Chapter 43 Day 28 Shipboard Life
Molaye and I had the watch. Just like old times. I'd spent two years standing watch with her bringing her along as an apprentice pilot. She's a natural rocket pilot, so it wasn't a demanding job, just occasionally nerve racking when she would be more of a rocket pilot than I thought she should be at that stage.
'I've been meaning to ask you if are you're out of the pool yet?' I asked as we sat on the bridge, monitoring the long range sensors. We'd gotten the ship's old drone refurbished and it was now sailing ahead of us, just within contact range – with its sensor reading being relayed to us, we had a comfortable radar range now. When we weren't under power, we'd just two people on the watch, mostly on lookout duty and to monitor the ship's systems, and to keep each other awake.
She gave me a hard, squinty-eyed look. 'Yes. No thanks to you, Captain.'
'Sorry,' I said insincerely, with a smile.
The day after my encounter with Min in no. 4 hold, she told me that she saw no reason why she shouldn't occupy the owner's suite, so after our evening meal, I took the opportunity to announce that change. Unfortunately, I phrased the announcement rather awkwardly, as in, I've been taking to Tallith, and we'd like to announce... at which point, Molaye broke in with a sharp, quiet Yes! and a broad smile, which generated broad smiles around the table as well.
I realized immediately that the nature of our announcement had been misinterpreted, by Molaye, if not all the others.
Grinning broadly, Molaye said 'Sorry to interrupt you, go on Captain. You and Tallith are about to announce what?'
I gave her my darkest, most menacing glare, which never had any effect on her, and continued with the announcement about Min moving into the owner's suite.
Undeterred, Molaye boldly asked where I was moving to, and when I told her I wasn't moving anywhere, she gave me my dark menacing stare right back. She's had her ticket less than four months now, and I'm beginning to see in her what I'd been warned about. She is fearless. And bold. But her saving grace is that she's also absolutely loyal, so that I can easily put up with what other captains might consider insolence because I trust her. And she's a great rocket pilot, every bit as good as Min. I was a lucky captain in that regard, though there was a price to be paid.
Anyway, back on the bridge...
'You let me down, Captain,' she continued. 'Our dashing captain goes and kidnaps our owner and carries her off for what should be a five-month honeymoon, and then, suddenly loses his nerve and just pussyfoots around, like some old Captain Crofter. It's damn annoying. And I bet it's annoying to Min too.'
'That's just your missing credits talking. And I happen to like the Captain Crofter stories.'
'You surprise me, Captain!' she exclaimed sarcastically.
In the world of fictional space stories, Captain Crofter, or ol'Cap'n Crofter is a fictional grumpy owner of a run-down in-system trader who's always being put upon and whining about it, holding down the opposite end of the fictional spectrum from Brilliant Pax, the fearless doer of bold deeds.
'Well, I'm certainly not Brilliant Pax.'
'You almost were! All of a sudden, the mild mannered, better safe than sorry, mister efficiency first mate bumped up to captain, starts acting boldly, never say never, sweeping his girl off her feet and carrying her away, like it or not. And then, just as suddenly, it's back to the mild mannered, hapless, apologetic Cap'n Crofter... If you start something, finish it!' she said. I knew she was playing the Dark Neb's knife, and playing it more sharply than just about anyone on board, except perhaps Riv and Illy would dare to, because she knew full well she could get away with it. However, I suspect there was a bit of true feelings in her protest as well.
'The change was all in your imagination. You seem to forget that I hardly swept Min off her feet. I sent Vyn and Ten to enforce a Guild contract. Hardly a beacon of ardor or boldness.'
'And why not?'
'Because they could do it more efficiently than I. But the real point here is that there is no romantic relationship between Min and me. She's our owner, my boss, and our shipmate, and I assure you no one's going to win those credits.'
'I'd not mind losing mine. Lift it, Captain. You're too young to act like an old Captain Crofter!'
'And too old to act young,' I replied with a laugh. 'I am what I am.'
Still I've changed, and changed a lot, I think. At least I notice changes in little things. For example, take yesterday's twin blade practice in no. 4 hold.
We'd spent almost two hours working out under Barlan's instructions, Molaye, Kie and myself. Molaye the ever the faithful protégé, had taken up Mycolmtre's two blade style fencing as a form of exercise, as had Kie, though more to be with Molaye than to learn the art – though with her carefree fierceness, he might look on it as a precaution as well. After we'd finished going through our exercise and forms, Barlan and I started our usual sparring session to end the practice.
Across the deck, the two new drones were spread out – Riv was straddling one of them directing Min in removing a fuel pump or something, while Tenry and Rafe were dismantling the control system in the nose cone.
I was working hard even though we were fencing in free fall and only kept attached to the deck by our bio-controlled magnetic boots. Keeping fit in free fall is hard work, and bio-electric stimulation, while effective in maintaining muscle tone and strength, is not all that pleasant, and generally avoided, so that the muscles built by twenty days of pseudo gravity were already in danger of growing slack. To try to prevent that, I was working hard, even fiercely.
I may not have been working any harder than I had in the past, but my outlook, and perhaps my style had changed as a result of my duel. Between fear, unfamiliar weapons, and an unfamiliar setting I may have fenced at perhaps 45% of my potential. And looking back, that was a sobering thought. Only the fact that Max was totally unfamiliar with the techniques of two blade fencing allowed me to escape the duel alive. But getting out alive changed me. I'd a different perspective on our sparring now. On one hand, I knew from firsthand experience, all the touches and hits Barlan scored on me would have ended my life had it been a real duel, but I also knew I couldn't expect my opponent to fall on his sword either. I had to make things happen and...
And it was just that quick. I simply knew what Barlan was going to do next – we'd been sparring for 15 years – and I knew both the safe defense, which I'd always used, if I could, and the counter move and attack which I never did, but I used it now, because that's what I would've needed to do in a real duel...
In an instant I trapped his blade between my dagger and sword hilts and wrenched it from his grip to send it twisting through the air, luckily towards a blank bulwark and leaped to the attack. Well, Barlan is a master of the art and still had more skill than I with only his dagger. He had to move, and move swiftly, but he did and nearly reached me in one attack. We may have sparred for a minute or two, two blades against one short one, before I decided to quit while I was ahead, so I leaped back and saluted him to end the match.
He returned the salute and tore off his mask with a wide grin. 'At last!' he exclaimed stepping over and giving me a great hug. 'No one's disarmed me in a hundred years! You've come on to your own, Wil!'
'For all the good it did me. I had to quit while you were still untouched. You'd have touched me sooner or later.'
'You did that so you'd not tire an old man out.'
'Hardly Bar, you almost had me with your dagger several times. And well, after 15 years, our fencing is pretty much like a dance, I know what you're going to do next. The only difference is this time I did something other than what I've always done at just the right time.... Something you taught me well '
'Ah but that's the point. You saw the pattern and attacked in the pattern. It won't take another 15 years to see the pattern once you have the insight. I'll have to be very careful from here on out, Wil. You've come into your own.'
I added, 'Finally!'
Stil
l made my day. And though I may've come into my own – I haven't been able to do it again, though I try it a lot more often these days.
I can hardly take credit for the changes, most have been forced on me by circumstances well beyond my control. I've found a bit of ruthlessness in me, that I never knew I had. Enforcing my Guild contracts with not only Min, but Tenry and Vynnia as well, would've been well out of character for me a year ago. Only my reputation for looking after details and being a slave to efficiency gives this ruthlessness some cover. I'm far from certain I like all this change, but I'm pretty certain it, and all the other little ways I've changed are all quite necessary.
I'll conclude this entry, with a short description of life aboard the Lost Star now that we're done with engines and will be for the next two months.
Once the engines are shut down and we're no longer accelerating, the atmosphere aboard ship changes. We settle into a more relaxed and rather timeless routine – a nearly frictionless groove – so necessary for a happy ship in space. When free fall returns, life aboard becomes much slower paced. As in our planetary runs, everyone still has their twelve hours of work, but with such a long passage ahead of us, we take this very causally. The active watch on the bridge is reduced to two people who act as lookouts and can make course changes if necessary. Being tramp spaceers, everyone on board can con the ship when it's coasting, correcting the slight alterations or avoiding rocks using the steering rockets, so everyone stands a single four-hour watch on the bridge each day, with the other eight hours spent working in whatever department needs some extra hands. Twelve hours of work is excessive on a Unity planet, but aboard ship, where the options for using one's free time are very limited compared to a planet, the casual work of a coasting ship is more welcomed than dreaded.
The engineering department absorbs a great deal of this surplus labor. After a power run, much of the equipment is gone over and refurbished, if necessary. It's not so much that the equipment is frail, but rather that a failure can be expensive and potentially catastrophic. And if neglect should disable a ship, the ship's captain and the chief engineer usually end up flying taxis, assuming they survived their neglect.
Usually these free fall days last no more than a week or two when sailing in the planetary belts of the eight stars, but we'll have two months of idle time before we'll be under power again, and then, for only a few days while we shape our course for Zilantre on the far side of the Anjur Passage. After that it's back to free fall for a month and a half until we begin our deceleration. In short, idle days stretch far beyond our usual horizon, so we've adopted a very easy pace.
Luckily, we have several big projects to keep us busy. The first is the refurbishing of the three drones. If we end up sailing in the drifts, we'd want a drone or two ahead to extend the reach of our sensors which will allow us to travel at greater speeds. Even now we have the old drone refurbished and sailing ahead, since traveling at interstellar speeds creates that ionized shell about the ship which considerably reduces radar range, though in this well-traveled space lane, it's not really necessary. The sensor records of every Guild ship that travels this route is downloaded and uploaded by all the following ships, so the survey is always up to date.
With a great deal of time on our hands, Riv promised he'd not only restore the drones as good as new, but rather, better than new – with upgraded sensors and controls. Of course, when he said he'd restore them better than new, he meant he'd direct and supervise crew members who'd do the actual work. But then, that's the way the knowledge is passed along. And Riv gets his hands dirty often enough – even while sitting atop a drone directing people can be weary work after a while. Seeing that I hope to have the opportunity of restoring a rocket boat of my own someday, I've taken a hand in the rebuilding process as well, though I make certain our three youngest crew members, Min, Molaye and Kie have plenty of opportunity to learn as well.
In addition, I've been spending several hours each day working in the garden and galley, and forcing myself to spend an hour or two delving into the vast volume of shipping intelligence reports Min had assembled on Lontria concerning both the Amdia and Aticor systems and the Myzar Drift. Once our Zilantre cargo is delivered, we'll need to find agents and shipbrokers if we're to make our way in this new trade system, and finding agents that'll serve our needs well, meant going through hundreds of captains' reports to pick out the most successful agents serving our trade. It was rather dry reading, and though I'd more than four months to get through it, I knew that three months from now I was unlikely to find them any more interesting, so I've kept on it.
With more free time, our musically talented people have begun an ambitious program of adding new pieces to their repertoire. This means we have music either in the library – when they're first working out the tune – or as a concert on the awning deck under the dark glowing sky of the Nine Star Nebula. We'd a million books and vids to read and watch, and everyone has a hobby or two – many of which lie idle, save for long voyages like this, so we've kept busy so far, but, we've only began.