“I suspect this is just the beginning. Things are likely to be pretty lively in Betrus, too, don’t you?” I asked Bev.
“Yes. Yes, I think you’re right,” she answered.
Pip just shook his head and laughed. “Someday I’m gonna be able to tell my grandkids I knew you.”
“Yeah, right. With your luck, you’ll be in the cell next to us,” I told him.
I ordered another round when the waitress came by and the room was already growing warm as more people arrived and overloaded the air conditioners.
About half a stan later, Brill came back to the table with an odd, dazed look on her face and the man in tow. “Hey, guys, this is Steve from the Calhoun. Steve, I think you know Beverly, that’s Pip, and this is Ishmael.”
“Hi, Steve,” Bev said. “I thought you were getting off the old Hound.”
He shook his head. “Naw, you know how it is, once you get a bunk broke in, it’s hard to change.”
Bev raised her glass to that.
Brill broke in with, “Um, I’m going to go see Steve’s—”
Bev interrupted with, “Etchings?”
“Yes, etchings. Exactly.”
“We’ll leave a light on for you,” Bev said.
Brill looked at Bev with the oddest expression I think I’ve ever seen on anybody’s face then turned to me. I smiled and winked. “Remember,” I told her.
When they had gone, Pip said, “Sweet python of Pythias, those were tight pants he had on.”
Bev nodded, slurped an ice cube out of her drink, and started crunching it. “Steve knows how to get a girl’s attention, no question about it.”
I turned to Pip and said, “I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling a little inadequate right now.”
“He’d make a horse feel inadequate,” Pip said with more than a little awe in his voice. “He won’t hurt her, will he?”
Bev laughed. “Only if she wants him to.”
About that time a strawberry blonde in a tight, white cashmere sweater, black capris, and knee-high boots laced all the way up plunked down in Pip’s lap and looped an arm around his neck. With a nod to me and a wink at Bev, she turned to Pip and held out her hand. “Hi, my name is Janette and my friend over there is Katie,” she said, nodding back to a brunette in a low-cut blouse sitting in a booth.
Pip shook the offered hand. “Hi. I’m Philip but everybody calls me Pip.”
She didn’t let go of his hand, but leaned in a little closer. “I wonder, Pip, if you’d settle a bet for us.”
“Sure. I will if I can.”
It is not often one sees Pip disconcerted, but the assets wrapped in cashmere so close to his face tangled his usually glib tongue.
“What’s the bet?” I asked.
“Well,” she said, looking directly into Pip’s eyes, “do you know that little sigh that a really satisfied woman makes?”
Pip said, “Yeah?”
“Well, see,” she went on, “Katie bet me ten credits you probably didn’t, but I bet you probably did.”
“Sounds like she owes you the ten creds,” I said, playing the straight man.
“Well, she’s not going to pay out ten creds just on your say-so,” she said with a delightful little pout still staring into Pip’s eyes. “I don’t suppose you’d come with us for a couple stans and prove it?”
“Why, yes. I’d be happy to,” Pip said. “But, what does she get if she wins?”
“She gets to teach you how.”
Bev said, “Sounds like a fair bet to me.”
Janette stood up and drew Pip after her.
As they started off, I called after her, “He’s got duty at 04:30.”
She checked the chrono, and tossed me a saucy wink. “That should be just about right.”
Bev and I watched them go, one on either side. Pip seemed a bit dazed.
“What was that?” I asked.
“Katie and Janette?” Bev asked back. “Bunk mates on the Alistair. They’re getting underway midmorning tomorrow.”
“Bunk mates?”
“Yeah, they have a different culture on the Alistair.”
“I dare say.”
“They’ll give him a good ride and then bring him home. They’re not cruel—usually.”
“You realize he’s going to be insufferable for a month?” I asked.
“Probably two,” Bev agreed.
“I hope he clipped his fingernails.”
Bev took another slug of her drink and nodded agreement.
“Tell me,” I said to her, “is the Lois the only ship—like us?”
“You mean where we don’t screw with crew?” she asked.
“Yeah.”
She shook her head. “No, actually, most ships are like that. Too professional or too much like family.”
“Seems harsh.”
“It’s not all that pleasant on ships like the Audrey and the Alistair,” she said.
“Oh, like being locked on a ship for forty-odd days with somebody you just broke up with?” I asked.
“Or being locked in a ship for forty days with a pair of feuding lovers?” she countered.
“Ouch,” I said.
We grinned at each other. “In spite of that do you wish we were on the Alistair?” I asked her.
She considered it for a bit while she chewed another ice cube. “No,” she said finally. “If we were, we wouldn’t have what we got and I’m liking that a lot.”
“Two more of my ice cubes just melted,” I pointed out.
“Please don’t talk about melting.”
“Sorry.”
She nodded. “So? What are you going to do now?”
I looked around the bar for a few heartbeats. “My work is done here. I think I’ll just drink up and head back to the ship. I got duty in the morning.”
“I do, too. Mind if I join ya?”
We swigged down the drinks and I threw a couple of cred chits on the table. “Let’s go,” I said.
We didn’t need to talk much as we walked back toward the lift. We were communicating just fine.
I pressed the call button and she turned to me with a frown. “What was the word?”
“Valkyrie.”
The lift doors opened and we rode it up in silence. When we got to the Lois’s dock, she keyed the lock and said, “Good word.”
“Thanks.” I paused as the lock cycled. “He won’t hurt her?”
“She’ll thank me in the morning.”
“Still.”
“Yeah,” she agreed with a sad little sigh.
The lock cycled open and we got on with being spacers.
If you enjoyed this novel, you will be happy to learn that…
Half Share is the second in the six book Trader Series from The Golden Age of the Solar Clipper. Nathan’s series tells the tales of everyday men and women, real people doing ordinary things and forging bonds of friendship while traveling the stars in the Deep Dark. It is a coming of age story of Ishmael Horatio Wang—he’s just an average Joe trying to make a living.
This series was originally released as Podcasts, an audio format distributed for free (donations accepted and appreciated), where chapters are released serially. The next four podiobooks in the series are available now and can be listened to at www.podiobooks.com. Ridan Publishing plans to publish each book in the Trader series in both printed and ebooks formats and editing is underway. If you wish to be notified as the books are released please send an email to: ridan.publishing@gmail.com and we’ll let you know when they become available.
Nathan’s stories are some of the most popular out of the hundreds of offerings from www.podiobooks.com, and as of December 2010 he held 5 out of 10 Top Overall Rated (#4 Captain’s Share, #5 Ravenwood, #6 Full Share, #7 Double Share, and #8 Quarter Share) and also 5 out of 10 Top Overall Ratings by Votes (#2 Double Share, #3 Quarter Share, #4 Full Share, #5 Half Share, and #6 Captain’s Share).