We slowed the pace for the last half lap, cooling a bit, and both lost in our own thoughts. I was a bit worried about Pip and hoped he was okay. I should have been thinking about the probability that it would be just Sandy and me in the sauna together and how awkward that would be, but it never crossed my mind. I almost stumbled on the ladder as I was carefully not thinking about that possibility. Turns out she just showered and disappeared, so it wasn’t an issue. The sauna wasn’t empty though. Mr. Maxwell was there.
He acknowledged my entrance with a nod. “Mr. Wang.”
“Mr. Maxwell, sar.” I smiled in what I hoped was an acceptable manner and chose my seat carefully. Not to close in case he wanted to be alone, nor too far away to appear rude if he wanted to talk.
“Mr. von Ickles tells me you’re considering going for all four ratings.” He commented as if speaking to the steam, rather than myself.
“Ah, yes, sar. I am.”
“Interesting approach. Why are you doing that?” His head swiveled to aim his eyes at me through the murk.
I was worried about what he might be thinking and wasn’t sure how to explain to someone of his rank. I didn’t know what was appropriate. “It’s not exactly easy to explain, sar.”
“Well, Mr. Wang, I’d like to hear your reasoning.” When I looked over, I was shocked to see him smiling.
I was almost too surprised to answer. “Well, sar, I’m not sure what I want to do, but these last five weeks have been the most challenging and oddly enjoyable in my admittedly short life.”
“Yes?” With that one word, I knew Mr. Maxwell was a master at prying more information out of people. My mother had the same skill.
“I can’t explain it, but I suppose the best word I can come up with is therapeutic.” I realized that therapeutic was exactly the word and if Mr. Maxwell wanted to talk to me, then by the holy I would talk back.
He chuckled softly and then added seriously, “I lost my parents only recently as well. I’m sure it was not as traumatic as it must have been for you.”
“I’m sorry to hear that, sar.”
“Thank you, Mr. Wang, but you were saying…about your choice in career advancement?”
“Well, sar, being stuck on Neris, needing to leave before the company deported me, and having no real idea of what to do or how to do it…made me feel helpless.”
He grunted.
“I lucked out when Ms. O’Rourke helped me get on the Lois, but I can’t count on, or trust to luck in the future. I don’t ever want to be stranded like that again, so I’m trying to select a path that maximizes my options.”
Mr. Maxwell smiled again-a thoroughly disconcerting expression. “So you’re pursuing all four half share ratings just on the off chance that you might get stranded somewhere?”
“Yes, sar. Partly. The other thing is that I really never expected to be working on a freighter, not in my wildest dreams. I have no idea what rating I might like best because I know almost nothing about any of them. The only way to find out is to study and perhaps do some of them to see for myself.”
He nodded. “Prudent.” The way he said it made it feel like a compliment.
I felt the irrational need to respond. “Thank you, sar.”
Mr. Maxwell stood then and headed out to the showers. “Carry on, Mr. Wang. You’ve set yourself an interesting task. Good luck with it.” He disappeared out the door.
I basked in the heat for a few more minutes, still somewhat shaken by our conversation and not entirely trusting my legs. Truth be told, I also wanted to give Mr. Maxwell time to finish his shower and leave. One close encounter with him was enough for one night. Junior crew members don’t generally associate with senior officers as a rule.
Later, on a whim, I checked my tablet. The ship’s record showed everybody’s ratings. Mr. Maxwell had held all four, as had the captain. None of the other officers held any crew ratings at all, although they did have the appropriate licenses for their jobs. I wondered at that as I drifted off to sleep in the nearly silent berthing area. Tabitha was staying on-station and I kinda missed her little snorty-snores from the other side of the partition.
Chapter 11
Darbat Orbital
2351-October-23
The morning grind was not just slow, it was practically non-existent. As usual, the watch stander woke me, but when I got to the mess deck, Cookie and I were the only ones there. While underway, there were always at least a couple people lounging about for first dibs on fresh pastries and coffee, but not that day. I got the urns going and started setting up the steam table, when Cookie stopped me.
“I would be most surprised if we have more than five or six people for breakfast, young Ishmael. We’ll just have omelets, I think. Would you like one?”
He was correct, of course, and his omelet was perfect. Mr. Maxwell and the captain each came down, collected some food, and left. A couple of the engineering standers came in at the watch change along with Brill Smith. None of them seemed very talkative although the two from engineering group had a desultory, “Yes it is, no it’s not,” back and forth about something that neither of them elucidated.
Brill smiled and brought her coffee to sit with me. “Quiet, eh?”
I nodded. “Not much happening this morning.”
“Rating exam in ten standays. Are you ready?”
“I think so, but…” I shrugged.
She chuckled. “You’ll do fine.” She leaned in and lowered her voice. “Did I hear you’re taking two tests?”
“Yeah, engineering and cargo. The cargo one looks pretty easy.”
“Then what? You gonna look for another berth?”
“No, I’m happy here and to be honest have enough to figure out without trying to unravel transfers. I’ve been aboard for less than two months and I’m still getting lost on my way to the head.” I was only half joking.
“What then? You’re just going to sit on your ratings?”
“Um, actually…” I started, but was a bit reticent about continuing.
Brill gave me a kind of sideways nod as if to say, Yeah? Actually…what?
“I’m going to study for steward and deck after that.”
Brill slapped the table, making the engineers jump but it didn’t stop their bickering. “I knew it.” She grinned fiercely at me. “I’m sure you can do it. Deck is the hardest because there’s so many things you have to know. I could never pass that myself. I’m just not wired that way. You’re already immersed in steward so that shouldn’t be too difficult.”
“You think so?” After weeks of studying the wide-ranging engineering material, I had a hard time imagining somebody who’d mastered them would believe that deck was hard.
“Yeah, I’ve got half share rating in steward myself, but environmental is my love. I never want to do anything else.”
“Then why did you take the steward test?”
“I started with that. I made the shift to environmental about five stanyers ago and I never regretted the change. The steward rating was useful. It got me up and going, but I’d never go back.”
Cookie brought her omelet and I went to the galley to help him set the bread for later. We didn’t cook that many meals when docked, but we did go through a lot of sandwiches, so he baked extra loaves.
“You’re getting to be well thought of, young Ishmael.” he smiled and nodded out to where Brill sat with her omelet. “I had no doubts, myself.”
The rest of the day was extremely low key. After we got the bread rising, I did the normal galley clean up but so little needed doing that I was done by 09:00. Cookie gave me the rest of the morning off. “Just be back by 11:00. We’ll be doing soup and sandwiches for lunch. I’ll have you lay out the meats and cheeses.”