Free Half Share by Nathan Lowell

normal?”
    “I have no idea, but I got one, too. It’s the only thing I remember about my interview with her.”
    “Is everything as bad as she said?” Sarah asked, letting a bit of her fear show for the first time.
    “Not even close.” I laughed. “Not even close.”
    By then we had made it to the lock, and Bev was still on duty. “Bev, meet Sarah Krugg. Sarah, this is Beverly Arith. She’s not as scary as she appears.”
    “Hey!” Bev protested. “Who you calling scary?” She smiled at Sarah and held out a hand. Again, I thought Sarah flinched and Bev shot me a quick glance like she had seen something, too. “Welcome aboard, Sarah. This ignoramus hasn’t been telling you lies about us already, has he?”
    Sarah did the press-and-release handshake again and smiled tentatively. “No, actually, he’s been very considerate.”
    “Ish, Mr. Maxwell wants to see her in the office right away, but when you take her down to berthing why don’t you put her in the bunk above mine?”
    “Would you like an upper bunk?” I asked.
    “I don’t know. I never slept in a bunk before.”
    “Uppers are easier to get out of,” I told her. “But harder to get into.”
    She smiled a bit coldly. “That sounds fine.”
    Bev nodded deliberately at me. “Ish? Mr. Maxwell is waiting…”
    I was not really sure what was going on there, but I led the way into the ship. I lowered my voice a bit, “Mr. Maxwell is a little scary. But he’s really good at his job. Don’t let the robot-act scare ya.”
    “The what?”
    “Never mind. You’ll see what I mean.”
    We made it to the office and I straightened my shipsuit. “You ready?” I whispered.
    Sarah took a deep breath and let it out slowly before nodding shortly.
    I knocked and heard Mr. Maxwell say, “Come.”
    I swung the door open and led Sarah into the office. “Attendant Wang reporting with Attendant Sarah Krugg as ordered, sar.”
    Mr. Maxwell did his best robot impersonation as he swiveled his gaze to Sarah and said, “Welcome aboard, Ms. Krugg. Mr. Wang will get you settled in deck berthing and introduce you to the rest of the mess staff.”
    I recognized the command and said, “Aye, aye, sar.”
    “Do you have any questions for me, Ms. Krugg?” Mr. Maxwell asked.
    She shook her head and said, “No, sar. Not at this time, sar.”
    He turned to me then and went on, “Mr. Wang. As of this moment you are promoted to engineman and will assume your duties in the environmental section of engineering when Mr. Carstairs returns from liberty.”
    “Yes, sar. Thank you, sar.”
    He looked at both of us and nodded. “Dismissed.”
    I led the way out and closed the door behind Sarah. She started to speak, but I raised a hand to stop her. Again the déjà vu was thick as I remember the exact same thing occurring six months earlier but then I played the part of the greenie and Pip was my guide. After a couple of turns down the passageway, I stopped and muttered the same words Pip had given me, “That went well.”
    Sarah had an oh-my-god expression that I recognized so well. “He’s not that scary?” she asked. “You call that not scary?”
    “Yeah. I know. But there really is no good way to prepare anyone for their first meeting with Mr. Maxwell. Trust me, it gets easier over time and like I said he’s very good. You’ll see.”
    I could tell I had not convinced her, but she seemed willing to let it go for now. Instead, she took a different tack and asked, “You just got a promotion?”
    “Yup,” I told her.
    “How long have you been aboard?”
    “I was a quarter share greenie like you last September.”
    “And you already got promoted?”
    “Yeah, it’s been an interesting six months.”
    “What did you do before?”
    “Same as you. You’re getting my old job. I was a mess deck attendant.” I checked the chrono and saw that it was 13:30. “Come on. Let’s get your gear stowed and go help Cookie clean up after lunch. Once that’s done we can