Voyage

Chapter 3

"Your deal Hayden" said Al, after another one of the new Armsmen had lost his final chips. A week into the journey the new crew had settled into their routines and the Al had allowed himself some time to mingle with some of the crew off duty, more specifically he agreed to take part in one of the regularly organised card games which took place in one of the vessel's many unused and dimly lit storage rooms. Several of the new Armsmen had been happy to ignore Deveral's advice to stay away, and arrived to play; they were not illegal games but Deveral Sauvage frowned on them anyway because of the drunken behaviour that usually followed. The crew liked to hide themselves away from his watchful eyes.
"You know being First Mate doesn't get you privileges at this table," quipped Hayden, whose slim frame was squeezed into a narrow wooden chair that might have been made for a child. The makeshift card table was a metal floor panel resting on top of a cable reel flipped on its side.
"I'm sure I can manage without rank privilege just this once Hayden," said Al. Al didn't have many chips left, he wasn't expecting to be in the game much longer and would never ask for favours from his crew, even crew like Hayden whom he was friendly with.
"Get on with it Hayden," said Ferdel Ghez, another recent newcomer to the card games but who had rapidly gained a reputation for winning, by any means necessary. "I'm on the early shift so I need my winnings sooner than later." Ghez was sat crossed legged on a box, and looked as equally slight in stature as half the crew. He wore just tight trousers and a tank top - if he was hiding extra cards as a way of cheating Al didn't want to know where he kept them. The remaining Armsman and the other three crew at the table gave Ghez either a shrug or told him which airlock they preferred he jump out of.
Hayden dealt the seven communal cards face down on the table to start the round, then dealt all the players their own four cards. It was a long game to play, taking several hours at least. Al had always called the game Wise Man's Bluff, but Ghez called it Seven Card Stand-up, and there were no doubt a hundred different names for it across the Imperium. The remaining Armsman made a sucking sound as though pleased with the four cards in his hand, to which Ghez chuckled loudly and said, "Good bluffing, we haven't started yet."
"Feck you," said the Armsmen back to Ghez.
Turn by turn the players revealed the cards on the table, betting their chips based on whether they believed they could hit the highest card score. Hayden dropped out early, only losing a few chips, followed by Al and two of the others. Ghez and the Armsman, who was scrutinising Ghez's every move, continued betting until they were the only ones left playing, and Armsman was forced to bet the last of his chips, meaning whoever of the two had the highest score at that stage would take all of the chips played that round.
"Big bluff there I reckon," said Hayden to the Armsman, blatantly trying to rile him up. The Armsman shot Hayden a dirty look in return.
"Let's let them finish," said Al, being diplomatic.

Ghez put his four cards face-up on the table, he grinned like a child with a new toy. His cards were very good, almost unbeatable. In response the Armsman slammed his own hand onto the table, scattering the cards haphazardly. From the three cards that had stayed face-up it was clear he had a good hand, but not a great one.
"Great," said one of the other players, "Ghez's got too many chips now, no chance to beat him." The pile of credits they were playing for was sitting invitingly on a crate in the corner of the room.
"You cheated fecker!" yelled the Armsman at Ghez.
"We don't know that!" shouted Al, trying hard not to sound aggressive as he raised his voice over the Armsman. "I was watching, he won fairly."
"Feck he did!"
"Quiet!" said Hayden, even higher in volume than the other two. "We'll get found out again."
The Armsman grumbled under his breath but reluctantly ceased his complaining and headed to the exit, winding his way past several former players who had stayed to drink liquor after exiting the game. Al noted a flash of fear on Ghez's face when the Armsman had accused him of cheating, but Ghez's reaction to the perceived threat had left him soon after, and his usual guilty, mischievous expression had written itself back onto his face. "Thanks Sir," he said. "I don't like playing with these Manga-dungs."
Al rolled his eyes as he stood up to intervene in the fight that hadn't started yet. The Armsman had heard what Ghez had called him and returned to the table before Al could put his cards down. Ghez tried to retreat from the Armsman but tripped over himself as he uncurled his legs and accidently threw himself off the box and onto the ground. A second later the Armsman was on top of Ghez giving him a bear hug, wriggling his arms and body around Ghez's in an attempt to get him in a headlock from behind.
One of the liquor drinking players who was long past sobre gave a cheer as the fight commenced but the rest moved to pull the Armsman off of Ghez, who scurried away quickly, swearing as he did so. Ghez reached under his top and grabbed at his chest angrily. "Give it back!" he screamed.
"Feck you!" said the Armsmen, then threw a fine gold chain he had clenched in his fist at Ghez, who picked it up as if it were the most fragile of objects and carefully returned it to his neck.
"Nobody move!" erupted a new voice from the storage room's doorway.
Everyone froze, including Al, even though Al knew he couldn't personally be in any trouble. Al could sense Hayden was already looking at him to see what to do as the owner of the voice, Sergeant-at-Arms Deveral Sauvage, strolled confidently into the middle of the ruckus.
"Good timing, Sergeant," said Al, quickly thinking on his feet. "I had just come in to break up this misuse of the vessel's storage space when I found a minor scuffle taking place."
"Oh really?" said Deveral as he saluted the First Mate. Deveral sounded both sarcastically mistrustful and interested in equal measure. No doubt Deveral would have liked to find evidence Al was guilty of a serious infraction. "I see Petty Officer Hayden Meimu is here, such a shock to find you two together."
Al continued with his story. "Yes of course Sergeant, but a minor one, caused by a small misunderstanding over the rules of their game." Ghez and the Armsman nervously nodded as Deveral's eyes stalked around the room, eventually landing on them.
"In that case, Sir," said Deveral, emphasizing the word Sir,"Shall we write them up? Lashes perhaps?"
Deveral was eyeing up the Armsman, who had stood to attention, more so than Ghez, who had shuffled backward further in the storage room and away from the rest of the group. "No Deveral, extra shifts would be appropriate."
"If you say so, Sir." Deveral saluted Al then made an obvious mental note of who else was in the room and turned to leave while indicating for the Armsman to follow him with the flick of a finger.

"I suppose you'll have to be careful," said Hayden after all the others had left. Ghez had been the first to leave, slipping out without another word. "This will get back to the Captain."
"It will. I doubt Sergeant Sauvage will be able to resist." Al was sure Deveral would be itching to tell the Captain about the gambling as soon as the Captain would allow, which would mean on Deveral's next shift the following day as the Captain didn't take adhoc meetings unless it was urgent. "It won't go anywhere, the Captain has other matters to worry about, but I may not be able to spend so much time off duty with the crew from now on, at least on this voyage."
"That would be a shame, you're the only reason I bother to leave the quarters when I'm off duty."
"Thanks Hayden," said Al, "Ghez is a troublemaker, but I don't get why everyone thinks he cheats."
"Because he does," said Hayden, he let out a short laugh.
"Really?" said Al, amazed, "I didn't see anything, I watched him as intently as Deveral would have."
Hayden winked at Al. "Some secrets are best kept as secrets."
"Oh come on, tell me how he does it, I won't be down here again but I promise I'll fleece the other Officers if we ever play."
"Sorry First Mate, maybe another time."
"Fine, just don't play with him again, I won't be able to save you from getting caught up in trouble caused by his loose lips, or his flashy card tricks."
Thanks First Mate, I appreciate it. There is one thing though."
Al was getting too tired to play more games with Hayden, but indulged him, "What thing, Hayden?"
"I've played against Ghez a bunch of times now. He's very good, I don't think he needs to cheat most of the time, but does it anyway, as if he's looking to get caught."
That made sense, just the odd move to help things along, but it was also problematic. "That's a destructive personality trait to have, liable to get someone killed one day."
"My gut is that Wulf has got his hands on something really juicy this time," said Hayden curiously."
"And you think Ghez might do something Wulf wouldn't like?"
"My thoughts exactly Al, so I'm thinking I should do Wulf a favour and hide his stash before Ghez does something with it."
"Are you asking my permission to steal the stash for yourself?" Al didn't care much for the stash but if it was as valuable as Wulf claimed then it was easy to imagine Wulf being none too happy if it went missing, and would track down whoever took it.
"No no, but I always see Ghez wandering around here and there, looking furtive, you know? He's up to something, he's always up to something."
"Ghez is trouble, but Wulf is fine, I already warned him to keep his goods somewhere safe."
"I can't keep an eye on Ghez all the time, neither can Wulf or Sauvage. I'll be helping everyone one out, including you Al, whatever your role is in Wulf's operation."
Al agreed with Hayden, the way Ghez was behaving, even more troublesome than usual, meant Al's own gut was telling him Wulf could have a heap of manga-dung waiting for all of them. Al didn't want to give Hayden reason to start asking questions though. "I'd forget about it if I were you, you don't want to catch any blame if one of them gets caught by Sauvage. My money is that nothing will happen and it'll all be forgotten once we leave the next system."
"Of course you're right," said Hayden glumly, "It's the only interesting thing going on and I might be double shifting from tomorrow night, we've got a maintenance backlog longer than ever. The crew will be getting changed in the dark if we don't fix the lighting on deck five!"
"Then come back to my quarters Hayden," said Al. "To sink a couple more drinks, since it might not be happening again."