Free Ships of My Fathers by Dan Thompson Page B

take a few days to size right.”
    “You knew him?”
    Harry stood up again and started jotting notes on a pad. “Not really. I met him once, long time back.”
    Michael turned to Charlie. “And you?”
    Charlie nodded. “Your mom, too. I was at the wedding.”
    Gravity seemed to shift a bit, but nothing was wrong with the ship. It was only Michael. The idea of the wedding was a little too surreal, his mother in a gown exchanging vows with someone other than Malcolm.
    “You okay?” Charlie asked.
    “It’s a lot to take in.”
    Harry had returned with a small crate filled with clothing, boots, toothpaste, and so on. “You didn’t know?”
    Michael shook his head. “So these are my uniforms?”
    “Nah, just a rough fit from stores. I have to make some adjustments, so it’ll be a shift or two before I can get you your real uniforms, but this ought to get you through today.”
    He took the crate from her. “Thanks. It was good to meet you, Harry.”
    She patted him on the shoulder. “See you around, Michael, and don’t worry.”
    He nodded, already starting to worry. “Yeah, a week, right?”
    “You’ll be fine.”
    Charlie led him back, past the stairs, down another turn, and pressed a button on the wall. “Ladders are a bitch if you’ve got something to carry, so it’s ok to use the lift.”
    “Say, Charlie, is everyone in on this whole ‘week until they test you’ joke?”
    “Oh, it’s no joke,” he replied as the lift chimed and slid open.
    Michael followed him in. “You’re serious?”
    “Deadly serious,” he answered. The lift showed five decks. Charlie selected deck four. “The crew is a team, a family in a very real sense. Say we have some emergency and we’re all running around in our environment suits, we can’t have people guessing at who’s who.”
    Michael bit back his panic. “But that’s over sixty people.”
    “Sixty-four, actually, and you’re one of them. Trust me, you’ll do fine.”
    Michael nodded and took a deep breath. “If you say so.”

    Hans strolled into his first officer’s ready room and signaled the door to close behind him. “He’s aboard,” he announced with satisfaction.
    “No trouble with the locals then?” Felicia Corazon asked. She had been reviewing a systems report, but she set it aside.
    “Nothing significant. I got a little brush back from one of his old crew, but I dangled the possibility of employment in front of him, and he knuckled under.”
    Felicia raised an eyebrow. “Are you posting him here?”
    “Oh heavens no,” Hans replied. “One of Fletcher’s thugs? No, I flagged him through the entire company network, but I suppose I should arrange something for him. Maybe we can foist him off on Takasumi Lines with some kind of doctored-up recommendation. We still owe them for that fiasco last year. Berkshire was it?”
    She nodded. “Benny Berkshire. If only he had been as competent as his forged ratings. Do you need me to take care of it?”
    He waved it off. “I’ll file something myself when we reach Cenita. No, for now I want you to focus on Michael. Have you had a chance to review his personnel jacket yet?”
    “I downloaded his public file from the standards registry before we left Ballison. If it’s accurate, he’s got an impressive set of ratings for someone so young.”
    “It might be. He’s got Peter’s ambition, I’ll grant you that, but I don’t know if it has translated into as much skill as his jacket would imply. Fletcher is the signatory on most of those ratings, so I don’t put much faith in them.”
    Felecia shrugged. “I’ll see to it he’s put through his paces. The department heads should be able to sniff out any fishy ratings.”
    “Good enough, but for now let’s try to treat him some respect. He may still have the stink of Fletcher on him, but he’s a Schneider. I want him to know that means something.”
    “Understood, sir. Will you be killing the fatted calf for dinner tonight? Prodigal son