Free Metal Boxes - Rusty Hinges by Alan Black

If they were smarter, then we wouldn’t have to manually pick them up and move them.”
    Juarez sighed, “Listen up, you goobers. I will personally ask the captain to let you interrogate the next Hyrocanian we run across, but until then, pay attention. I don’t want to die because you’re goofing around or your hand starts shaking from too much jungle juice last night.”
    Stone said, “My point in holding this explosive up is to ask you where the safety switch is. Anybody know?”
    The room was silent as everyone looked at Juarez. She sighed, “On human mines, there is a red dot on the top. It’s there for simple orientation purposes, so we know which way is up. A small panel on the bottom can be manually accessed to reach the safety switches, or they can be remotely accessed by code.”
    “Outstanding, Petty Officer,” Stone said.
    The woman nodded as if the compliment meant little.
    “Okay, the rest of you, what is different about these mines and why you shouldn’t be chucking them around like last year’s dirty laundry? No answers?” He pointed at a spacer third class. The man was holding the mine in one hand, propped up on his hip. “You. Go ahead and open the safety protocol access panel.”
    The man sputtered, “I don’t remember much from tech school about mines, but I do remember that we were told to never open the panel. Get a repair tech if it needs to be opened.”
    “Excellent memory. I’ve read exactly the same thing. We’re going to make an exception because of Petty Officer Juarez’s expertise. Go ahead and open the panel.”
    The man spun the mine in his hand. “There ain’t no red dot. How can we tell where the panel is without the red dot?”
    “Everyone look at the mine in your hands. Find the panel.” He stood watching as everyone on the team scrambled around, turning mines this way and that way looking for the panel, everyone except PO2 Juarez.
    “Petty Officer, you’re not looking.”
    “Waste of time, Ensign.”
    “Really? Would you care to share with the rest of the team why it is a waste of time to look for the access panel to the safety switches on a Hyrocanian manufactured mine?”
    Juarez shrugged, “Because there ain’t none, sir.”
    Stone grinned. “Exactly. The biggest change the Hyrocanian’s made in their design was to eliminate the safety switches and protocols.”
    The spacer holding a mine with one hand paled. “There ain’t …” His voice trailed away as the mine slipped from his hand, clanging on the deck.
    Stone closed his eyes and gave a little shiver. He opened his eyes and glared around the room. “There aren’t any safeties on these explosives. We don’t know for sure if, when, or what will set them off.” His voice rose to a bellow. “So, stop dropping them and stop throwing them around.”
    He caught the odor of wet, dark chocolate over his shoulder and knew Allie was behind him. Preparations for getting under way and navigating through the jump point had kept them both so busy they hadn’t said more than a dozen words to each other.
    Taking a step backward without looking, he bumped into her — hard. She didn’t budge and he didn’t move away. It wasn’t the type of contact he wanted with his girlfriend. He wanted to grab her, wrestle her to the ground, and kiss her into submission. The problem with that was that if he grabbed her, she was liable to kick his butt.
    Stone said, “Petty Officer Juarez, please take control of this pack of hooligans. We have to get this bay clear and get all of our munitions to the bay next to aft cannon eleven. And I will feed the next one of you who drops a mine to my drascos for supper.”
    Juarez replied, “Aye, aye, sir.”
    Trusting the petty officer to manage the munitions, Stone spun in place, not moving away from Allie. Standing face-to-face, they were little more than a whisker apart. He was actually about two inches taller than her six feet two, but he looked deep into her eyes.
    The iris in