“I’m sorry, sar,” she said again.
I saw her working up her nerve for something and I was pretty sure I did not want to know what it was.
“I want to be in your harem, sar,” she said without looking up.
I scrubbed my face with my hands and sighed. It was not an auspicious start to the conversation.
“I don’t have a harem, Ms. Davies.”
“Oh, yes, sar,” she said softly with little glances flicking up from the deck to my face and back. “I know you don’t have a harem like that, but there are some that think you do, and I’d like them to think that I’m part of it so they’ll leave me alone.”
“Just say no, Ms. Davies,” I said naively. “It’s not like they can force you or anything.”
She did look up at me then, a stricken look on her face.
“Well that’s just the thing. Yes, sar, they can,” she said matter-of-factly. “You’re in a private stateroom by yourself, but I sleep in deck berthing. They most certainly can.”
She lowered her eyes to the deck again.
I blinked stupidly. Of course, they could. I was being dense.
“I suppose I can’t ask who—”
“I’d rather not say, sar. I have to live there.”
“Of course,” I said, scrubbing the back of my neck with one hand trying to force a stream of logic through my sleep-bogged brain.
“Sar?” she pleaded after half a tick. “I don’t know where else to go.”
“Why me? Why not go to Ms. Menas?”
“Because you keep your people safe, sar,” she said. I barely heard her over the low hum of the blowers.
Her response surprised me.
“What makes you think Ms. Menas doesn’t?”I asked.
She snorted and gave me the “you’ve got to be kidding” look.
“Because she can’t, sar,” she said.
“And you think I can?” I asked, trying to find some kind of footing in the conversational bog.
“You do, sar, yes,” she replied instantly.
I sighed again. “How do you propose to join my so-called harem?” I asked after a few heartbeats.
“Well, sar, if I spent the night here a few times…” she started to say.
“Whoa,” I said.
She stopped and flickered a few of those furtive glances up toward my face.
“You know I don’t sleep with crew?” I said.
She gave a small nod.
“And that includes my watch section,” I added.
She gave another small nod.
“But that’s why I need to stay the night. I’m not on your watch section, sar. I’m not even in your division. We wouldn’t have to do anything, sar. I’ll sleep on the deck, if that’s what you want.” There was a note in her voice now that had gone over the edge into pleading.
“Do you think people will believe we’re sleeping together?”
“I suspect they will, sar. That’s the whole idea.”
“But I don’t have a harem.”
I came back to the logic. I kept trying to get back there, but I wasn’t having any luck.
“Maybe you could start one, sar,” she said, a small smile curling her lips. “I know others who’d like to join.”
I did sit on the edge of my bunk then. It occurred to me that this might be a nightmare, that I was really still asleep.
“Why?” I asked finally.
“So you’ll protect them, sar,” she said. “Like you protect Ulla and Charlotte and Juliett.”
“Ulla?” I asked. “Ulla Nart?”
“Yes, sar,” she said with another of her little nods. “They stopped bothering her after you stood up to Mosler and Apones in the gym. Everybody thinks she’s with you now and they leave her alone.”
With that we’d moved out of nightmare country and into surreal. I didn’t even know where to go from that point.
“Sar?” she begged, “please? There was desperation in her voice that kept me off balance. “I need you to look, just look. Look at me.”
She reached up and unzipped her suit, stripping it back to show she wasn’t wearing a ship tee under it. It was too fast for me to protest and what I saw stopped me cold. She had a patchwork of bruises—some fresh and dark, some yellow, and others long healed discolorations. Mixed in were what looked like bites and scratches.
“I can’t keep going on like this, sar. This is what you get if you try to say no…it just makes it more painful.”
I had a hard time catching my breath. Behind me I heard Arletta moving around in the head. I glanced at the chrono—23:15. She’d be getting ready to go on watch. She tapped on the door and I reached over to release the latch without thinking.
She opened the door and stuck her head in. “You okay, Ish? I thought I heard—”
In such a small, confined space she couldn’t help but notice the figure trying to get her shipsuit back up over her shoulders.
“I know you’re on your way to watch, Ms. Novea, but if you could spare a few ticks, I think you could be of some assistance. You see, Ms. Davies wants to join my harem.”
Davies finally got her shipsuit back on and zipped, but not before Arletta had seen.
“I can see that. What do you want me to do?” Arletta asked.
“I was hoping you’d have some ideas,” I said.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
BREAKALL SYSTEM
2358-AUGUST-26
“Burnside,” Arletta hissed as she stepped out of the head and into my stateroom.
Davies gave a little panicky intake of breath, and all the loose pieces clicked into place.
“Well?” I asked. “You’re senior to me. What do we do about this?”
I watched Arletta’s brain engaging as she stood there staring at Davies. “Fredi,” she said almost instantly. “Get Fredi. I have the watch in less than half a stan.”
“Fredi?” I asked, more as a way to get my brain moving down the path. “Not Mel?”
“Mel’s too obvious,” Arletta said, shaking her head. “We need Fredi.”
I reached for my tablet intending to bip her, but Arletta said, “Go in person, right now. Ask her to come to my stateroom.”
Davies looked back and forth between us trying to figure out where this was going. I understood her confusion. I wasn’t sure myself, but I trusted Arletta on this.
“Penny, come into my stateroom while I get ready for watch, and we’ll get you some help.”
Davies looked at me and I nodded encouragingly. “We’ll get you some help,” I repeated, pulling back my legs so she could slip past me. Arletta flattened against the bulkhead and Davies disappeared through the bright light of the head and into the dimness of Arletta’s stateroom beyond.
Arletta and I traded a glance and I headed for the passageway.
It was only three long steps to Fredi’s door, and an alert, fully dressed Fredi answered my tap almost instantly. “Ishmael?” she said when she saw me standing there. “What’s wrong?”
“There’s a problem. Arletta’s stateroom,” I said softly and stepped back out of the way as Fredi practically exploded out of her door and headed down the passage. The hunched over, frail woman was gone, and some new Fredi closed the distance before I even had time to be surprised.
She tapped on Arletta’s door and slipped in when it opened, leaving me standing alone in the passage.
I wondered if I should go to Arletta’s room or my own. In the interest of sanity, I went to my own. Fredi and Arletta were much better equipped to deal with this than I was, and if they needed me, they knew where to find me.
The door to the head was closed and I heard voices on the other side. I couldn’t hear what they were saying but it was only a tick or two before there was a tap on the head door again. I slid the door and Fredi stuck her head in.
“Ishmael, please scout for me. We need to get Penny to sickbay and into the auto-doc before the watch changes,” she said.
“Aye, aye,” was out of my mouth
and I was halfway to the mess deck before I had realized it. I didn’t see anybody in the passageway and slowed my pace when I got outside the mess deck. I sauntered as nonchalantly as I could over to the big urns. Taking a cup from the rack, I started filling it while glancing out of the corner of my eye at Apones, who sat with his head down on the table. He looked asleep, and I left without disturbing him.
The sickbay was just across the passage from the wardroom. It wasn’t much more than a walk in closet with the auto-doc pod inside. Every ship above fifty metric kilo tons was required to carry an auto-doc pod and any passenger ship with more than ten passengers had to have someone with a medic certification aboard. The pods weren’t a replacement for a fully qualified doctor, but with weeks between ports, they provided a critical safety margin for the odd broken bone or laceration. In the case of severe injuries, the pod would seal around the patient, providing a full range of diagnostic and treatment.
I scurried back to Arletta’s stateroom and tapped on the door. She stuck her head out to make sure it was me.
“Apones is asleep on the mess deck. I didn’t see anybody else in the passages. It’s really quiet.”
She nodded and opened the door wider, stepping out into the passageway to make room for Fredi and Penny.
“I need to relieve the watch,” Arletta whispered.
Fredi nodded and told her, “Go, but do it slowly. I need a couple of ticks to get this poor dear settled.”
I handed Arletta the coffee cup and headed back toward the sick bay, Fredi and Penny trailing me by a few meters. I went past sick bay, blocking the passage that led toward the mess deck. Behind me I heard Fredi opening the sick bay doors and then the hum of the auto-doc. In a bit the sound subsided and all I heard was the normal underway sounds of the blowers.
Fredi came out with a glance in my direction. I turned to follow her back to Officers’ Country.
“She’s getting treatment and a mild sedative,” Fredi said quietly as we reached my door. “Nobody can get to her there. She’ll be safe until morning.”
“Thanks for your help, Fredi.”
“You’re welcome, Ishmael. I wish this would be the end of it, but I think…” her voice trailed off.
“Yeah,” I agreed, “but let’s take one step at a time.”
“Sleep well,” she said and headed back to her stateroom as I slipped into my own.
It seemed like I had just dropped off to sleep when a loud banging on my door woke me again. “Open up, Wang,” Burnside said from the other side. The chrono read 00:35. He’d been off watch for less than a stan.
When I opened the door, I found him glaring at me from the passage.
“What do you think you’re doing, Wang?” he spat.
“Trying to get some sleep before I have to take the morning watch,” I said, then yawned in his face. “What’s the matter?”
I didn’t have to stretch it too much to play the muzzy-headed, half-awake junior officer.
“You know perfectly well!”
Down the passage Fredi’s door opened, and she stepped into the opening, clutching her robe at the neck. She didn’t say anything, just stood there watching. Burnside gave her a sneer, and then turned back to me. He reached to push me out of the way, but I stepped sideways leaving him pawing at empty air and he almost fell. He covered his stumble by stalking into my stateroom, crossing to the head, and jerking open the door—as if he was expecting to find somebody.
I stepped out of the room and into the passageway where Fredi winked at me with a little smile.
Burnside threw back the covers on my bunk, looked in the closet, and even used his pass key to open the door to Arletta’s side, flooding the empty stateroom with light.
When it was obvious there wasn’t anybody hiding, he closed Arletta’s door with a slam and stalked back out into the passage where he seemed to realize that Fredi was giving him a colder than normal look.
“What are you looking at?” he snapped at her.
“Why, David?” she asked in her bird like way, cocking her head a little to the side, “Have you been drinking?”
I thought for just a heartbeat that he was going to attack her, but instead he turned to me and put a finger under my nose in warning.
“This was a mistake, Wang. A serious mistake.”
For once I kept my mouth shut and let him think it was from fear.
With a glance over his shoulder at Fredi, he turned and stomped back down the passageway heading toward the mess deck.
Behind me I heard Fredi sigh. “Get some sleep, Ishmael. It’s going to be a long day.”
“Going to be?” I asked, covering a yawn with my forearm.
She snorted a little laugh and said, “Good night, Ish.”
I went back into my stateroom, locking the door behind me. It wouldn’t be much deterrence if Burnside wanted in, but maybe it would slow him enough that I could at least get on my feet.
I crawled back into my bunk and grabbed another short nap before my tablet beeped me awake at 05:00. The shower revived me, and with fresh clothes I felt human again. Walking by the sickbay, I thought perhaps I didn’t feel that bad after all. I went into the mess, grabbed coffee from the urn, and stuck my head into the galley.
Mr. Vorhees looked up when he saw me and came out onto the mess deck. “I heard. Ms. Novea let me know what happened last night.” He looked a little embarrassed. “Is she okay?”
I shrugged. “You know where she is now?” I asked.
“Yes, I didn’t know she was that bad, sar, I swear,” he added, twisting his hands together.
I patted him on the shoulder.
“I don’t think any of us did. I’d guess she’ll be out this morning, but you may want to have Ms. Cramer cover the wardroom duties for a while,” I said.
“Already arranged for that, sar. We’ll do a buffet here this morning and see where we are at lunch time.”
“I’ve got to go relieve the watch. If you need me, you can find me on the bridge. And just ask Ms. D’Heng to bring up my tray. There’s no need for somebody to make a special trip.”
“Thanks, Mr. Wang,” he said a little bit gruffly. “That’s two I owe ya.”
“Bah, we have to watch out for each other.” I smiled at him and took my coffee up to the bridge.
I knew it was going to be a long watch.
Arletta and I changed the watch with as little fanfare as possible.
She asked, “Is everything okay?”
I shrugged. “As near as I can tell, but…”
She nodded and left Juliett and I on the bridge.
Juliett gave me a serious look when we were alone.
“Something on your mind, Ms. Jaxton?” I asked, not looking up from the overnight logs.
“At the risk of mongering without a license, the rumor is we have a new member of the harem this morning, sar. Is that true?”
“You’re aware that there is no harem, aren’t you, Ms. Jaxton?”
“Oh yes, sar, or at least there wasn’t one until last night.”
“There still isn’t, Ms. Jaxton,” I assured her.
“If you say so, sar,” she answered after a moment, not sounding convinced.
I managed to get through the overnight logs and check the status of the systems backups before Charlotte brought up my tray.
She placed it gently on the console and then took the helm from Juliett.
“Where’s Karen?” Juliett asked her.
“Serving in the wardroom this morning,” Charlotte told her. “Mr. Vorhees asked if I wouldn’t mind bringing the tray since he’s short one attendant this morning.”
Juliett blinked. “What happened to Penny?”
With as evil a grin as I have ever seen on the fair face of womanhood Charlotte said, “Well, apparently she had such a rough night last night, she was totally exhausted and needed medical attention to recover her strength.”
I almost choked on my coffee.
“Ms. D’Heng?” I asked.
r /> “You have quite the reputation, Mr. Wang. Ooo la la, sar. The rumor is that you quite wore the poor girl out.”
Juliett looked at me with a muttered, “Lucky girl,” before heading for the ladder and her own breakfast.
Charlotte waited until the footfalls faded away before muttering, “Amateurs.”
“Ms. D’Heng? How is Ms. Davies this morning?”
“She just got out of the auto-doc a few ticks ago, sar. She’s still a little woozy but she’s heading for her bunk. Ms. DeGrut said she’ll be ready for duty by lunch.”
“Will she be safe in her bunk?” I asked.
“As safe as any of us harem girls, sar,” she said with a straight face.
I closed my eyes and sighed. “I was afraid you were going to say that, Ms. D’Heng.”
“You’re welcome, sar,” she replied in a jaunty voice. “I do try.”
After the insanity of the trip, it was rather peaceful to be docked again. Third Watch got the duty, which was fine by me. Burnside hadn’t said more than absolutely required to change watches, glaring at me but didn’t attempt another “reprimand.” According to my rumor monger, he’d been totally unsuccessful in convincing Davies to take up where they’d left off.
There was an odd feeling having him come to the wardroom to eat meals. Everybody pretended that nothing had changed, that nothing was wrong, yet we all knew he had this skeleton in the closet. As time wore on, I finally realized that everybody else had already known what a miserable excuse for a human being he was. I was just late catching up to the rest.
One thing that changed was Fredi. After that night with Penny Davies, she didn’t sit hunched over when Burnside was in the room. Whatever burden she’d been carrying had been lifted. I was glad to see it, because she was a pretty amazing individual.
Liberty was delayed while the customs officials certified the embargo locker, of course, but once that was over, the parade off the ship started with the captain, and David Burnside. As the afternoon wore on, almost everybody who wasn’t on duty left the ship, and it seemed almost like old times.
I still remembered my first impressions when I had come through the lock, and I didn’t want to be embarrassed that way again. Anybody could come to call and I was afraid what that would say about us. So for a couple of stans that first afternoon, Juliett, Charlotte, and I got busy with the sweepers and swabs. We cleaned from the lock back through the main passageway to the ship’s office—deck to dock, bulkheads around. After the first rush of liberty goers, there wasn’t anybody to get in the way or leave foot prints in the freshly swabbed deck. When we had finished, I took a moment to step off the ship and get a good snoot-full of cold dock air, then stepped back aboard. The sour smell that I had associated with the lock and the William Tinker was gone. A faint chemical smell from the cleaners replaced it, but we left the big lock open for half a stan to let it air out. It chilled the main corridor down, but it was much fresher after that.