Chapter 22
Margary Station
2352-January-12
Next morning in the galley, Pip stopped by for breakfast before heading out to do his stint at the flea market and I shared with him the information I found about Lois.
Pip nodded slowly. “Okay, that explains where the name and banner came from. But why did the captain give it to us to use?”
“I understand that part,” I said. “It’s probably been sitting around in storage for the last, I don’t know how long, and when we started renting the booth, she broke it out.”
Cookie tossed a tidbit of his own onto the table as he walked by. “The captain was in cargo before she went to the Academy to get her officer stripes. As I understand it, her whole family is involved with trading in one way or another.”
I nodded. “See, that’s all part and parcel. Very consistent. I mean this ship is named for her great-grandmother and if that’s really her in this picture, then they were close.”
Pip nodded with a shrug. “So? What part are you confused by?”
“Who is Lois McKendrick?”
“You just answered that.”
I shook my head. “Not that Lois McKendrick. The one who has that banner registered on her mass allotment.”
Cookie over heard and chuckled. “Oh, that’s tradition, young Ishmael. Lois is the ship’s pooka-a kind of spirit. There’s always an honorary berth for the person that the ship is named after. It’s an unpaid position, of course, and they don’t appear on any duty roster, but that berth shares all the other benefits of being any other crew member. By tradition, a vessel’s captain can use that berth as a kind of alter ego to do things for the benefit of the ship. Usually they are a kind of conduit for random acts of kindness.”
“So over on the Duchamp there’s actually a berth for Marcel Duchamp?” Pip asked.
Cookie nodded. “Exactly so. It gets peculiar on some vessels, especially those named for cities or animals, but the tradition is common.”
Pip just shook his head. “Live and learn.” He rose to take his dishes to the galley and while he was gone, Cookie pulled out a package and placed it at the table where Pip had been sitting. He winked, held a finger to his lips, and then followed Pip into the galley.
When Pip got back and saw it, he turned to me. “What’s this?”
I just shrugged.
Looking inside, Pip pulled out some drapery clips and a dark blue tablecloth. “Oh, perfect. Where’d this come from?”
I shrugged. “Dunno. Must be from Lois.” I could see Cookie peeking out from the galley.
Pip chuckled and called out as he left, “Thanks, Lois.”
Some of the watch standers came in for breakfast, and I told Cookie to finish his coffee. Omelets, I could manage. It felt good, but before long, he was helping and eventually elbowed me off to make coffee and set bread. That man wasn’t happy unless he was feeding somebody, so I left him to it and just filled in where I could. Beverly came in and I told her about the meeting with the captain and showed her the entry about Lois McKendrick with the picture of the banner.
“That’s interesting. What do you suppose it all means?”
“Which part? The fact that she rented the space in the name of the cooperative, or that she gave Pip and me a short but blistering lecture on letting the rest of the crew take advantage of our booth? Or the strong sense I have that she’s expecting Pip and me to do something, and that she’ll support us if we do, but she wants us to figure it out on our own.”
Bev shrugged. “I dunno. All of the above, I guess.”
I sighed. “I have a lot to figure out.”
“Well, I shouldn’t take up any more of your time then. I need to get back to my duty station anyway.” She left me and I went back to the galley to let the daily routine distract me from thinking any more about it. The routine felt good and I sank into it like a hot bath letting it carry me through the morning. I decided after lunch, I would go down to environmental.
When I stepped through the hatch, Diane and Brill were there examining one of the oxygen scrubbers. I overheard them talking. “It looks like we’re going to have to change out the matrix, I guess.”
Diane nodded with a grimace. When she saw me, she grinned. “Just in time. You here to work or flirt?”
I chuckled. “Both if I can get away with it.”
Brill smiled as well. “Well, you’ll have to flirt with her. I’ve got quarterlies to finish.”
“What’s up?” I nodded toward the oxygen scrubber.
“This matrix is starting to die out and it needs to be replaced.”
Brill sighed. “It really is a two person job, but I have got to finish this paperwork today or I won’t be able to get off the ship tomorrow. Unfortunately, Diane is alone this watch.”
“How long will it take?”
Diane shook her head. “Not long. Two stans if we work hard.”
“I got two stans before I have to be back in the galley. Let’s get cracking.”
“Thanks, Ish.” Brill chucked me on the arm. “You’re a peach.”
“Yeah, soft, fuzzy, with a hard wooden core, I know.” I grinned at her then turned to Diane. “Okay, I’m at your disposal. Where do we start?”
The time went by really fast. Diane was as good with the scrubber as she had been in the booth the day before. The work consisted of stripping out the old algae matrix from the frames, washing them down, stringing up new material, and re-inoculating it. It would take about half a day before the algae settled in and started producing oxygen so it was important to do it as soon as one started to die off. Diane told me it was one of the least favored jobs in environmental, made worse by the fact that every scrubber had to be reworked about once a month.
The process wasn’t difficult. A metal frame sandwiched the matrix foundation and held it taut. This film gave the algae something to adhere to. We pulled each one out of the scrubber, released the clips that held the front and back together, separated the halves, and rolled the old material out like a kind of slimy, brown jelly roll that was a meter long and half a meter thick. Then we had to wash the frame down and roll in fresh matrix material then stretch and smooth it down before locking them together again. Diane used a sprayer to coat it with new algae in a uniform layer. The completed assembly was then ready to load into the scrubber. While the process wasn’t difficult, it was time-consuming with forty-eight units that needed to be replaced. We had to prevent cross-contamination, so we stripped and washed everything down before we started re-assembling and hanging the fresh frames. It was tedious, wet, and slimy work for the entire duration. When we were done, I was soaked, filthy, and exhausted. What’s more, I needed to get back to the galley to help Cookie.
Diane and Brill both thanked me repeatedly for helping out, but I had to admit it was really kinda fun. Diane is what my mom would have called good people and had a wicked sense of humor that made even a boring exercise like changing out algae matrices enjoyable. Besides, she looked good in a mucky, wet shipsuit. Who could argue with that?
I was a little late but Cookie waved it off. “Brill called to explain you might be delayed, young Ishmael.” He smiled in his understanding way. “If you can spend your free time helping out in another department, then I can forgive your being four ticks late to fix dinner. One thing, though-”