Her New Life

Writers: Jane
Date Posted: 29th March 2009

Characters: Kellin, Lineal
Description: Kellin asks if Lineal has made a decision about her transfer.
Location: Elsewhere on Pern
Date: month 1, day 24 of Turn 5
Notes: Riverboat Sungazer

"Got a moment, Kellin?" Lineal roared from his office, looking up at the ceiling that was the underside of the floor of the pilothouse on the deck above.

"Be right down!" Kellin called. She left the other pilot - the Sungazer's own and only pilot - in command of the riverboat and headed down the stairs to the captain's office. She knocked on the wooden door and pushed it open without waiting for a response.

The man inside smiled as she entered the room and she smiled back. Lineal was likeable; notably good-looking, easy-going and smart enough for her not to have fears about the future of Sungazer if things went as she hoped they would.

"Made a decision?" she asked, dropping into a chair opposite the desk when he indicated it.

"Such are the professional mannerisms of pilots the whole river over," Lineal complained. "No small talk. Blunt, to the point." He was teasing her but he supposed it was true enough. When a pilot wanted something done while the riverboat was steaming up or down the wide river they wanted it done right away and without misunderstanding. But as much as it was a occupational manner Lineal suspected Kellin's own personality suited her to the job.

"And captains. Charming, soft-spoken. Never saying exactly what they think."

"Charming?"

Kellin laughed at the little-boy delight in the man's expression. "Don't let it go to your head. So?"

With good grace Lineal shrugged in defeat. "So, you know the tradition. Yes, we're all agreed we want a second pilot, especially one of your experience and calibre. But still ... You need to be family. Blood related or a marry-in. That's the river way." Perhaps in his younger days he might have abandoned tradition without a qualm and employed the woman anyway. She was river-born, after all. Surely that was enough? But as captain - as the inheritor of his family's heritage. He just couldn't abandon the traditions that were the foundation of river-life. What he could do, though, was take the broadest possible interpretation of 'blood related'. "River-folk marry river-folk," he reminded the pilot. "You're bound to be able to find a blood connection to our family if you do a bit of research."

Kellin nodded slowly although her mind was hard at work bringing to mind her parents and grandparents families. Her great-grandparents? She wasn't even sure she knew _exactly_ who they all were. Certainly no connection to the Sungazer came instantly to mind. "All right. I can work on that," she agreed.

"I'll assume you _can_ make it work," he continued after her agreement. "because pilots are resourceful and determined. I'll let Vaheri know you'll need a berth from the start of month two when the other Moonflower crew go back."

"Ahh. I offered to do the first round trip after overhaul with Menore, even if you accepted me," Kellin said somewhat apologetically. "So I'd move at the end of month two, when both boats are at the seaport."

Lineal grinned. "I can see this is setting the tone of our working relationship, isn't it?"

"Probably. Do you mind?"

"About the shake down run on the Moonflower? No. The fact that you're probably going to get your own way every time we disagree? More worrying." He waved a hand, dismissing the point. Pilots always got their way. "Then there's just one other thing - the Sungazer is conservative. We present a conservative face to the land-folk, at least, so we'll not acknowledge you as our pilot. Not ever outside the family."

Kellin nodded. "I understand." She had been told the same when she had come aboard to work temporarily but understood that Lineal was spelling it out again before she committed herself as permanent crew.

It didn't matter to her, either way. She dressed conservatively - in skirts and dresses - and she kept her business to herself. She was a 'crewmember' - the term that all in a riverboat family used from the youngest child to the oldest of aunties just along for the ride in her old age. It kept land-folk out of river-folk business and it had protected both women like her and the business of making a profit with a riverboat in an area where having a woman in a near-crafting role would have caused problems with potential customers and passengers.

"So, you have some research to do."

"And one final run to make on the Moonflower," Kellin added.

Then her new life would begin.

Last updated on the March 30th 2009

Welcome to Triad Weyrs!

Her New Life