He nodded again. “I’ve got a couple of people who are interested. Rhon Scham has a ton of stuff to sell and agreed to be my wingman for the day. She’s good at buying but hasn’t had a lot of success selling so she was really enthusiastic. Sean Grishan from the bridge crew and Biddy Murphy from cargo are coming along too.”
“Sounds like it’s going to be worthwhile again tomorrow. Oh, by the way, we have an appointment tonight at 20:00.”
“Yeah? Who with?”
“The captain. She wants a status report.”
Pip chuckled nervously. “Well, at least we’ve got something to report.”
I finished my dinner and took the dishes into the galley. Cookie smiled and waved to us as he left for his nightly card game. “You gentlemen don’t need me under foot. Well done today-both of you.” We waved to his back as he left. It was only a few ticks of work for us to clear away the dinner buffet, sweep, and swab.
We had a stan to spare before our meeting with the captain so we retired to the berthing area to compare notes. Bev was back from the sauna and got the packet of buckles out to show Pip. We spread them out on the berthing area’s table and he looked them all over.
Pip considered the buckles as he asked Bev, “What did you think of the day?”
She grinned. “It was a kick. Between the selling and the ogling-”
“Ogling?” Pip shot me a glance. “You didn’t say anything about that.”
I shrugged and he turned back to Bev. “What is this ogling of which you speak?”
She laughed at his expression. “Well, between the ones who came to see the tough bitch in leather and the others who wanted to look down Diane’s blouse, there was a lot of it. I might have even done a bit of it myself.” She winked with a sly grin. “There were a lot of tight butts walking around there today.” She looked at me. “Don’t you think?”
I coughed in surprise. “Um, I didn’t notice, actually. I was trying to figure out how the whole booth thing was going to work and then I got tied up in selling stuff and all.”
She pulled a long face at me. “Oh, Ish, you were too busy watching the merchandise. If you want to be a real seller, you need to learn to watch the customers. That last belt you could have gotten another five credits for. That lady liked you.”
“She was old enough to be my mother!”
“And your point is what?”
Pip rapped on the table. “Please, children, focus.”
Bev sat up straight and folded her hands playfully in front of her before continuing, “Anyway, the initial set up was rough. We looked like the amateurs we are. If we hadn’t had the banner, we would have been displaying the belts on that dinged up tabletop and that wouldn’t have been pretty.”
Pip nodded. “If we hang the banner, we’ll need a cloth or something for the table. Anything else?”
“Several of the vendors had grav-pallets with their booth already set up on it. They just towed the pallet into place, locked it down, and started selling.”
Pip nodded. “Yeah, I told you about Drus’ setup. She had something like that. I don’t know how we’d manage that. We can’t very well use one of the ship’s and we can’t afford the mass to buy one of our own.” He shrugged.
Bev thought for a moment. “A thermos of coffee would have been good. There’s a shop around the corner but the coffee was expensive.”
I chimed in with my two creds, “And muddy. The only other thing I really missed was a place to sit between sales. My feet and legs are killing me.”
Bev nodded. “Did you see those folding chairs what’s her name had in her booth?”
“Oh, you mean Virgil’s wife?”
Bev nodded. “Yeah. They had tubular frames with a mesh seat and back. They looked very light. When things got busy she just folded it up and stashed it under the table.”
“Yeah, I saw that, but I don’t know where to find them, or how we would stow them.”
Pip pondered. “I wonder if we can rent them.”
Bev and I both shrugged.
He turned his attention back to the buckles. “These are exquisite. What booth again?”
Bev spoke up, “Two sixteen. He’s expecting to see you. His only concern is that we take them off-station to sell so he’s not competing against himself in the flea market.”
“That was the same thing that Drus Martin was worried about on Gugara.” Pip turned to me. “How many of the belts should we try to fit with buckles and take to St. Cloud?”
I shrugged. “You know better than I do. We were selling the bare belts for thirty to forty creds each. The buckles should drive that up to fifty or sixty.”
Bev shook her head strenuously. “Oh, no. More than that.” She went to her locker and pulled out the belt she’d put the buckle on at the booth. “Look at this. It’s worth at least a hundred creds.” She strapped it on around her waist and let it ride low on her hips. She only wore a ship’s tee and boxers that made up the standard dress around the berthing area for men and women alike.
I found that I really didn’t breathe right all of a sudden and Pip’s voice came from a distance. “Well, if you model them like that, I think we can get a lot more.”
Bev looked down and laughed. She took the belt off then and laid it on the table. “You get my meaning, wise ass.”
Luckily, my tablet bipped to remind me that the captain was expecting us. Pip and I headed for officer country while Bev stowed the stuff back in her locker.
“Are you okay?” Pip looked at me as we headed down the passage.
“Yeah, why?”
He shrugged elaborately. “Oh, I don’t know. You just seemed like you were having trouble breathing there for a tick.”
I slugged him on the shoulder as we arrived at the captain’s door and I knocked before he could say anything else.
The captain acknowledged our knock with a single, terse word from the other side of the door, “Come.”
When we entered the cabin, we found her seated at her desk. We stood in the approved handbook fashion and I did the honors. “Carstairs and Wang reporting as ordered, sar.”
“Thank you for coming, gentlemen. Please, sit.” She nodded toward two chairs. “Make yourselves comfortable and tell me how the enterprise is fairing.”
I gave my recap and Pip gave his. We tried to be brief and succinct. When we finished she looked back and forth between the two of us.
“You’ll have enough to sell for the rest of our stay, then?” she asked.
Pip smiled. “It looks that way, Captain. Although it really depends if the pace can be repeated, and how many of the crew have goods to sell.”
“Of course.”
Pip grinned. “If we sell everything we have before we leave, I don’t think I’ll mind.”
The captain chuckled. “No doubt.” She turned serious. “Now, about this reimbursement to the ship?”
Pip glanced at me before going on. “Well, Captain, this isn’t, strictly speaking, ship’s business…”
She nodded. “Go on.”
“While it’s not a lot of creds in the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t seem like a ship’s expense.”
I nodded. “Yes, Captain, I agree with him. I appreciate…we appreciate…the opportunity to sell our stuff and help the crew, but-”
Pip finished for me, “Well, actually, we had no idea what the right thing was, so we just split the cost to reimburse the ship.”
“Who is we?” The captain looked back and forth between us.
“Pip and I, Captain.”
“So you two are underwriting this, and the rest of the crew can just take advantage of you?”
Pip and I glanced at each other before he answered, “Well, I don’t know that we thought of it that way, but fundamentally, yes, Captain.”
She nodded. “Very altruistic of you- and also extremely short sighted.”
