“Did you make any profit?”
He grinned. “Yeah, between the robes and the odd pallets of stuff I had on that manifest, we cleared fifty kilocreds. That’s on what we’ve sold so far, so basically the rugs still left are free.”
“Wait. You cleared fifty kilocreds on a ten kilocred investment?”
Pip nodded smugly.
“Nice. What did Mr. Maxwell say?”
Pip stopped and swiveled his head in imitation. “Very good, Mr. Carstairs. I shall expect a similar report for the market on St. Cloud when we get there.”
I chuckled. “You know, that’s a little scary that you do him so well. What are we taking to St. Cloud?”
“Mushrooms, of course. What else?”
“Oh yeah, I forgot. How many you planning on?”
“Every kilo we can stuff in there. I really think they’re going to do great.”
I whistled. “That’s a lot of mushrooms.”
He nodded and we continued down to berthing and hit the rack.
Bev came to wake us in the morning. She had the watch until 06:00. “Well, what have you two been up to overnight?”
“Planning. I think we want to make the McKendrick Mercantile Cooperative a formal entity, or at least more organized by the time we get to St. Cloud.”
She nodded once. “Good. Count me in. How’d you do yesterday, Pip?”
He grinned. “I managed to hold on to ten of those belts.”
She whistled. “How many did you sell?”
“All of the rest.” His grin broadened. “Seventy in all.”
“We softened ’em up for ya.” she teased him.
“No doubt. No doubt.”
Pip headed for the galley while I considered my options.
“What’s on for today, Ish?” Bev asked.
“Shopping. We did pretty well in Gugara. Fancy a look around later?”
She gave me a thumbs up. “Sure, but I’ve been up since midnight. I’m gonna rack it until noon but I’m up for it after that.”
“Better deals in the afternoon,” I said with a grin.
She chuckled as she went back to her watch station. “You’re practically a veteran now, Ish.”
I felt bleary-eyed and foggy. Pip and I had stayed up later than normal and my feet were sore from the day at the flea market. I still couldn’t believe we’d made over three kilocreds on the belts.
I pulled out my tablet and brought up the sections explaining various economic organizations. “Co-operative” brought up several entries. The crux of the situation explained that a co-op was a group of people who banded together and worked toward the common good of their group. It wasn’t much to go on, but I started thinking about Lois McKendrick, and all the people on New Edinburgh who got together to break the stranglehold that the company held on their lives. I decided I had to see the captain again. I wanted to know more about Great-grandmother McKendrick and her co-op. But first things first, I was awake, needed to pee, and I wanted my coffee.
It felt odd to step onto the mess deck just as breakfast was being served, probably because there weren’t that many times in the last four months when I’d not been serving said breakfast. I took a mug from the rack, filled it with fresh Sarabanda Dark, and stood in line with a tray, grinning. Diane was in front of me.
She glanced over her shoulder to see who was behind her and laughed. “I’m not used to seeing you on this side of the line.”
“I’m not used to it, myself.”
“Thanks for helping with the scrubbers, Ish. That really made a difference.”
“My pleasure. We’re all in the same boat, as it were.”
“True, but not everybody would help with a slimy job like that one if they didn’t have to.”
I just shrugged and changed the subject. “You sold all your stuff the other day, right?”
She nodded but the line had moved and Pip interrupted loudly, “Excuse me, I’m trying to serve breakfast here.”
Diane turned around with a giggle. “Oh, sorry.” She held out her plate for Pip to slide the omelet on it. “Thank you so much.”
“And you, sir, how may I serve you this morning?” He laid it on with a trowel and grinned the whole time.
“Two egg omelet, some of those excellent mushrooms, a bit of onion, some crumbled bacon, and a bit of grated cheese, if you please. Moist in the middle, my good man. Mind you don’t dry it out.”
“How about I just hit you with the pan and toss your carcass out an airlock?”
I laughed. “Okay, okay, I get your point.”
Cookie must have been helping him with his skills as well, because he slid a perfect omelet onto my plate in just a couple of ticks. “Thanks, Pip. Looks great.”
He waved his spatula at me with a pleased nod of his head. “Enjoy.”
I looked around and spotted Diane sitting alone at a table. She nodded to the chair across from her.
As I settled into the seat, she braced me without preamble. “So, Francis says you guys visited him on watch last night?”
I nodded. “That’s why I was asking about whether or not you sold all your stuff. Pip sold everything we had yesterday. By all measures, this was an amazing success.”
She sipped her coffee and nodded. “It was for me. I sold stuff that I’ve been dragging around for months. And it was much easier than trying to find some buyer and haggling with them and safer then deals made in shady bars. I turned a nice profit, so I’ve got both mass and cred to spend today.”
“Yeah, me, too.” There wasn’t anybody in the mess line just then so I motioned Pip over. “What we were talking to Francis about was the possibility of getting organized before we hit St. Cloud.”
Pip joined us. “Yeah, next time around we should be better prepared. I suspect that there are people aboard who could have used the space and didn’t know we were doing it because the whole thing was so slapdash.”
“We’ve been thinking that we should actually form the McKendrick Mercantile Cooperative,” I put in. “You know, like on the banner? We thought we’d ask the other traders on the crew to join. Together, we can coordinate coverage on the booth and expenses. With a little investment we could put together a booth that looks like we know what we were doing.”
Diane laughed. “I’m being double-teamed here, but I think you’re right. What will it take?”
I shrugged. “Even if all we do is get the word out to the entire crew that’s more than we had going on in Margary.”
“Good point,” she agreed.
Pip plunked down beside me. “I’m trying to think of this like a business. I don’t want to share everybody’s profits because that’s not right. But there’s a lot of things we can pool that would help everybody.”
“Like what?” Diane looked at him.
I snickered. “Like chairs. My feet are still recovering.”
“Mine, too.” Diane grimaced.
Pip nodded. “Exactly. So, the co-op invests in things like chairs, but the expense should be shared by all the members somehow.”
Diane cut off a piece of her omelet and chewed it for a moment before speaking, “That makes sense, but whose mass allotment takes the hit?”
Pip and I glanced at each other before I answered her, “I’m thinking we ask Lois.”
Pip grinned. “I was thinking the same thing.”
Diane looked confused. “Lois who?”
“Lois McKendrick, of course.” I smiled at her confusion.
She blinked at me a couple times, maybe trying to decide if I was kidding. “Let me know how that works out
