Uncle Q said, "Well, they were proud of you for winning that scholarship so they didn't have to pay tuition and fees." He winked. "That was ingenious."

Aunt P slapped him on the leg. "Don't encourage the boy, Quentin," she snapped. She turned back to Pip. "You know we're going to have to tell them, Phillip."

He nodded with a miserable expression on his face, but he didn't say anything.

Aunt P threw herself back in her easy chair and took another pull of whiskey from the gla.s.s before heaving a sigh. "So, what are you planning, Phil?"

He looked up. "Well, I just wanted to get a feel for what it's like on the other side before I got tied down at the academy, Aunt P. Take a year-or two-"

"Or three?" she interrupted.

He shrugged. "Or three. See whether I could make it out here trading on my own for a bit."

She stared at him. "You always were the h.e.l.lion of the group," she said. "Are you going to hide out for the rest of your life?"

"Actually, Ishmael and I were just discussing going to the academy over dinner, weren't we?"

All three seemed to remember I was there and focused on me. "Are you interested in going to the academy, Ishmael?" Aunt P asked.

"I don't know," I told her honestly. "It's something that Captain Giggone has suggested. I don't know how I can manage it, but I'm thinking about it."

"Alys Giggone has talked to you about going to the academy?" Uncle Q asked.

"Yeah, I told her I wanted to work out my contract and see if I still liked it out here before I committed that kind of time and money."

Aunt P smiled. "Well, if I know Alys, you'll make up your mind the way she wants, and you'll like the decision too."

I smiled at that. "No doubt, sar-er-Penny. No doubt."

Uncle Q asked me, "So what's your rating, Ishmael?"

Pip started laughing, but he got it under control quickly. "You're gonna love this answer. Go for it, Ish."

"Well, I'm rated Cargoman, Messman, Able s.p.a.cer, Spec Two Systems, and Spec Two environmental."

The statement lay there on the coffee table feeling lonely for a time before Roger said, "Gawd!"

"You're rated full share in all four divisions?" Aunt P confirmed.

"Yup, he is," Pip said with a little bit of pride.

"You look so young," she said. "How long have you been a s.p.a.cer?"

Pip choked back another laugh.

"Well, I'll be finishing my first year in a couple of weeks," I said, uncomfortable with the way this was going.

"And do you come from a s.p.a.cer family?" Aunt P persisted.

"Um, no. My mother was an ancient lit professor at the University at Neris."

Aunt P and Uncle Q looked at me, then each other, and then back at me. "No wonder Alys wants him to go to the academy," Uncle Q said.

Aunt P just nodded with a speculative look in her eye. "You looking for a berth, Ish?" she asked.

"No, Penny, thank you. I quite enjoy my work on the Lois for now."

"Well, if you change your mind, let me know," she said. "Somebody with your skill set is highly marketable."

Pip said, "Oh my, look at the time! We've both got duty in the morning, we better head back."

It surprised me when Aunt P didn't argue. She just stood and walked with us to the lock. While Uncle Q was saying goodnight to Pip, she managed to get between Pip and I. "He's an idiot, but he's our idiot. Watch out for him, Ishmael. It's been a pleasure to meet you. Please give my regards to Captain Giggone."

"Thank you, Penny, I will." I shook her hand and then Uncle Q's on the way out of the lock. Pip and I walked quickly back down the docks toward the Lois.

I laughed all the way. Pip just looked miserable.

Chapter Twenty-Four.

Niol Orbital

2352-August-17

I had the day off and I wanted to shop, but I also needed to take Bev with me. I hadn't spoken to her at any length in weeks, and I missed her. I set my tablet for 05:45, knowing she would be getting off watch and heading for breakfast or bed around then. I intended to catch her at one or the other. As it was I caught her in the pa.s.sage outside deck berthing and we arranged to meet at 13:00.

Pip was at the omelet station on the mess deck and still looked upset. I grabbed some coffee and a plate.

"Good morning, Phillip," I said with a grin.

"Please, Ish," he said, throwing some onion and mushroom into the pan.

"Then talk to me. As much as I'm enjoying this, what in the universe were you thinking?"

He did a little left shoulder shrug but didn't look up from the pan. "I just didn't want to be shunted off to the academy without any say is all," he said after a few heartbeats.

"What? They were holding a gun to your head?"

"You've met Aunt P and Uncle Q. Mom and Dad are at least as bad. Dad's the bulldozer in the group and Mom is good at making you like being bulldozed."

"When you said you came from a trader family, you weren't kidding. Aunt Annie, now Aunt Q and an uncle. Are there any more?"

"Well, not counting the various cousins, there's another aunt on my mother's side and my father has two sisters. I have an older sister and a younger brother."

"They all trade?"

"One way or another. My father's older sister is a broker on Sarga.s.s...o...b..tal. She handles the import-export end of the trades there. She's not a s.p.a.cer as such, although she's rated spec three in ship handling. My big sister is third mate on Dad's new ship and baby brother is still living at home and standing helm watches."

"Do all of them have little flying living rooms?"

"What?" He looked confused. "Oh, the Penny? Yeah, actually, that's pretty typical on the smaller ships. The Penny's rated at eight metric kilotons. She carries palletized freight and bulk cargo, not like the Lois with the containers. The Penny has four big holds amidships instead of the spine."

"How can she turn a profit carrying that little?" This whole conversation had taken an odd turn in my brain and I had no idea where it was going.

Pip slipped the omelet out of the pan and into my plate. He added a couple of biscuits to keep it company. "Well, to begin with, the salaries are low, and they're fast as h.e.l.l. The Penny probably only needs seven days to get out of the well here, maybe less depending how heavy she's running. She can jump to Barsi and be back on station here before we could make it out to the Burleson limit. She's under ten metric kilotons so she only needs a captain and a certified small ship engineer. Aunt P has both of those. Uncle Q has first mate and system/comm papers. Cousin Roger pa.s.sed some level of engineering papers-I'm not sure what he's rated these days-but he likes living at home so they let him stay aboard and help out."

"They're all academy?" I asked as what he said sunk in.

"Oh, yeah," he said, and followed me out to sit at a table while I ate.

"The living room?" I asked. "I don't know what I expected, but it wasn't a Berkman-Neuman conversational grouping with optional bar just inside the lock."

"How did you know it was Berkman-Neuman?" he asked.

I sighed. "I didn't. It's the only brand I know. Focus, Pip."

"I told you, that's home. They have a living room and a big eat-in galley. The whole thing isn't as big as the galley here, but they only have to feed a half dozen people most of the time, if that. Aunt P and Uncle Q share the captain's cabin of course, and that's almost as big as the one here, the kids shared the staterooms. There's no berthing area at all to speak of."

"It was so-homey."

"Ish? It is home! What did you expect it to be?"

I shrugged. "I don't know. A little Lois, I guess. Is that the kind of ship you grew up on?"

"Oh, yeah. The Bad Penny and the Epiphany are sister ships, almost identical. We even sailed the same routes sometimes. It was a big treat to trade rooms with a cousin. I flew on the Penny a lot as a kid actually."

"What? You'd swap kids?"

"Basically. It was great fun to run a leg with Aunt P and Uncle Q. I don't know why. Just different, I guess."

Salina Matteo came in for breakfast and Pip got up to fix her an omelet. They both came to sit with me after he was done. "Morning, Ish," she said. "You're up early, too, I see."

"Pip and I went out to dinner. Ran into his aunt and uncle for a drink and came back early." I hoped to get a response out of Salina to add to Pip's embarra.s.sment.

"How nice!" She turned to Pip. "Did you expect to find them here or was it just coincidence?"

"Coincidence. They're running an indie on the triangle trade around the Umber-Barsi-Niol loop."

"How pleasant that must be for them."

"They like it. Put my cousins through the academy."

The surrealism of the conversation was making me feel very off-balance. It didn't match the image of the lonely s.p.a.cer that I had formed since coming aboard.

Salina nodded. "I kinda wish I'd gone when I had the chance, but with Roberto and the kids, it made more sense to specialize in astrogation."

"Roberto and the kids?" I asked, feeling my universe slip just a bit further off axis.

"Yeah," she said, smiling and tucking into her omelet. "Roberto, my husband. We have two kids."

"You have a husband and two kids?" I repeated.

"Yup. Married into the family business. His father thought I was after his money, but I really only wanted his tight little buns." She winked.

I almost choked on my coffee.

"What business?" Pip asked.

"Oh, the family runs the Barca Roja-it's a thirty kilotonner over in the New Caledonia quadrant."

"Family co-op?" Pip asked.

"Yup," she said, beaming with pride.

"Isn't that hard?" I asked.

"What? Running the Barca Roja?"

"No, being away from your family."

"Oh, 'Berto and I see each other a couple times a year. We've been married a long time, but the reunions are something special, let me tell you!" She winked again.

Jennifer Agotto, a machinist from the power section came in then, and Pip went to fix her some breakfast.

"I'm sorry if I seem particularly stupid this morning, Salina. Meeting Pip's aunt and uncle and visiting their ship-I don't know. It was so different from what I expected."

"You're a land rat, aren't you? You don't come from a s.p.a.cer family?" she asked, chasing a bit of egg around her plate with a fork.

"Right. Mom was a university professor. We lived on Neris almost my entire life."

She chuckled. "So you expected their ship to be like this?" She flourished her biscuit to indicate the mess deck.

"Well, I had nothing else to go on."

"The Lois is pretty typical for a big corporate carrier, but there's ten indies for every ship like this."