“Yeah, that’s her.”
“You want me to take the second mate with me clothes shopping?”
“This isn’t the mall, stooge! We’re talking about Chez Henri!” she exclaimed with a grin.
“Okay, what is Chez Henri? Why is this such a big deal? It’s just a tailor shop.”
“Oh, no. Not a tailor shop. This is way beyond a tailor shop.”
“If it’s not a tailor shop, what is it?”
She laughed. “You really don’t know?”
“How would I know? My mother bought my last set of civvies. What I know about clothes is that cotton wrinkles easily.”
“Oh, we are gonna have so much fun with you,” she said and I confess, that might have been the first time she really scared me.
***
Docking at a Confederation port did not seem any different from the others. We went to navigation detail just before 15:00. Diane had the afternoon watch so she stayed on duty, but Francis and I had to report just the same.
When we got settled, Brill came out of her office and said, “Okay, people. Time to pick your watches. We should be docked at 18:00 so first section will get the duty. If it’s earlier than 18:00 when we secure the nav detail, whoever picks first watch has to fill in the difference. Agreed?”
Since I did not have a lot of choice, I just nodded. Diane and Francis agreed as well. It did not really matter in the long run.
“Francis?” Brill asked.
“Second,” he said.
“Diane?”
“Third,” she said.
“Okay, Ish, that leaves you with first.”
I just nodded. “Okay, by me.”
“Take the pad and go curl up on the floor of my office,” she told me. “You had the morning watch and you’ll be awake all night. Try to get a little nap in while we’re maneuvering.”
I did not think it was likely that I would sleep, but she closed the door and when I laid down, I nodded off. It was not a sound sleep, but it was probably better than nothing. I had gotten a good sleep the night before so I was not too worried.
Brill opened the door and said, “Ish? Rise and shine.”
I clambered up off the floor, dragged the pad out with me, and threw it in the locker. The chrono said 17:45. “We’re here?” I asked trying to get my brain re-engaged.
“Yup. Just secured from nav detail.”
I yawned and my brain popped a little. I relieved Diane and slaved my tablet to the console. Francis was already gone. Diane and Brill were looking at me in a way that I found a bit disconcerting.
Brill said, “Tomorrow when you get off watch, grab some sleep. We’ll come at 13:00 to take you ashore.”
Diane had a smile that I could only classify as predatory.
“Take me where ashore?” I asked warily.
“To fulfill your promise to Bresheu, of course. To visit Henri Roubaille,” Brill replied. “We’ll want to do it early in our stay so that if he needs to do any adjustments there’ll be time before we have to leave.”
“Now, wait,” I said. “This is all well and good and I appreciate you guys helping me stay out of trouble with the Confederation authorities by shopping with me, but this guy sounds expensive. Can I afford him?”
Diane answered, “I doesn’t cost anything to shop. If he doesn’t have anything you can afford, then you just don’t buy it.”
“True,” I agreed. “That makes a certain amount of sense.” The whole business made me uneasy.
Brill suggested, “Ish, why don’t you go get something to eat. Diane and I will hold down the fort here until you get back.”
“Thanks, I need coffee in the worst way.”
As I headed out the door, Diane asked Brill about the Confederation authorities but I was too groggy to pay attention. Naps do that to me sometimes. I was afraid it might be a long night.
When I went back to environmental, I took a fresh mug of coffee with me. Diane had gone, but Brill was sitting at the console. “You didn’t have to wait,” I told her, indicating my tablet.
“No problem, Ish. I’m going to grab some supper in a tick. I just wanted to make sure you were okay.”
I nodded. “The food helped perk me up and I can always wander around the ship.”
“How’re you doing on the spec two materials?”
“Really good. I’m still not confident that I could pass the real exam, but I’m getting mid-to-high eighties on the practices. That’s probably good enough, but I want to go over that fluid thermodynamics section a couple more times.”
She stood then and shook out her legs one at a time. “You’ll have plenty of time.”
“So? We’re going to see Henri tomorrow afternoon? Who all is going?”
“Diane, Bev, you and me.” I was relieved they had not bothered the second mate, Ms. Avril.
“Jillian has the duty tomorrow, or she would have come. That’s too bad, because I think she’d have had a great time.”
Secretly, I was not sure how much fun I was going to have but I was grateful to the watch standing gods for delivering me from officers.
“How’re you doing with Francis?” she asked.
“Okay, as far as I know. He’s been friendly enough. I don’t think there’s any residual animosity for tricking him or anything.”
“I was thinking more along the lines of how you are relating to him. He played a nasty little trick on you and those cracks about you and Diane were completely uncalled for.”
I shrugged. “Wind through the sails, boss. The tablet thing was just stupidity on my part. I can’t imagine why I never noticed. Ultimately, he probably did me a favor because I doubt that I’d be getting ready for the spec two exam if I hadn’t spent a month banging my head against spec one.”
“That’s true enough. You’d be ready for spec three though.”
“Maybe yes, maybe no. In the end, it’s irrelevant. As for the Diane thing, he was right about that. I am too easy to tease about women. Maybe having my face rubbed in it so badly helped me, too.”
She smiled sympathetically. “Well, Diane thinks the world of you, Ish. We all do.”
“Aw, thanks. Growing up, I didn’t have sibs or an extended family. I always wondered what it would be like. I think I’m getting a feel for that now.”
Laughing, she nodded. “Yeah, that’s true. Well, I just wanted to touch base with you before heading out for supper. I’ll be aboard all night, so if you get in a bind, or can’t stay awake or anything, bip me, okay?”
“I’ll be fine. The nap and the coffee helped.” I held up my mug with a smile. “There’s plenty more where this came from.”
“Okay, I’ll stop being a mother hen. Carry on, Mr. Wang.” She laughed as she headed for the hatch.
I liked hearing her laugh.
I settled into the console and ran a little checklist of things I needed to do before morning. Diane had changed out the water line filters on the number three scrubber pumps earlier in the day. Nothing else needed scheduled maintenance until we had to swap the algae matrix in a couple of days, so I got no help there. I only
