“Called multimeter,” Todd told him. “For simple electric.”
“Incredible. Our section has something with much the same purpose, but it masses two eights of gorz.”
Dreelig perked up. “Another possible product to sell? Multimeter?”
“Ssth,” said Goofig. “That one wouldn’t be very useful, none of the units make any sense.”
“Not a problem,” said Peters. “Tell us what units you want and what the numbers look like, and the factory Down can make them just as you like.”
“Multimeter,” Dreelig said again. “If the readings are useful, do you think other ship crewmen would want them?”
“What does multimeter cost?” Goofig asked Todd.
The younger sailor shrugged. “Depends on type. Simple, twenty, ah, four and two eights of dollars.” He counted on his fingers. “Two and an eight of ornh. Like Schott has more expensive, half square of ornh, maybe square.”
“Ssth. You could sell one to every ship crewman in the web at those prices,” said Goofig. “I’ll give you the ornh now, if you like.”
“No, we do not have the product for you,” said Peters. “Dreelig, you should ask the next time you go down.”
“I won’t be going down again,” said Dreelig. “We have everything we think we’ll get, and after some success with Donollo, the people Down have become more rigid again. We’re only buying food, from Mexico and a few other places.” He sighed. “Multimeter. It’s so frustrating that we cannot come to a simple agreement! They keep talking about things that make so little sense they might as well be thukre.” The word parsed to “zero people”.
“What are thukre?” Peters asked.
Dee and Dreelig shared a look. “People we can’t talk to because they’re too different,” Dee explained. “Their languages make no sense.”
“Are many thukre?” Todd asked.
“Not in this knot of the web. Almost all of the species nearby are of the kree.” She grinned. “Perhaps the thukre think of themselves as kree, and we are thukre to them.”
“That’s possible,” said Dreelig.
“I never knew about thukre myself,” said Goofig, in a tone that said he found that remarkable.
“Yes, the zerkre usually stay apart,” said Dreelig. He sighed. “We’re almost thukre to one another.”
“Yes.” The engineer stood. “I must go now,” he said. “Dreelig, you Traders may have trouble in the future.”
“Oh? Why is that?”
Goofig smiled. “The sailors are more like zerkre in their thinking than you are,” he said. “It may be hard for you.”
Dreelig nodded. “They can also think the way we do. It may be interesting for everyone.”
“Yes, it may be.”
“Goofig, would you do me a small service?” Peters asked.
“That depends. What?”
“Would you please ask Engineer Keezer to meet me tomorrow, at four of the first ande, by retarder controls?” Peters spread his hands. “We still have not resolved the matter of units, and none of us has been trained in operating equipment.” He shook his head and used an English word: “Officers will be arriving in the middle of third ande, and retarders will be needed. We maybe too late, if so we need help.”
“That’s not such a small service. Keezer doesn’t like to be disturbed.” Goofig smiled. “I have a thick skin, and she is not my superior. I’ll pass the message.”
Well before first meal Peters was rapping on Todd’s door. “What’s up?” the younger sailor asked when he opened up, still in his skivvies.
“You wanted to go outside,” Peters reminded him. “We got permission, and the zerkre claim they won’t move the ship durin’ first ande.”
“Two minutes,” said Todd with a grin.
“We ain’t in all that big a hurry. We ain’t supposed to go out until after the start of first ande, so we can eat first.”
“Right. Hang on, I’ll get my suit on.”
“Ain’t seen much of you yesterday. Whatcha been up to?” Peters asked as they came out of the hatch.
Todd gestured at the bay. “Have a look.” There was no clutter at all visible on the deck; even the bays between the columns were mostly clear, and the few things in them were in order rather than higgledy-piggledy. A First Class wearing dungarees and a sour expression was pushing a broom and not getting much. “We’ve got permission to paint the bay, and they’re gonna provide the paint.”
“Progress is bein’ made, my man.”
“Oh, yes.” The elevator started up, and Todd grinned. “We got all the lights on in the hangars. Would you believe nobody knew where the switches were?” He sat down and nodded to a waiter. “Good morning, Zeep,” he said in Grallt. “What special good today?”
“Good morning, Todde, Peterz,” said the waiter. “All the food comes from the same cold room. What would you like?”
They ordered. “You gonna be ready for the officers to come aboard?” Todd asked.
“Hunh. Maybe, maybe not. We still ain’t got the numbers figured out. I got to hunt Hernandez down. Worst case, I reckon Keezer can get a crew of zerkre up here.”
“She won’t be pleased.”
Peters grimaced. “Probably not. I ain’t, neither.”
Zeep began dealing crockery. “Thank you,” Todd told him in Grallt, then to Peters: “babble.”
“What’s that mean?”
“Means something like ‘eat up’ or ‘eat happy,’” Todd told him. “Goofig used it.”
“Mn. Well, eat happy to you, too.”
They finished their meal a little faster than usual. “It ain’t time yet,” said Peters with a frown. “Oh, well, time we get there it’ll probably be OK. It’s quite a hike.”
“I expected it to be scary,” Todd said when they were outside. “This isn’t any worse than the flight deck of the carrier.”
Peters snorted. “It’s twice as big in both directions, for one thing.”
They set off to explore. The white surface had three-armed padeyes every five meters or so, and it was faster to grab them and pull than it was to use the suit thrusters.
“This is easy if I think of it as a wall I’m climbing,” Todd commented.
“Not me. I’m crawlin’ along the floor.” Peters chuckled. “Truth is, it ain’t like nothin’ I’ve done before. I reckon everybody’s got to cope with it their own way.”
Slant-sided blisters were set at twenty-meter intervals, each with a single hatch; the hatches didn’t budge when they tried to turn the wheels. “Gun turret, you reckon?”
“They don’t turn,” Todd objected.
“They don’t need to.” Peters waved to indicate the rest of the ship. “There’s plenty of them, and they all point in different directions. No matter where they want to shoot there’s bound to be enough guns. If they had to turn there’d be the chance they’d jam.”
“Well, we knew this thing was military surplus.” Todd pushed off and looked around.
“Hah. Granpap said we imagine there’s such a thing as peace, ‘cause there’s been a few times when there ain’t nobody fightin’. Reckon space people ain’t much different. Woulda been nice, though.” Peters sighed. “You been out here long enough to get the idea?”
“I think so.” Todd looked around. “We ought to bring a beach ball, maybe some other stuff, when we bring the others out.”
“Golf clubs.”
“Golf clubs?”
“Yeah.” Peters sighed again as they made their way across the white plain. “Granpap’s a bug about space stuff. One time we scraped up enough cash for gas to run the generator so’s the TV would work, and he showed me a lot of old movies. One of the guys as went to the moon a hunnert years ago, he took along a golf club and a ball.”