in the window. You could smell them half a corridor away.” I crossed to the console and put my coffee on the desk.
“Mercy! Do you know how hard that is to get out of the air?”
I laughed. “I think those were Brill’s exact words. Anyway we had a nice chicken paella and then wandered back to the ship. We got in around 21:30 or there about.”
“So, Brill kept her word and brought you home early.”
“Yup, and I musta been tired because I hit the rack and died. Slept like rock.”
“Well, after yesterday’s performance, I bet you were tired.” Her voice bubbled in a near giggle.
“More like accumulated exhaustion.”
“So, are you ready to take over?” When I nodded, she intoned, “Mr. Wang, all ops normal. Routine maintenance on number one scrubber water intake filter was scheduled and performed. You have the watch.”
“Ms. Ardele, I relieve you. I have the watch.”
She collected herself and vacated the chair, tablet in one hand and coffee cup in the other. Just before she stepped through the hatch, she turned back to me. “Thanks again for yesterday, Ish. That was fantastic.”
“I’m glad you were with me. It was an amazing day for me.”
“Wait until tonight. I’ll be awake and ready to go and, if I know Bev, it’s gonna be a wild night.”
“Good. Something to look forward to.”
With a final wave, she left and I settled down to check the ship’s status. The maintenance log indicated that number three water intake trap was due for cleaning. That was an easy one and would give me something to do. My stomach growled loudly, and I decided it was time to go let Pip practice his omelet skills on me again.
It was still early and I was the only one on the mess deck. Cookie and Sarah were putting up the bread and Pip had omelet duty. He saw me coming and started throwing stuff in his pan. It was half done by the time I crossed the mess deck. It reminded me just how slow port-side duty could be. I grabbed a plate and stood waiting to accept his effort.
“You’ve been scarce the last couple of days,” he said by way of greeting.
“I’ve been here. Mostly. Had the morning watch the day we put in, then got tagged with first watch overnight. That was a long stretch. I slept some yesterday morning and then Brill, Bev, and Diane took me clothes shopping in the afternoon. Didn’t get back until about 21:30 last night.”
He started to lift the omelet out of the pan and I held my plate while he slid the eggss onto it. “That’s what you said. Did you get anything good?”
“A few things. New boots, jacket, some shirts, and a pair of jeans.”
I took my plate to a table and he came out to join me with his coffee. “Well, I took Tabitha’s offer and sold her the yarn. We got two hundred fifty creds, but we’re out of stuff to sell here now, except for the stones.”
“How many of those do we still have?”
He pondered for a few heartbeats before answering. “A couple of kilos worth. Probably two hundred and fifty of them.”
“You going up today?” I cut into the omelet with the side of my fork and inhaled the warmth.
“Yeah, I thought I’d help out here for a bit, get some breakfast myself, and then head up after cleanup. We’ll be done here by 09:00 easily. Technically Sarah’s got the duty today but you know how it is.”
“I do, indeed.” I took a bite of omelet. “This is good. You’ve been practicing.”
“Thanks.”
“Well, I’m on today, but I get off at 18:00. Brill has something in mind for tonight, but I’ll be around tomorrow. I don’t go back on duty until the overnight watch. I can take any stones you don’t sell—or don’t want to sell—up to the flea in the afternoon, if you like.”
“That’ll help, but what we need is something to take to Betrus. We’ve got a lot of mass that’s begging to be filled.”
“Yeah, and I spent a lot of cred yesterday so I’ll be looking hard tomorrow. Say, would you bip me when you head down to change? I’d like to get one or two of those stones for myself before they get picked over any more. They’d go great with my new shirts.”
Pip got a funny look on his face and leaned closer to me. “Ish? Is that you? What’d they do to you yesterday?”
I laughed with him. “Yeah, I know, but we had a ball. I can’t even begin to describe it.”
Rhon Scham came in looking for breakfast so Pip scurried to fix an omelet for her. I pretended not to see her glancing my way every so often, but Pip noticed. He had a problem getting her to pay attention so he could slide the eggs onto her plate. He looked at me with a raised eyebrow and I just shrugged. I was done, so I bussed my dishes, refilled my coffee, and waved to him on my way back to environmental.
All things considered, it was a pretty uneventful watch. I took one break to pick through the rocks and I found a nice, dark green ovoid and a smaller white one with a golden streak in it. Just after lunch, I did the trap maintenance—not a difficult job but messy. I saved my VSI run until midafternoon to break up my studying and to stretch my legs.
Francis showed up on the stroke of 17:45. He grinned when he came in. “You survived yesterday, I see.”
“Oh yeah, it was touch and go for a while, but I made it.”
“Diane came in all flushed. What’d you guys do anyway?”
“Does the name Chez Henri mean anything to you?”
He shook his head. “No, should it?”
“Probably not. But that’s where we spent the afternoon. We got out just in time for her to come back to the ship and relieve you.”
“What is it? A restaurant?”
“Tailor’s shop.”
“They took you to a tailor?” He smirked at the idea.
“Yeah, we had a ball, actually.”
“Well, to each his own.”
“Mr. Gartner, all ops normal. Maintenance on number three water intake trap scheduled and performed. You have the watch.”
“Mr. Wang, I relieve you. I have the watch,” he replied, then added, “Did you get a haircut or something? You look different.”
“Nope, but you’re not the first one to say that.”
Chapter 18
DUNSANY ROADS ORBITAL
2352-APRIL-17
Brill stopped by during my watch and we arranged to eat aboard before heading out for the evening’s festivities. Cookie had one of his garlic and lamb dishes on the menu with fresh potatoes and it sounded good to me. I had smelled it all afternoon every time I had gone into the mess deck for coffee. The aroma made me drool in anticipation. When I stepped onto the mess deck for dinner, I found Diane and Brill having some kind of intense discussion.
I crossed to their table and heard Diane say, “But Murdock? You know what happened the last time—”
Brill saw me coming and gave me one of those big smiles. “Hi, Ish.”
