Half Share

by Nathan Lowell

  “Ah, Francis, good you’re here.” Brill turned to him. “I understand we owe you some thanks for uncovering Mr. Wang’s weakness for Diane.”

  “Wha—?” he said.

  “Last night, Francis,” I said to him. “You were right. I was so distracted by Diane I didn’t even know what chapter I’d bookmarked in my tablet. It’s true. Whenever I’m around her, I just can’t think of anything else.” I hung my head in shame, and also so he wouldn’t see the corner of my lips twitching as a fought a grin.

  “But—” he began.

  “Ishmael has explained the situation, Francis. Thank you for being so diligent and spotting the problem. The safety of the ship is, of course, our first concern. We’ll be putting him ashore at Dunsany, and in the meantime, he’s going back to help out in the galley where he can’t do any serious damage.”

  “But—” he tried again.

  “That leaves us short-handed. I’ve spoken to Mr. Kelley and he’s doesn’t have anyone to spare, so you’re going to have to cover his watches until then.” Brill was a bulldozer. She just kept pushing and pushing.

  “But—” he tried a third time.

  “I’m sorry, Diane,” I broke in. “I never meant to hurt you.” I had no idea what I was saying. I was just trying to keep the play going.

  “Mr. Wang, I think we’ve had just about enough from you,” Brill said coldly. “You’re dismissed.”

  I headed for the hatch and I could see Francis’s face out of the corner of my eye. He was just about primed.

  “Wait!” he shouted.

  Thar she blows! I thought.

  “Yes, Francis? You have something to add to this conversation?” Brill asked.

  “Is this about the bookmark on his tablet?” he asked.

  “Why, yes,” she said. “It is.”

  “And you think he’s incompetent because he was so distracted by Diane that he doesn’t know what he’s doing?”

  “I believe that’s a fair assessment,” Brill agreed. “You yourself brought it to his attention last night, I believe. At least he had sufficient integrity to bring it to attention this morning.”

  “But I was just teasing him!” Francis objected. “I didn’t mean anything by it.”

  “Oh, Francis, I think you don’t give yourself enough credit. Obviously you are more observant than you know and must have picked up on Mr. Wang’s state of mind,” Brill answered. “The fact remains, that if he can’t keep his head on straight enough to know what bookmark he’s setting on something as simple as his tablet, how can I trust him with the lives aboard this ship? These people trust us to care for them. I can’t overlook the fact that he did not know he’d set his tablet for spec one and during six full weeks he had been so distracted by Diane that he didn’t realize it until you pointed it out to him.”

  She was good—very good.

  “But,” Francis said, “he didn’t set it to the wrong chapter.”

  “Oh?” Brill asked archly. “Then how do you explain this?” She held up my tablet to the page that Francis had last seen me reading. “This is clearly spec one material.”

  “True, but he didn’t make the mistake in setting it,” he said.

  “I don’t follow, Francis. What are you saying?” Brill asked.

  “He didn’t make the mistake in setting it. I set it to spec one the day we pulled out of St. Cloud. I never dreamed he wouldn’t spot it,” he said miserably.

  “So this whole fiasco is your doing?” Brill said incredulously.

  Francis nodded and I recognized the can I just melt into the deck now expression on his face. I had been wearing it not so long ago.

  “Mr. Wang?” she called to me. “Do you have anything to say to Mr. Gartner on this matter?”

  “Yes, Ms. Smith, I do,” I replied.

  Francis turned to me with a pained and stricken across his face.

  “Gotcha!” I said.

  There were about four solid heartbeats of frozen disbelief on Francis’s face before he turned to find Brill and Diane grinning at him. “Gotcha!” they both said together.

  “But—” he began.

  I walked over to him and put a hand on his shoulder. “It’s okay, Francis. I know, or think I know, what happened.” I nodded toward Diane. “You saw her snatch my tablet and jigger the bookmark, right?”

  He nodded.

  “Then you thought you’d up the ante by boosting it to spec one?” I asked.

  “Yeah, I never expected you wouldn’t spot it, but then watch after watch you came in with it. I’ve never seen anybody wrestle so hard,” he said with what sounded like admiration. “Then you rotated to the next shift and I never got a good opportunity to tell you. To be honest, I didn’t think you’d still be working on the wrong lessons until you mentioned it last night. I couldn’t believe how much of it you’d gotten through.”

  “And ribbing me about Diane?”

  “Oh, that. I’m sorry but it was just too perfect to pass up. I just couldn’t resist. When it comes to good-looking women, you’re easy to tease, Ish.” He looked at all of us then and said, “I’m sorry. Really I am.”

  I raised my eyebrows. “Is that good enough for you two?” I asked Brill and Diane.

  Brill nodded. “Yeah. I’m good. What about you, Diane?”

  There was something in Diane’s stance that made me think she was going to deck him, but she finally said, “Yeah. Good enough.”

  “Okay, well, then I guess it’s good enough for me.” I held out my hand to Francis.

  He looked at it and then my eyes before taking it.”You’re a good man, Ish,” he said softly.

  “I’m an idiot, but it comes naturally to me. I don’t need to use brilliant women like these two as an excuse. I’m dumb enough on my own,” I told him with a grin. “Good, now? Anybody ready for lunch? I think Cookie’s doing lamb with garlic.”

  Diane said, “All ops normal, Mr. Gartner. No maintenance scheduled or performed. You have the watch.”

  Francis replied, “Thank you, Ms. Ardele, I relieve you. I have the watch.”

  “Kneesies,” Diane huffed as she brushed by him, headed for the lock.

  “I’ll catch up with you in a few, Ish,” Brill said. “I’ve got some loose ends to finish up.”

  I waved and followed Diane out. I almost felt sorry for Francis.

  ***

  Diane was waiting at the ladder. “You think she’s going to ream him out?”

  I shrugged. “She didn’t say much to you. The infraction isn’t worth a reaming. If he’d just left you out of it, I probably wouldn’t have thought twice about it. I’m partially to blame as well. I should have noticed. I’ve been pretty disoriented what with changing sections and trying to get used to watch standing and all.”

  “Well, what’s done is done. Let’s get some lunch.” As she turned, she asked, “Did you mean what you said about two brilliant women?”

  I chuckled. “Yeah, of course.”

  “You couldn’t have said beautiful women?”

  “Well, that part seemed obvious.”

  She stopped ahead of me on the ladder and looked back. “Really? You think I’m as pretty as Brill?”

  “Honestly? I think you are both amazing on so many levels that being gorgeous doesn’t even compete with the rest.”

  “Damn, you’re good! Do you think that stuff up on the fly?”

  “No, I have a team of writers who think it up for me and communicate via an implant in my ear. Now, do ya think you could move it? I’m getting hungry.” I laughed.

  She laughed, too, and continued up the ladder.

  “And, Diane?”

  She looked back again.

  “Don’t be too mad at him. He didn’t mean any harm.”

  She gave a little I heard you but I’m not sure what I think about it yet shrug and scampered up the ladder.

  When we got to the mess deck, we found a table and saved a seat for Brill. Cookie had, indeed, prepared lamb with some green beans and potatoe
s. The succulent meat was delicately seasoned with just salt, pepper, and a trace of garlic. It was utterly delightful and I ate every bite. Brill showed up about ten ticks later and took the seat we had saved for her.

  “I gotta give ya credit, Ish,” she said as she sat. “The section has been plenty lively since you joined us.”

  I blushed. “I’m sorry. I really only want to do a good job.”

  She grinned and winked at Diane. “It’s okay. We were getting into a rut. This has bounced us out of it pretty well. Now, about that exam…” She pulled out her tablet and pulled up a quiz and started asking me questions.

  Diane offered encouragement in the beginning, but the longer it went on she ended up just sitting and watching. Her head bobbed back and forth from me to Brill and back again, like she was watching some kind of tennis match.

  Finally, Brill came to the end and grinned. “Seventy-eight!” she said triumphantly.

  “Yeah, but what test?” I asked her.

  “Spec two.”

  “But I haven’t studied spec two,” I protested.

  She wagged her eyebrows at me. “Think of how well you’ll do once you have.”

  Diane’s eyes went wide. “That was amazing.”

  “Okay, Ish,” Brill said, “you’re on midwatch tonight and then afternoon tomorrow, right?”

  I was so in the groove as Rhon had called it, that I just nodded. I did not even need to look any more.

  “Hit the tablet on spec two tonight. Pay attention to the sections on water purification and distillation—those were the questions you did the worst on. I’ll work with you tomorrow afternoon and we’ll see where we are after that.” Her tablet bipped and she headed out. “Time to get back to work.”

  Diane and I were off duty, so we sat there for a while. “You were amazing,” she said.

  I shrugged. “I guess I picked up more than I thought.”

  “You decided not to go for the spec one? I thought Brill said she thought you could pass it.”

  “She was being overly optimistic. I’ve been wading through the material, but I really don’t have the math background to understand a lot of what I read. I picked up pieces based on the context, but that’s one of the reasons I got so frustrated. I’d been studying for over a month and I just could not get my arms around it.”

  “You seemed to have picked up enough, though.”

  “Maybe.”

  She looked at me with a raised eyebrow.

  “Okay.” I grinned. “Yes, I seem to have picked up a lot. The theory and background I could follow in the lessons. It was when they got into the explanatory math and science that I got lost.”

  “Well, you got a month of watches to get it together. You can almost pass it now. You’re going to out rate me soon!”

  We split up then and I stuck my head in the galley to see Pip and Sarah. “Would you guys have a few ticks around 14:00 to get together in deck berthing?” I asked.

  “Yup,” Pip said. “Is this about your little project?”

  “Yeah, I need to line up one more player, but if you two can be there, I think we can get a jump on Dunsany.”

  “I’ll be there,” Sarah said with a smile.

  I waved and went off in search of Sean.

  ***

  When Pip and Sarah got to the berthing area they found Sean and me waiting at the table. I had given Sean a little warning about moving slowly around Sarah until she got to know him. I spent only a few ticks with introductions and by then Pip was getting anxious.

  “Oh, for the love of the holy handmaidens of harridan,” he said. “You’ve been driving me crazy, now out with it. What is this big plan of yours?”

  “Well, we’ve got a lot of yarn…”

  “Yeah, that much I know,” he said.

  Sean’s eyes got bigger. “How much is a lot?”

  “Twenty kilos,” Pip said.

  “Sweet mother of mohair,” Sean channeled Pip. “A hundred skeins?”

  “Yeah, we took your advice back on St. Cloud and picked them up pretty cheap.” I nodded in the direction of Pip’s locker. “Would you care to do the honors?” I asked him.

  He palmed the lock and opened the locker showing all the skeins stacked in there. I thought Sean looked like a kid in a candy shop when he saw them.

  “Show him the other one,” I suggested.

  Pip opened the other locker as well.

  “That looks like a lot of yarn,” Sarah offered shyly.

  “Yeah,” Pip said. “You should have seen me trying to find enough room to stow it all. I thought I was going to have to beg pantry space from Cookie.”

  I reached in, pulled out a couple of the skeins, and put them on the table in front of Sean. “Okay, Spiderman. What kind of webs can you spin out of this?”

  He fingered the threads of one of the skeins. “Are they all this same weight?” he asked idly as he examined it.

  “Yup,” Pip said. “Only thing that is different is the color.”

  “This is a nice utility-weight yarn. We could make almost anything out of it except maybe baby clothes. What’d you have in mind, Ish?”

  “I know you’re making afghans from yours,” I told him. “How’s that going?”

  “Pretty well, actually. I’ve almost finished my third one. I’ve had enough practice so that I can do one a week now. I should have four to sell when we get into Dunsany. Maybe five.”

  “Can we see a finished one?” Pip asked.

  Sean went to his bunk, pulled a brightly colored blanket down, and spread it on the table. Sarah ran her hand across it. “This is lovely,” she said. “My aunt used to do this kind of work when I was a girl.”

  Even Pip seemed impressed. “How much yarn did this take?”

  “Four skeins for this one.”

  “How much will you ask for it?” I asked him.

  “I’ll ask for two hundred creds, but I’ll take one twenty-five,” he said.

  Pip asked, “You think you’ll get it?”

  Sean nodded. “Oh, yeah. Look around the flea next time and you’ll see a lot of this kind of work and some of it in the three hundred to five hundred cred price range depending on size, pattern, and workmanship.”

  Pip looked at me then and nodded once. “Okay, Ish. I’m hooked. Tell me the punch line.”

  “We have yarn and I have to confess, I don’t think yarn is going to sell on Dunsany. We’ll move a few of them, but it’s a textiles planet. They already have cotton and linen. It’s also not terribly cold so the extra warmth of wool yarn doesn’t carry a lot of benefit.”

  “We’re taking container loads of wool!” Pip protested.

  “Yeah, but probably to be turned into wool cloth and shipped off planet with the rest of the textile exports.”

  “Okay,” Pip said, “so what’s your idea?”

  “If we turn it into something that can sell at a higher price point than the raw yarn, then we have an opportunity to take a hundred creds of yarn and make a really good return.”

  Sean spoke up then. “What are you thinking of making? Afghans take a lot of time and yarn.”

  “What about shawls?” I asked.

  Pip looked confused, Sarah thoughtful, and Sean started grinning.

  “Do you have a pattern for an open-weave triangular-shaped shawl?” I asked Sean.

  He scrambled from the table and headed for his locker. While he rummaged around, Pip asked, “Shawl?”

  “It’s a kind of wrap that women wear around their shoulders like a cape.” I told him.

  “I know what a shawl is. But you’re thinking of making them?”

  I shook my head. “Not me—them.” I pointed to Sean and Sarah.

  “Got it!” Sean said and brought back a picture of a woman wearing exactly the kind of shawl I had in mind.

  “Perfect,” I told him. “How much yarn to make one of these?”

  He consulted the text printed on the back. “Three hundred grams in rough numbers.” He picked up the skein from t
he table and checked the tag on it. “This kind of yarn, too, medium weight worsted. This is the most commonly used weight of yarn so you picked well.”

  “So, a skein and a half per shawl?” I asked.

  “Roughly,” he said. “Depends on how the pattern goes; certainly two skeins will do it with a lot of the second one left over.”

  “And how much do you think we could sell them for?” I asked him.

  “Depends on a lot of things, but anything from fifty to a hundred creds. I should think.”

  Pip sat up at that. “Two creds worth of yarn becomes fifty?”

  “Well, two creds worth of yarn and about ten stands of labor, but yeah,” Sean replied with a half shrug. “You got this yarn for a cred a skein?”

  Pip nodded.

  “You caught them on a good day. Double skeins of this quality are usually five creds. I paid three for mine.”

  “So, basically, a day’s labor, two skeins of yarn and we get fifty creds?” I re-focused the conversation.

  “At least,” Sean agreed.

  “Okay, what we need then is a way to make these.” I tapped the picture on the table. “Can you teach Sarah how to do it? And loan her a hook until we get to Dunsany and I can get one for her?”

  “What do ya think, Sarah? Wanna learn to tie little tiny knots?” Sean asked.

  She looked at me, then at Sean, and then at the picture on the table. She nodded with a kind of hopeful puppy expression. “Do you think I could?”

  Sean wrinkled his nose. “Easy. There’s nothing to it. I can have you crocheting in ten ticks. I bet you could have one of these done by the day after tomorrow.”

  Pip broke into his full wheeler-dealer mode. “Okay, wait, what about the money? What kind of arrangement are we talking about?”

  “If we got five creds a skein, we’d be felling pretty good, right?” I asked him.

  “Yeah. I’d be really happy with a five hundred percent margin.”

  “Okay, and the shawls should go for fifty creds?” I asked Sean.

  “Easily. I was getting five for my lace doilies.”

  “So two skeins at five is ten creds per shawl. You two make the shawls, and when they sell, you give us back ten creds. You pay the booth fees and keep whatever you make over that. You can also keep the leftover yarn for whatever project you want. Meanwhile, we’ll hold the yarn in our mass allotment, which means the shawls don’t get added to yours. Eventually, we’ll have to clear the mass of the leftover yarn but we can deal with that if this works out the way I think it might. We have enough yarn for sixty something shawls. That should gross something over three thousand three hundred creds. Pip and I get five hundred and whoever makes the shawls gets about twenty eight hundred and the co-op gets the fees. Assuming we turn all the yarn into shawls and sell them.”