“Se’en won’t like that at all,” said Peters.
Dreelig sighed. “I think Se’en will not be back next llor. She was offered a post in the listening rooms, and I think she will take it and tell me to…”
“Take a hike,” Todd suggested with a smile.
“Yes, I’ve heard that idiom.”
“Hm.” Peters thought a moment. “If you could meet us, say, two utle before first meal, we could talk about our problem.”
“Yes, I suppose I can do that,” Dreelig said.
“Where could we meet?”
“Here is probably best. They will be preparing for the meal, and perhaps we can have coffee while we speak.” Dreelig grinned. “It is amazing how quickly I have become accustomed to having coffee to begin the llor.”
“Ain’t you afraid it’ll make your nose grow?” The joke was out before Peters thought about it.
Dreelig only grinned wider. “Kh kh kh. No, I think not. Klisti hasn’t made yours fall off.” Peters fingered the relevant member; the three looked at one another. Perhaps it was only because they were tired that they burst out laughing. It wasn’t really that funny.
Enlisted quarters now had a sentry by each entryway, in undress blues and duty belts but without sidearms. Perhaps wisely, the one they passed didn’t challenge them. Peters only looked and growled; you just can’t change some people’s minds, but it wasn’t likely that would last long.
Todd got to the shower first, and Peters used the delay to program the handheld for a wakeup two utle early, being careful to save the old program. Then he worked out, and saved, the basics of a program for a five-ande llor. It would very likely save him some work later.
Chapter Thirteen
“Precise wording is very important,” Dreelig noted. They were early, but a pair of one-ornh coins had gotten them coffee and a plate of rolls with sweet topping. Dreelig had watched Peters negotiate with benign interest, but said nothing.
“You’re probably right,” said Peters. He put his ID in the reader and brought up the text on the tiny screen. He pushed the handheld over to Dreelig, but had to help with button pushing to scroll through.
“Ssth,” Dreelig said. “Is there some part of this that actually says what you are to do? All I see here is daga. It reminds me of Secretary Averill.”
“It oughta be about here…” Peters took the little device and scrolled rapidly through, then passed it back to Dreelig. “Here.”
Dreelig read, frowning, for a long moment. “This is simple, but not very informative. ‘Report to commanding officer, Grallt ship Llapaaloapalla, for temporary duty as assigned to facilitate deployment of Space Detachment 1,’” he quoted. “Where is—ah, yes, duration is a word for time, yes? ‘Duration of Assignment: sixty days, or until released.’ Commanding officer? You have not ‘reported’ to the First. Is that a problem?”
“We’d never see the captain of any ship we were on,” Todd assured him. “You’re the commanding officer’s representative for this purpose, right? So we reported to you. All square as far as that’s concerned.”
“I do not truly understand your organization, of course, but from what I do understand, I do not see that you have a problem. According to this, I am your senior officer, correct?”
“As the captain’s representative, yeah, I reckon you are,” Peters admitted.
“So until I say you are released, you work for me.” Dreelig grinned. “I shall have to inform my own superiors. I am due extra compensation for supervisory duties.”
“Of course, your superiors could order us released,” Todd remarked.
“Of course,” Dreelig agreed. “I must act according to the contract we made with your Navy. That calls for us to support you people in certain ways for one voyage lasting about two of your years. I think that this ‘Space Detachment One’ must be how your management refers to the group of you.”
“That’s right,” Peters told him. “But we ain’t part of Space Detachment One. Master Chief Joshua tells the sailors what to do, and Commander Bolton tells him what to do, includin’ what to tell the sailors. But accordin’ to this, we ain’t part of that system.”
“Ah. I begin to see the problem.”
“Yeah. If you release us, you can’t release us to SPADET One, ‘cause we ain’t got orders to report to it. That means we gotta go home.”
“Would you prefer to go home?”
“You gotta be kiddin,’ Dreelig. This here’s the best chance we’ve had.” Peters paused. “Second choice, you don’t release us. But we still ain’t part of the detachment, so we ain’t under Chief Joshua or Commander Bolton, and by their figurin’ we don’t count. We shouldn’t be livin’ with ‘em, for one thing.”
“We could find you quarters in another part of the ship.”
“That’d work, but there’s another problem,” Todd said. “So far I like all the Grallt I’ve met to one degree or another, and Peters and I get along just fine, but I’d rather not be one of just two humans surrounded by Grallt. I’d like to be able to talk English, and Navy, and about home, with people like myself, at least once in a while.”
Dreelig nodded. “That is reasonable, over a long period of time. Even if you enjoy our company we are not really your people.”
“Right,” said Peters.
“Let me think about this,” Dreelig said. “I believe that I have the beginning of an idea, but there is not time to develop it right away. Could we speak to your chief later in this llor? After fifth meal, perhaps?”
Peters nodded. “That’d be a good time, I reckon. We oughta tell him beforehand, set up an appointment, like.”
“Yes, that would be polite. I will take care of that arrangement myself, and send you a message. You will be at the suit office, correct?”
“Correct. All this llor, all the next, and at least part of the one after that,” Todd confirmed.
“Then I believe we have done all we can do at this time, and I notice that they have begun serving the first meal. Let us eat, and go out to face the llor with strength.”
“Fortitude,” Todd corrected. “Face the llor with fortitude.”
Dreelig smiled. “A fort has strong walls, yes? We have a similar word.” He signaled one of the waiters. “For now, I think food is enough.”
They got to the suit office well before the beginning of the first ande, but not before the first sailors, five of whom were holding up the corridor wall as they arrived. “Chief said not so many at once today,” one of them said. “We don’t have a native guide any more. I was here yesterday, so I knew the way.”
“OK, your suit should be ready, let’s get you in it,” Todd told him. “Then you can go back down and tell ‘em that we’ll be ready for everybody who’s already been measured, one at a time for that, and the rest for measuring.”
“We can do it that way,” said the sailor, a First Class who wasn’t happy that a Third was telling him what to do.
“Good.” Todd wasn’t impressed.
Peters gestured them inside: “Let’s get this show on the road.”
Veedal and Keer were already there and turned to with a will. Tee didn’t show up; Peters stole her desk for a duty post. Except for that, the previous llor served as a model for this one: sailors being shuffled through the process at maximum speed, short breaks for meals, and back to work. Veedal found ways to shave a little time, managing to squeeze in seventeen per ande instead of sixteen, so by quitting time they’d bettered Todd’s predicted square by three.