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Bev flashed her a friendly smile. “Hi! Fancy meeting you here.”

“Oh, excuse me,” Sarah said. She stopped abruptly and tried backing out of the quad while looking down. With Pip and me right behind her, she ended up backing into both of us. There was a little traffic jam as she bumped into us and Sarah started looking around rather frantically.

“Wait,” Bev said softly. “It’s okay. I’m sorry I startled you.”

Sarah was still trying to keep her eyes anywhere but on Bev. I could not figure out what was wrong, but I backed up to give her room and tripped Pip. All three of us went crashing to the deck. Bev’s reflexes were the quickest. She pulled Sarah out of the pile and lifted her effortlessly up onto her bunk in less than a blink.

Meanwhile Pip and I were busy getting untangled. I got to my feet first and stuck out a hand to help Pip up. “We’re fine. Nothing damaged here,” I said.

Bev shot us a look over her shoulder. “Oh, you two buffoons. Is it a guy thing, or are you two just particularly clumsy?”

“We had to get special training,” Pip told her.

Even Sarah laughed a little at that.

Bev turned her attention back to Sarah. “Are you okay?” she asked softly. “You didn’t get hurt, did you?”

“I’m fine, thank you. I’m just sorry to have barged in on you like that.”

“Like what?” Bev asked.

Sarah still wouldn’t look at her but nodded her head a little. “You know. Like that.”

Bev seemed confused and silently appealed to me and Pip for clarification. I was lost myself so I shrugged helplessly.

“I’m sorry, Sarah, but I don’t know. Like what?” she asked ever so gently.

Sarah motioned with her hand, pointing up and down then. “Like that. In your underwear,” she whispered.

“Oh,” Bev said and I could see the light bulb glowing over her head. She turned back to us. “Gentlemen, could you excuse us for a while? I think Sarah and I need to have a little girl talk.”

I looked over at Sarah, huddled up on my old bunk. “You okay with Beverly, Sarah?” I asked her softly.

Bev gave me a funny expression when I asked, but Sarah said tentatively, “Yes, thank you.”

“Come on, Pip. I feel like a sauna,” I told him.

“Me, too,” he answered a bit too loudly, and we left them in the quad and headed for the gym.

Neither of us spoke until we got down to the changing room. Pip was the first and asked, “What in the name of little fuzzy nuggets is going on here?”

I plunked myself down on the bench. “I don’t even know where to begin.”

“Start with how long has she been here, and just kind of fill in to the point where we played the game with the darberry pie,” he said seriously.

I explained how we spent the day and mentioned Cookie’s observation that he thought she might have been beaten recently. After watching her all day, I had to agree with him. I also added my two cents of speculation that she probably had not been eating much. I finished up by explaining how I had been forcing food and liquid down her since she had arrived ship-side.

When I finished Pip sat with his mouth half open. “Okay, how do we help her?” he asked.

“I’m not sure, but she’s hurt, she’s scared, and she’s here. I think we need to give her some room and learn to trust us.
Lois
will take care of her.”

“Ish? You know you’ve started talking about the imaginary crewman as if she were real, right?”

“What? Oh, yeah. Well, of course, she’s not real, but you can’t tell me that the
Lois
doesn’t have some of the best people in the galaxy as crew. And that includes everyone right up to and including the captain.”

“Yeah, you’re right, but that doesn’t mean we have ghosts!”

“Not ghosts, Pip, spirit. We take care of our own.”

“Well, of course. We’re shipmates.”

“Exactly, and now she’s one of us, so we need to take care of her.”

“Okay, I agree. But that still leaves me with my original question. What do we do? How can we help her?”

“Trust
Lois
. She’ll sort it out. We just need to keep our eyes open and be ready to help when the time comes.”

“You do know that sounds like your brain has lost a data coupling somewhere, right?”

“Yeah. I know what it sounds like. But I like the feeling.”

We stood there without saying anything for a few more ticks. “How long before we can go back do you think?” Pip asked.

“I think it’s been long enough for us to go and get a status report. We’re going to have to rack out soon. You’ve got the duty tomorrow and I have to start my new job.”

We went back to the berthing area and found everything quiet. Sarah was rolled up in the blankets and appeared to be sound asleep. Bev was awake and guarding her. She backed us out of the quad and over to the berthing area’s table. When we got out where the light was brighter, I could see that her eyes were all red and puffy.

“Beverly?” I asked. “Are you all right?”

“Yes, I’m fine. We had a chat about the ship-tee and boxers. I think she understands now and seeing other people wandering about has helped. Sarah has some issues that will take some time to sort out. She shared them with me a bit, but I don’t want to speak for her. It’s her choice if she wants to say anything. I’ll warn you, though, the story is horrific.”

Pip sighed. “Anything we can do?”

Bev shook her head. “Give her room. You’re both good-hearted guys even if you’re both blockheads,” she said with a grin. “Just treat her like a shipmate and don’t make a big deal if she’s a little further off balance than a normal greenie. We’re heading out tomorrow and the sooner the better. It will be good for her to get into a routine.”

Pip asked Bev, “So? Now what?”

“She’s exhausted. We had a little talk and I told her that I’d watch out for her while she slept. She rolled into the blankets and went out like a light. Tomorrow’s another day. I suggest that you guys call it a night as well. I’ll sit up for a bit in case she wakes up.”

“Is it going to be okay for me to sleep in the same quad?” Pip asked.

Bev considered the question for a few heartbeats and I thought she might say no, but finally she sighed and said, “Well, bunkie. That’s the way we sleep here, isn’t it? I think it might be good for her to see how things work. Just keep it down tonight so she can sleep, okay?”

“No problem with that,” Pip said. “I’m gonna get ready for bed. See you tomorrow, Ish.” He headed into the san.

Bev turned to me and lowered her voice further. “You did good today, Ish. She trusts you, and I don’t think she trusts easily right now.”

“I didn’t do anything special. Just fed her and showed her around the ship.”

“You have no idea how far a simple friendly gesture can go, do you?”

“Well, she’s one of us now. We have to take care of her, don’t we?”

Bev smiled at me. “You’re a good man, Ishmael Horatio Wang. In Sarah’s world, there haven’t been many of those.”

“I figured. Is she badly bruised?”

Bev shot me a sharp look. “What do you mean?”

“I was with her all afternoon in the galley, Bev. I’m stupid, but I’m not blind. She’s got bruises on the left side of her face that she tries to hide behind her hair that she pulls forward. She might have a cracked rib on the right, and she’s favoring her left arm. If I had to guess, I’d say she hasn’t had a decent meal in about three days. Plus, she’s so dehydrated that even though I poured three liters of water and coffee in her over the course of the afternoon, she hasn’t even hinted about needing to use the head. When I first met her, she flinched when I extended my hand to shake, and you picked her up off the deck and lifted her into her bunk like she weighed nothing at all. I know you’re strong, but she can’t weigh more than fifty kilos.”

Bev just stared at me. “Is that all?”

I shook my head. “She’s a hard worker and a good person. She has calluses on her palms and fingers from some kind of rough work, and she has a grip that could bend steel pipes. She’s spent a lot of time out of doors based on the UV damage to her hair and skin, and I don’t think she’s used to being around people. She appears old enough to be my mother, but I doubt that she’s got more than ten stanyers over me.”

“Anything else?” she asked with a half grin.

“Isn’t that enough?”

Bev stared at me for a long tick. “Yup, that’s plenty. How much have you told Pip?”

“Just a bit about what I figured out, but I won’t say anymore. Like you said, it’s her story to share. He’ll find out for himself if she wants to say anything.”

She looked at me hard, in a way I think I might have liked except that it scared me so much. It left me feeling both weak and strong at the same time. Then she sighed. “You’re a good man, Ish.”

“I’m a tired man, Bev. See you tomorrow.”

Chapter 8

ST. CLOUD ORBITAL
2352-FEBRUARY-21

I woke with a start and tried to figure out why. Then I remembered that I did not work on the mess deck any more. The watch stander had not come for me. I did not really need to get up, but after six months of rising at 04:30, my bladder told me that it was still working on the mess attendant schedule. I crawled quietly out of the rack and padded into the san. After my shower, I climbed into a fresh shipsuit and headed up to the galley to see if breakfast was ready.

When I stuck my head through the galley entry, I found Pip and Cookie being schooled in biscuit making by Sarah. “Look,” she was saying, “just because you have to make a lot of them, that’s no reason to make them so roughly.” She came only up to Pip’s shoulder but she could see eye to eye with Cookie, who gave every appearance of paying very close attention. “If you use the soft flour and cut in the shortening before you add the leavening agents, you’ll wind up with a much lighter biscuit.” She had the sleeves of her shipsuit pushed up and worked the biscuit dough with her hands deep in the bowl. The most dramatic change was that she had her hair pulled back in a pony tail. The left side of her face did indeed have several layers of bruising along the jaw line and around her eye. Neither Cookie nor Pip seemed to notice. She held the bowl at an angle so they could get a good look. “See? This is cut in nicely, and we haven’t bothered the structure of the flour terribly. If I just sprinkle the baking powder, baking soda, and a little sugar on here…” She matched actions to words. “I can use my hand to turn it like a garden spade tilling the soil.” Sarah proceeded to scoop and fold, scoop and fold, spinning the bowl on the counter a bit with each motion. “Now, this…” she stopped to show them the inside of the bowl again, “is ready for adding the liquid.”

Pip waved to me and Cookie nodded in my direction, but Sarah was so absorbed in her biscuit prep that she did not notice me there. I quietly withdrew to the mess deck and helped myself to a mug of coffee. I took a seat at a corner table, pulled out my tablet, and started reviewing the environmental section of the ship’s schematic. Hearing Sarah’s voice from the galley I found it difficult to concentrate on the tablet. I was trying to reconcile this Sarah with the fearful, wounded woman from the day before. The change was not simply dramatic—it was frightening.

I glanced up at the chrono and realize that there was still half a stan before the mess officially opened, so I holstered my tablet again, topped off the coffee, and headed down to environmental. Since it was going to be my new home, I thought I might as well get used to hanging out there.

Brill sat at the watch stander’s station, leaning back in the chair with her long legs propped up on the desk. She had her tablet out and was editing something on it with a stylus. “Good morning, boss!” I called.

She looked up and smiled. “Hey!” She glanced at the chrono. “What are you doing up so early? Don’t you know you’re supposed to sleep in when we’re in port?”

“My mind knows, but my bladder has a six month habit to break.”

She chuckled at that. “I can see where that might be a problem. So? You’re officially assigned to me now?”

“Yup, Engineman Wang reporting for duty. I think.”

She pointed to the coffee. “Is that for me?”

“You can have it if you want, but I already drank some. It has Ish-cooties on it.”

“Mercy, I haven’t heard that since grade school.”

“I don’t think I’ve said it since back then. You want a coffee? I’ll go grab you one if you like.”

She swung her legs down and stood up from the chair. “I do, but I’ll go get it. You sit and I’ll give you your first lesson in environmental watch standing.”

I took the chair which was still warm from her body, and she showed me the various displays on the station. They were basically real-time representations of the air and water systems. The center monitor showed a diagram of the ship similar to the schematic I was familiar with from my tablet. “Air is in green and water is in blue,” Bev pointed out. “You can use the stylus on the screen to isolate one or another system, rotate, zoom, and so on. Just like on your tablet. Try it.”

It did indeed work just like she said, but with the larger screen it was pretty dramatic.

Bev pointed out the displays to the left and right of the center. “Over there are the air readouts and over here is water. They are updated every few seconds and show you the pressures, chemical compositions, and system status. If any of them get out of whack, they change color and the location of the sensor that’s giving the reading will blink on the schematic.”