The evening clean up took almost no time compared to an evening underway. By 19:00 I was running laps and looking forward to the sauna. Sandy Belterson came up from behind me and started matching my strides. I smiled in greeting.
“Hey, Ish.” We had run together several times since our first conversation. I found her to be a good, companionable running partner. Often we said nothing more than “hi” to each other. That night, she wanted to talk.
“Hey, Sandy, you’re not on-station?”
“Nah, I’ve got first watch duty tomorrow. If I go out tonight it just wouldn’t be as much fun. I’ll get a night on the town before we leave.” She smiled wolfishly. “I try to pace myself. You?”
“Pip and I split the stay. He got first night and we’ll trade off. We can’t go on-station together because one of us has to be on duty.”
She nodded and we ran a lap in silence.
“What’s he doing?”
“Who? Pip?”
“I saw him leaving the ship with a duffel. He’s trading, isn’t he?”
“Yeah.” That was all I would commit to.
“I hope he does well. He’s a nice guy.”
“Why wouldn’t he?” We paused at the head of the ladder. I was trying to decide if I wanted to run another lap or just head for the sauna.
“It’s not an easy thing to succeed at, especially on quarter share. The mass allotment is okay for personal gear, but too small to make a decent profit at trading unless you know what you’re doing. It’s hard to diversify enough and one bad deal can break ya.” Her words sent a chill up the back of my neck. Glass bottles were so fragile and I hoped he wasn’t going to have any problems.
“Yeah, well, he’s an interesting guy,” I said. “I bet he has depths we haven’t even seen yet.”
“Yeah. True of all of us, eh?” She offered a rueful toss of her head.
I decided to make one more lap before calling it a night after all and started running again. Sandy fell into step with me. “So, how’s the half share thing going?”
“Not bad. I’m already signed up for the next round of tests that are coming up.”
She beamed. “That’s great. Which one?”
“Engineering.”
“Excellent.”
“And cargo.”
“What? Two?”
I shrugged and panted for a few steps. Our conversation was suffering from running to fast. “Why not? What’s the cost? I might pass one, or the other, or both. And if I don’t pass either, I’ll just try again next time.”
She panted alongside me. “True. Are you ready?”
“I think so. Of course I won’t know for sure until the tests, will I?”
She nodded, flicking a stream of sweat out of her eye with the side of her hand. “You’re full of surprises.”
We slowed the pace for the last half lap, cooling a bit, and both lost in our own thoughts. I was a bit worried about Pip and hoped he was okay. I should have been thinking about the probability that it would be just Sandy and me in the sauna together and how awkward that would be, but it never crossed my mind. I almost stumbled on the ladder as I was carefully not thinking about that possibility. Turns out she just showered and disappeared, so it wasn’t an issue. The sauna wasn’t empty though. Mr. Maxwell was there.
He acknowledged my entrance with a nod. “Mr. Wang.”
“Mr. Maxwell, sar.” I smiled in what I hoped was an acceptable manner and chose my seat carefully. Not to close in case he wanted to be alone, nor too far away to appear rude if he wanted to talk.
“Mr. von Ickles tells me you’re considering going for all four ratings.” He commented as if speaking to the steam, rather than myself.
“Ah, yes, sar. I am.”
“Interesting approach. Why are you doing that?” His head swiveled to aim his eyes at me through the murk.
I was worried about what he might be thinking and wasn’t sure how to explain to someone of his rank. I didn’t know what was appropriate. “It’s not exactly easy to explain, sar.”
“Well, Mr. Wang, I’d like to hear your reasoning.” When I looked over, I was shocked to see him smiling.
I was almost too surprised to answer. “Well, sar, I’m not sure what I want to do, but these last five weeks have been the most challenging and oddly enjoyable in my admittedly short life.”
“Yes?” With that one word, I knew Mr. Maxwell was a master at prying more information out of people. My mother had the same skill.
“I can’t explain it, but I suppose the best word I can come up with is therapeutic.” I realized that therapeutic was exactly the word and if Mr. Maxwell wanted to talk to me, then by the holy I would talk back.
He chuckled softly and then added seriously, “I lost my parents only recently as well. I’m sure it was not as traumatic as it must have been for you.”
“I’m sorry to hear that, sar.”
“Thank you, Mr. Wang, but you were saying…about your choice in career advancement?”
“Well, sar, being stuck on Neris, needing to leave before the company deported me, and having no real idea of what to do or how to do it…made me feel helpless.”
He grunted.
“I lucked out when Ms. O’Rourke helped me get on the
Mr. Maxwell smiled again-a thoroughly disconcerting expression. “So you’re pursuing all four half share ratings just on the off chance that you might get stranded somewhere?”
“Yes, sar. Partly. The other thing is that I really never expected to be working on a freighter, not in my wildest dreams. I have no idea what rating I might like best because I know almost nothing about any of them. The only way to find out is to study and perhaps do some of them to see for myself.”
He nodded. “Prudent.” The way he said it made it feel like a compliment.
I felt the irrational need to respond. “Thank you, sar.”
Mr. Maxwell stood then and headed out to the showers. “Carry on, Mr. Wang. You’ve set yourself an interesting task. Good luck with it.” He disappeared out the door.
I basked in the heat for a few more minutes, still somewhat shaken by our conversation and not entirely trusting my legs. Truth be told, I also wanted to give Mr. Maxwell time to finish his shower and leave. One close encounter with him was enough for one night. Junior crew members don’t generally associate with senior officers as a rule.
Later, on a whim, I checked my tablet. The ship’s record showed everybody’s ratings. Mr. Maxwell had held all four, as had the captain. None of the other officers held any crew ratings at all, although they did have the appropriate licenses for their jobs. I wondered at that as I drifted off to sleep in the nearly silent berthing area. Tabitha was staying on-station and I kinda missed her little snorty-snores from the other side of the partition.
Chapter 11
Darbat Orbital
2351-October-23
The morning grind was not just slow, it was practically non-existent. As usual, the watch stander woke me, but when I got to the mess deck, Cookie and I were the only ones there. While underway, there were always at least a couple people lounging about for first dibs on fresh pastries and coffee, but not that day. I got the urns going
