***

For the next couple of days I focused on my exams and let Pip worry about the steering committee. He kept me filled in while we worked the serving line or during clean ups. The group liked the idea of splitting the commissions but were hung up on whether to split all of them or only consignment sales. Eventually they agreed to split them all and to put a ten percent no-cap commission on consignments. That seemed about right to me. Beverly and Rhon wanted more, but Diane and Francis wanted less so it was a good compromise. Personally, I liked the idea of splitting them all. Of course, we’d already decided that booth manager wasn’t subject to the one percent sales commission. It was a way to get more people to volunteer to be booth managers. Adding the commission split between manager and co-op, we developed a nice economic model that gave a little extra to anybody who worked for the common good.

I got through all the ordinary spacer material in just a couple of days and took a practice test with a seventy-five score. Good, but not enough to pass. I took a break and ran quickly through the food handler again, just to refresh myself and tested at ninety-four. By the end of the second day after transition, I was passing both tests consistently and I messaged Mr. von Ickles to let him know I’d be taking both deck and steward tests.

Sandy caught me after clean up a couple of nights after that. “How’re you doing? You still have a few days to study. You need help on the deck exam?”

“I think I’m good. Of course, I won’t know until I take the test next week.”

“Too true.” She gave me a sympathetic chuckle.

“How are you doing?” I asked. “You’ve been studying astrogation stuff ever since I came aboard.”

She smiled at me. “That’s normal. I had just made third before we got to Neris. After you make full share, you have to pick a specialty and work up through that ranking system.”

I grimaced but nodded my agreement. “Yeah, I saw that in The Handbook, but there’s nothing that says I have to go beyond full share.”

“Well, the extra mass is nice, and I suspect you’ll be full share before you know it. Look what happened with Pip.”

“Very true. Well, if you have a couple minutes, would you drill me on the deck stuff and see if I’m ready?”

“Sure, I’d be happy to.” She reached over and took my tablet.

For the next twenty ticks, she asked me questions and I gave her answers. It was fun. She had that same dry wit that Diane had and a take-no-prisoners attitude that reminded me of Beverly. When we were done, she handed the tablet back. “Okay, you just qualified for able spacer. I think you can pass the ordinary test.”

We laughed and I thought she was joking until I got my tablet back from her and looked to see the testing pool she’d been drilling me from. That made me feel a lot better.