Alexei Panshin - Rite of Passage

Sex in the Ship is for adults. We were not officially adults, but we needed each other then, and I was no longer quite the stickler for rules that I once had been. We needed each other then and it was the proper time. If we didn’t make it back to the Ship, who would ever care? And if we made it back to the Ship, we would be officially adults and the question would be irrelevant.

So we made love there in the dark with the rain falling outside, safe in each other’s arms. Neither of us knew what we were doing, except theoretically, and we were as clumsy as kittens. It was something of a botch, too, in an extremely pleasant way. At the climax there was simply a hint of something we couldn’t reach.

We lay quietly and after a few minutes Jimmy said, “How was that?”

I said, somewhat sleepily, “I think it takes practice.

Just before I fell asleep, I said, “It was comforting, though.”

The next night, we left our horses tied in the trees. We were miles from our camp of the previous night. We had arrived on the hillside in the late afternoon, then crawled through the woods to look over the army complex. Below us, in the gold light, was a town cupped in a bowl between the hills. On our side of the town was an enfenced army base, patrolled like all army bases by regular guards, and on what must have been their parade ground was sitting the scoutship.

“I got curious,” Jimmy said. “It seemed strange to me that they should have a scoutship. I snuck out there to take a look and I got careless and got caught.”

Buildings framed the parade ground on three sides. The enclosed short side was nearest to our vantage point high above. The open short side was at the far end of the parade ground nearest to the town. There were some few trees- mixed among the buildings. The fence was linked iron spikes, and it completely circled the camp. It was perhaps a hundred feet from the fence to the nearest building.

Jimmy pointed through the leaves. “See the two-story building just below there? That’s their headquarters. That’s where they took me until the police came from the town. That’s where we ought to look for my gear.”

The building was red brick with a gray slate roof and it dominated the end of the parade ground. Most of the other buildings in the camp were only single story — barracks and stables and the like — and the other two-story buildings were not as large.

We timed the guard on his rounds. It took him twenty minutes to walk from one end of his post to the other in the slow, casual way of guards killing watch hours. Sometimes he reached the end of his post at the same time as the guard from the adjacent post and they stopped and talked.

I said, “We couldn’t count on more than twenty minutes if we hit the guard.”

“No,” Jimmy said. “We’ll do best if we can sneak over without being seen.”

After we had checked everything, we crawled back out of sight on our knees, and then we went back to our horses, where we ate a cold meal. Jimmy’s mistake before had been that he had entered the camp too early, when people were still about and the guards were alert. We were both tired from riding all day and we went to sleep until well after dark. I woke when Jimmy shook me.

“Come on,” he said. “It’s time to go.”

We took our time picking our way down the dark slope, making as little noise as possible. I was glad to be with Jimmy. We did make a team, and with Jimmy along I felt something more of an effective hell on wheels than I did by myself. It was twenty feet from the edge of the brush to the fence, the space cleared. We crouched there in the brush, able to see the fence and barely able to make out the outline of the two-story headquarters building beyond.

“Shh,” Jimmy whispered, holding my arm. “There’s the guard.”

We waited until he had passed and then we ran low to the iron fence. Jimmy gave me a boost and I grasped the spikes, the points sharp under my thumbs. He pushed me up and I got a knee on the top bar between the spikes. I paused there for a brief moment and then I jumped clear on the far side, ripping my pants on one of the spikes. I looked both ways to see if the noise of my landing had alerted anyone, and then I turned back to the fence. I put both hands through the bars and cupped them for Jimmy’s foot. He stepped into my hands and I pushed up. He got his other foot on the top bar and then sprang over. He landed on his feet with a thud that was noisier than mine and then without pausing we ran- for the nearest tree, where we stopped for a moment before we ran to the shadow of the headquarters building.

There was a partial cloud rack overhead and the light varied from dim to worse as the clouds moved by. We moved to the end of the building, Jimmy preceding, and there we stopped while Jimmy put his head around. Then we went around the corner and I could see the silent and empty parade ground and one or two night lights in the buildings on its edge. I could barely see the scoutship squatting in the dirt. We checked again at the next corner and then we ghosted along the front of the building.

“There should be one man on night duty,” Jimmy said. “The office is just to the right inside the door.”

He pointed up to a window over our heads. I could see light there and shadows on the ceiling. We went up the steps, flattened in the doorway while Jimmy and I took out our pistols and then we went through the door. The hall was dark and quiet. The door to the room on our right was open and light was streaming out.

Jimmy went through the door, gun in his hand, and said, “Put your hands up.”

There was just one man behind the desk and his head had been nodding. He came awake with a start and looked at us.

“You again,” he said.

It was a chubby little man, not particularly competent looking, dressed in a green uniform with red markings and red braided epaulets on the shoulders. The room was large and contained a number of desks, one on the side of the door and two on the side opposite. There were several offices behind the desks. The lamp turned low on the officer’s desk was the only light.

“Keep your voice down,” Jimmy said. “I’ll shoot you if I have to. Now where is my gear?”

The officer said, “I don’t know,” but his voice was uncertain. He was startled and still half asleep.

Jimmy nodded to me to go around the desk. I took out my knife and the man’s eyes watched me. He tried to move his chair, but 1 pushed at the back of it so that he couldn’t rise.

“Careful there, boy,” he said, his voice rising.

I took the point of the knife and I pricked his ear. It didn’t even bring a drop of blood.

“Where is the gear?” I asked.

The man choked and cleared his throat. “Not in any one place. I don’t know where everything be.”

“Where are my saddle bags?”

He shrugged helplessly. “In the stables, I suppose.”

“What about the stuff that was in them?”

Eagerly he said, “They been fooling with that in the mess. Some of the boys.”

“Take us to th mess.”

“I can’t show you,” the officer said. “I can’t leave my post.”

I tickled his epaulet with my knife. “You’ll have to.”

“Don’t cut that!” he said in agitation.

“Show us.” I raised the knife.

“Very well,” he said helplessly. “It be on the second floor.”

I took the lamp from the desk and Jimmy prodded the officer to his feet. He led us out into the corridor and then up the stairs. We walked down another corridor on the second floor, out footsteps echoing hollowly. At last we came to a door and the pudgy little officer unlocked it and threw it open.

“There,” he said.

The lamp light showed a silent room with a great long white-cloth covered table surrounded by ranks of chairs. There was a lounge and a great fireplace.