Continuing my fan-fic about our friend Ishmael that I started here:

Continuing my fan-fic about our friend Ishmael that I started here:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/+WilliamNichols/posts/TQS5FJiumkV

This one is a bit revisionist. There is no canon.

Call me Ishmael. It's the name my mother gave me.

I'm the third mat and Chief Engineer of the Agamemnon. My wife, Bev, is the Captain. My best friend, Pip, is XO and Master Trader. His fiance, Susan, is our fourth and Chief Steward. We have six crew, usually. The four of us own most of the ship, with investors helping out: Pip's family, Bev's family, and Federated Freight, the company that first hired me and Pip.

We bought the Aggie at scrap prices, and after a few years she showed her age. We had soaring costs, and just keeping her in repair was taking most of our time. I was spending most of my time in the engine room, working on the algae matrix, and keeping the sails operational.

And I wasn't the only one: Bev was having to re-calibrate the controls constantly, Pip was finding it harder to get updates on prices, and Susan was running interference on passengers growing unhappy.

We'd need a new ship, or at least a major in dock overhaul. Pip started looking. He and Bev are both from well-established spacer families, with some good connections. I don't know how they both wound up with groundhogs like me and Susan.

Let me tell you a little about the Aggie. She is a small ship, at under 10mt. She's a Starliner, with large windows. She's got 10 cabins; we used four for ourselves and our crew, leaving six for passengers. Because she's so small, she can make transition real close to a star system, which cuts down on travel between systems dramatically. While we can make a trip in two weeks, it'd take a 40kt ship months. We'd stocker her with luxury linens, bought the nicest ship suits, and generally accidentally made a fast luxury passenger vessel.

We made bank, at least at first.

We always kept a crew, and wound up with six. Susan had an assistant to help with the passengers, Pip hired one person to help with the cargo, we had three deck personnel, and I hired two engineers. The more or less permanent crew was Billy with passengers, Sally in cargo, John, Maria, and Bub in Deck, and Jooda and Kane in engineering.

That ate into the profits a bit -- crew shares are divided by rank -- and I had a suspicion we wouldn't need so much help if the Aggie wasn't so old.

I digress. In our search for a new ship, Pip found a lead halfway across the quadrant where Susan was raised. We decided to pay a visit. We decided to stay in port for a while, so Pip could get to know Susan's father.

Turns out, he runs a greasy spoon. And it is delicious. The smell of bacon wafts through that level.

The ten of us -- that's us plus the crew -- were invited over, and he reserved a table just for us. Susan handled the introductions, and as soon as he heard my name, he froze.

Turns out, Susan's my half-sister. We've got the same dad.

We both cried. It was weird to find out this way. But, better to have realized it now than to have been going to that diner for twenty years and not know it. That'd be tragic, and for no reason.

I told him about mom, he told me about his new family. I knew some from Susan, but it was great to hear the other side. Same thing with his time with my mom. They just never quite clicked, though he'd always had a soft spot for her.

The ship Pip had looked for dried up, and we decided to rehab the Aggie instead. That could take months, but we could fix some nagging issues we'd always had. The nearest dock was a few weeks away.

Before we went, Pip and Susan tied the knot. Dad got to give her away, and there wasn't a dry eye in the house. For our last trip before refitting the Aggie, Dad asked if he could come along. Not as a passenger exactly, but to take on the cooking duties to give Susan a break.

Bev agreed, this was a great idea. I'd XO for this last journey, and we'd treat Susan and Pip as guests. They'd get a real honeymoon.

What you like to know what improvements we made to the ship?