Owner's Share (Trader's Tales from the Golden Age of the Solar Clipper) (65 page)

“Thank you, April.”

She smiled up at her husband. “Let’s go, shall we? I’ve got to prepare for that Markham case on Monday, and I really must tell Prissy we’re back.”

He chuckled and steered her off the ship, sauntering arm-in-arm as they moved across the dock.

I keyed the lock closed. The ship seemed oddly quiet without them.

“Congratulations, Captain,” Ms. Maloney said.

“Thank you, Ms. Maitland. For what?”

“The successful transportation of your first paying passengers.” A wry half smile curled her mouth to the side of her face. “And for impressing April Gerard.”

I snorted. “After Dubois, I don’t feel very impressive.”

“That was unfortunate, but short of confining him to his compartment as soon as started with Stacy, I think you handled it pretty well.”

I shook my head. “Thanks, but I should have acted more decisively on that one. He was out of control for days, and might have hurt you or Ms. Maloney.”

“Maybe, but I can’t imagine he’d have bested Ms. Maloney. He couldn’t even stand up to me.”

I headed for the galley and another round of coffee. “That reminds me, Ms. Maitland. You were rather impressive yourself. They didn’t teach you self-defense at
L
’Institute des Arts Culinaires
, did they?”

“No,” she agreed with a grin. “E and D orientation training. Things sometimes got a bit rough out on the edge. I never needed to use it much before, but it wasn’t my first scuffle, either.” She shrugged.

“Any you still think you need a bodyguard?” I asked, stopping at the top of the ladder to look at her curiously.

She paused and thought about it for a few heartbeats. “I guess I never really considered it that carefully before, Captain.” She shrugged, and led the way into the galley and the coffee pot.

We found Chief Bailey and Mr. Herring there. I could see the hopeful look on Mr. Herring’s face but the chief looked subdued. He had been all but invisible on the ride out. After getting my coffee, and settling in my normal spot, I nodded to Mr. Herring. “Yes, Mr. Herring. Liberty is declared for all crew. Check in once a day so I know you’re alive, be aboard by 1000 on the ninth.”

He grinned and nodded. “Thank you, Skipper.” He disappeared before I could say, “You’re welcome.”

I turned to the chief. “Problems, Chief?”

He glanced my way. “None at all, Cap. Nope. Nary a one. Need to get scrubber filters changed today I think, see if I don’t.” He paused and glanced at me again before asking Ms. Maloney, “Don’t suppose I could get a little shore time this trip, do ya, Ms. Maloney? Been awhile since I stretched my legs.”

She shrugged. “Of course, Chief.” She looked to me before adding. “Just clear it with the Captain.”

“Oh, aye, indeed I will. I most certainly will.”

“If you go ashore, Chief, just make sure your tablet is charged up and turned on. I need to be able to contact you in case of emergency.”

He nodded. “Aye, Cap. Can do, not a problem at all.” He stood and shambled out of the galley without another word.

I tilted my head toward Ms. Maloney. “Does he seem off to you, somehow?”

She frowned, but shrugged. “He gets a little moody at times. I don’t think he really likes being an engineer any more, frankly.” She looked at me across her mug. “Has he gotten any better since the last time we talked?”

“In all the excitement, I haven’t really paid that much attention, actually.” I was chagrined to admit it but with everything else happening, riding herd on the engineer hadn’t been one of my priorities. “We’ve got a couple of days here until we get underway and nothing much to do except wait to see if we get any passengers, and look for a few more cubes of cargo.” I nodded at the pantry. “How we doing on stores?”

“We went through a lot of sweets, and I’d like to stock a few bottles of wine for the passengers, if that’s all right, Captain.”

“Of course. We’re not a military vessel, and as long as watch-standers aren’t showing up drunk on duty, we’re fine.” I grinned at her. “You’re the acting chief steward. Use your best judgment and I’ll back it.”

She gave me a pleased smile and a nod. “Thanks, Captain. I really do appreciate it.”

“Thank you, Ms. Maitland. Do you need more budget for the galley?”

She shook her head. “Not at the moment, Captain. We’re not consuming that much on any voyage, and you stocked us well before we got going.”

We sat there in silence for a few heartbeats. The klaxon startled us both when it went off, and I dragged myself up to let in the cargo handlers.

While they worked, I set about looking for the volume adjustment in the klaxon controls. By the time the cargo crew had cleared the hold, I found the adjustment in the schematic, and traced it through to the system controller unit. I managed to reduce the volume from full to eighty percent. A quick test beep proved I’d reduced it from the ear-shattering levels to something noticeable without causing hearing loss.

While I had my tablet out, I pulled up the punch list that I had given to the chief, and started working backwards through the list. By the time I’d worked through the last dozen items, I was fighting the urge to scream—not one of them had been fixed. By the time I got to the engine room items, I merely simmered. To give the devil his due, he had repaired the items in the passenger compartments, but the dead lighting panel in Mr. Herring’s compartment was still out. By the time I finished the list, it became painfully obvious that the chief had done the bare minimum needed.

Ms. Maloney and Ms. Arellone watched me storm into the galley, and I took a couple of deep breaths while I poured a cup of coffee and took in the luncheon spread.

“The chief has gone to stretch his legs already?” I asked.

Ms. Maloney shrugged. “Yes, Captain.”

“Well, it looks like just us then.” I sat at the table and helped myself to the soup and salad while I eyed the pair across from me. “I’m not really in much of a mood to engage in our traditional first night ashore meal. What about you two?”

Ms. Arellone looked disappointed, but I thought Ms. Maloney looked relieved, and she spoke first. “After that trip, Captain? I’d be happy for a quiet night aboard.” She shot a sideways glance at Ms. Arellone. “But I think somebody at the table needs to go let off a little steam.”

Ms. Arellone grinned. “Steam? That’s a funny name for it,” she muttered. They shared a chuckle.

“If you’d like to go ashore tonight, Ms. Arellone? I give my word not to leave the ship and go skulking about the orbital on my own.” I grinned around my soup.

She shot me one of her exasperated looks. “Skipper, you skulking is a horrifying image. Please, if you must skulk, don’t ever do it when I’m around? It would be just too embarrassing.” She grinned at me. “But if you’re sure it’s okay?” She looked back and forth between the two of us.

I shrugged. “I’m going to try to sleep, I think.”

Ms. Maloney said, “I may watch a movie.” She looked at me. “Too bad there’s no Jimmy Chin’s here, I would love some oriental take-out for dinner.”

Ms. Arellone giggled. “You haven’t finished lunch yet, and you’re thinking about dinner?”

We both laughed at that, but Ms. Maloney defended herself. “When your whole day revolves around meals, you start looking ahead earlier. Good meals require a lot of planning. Besides, it would be something I didn’t have to cook.” She grinned.

Ms. Arellone tossed her head in my direction. “The skipper’s a good cook. Make him cook for you tonight.” She got a sly grin. “Sounds kinda romantic. Got the ship to yourself? Get a hunky man to cook you dinner? Slip into something more comfortable?” She giggled as Ms. Maloney colored, and I sighed dramatically.

“There’ll be no slipping into something more comfortable around here, Ms. Arellone.” I tried to scold her but it came out so oddly we were all chuckling and giggling before I finished.

Ms. Arellone gave a little shrug when she could regain her composure. “If you say so, Skipper...” She waggled her eyebrows at Ms. Maloney as she finished her soup and stood from the table. “Well, if you’re sure, I’ll take you up on that and get in a little r-and-r on my own then.” She slotted her dirty dishes, and headed aft.

She left us in an awkward silence but the awkwardness passed as first Ms. Maloney, and then I started laughing again.

“She’s a sketch,” I said. “She’s come a long way since I bailed her out of the brig.”

“What was she in for, if it’s not rude to ask?”

“She hasn’t told you?”

Ms. Maloney shook her head. “She’s mentioned being in the brig, but the discussion usually devolves to her swearing and ranting about the paternalistic society and the stupid men involved in it.” She shrugged. “Many of her previous captains feature prominently.”

“As far as I was able to tell, she got into a fight on the docks, got arrested, and had no crew to claim her. She sat in the brig for a few months until your father had the bright idea to tell me that if I allowed one of the crew leave the
Agamemnon
, then I’d be stuck with her.”

“Could he do that?”

I shrugged. “Probably not. She was the next person on the waiting list for crew assignment. I visited her in the brig, and thought she’d be a good fit.” I smiled. “It was a set up, according to Kirsten Kingsley.”

“A set up?”

“Yeah. He wanted her off half-pay, and couldn’t find a captain who’d take her. All he had to do was tell me I couldn’t let Ricks go, or he’d make me take her.”

She laughed softly. “That sounds like Father. It probably never occurred to him to just ask you.”

I shrugged. “It worked out. I got a good crewman. He got a half-pay spacer off the beach.”

I turned at the sound of footsteps in the passage outside, and Ms. Arellone stuck her head into the galley. “I’m heading out now, if you’re still sure you don’t need me.”

“Enjoy yourself, Ms. Arellone.”

She grinned. “Okay, Skipper.” She gave us a jaunty wave and disappeared. “You kids have fun,” echoed up from the ladder.

I looked across the table. “I’m not sure I didn’t like her better when she was broody and sullen.”

Ms. Maloney chuckled into her coffee. “Something here agrees with her, Captain. She seems very happy.”

I shrugged. “She does.” I paused and looked across the table at her. “How about you, Ms. Maloney? I know I keep asking but you’re a new quarter share. The commitment to the Deep Dark got thrown at you. It wasn’t something you decided to do on your own.”

She shrugged. “True, but like I said before. I’ve always wanted to open a restaurant and just never had the right incentives.” She looked around at the galley. “This is like a little restaurant, and I have a captive customer base. It’s still a challenge to come up with menus that people like.”

I smiled. “When I first signed onto the
Lois McKendrick
, my boss used to say something like that. He thought that since the crew didn’t have a choice about where to eat, we owed it to them to make our little restaurant the place they still wanted to eat at.”

She nodded. “Exactly! And it’s so peaceful out there.” She paused and shrugged. “Mostly. Dubois made things a little tense, but even at that.”

“You handled him well.”

“You’re on about the bodyguard thing again, Captain?”

“Yeah, I suppose I am. I still think it’s elephant repellant. You proved you can handle yourself and, realistically, who’s really out to get you?”

“Well, corporate kidnappers...”

I just looked at her. “Do you know anybody who’s been kidnapped?”

“No, but everybody has a bodyguard these days.”

“And you think there’s a whole industry geared around waiting for some executive who’s just wandering around loose? Waiting for them to slip away from their bodyguards so they can swoop in and nab them?”

She pursed her lips. “It does sound pretty far-fetched when you put it that way, Captain.”

“That’s what you’re telling me.”

She paused for a few heartbeats before nodding. “I guess it is.”

We finished our lunches, and I helped her clear the mess deck.

“So what had you all stormy, Captain? When you came into the mess deck I thought somebody was gonna get keel-hauled.”

“The chief. After the warning I gave him back on Diurnia, he did just the bare minimum. There’s still about two dozen lighting panels and assorted other small jobs that need to be done.”

“Well, he said he needed to order some more lighting panels.”

I nodded. “True. I would have thought he’d have done that back in Diurnia, but maybe he did it here, and they just haven’t come aboard. I’m just not used to having to ride herd on the chief engineer like he’s some half-share wiper.”

“Greta spoiled you,” Ms. Maloney said with a smirk.

I shot her a look. “Excuse me?”

“Chief Gerheart? Greta? You remember her, I think, Captain.” She smiled at me as she stashed the left over soup in the chiller.

“You seem to know a lot about my ex-crew,” I said with a certain amount of surprise.

“Well, she was the subject of rather a lot of debate before we decided to try to slip the chief aboard.”

“Really?” I leaned on the counter and considered her. I wasn’t sure if I felt more intrigued, insulted, or just a little like the last to know.

“Kirsten was very impressed with her. You three did some work aboard here?”

“Yes, I brought Chief Gerheart over to see the ship, and we found the scrubbers dead and stinking up the ship. Kirsten was with us.”

“So I understand.” She smiled at me. “You’re a strange man, Captain.”

“Strange?”

“Why didn’t you invite Greta to be your engineer?”

“She had a job already. A good job with a crew that needed her.” I didn’t feel the need to go into any of the other, more personal, aspects.

She arched an eyebrow at me, and then started filling the sink to wash up a few pots, leaving me to stew.

Feeling baited by my own crew, I pulled a mug out of the rack and grabbed a fresh cup. “I’ll be in my cabin if you need me, Ms. Maloney.”

“Okay, Captain.” The amusement in her voice nettled me but I refused to be drawn. “Will you be cooking for me this evening? Or should I plan on making supper for us?”