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  “Bev, I think we’ve created a monster,” she said softly.

  Bev looked over my shoulder to where Rhon would be standing and grinned. “No,” she said, “he’s always been a monster.” She went on to add softly, “I think Rhon likes the new outfit, Ish.” We split up at the head of the passage to go to our separate bunks.

  As I walked into engineering berthing, Rebecca Saltzman was standing at her locker and I savored the double take she had when she saw me coming. “Wow, you did good, Ish,” she said in open admiration.

  “Thanks, Rebecca. It’s been a pretty interesting day.”

  “I can see that,” she said with an easy grin. “Did you have help picking that out? Or did you do it on your own?”

  “Well, I had to take a woman with me to go clothes shopping, didn’t I? I wouldn’t want to violate any Confederation regulations.”

  She looked confused. “Regulations?”

  I nodded. “Yeah, the one about men not being allowed to go shopping for clothes without at least one woman?”

  “Who told you that?”

  “Brill.” I shrugged.

  At that moment I knew from the look on her face that I had been had.

  “She got me, didn’t she?”

  Rebecca nodded and filled the berthing area with that liquid laugh she had. “Big time.”

  “Ah, well. It worked out really well. Maybe they should make it a reg.”

  Rebecca appraised me up and down in a rather frank and appraising manner that I might have found disturbing earlier in the day. “Maybe they should,” she said with a twinkle in her eye. “Well whoever helped, it worked for you.” She grabbed a towel out of her locker and headed for the san. “If you’ll excuse me. I’m in sudden need of a cold shower.”

  We shared a laugh and I started to unpack my purchases and stow them in my locker. In addition to the extra shirts, I found that M. Roubaille had included a couple extra pair of socks and a half-dozen pairs of the skimpy briefs. I grabbed a ship-tee and boxers from my locker and went into the san to change for bed.

  Tabitha Rondita was the morning watch stander and she woke me just as my tablet bipped. I blinked some of the gunk out of my eyes and rolled out of the sack. I grabbed a quick shower, zipped into a fresh shipsuit, and headed to the mess deck for coffee. Pip and Sarah were setting up the omelet station and they both waved when they saw me come in.

  “Hey!” I said, “How’d it go at the booth yesterday?”

  Sarah beamed. “I sold all my shawls and made over three hundred creds!”

  “I hear she’s a natural, Ish. Biddy said she dominated the table yesterday.” He looked at me oddly and asked, “Did you get a haircut or something? You look different.”

  “I went clothes shopping with Bev, Brill, and Diane yesterday.”

  He nodded sympathetically. “I can see where that would change a man. You going on watch?”

  “Yeah, I’ve got day watch today. I just came to grab some coffee for now. I need to go relieve Diane and then I’ll be back for an omelet once I get things settled down there.”

  “We’ll be here,” Sarah said.

  I filled a mug with coffee and waved as I left.

  ***

  When I stepped through the hatch, Diane sat at the console reading her tablet. She looked up as I entered and grinned. “Look at you! You’re walking tall this morning. What happened after I left last night?”

  “Nothing serious. We went out to dinner at a nice little place on level six that had rotisserie chickens cooking in the window. You could smell them half a corridor away.” I crossed to the console and put my coffee on the desk.

  “Mercy! Do you know how hard that is to get out of the air?”

  I laughed. “I think those were Brill’s exact words. Anyway we had a nice chicken paella and then wandered back to the ship. We got in around 21:30 or there about.”

  “So, Brill kept her word and brought you home early.”

  “Yup, and I musta been tired because I hit the rack and died. Slept like rock.”

  “Well, after yesterday’s performance, I bet you were tired.” Her voice bubbled in a near giggle.

  “More like accumulated exhaustion.”

  “So, are you ready to take over?” When I nodded, she intoned, “Mr. Wang, all ops normal. Routine maintenance on number one scrubber water intake filter was scheduled and performed. You have the watch.”

  “Ms. Ardele, I relieve you. I have the watch.”

  She collected herself and vacated the chair, tablet in one hand and coffee cup in the other. Just before she stepped through the hatch, she turned back to me. “Thanks again for yesterday, Ish. That was fantastic.”

  “I’m glad you were with me. It was an amazing day for me.”

  “Wait until tonight. I’ll be awake and ready to go and, if I know Bev, it’s gonna be a wild night.”

  “Good. Something to look forward to.”

  With a final wave, she left and I settled down to check the ship’s status. The maintenance log indicated that number three water intake trap was due for cleaning. That was an easy one and would give me something to do. My stomach growled loudly, and I decided it was time to go let Pip practice his omelet skills on me again.

  It was still early and I was the only one on the mess deck. Cookie and Sarah were putting up the bread and Pip had omelet duty. He saw me coming and started throwing stuff in his pan. It was half done by the time I crossed the mess deck. It reminded me just how slow port-side duty could be. I grabbed a plate and stood waiting to accept his effort.

  “You’ve been scarce the last couple of days,” he said by way of greeting.

  “I’ve been here. Mostly. Had the morning watch the day we put in, then got tagged with first watch overnight. That was a long stretch. I slept some yesterday morning and then Brill, Bev, and Diane took me clothes shopping in the afternoon. Didn’t get back until about 21:30 last night.”

  He started to lift the omelet out of the pan and I held my plate while he slid the eggss onto it. “That’s what you said. Did you get anything good?”

  “A few things. New boots, jacket, some shirts, and a pair of jeans.”

  I took my plate to a table and he came out to join me with his coffee. “Well, I took Tabitha’s offer and sold her the yarn. We got two hundred fifty creds, but we’re out of stuff to sell here now, except for the stones.”

  “How many of those do we still have?”

  He pondered for a few heartbeats before answering. “A couple of kilos worth. Probably two hundred and fifty of them.”

  “You going up today?” I cut into the omelet with the side of my fork and inhaled the warmth.

  “Yeah, I thought I’d help out here for a bit, get some breakfast myself, and then head up after cleanup. We’ll be done here by 09:00 easily. Technically Sarah’s got the duty today but you know how it is.”

  “I do, indeed.” I took a bite of omelet. “This is good. You’ve been practicing.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Well, I’m on today, but I get off at 18:00. Brill has something in mind for tonight, but I’ll be around tomorrow. I don’t go back on duty until the overnight watch. I can take any stones you don’t sell—or don’t want to sell—up to the flea in the afternoon, if you like.”

  “That’ll help, but what we need is something to take to Betrus. We’ve got a lot of mass that’s begging to be filled.”

  “Yeah, and I spent a lot of cred yesterday so I’ll be looking hard tomorrow. Say, would you bip me when you head down to change? I’d like to get one or two of those stones for myself before they get picked over any more. They’d go great with my new shirts.”

  Pip got a funny look on his face and leaned closer to me. “Ish? Is that you? What’d they do to you yesterday?”

  I laughed with him. “Yeah, I know, but we had a ball. I can’t even begin to describe it.”

  Rhon Scham came in looking for breakfast so Pip scurried to fix an omelet for her. I pretended not to see her glancing
my way every so often, but Pip noticed. He had a problem getting her to pay attention so he could slide the eggs onto her plate. He looked at me with a raised eyebrow and I just shrugged. I was done, so I bussed my dishes, refilled my coffee, and waved to him on my way back to environmental.

  All things considered, it was a pretty uneventful watch. I took one break to pick through the rocks and I found a nice, dark green ovoid and a smaller white one with a golden streak in it. Just after lunch, I did the trap maintenance—not a difficult job but messy. I saved my VSI run until midafternoon to break up my studying and to stretch my legs.

  Francis showed up on the stroke of 17:45. He grinned when he came in. “You survived yesterday, I see.”

  “Oh yeah, it was touch and go for a while, but I made it.”

  “Diane came in all flushed. What’d you guys do anyway?”

  “Does the name Chez Henri mean anything to you?”

  He shook his head. “No, should it?”

  “Probably not. But that’s where we spent the afternoon. We got out just in time for her to come back to the ship and relieve you.”

  “What is it? A restaurant?”

  “Tailor’s shop.”

  “They took you to a tailor?” He smirked at the idea.

  “Yeah, we had a ball, actually.”

  “Well, to each his own.”

  “Mr. Gartner, all ops normal. Maintenance on number three water intake trap scheduled and performed. You have the watch.”

  “Mr. Wang, I relieve you. I have the watch,” he replied, then added, “Did you get a haircut or something? You look different.”

  “Nope, but you’re not the first one to say that.”

  Chapter 18

  DUNSANY ROADS ORBITAL

  2352-APRIL-17

  Brill stopped by during my watch and we arranged to eat aboard before heading out for the evening’s festivities. Cookie had one of his garlic and lamb dishes on the menu with fresh potatoes and it sounded good to me. I had smelled it all afternoon every time I had gone into the mess deck for coffee. The aroma made me drool in anticipation. When I stepped onto the mess deck for dinner, I found Diane and Brill having some kind of intense discussion.

  I crossed to their table and heard Diane say, “But Murdock? You know what happened the last time—”

  Brill saw me coming and gave me one of those big smiles. “Hi, Ish.”

  Diane turned to me then and I got a matching grin from her. “You even look better in that shipsuit. Funny what some new clothes will do, huh?”

  “Problems?” I asked looking back and forth between them.

  Diane shook her head. “No, just having a little discussion about a contractor.”

  “We need some plumbing done and we’re just trying to figure out who and when.” Brill lied very smoothly, but I did not call her on it. If she wanted me to know, she would tell me. It did pique my interest though.

  “Okay, well, I’m starved, so I’ll be right back.”

  Sarah was in the galley with Cookie and they were working on something with a lot of flour scattered around the prep table. It looked like pie crust discussions, so I just waved. I did not want to get into the shortening versus butter debate just then.

  The lamb and potatoes looked great, though, and they had sautéed some carrots as a vegetable side. It smelled divine and I took a big helping, dithering around the buffet until Diane and Brill had hashed out—or at least set aside—whatever it was they were discussing but did not want me to know about. When the coast appeared relatively clear, I headed back to my seat.

  “Okay, what’s on the agenda for tonight?” I asked.

  “We’re meeting Bev around 21:00, so we’ve got some time to get ready. There’s a bar down on the oh-two level that caters to spacers. Good drinks, music is usually live, and the people there all understand what being a spacer means,” Brill said.

  I glanced at Diane who still had a bit of a glower going on and asked, “What’s that mean? About being a spacer?”

  Diane answered, “Civilians have a different perspective. They’re going to be here next week. We’re not. It can be problematic at times.”

  Whatever they were talking about was all Greek to me, so I just nodded like I understood. I dove into the lamb and potatoes. It was superb. Say what you will about the ambiance on the mess deck, but the food was always excellent. With Pip and Cookie augmenting the stores’ budgets with port-trading, it was definitely improving, too.

  It did not take long to put away my dinner, so I bussed my plates and drew a fresh mug of coffee for dessert. I did not want to fill up too much. I had a feeling I was in for a long night. “Anything I should do to get ready?” I asked. “Trim my nose hair? Shave my legs?”

  I caught Diane in mid-drink but she recovered well. “Where’d you hear that?”

  “Mom always shaved her legs before a hot date,” I said with a smile. “And she always came home complaining about guys with an excess of nose hair.”

  “Tell ya what,” Brill said. “We’ll shave our legs. You trim your nose hair. Clip your nails while you’re at it. You don’t know where those fingers might end up.”

  She caught me with that one, but I did not recover as well as Diane had. I had to get towels from the galley to clean up the table. That was the point where I knew for sure that it was going to be an interesting night.

  We horsed around over the remains of dinner until 19:00, then cleared our table to help Sarah out as much as possible before going our separate ways. I headed for the gym to get in a short run and a sauna. I took it easy because of dinner, but it felt good to run. I had been so busy the previous few days that I did not really have much of a chance to exercise. The sauna felt good too, and I had the place to myself. I let the heat seep into me and worked on that feeling of languid relaxation that only serious heat brings.

  Afterward, I took a quick splash at the gym to get the sweat and grime off, but headed up to the berthing area to get my real showering in. Rebecca was reading in her bunk when I got up to the berthing area.

  “Not going out?” I asked her.

  She shook her head. “I got duty in the morning and I’ve already had one late night and hangover here. I’ll wait until tomorrow for another. Looks like you’re going.”

  “Yup. Someplace down on the oh-two deck.”

  “Well, have fun and leave some booze for us.”

  “I’m not much of a drinker.”

  “In that case, be careful. If the tip of your nose starts getting numb, shift to ginger ale with a cherry in it.”

  “Does the cherry help?”

  “Yeah, it makes it look like you’re drinking so people stop bugging ya.”

  I made a mental note of that one. The implication of what she had said as well as the tip. “Thanks. I’ll remember.”

  I like to have a good time as much as the next guy, but on my sixteenth birthday, Mom got me really drunk and I was sick as a dog. When I came to on the bathroom floor, lying in a puddle of my own making, she was sitting on the floor of the hallway outside. She said just one word, “Remember.” Then she left me to clean up the mess. Rebecca had just given me a good warning and I intended to heed it.

  I took my jeans and briefs with me into the san and started to get ready. I took my time preening. It was not like I had a lot of beard yet. My hair was just too fine, but I had seen guys with wispy hair trying to look older by letting it grow out and I did not want to be one of those guys. While I was at it, I trimmed my nose hairs and clipped my nails for luck. The shower felt good and I let it finish what I had started in the gym. When I got out I dried off, slipped into my briefs and jeans, and bundled up my shipsuit and skivvies. I stowed them in the bottom of my locker and then faced the decision of which shirt to wear. The pink looked good, but I had just worn it and I wanted to spread the wear out a bit. The turtleneck was likely to be too hot in a crowded club, and the crewneck just did not feel dressy enough. I was standing there in my jeans, shirtless and barefoot when I real
ized Rebecca had moved to the berthing area table. I glanced over at her and caught her staring at me.

  “What?” I asked. “Is something wrong?” I checked my buttons and made sure they were done up.

  “Oh, no,” she purred in that voice that would melt titanium. “But if you’re gonna put on a show like that, I wanted a front row seat.”

  I laughed and threw my wet towel at her. She caught it, threw it back, and pretended to go back to her reading. I pulled the white oxford shirt out of the locker, slipped it on, and slowly buttoned it up, taking care to get the tails tucked in just right. I picked the green stone and tied the leather around my neck so that it lay just below my collar bone in the hollow of my throat. I took my socks and boots over to the table and sat there to slip them on.

  Rebecca moaned. “You’re a tease.”

  “Thanks,” I said, and she slugged me in the arm with a laugh.

  When I got the boots on, I pulled the coat out of my locker and slipped into it, leaving it unbuttoned before turning to the big mirror outside the san. I thought I looked good and, judging from Rebecca’s blush, she thought so too.

  “Okay, well, I think I’m ready,” I told her. “Don’t wait up.”

  “Take care, Ish. Have fun.”

  ***

  Bev, Diane, and Brill were all waiting at the lock. Bev in leathers, of course, but wearing a man’s cut dress shirt with the top three buttons undone. With her smaller bust, the effect was devastating without being trashy. Funny the effect a shirt could have. Diane wore her painted-on sized jeans, a green scoop necked pullover, and a brown leather jacket. She walked that line between somebody you wanted to hug and somebody you wanted protection from. Brill stopped my heart, though. She wore a pair of low slung slacks in black leather and a cropped sweater in baby-blue mohair under a suede jacket. Her midriff was bare from the top of her hip bones to the bottom of her rib cage. She had a stylized tattoo of a sun around her navel, and the effect was smashing.

  “Well,” I said when I could catch my breath, “I never knew you had a tattoo, Big B.”