Half Share

by Nathan Lowell

  “Okay,” Pip agreed, “between us, we’ve got a lot of open mass so I’ll probably try to fill it.” He slipped into his free-flowing analysis mode. “I’m leaning toward the yarn. I talked to Sean last night after you left and he says this is prime material and clued me in on some things to look for. But if we buy forty kilos that will be a lot of yarn, and I’m not sure we can sell it in Dunsany. How about we commit to twenty kilos for now and I’ll see if I can find anything to diversify the load with?”

  “Sounds good. I trust your judgment. I’m trying not to be spoiled by the successes we’ve had so far. We’re bound to throw a deal here sooner or later.”

  Pip gave a self-deprecating laugh. “That’s probably truer than I’d like to admit to myself.”

  I pointed at the chronometer. “If you’re meeting Biddy, you better move it.”

  It was still early when I finished the breakfast cleanup, and Cookie shooed me out of the galley, so I headed back to the gym. I did not usually run early in the day, but with so much uncertainty, I thought I better get it in while I still could. I overheard one of the deck gang saying that the captain had already gone down to the planet, so we could expect a new hand any time.

  After my run and a shower, it was still early. I rambled on down to environmental to check in. Francis had the port duty watch, and he grinned when he saw me. “You reporting for duty?”

  I shook my head. “Not yet. Still waiting.”

  “Nerve-wracking, isn’t it?”

  I sighed and rolled my eyes. “Unbelievably!”

  “Oh, I believe it. I think almost everybody has been through it at least once. In a way, shipboard promotions are worse than transfers. With a transfer, you pack your gear and you’re gone.”

  “Someday you’ll have to show me how that works.”

  “How what works?” he asked.

  “Transfers. For instance, how did Gregor get a new berth without going down to the Union Hall?”

  Francis looked concerned. “You’re not planning to leave already, are you?”

  “No, no. It’s just one of those mysteries that I’ve always wondered about. Why does the captain have to go down to the Union Hall to hire a new hand but Gregor gets a new berth on another ship almost before we dock?”

  “When you get a tick, bring up the communications options on your tablet.”

  I groaned and had a flash of déjà vu. All through my first weeks aboard, Pip kept springing little surprises like this on me. I had been aboard for weeks before I discovered the ship had a gym. My tablet had a good schematic of the ship, but I had never thought to check for recreational areas. It was one of those situations where, if you did not know it existed, you never thought to look. I could not remember the number of times I had tripped on that mistake and was chagrined to think I had just done so again.

  I pulled the tablet out of its holster and pulled up the communications options. At first I did not see what Francis was talking about, and then I saw the StationNet option at the bottom of the list. I had noticed it there, of course, whenever we’d been in port, but I had never pulled it up. Pip had even talked about using it to hunt for trade goods. I opened it now and saw the local options including a duplicate of the Union Hall data. All the ships in port, and those due in the next few weeks, scrolled across my tablet. I knew from experience that I could dig into that data and find an amazing array of information on each of the vessels.

  Francis came around to glance over my shoulder. “Bring up that opening for spec three in ship handling.” He pointed out an item on the list. I did and the full listing popped open on my tablet just as if I were sitting at one of the Union Hall data ports. “See that little icon?” He pointed out a tiny picture of sparks. “That’s the comm link. Select it.” When I did, the application for the post showed up on my screen already filled out with my own personnel jacket data. The words: Insufficient Qualifications scrolled across the bottom of the screen. “If you were rated, you’d see a link that would let you apply for the post right there.”

  “And I don’t have to go down to the hall? We just meet on station?”

  “Or aboard ship. It would be easy enough. The Moore was docked just three locks down from the Lois.”

  I glanced down when he said was and realized that the listing for AMoor on the display was marked: Departed. It gave me an odd feeling. “This is really happening, isn’t it?”

  Francis patted me on the shoulder. “You’re gonna be fine, Ish. Everybody’s nervous when they change jobs. At least you know what you’re getting into.” He spread his hands to indicate the environmental space around us. “You’ve already scraped sludge and pulled algae matrix. Those are the worst jobs we have. The rest is mostly just tedious.”

  “Okay, but I’ll be glad when this transition period is over.”

  “Hey, by this time next month, you’ll wonder why you ever took this job,” he teased me with a soft punch to the shoulder.

  I headed back to the galley to set up for lunch.

  Apparently, Cookie had been up to his armpits in pastry dough because I found him pulling darberry and granapple pies from the ovens. Two kettles of soup—potato-mushroom and a spicy smelling beefalo stew—were ready for the buffet. “Expecting a big crowd for lunch, Cookie?” I asked him.

  “Ah, Ishmael, between it being last day in port and the possibility of seeing the new hand, we should have a record turnout for port-side lunch and dinner as well, no doubt.”

  I set that thought aside and got on with the lunch drill. I started a fresh urn of coffee and scrubbed down the next in rotation to get it ready. After that I laid out the meats and cheeses for sandwiches and filled a basket with hot biscuits just as the chrono counted down the final ticks to lunch. I started taking food out to the buffet just as the crew began assembling. Cookie, as usual, had been correct, and I lost myself in the familiar rhythm of lunch duty.

  The routine was disrupted when my tablet bipped with a message from Mr. Maxwell. “Attendant Sarah Krugg arriving shuttle lock 12A 13:00. Please escort her aboard.”

  I showed the message to Cookie who looked at the chrono. “You have just enough time to put on a fresh shipsuit and meet our new hand, Ishmael. Leave the rest of the luncheon to me. Go make a good impression and make her feel welcome.”

  It was probably my imagination, but I could feel the crew’s eyes on me as I left the galley and headed for berthing to get changed. I wondered what drove a girl—this Sarah Krugg—to take a job on the mess deck of a freighter. Then I remembered my own experience as quarter share and wondered if she even had known what job she applied for. I jumped into a fresh shipsuit and looked up the location of the shuttle docks on the station schematic before heading for the main lock. Bev had the duty and just winked at me as I checked out.

  “Be nice, Ish,” she said. “He’ll be scared.”

  “She,” I corrected.

  “Oh?” she said in that prompting tone that I really hoped to master myself some day.

  “Sarah Krugg. I’m assuming that’s a girl,” I said with a grin.

  Bev smirked at me. “You’re not just another pretty face, are ya?”

  I left the lock laughing.

  The shuttle docks were on the other side of the station, but it only took a few ticks to get around to them. As I positioned myself outside the lock at 12A, I had a flashback of when I stepped off the shuttle to find Pip waiting for me back on Neris. I looked around and realized that I was standing in about the same spot as he had been. It felt weird to have the boot on the other foot, as it were.

  I did not wait long before I heard the docking clamps latch and the lock started to cycle. I wiped my palms nervously on the sides of my shipsuit and watched as about a dozen people exited the lock and peeled off in both directions down the passage. When the throng cleared a bit, I picked out the green and gold of Federated Freight and saw Sarah Krugg for the first time.

  Chapter 6

  ST. CLOUD ORBITAL

  2352-FEBRUARY-20
/>
  She was not exactly what I expected. I easily recognized the new shipsuit and lost look, neither of which were a surprise. But I had been expecting a girl or at least a young woman. Sarah Krugg appeared to be nearly as old as my mother had been.

  She spotted my matching suit and eyed me warily. We met in the middle of the passage. “You must be Ms. Krugg,” I said fatuously. “Call me…err…that is…my name is Ishmael Wang. The first mate sent me to meet you.”

  I held out my hand and I thought I saw her flinch, but it was gone so fast I could not be sure. She studied my hand for a moment before gripping it briefly but firmly in her own dry palm. In that split second before she let go, I could feel the calluses on her palm and along her fingers. I tried a welcoming smile and hoped it was working. She seemed very closed off.

  “Hello Mr. Wang,” she said.

  Standing next to her, she came up to my nose and had to tilt her head slightly to look me in the eyes. Her hair was longer than I was used to seeing after so many months aboard—almost to her shoulders—and it had a peculiar bleached appearance to it, like it had started life as a soft brown but had been burned almost white in broad streaks. Looking into her brown eyes, I realized that she was not as old as I had thought at first, and I wondered briefly what kind of life she must have had to age this way. She seemed—bruised in a way that showed in her eyes.

  I started talking quickly to cover my awkwardness, “You can call me Ish, Ms. Krugg. We don’t stand on ceremony much around here. Is it okay if I call you Sarah?”

  She nodded uncertainly and shifted her duffel.

  “Okay then, Sarah, let’s get you introduced to Lois and the rest of the crew. Everybody’s quite anxious to meet you.” I started down the passageway with a little nod. “It’s just this way and not very far. You’ll be working with Cookie and Pip. They’re both really nice.” I realized I was babbling and stopped myself to ask the first question I could think of. “Do you snore?”

  “Snore?” she asked incredulously.

  “Yeah. It seems to be the first question everybody asks a new bunkie.”

  She looked down and then quietly said, “Um…yes actually, I’ve been told that I do. Will that be a problem? I don’t think I do it very loudly.”

  I glanced over my shoulder and whispered, “I wouldn’t worry about it. Tabitha snores, too. But I actually found it kind of comforting in an odd sorta way.”

  “Tabitha?” she asked.

  “Yeah, Tabitha Rondita sleeps on the other side of the partition that I used to use before my transfer to engineering berthing. You’ll meet her. She’s nice, too.”

  We had entered the commercial docks by then and I slowed a bit so Sarah could catch her breath and look around a little. I remembered my first time on the docks and how different everything seemed. There was a lot going on as all the cargo men performed their synchronized dance of moving items to and from various places.

  “You okay?” I asked her softly.

  “Yes,” she said a bit unsteadily. “I think so. But it’s all going so fast.”

  “I know exactly what you mean. It’ll be okay. It wasn’t all that long ago that I came aboard for the first time. Did you get the your ass is mine speech from the captain?”

  “Yeah, is that normal?”

  “I have no idea, but I got one, too. It’s the only thing I remember about my interview with her.”

  “Is everything as bad as she said?” Sarah asked, letting a bit of her fear show for the first time.

  “Not even close.” I laughed. “Not even close.”

  By then we had made it to the lock, and Bev was still on duty. “Bev, meet Sarah Krugg. Sarah, this is Beverly Arith. She’s not as scary as she appears.”

  “Hey!” Bev protested. “Who you calling scary?” She smiled at Sarah and held out a hand. Again, I thought Sarah flinched and Bev shot me a quick glance like she had seen something, too. “Welcome aboard, Sarah. This ignoramus hasn’t been telling you lies about us already, has he?”

  Sarah did the press-and-release handshake again and smiled tentatively. “No, actually, he’s been very considerate.”

  “Ish, Mr. Maxwell wants to see her in the office right away, but when you take her down to berthing why don’t you put her in the bunk above mine?”

  “Would you like an upper bunk?” I asked.

  “I don’t know. I never slept in a bunk before.”

  “Uppers are easier to get out of,” I told her. “But harder to get into.”

  She smiled a bit coldly. “That sounds fine.”

  Bev nodded deliberately at me. “Ish? Mr. Maxwell is waiting…”

  I was not really sure what was going on there, but I led the way into the ship. I lowered my voice a bit, “Mr. Maxwell is a little scary. But he’s really good at his job. Don’t let the robot-act scare ya.”

  “The what?”

  “Never mind. You’ll see what I mean.”

  We made it to the office and I straightened my shipsuit. “You ready?” I whispered.

  Sarah took a deep breath and let it out slowly before nodding shortly.

  I knocked and heard Mr. Maxwell say, “Come.”

  I swung the door open and led Sarah into the office. “Attendant Wang reporting with Attendant Sarah Krugg as ordered, sar.”

  Mr. Maxwell did his best robot impersonation as he swiveled his gaze to Sarah and said, “Welcome aboard, Ms. Krugg. Mr. Wang will get you settled in deck berthing and introduce you to the rest of the mess staff.”

  I recognized the command and said, “Aye, aye, sar.”

  “Do you have any questions for me, Ms. Krugg?” Mr. Maxwell asked.

  She shook her head and said, “No, sar. Not at this time, sar.”

  He turned to me then and went on, “Mr. Wang. As of this moment you are promoted to engineman and will assume your duties in the environmental section of engineering when Mr. Carstairs returns from liberty.”

  “Yes, sar. Thank you, sar.”

  He looked at both of us and nodded. “Dismissed.”

  I led the way out and closed the door behind Sarah. She started to speak, but I raised a hand to stop her. Again the déjà vu was thick as I remember the exact same thing occurring six months earlier but then I played the part of the greenie and Pip was my guide. After a couple of turns down the passageway, I stopped and muttered the same words Pip had given me, “That went well.”

  Sarah had an oh-my-god expression that I recognized so well. “He’s not that scary?” she asked. “You call that not scary?”

  “Yeah. I know. But there really is no good way to prepare anyone for their first meeting with Mr. Maxwell. Trust me, it gets easier over time and like I said he’s very good. You’ll see.”

  I could tell I had not convinced her, but she seemed willing to let it go for now. Instead, she took a different tack and asked, “You just got a promotion?”

  “Yup,” I told her.

  “How long have you been aboard?”

  “I was a quarter share greenie like you last September.”

  “And you already got promoted?”

  “Yeah, it’s been an interesting six months.”

  “What did you do before?”

  “Same as you. You’re getting my old job. I was a mess deck attendant.” I checked the chrono and saw that it was 13:30. “Come on. Let’s get your gear stowed and go help Cookie clean up after lunch. Once that’s done we can get you settled in proper.”

  I took her down to deck berthing and gave her the choice of the bunk over Bev or the one under Pip and she took the upper. We got her duffel stowed, the palm-lock set on her locker, and then I took her to meet Cookie.

  When we got to the mess deck, there was not a lot to do. Cookie had taken down the buffet and was just starting to sweep down the mess deck. It was odd, though, because Pip and I usually cleaned off the tables before we swept and swabbed. I could still see empty mugs and the odd dish left out.

  “Cookie, I’d like you to meet your new mess attendant
, Sarah Krugg.”

  Cookie bestowed one of his beatific smiles on her and gave a small bow. “I am delighted to have you join our little family.”

  “Thank you very much.”

  I could feel her unwinding a little bit for the first time since I had met her.

  “Very well, Sarah, no time like the present to get started.” Cookie handed her the broom and dust pan. “Here, we must clean this place up and make it ready for the evening meal. Could you take over while I talk to Mr. Wang?”

  She glanced around dubiously and then looked at the broom and dust pan. “Of course, Cookie, but…”

  “Yes, Ms. Krugg?”

  “Do you have a bucket and a cloth? If I am to do a proper job, I think I’d like to clean the tables, first.”

  Cookie smiled and I hid a grin behind a mug of coffee. The method to Cookie’s madness now made sense as I recall his first little test with me regarding making coffee. Sarah was going to do just fine.

  “Of course, Sarah.” Cookie turned to me and said, “Ishmael, show your shipmate where she can find the supplies she needs, won’t you?”

  I escorted her to the galley and gave her the quick half-cred tour before returning to Cookie. He drew me into a pantry to leave Sarah by herself on the mess deck. “You’re a rascal, Cookie.”

  He beamed. “Thank you, Ishmael. I do try.” He turned serious then and asked, “Ishmael, did Sarah, or any of the officers tell you anything about Ms. Krugg’s background, or why she is here?”

  “No, Cookie, why do you ask? ”

  “She didn’t say anything about where she’s from?”

  “We haven’t exactly had a lot of time,” I pointed out.

  He looked concerned. “Be kind to her, Ishmael. Unless I’m mistaken, she hasn’t had a lot of kindness in her life. I suspect she may have been beaten recently.”

  I was shocked. I had no idea how Cookie could know such a thing just by meeting her, but I had learned long ago that Cookie was always right.

  He peeked out to the mess deck then. “Go and show her the ropes. The best thing for her right now is to start getting comfortable with her new surroundings.” He smiled. “Pip is in for an interesting time.”