morning to these people,” said the third Chief. Peters hadn’t met him; his crow had a yeoman’s rate insignia.
“Aye, Chief. Most folks sleep through fifth and sixth ande, except them as has the watch on the engines and such,” Peters explained.
“So there’s six ‘anda’ to a day?” the unfamiliar Chief persisted.
“That’s right, Chief.” Peters paused. “Ain’t nobody explained any of this, Chief?”
“All we know is what you told us when you were at NAS Jax,” Warnocki put in. “That and our orders to be in a certain place at a certain time to meet the bus.”
“Which we have done,” Joshua added. “Now we’re here, and we’d appreciate a little more info.”
Peters was starting to recognize Joshua’s speech patterns, and the way he came down on appreciate raised a red flag. “Aye, Master Chief,” he said a bit desperately. “Can you give me a minute to collect my wits? I ain’t thought this out.”
“Take your time,” Joshua said, his tone indicating the direct opposite.
“Aye,” Peters said, dragging it out to gain a little time. “All right, we told you when we was down that the llor‘s about thirty hours, plus a bit, right?”
“That’s what I recall,” said Warnocki helpfully.
“Good, I mean, aye, Master Chief.” Peters was starting to settle a little. “All right, there’s six ande to a llor, makes each one a little over five hours. The workin’ day for most folks begins at the first ande, and right now’s a couple of utle, ‘bout an hour, after the start of the fifth ande. So most everybody’s in bed.”
“Utle,” said the third Chief. He noted that Peters was straining a bit; the corner of his mouth quirked, and he turned so that Peters could read his name tag: Spearman. At Peters’s thank-you nod, just a twitch, he relaxed back in his chair. “What’s an utle?”
“Eight utle to an ande,” Peters supplied.
“So an utle‘s about forty minutes,” Warnocki suggested.
“A little less, but about that,” Peters agreed. “Just a minute.” He squirmed a bit, brought out the handheld, and flushed at the bemused expressions. The Grallt phrase meant, literally, ‘a square of nothing;’ he’d heard it a lot over the last few llor, and had used it without thinking. “Here,” he said, handing the gadget to Chief Joshua. “If you’ll give this to Hernandez he can set yours up the same way.”
Joshua took the instrument, set it on the table. “We’ll do that,” he said, and regarded Peters from under lowered brows. “I see you’re picking up a little of the language.”
“I hope so, Master Chief. We’re all gonna have to do that.”
“That’s what you said in Jax.” Joshua folded his arms again. “For meals, if I recall.”
“That’s right, Master Chief,” Peters agreed.
“So how come the cold cuts and bug juice down below?”
“You ain’t learned the language yet, Master Chief,” Peters explained. “And the messcooks”—some brain cell, wiser than the others, had suppressed waiters at the last instant—”don’t know English at all, and everybody else’s off duty.” The wise brain cell rejected we in favor of, “The Grallt set that up temporary like, so’s you don’t have to go hungry ‘til you can get squared away.”
“Very thoughtful of them, I’m sure,” Joshua said with heavy irony. He brought a hand down on the table, slap!, and looked directly at Peters. “You got any advice as to how we should improve the, ah, I figure about eight hours, before the Grallt go back on duty?”
“No, I don’t, Master Chief,” Peters replied calmly. “I don’t reckon my advice’d be worth much just now anyways. I been on duty near enough five llor, that’s twenty-five hours to you, and if you want decent work outa me’n Todd, we better have some rack time.”
“Sailor, you and I are gonna need to have a talk sometime soon,” said Chief Joshua in a dangerously quiet tone.
“Aye, Master Chief,” Peters responded, with a nod of the head.
Joshua narrowed his eyes. “I think right now would be a good time.” He looked at the other two Chiefs in turn. “Alvin, Ed, could you excuse us for a few moments?
Chapter Twelve
The other two Chiefs filed out. Joshua went to the window and stood looking out for a long moment, hands clasped in the small of his back. When he heard the latch go home he said without looking around, “Peters, you got any reason I shouldn’t put you on report for disrespect?”
“No, Master Chief,” said Peters, making it as toneless as he could.
Joshua didn’t respond for a moment. “I think I hear you saying that if I do, you’ll ask for mast on it.” There was a long silence. “Am I right, sailor?”
“Yes, Master Chief.”
Again there was a silent pause. Peters stood at ease, head up, hands clasped in the small of his back, feet apart; the Navy called it “parade rest,” not quite as formal as a full brace. Slowly some of the tension went out of Chief Joshua’s shoulders, but he didn’t turn around. “What’s your current status, Peters?”
“TDY to Grallt Ship Llapaaloapalla, Master Chief.”
“And you haven’t reported for duty to me yet, have you?”
“No, Master Chief.”
“Then you aren’t in my chain of command yet, and I can’t put you on report anyway,” Chief Joshua observed, not altogether accurately. It was enough to take the edge off the situation. “You reporting for duty, sailor?”
“Not yet, Master Chief.”
“When?” It was a spit.
“First ande, Master Chief.”
“And after that, we’ll have twenty hours of duty ahead of us, is that right?”
“It ain’t that bad, Master Chief,” Peters assured him. “They know all about changin’ time schedules, and the first thing’s gettin’ you all fitted for kathir suits. There’ll be plenty of slack for rest if anybody needs it.”
“When are the meals available?”
“Generally about an utle before the watch change. First meal’s usually ready a little earlier, say an utle and a half, call it an hour.”
“So if we’re ready seven hours from now, no problem.”
“That’s right, Chief. It won’t hurt to run a little over.”
“So you recommend that we take it easy, get squared away here, and be raring to go when the workday starts.”
Peters relaxed a little. “That’s what I’d say, Chief,” he said, again striving to keep his voice even. He paused, avoiding direct eye contact. “As for advice…”