Shake, Rattle and Roll

Posted on Sat Mar 6th, 2021 @ 10:49am by Alden Loxley & Chloe Waltz PhD & Kindra Graham & Whit

Mission: Six Days to Santo
Location: Fortune's Echo - Crew Rooms
Timeline: Day 24 - Mid-Morning

With their latest (and only recent) paying client alongside him, Alden knocked on the door of what had once been Noah's room. That big dorm room with easy access to both the infirmary and engineering on the passenger deck, the one he'd given to Noah's literal replacement, the timid but talented young blonde. He hadn't seen the young woman yet this morning, so this visit was two-fold.

"Hey, Chloe," he called as he lightly thumped his fist against the metal hatch. "You okay in there? We gotta problem up on the crew deck." Alden turned to Whit and smiled apologetically. "Don't worry, we'll get the noise fixed before we take-off," he promised confidently. "My engineer's new to us, but she came very highly recommended."

Whit gave a conciliatory shrug. "Silence in space is death," he said. "At least noise means something is alive and kickin'."

"I hear ya, I do. But with this old girl, Shepherd," Alden returned, a frown clouding his brow. "Better to know all the noises. This one's new. And it's a long way to Ghost."

Chloe slowly opened the hatch. She looked out at the two men with wide, slightly confused eyes. She gave a slight smile when she saw Alden. "Alden. You're back." She commented. Things had gotten stranger and stranger among the crew after Alden was arrested. Without him to rein in Daiyu, and with that strange woman arriving, well... Chloe was never good with strangers. She had spent the time sequestered away on deck, losing herself in the comfortable familiarity of a few experiments, not even bothering to ask what was happening outside. After, they'd come get her if there was a problem, right?

"Yup," agreed Alden with a briefly warm grin. "Back safe and sound." He watched Chloe but didn't push her with an 'are you okay?' kinda question. She was still finding her place, and he could respect that. It had been a weird few days.

She felt her eyes slip over towards the other stranger. Chloe didn't recognize him. Was she... was she supposed to? The woman gave a shy, almost apologetic smile towards him, standing in the doorway to try and block their view of the mess of wires and circuitry behind her.

Whit returned her shy smile with a kindly one of his own and a half wink. "Hey, you."

"Chloe Waltz, Lucius Whitaker. Shepherd Whitaker is our client for the Ghost trip," Alden casually introduced them to each other. "Chloe - can you come take a look with us? I think that sensor exchange is oscillating again and it's right behind the panel in the Shepherd's room." He shrugged demonstratively and smiled. "I'll help... by making us some tea on the way through."

"Shepherd Whitaker," Chloe nodded an introduction in her formal, Core accent. The woman let out a breath, glancing at the mess behind her. She didn't like leaving an experiment half done. She loved getting caught up in it, and it was chancy as to whether or not she'd even find the thing interesting when she got back. But she was an employee here. Part of the crew. This was her responsibility. Forcing herself to think of that, the woman's main concern became leaving her usually spotless room so messy. But she could deal with that later.

"They call me Whit," he said, this time winking for certain.

"Yeah." Chloe stepped outside, closing the door behind her with the utmost care. "I can check out that sensor."

Alden canted his head to the side in a quizzical gesture of friendly concern, then levelled back out again and smiled. "Alright then," he decided. "Let's go."

From the lower deck, up to the top, then down the ladder into the forward port crew cabin, it didn't take long to traverse the Firefly's interior. Alden slid down the ladder into what was now Whit's cabin, and indicated the panel he'd removed to expose the tech behind. "I'll make that brew," he said, cheerfully. "Coming with or staying put?" Alden asked Whit, his eyebrows raised. Chloe was efficient, but clearly quiet and he wasn't sure about leaving the two of them together alone.

"I think I'll leave Miss Chloe to her work here." Whit eyed the skittish woman before looking back at Alden with a knowing stare.

Chloe immediately set to work on the panel, kneeling down to look at it. Despite being - at this point - a glorified mechanic, the woman took some care to stay tidy by brushing off the ground before kneeling. She had only brought one tool with her and set it into action, plugging the device in to a few wires. She acted with quiet efficiency, in contrast to the casual, energetic engineer she had replaced.

"Okay, that doesn't look like it'll take long... we'll be in the galley," Alden promised Chloe as he climbed the ladder back up to the fore deck corridor. "Shout if you need me, or just come join us, k?"

"Thank you," Whit was sure to say to Chloe before moving onward.

---

As he strolled the short distance into the galley, Alden caught the scent of a particularly familiar perfume and slowed his pace a little. Kindra. He hadn't been alone with her yet, and the manner of their meeting still bothered him.

Kindra had come to the galley looking for a hot beverage. But then her hunt led to a full-blown search of all the cupboards and drawers as she tried to familiarize herself with the Fortune's Echo's cooking supplies and equipment. Thanks to the infinite patience of Margaret's long-time cook, she'd learned to make Anpan, but this kitchen contained almost none of the ingredients. She looked up from an open drawer to see Alden standing there.

Damn, he looked good. "Alden. Uh… I was just getting acquainted with the galley." Kindra closed the drawer and recalled that once upon a time, he'd promised to teach her how to cook. "I, um, hope you don't mind."

Caught briefly like one of those proverbial rabbits contending with vehicular illumination, Alden froze in place. His gaze took in the fine form of the young Companion for a lingering couple of seconds and then his face broke into an apologetic smile. "Don't mind at all," he responded, fondly. "Help yourself to whatever you like." Alden moved closer then and checked the kettle. "I was just gonna make a brew for my engineer, want one?"

Kindra watched Alden, her thoughts rotating around his suggestion to help herself to whatever she liked when she was startled from her reverie.

Clearing his throat with an exaggerated cough, Whit bit back a smirk. "Do I need to go busy myself elsewhere for a spell?" The question was more innuendo than query.

"Please do stay, Shepherd Whit," said Kindra with a playful grin. "I am quite capable of restricting myself to impure thoughts." She leaned against the counter and replied to Alden's question. "I'd love a brew, thank you, Alden."

There was much she and Alden would need to talk about in private, but for once their time together was not constrained. She could simply enjoy domestic and ordinary moments like this. "Tell me Shepherd, how did you pry Alden away from Howson's clutches? When I looked him up on the cortex, it seemed that he was involved in the manufacture and distribution of illegal compost."

Whit absently brushed his lip which appeared none the worse for wear. "I didn't do much," Whit said. "Just pled Alden's case, prevailed on the fear of the Good Lord, and promised goodness and mercy for those who walk uprightly. Howson saw the light in the end and realized our intrepid captain had done no wrong."

That look on Kindra's face conjured up blue skies and bluer oceans, but Alden had other memories mixed in amongst those too. He pushed them all aside as he Whit finished answering the companion's question and offered up a lopsided smile as the water boiled. With care he poured it over a tea bag in each of four randomly patterned mugs.

"The Lord works in mysterious ways, right, Shepherd?" Alden asked, eyebrows raised in amused intrigue. "Whatever you really did, I thank you kindly. Definitely owe ya a favour in that regard." He smiled as he looked from Whit to Kindra, but concern crept into his gaze as his eyes found hers. "I was worried," Alden admitted. "When you showed up at the jail." But she had her own problems, didn't she? Ghost was far away from something.

Kindra was not exactly sure why Alden had been worried about her, but it warmed her to hear him say he was.

Alden turned to look in the direction of Whit's bunk and Chloe as a metallic noise caught his attention.

Chloe had the electrical panel removed, along with a panel of the wall next to it, exposing some of the wiring going in behind the panel. The woman seemed quite engrossed in her work, only now committing fully to sitting on the ground to work at the lower level of the panel.

Kindra recalled who Alden had said the fourth cup of tea was for. "Is that your engineer? I'm looking forward to meeting them." She was looking forward to meeting everyone on the crew, but with a bit of luck the engineer might have solvent she could use.

"Yes," answered Alden, looking to Chloe now she'd moved up into the main gangway. He kept his voice loud enough that she'd hear him if she was paying attention. "Chloe. She's new. Our previous engineer..." he stopped, tripping over the words as Noah's face came immediately to mind. "Uh, we... we lost him. My friend... Noah... he died on Hera."

It was already clear to Kindra that Alden's crew was his family. She barely contained her impulse to embrace him, and instead rested her hand on his shoulder. "Oh, Alden. I'm so sorry for your loss."

"Thanks," he said, simply and apologetically. "But I don't mean to bring everyone down." He lightly patted Kindra's hand as it remained on his shoulder then gave those delicate fingers a firm squeeze. "Chloe's settling in just fine, I think she's probably far too good for us though," Alden admitted loudly as he stepped away to deliver the mug of tea to the young woman working just along the corridor.

Chloe gave a weak smile at the compliment, not turning around to look at the others just yet. She liked being complimented; anybody did. But although she hadn't known Noah, she knew his family. She couldn't be anything but sad over the loss of her good friend's brother. The blonde woman set down a tool on the deck beside her before turning to look towards the others as they approached. "Hey," she said, weakly.

"Clearly does good work though," Whit offered. "Best keep this one around, Captain."

Kindra picked up her own cup and followed behind Alden and the Shepherd. It was not until she saw a pretty blonde woman sat on the floor in front of an open electrical panel that Kindra realized this was the person she'd begun to think of as the hacker. "Hello Chloe. We didn't exchange names before. I'm Kindra."

"I'm Chloe," the woman introduced herself out of habit, despite Kindra having already used her name. Then she remembered what she was supposed to say when introducing herself. "It's nice to meet you." She smiled.

"A pleasure to meet you," responded Kindra warmly. A hacker and an engineer. "If you don't mind, Chloe, and when you're not busy, I need a small amount of solvent - acetone or similar."

Whit let out a chuckle. "We never did find you a bottle, did we?"

Alden raised an eyebrow and considered this exchange for a second, then went for it. "Solvent?" He asked. "What did you superglue?"

"I have some acetone," Chloe said, glancing up towards the lady. She wondered what the lady would be using acetone for. After all, she was hardly likely to be smoothing plastic or cleaning plastic residue. Then again, Chloe wasn't much one to talk about weird hobbies. Or... wait... did some people use it for makeup stuff? Chloe wouldn't know. The few times she had dressed herself up in the past, back in the Core, she'd paid somebody else to handle that part.

The look on Alden's face made Kindra chuckle. "I am much obliged, Chloe. I want acetone to remove nail varnish from my toenails. The result of a rather, uh, interesting pedicure." Best to leave her foot-fetish clients out of the conversation, she decided. "That's how I met Shepherd Whit in Caster. He kindly offered to escort me, shopping around town... until we saw Alden with the sheriff."

"And, lo and behold, I led you to someone with acetone," Whit said with a wink.

There followed a classic double-take times two as Alden cast a confused look between Companion and Shepherd in turn and back again. His mouth opened and closed as if practising the question he wanted to ask, until on the third attempt it stumbled out regardless. "You painted her toes, Shepherd?" Came the query, wrapped in uncertainty and coloured with bewilderment.

"No, it's been many a year since I held the company of a lady." Whit shook his head and laughed at the misunderstanding. "Young Kindra had the misfortune of dealing with a mighty unhelpful shop clerk, so I felt obliged to help."

Kindra was unable to speak right away, having just taken a sip of her tea and choking as laughter bubbled up from her chest. "I'm afraid not, although," she said with kind-hearted teasing, "Shepherd Whit does seem to be a man of many talents."

"It is my cross to bear," he said with a mischievous grin and a hand over his heart.

Alden grinned with amusement and relief at the simple explanation, then looked down to his boots for a moment. "My apologies then Shepherd," he noted. "And my thanks. Seems you're the saviour of many these last twenty-four hours." But Alden couldn't help but wonder what other talents Whit had underneath that wily grin and behind those intelligent blue eyes, though really there was only one way to find that out and they had plenty of time ahead to do so.

"We're set to leave about 14:00hrs," Alden stated for the record. "So, make the most of your last chances to grab anything you need from Santo," he looked to his engineer. "That includes you, Chloe." Then his full attention shifted back to Kindra and Whit. "I'll get everyone together once we're outta atmo and on our way, give y'all a briefing about our destination, such as Whit and I know it."

"Destination?" Chloe asked, half-returning her attention to the work in front of her. "Where are we headed?"

"Ghost, it's a planet in the process of being terraformed out in the Kalidasa System," answered Alden matter-of-factly. "Shepherd here is paying us for the privilege." He looked to Kindra then, still confused as to her reasons for the long trip out to the Rim.

Kindra met Alden's gaze, the confusion there a guilty reminder of things left unsaid between them, and especially, something she needed to say to him. "Alden, may I have a word alone, when it's convenient? After the briefing perhaps?"

He looked awkward as hell for a moment, face trying to grab hold of one expression and stick with it, but Alden rallied swiftly. "Uh, yeah, sure, I... er.. just... I need to... check... some things with... um... Ali... Then it'll be fine. Yeah, definitely." Damn, Alden cursed himself, what the hells was wrong with him?

"Anyway," Alden recovered abruptly as he hurriedly finished his mug of tea. "I have to go realign the navigation console, and sort out the software permissions..." Sounded like an excuse even in his mind, but he pushed on through. "Uh, Chloe'll be done real soon, Shepherd, you get yourself settled in now. And Ms Graham... uh, until later."

Exit stage left, quick smart and cue external wince and plenty of silent, internal cursing as his boots clanged down the gangway back towards the bridge.

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