"Then what?" he pressed. I wondered if he understood what he was asking.

"Then I get put ash.o.r.e and have to find a new berth," I told him calmly.

I could see the recognition on his face then. "You mean I'm b.u.mping you?"

Brill answered, "Yes, CC, you're b.u.mping him. We got word when we picked up the beacon on our first approach, just before we ran through the CME residue."

He looked genuinely sorry. "That's a raw deal for you, but I thought I was replacing an engineman."

"That's what I was when I took the slot," I told him.

"What are you rated now?"

"Which division?" Brill asked with a proud little grin.

"Which division what?" CC said, looking a little confused.

"He's rated in all the divisions," Brill told him.

"Cargo handler, food handler, spec two environmental, spec two systems," I said.

Brill looked at me when I said that last one. "When did you get systems?" she asked.

"Last week. Mr. von Ickles gave me a field test on the bridge."

I got a very serious you've-been-holding-out-on-me look from her then.

CC recovered enough to say, "So I'm confused. You've earned two spec two ratings since St. Cloud?"

"He should have been spec one in environmental," Brill said before I could reply. "Miscalculation."

"Wow, and you went from engineman to spec two?"

I shrugged. "I worked hard and had a lot of support."

"It took me a year and that was just spec three to spec two. Do you have a lot of background in environmental?"

"No, I'm just good with sludge," I said with a straight face.

"But you just said you're being put ash.o.r.e. The Lois has no open slots?" he asked.

I shook my head. "We don't get much turn over."

He considered that while we ate. I was becoming conscious of the time and that I needed to get back on watch, but I hated to be rude.

"Well, with your ratings, why don't you just b.u.mp somebody else?" he asked at last.

"It's my problem. I'm not going to foist it off on a shipmate just because the regs say I can."

He grinned and said, "Wuss!" I think he meant it as a joke but Brill slapped the table hard.

"Uncalled for, Mr. Colby!"

CC looked like he'd been hit with a brick. He rocked back in his seat at the vehemence of Brill's response and held up his hands, palms out. "I'm sorry!" he said instantly and maybe even sincerely. "I didn't mean anything by it."

"It's okay, B. I've been called worse."

"Not in front of me, you haven't," she replied, still angry.

"Sludge monkey?" I suggested.

I blindsided her with that and she barked a laugh. "Okay, you win." She started to relax. "I'm sorry, CC," she said after a moment or two. "This has been a stressful week or so."

"No, I'm sorry. You're right, it was uncalled for. I spoke without thinking."

"We've had a rough time lately, CC. We're all strung a little tight still."

He considered us for a moment before replying, "I can see that."

I glanced at the chrono and realized I needed to get back on watch. I ate the last bite and excused myself. "Nice talking with you, CC. See ya round the mess deck, B."

Cookie had put out a big plate of cookies and I snagged a few, along with a fresh mug of coffee, to take back to watch with me. Sarah stood in the galley reading something on her tablet but smiled and waved. I returned the gestures.

Brill and CC didn't say anything to each other before I left the mess deck. I just gave them a little salute with my coffee mug on the way out the hatch.

I sighed and went back to resume my watch.

About 14:30 Sandy Belterson came back aboard. The medics had come to take her off as soon as we docked and she'd spent the night at the orbital's clinic. The four days aboard with a broken arm weren't too bad. We had an AutoDoc for emergencies and she had taken the quick-knit treatments long before we clawed our way back to the orbital.

"Hi, Ish, fancy meeting you here! How'd this all happen?"

"The captain offered me the temporary duty on second section until you're well enough to stand watch."

"Until I'm well enough to stand watch?" she asked.

"Yeah, with your broken arm, you're on a no-duty status."

"I am?" she asked.

"That's what I've been told. They said you wouldn't be able to stand the gang way watch with your broken arm and offered me the job so I could stay aboard while the ship's getting repaired."

"Seriously?"

"Yup."

"Well, tell me, Ish, does that seem odd?"

"In what way?"

"Well, you've been sitting there since-what? 06:00?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"Have you had to do anything you couldn't have done one handed?"

I thought about that for a long moment. "They wouldn't. Would they?" I asked.

Sandy just shook her head. "This group? It's hard to tell. But if I'm on no-duty status, I'm certainly gonna milk it for all it's worth."

Just out of interest, I pulled up her record and saw the no-duty/injured flag as big as life. I showed her the record. "Enjoy it, I guess."

She pursed her lips a little as she considered. "Ms. Avril's got the watch?"

"Yeah, said she'd be in the office."

"Well," she said with an elaborate show of straightening her sling, "I'd better go make sure she knows I'm back."

"I have it on good authority that they teach sneakiness at the academy," I told her.

She laughed at that. "Well, if they do, I know who wrote the book for it. If anybody asks, I'm back and still injured."

"Okay, Sandy. Get well soon," I said.

"I think I'll be well when they tell me I'm better." She headed down the pa.s.sageway into the ship and gave me a little wave with her broken arm.

Chapter Eleven.

Betrus...o...b..tal

2352-June-11

I could tell that the low-key afternoon drew to a close around 16:30, as traffic picked up. People who had been off for the day scrambled back to get ready for the night watch. Rhon Scham relieved me at 17:45. I had twenty-four hours to myself before I needed to return to watch and I wondered what I would do with all that time. I felt a little out of it again.

It was chow time, though, so I headed for the galley. The mess deck was almost deserted when I arrived. I saw Sarah bustling about while I loaded up at the buffet. She hummed a cheerful ditty and seemed like she belonged there. It hit me funny, seeing her there like that. She had the same kind of I-am-in-the-right-place look that Cookie did, but I never thought that way about Pip.

Brill came in and I went to snag a table for us. "So? How's the new guy?" I asked as she settled.

She grinned. "Well, he's no Ishmael w.a.n.g in the brains department."

"You got a smart one for a change?" I asked playfully.

"You know I can hurt you if I have to," she said.

We ate for a while, Cookie's lamb and potatoes deserved attention and we both paid them proper homage for a few ticks.

"He'll be okay, I think," Brill said. "He knows the drill pretty well. He says our section is set up with about a ninety degree twist compared to what he's used to on the Nora, but he knows his stuff well enough."

"But?"

"But why is he here? We're not the military. Home Office doesn't move people around. Or at least not crew. They may move an officer or two occasionally, but not crew. Why is he here on Betrus?"

My mind was still on Sarah and my mouth started running by itself. "Maybe Lois wanted him aboard," I said.

Brill twisted her mouth into a lopsided grin. "You're talking about the ship that way again."

I blinked a couple of times trying to remember what I'd said. "Oh, sorry. That was weird even for me."

"Actually," she said with a sigh, "it's pretty typical for you. You think the ship is manipulating us?"

"It wouldn't surprise me," I told her. "But not really. Something's going on but it has nothing to do with magic ship juju."

"Like what?" she asked, chasing the last of the lamb around on her plate with the tines of her fork.

"Well, like why is Sandy on no-duty/injured status?"

Brill just blinked at me for a tick. "Is that a trick question? She broke her arm on the bridge the other day."

I gave the faintest of nods to the table where Sandy sat with d.i.c.k Graves, the spec one astrogator. They were having a quiet discussion about a mathematical inversion sequence while they ate.

Brill glanced that way and looked back at me with a thoughtful look on her face. "Hmm...I would have thought that somebody on no-duty/injured with a broken arm would actually be using that sling."

"Yeah, I was thinking the same thing, myself. And when Sandy came back from medical today she made the really interesting observation that gangway watch really didn't need two hands."

Brill frowned at that. "I wonder if anybody else has asked that question?" she said as much to herself as to me. "How long did they say you were going to be on second watch?"

"Until we finish repairs to the ship and get underway."

"What repairs?"

"Mr. Kelley seemed to think we might need as many as ten days to get the ship back in shape. He specified parts availability as a limiting factor."

"Parts?" she asked. "What kind of parts?"

"Dunno. But I can tell you we went through a ton of communications boards. ShipNet was a smoldering pile of rubble. Literally. I burned my fingers on them."