Ship's Boy by Phil Geusz Read Free Book Online Page A

was self-explanatory. Percy smiled and nodded in thanks. “It’s rough, I tell you! Clean the blasters, scrub the toilets, there’s lint on your uniform, Lance Corporal Middleton, that’s five demerits!” He shook his head and sighed. “I should never have re-upped.”
    “Where are you from?” I asked, mostly to be polite.
    “Marcus Four,” he replied, and my ears rose a little in surprise. “Yes,” he answered with a smile. “I’m under the protection of milord as well.” His face softened. “You actually knew him, did you?”
    “A little,” I acknowledged. “At the end.”
    Percy nodded. “Was it true what they said? That he was a genuinely great man, I mean?”
    “I think so,” I said after mulling it over a little. “And his son may have the makings of one as well. Though of course I’m nobody to judge.”
    Percy shrugged. “Maybe, maybe not.” Then he slid the freshly polished boot onto his left foot and accepted the one I’d been brushing. “Milord manumitted you, did he?”
    I felt the linings of my ears darken. “I don’t think he expected me to live to enjoy it very long.”
    “Heh!” he barked. “Quite frankly, I didn’t expect you to either. And I was there.” He looked at me strangely. “You’re space-trained.”
    I turned away. “A little. Father was chief engineer on Broad Arrow , and I was his apprentice.” 
    Percy whistled a long, low note. “Well,” he said at last. “You might want to keep that under your hat, David. At least aboard this ship.”
    My ears rose again. “Why?”
    “Heh!” he laughed. “Because a rated engineering apprentice—even a merchie apprentice—is considered a cadet, see? And, well… I’m supposed to salute you.”
    My jaw dropped. Dad had never, ever left the immediate vicinity of the ship while off-world, and now I understood why.
    “Not that I’d mind saluting you,” Percy continued. “Not after seeing how well you handled yourself in the middle of so many troubles. But the rest of them, you see…”
    I nodded sadly. He didn’t have to draw a map. Besides, I didn’t want to be saluted. Just left to do an important job in peace.
    Percy worked silently for a little while before speaking again. “It’s different, with me being from Marcus Four. I mean… It’s only recently settled. And what a job it was!”
    I nodded in agreement. The House of Marcus had colonized eighteen worlds, but Marcus Four was in many ways the most recent despite its low sequence number. This was because three previous efforts had failed, two of them perishing to the last man.
    “I grew up…” He sighed and started over. “There was a Rabbit family next door, see? I played with Chadwick almost every day, and, well…” He shook his head. “My neighbors may technically have been milord’s property. But they were also richer than we were.”
    I nodded—Dad and I had been well-off, too.
    He studied his boot intently for a moment—it gleamed like a mirror. “You don’t want to let anyone know that you’re a cadet,” he repeated softly. “Even though they’d figure it out on their own if they ever gave it two thoughts. And… I don’t think you ought to visit engineering at all. Ever. They play nasty tricks on Pedro down there.”
    I gulped silently. That was where I’d just been heading, to stow my suit with the other Field units. I’d sort of hoped that… “I see.”
    Percy nodded glumly, then stood up and clasped my shoulder. “In fact, maybe you ought to just stay in your cabin from now on. It might be better for everyone involved.” Then he sighed and looked at my suit. “We have a spare locker in the back room.  It has a top-off outlet, too. Sergeant Wells never touches it—I think that’d be a good place for your gear.”
    I nodded. “Thank you,” I said. “For everything.” Then I looked up and met his eyes. “Why were you assigned extra duty?” I asked, already half-guessing the answer.
    “For disobeying orders,”