3e: Ra fal First Flight

Things are always a bit rough with a new crew and a new ship, but after a few days we were sorting it out pretty well.

Mary and Sofonisba had the good sense to go off brooming when we first practiced the harder maneuvers, which let us all focus on our work. By the time they got back, we had all gotten the basics of spaceship sailing figured out, and I had a better feel for how to deal with my crew.

At first, Tsinta's performance was lubberly and she seemed distant and isolated, like she hated being here and was just barely tolerating us. But then she changed quickly, like a slack sail filling with wind and snapping taut. She started working with the crew like a seasoned hand, and also seemed happier. Everyone adjusts in their own way and at their own speed, of course, but this was something deeper than just getting comfortable with her job. Of course it would be pointless to ask her about it, but since it was not causing trouble I would leave it alone for now.

Gladys was the kind of person who would scream curses at you one minute and be perfectly fine with you the next. Basically, your typical sailor or adventurer. During much of the training, the two of us communicated mainly by flinging profanity back and forth, and were both fine with the arrangement. She was smart about some things but was a bit lacking in sense, and had to have many basic lessons of ship life beaten into her head. Sometimes literally. But everything would eventually sink in if I yelled at her enough and in the right way. I just had to remember to be really direct and literal, and not to assume that she would already know things or be able to read people.

Mabellyne was trickier. She did not do well in chaotic situations. She would get really stressed and flustered whenever anyone made a mistake, which happened all the time. I was afraid she would have some kind of breakdown the first evening, but Mary was able to talk to her and make things better. The human was already proving her worth. I soon realized that Mabellyne was the kind of person who needed to practice everything in a slow controlled way, and take time building up basic skills, but once she had those she could use them in clever and inventive ways. After the first day, I had her do simple drills of one thing at a time, and after a few days of this she was able to handle things a lot better.

After the four of us worked things out the hard way, it was a lot easier to teach Sofonisba and Mary. It helped that they were both good learners. Sofonisba was quiet and dutiful, with the calm of an experienced adventurer. Mary mostly succeeded in making up for her inexperience with energy and eagerness. Pretty soon, each two-person shift could easily handle the basics of sailing through a steady trade wind and avoiding the occasional space rock. If anything more came up, they would get help from the two people on call, and in an emergency, they would wake up the two who were sleeping.

Once I was confident that we would not break a wing strut or crash into something, it was time to deal with the littler problems. Like Mary and the mealworms. On the afternoon of the fourth day of travel, after Mary had gone to sleep, I found Sofonisba in the galley.

A spaceship galley is a small efficient thing right next to the engine. There are no burners or open flames, just a washbasin and a series of metal tubs that hold three-gallon glazed earthenware pots. The metal tubs transfer heat from the engine into the pots. The cook adds dry ingredients, water, and spices to the pots, and basically leaves them alone for an entire day, just checking in every few hours to stir things or adjust the water and spices.

Sofonisba was scrubbing out a pot, or trying to. Her weak scrawny arms were not making much progress.

"Hey, do you want me to help with that?"

"Yes, thank you."

She handed me the wet pot, which I effortlessly held up in one hand while the other attacked it with a wooden scraper. Chunks of old crusted three-bean stew sloughed off into the washbasin. Sofonisba started stirring and tasting the things that were cooking in the other pots.

"Those smell delicious."

"Thank you."

I kept scrubbing, then stopped and turned to the elf. "I just realized something. Why do you not clean these with your Prestidigation magic?"

"I do not want to risk casting too many spells close to the engine."

I nodded gratefully. "Thank you for that."

She smiled. "Also, if you cast spells on a pot too many times without submerging it in running water, everything cooked in that pot starts to taste like zinc."

I grinned back. "Thank you for that too."

"Speaking of which, the water barrels are about half empty. We should refill them at the next river or iceberg we come across."

I nodded. "Have Mabellyne check the charts and aim for a river. I would rather land in liquid than dock with a solid object on our first time. We should do it during the day, and I want to be awake for it, so be sure to get me up when we are about five minutes away."

"I agree that you should supervise, but you have been awake more than any of us. How much longer can you keep this up before getting exhausted?"

"I can handle it. I am used to this. I will catch up on sleep when we land on one of the turnip islands and you all gather them up."

Sofonisba nodded. "The first one is about two days away, right?"

"Yes, pretty soon we will leave the trade wind and start heading to the Garcia-17 archipelago."

We chatted about our course and the weather while I kept cleaning and she kept adjusting spices, adding water, and stirring. I wanted to build comfort before I brought up something that might be interpreted as criticism, although the longer things went on, the harder it would be to change to that topic.

Thankfully, Gladys wandered in and asked, "What is ready to eat?"

Sofonisba pointed to the two furthest from the engine. "These two, but it would be best if you finished off the cricket loaf."

Gladys nodded, removed the lid from the pot, and began spooning the leftover but still-warm loaf into a bowl.

The slow-cooking galley was perfect for a small crew with shifts, because food would always be available whenever needed. After something finished cooking, you could move it to a different tub that would keep it warm for hours. Eventually it might get dried out or scorched, but it was usually finished off before then.

Gladys took a bite and grunted approvingly. "By the time this trip is over, I will not miss eating red meat. I will find a library to double-check what you said and make sure it is legit, of course, but if it checks out I will make this my new standard diet."

For Gladys, this was politeness, and Sofonisba handled it with a gracious "I am glad I could help." The goblin wandered off without saying anything, happily chewing on cricket loaf.

This was the perfect conversational opening for me. "I still do not understand why you refused to pack salt pork or other cured meat."

"I thought I convinced you that the toxic chemicals would eventually make you sick and shorten your life."

"You convinced Gladys, and after that I just went along with it. I never heard of anything like that, and I know dozens of hale and hearty sailors who live mainly on salt pork and ketchup. But I figured the extra cost was worth it to keep you and Tsinta happy, and I trusted that you would know how to use your nuts and legumes and cricket flour and mealworms to give us the protein we needed."

"And I have done as promised."

"Yes, you have. Your food can keep anyone going strong, if they eat enough of it. But we forgot the thing about humans and insects."

She looked confused. "What thing?"

Gladys had left the lid off the cricket-loaf pot, with the spoon in it. I looked in the pot and saw that it was mostly emptied, but that there were still crumbs and food stuck to the sides. I hate wasting food, so I started scraping the pot with a wooden spatula and eating the leftovers as we talked.

"Humans are weird about eating insects. They really do not like to do it."

"But Martin eats insects without any problem. He shares meals with everyone, and I have never heard of him refusing to eat any of the hors d'oeuvres at diplomatic functions, or even being picky about them."

I shrugged. "He is an experienced diplomat. Most untrained humans find insects repulsive."

"Why?"

"Nobody knows. It is just one of those odd cultural things, or maybe something about how their brains are tuned."

"Mary never said anything about this."

"She is trying her best to fit in, and is afraid of insulting you."

She looked thoughtful. "So Mary has not been eating enough."

"Right. And I am worried that will weaken her and lead to mistakes."

"When did you first notice or remember this?"

"Our first dinner, when you served that delicious spiced split-pea stew with mealworms and garlic. As soon as I tasted it, I knew that this would be a good trip. I was sharing good food with a good crew."

"I wondered why you insisted that we all eat a meal together every day, but now I see the wisdom of it. It does help form a strong primal bond."

"Yes. But from Mary's point of view, she was surrounded by a bunch of rough beastly women chowing down on green glop with creepy crunchy bugs in it."

"Oh." Sofonisba looked thoughtful, then glanced out the galley door. "I did think it was odd that she ate so little, but I assumed that Gladys's table manners were putting her off her appetite."

I nodded. Gladys did have the table manners of a dwarf barbarian, and that meal was even worse than usual because she had been working up a big appetite by sailing all day. But I did not want to get in the habit of doing anything that might look like gossiping about or conspiring against another crew member, so I had to come to her defense. "She is about normal for sailors and adventurers. Among most crews, it is perfectly natural to pick your teeth with a dagger when things start building up in them. It took me an extra ten minutes to clean the mealworm legs and chitin out of my mouth that night. I have no idea how you and Tsinta avoid getting that stuff stuck between your teeth."

She shrugged. "There is a trick to it. You pick it up after a few decades."

Elves can be really annoying sometimes, but I could not let myself get distracted. I was done scraping the pot, so I splashed it with a bit of water, added soap, and started scrubbing it out in the washbasin. "I think that Mary will get used to the idea of eating bugs, but it will take time. We need her at her best before then, and if hunger forces her into it, she might associate us with a bad experience."

Sofonisba nodded. "So you want me to make her something without any insects."

"Do not single her out. Just try to make sure that the menu always happens to have something meatless in it, so she can eat her fill along with us."

She frowned thoughtfully. "That will be difficult. I will have to adjust the whole meal plan, and most of the recipes need the insects to work right."

"Do not worry about how things taste. All that matters is that she gets enough food, and by tomorrow she will be hungry enough to eat almost anything. Actually, having the meatless things be more bland might be good for her. It might guide her to the normal food, make her like and appreciate it. She has eaten enough of it for some part of her to remember that it tastes good. And having the meatless food be bland will make the rest are less likely to eat them, so there is always enough for Mary."

"You are right. I think I can work something out."

"Thank you." I finished washing the pot, then dried it off, put it on the rack, and wiped my hands. Then I turned to her, stood at attention, pressed my fist to my heart, and opened it to her in a classic elven gesture of respect. "You are the best cook I have ever worked with."

She smiled. "I know how much of a compliment that is coming from you. You are welcome."

I smiled, and headed back to my pod to sleep.

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