Chapter 33

McCock left Erin still in bed as he pecked her on the cheek at oh dark hundred and then with Polack who looked disgustingly fit for this hour of the morning watch shambled out to the ramp for the trip to GmBH.

He let his mind wander as he sat in the shuttle.

Erin had established an agreement with "Mine Host" to be correct in their relationship; Erin was the serious girl friend and not some casual bed warmer; "Mine Host" tried to keep his judgements to himself, he did run a respectable establishment despite catering as it did to the orbital yards. They weren't on truly friendly terms and the disapproval was kept hidden – mostly.

McCock shied away from further thought about his relationship with Erin Nancarrow.

The project was beginning to take shape. The supply of Armoralloy would probably do, tell Denny that with appreciation, not a 'well done' as the Flock had become partners rather than officer and NCO's.

With a start McCock realized how socialized he had become, he was losing the Naval ethos which had been part of him for most of his adulthood and of his boarding school existence. He turned away from that path of his future; and yes, that yacht.

At midweek, Denny, as duty person had been precipitously awakened by an alarm. In a daze he focused on the flashing red light on the outline for the "Trader" on the alarm board. Denny had given the Flock a laugh when he regaled them with his consternation on seeing the full outline of the vessel. The AI's repetitious announcement of "Port Side Passenger" broke into his consciousness and he had toggled to the hull view. He saw a suited figure hanging onto the grip by the No 5 hatch holding up the suit intercom lead. Denny had hit the response light and watched the figure make the connection. As he shifted position the hatch camera which had been obscured by the figure showed a very up market flivver standing off with several other figures looking toward the "Trader". A tired sounding male voice came over,

"I have a bit of trouble and wonder if you could help me?"

Denny had been abruptly woken from his sleep (he was becoming socialized too), and wasn't pleased about it.

"Perhaps, but I would like to know the trouble."

"I've burned out the engine in my speed yacht and I was hoping you would take her on?"

"Where is she?"

"Alongside your main hatch. We towed her in with the flivver and tethered her to your cleats then came looking for you."

"Why didn't you use the front office?"

"Is there one? We didn't see it, we saw the side hatches but there were no lights so we came around here and saw this hatch lit."

A very puzzled Denny looked over his board which didn't outline the office except with a bank of indicators and the wide viewing vid screens. He toggled the 'front' screen and there was the very expensive sporty vessel. He then realized there was no light sensor on the No 3 hatch. After the Flock had relocated out of the office, they'd forgotten to manually activate the out of hour's illumination of the front office hatch. The No5 hatch wasn't specifically illuminated but got some light from the sensor activated "Trader's" running light. Denny had thought 'more!?*+ work!'