evening, just after sunset, I was sitting on the back stoop with the raven in my hands. I was frightened because I didn’t know what to think or what to believe. As I sat there, a spark of light glinted off the heart’s shell. It startled me until I realized it was just the reflection of the orbital glinting in the final rays of the setting sun—just a pinpoint of light in the darkening sky. I looked up just in time so see another point of light break off from it and drift away.”
She paused again before continuing, “A week ago, my husband went out fishing. His boat goes out for days, sometimes weeks at a time. As soon as he was gone, I made my way to the Union Hall at Port Starvey where Captain Giggone saved me.”
She gave a small, nervous laugh. “So, was it the raven that led me here? Or just the coincidence of reflected light?” She shrugged one shoulder. “I don’t know. What I do know is I am here. What I feel is that I am safe for the first time in longer than I can remember. What does it mean that you have that beautiful dolphin?” Again she shrugged. “Perhaps, it’s just a lovely memento from somebody who cares for you. Maybe it’s a whelkie come to help you. Who’s to say?”
She heaved a great sigh. “There. That feels better.” Then she smiled.
The little trance-like state was broken. Bev stroked the side of the dolphin with the ball of her thumb as if remembering she still held it and then handed it carefully back to me.
Pip stared at Sarah like he had never seen her before. I knew the feeling. Bev was the first to find her voice and said, “Well, I know a couple of mess attendants who need to get some sleep, even if some environmental people don’t.” She stared pointedly at me.
“Oh, yeah.” I shook myself. “Right. As I was saying, I need to rack out myself. It’s been a long day.” Before I left, I turned to Sarah and said, “Thank you for telling us about the whelkies. I knew there was more to them than just simple bric-a-brac.”
“Well, now you know the story. What you believe in, is up to you.”
“True, and thanks for trusting us with your own story. You’re right about being safe here. Lois will take care of you.” I smiled at her and headed for my own bunk.
It had been a long day.
Chapter 11
ST. CLOUD SYSTEM
2352-FEBRUARY-23
I must have been tired because I slept straight through until the watch stander woke me at 05:30. Francis and I joined the other second shift crew and all of us managed to cycle through the san in just a few ticks. Nobody said much. I got the feeling it was more because we were all groggy rather than any deference to the sleeping crew.
On the way out of berthing, Francis headed down to relieve Brill while I ran up to get coffee for us. I could hear Cookie, Pip, and Sarah working in the galley and smelled cooking bacon. My stomach growled, but I settled for pouring two mugs and made a promise to come back for food soon.
By the time I got back down to Foggy Bottom, Francis was formally relieving a groggy looking Brill. She smiled when she saw me. “You holding up okay?” she asked.
“So far so good,” I told her. “Guess what, I found out what those little statues are called and found out some pretty interesting folklore about them.”
“You’ll have to fill me in later. Right now I want some breakfast and a little nap before I have to be back here for the afternoon watch.”
She waved and headed out. Francis and I settled down to our coffee, and I made sure my tablet was slaved to the station.
“Just to refresh my memory,” I started, “sometime in the middle of the morning we’ll run the VSI again?”
“Yup, and that’s the highlight of the festivities. Unless something breaks.”
“What if that happens?”
“Depends on what it is. We might get wet. We might get dirty. We might die.” He shrugged. “It’s hard to say.”
“Hmm. I think I’d just as soon avoid that last one,” I said with a grin. “When was the last time something broke?”
“On the
“How about we review the overnight logs before heading up to breakfast? It’s a good idea to see if anything unusual happened on the previous watch,” he told me. “That way you’re less likely to be surprised.”
“Makes sense.”
“Brill is good, and she’d have mentioned anything out of the ordinary, so I doubt we’ll find much of note. Still, it’s a good habit to get into.”
As expected there was not anything unusual in the logs, so we went up to the mess deck for a quick breakfast. While we were there, the automated systems check fired off, and Francis had me acknowledge it on my tablet. “You’ll be standing watch on your own in a couple weeks, or less,” he told me with a grin.
After we returned to environmental, Francis startled me by saying, “Stay on the path. Write if you get work.”
“What?”
“Stay on the path. Write if you get work.”
“You’re gonna make me try to find my way alone?”
“Yep. Bip me if you get lost,” he said, leaning back in the watch stander’s chair and putting his feet up on the desk. “I can follow your progress from here. You’ll be okay.”
“But I thought you said we’d do this in the middle of the watch. It’s barely 07:30.”
“Traditionally, I said, traditionally. I also pointed out that we could do it any time.”
I could not think of any reason not to go, so I keyed up the overlay and headed out. It took me almost forty- five ticks and I missed one package during the trip, which I had to go back for, but I did not get lost. When I finally got back, Francis gave me a big grin and a thumbs up.
“That was amazing,” he said.
“What? Missing one?”
“Making it back at all.”
“What do you mean?”
He took a deep breath and said, “You’ve just passed the environmental initiation. It took me three tries before I could make it to the other end of the ship and back without having to call for help. It was a month of watches before I could make the run with only three missed stations.”
“You’re kidding!”
He shook his head. “Diane was able to do it on her second try, but Gregor never made the run without missing a station somewhere in the whole stanyer and a half he was aboard.”
“And you sent me out there alone after only one practice?”
“You made it, didn’t you?”
“Well, yeah.”
