Ship's Boy by Phil Geusz Read Free Book Online

bed, so the only person we ever had any contact with was Pedro, the ship’s boy. He was a Rabbit like me—property of the navy—and I guess that if he hadn’t been aboard I’d have starved to death for lack of hay. Pedro took good care of us, but he wasn’t much to talk to. He didn’t seem to understand very much of what was going on outside of his tiny area of responsibility, and he was busy, busy, busy all the time shining boots and polishing brasswork and running back and forth with coffee and tea. Worst of all, however, he seemed terrified of me. “Sir Leslie says I’m not to speak with you any more than absolutely necessary,” he told me at our first meeting. Whatever other faults he might have, Pedro was a very obedient Rabbit indeed. “Especially obedient” was never a virtue that had applied to we Birkenheads, or so family lore claimed. Dad was meticulous about following regulations when lives were at stake, of course, and in that regard I was trying hard to follow in his footsteps. But supposedly our ancestors had been troublesome Rabbits indeed, so much so that had we not also been extra-bright our bloodline would’ve been pinched out. No one had actually ordered me to stay in the cabin, so….
    It was quite easily done when the time came. Once James was snoring nice and regular from the other bed, I grabbed my Field suit and unlatched the cabin door. A quick look revealed no one coming or going, which was predictable enough given that I’d chosen the third watch for my wandering. Even in warships the third watch was a fraction the size of the others, unless a battle happened to be going on or something. Then I tiptoed my way aft to find a proper suit locker. The suit was my excuse, of course—it needed recharging and replenishing. Besides, it was continually in the way—aboard a vessel as cramped as Hummingbird , even the commanding officer lacked enough room to take more than two paces in his cabin.
    At first my trip was disorienting— Broad Arrow was the only ship I’d ever known well, and her layout was completely different. Even after having studied Hummingbird’ s configuration on the computer I made a couple wrong turns. But eventually I found the companionway down to the engineering spaces. And I practically had my foot on the top step when a deep bass voice froze me in my tracks. “Ahoy there!” it called out. “And where might you be headed at this late hour?”
    I gulped and froze, then turned around. Confronting me was a huge man in a space-black marine uniform, immaculate except for his stockinged feet. In one hand he held a nearly-polished boot. “I…” I stuttered. “I…. “ Then I raised the Field suit hopefully. “I need to stow this somewhere,” I finally forced out.
    “Oh,” the marine replied. Then he smiled. “Well, then… You caught me in the middle of a bit of housekeeping.” He held up the boot. “How about if you wait for me to finish with this, and then I can show you a spare locker?”
    I felt my guts loosen a little. “Thank you,” I answered. “That’d be very nice.”
    His smile widened. “My name’s Percy,” he explained. “Never did catch yours.”
    “David,” I answered. Then he led me into a small, compact locker room with a long bench down the middle. One of the lockers was open; the plate on the door read “Lance Corporal Percy Middleton”. My new friend sat down beside it and patted the bench companionably. “Take a load off,” he urged. “This won’t take two shakes.”
    I smiled silently and sat as Percy spat on his boot and then buffed it over and over again with a soft white rag. “I’m pulling extra duty,” he explained. “All the crap jobs, and formal inspection twice a day besides.” He shook his head and sighed. “You wouldn’t mind brushing that other boot for me, would you? The sooner we’re done, the sooner we can stow your suit.”
    I nodded and went to work—I’d never polished boots before, but the process