Chapter 27 Sanre-tay Days 4 and 5 – Miccall's Memorial Dinner
Between Jann and myself, we found fifteen old spaceers, mostly captains and chief engineers and with the promise of drink and a Barlan and Saysa prepared meal, we'd no problem setting an early date for the gathering. I spent the day helping to prepare the meal, selecting the beverages from the supplies Min had brought along with her, and getting the dining salon and awning deck festive for the gathering.
Vynnia and Tenry had gone down to Lontria to spend the day with Min, where they were planning on touring some colorful dissident communities. I sent the price list Nat had sent up with Tenry for her consideration. Tenry being the expert, I told him I'd leave the decision in his and Min's hands. They arrived back aboard the ship as I was setting the table in the dining salon.
'Don't you have a staff to do that, Captain?' Vynnia asked, watching me.
'Attention to details First, attention to the little details,' I replied brightly, just to annoy her. 'This is tramping; we're jacks of all trades. How was your visit? Any luck changing her mind?'
From the narrow look Vynnia gave me and her short, 'No', I rather suspect just the reverse – Min spent the time on the subject trying to convince (order?) them to stay aboard the Lost Star. I tried looking sadly disappointed, but truth be told, I'd not expected them to sway her, so astonishment at success would have been my only authentic reaction.
Jann arrived before the rest of the guests, and we greeted them as they arrived. Riv and Lilm and Illy were all on hand too, all old spaceers who've known each other for decades. All you have to do to keep things festive was maintain liquid splashing in their drinking globes before and after the meal. I've collected quite a score of Miccall yarns over the years, but I collected a few more over the course of the evening, though nothing new about the Four Shipmate era which predates even these old shipmates and rivals. It was early the next morning when they were more or less towed to a boat sent from their ship to take them off and I was able to find my hammock again. Getting into it proved to be a slight problem. Sleep wasn't.
The following day started a little late for me. I spent the morning, what little was left of it, going over the plan and budget Min and Tenry had decided on. I asked Tenry to step in when I called down to & Kin's to do the final negotiation with Nat. We managed to get ten top notch Viper XD mk 7's and a hundred Dodger 77 mini-missiles, designed to deflect small meteors, but used mainly as anti-missile missiles in the drifts, by trading in forty of our current missiles plus additional credits. They would just qualify us for an A level rating –hopefully all we'd needed them for. We also negotiated a twenty percent finder's fee for any hidden treasures we might turn up in the wrecks which might help pay for them. Tenry had decades of experience searching for smuggler's nooks in ships, so he thought he'd have a go at some likely wrecks if he had the time. He made no guarantees, but I'd hopes.
That evening I posted word that we'd be going down to & Kin's flats. I knew it'd be a popular excursion, so Lili and the system techs would have plenty of help finding and pulling the systems we needed.