What's Best for the Sungazer

Writers: Jane, Vix
Date Posted: 24th September 2007

Characters: Rahona, Vaheri
Description: Rahona talks to Vaheri about her role on the Sungazer now Lineal is captain.
Location: Elsewhere on Pern
Date: month 6, day 10 of Turn 4

"Do I look as flustered as I feel?" Rahona asked the headwoman, having scurried back into the crew's common room and some privacy from the passengers, especially the too-attentive young Holder who had expected the Captain's wife to pay him more attention than Rahona thought proper.
She put one hand to one check and then the other, confirming that they were as blazingly hot as they felt from the inside. "Vaheri, I'm just no good at this sort of thing."

"Nonsense - you did just fine," chided the older woman. "He was rather charmed by your blushing."

"I think he was rather charmed by the sound of his own voice," Rahona muttered. "I don't have men lining up to _flirt_ with me. I'm so out of practise," she said with a laugh. "I was just glad Sunbow was sleeping. Imagine the performance she would have made over me getting all tongue-tied."

"You need to develop more confidence in yourself. You're learning our way of life, picking up on the skills we use the most, and proving yourself to be a part of this family. Accept that and show everyone else that you're one of us."

"Is there any klah going?" Rahona asked, peering hopefully toward the galley. "You know, Lineal didn't ever say that being the captain's wife was a _job_."

Vaheri had started toward the galley, but at Rahona's remark turned to look at her in surprise. "Being a wife to _anyone_ is a job."

"Well -" Rahona thought for a moment. "I suppose it is. It wasn't, before, because he was always at sea. But now - this is a _public_ job.
I thought I'd just look after the children and do some work as my share of things. You know, wash and clean. That sort of thing."

The headwoman grabbed the klah pot and poured the steaming liquid into two cups before replying with measured words. "Most of your job is of that type and more private, though you do have your extended riverboat family. However, this part of building relationships - eventually you'll know what to expect of these people and they'll know exactly how far they can push you and how you'll react."

"_I_ don't even know how I'll react, Vaheri! That man _flirted_ with me! Imagine that."

The older woman shrugged. "He flirts with me as well."

Rahona laughed. "Well, that stops me feeling special!"

"I'm sure he does see you as special, as he does every woman he encounters." She raised an eyebrow. "Truth be told, he'd not know what to do if one said yes to his advances."

"Well I'm certainly not going to be the one to test that out." Rahona sighed. "At the Weyr I was one of a whole lot more. More anonymous. I think I liked it."

Vaheri nodded in acknowledgement of that sentiment. "Anonymous might be preferable, but by the nature of what we do, we can't be anonymous.
We're the lifeline for many of these people, the link to the outside world, the ones who appear with regularity to bring them news and the assurance that though life is difficult, it goes on. By trying to get close to us, they step from the comfort of their own homes and into the greater world. It's a very limited involvement, but for some, even that much contact is frightening."

Rahona remembered the constant new arrivals and the departures of they Weyr - that feeling of movement. Candidates in, dragonriders out. It affected the lower caverns people, too. And for weyrfolk travel was much easier - there were always dragonriders around and even those who didn't have lifemates tended to have a dragonrider's perception of how easy - and fast - travel was.

"It was mostly the riders who saw people - they are the public face of the Weyr," Rahona said thoughtfully. "Rightly so, perhaps. But the rest of us just did our jobs and got on with our lives. No wonder Lineal always seemed to be able to get along comfortably with everybody.
It's a riverboat skill!"

"He does seem to do well," agreed the headwoman. "And it's a skill you'll grow into as you have been doing with the other skills that are new to you."

"I'd rather just learn to quilt," Rahona said with a sigh, taking along sip of the cooling klah.

"Quilting is what we do when we're on the water and by ourselves,"
Vaheri told her. "But forging relationships while in port helps us to sell the quilts so that we have space and the resources to make more."

"Perhaps I'll never make a good captain's wife." Rahona smiled.
"Perhaps we could just pretend somebody more accomplished is Lineal's wife. The passengers would never know."

Vaheri frowned at that suggestion. "Our customers trust us because we're fair and truthful with them."

The younger woman sighed. "I can tell you're going to be my conscience," she said. "Keep me at the hard jobs."

"I suppose that it's not something you've discovered yet." The headwoman set aside her mug before continuing. "Those of us who live onboard, we have a certain mindset. Though we have personal lives and may place mate or children first, those things are woven in with the boat itself.
Always we think in terms of 'what is best for the Sungazer?' That refers to the riverboat and all who crew it. We all have learned to do what we need to do to preserve our way of life."

"Lineal says that too - 'What's best for the Sungazer'." She shrugged.
"I suppose it's not quite my life yet. I am trying, Vaheri."

"I know that you are - and you're doing very well. However, the day you find yourself thinking in those terms, you'll suddenly realize that you truly are a part of the Sungazer." Vaheri smiled wistfully. "It took me a while to come to that point, though I had been brought up on a riverboat. It wasn't until after the birth of my first child that it suddenly all came together."

Rahona nodded, wondering wistfully if she should have another babe now that Lineal would be around to see all the growing up stages that he had missed with Nalin and Lihona.

Heeding the younger woman's expression, the headwoman left her to her thoughts. Something in the conversation had connected with Rahona, and it was best that Vaheri let her sort it out on her own.

Last updated on the October 1st 2007

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What's Best for the Sungazer