Half Share

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