Half Share (2 page)

“Mr. Carstairs, you recently passed the cargo man exam and are qualified to take a full share birth in that division.” He glanced at his tablet then continued, “The
Andrew W. Mellon
is docked here at St. Cloud and has posted a cargo man berth for which we are prepared to give you the highest recommendation. Would you like to pursue that position?”

Pip blinked. “Sar?”

I could hear the confusion in his voice. Frankly, I was just as perplexed as he was, but the theatre of the absurd production playing out in the captain’s cabin was starting to get really interesting.

“Mr. Carstairs, the
Mellon
has a cargo opening,” the captain said. “If you want it, we’ll help you get it.”

“Have I done something wrong, sar?” he asked.

Myself, I was starting to have trouble breathing. I kept waiting for them to get around to the fight at the flea market, but all they were interested in talking about was leaving the
Lois
. I knew there would be a price to be paid, but I had no idea we were in that much trouble.

Mr. Maxwell and the captain exchanged a look. I had no idea what it might have meant, but I would recognize it again if I ever saw it. The next words out of Mr. Maxwell’s mouth really confused me. “No, Mr. Carstairs. In fact, you’ve done very well by the
Lois
and we want to do what we can to help you. This is a legitimate opportunity—one of several—and I wanted you to know about it before we offered you an alternative.”

“Sar, I’m with Mr. Wang. I like it here. I want to work with Cookie on the stores trading and see just how far we can take it.”

“So, you’d rather work here as a quarter share steward than transfer to the
Mellon
and work full share cargo? Is that what you’re saying?” The captain’s voice carried no inflection at all.

“Well, it sounds kinda silly when you put it like that, Captain, but yes, I guess that’s what I mean. I like what I do here.”

Mr. Cotton spoke up then, “You have amazing skills, ya, Mr. Carstairs. But I must say, we have no openings in cargo for a cargo man at the moment, ya.”

“Yes, sar. I’m aware of that. You have a good crew and I know they all like it here as much as I do. But I wouldn’t be able to do the kinds of trading on the
Mellon
that I’ve been doing here with Cookie. Besides, the co-op is just getting started, and I’m making some good money with that. It’s okay, sar. I don’t need a cargo slot right now or really anytime soon.”

There was another weird little pause while the officers all nodded at each other. The captain made a gesture toward Mr. Kelley and he turned to me. “Mr. Wang, I’ve been getting reports from the environmental section that you’re spending time down there.”

“Yes, sar,” I answered promptly.

“You spent your breaks from galley duty to help them scrape sludge?”

“Well, just once, sar. But I’d be happy to help them again, if needed.”

“Spec one Smith reports that you aided spec three Ardele in swapping out the algae matrices for the number three scrubber. Is this true?”

“Yes, sar. She needed a hand and I was free for a couple of stans. It was kinda fun in a slimy, wet, mucky sorta way.”

“Was that before or after you got your engineman rating, Mr. Wang?”

“After, sar.”

“Ms. Smith reports that you have some odd ideas about sludge, Mr. Wang. Would you care to share one or two of them?”

“Um, well, sar. I thought perhaps we could use it as a base for compost.”

“Compost?”

“Yes, sar. At Margary me and Diane…er…I mean spec three Ardele, visited a mushroom farm. They grow a bunch of different varieties of fungus in a slurry made of hydroponic waste and chipped sludge. When I found out we were just giving our left over waste away it made me think there might be a better use for it.”

“And you thought we might grow what?”

“I dunno, sar. I was just interested in the idea. Margary uses hollowed out asteroids for their farms, and I thought we could do something similar since it didn’t seem like the mushrooms needed much tending to.”

“I see. And did you enjoy working in the environmental section?”

I considered that for a moment before answering. “Yes, sar. Yes, I did. Bri…er, Ms. Smith, Ms. Ardele, and Mr. Gartner are all great to work with.”

The weird little pause-and-nod exchange occurred again between the seated officers.

Finally, the captain said, “Okay, gentlemen, here’s the problem. Mr. Carstairs, you deserve a chance at cargo man, as you show exceptional capabilities in this area. Your stores trading for St. Cloud gave us a net profit of close to thirty-five percent over our stores budget. Not only did that cover the cost of feeding the crew for the last five weeks, but you’ve generated a very respectable surplus. Partly due to the short hop over here from Margary and partly due to your shrewd horse trading. You do us proud, Mr. Carstairs, and I am grateful. The problem is I don’t have a cargo slot to offer you, and there’s another little problem with regards to spec three Avery.”

That was it. The shoe I had been waiting to drop. Gregor Avery got into a fight while working the booth on the flea market. I was not sure what all the talk about tests, trading, and visits to the environmental section was all about but at least now we were going to find out our punishment for any culpability we had in that fiasco. In an effort to try and explain, I blurted out, “I’m sorry about that, sar. I don’t know what happened at the co-op—”

The captain interrupted me, “Oh, I don’t care about that.” She waved a hand as if to shoo away a pesky fly. “He’s always been a hot head. The more important point is that the tanker
Audrey Moore
has just hired him for their environmental section. So that leaves us short-handed.”

I was not positive I heard her right. I was so sure that Gregor, Pip, and I would all be paying the price for the flea-market incident that I was flabbergasted to hear she did not even care about that.

“He’s changing ships? I didn’t know that, sar. Although, he did mention wanting to get onto a tanker, once or twice.”

“Personally, I hope he enjoys it,” the captain said. “But getting back to the problems at hand and how you gentlemen can help us with them.” She gestured to Mr. Kelley.

“Mr. Wang, I am prepared to offer you an engineman slot in environmental,” he said. “Ms. Smith has been consulted and is most enthusiastic. Are you interested?”

“Well, yes, sar, but what about the galley?”

Mr. Maxwell answered, “Inquiry reveals we have several quarter share candidates available to us on St. Cloud, Mr. Wang.”

Mr. Kelley continued, “We know you don’t have the knowledge and experience that Mr. Avery did, but the section crew down there can’t say enough good things about you. They want you, if you want to go.”

While I was happy for the opportunity, I also felt bad for being promoted before Pip. He had more seniority and had been at quarter share for almost two full stanyers, while I had barely been aboard for six months. I looked over at him and said, “But Pip—”

Before I could finish the captain interrupted, “Before you go on, you should know we have another job in mind for Mr. Carstairs.”

Mr. Maxwell swiveled his gaze back in Pip’s direction. “Mr. Carstairs, your work in the galley stores has contributed greatly to the welfare of the ship. While we cannot offer you a cargo man position, we can offer you a raise in your current assignment. We will need you to stay in the galley in order to help Cookie break in a new attendant, but we’re prepared to raise your salary to cargo man scale at a full share rating with corresponding mass allotment. There is, however, one proviso that you continue doing what you’ve been doing since Gugara with regards to the stores trading.”

My brain vapor-locked at that point, but Pip, ever the wheeler-dealer, spoke up, “Just so I understand everything. I’m going to stay attendant rank on the books, but you’re going to pay me the same as cargo man, give me a full share, and increase my mass allotment?”

Mr. Maxwell smiled. “Yes, Mr. Carstairs, that is an accurate summation.”

Wanting to make sure I had everything straight, I said, “And I’ll be taking Gregor’s place in the environmental section as a half share crewman? And we’ll hire another quarter share to take my slot on the mess deck?”

The captain nodded. “Yes, Mr. Wang. The good news is that you’ll get a new job. The bad news is that Mr. Carstairs has to stay and train another quarter share hand.”

Pip and I looked at each other for a second before he turned back to the officers. “Well, I did pretty well with the last one,” he said.

Chapter 2

ST. CLOUD ORBITAL
2352-FEBRUARY-19

As soon as they dismissed us, we scampered to the galley to help Cookie with the lunch mess. My head reeled and I looked forward to slipping into the familiar lunchtime routine. In-port duty was always a welcome break from the busier service while underway, but I expected today would be a larger than normal turnout. We had been docked for three days and some of the initial interest in the orbital had worn off, not to mention more than a few crew members were running low on creds. Arriving at the galley, we found Cookie already underway at full steam ahead.

“Ah, gentlemen,” he greeted us. “You’ve finished with the captain, then?”

We both nodded. “You’re stuck with me, Cookie,” Pip told him with a grin. “But Ishmael here is going off to play with sludge as soon as the captain finds a replacement.”

“I suspected that would be the outcome. Congratulations on your pending promotion, Ishmael. I knew you’d move up quickly. In the meantime, we need to get some meats and cheeses laid out…”

“I’m on it, Cookie.” I glanced at the chrono. We were a bit later than normal, but nothing we could not handle.

“I’ll make up a fresh urn of coffee,” Pip volunteered. “If we have any left, that is. The captain said the trades gave us a rather large surplus in the stores account.”

Cookie grinned broadly at that. “Yes, I managed to hold onto a few buckets, but the prices were actually up a bit from when we first docked. There are some more items I’d like to talk with you about, but it can wait until after lunch,” he said, glancing at the chronometer himself.

We each went to our assigned tasks, meshing into the familiar pre-lunch pattern. Lunch was up and ready five ticks before noon and the rich smell of Cookie’s mushroom soup filled the mess deck. Lunch was a big success and the soup elicited more than a few compliments. After the initial rush of setup and service, I stood in the galley suddenly struck by the realization that I would no longer be part of the mess crew. Six months before, I had come aboard with no idea what I was supposed to do and little knowledge about why I should be doing it. Now, I was more than just a little sad that I would be leaving my first real job aboard.

Cookie must have sensed my thoughts because he came over and patted me on the shoulder. “You’ve done well here, young Ishmael,” he said with a warm smile. “If nothing else, you’ve managed to teach Pip how to make coffee.” We both laughed at that. Before I came aboard the
Lois
the coffee left much to be desired and straightening it out had been my first real accomplishment on board.

While we talked, Diane Ardele from the environmental section rushed onto the mess deck. She hurried over to us and asked, “Did you hear Gregor’s gone?”

“I heard he was going,” I told her. “Has he left already?”

“Yeah, just a few ticks ago. He packed his duffel and checked out. Brill’s been meeting with Mr. Kelley for the last twenty ticks about a replacement.”

Cookie and I shared a glance and Diane caught it. “What?” she demanded. “You guys know something. Come on, out with it.”

“Well…” I started, “rumor is you’re getting some greenie half share engineman with absolutely no experience to replace him.”

“Dammit! We’re running close to short handed down there as it is. Why can’t we get somebody who knows a scrubber from a filter?”

Cookie chuckled and bustled off. “I must get the pies out of the oven.”

I understood her frustration and hoped she was not going to have the same opinion when she found out exactly which greenie half share engineman was being transferred into her section.

Just then, Brilliantine “Brill” Smith, the environmental section lead, came in. She smiled and waved. After filling a lunch tray, she stopped to speak with us before taking a seat.

Diane pounced when she came over. “You won’t believe it but I just heard we’re getting some greenie engineman to replace Gregor!”

I bit my lip and Brill stifled a laugh. “News travels fast,” she said. “Gregor hasn’t been gone half a stan and already we have rumors about his replacement.”

“What did Mr. Kelley have to say?” Diane pressed. “Is it true? Do you know who it is?”

“Yeah.” Brill hung her head in dismay. “I’m afraid it is true. They’ve already offered Gregor’s berth to a replacement and he’s accepted, but I understand he has at least a little experience.”

Diane brightened a little with that. “Oh, really? What’s his background?”