Rookie Privateer (21 page)

"Anything to report?" Nick asked softly.

"
All is quiet."

"
I relieve you," he said.

"
I stand relieved." I was still pretty groggy so I got up and made my way to our cabin and saw with joy that Nick had transformed the couch into its sleeper configuration. I lay down and didn't re-awaken until 1000. I felt great.

I grabbed a cup of coffee and headed up to the bridge.
"Good morning, Nick."

"
Morning."

"
How would you like to run shifts today?"

"
Sorry about last night." Nick didn't turn around.

"
No worries." It was best to ignore the whole thing. He'd do the same for me. "I probably have a solid six hours of work on the main head, but I think I can get the shower up in a lot less than that. I can't fix the main head toilet and the zero grav components are completely shot. Thoughts?" I asked.

"
Okay. I am prepping the atmo system for repairs once we get to a class three replicator. I found a public one on Baru and we have the IP."

Getting the IP rights for
Sterra's Gift
had been absolutely brilliant on Nick's part. Running a plan through a replicator wasn't terribly expensive but the plans for anything could be astronomical. It wasn't uncommon to have to purchase a single run plan.

Commander Sterra hadn't been foolish.
She had marked our plans to General Astral Cutter, specifically
Sterra's Gift
, as non-transferable. We could use the plans as long as we owned the ship. The plans were worth more than the ship if we had been able to sell them.

"
How about I take a four hour shift after I grab a meal bar and then we can switch back?" I offered.

"
Grab me one, too."

"
Coffee?"

"
Sure."

Once I was back in the pilot's chair
, I reran the queries I had built from the night before. Nothing new. I added similar searches to the intermediate ports of call and was able to find a single good load from Terrence to Puskar Stellar Fair. We'd still have fifty cubic meters of space left and would end up on Puskar with forty thousand additional m-creds.

Calculate a final credit balance on Puskar, keep 25% of existing ammunition, top off consumables at each port. Include taxes and fees. Include five days of docking at Puskar
.

The number came back at one-hundred-forty thousand. I had hoped for more but we still weren't full. It made me nervous not to tie down the contracts but with our five thousand m-cred balance we couldn't commit to any of the bond requirements.

The rest of my shift went without interruption. Xie got up and went back for coffee, but didn't join me on the bridge, which suited me.

"
Permission to enter," Nick said from the doorway.

"
Enter. You know I feel weird asking for permission to enter the bridge of my own ship, right?" I said to him as he walked forward.

"
Technically you wouldn't have to since you are the Captain. It is the responsibility of the officer of the deck to announce your arrival," Nick informed me

"
So you own this ship as much as I do, why are you doing that?"

"
We are going to have to take on crew soon. Sailing this short-staffed is dangerous. If I do it right, then I can expect them to do it right."

Nick's logic was solid but it annoyed me to have to think about it. Fortunately, it was why we were a good team. I pushed us forward and Nick kept us organized. I couldn't imagine doing it without him.

"Anything to report?"

"
All systems normal and nothing to report." I wanted to show Nick that I was willing to use his approach.

"
I relieve you."

"
I stand relieved."

I pulled off my vac-suit and left it in the cabin since the better part of my shift
would be spent working on the main head. With the cleaning kit from the galley and a tool belt from the engine room, I made my way with some dread to the head. I chuckled to myself, doubting that I was the first to experience 'head dread.'

T
he smell hit me hard when the door was opened. I was probably overly sensitive from my previous day's exercise, but this job wasn't getting done by itself. It made no sense to clean the anti-grav components, so they were removed first. The components came off easily which was surprising. Everything else was completely frozen due to a lack of regular maintenance. I was happy enough to have a job go my way, for once. After a solid hour of work the entire main head and surfaces were clean, if not sparkly. It was annoying to have to keep running back to the secondary head to dump out the slime I was gathering in my bucket but I couldn't justify leaving the surfaces so disgusting.

I must have been quite a sight, or maybe it was the smell, because when Xie exited her bunk room, she stepped back to keep clear of me.
"Ooh, you smell bad, Liam." She waved her hand in front of her nose. Her hair was tousled and she had obviously just woken up.

"
All in a day's work. Fresh coffee in the galley, if you are of a mind." There wasn't much to say about my present condition, so I focused on the positive.

"
Sounds good," Xie replied but then shut her door. I don't think she had expected to see me in the hallway.

If Xie was going to be up and running around, I decided to gain access to the maintenance cat-walk from the engine room. I hated to have her stumble into an open panel in the hallway. The floor panel I chose came up easily and I suspected it had been removed more often than other panels. Accessing engine compartments would be a constant occurrence
, even for pirates.

I found a
couple of panel bolts on the catwalk that might account for the noise I'd heard the night before. I didn’t think they had been there yesterday, but in my exhaustion, they could have been overlooked.

The panel leading to under the main head came off easily today since I had freed it up yesterday. I felt fortunate that the majority of the gunk was cleaned out of the compartment already, but it still reeked of sewage and wasn't going to get better. All of the seals between the head and the septic system were ruptured and the lines were completely blocked. As a result, the drain for the shower did nothing.

I spent my entire shift freeing the drains of the shower, toilet, zero-grav head and sink. It was a simple idea, push a flexible rod down each drain and allow the junk to fall on the floor of the compartment below.

At the end of my shift I was within an hour of finishing up, so I stuck my head into the bridge.
"Hey, Nick, mind if I keep at this? I think I can finish up in an hour or so."

"
Any chance of getting that shower running? I can smell you from here," he replied.

"
I think we might get it all back online. I will have to use some repair tape to seal the plumbing but the parts are shot anyway. It will probably get us to Baru."

"
Do it and make sure you take a shower."

"
Roger that." It wasn't lost on me how bad I smelled.

I cleaned the main head and wiped down the surfaces that had become contaminated in the process.
Once the water was running and the drains connected, it would require a more thorough cleaning, but this was a start.

Back in the compartment below, I started to swab up the refuse from the floor that had fallen down from the drains
when I saw a small spherical object a centimeter in diameter. I didn't want to reach down and touch it, but it was so out of place. I used a rag to wipe it off and I was surprised to find that it was some sort of offline data device.

Connect to device, list contents
.

Crap. I wasn't wearing my suit and hadn't thought to bring a wrist connector. My AI
was unable to make a connection to the device. I pushed the marble sized device into my pocket and then wondered if this could possibly be what they were looking for when they tore up the ship. It was a heck of a good hiding place, to be sure.

Showering was still a priority
, so I swabbed out the compartment and reconnected the fittings. I had to use a copious amounts of sealer tape but, in the end, it all held water very well.

The main head compartment looked clean for the first time and I was proud of the job I'd done. It was a shame that
most of the drains, pipes and tubes were wrapped in sealer tape. It was made to fix vacuum leaks in armor glass and nano-reinforced steel and once it was applied, it wouldn't come off without ruining the underlying components. The lightweight material used for plumbing fused to the tape upon application, but it was a worthy sacrifice to get a working shower.

Topside again, I turned on the water in the shower and was satisfied to see it run into the drain and disappear. Another trip below and
I discovered a couple of key spots had been missed and were leaking. I hastily applied more sealer tape. I would have to do another check later to make sure nothing else had been missed.

I replaced the panel to the compartment and realized corrosion had rendered much of the lower part of the panel useless. It was important to fix
, as the compartment panels needed to be able to be sealed in case of decompression. That made me wonder how many sections in our ship would actually hold vacuum. The ship wouldn’t be able to isolate this compartment if the cat-walk became decompressed.

I grabbed my clean suit-liner and a tube of personal cleanser, then locked the door to the main head and ran water through the nozzle of the shower. It was deliciously warm. The water ran dark with grime from my body and for the first time in a number of days I felt clean. I had to scrub my prosthesis by hand and took the time to inspect the stump of my leg underneath the medical cuff. It was still weird, but at least
there wasn't any pain or swelling. I figured I would just do my best to put it out of my mind.

I wiped down the surfaces and put on my prosthetic foot and then my suit liner. I felt a hundred times better than I had an hour ago. You don't know how much you miss a shower until you're up to your neck in grime.

Xie caught up with me while I was running my dirty suit-liner through the freshener.

"
You smell good. I like that." She pressed close and placed her hand on my chest suggestively.

I gently grabbed her arm at the wrist and pulled it away.
"Shower is running. It needs a new nozzle but it beats not having one at all."

Xie didn't pout at my rejection this time. I guess she figured this was how we were gonna play it.

"Oooh, I am ready for a shower." She returned to her bunk room.

I grabbed a water pouch and a couple of meal bars. I had missed lunch and was starving, but felt awesome about getting so much done. It was, however, 2000 and Nick had been on bridge duty for six hours.

"Anything to report?" I asked as I entered the bridge.

"
Main head is showing yellow. Quite an improvement. Otherwise, critical systems are nominal."

"
I relieve you."

"
I stand relieved."

It didn't feel quite as weird this time. I sat down in the chair and reviewed the systems, noticing one of the septic runs had shifted from red to yellow.
The influx of my shower water was probably helping things move along.

"
How about I take it until 0600 tomorrow? I'll set an alarm if anything changes while I'm dozing."

"
Sounds good. I think Xie wants to play cards again tonight. You game?" he asked.

Sure enough, around 2200, Nick and Xie showed up. We finally quit playing around 0100. I was too tired for exercise, but still pulled out my yoga mat and meditated for half an hour. It felt wonderful to clear my mind and simply relax, if only for a short while.
I resumed my watch and started thinking about the jobs ahead. The floor of the bridge needed a complete overhaul and somehow I had to find a way to clean the short-piled carpeting, or replace it altogether.

Next thing I knew, my alarm was
warbling at 0530. I had wanted to do several system checks before Nick came in. I drank a little water to get the bad taste out of my mouth and saw that all systems were in the same shape they had been the day before. I was working on three hours of sleep.

When Nick entered the bridge, I was more than a little satisfied that he had forgotten to ask permission. We did the rest of our dance and I headed back to my bed on the couch. I fell asleep almost instantly and didn't wake until 1130 when my alarm
warbled again. I had been doing a terrible job of eating on time, so I grabbed a couple of meal bars, rinsed out my coffee cup and relieved Nick on the bridge.

"
What's the schedule today?" I asked, once I was comfortable that all systems were in good shape. Seeing that the other septic line had moved from red status to yellow made me happy.