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  “Thank you, Mr. Wang,” she said leading the way down, “And if you have a few moments, perhaps you’d accompany me to the cabin?”

  I knew I should not have thought things were under control. They are never under control. “Of course, Captain,” I said. I tried to sound relaxed and unconcerned.

  I must not have succeeded, because she glanced up at me—one quick flick of the eyes—and I thought she smiled.

  I sighed to myself. If there was one person whose smile bothered me more than Mr. Maxwell’s, it was the captain’s. Her cabin was only a few steps from the bridge so I didn’t have a lot of time to think about it before we were there.

  “This will only take a few moments, Mr. Wang,” she said, closing the door behind us. “Please, have a seat.” She indicated the sofa.

  I am always a little put off-balance by that. If it was not going to take very long, why sit? Still, she was the captain, so I sat.

  She settled across from me and said, “So? What have you thought about the academy?”

  “Well, Captain, I thought we’d agreed that I’d work out my contract before I decided.”

  “And the academy is, first and foremost, a college, Mr. Wang. If you wait until next September to make up your mind, don’t you foresee a bit of a problem?”

  “What problem, Captain?” I asked before thinking it through. “Classes start in—” and, of course there was a problem.

  She waited me out.

  “You’re right, Captain. I would need to apply.”

  “Exactly.” She let me stew for a heartbeat or two before adding, “You can always choose not to go, but if you don’t apply. You won’t have that choice.”

  “Well, Captain, I’d have to be accepted, too,” I pointed out.

  “Of course, but that’s not likely to be a problem.” The corners of her mouth curled into the smallest of smiles.

  “They must get thousands of applicants, Captain. I’d have to beat out a lot of people.”

  “Approximately fifteen thousand for each fall’s class. They take the top five hundred.”

  “Not as many as I thought, sar. My mother occasionally served on the admissions committee at the University at Neris and I know they got about five thousand, but they could only accept Neris Company employees and their families.”

  “It’s a bit of a specialized degree, Mr. Wang,” she said, half-smile on her lips and a twinkle in her eye. “As I believe you pointed out yourself.”

  She had me on that one. “Good point, Captain,” I said with a sigh. Part of me thought, you’ve got ratings. You don’t need to be an officer. Another part of me screamed, Go, you damned fool. At least apply so you can make up your mind later!

  She waited me out.

  The screaming side won—it usually did. “Well, I guess I better find out when they start accepting applications and see what I need to do, then, eh, Captain?”

  “Admissions begin October first for the next fall’s term. You need to fill out an application, and submit it with at least three references. Those with experience or ratings need to include a copy of their personnel jackets as well.”

  “You just happened to know that off the top of your head, Captain?”

  “Mr. Wang, I’ve sent more than my share of candidates to Port Newmar. I don’t intend to stop any time soon.”

  “Do you earn a bounty or something, Captain?” I asked, thinking they might get a referral fee.

  “Indeed, Mr. Wang, I get the satisfaction of helping good people become officers and do good work. It’s part of the McKendrick legacy.” She paused for a few heartbeats. “I like the feeling I get from knowing that coming generations are well represented by the kind of people my great-grandmother would have approved of. Even if I’m not quite ready to fade off into the rim myself yet,” she added with a smile.

  “Can I ask how long you’ve been planning this, Captain?”

  “Do you remember O’Rourke?” she asked.

  “Of course, Captain. She said I reminded her of her nephew.”

  “Well, I’ve been planning since O’Rourke told me that you were good people.”

  “But you hadn’t even met me, sar!”

  “Mr. Wang, I’ve known Annie O’Rourke for almost thirty-five stanyers. We served together on three ships. If Annie O’Rourke says you’re good people, I believe her.”

  “I had no idea, Captain.”

  “Annie said you were curious and you took responsibility. You’d have never even found out about the opening if she hadn’t decided you’d work out. It was just luck that we were due in Neris and were opening up that slot when you needed it.”

  Personally, I did not think it was luck, but I felt a little funny thinking it was Lois. “What happened to him, Captain? Do you know?”

  “Annie said he got a job working for Neris Company as a fry cook in one of the company commissaries. He’s still there as far as I know.”

  I thought about that for a tick. “Well, I better get going on that application then. Do you happen to know where I can find one, Captain?”

  She grinned, pulled out her own tablet, and pressed a few functions. “In your inbox,” she said. “Look it over now, please. I’ll answer any questions you may have about it.”

  Somehow that did not surprise me, although what I found in my inbox did.

  “Captain, this application appears to be filled out.”

  “Yes, Mr. Wang. You only need to endorse it as being a true and accurate representation.”

  I scrolled through the pages. It had my school records from Neris, my ratings, everything. I got to the end of the forms and kept scrolling through the letters of recommendation. The first was from the captain, followed by Mr. Maxwell, and Mr. von Ickles, completing the required three. I kept scrolling and found one from Mr. Kelley, and another from Mr. Cotton, and even one from Ms. Avril. “Every officer aboard?” I asked.

  “Yes, Mr. Wang,” the captain said, “and a few others.”

  I looked back and kept scrolling. Captain Cassandra Harrison of the Samuel Slater. Second Mate Alicia Alvarez of the Marcel Duchamp. Third Mate Alberta Ross of the William Hedley. Captain Penelope Carstairs of the Bad Penny. I’m sure I blushed over the first two names, but I couldn’t place the third. I didn’t know any officers from the Hedley.

  “What’s the matter, Mr. Wang?” the captain asked. “You don’t recognize Al?”

  “Al?” I exclaimed. “She said she was in astrogation!”

  “She is. She’s their astrogation officer, and a damned fine one at that. A bit eccentric, but she can plot a course to the gates of hell and have you back in time for dinner.”

  I was dumbfounded. “About Captain Harrison, sar…”

  “I’m asking no questions, Mr. Wang. Tell me no lies. Cass sent that letter without my asking. She popped it into my inbox just before the Slater pulled-out. The cover note said, ‘Please add my recommendation to the file.’”

  “But how?” I didn’t know even what I was trying to ask. Luckily the captain did.

  “How did she know there was a file to add it to?” she prompted.

  “Yes, Captain. I think.”

  “We were roommates at the academy. You learn a lot there, and some of it has to do with ships.”

  I did not know what else to say.

  “She also knows I have a habit of recommending likely people to the academy. Maybe she saw something in your manner on the gangway watch that she liked,” she added with a grin that might have been just a touch over the line toward mischievous.

  I tried not to blush, but I don’t think I was successful. Hoping to distract her, I asked, “How many have you recommended, Captain?”

  “You’re number thirty-four, Mr. Wang.”

  I was expecting something like ten. “Wow, that’s a lot! How many have been accepted, sar?”

  “Thirty-three of them. And all have graduated near the top of their classes,” she said proudly. “Not all at the top, of course. One year there were five of my people
graduating at the same time. They were all in the top ten—a memorable year. Alicia Alvarez was in that group, actually,” she added with another of those impish grins. She was enjoying herself immensely. Oddly enough, so was I.

  “What happened with the last one?” I asked before I did the math.

  “Well, if he ever endorses his application, we’ll find out!” she said with a laugh.

  “Where do I sign?” I asked. What else could I do?

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Umber Orbital

  2352-October-08

  When I left the captain’s cabin, I felt dazed. I had just applied to the academy. I wondered if they would accept me. The captain seemed pretty confident and with her track record, she had reason to be, but it was breakfast time so I headed for the mess deck.

  When I got there I found it crowded so I assumed that Mr. Maxwell had not yet declared liberty. I got some eggs, sausages, and two biscuits from the mess line—Sarah and Pip were serving. I looked around for a seat and found one beside Diane, who sat across from Francis and Brill.

  Francis said, “You okay, Ish? You look a little—distracted.”

  Brill and Diane looked at me strangely too. “Yeah, even for you, Ish. You seem a little out of it. Has something happened?” Diane asked.

  I took a deep breath and let it out. “I just applied to the academy.”

  Brill asked, “Port Newmar?”

  “Yup. The captain pointed out that if I was really thinking about going next year, I needed to apply now.”

  “Oh,” Diane said. “I thought from the way you said it that you’d filed your application.”

  “Yeah, I did.”

  Even Francis leaned in to hear me because I was talking so quietly.

  Brill said, “But the application is huge and you need recommendations from at least three officers.”

  “Yeah,” I agreed.

  “Well, how could you apply?” Francis finally chimed in.

  “She had it all.”

  “Who she? What all?” Diane asked.

  “The captain. She sent it to me on my tablet—all filled out—transcripts from Neris, recommendations from ten different officers, all of it.”

  “Ten?” Brill exclaimed. “There are only six on the ship!”

  “Yeah, she had a few extras.”

  “Like who?” Diane pressed. Then she guessed, “Alvarez!”

  “Yeah,” I admitted. “And Pip’s Aunt Penny. How she got involved in this, I have no idea.”

  “Well, that’s a helluva thing, isn’t it?” Francis said, sitting back and shaking his head.

  “I still have to get accepted and figure out a way to pay for it. But I had to apply now, or very soon.” I sighed. My fork scraped plate and I realized I had no breakfast left. I didn’t even have the taste of breakfast left. I must have been hungrier, and more distracted, than I thought. “I’m not even sure when the cut off is. It might be before we hit Ablemarle.”

  Brill looked startled at that. “I hadn’t thought about that.”

  The overhead speakers finally announced, “Attention all hands! Now, liberty, liberty, liberty. Hands not on duty may leave the ship according to standing orders and established procedures. Now liberty.”

  The chrono read 07:00 and we bussed our dishes to make it easier on Sarah, Pip, and Cookie. It was such a family thing to do. It rankled that, if this application were accepted, I would not be part of that family any more. I needed to hit the rack and sleep a little before I got all slobbery, but I had one more thing I needed to do first.

  I found Bev on gangway watch.

  “I applied to the academy,” I told her.

  “Just like that? No, ‘Hi, Bev, how’s watch?’ just, ‘I applied to the academy’?”

  I was really tired, and she looked really angry. I didn’t know what to say so I just added, “Sorry, I didn’t know how else to tell you.”

  “Well, that was one way, but a girl likes a little warm up first.”

  I looked up at her and she was grinning at me. It caught me off guard and I laughed a little.

  “If you’re really thinking about deciding next fall, then you have to apply now, don’t you, doofus?” she asked with a lopsided grin.

  “That’s what the captain said too,” I told her.

  “Ah ha! The truth comes out. It’s okay, Ish. I was kidding about the ‘Hi, Bev’ stuff. You look like you could use a little rack time.”

  “I could, but I promised to let you know.”

  “You coulda waited until you woke up. Now, scoot!” she said, stamping her foot on the deck in my direction like I was a little dog. “I’ll see you after watch.”

  I met Mr. Maxwell coming the other way in the passage and stood aside for him to go by. “Nice work on those cargo tools, Mr. Wang,” he said.

  “Thank you, sar!”

  He went on past me and I kept going. I heard him talking to Beverly as I headed for my bunk. I must have made it—or they found me and put me in it—because I awoke there at 12:30. I splashed water on my face, promised myself a nice shower after lunch, and headed for the mess deck. Pip had helped Sarah clean up the galley and it looked like they had things well in hand. I filled a plate with lamb, rice, and banapods and found a seat. That was not hard—I was the only one there.

  Pip came out of the galley, his tasks completed for the moment. “So, what’s with you?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well, you came through the mess line this morning looking like—I don’t know what—and when I asked what was going on you said, ‘Yes, thank you,’ and wandered off.”

  “Oh, the captain took me down to her cabin after we secured from nav detail.”

  “She didn’t! The nerve of that woman. Was it good for you, too?”

  The image touched my giggle nerve and I started laughing.

  “That’s better. Now, you wanna tell me about it?”

  “I applied to the academy this morning.”

  “And you’re just telling me now? Why didn’t you mention it when you started the application?”

  “I did…I am…I mean…the time between starting and finishing was about a tick.”

  “Huh? What are you talking about?”

  “I’m saying when the captain sent it to me, it was complete.”

  “Complete?”

  “Yup,” I said.

  “Your personal information was on it?”

  “Yup,” I said again.

  “Your transcripts?”

  “Those too.”

  “Personnel jacket?”

  “Attached.”

  “Three recommendations?”

  “No.”

  “Well, you need three,” he said.

  “There were ten. And your Aunt P was one of them.”

  “How did Aunt P get involved?” he asked.

  “You obviously have mistaken me for somebody with a clue. Unfortunately, I don’t even know where to buy a clue, and if I had one, I’m sure it would be to a different puzzle.”

  “Our captain is something, isn’t she? Now you’re getting a little taste of what I was up against at home.”

  “Wasn’t so bad. I still have to get accepted, and then I have to find a way to pay for it.”

  “Well, that’s true enough,” he said, and then changed the subject. “Fancy a run ashore this afternoon? Sarah has the duty here today because she wants to go up to the co-op first thing tomorrow and take her shawls.”

  “Sure, you thinking of scoping out the flea market for cargo?”

  “It’s the perfect time, head up this afternoon, do a little looking about, maybe make some contacts. See where we are after that. We have plenty of cash left after the masks and the carp, and a lot of mass as well. I think it’s gonna work out.”

  “Sounds like a plan, how soon can you go?”

  “13:30? Meet you in deck berthing.”

  He was as good as his word and we were on our way at 13:35.

  As we stepped out of the lock, he
asked, “So? Are you going to go?”

  “I don’t know. How much do you think we can make between now and next August?”

  “Depends on where we go and what we find. The new cargo software will help the ship, but that’s not going to be much use with private cargo.”

  As we approached the lift, a burly man who looked vaguely familiar straightened up from where he lounged by the door. Pip was contemplating cargo and had not noticed him, but it was obvious to me that he had seen us. He said, “Hello, Phillip. How’s the semester in space.”

  I knew who he looked like then—Uncle Q, but this was not Uncle Q.

  “Hi, Dad. Fancy meeting you here,” Pip replied.

  Captain Thomas Carstairs did not seem like the kind of man you would cross lightly or more than once for that matter. He did not look mean or anything—just efficient. He reminded me a bit of Mr. Maxwell in that way. He smiled warmly enough at me, though, and held out a hand. “You’re Ishmael?”

  “Yes, sar. Ishmael Wang,” I said, and shook his hand.

  “You can call me Tom, Ishmael. You’re not on my crew and we’re not on my ship. Tom will do nicely.” He continued to talk with me and ignore Pip. “Penny and Quent couldn’t say enough good things about you. You really impressed them, and they’re not easily impressed. Quent’s a little soft in the head, but P’s a hard-case from the old school.”

  “They explained a few things to me,” I told him. “It was nice to see something outside of the corporate world.”

  “I think I’m ready for a beer. Anybody else?” he said. “I’ll buy.” He turned to the lift without waiting for a reply and pressed the button. It must have been on our level because the doors opened immediately. I followed Tom into the lift.

  When I turned, Tom had his finger on the open door control and looked at Pip who had not said a word beyond his first. Tom just waited, holding the door open. He didn’t say anything like, “Are you coming?” or “At your earliest convenience.” or “Stop being an idiot and get on the elevator.”

  Finally Pip sighed and stepped aboard. Tom released the door control and pressed the oh-two button. When we got there, he led us to a place. It was not Shaunessey’s but it might as well have been. The tablet beside the door read, Floyd’s Place. A few quiet spacers were having an afternoon beer and a gab. We joined the flotilla and took up station at an empty table.