Owner's Share (Trader's Tales from the Golden Age of the Solar Clipper) (39 page)

“Chief?” I called in the intercom. I had to wait a tick for his reply, but it came just before I was about to hail him again.

“I’m on it, Cap. Banging harmonics kicked in above seventy-six percent. Trying to find it now.” There was a brief pause. “How long till we pass the safety limit, Cap?”

I glanced at the position display and countdown clocks. “About half a stan at this rate, Chief.”

“Hokay, Cap. File it for now then. We got more than enough to get home with.”

“I’ll let you know when we cross the threshold, Chief.”

“Thankee kindly, Cap. Thankee kindly.”

“What do you think of our new ride, Ms. Arellone?”

“That was fun, Skipper. A heck of a lot more fun than being tossed around by a tug.” Her teeth gleamed whitely in the dim light of the bridge.

“A lot less mass to get moving here, Ms. Arellone. The
Agamemnon
masses more empty than we will full.”

“That’s going to mean we could jump sooner, too, won’t it, sar?”

“Indeed it does. Depending on our load, we can probably get to the burleson limit in just seven to ten standard days.”

“We’ll be able to make a whole trip in less than a month, Skipper?”

“Oh, yes, Ms. Arellone. We should be able to make it all the way to Jett before the
Agamemnon
could make it to the jump limit.”

I remembered my coffee, and sat back down, cradling the mug in my hands as the timer clicked down. It was mostly cold after nearly a stan, but I didn’t mind. It just felt good to be underway. I turned to look at Ms. Maloney who sat staring out at the receding planet.

“This isn’t your first time out, is it, Ms. Maloney?”

She dragged her face around to look at me, and I could see her blinking as if just waking up. “Oh, no, sar. I’ve often traveled. Just as a passenger, sar.” Her head turned to look back out at the stars all around us. “This is the first time I’ve been able to see.”

I smiled. “Well, you’ll have plenty of time to see, Ms. Maloney. We’ll see if you still like seeing by the time we get to Jett.”

A window flashed up on the navigation console, and I leaned in to key the intercom. “Coming up on safety threshold, Chief. The girls ready?”

“Oh, aye, Cap, indeed they are. Spool ’em up easy at first so’s I can check the alignment on those new coils.”

“Aye, aye, Chief. Easy does it.”

When we crossed the perimeter, I eased the grav keel out, and slipped a bit of sail on. I couldn’t hear the whine of the sail generators over the background thrum of the fusactors and blowers, but I imagined I could.

“Hold ’em there, Cap. Just a tick, just a tick.”

I watched our velocity ease upwards as the sails began biting into the solar winds. The helm needed only minimal control to keep us on course.

“Okay, Cap,” the chief called through the intercom. “Take ’em up to fifty if you can.”

I eased up the sails until we had almost fifty percent. The strain guages were getting into the amber so I had to keep them furled a bit.

“Good as we can do, Chief. Breezy day outside.”

“I see it, Cap. I see it.” After a moment he asked, “How’s she handling?”

I rolled us a bit to the port, and back to starboard. “Beautiful, Chief. Are the coils set now?”

“Almost. Portside needs a tweek, Cap, Just a tweek.” The intercom fell silent for a tick, and then he was back. “We’re nailed to the rail now, Cap. Nailed to the rail.”

“Thank you, Chief. We’re gonna do some sailing now.”

“Good enough, Cap. Good enough.”

I keyed the announcer. “Now hear this. This is the captain speaking. Secure from navigation stations. Secure from navigation stations.”

“Captain, doesn’t that seem a little...I don’t know...silly?” Ms. Arellone laughed at me a bit.

“It does, Ms Arellone, but—” I shrugged, “—what’s it hurt? If we start carrying passengers, they’ll need to know, too.”

“Oh, good point, Skipper.”

“You ready to try the helm, Ms. Arellone?”

“Oh, yes, please!” She jumped up, and crossed to the command seat. Ms. Maloney looked over with interest, her normally cold and rigid expression taking on something like animation.

I stood up, and Ms. Arellone sat down.

“It’s a bit different from the
Agamemnon
. The joysticks are a bit further apart so you can get to the keyboard, and the display is bigger because it’s the full command display instead of just helm, but the idea’s the same.”

I showed her how to open the course correction screen, and that gave her a familiar view with a glowing cross hair in the middle of the screen. It was the same view she’d had on the helm of the
Agamemnon
.

She took a grip on the handles, and the cross hairs almost instantly twitched out of alignment. “Oooh, aren’t you the touchy thing,” she said to the ship. It didn’t take her long to get the feel for it, even lowering the sails slightly to pull the strain level back, and giving us a nice smooth ride.

“Very nice, Ms. Arellone.”

“Thank you, sar.” She began to relax a little at the helm.

“Now, would you teach, Ms. Maloney the finer points of helm watch?”

“Me, sar?” Her voice fairly squeaked, and I thought Ms. Maloney paled a bit, although in the dim light it was difficult to tell.

“You, Ms. Arellone. It’s good practice for your ship handling exam, and I need more coffee. ” I headed for the ladder very deliberately. “You have the conn, Ms. Arellone.”

Before I got my head below the level of the deck, she called after me. “But, sar! What happens if I have a question?”

“Yell, Ms. Arellone. I’ll just be in the galley.” With a private grin, I dropped down the ladder and went into the galley.

Chapter Thirty-Three
Diurnia System:
2372-December-28

Most of the afternoon was gone by the time we got out to operational range. My hope was that leaving Ms. Arellone to show Ms. Maloney the ropes would give them a chance to bond. I could only imagine what Ms. Maloney must have felt about having to spend a year in what amounted to forced labor. It had to have galled a woman with a life of her own to have her own father demand that she give it up to claim the family inheritance. A more troubling idea was the growing conviction that there wasn’t much I could teach the woman. She was hurt and angry, but contained it well. She appeared self-assured, well-read, and highly intelligent. The more I saw of the woman, the less I thought that lessons about respect and duty might apply.

I sighed, and started a fresh pot of coffee while I contemplated what to make for dinner. I went to the chiller, and poked about until I found a pack of chops that looked likely then let my mind chew on the problem unattended while I focused on preparing food.

About 1720 Chief Bailey came up for coffee, just as I slipped a tray of biscuits into the oven. He didn’t seem terribly surprised to find me puttering in the galley. “You let ‘em drive, Cap? You brave or just crazy?” He cackled.

“Well, Ms. Arellone is good ship handler, and it’s a good opportunity for her to get a feel for this one. I left her training, Ms. Maloney.”

“Aye, Cap, aye. Nothing teaches ya what ya don’t know like trying to teach somebody else, now does it? No, it don’t.”

He drew a mug of fresh coffee, and leaned against the counter for a moment to enjoy it.

“How’s she doing back there, Chief? Any problems?”

He shook his head and pursed his lips. “Nah. She’s purrin’ right along, she is. The fusactor’s tight, and the generators are right happy to be pullin’ the ship, I think. I really do.”

“How’s the burleson drive look?”

He shrugged, and took time for another sip before answering. I got the impression he was thinking it over. “No way to really tell without jumping, huh? But kind painful if they hain’t quite right, ain’t it? Darn right it is.” He shrugged. “They look all right. Nothin’s burned. Seems like they’ll work.”

“Thanks, Chief. You think of anything you need back there?”

He looked down, his brow furrowed. “Nuthin’ I can think of at the moment, but I’ll keep my eyes open, I surely will.” He ambled back off the mess deck, and headed aft again.

While the potatoes boiled, I crossed the passageway to the cabin, and synced my tablet to the display there before returning to the mess deck. While the chops broiled, I used the synced tablet to troll for out-going cargo. In less than a day we would return to port, and I wanted to be outbound as soon as I could find a cargo to carry.

My first pass through the cargo listing took a long time. I kept having to check on the chops, and because I was looking for something different. After almost a year on the
Agamemnon
, I knew where to look for cans. What I needed for
Iris
was palleted or containered cargo. Even loose cargo would do, if we could get it nailed down to the deck. The parameters were much looser than I was used to, so the search was a little more nebulous.

Nothing jumped out at me before I had to retrieve the chops, and pull the biscuits out of the oven. With some peas, it would be a nice dinner. We had ice cream for dessert if anybody wanted some. It wasn’t the most auspicious meal, but it was a shakedown cruise after all.

At 1750 I went up to the bridge to find Ms. Maloney in the command chair with her hands on the handles, her eyes on the cross hairs, and a look of intense concentration on her face.

“How’s it going?”

“Hi, Skipper. I’ve given Ms. Maloney here the basic run down, and she’s trying her hand at helm.”

Ms. Maloney glanced up at me with small smile, and then went back to trying to balance the cross hairs.

“So I see.” I nodded at them both, although I’m pretty sure only Ms. Arellone saw. “I came to tell you that dinner is almost ready, if you’d like to come down and eat, we’ll put it on auto for a few ticks, and split up the night watches. Then we can settle in for a nice little sail.”

“You’ll have to show us how to engage the autopilot on this one, Skipper.”

“The course is all laid in. See that tab on the screen?” I pointed to the spot in question. “Open that up, and engage the autopilot.”

Ms. Maloney followed my instructions, and when she sat back in the seat, the ship was sailing herself.

“Normally whoever has the watch would slave their tablet to this console, and then they could see whatever was on the console from anywhere in the ship. As it is, we’ll rely on the proximity alarms, and go get some dinner. Somebody will be back here less than a stan, and we’ve to nothing around us for more than three stans in any direction.”

Ms. Maloney nodded, and I could see Ms. Arellone drinking it in.

“Let’s go eat then. Dinner’s ready.”

I turned, and headed down the ladder to the galley.I met Chief Bailey coming up the passageway from engineering. “Just in time, Chief. Dinner is served!”

“So, Ms. Maloney, how do you like sailing?” I asked by way of conversation starter as we settled to eat.

She shook her head. “I had no idea anything so boring could be so interesting.” She stopped as if replaying in her mind what she’s just said aloud. “That’s not exactly what I meant to say.” She colored a bit.

We all laughed.

Ms. Arellone turned to her. “It’s as good an explanation as I’ve ever heard. Don’t worry about it.”

“It’s boring,” I agreed, “but there’s something oddly engaging, too. Ms. Arellone? How do you like it? Not exactly
Agamemnon
, is she.”

“No, she’s not, skipper, but compared to her, the
Agamemnon
sails like a boulder. The difference is astonishing.”

“Okay, well, my plan is to go back in tomorrow morning, and dock in the commercial section around 1100. I hope to have a cargo by then, and we’ll only be in port overnight, assuming I can get a cargo loaded in that amount of time. I’m planning on a run to Jett, but if some other port looks likely, we’ll go there instead.”

“Watches, Captain?” Ms. Arellone asked.

“I’m thinking we’ll do six and six tonight. Ms. Arellone, you’ve got the duty until midnight. Ms. Maloney and I will relieve you then. After breakfast we’ll head back in.”

“Sounds good, Skipper.” Ms. Arellone said.

“Ms. Maloney? You understand what we’re going to be doing?”

“I do, Captain, yes.”

“Good, now if nobody wants that last chop...?”

Dinner mess went well, and I shooed Ms. Arellone off to the bridge, and Ms. Maloney off to her bunk with a warning. ”Mid watches are tough, Ms. Maloney. We’ve been up all day, there’s not much time to sleep, and then we’re going to be sitting around, not doing too much, but needing to stay awake. Try to sleep as much as you can, but set your tablet to wake you at 2330. We’ll relieve the watch at 2345.”

“I understand, Captain.” Her face carried a serious expression, but it was less the cool, aloofness she’d exhibited before than the look of a woman about to engage in something important. I took it as a good sign.

With them gone, the chief kept me company while I cleaned up the kitchen. I threw him a towel, and made him dry the pots and pans while the dishwasher made short work of the rest. It only took a half stan, and by 1930 it was done.

“Thanks, Chief.”

He grinned .“Just like ole times, Cap, just like ole times. This should work out, I think. Yes, I do.”