Quarter Share

by Nathan Lowell

  “Excellent. What’d the belt buckle guy say?”

  “He’ll give us a good price, probably between ten and fifteen creds, depending on quantity, but of course we have to take them off-station. I explained we’re leaving for St. Cloud in a couple days so that wasn’t an issue. That really was his biggest concern.”

  “What’s the mass look like?” I pulled up my quota on my tablet. “I have about eight kilos.”

  Pip nodded. “I’ve got a little more, but about the same. The question is how many buckles do we buy?”

  “We can’t afford too many—” I started to say but then I noticed Pip’s grin.

  “Three thousand creds will buy a lot of buckles. How many do you think you can put in eight kilos of mass?”

  “You gentlemen should think about this carefully, I think,” Cookie interrupted us. “Pip, you should either get off the ship, or change your clothing. Young Ishmael needs to clean up the galley and mess deck. Then you’ll both be free for the entire evening to discuss this all you like.”

  He was right so we split up. I floated through the next stan or so of work.

  Chapter 23

  Margary Station

  2352-January-12

  We picked up the conversation later in the sauna. “We’re missing something.”

  “What’s that?” Pip basked sleepily on one of the benches.

  “The Mercantile Cooperative.”

  “Miss it? I was staring at it all day.”

  “I know, but I think I’m starting to see what the captain was talking about. What’s going to happen to the booth for the next couple of days?”

  “Nothing as far as I know. We don’t have anything left to sell.”

  “Yeah, so we’re out twenty creds rent for the time we paid for but won’t use. It’s a shame. There could be others on the ship who could benefit, but because they don’t know about it, they’re out of luck.”

  “With the margins we got today, that twenty creds is a rounding error. But I take your meaning about the rest of the crew. There’s another thing too.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Time in port is limited and if you and I have to spend all day selling, we won’t be able to buy anything.”

  That thought had been banging up against the inside of my skull already as well.

  He sat up and looked at me. “Okay, some lessons learned. First, this was a last tick idea. Whatever we did here was really just testing the water.”

  I nodded in agreement. “Who’d have thought, huh?”

  Pip grinned. “Obviously, the captain, because if I remember correctly, she warned us of most of this.”

  “True.”

  “So, how does a mercantile cooperative work, anyway? We’re thinking like traders but we need to act like businessmen. So what do we do?”

  “I don’t know, but there is someone who does.”

  Pip looked at me and we both said, “The captain.”

  “Okay, before we bother her…” I held up my hand and counted off with my fingers, “…we need to figure out what it’s supposed to be, how it might work in our situation, and who we can get to help us.”

  Pip bobbed his head once. “The first should be easy. The second would be better discussed after we have an answer to the third.”

  “Makes sense, and I’m ready to get out of here.”

  We showered up and went out to find who else might be aboard.

  Turns out there weren’t many.

  “Hey, how’s it going? Do you have a few minutes to talk?” I asked Francis when we found him in environmental.

  “Sure, I just need to keep an eye on the gauges and fill out my logs. What’s on your mind?”

  Pip and I looked at each other and he nodded at me to start. “Well, we did pretty well in the flea market yesterday, don’t ya think?”

  “Oh yeah, that was not only fun, but profitable as well. I’m going back tomorrow afternoon and see what I can pick up to take to St. Cloud.”

  I nodded. “Yeah, that’s what we wanted to talk about.”

  “You’ll have another booth there, won’t you?”

  Pip chimed in, “That’s what we’re trying to determine. Margary was a spur of the moment thing and we weren’t very organized.”

  Francis chuckled. “Yeah, that’s true.”

  “We have five weeks to figure out how to do better on St. Cloud and we’re trying to make this work for everybody without having Pip and me spend all our time at it.” I summed the situation up for him.

  “And we’d like to organize it so that the expenses are covered,” Pip added. “Ish and I paid for the booth out of our own pocket, and it wasn’t that much, but if we’re going to do this all the time then we should share the expense. Plus, there are other things that we should get to make it easier.”

  “Like chairs?” Francis asked.

  I nodded and grinned. “Yeah, chairs, food, signs, whatever we need to do a professional job out there.”

  Pip added, “I’d like to have a grav-pallet set up like the regulars do so all we have to do is slide it out of the cargo lock and drag it up to the flea market.”

  “Whose mass would that come out of?” Francis asked.

  “We don’t know. That’s just the point. Maybe we can get it assigned to Lois, but what we need now are people who are willing to form a co-op to do this on an ongoing basis. If we can get a core group who’ll be responsible for organizing this between ports, then we should be able to make out better from here on out.”

  He pursed his lips and nodded. “Makes sense to me. When are we doing this?”

  Pip shrugged. “I don’t know. We’re just testing the waters to see who is interested at this point.”

  Francis didn’t even pause. “I’m in. I had a ball out there and I’d love to do it again. Hell, just watching Diane and Beverly play the crowd was worth the price of admission. If you want me to contribute to the rental fund, just let me know.”

  I shook my head. “Nothing is needed just now. The captain actually paid the rental from ship’s funds and paid back the ship. We just need to think this through more.”

  “Okay, look it’s time for my rounds,” Francis said, “but count me in. I made more creds yesterday than I did all of last stanyer. If we can do that all the time, that would be great.”

  Pip and I both nodded. “Thanks, Francis. Spread the word if you can. Let us know about anybody else who is interested. We’ll try to set up a meeting for just after pull out.”

  We headed back to the berthing area and I turned to Pip. “Do you have a handle on stores trades for St. Cloud?”

  He shrugged. “Between the Sarabanda and the mushrooms, we’re in good shape. We’re bound for Dunsany Roads after that and there’s a lot of similarities between the two. To get a good margin, it’s better if there is more of a difference.”

  “How about the empty container?”

  He shrugged again. “I met with Mr. Maxwell while you were in the booth. The beefalo robes were popular but the rugs didn’t sell. We’re taking them to St. Cloud. Having a planet under you and room to spread out might make them more viable. I should have considered that.”

  “Did you make any profit?”

  He grinned. “Yeah, between the robes and the odd pallets of stuff I had on that manifest, we cleared fifty kilocreds. That’s on what we’ve sold so far, so basically the rugs still left are free.”

  “Wait. You cleared fifty kilocreds on a ten kilocred investment?”

  Pip nodded smugly.

  “Nice. What did Mr. Maxwell say?”

  Pip stopped and swiveled his head in imitation. “Very good, Mr. Carstairs. I shall expect a similar report for the market on St. Cloud when we get there.”

  I chuckled. “You know, that’s a little scary that you do him so well. What are we taking to St. Cloud?”

  “Mushrooms, of course. What else?”

  “Oh yeah, I forgot. How many you planning on?”

  “Every kilo we can stuff in
there. I really think they’re going to do great.”

  I whistled. “That’s a lot of mushrooms.”

  He nodded and we continued down to berthing and hit the rack.

  ***

  Bev came to wake us in the morning. She had the watch until 06:00. “Well, what have you two been up to overnight?”

  “Planning. I think we want to make the McKendrick Mercantile Cooperative a formal entity, or at least more organized by the time we get to St. Cloud.”

  She nodded once. “Good. Count me in. How’d you do yesterday, Pip?”

  He grinned. “I managed to hold on to ten of those belts.”

  She whistled. “How many did you sell?”

  “All of the rest.” His grin broadened. “Seventy in all.”

  “We softened ’em up for ya.” she teased him.

  “No doubt. No doubt.”

  Pip headed for the galley while I considered my options.

  “What’s on for today, Ish?” Bev asked.

  “Shopping. We did pretty well in Gugara. Fancy a look around later?”

  She gave me a thumbs up. “Sure, but I’ve been up since midnight. I’m gonna rack it until noon but I’m up for it after that.”

  “Better deals in the afternoon,” I said with a grin.

  She chuckled as she went back to her watch station. “You’re practically a veteran now, Ish.”

  I felt bleary-eyed and foggy. Pip and I had stayed up later than normal and my feet were sore from the day at the flea market. I still couldn’t believe we’d made over three kilocreds on the belts.

  I pulled out my tablet and brought up the sections explaining various economic organizations. “Co-operative” brought up several entries. The crux of the situation explained that a co-op was a group of people who banded together and worked toward the common good of their group. It wasn’t much to go on, but I started thinking about Lois McKendrick, and all the people on New Edinburgh who got together to break the stranglehold that the company held on their lives. I decided I had to see the captain again. I wanted to know more about Great-grandmother McKendrick and her co-op. But first things first, I was awake, needed to pee, and I wanted my coffee.

  It felt odd to step onto the mess deck just as breakfast was being served, probably because there weren’t that many times in the last four months when I’d not been serving said breakfast. I took a mug from the rack, filled it with fresh Sarabanda Dark, and stood in line with a tray, grinning. Diane was in front of me.

  She glanced over her shoulder to see who was behind her and laughed. “I’m not used to seeing you on this side of the line.”

  “I’m not used to it, myself.”

  “Thanks for helping with the scrubbers, Ish. That really made a difference.”

  “My pleasure. We’re all in the same boat, as it were.”

  “True, but not everybody would help with a slimy job like that one if they didn’t have to.”

  I just shrugged and changed the subject. “You sold all your stuff the other day, right?”

  She nodded but the line had moved and Pip interrupted loudly, “Excuse me, I’m trying to serve breakfast here.”

  Diane turned around with a giggle. “Oh, sorry.” She held out her plate for Pip to slide the omelet on it. “Thank you so much.”

  “And you, sir, how may I serve you this morning?” He laid it on with a trowel and grinned the whole time.

  “Two egg omelet, some of those excellent mushrooms, a bit of onion, some crumbled bacon, and a bit of grated cheese, if you please. Moist in the middle, my good man. Mind you don’t dry it out.”

  “How about I just hit you with the pan and toss your carcass out an airlock?”

  I laughed. “Okay, okay, I get your point.”

  Cookie must have been helping him with his skills as well, because he slid a perfect omelet onto my plate in just a couple of ticks. “Thanks, Pip. Looks great.”

  He waved his spatula at me with a pleased nod of his head. “Enjoy.”

  I looked around and spotted Diane sitting alone at a table. She nodded to the chair across from her.

  As I settled into the seat, she braced me without preamble. “So, Francis says you guys visited him on watch last night?”

  I nodded. “That’s why I was asking about whether or not you sold all your stuff. Pip sold everything we had yesterday. By all measures, this was an amazing success.”

  She sipped her coffee and nodded. “It was for me. I sold stuff that I’ve been dragging around for months. And it was much easier than trying to find some buyer and haggling with them and safer then deals made in shady bars. I turned a nice profit, so I’ve got both mass and cred to spend today.”

  “Yeah, me, too.” There wasn’t anybody in the mess line just then so I motioned Pip over. “What we were talking to Francis about was the possibility of getting organized before we hit St. Cloud.”

  Pip joined us. “Yeah, next time around we should be better prepared. I suspect that there are people aboard who could have used the space and didn’t know we were doing it because the whole thing was so slapdash.”

  “We’ve been thinking that we should actually form the McKendrick Mercantile Cooperative,” I put in. “You know, like on the banner? We thought we’d ask the other traders on the crew to join. Together, we can coordinate coverage on the booth and expenses. With a little investment we could put together a booth that looks like we know what we were doing.”

  Diane laughed. “I’m being double-teamed here, but I think you’re right. What will it take?”

  I shrugged. “Even if all we do is get the word out to the entire crew that’s more than we had going on in Margary.”

  “Good point,” she agreed.

  Pip plunked down beside me. “I’m trying to think of this like a business. I don’t want to share everybody’s profits because that’s not right. But there’s a lot of things we can pool that would help everybody.”

  “Like what?” Diane looked at him.

  I snickered. “Like chairs. My feet are still recovering.”

  “Mine, too.” Diane grimaced.

  Pip nodded. “Exactly. So, the co-op invests in things like chairs, but the expense should be shared by all the members somehow.”

  Diane cut off a piece of her omelet and chewed it for a moment before speaking, “That makes sense, but whose mass allotment takes the hit?”

  Pip and I glanced at each other before I answered her, “I’m thinking we ask Lois.”

  Pip grinned. “I was thinking the same thing.”

  Diane looked confused. “Lois who?”

  “Lois McKendrick, of course.” I smiled at her confusion.

  She blinked at me a couple times, maybe trying to decide if I was kidding. “Let me know how that works out for you.”

  Pip smirked. “Oh, I think we’ll convince her.”

  Diane looked doubtful. “Well, if we do this, we’ll need creds for expenses: booth rental, chairs, signs, cargo totes—”

  “Grav-pallet?” I suggested.

  Her face lit up at the thought. “Ooh, that would be excellent, but maybe a bit of a stretch all things considered.”

  I nodded. “True, but we’re on the right track. I’m willing to toss a few creds in the pot as seed money, but how do we replenish the pot?”

  Diane ate some more of her omelet while she considered. Finally she nodded once as if she’d made up her mind. “Okay, I see three ways: dues, buy in, or fees.”

  I grimaced. “I thought of dues, but that’s a problem because it limits who can participate. If you don’t pay your dues then you can’t sell, but if you want to drop out halfway through the period, how can we give a refund?”

  Pip nodded his head in agreement. “How would the buy in idea work? You pay a fee to set up in the booth at the next port?”

  Diane nodded.

  “Down side is that you have to pay before you have the income. If you don’t sell anything it would be tough,” Pip said.

  We sat there looking at
each other for a couple of ticks. Finally, I broke the silence. “It sounds like we go with fees then. How are you thinking this would work?”

  Diane gestured with her fork. “If you sell in the booth you should pay some nominal amount. Like one percent. We could cap it at some amount, say ten creds, and the trader would pay whichever is smaller. That way somebody who doesn’t sell a lot can still get in. People who sell more won’t get smacked to hard.”

  Pip nodded slowly. “Rental here in Margary is ten a day, the table cost an extra cred. With that arrangement just one person would cover that easily.”

  Diane pointed out the obvious. “If we’d been operating under that rule during this past exercise, all four of us would have paid ten creds for that first day.”

  I shook my head. “No, ten creds is one percent of a thousand. Bev and I only made about a hundred each, but that big bundle of belts would have covered it easily.”

  Diane shrugged. “Well, I made almost a kilocred on all my stuff, so I’d have made up the difference.”

  Pip nodded his agreement. “And yesterday, Rhon Scham, Biddy Murphy, and I would have also.”

  Diane looked back and forth between us. “That seems fair to me. I’d gladly have kicked in ten creds for what I got out of it.”

  Francis came in looking for breakfast so Pip went to get him an omelet.

  “Thanks, Diane. That was kinda what I was thinking, but you really solidified it for me.”

  She speared the last bite of her omelet. “My pleasure, Ish. Count me in on whatever you’ve got going forward, okay?”

  I nodded and paused for a moment. “Hey, do you know anything about mushroom farming?”

  “Huh?” She blinked at me for a few heartbeats and a wry smile twisted her lips. “Do you know what the phrase smooth change of subject means?”

  I laughed. “Sorry, my brain is hopping around this morning. Did you know that Margary is the mushroom capital of the galaxy or something?”

  “You’re kidding.”

  I shook my head. “They have plenty of dark tunnels here to grow them in. I thought I’d try to find out more about what it takes besides dark and space. It has got to take some kind of growing medium, but what do they have out here in the Deep Dark?”