about being out of the system. Come to think of it, it’s been almost ninety days since I’ve been off the ship. Can that be right?” I started counting on my fingers. “I came aboard three days before we left Neris, and we were forty-five standays to Darbat. Then four more there, and forty-four to here.” I blinked in surprise.
“Oh, for crying out loud, Ishmael. And you’re still sane?”
I grinned. “Well, that’s open to debate, but I am shocked. It seems like yesterday, sorta. I can’t really remember a time when I wasn’t here, other than some fuzzy kind of idea that I used to live somewhere else.”
“Wait ’til you’ve been doing this for ten stanyers. You really won’t remember. You didn’t get to go ashore at Darbat, did you?”
I shook my head. “I was just changing into my civvies when the Darbatis brought Pip back.”
“What were you going to do there?”
I blushed and answered, “Eat.”
“Seriously? You work in the galley and you wanted to get off the ship to eat?”
“Cookie is amazing. He’s an artist in the kitchen.” I shrugged. “But once in a while, I’d like to eat somebody else’s cooking.”
“Tell you what. In honor of your earning your engineering-half rating, let me take you out to dinner. A few of us were planning on going to a nice place we know up on level six. They have great steaks and good beer. You can get out and stretch your legs a bit. My treat for dinner. You’re on your own after that.”
“Okay, sounds like fun.”
“Meet at the quarterdeck lock at 17:00 ship time. That’s only a stan from now so go put some party clothes on.”
The throng was still gathered around the table talking about what they’d do on station, and didn’t seem to notice that I wasn’t even there anymore. I grinned. These people were nuts.
And I was one of them. It felt good.
It didn’t take me that long to get ready to go. My civvies seemed oddly out of place on the ship, but my feet remembered my boots and it sure felt good to put them back on after so long in the standard issue ones. I made my way to the quarterdeck and met up with Brill and two of her people: Diane Ardele and Francis Gartner. Diane was a gamine with cropped red hair, a pixie face, and a wicked grin. Francis Gartner was a string bean of a guy, with long narrow hands and muddy brown hair. I knew them of course, from the mess line, but other than seeing the two occasionally in the gym, I’d never spent much time with them.
We checked out with the duty officer and left the ship. When I stepped out of the lock, I felt a momentary sense of disorientation. It looked just like Neris. I had the odd feeling that somebody was playing an elaborate trick on me. I froze after stepping onto the station deck plates and gazed around. Brill was in the lead and she didn’t realize I’d stopped. Diane and Francis came up on either side of me and just stood there with me for a tick.
Brill noticed and turned to look back at us. “Are you coming? Or are you just gonna stand there rubbernecking all night. I’m hungry.”
Diane answered her with a laugh, “Keep yer panties on. We’ll be there when we’re ready.”
Francis, who really was almost as tall as Brill, leaned down to speak softly into my ear. “You okay, Ish?”
I nodded, looking around. The cold, sharp air smelled of hot hydraulic fluid from the station-side of the lock and some other indefinable station smell. It was a cross between iodine and mint, not unpleasant, but not the
Brill waited for us to catch up. “A bit odd, Ishmael?”
“Yeah. For a second there I thought I was going nuts. I stepped out and it looked just like Neris.”
They all laughed. Diane offered an explanation, “It’s the law. The docks on all the orbitals are standardized from the size of the docks, to the spacing of the locks, to the height of the ceiling. It’s the same everywhere right down to the padding on the deck and the colors of the walls.”
I took a deep breath and let it out loudly. “Thank the gods. I thought I was going mad.”
We all laughed and Brill led us up through the station to level six and into a restaurant named, Beef and Brew. The manager, a portly man with a florid complexion greeted us. “Brill, my dear, always good to see you again. You’ve made the loop finally?”
She nodded first shaking one of his big hands in both of hers and then hugging him warmly with a firm kiss on each cheek. “Maurice, you old charmer, you’re only glad to see us because we spend so much money here.”
“You wound me, my dear.” He posed with an expression of mock horror, a hand held dramatically to his breast. “The money isn’t the only reason.”
Diane stepped up. “No, just the most important one.” She smiled as she also greeted him with a handshake and a hug.
Francis smiled and shook his hand, but didn’t offer to hug. “Good to see you again.”
Brill introduced me, “Maurice, this is Ishmael Wang. He’s a new crew member who joined us at Neris. This is the first time he’s been off the ship in over ninety days so you must treat him well. He’s feeling a bit exposed.”
The manager beamed at me and I felt welcomed in a way that I couldn’t remember ever experiencing. “Greetings, Mr. Wang, I’m delighted that you’ve chosen my humble establishment to break your long incarceration,” he said enthusiastically.
“Thank you, I’m excited for a meal where somebody else waits on me for a change.”
Brill grinned at me before turning to our host. “Ishmael works in the galley on the
“Ah, you work with Cookie. How is he? And why has he not come with you tonight?”
“He’s fine. His duties are keeping him aboard, I’m afraid.”
“Well, let’s not stand on ceremony here. Come this way, my old and new friends. I have a table which you should find acceptable.” He scooped up a handful of menus and led us into the dimness of the restaurant.
I sighed happily as we settled at the large table with real chairs that slid on the floor. Maurice brought us a large pitcher of beer without asking and collected orders with joyous abandon. I had to admire his skill when the wait staff delivered all the meals perfectly to the correct person. The beefalo steak was superb and the greens were lovely and crunchy. They served the perfect baked potato with only a discrete dab of what looked and tasted like real butter. For the first time since NerisCo Security had showed up at my door that day, I felt myself begin to unwind.
Dinner was wonderful. I knew Brill was smart and funny. She really had helped me with the tour of the Environmental Section. Diane and Francis were likewise wonderful dinner companions. Being a professor’s kid had two effects on me. First, I was surrounded by people who tended to lord their intelligence over anybody who didn’t have at least two educational degrees and four decades of experience. Second, being surrounded by a lot of really smart people gave me a vocabulary and an appreciation for some of the larger ideas in human existence, unlike many of my peers. Because of that, I appreciated the dinner in a way that I seldom had experienced before. I felt like a grown up.
We lounged over dinner for at least three stans. Maurice occasionally stopped by the table to check up on us, but he never once made us feel unwelcome or that, we should move on. Finally, after we finished off our coffees, and a second round of desserts, we settled up and sauntered out onto level six. The four of us window-shopped and chatted, sharing stories of life planet-side, ship board, and everything in between. I learned that Brill had a master’s degree in environmental sciences while Francis held a doctorate in astrophysics. Diane had barely squeaked through secondary school. She was just good with algae. They all three shared a passion for clean air and fresh water and I discovered that I began to think of them as my friends. After a while we split up. Brill and I needed to get back to the ship, but Diane had other ideas. She stepped up and gave me a hug. “Good night, Ish. Francis and I are going down to the oh-two deck and dance the night away.”
I hugged her back and shook Francis’s hand. “Thanks for letting me tag along, guys. I had a great time. Funny how you can live so close together but not really cross paths.”
They all chuckled knowingly. “Happens all the time.” Francis winked at me.
Brill and I set out in one direction while Diane and Frances headed the opposite way.
We meandered from level to level, finally reaching the docks again. The cold air seemed refreshing, even if the smells of ships and machinery permeated everything. Eventually, we reached the
