Full Share by Nathan Lowell Read Free Book Online

Nobody had any really good answers in the old books. It seemed to me that it was not the kind of thing you could answer except in hindsight. The problem I was up against at the moment was that, at eighteen, I didn’t have a whole lot of hind to sight and I just wished people would leave me alone to deal with it.
    I was just getting ready to relieve Francis for the afternoon watch when Brill stormed into environmental by slamming the hatch open so hard it bounced off its stops. This was the first time I’d seen her angry since we met and she was making up for lost time.
    I looked at Francis who shrugged in return.
    Brill grabbed the hatch, slammed it closed with both hands, and threw the dogging lever with a wrench that I thought might twist it out of its socket. She stood there with her back turned for a tick, and when she turned around she was under control. If I hadn’t seen the performance with the hatch, I wouldn’t have known she was upset. She wasn’t even breathing hard.
    “Mr. Wang, when you’ve relieved the watch, would you join me in my office?” she asked very officially.
    “Of course, Chief,” I said to her back as she passed us and entered her office.
    Francis and I finished the formalities. He shrugged and gave me a hopeful smile before heading for the hatch. It opened easily enough although it wouldn’t have surprised me to find it stuck from the slamming. I did a quick scan of the displays, slaved my tablet, and followed Brill into her office. We were the only ones in the section, but I think she needed the comfort of her own space. Whatever was bothering her, it was not going to be fun for either of us.
    When I entered, she was standing in the middle of her office with her whelkie in hand. The whelkie was a small wood carving of a heron that I had given her when I joined the section. They were made by South Coast Shamans and were suppose to have magical properties. She was stroking it absently with her fingers, and I couldn’t be sure she was even aware of the action.
    “You’re not going to get the promotion to spec three, Ish,” she said with a catch in her voice.
    “Okay,” I said with a shrug. “No big deal.”
    She looked at me then, chewing her lower lip. “You’re being replaced by a spec three that’s waiting for us in Betrus,” she said.
    I waited.
    “Home office finally processed Gregor’s transfer and did so with a replacement from there. We picked up the orders from the orbital beacon last night. I’ve just come from a meeting with the captain and Mr. Kelley.” She struggled for control. “I tried to argue for you and the captain is very angry at the home office right now. She assures me that she’ll do everything in her power for you, but she has no choice but to bring on this new guy as soon as we dock.”
    “I see,” I said. “What will happen then?”
    “I don’t know. She had all the senior staff there when I left. They’re fighting for you.”
    I heard the unspoken but in her voice. The ASIC popped up and I cleared it on my tablet without leaving the office. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but no slot, no job?”
    “True. But the officers can be creative with slots,” she pointed out. “Look at what they did for Pip.”
    “Good point,” I said, and took a deep breath. “Well, I’m crew for a couple more days, so I’ve got a watch to stand.” I started to leave.
    She nodded and said, “I tried, Ish. I really did try.”
    I turned back to her and wrinkled my nose. “Do you slam hatches like that for everybody?” I asked with a grin.
    She colored a bit at that and chuckled. “Um. Not exactly professional decorum, huh?”
    I shrugged.
    She got a wicked look on her face. “You shoulda seen the captain!”
    I stepped out of the office, took a deep breath, and said, “Trust Lois.”
    After that it was hard to focus on my duties, so I made an extra effort. It would have been too easy to overlook something and I concentrated like it was a test. In a lot