Bev punched the lock code and the three of us strode onto the ship. Rhon Scham had the gangway watch and when she saw the three of us coming, I saw the reaction on her face. Her eyes danced from Bev, then to Brill, and came to rest on me. I smiled at her and unbuttoned my jacket, slipped just fingers of my right hand into the pocket of my jeans, and stood with one hip cocked while Bev and Brill checked in. I pretended not to notice the way Rhon kept swallowing hard or the blossom of color around her ears and down to the collar of her shipsuit.
It took a bit longer for me to check in because of the adjustments to mass. While I left with only the clothes on my back, I came back with considerably more. The difference in mass was not all that much, an extra couple of kilos perhaps. Most of what I brought back did not weigh much.
As I followed Bev and Brill down the passage into the ship, I slipped off my jacket and slung it over my shoulder so Rhon would get the full effect of my jeans walking away. I did not look back but I was pretty sure she was watching. Brill caught the gesture and gave a low chuckle.
“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.”