Echo's nethers weren't run on batteries

Posted on Sun Nov 14th, 2021 @ 12:04am by Chloe Waltz PhD & Kindra Graham
Edited on on Sun Jan 23rd, 2022 @ 1:12pm

Mission: Li Shen's Bazaar
Location: Engine Room
Timeline: enroute to Li Shen Bazaar

The engine room was not exactly in the middle of the ship, along the way from one common area to another. Casually stopping by for an impromptu chat was unlikely to happen.

Kindra had been meaning to get to know the Echo's engineer since she'd come on board. She had yet to really thank Chloe for saving her toes by supplying acetone so Kindra could remove that awful nail varnish. And especially since that provocative card game. So Kindra made a point to seek Chloe out, making her way to the galley then down the aft hall to the engine room.

She paused at the entrance, taking in machinery she knew little about. "Chloe? I hope I'm not interrupting."

"Oh?" Chloe looked up from her seat. She had brought in an old folding chair, and was sitting cross-legged on top of it, with a paperback book in her lap. On the floor beside her sat some sort of instrument, with a few wires leading vaguely into the engine area. Despite the haphazard placement of the device, Chloe didn't look like she was in the middle of mechanic work, instead wearing her usual, slightly formal, shirt and as clean as one might expect if they pulled her straight from Londinium. "No. Not interrupting at all. I'm just waiting for this test to finish. Should take about... Twenty seven more minutes." She returned her gaze down towards the book, though she had folded it closed and was obviously not reading it at the current moment. "What brings you down to the engine room? Is something wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong." Kindra gave Chloe an engaging and genuinely interested smile. "Our paths don't cross too often, and I thought it'd be neighborly to stop by, say hello, and get to know you a little if you're not too busy. What are you reading? If it's not prying to ask."

Chloe couldn't help but to smile back at the woman. "I am not busy at all. I've still got twenty seven minutes left before I can analyze this data," she motioned vaguely towards the instrument next to her. "I'm recording the efficiency, seeing what the standard deviation of it is. You know. Just checking to make sure everything is running consistently. With old ships like this, you can never be too sure..." she paused, realizing she was about to start rambling. Kindra was here to say hi, not to hear some rambling about ships. "I'm just reading some sci-fi. Alien stuff. It's, like, the fifth one in a series though. Do you, uh, do you read often?"

"I do, yes. Usually on a Cortex reader, though. I feel that books made of real paper have a certain… satisfying look and feel. Some are works of art. My parents kept books, and we had a bona fide library where I trained. But unfortunately, real paper books are heavy and take up a lot of space in luggage." She leaned closer for a better view of the cover. "Ah, I've heard of that author, but not much about the series. Is it good, do you recommend?"

Chloe shrugged. "Not particularly, if I'm being honest. The first two books of this series were good. As for the rest of it, now I feel committed." The woman found herself subconsciously flipping through the pages. She never used a bookmark; she found it easier to just remember her last page number instead. "That makes sense. About the physical books. I suppose I've never really been on a long range ship before. Back on my old ships, with the engineering company, we'd never go out more than one or two weeks per trip. I could just grab some new books from home. Here, well, this is the last physical book I've yet to finish, so I might have to switch to digital books then."

"Li Shen's Bazaar is supposed to have everything imaginable. Might be a bookstore there. We could look together, if you've a mind to. Though stock might veer away from newly published and tend toward used books." Kindra admired Chloe's dedication to a book series, and her mind lingered on other pieces of information the engineer had mentioned. "What brought you to Fortune's Echo? If you don't mind me asking."

"I like used books anyway," Chloe smiled. "Who knows what kind of stories they have behind them." The woman glanced down at the instrument, as if checking to see if it was still running.

She looked back up at the question. The woman blinked. She had assumed Alden had told her the whole story. Weren't the two... a couple? Or was she reading into that too much. Alden acted that way with Alison too. Who knew. Chloe was never good at telling this kind of thing. "Oh," she gave a shy chuckle. "I didn't really come here by choice. My boss - erm, former boss - was the sister of the previous engineer. When he passed away, I was told to serve on this ship in his place. What brought you to this ship? You seem like quite a... a fine lady to be living here."

Not here by choice? She recalled Alden mentioning that Chloe had replaced their last engineer, Noah, deceased. Brother of Chloe's former boss, apparently. Surely Chloe was not indentured? Replying to her question, Kindra said, "I'm a Companion. I like to travel, and moving from place to place allows me to accept a variety of interesting clients." She decided not to elaborate on her other reasons for an itinerant lifestyle. "You said you didn't join this crew by choice, but it appears as though you've chosen to remain here. Where are you from?"

"I'm from Londinium," Chloe responded, flipping through the pages of her book without really looking at it, just to give her hands something to do. A Companion, huh? Chloe had seen a few Companions, back on Londinium. Not as many now, out in the black. They were something she associated with high culture, and with wealth, not something out on this trip... but perhaps they grew bored of that lifestyle? Maybe Kindra here was taking any opportunity she could to see the worlds. Chloe could respect that. It would mean the Companion was a braver person than herself... although, that would make it less likely that she and Alden were a couple.

Chloe shrugged. Had she really chosen to remain here? She didn't have too much of a choice. She couldn't go back and work for an engineering firm, not with a black spot like that on her resume. Sure, she could just throw it all away and find some other beaten up freighter to work on, but at least on this ship Sibyl would know where she was and Sibyl was supplementing her paycheck. Sibyl said she had some loyalty to Noah's old friends. Chloe wasn't so sure about that. Alden seemed nice enough, and so did Alison, but... "I still have a house there. I mean. I still legally live there, any mail I get is forwarded." Chloe muttered. Though it might not be really related to the conversation, she didn't know what else to say. She was never good at this "talking" stuff.

Kindra took in Chloe's shrug, her resigned expression, and the lack of an enthusiastically offered confirmation about her choice to remain. She had lived a privileged life, but Kindra knew that sometimes the choice to stay or leave a situation came down to no place else to go. She wanted to know more, but for now Kindra tucked away this little piece of the puzzle that was Chloe for later, when they knew each other better. "If you wanted to go back to Londinium for a visit, I would imagine that Alden could arrange to take on some work that brings Fortune's Echo there, or close to."

"I would appreciate a visit." Though it's not like she had anybody left at home that would want to see her. She wasn't talking to her family - the occasional letter was all she got - and nobody from Sibyl's company could afford the potential publicity issues of meeting up with her. "But, I don't know. Don't ships like Alden's.... usually avoid the core planets?" Chloe tried to smile. "I don't want him to put us all in danger just to go back to my empty house and see if my maid's been taking care of all my pets."

Canting her head to the side, Kindra conceded. "True, work on the core worlds would involve complications that could be… prohibitive." The companion had reasons of her own to avoid Londinium, after all. "But you are an essential and valued member of this crew, Chloe. If you let Alden know you want to go home for a visit, I'm sure he'll figure out a way to make that happen." Kindra imagined what it must be like, to pay a maid to maintain a house with pets, and not be there. "What kind of pets?"

Chloe chuckled. An essential and valued member of the crew. Chloe was valued for her skills with a ship, and with the electronics. Not for her personality. Still, at least Kindra was kind enough to not say that out loud. "My pets aren't anything exciting." She shrugged. "Nothing like a dog or cat. I'm not a dog or cat person. Mostly arthropods; tarantulas, centipedes, a couple scorpions. And some insects to feed them. I did have a snake though. And a fish tank. I guess those are pretty normal of pets."

This brought a smile to Kindra's lips. "When I was a kid, I had a pet lizard that ate crickets. A few of them got loose, and I loved hearing them chirp. My stepmother, Margaret, was not to happy with me." She shook her head, remembering. "I do like cats and dogs, but they need a lot of care and attention. The puppy… he's adorable, but as a companion I can't keep him. I'll need to find him a permanent home, next planet we visit. But your pets are fairly contained and don't take a lot of space. Maybe you could keep them on board with you?"

"A lizard." Chloe smiled. She used to have a couple lizards; she wasn't as fond of them as she was of her current pets, but her daughter had enjoyed them. When she got divorced, she sold the two little geckos. Chloe looked at Kindra intently as she talked. She didn't know the companion had a stepmother. Nor did she know about the lizard. As for puppies... Chloe agreed. That was too much care and attention, for too little a reward. "I already got a couple pets on board. Just some isopods. I might be picking up a couple more at our next destination. But yeah. I miss having my spiders to care for."

"Spiders are fascinating creatures," agreed Kindra. "As a girl, I 'rescued' my mother from a fair number, catching them in a cup and taking them outside. She never would have let me keep one as a pet." Kindra hadn't thought of her mother's fear of spiders in a long time. "But Margaret was happy to allow spiders to propagate in the horse stables, to help curtail the fly population. Uh, isopods… I'm afraid I'm not much of an entomologist. Are those water creatures? May I see them sometime?"

"My mother didn't like 'bugs' at all. I didn't start keeping them until I moved out. As a kid, I wasn't allowed to have any pets. Pets were too 'dirty' for my mother." Despite the way Chloe said that, as if her mother were some sort of clean freak or prude, she herself always seemed to be neat and tidy, not exactly what one would expect of a mechanic. "There are some aquatic isopods. But the ones I keep are terrestrial. They're just little things. Woodlice, or pillbugs, they have so many different names - those are a kind of isopod." Chloe gave a shy smile. Was Kindra just asking to be nice, or was she actually interested in them? "You can see them now, if you want, we can go to my room."

"I'd like that," said Kindra. The companion's interest was sincere, but not truly about the insects. The isopods were important to Chloe, and that made them interesting to Kindra. "What about the test you're running, do you need to be back before it finishes?"

Chloe shook her head. "No. If I leave it running, it will overwrite the data at the beginning, but that doesn't matter. I just need thirty consecutive minutes, doesn't matter which thirty." The woman folded her book closed and stood up, stepping towards the door. Rarely did she get to show off her creatures these days; while on Londinium she had had acquaintances in her hobby, she hadn't even brought up such to members of the crew for fear of seeming weird.

"Excellent, lead the way," said Kindra. On a ship of this size everyone knew who had which bunk, so the companion knew Chloe had cabin 12-3, next to Jonas and practically underneath engineering. She followed Chloe down the stairs to the aft crew accommodations and waited politely as the engineer opened her door.

Chloe nodded, "leading the way" to her room. She turned the light on when she arrived and quickly tucked a bag that was on the floor under the bed. It was just a bag, but Chloe liked to be neat. She liked to be orderly. She looked back up towards the nightstand. On it were a couple plants, but the most obvious feature was a terrarium. At first, there were no isopods visible - just a small pothos and a few miniature vines interspersed with moss all growing under a bright LED light. On closer inspection, little blue isopods crawled through the fallen leaves of the bottom, those leaves being some large, oak-like leaves that were obviously placed there, not fallen from any plant. "The isopods are in there. There's some springtails, too, in the soil. They recycle the organic matter into something that's usable for the plants. In theory, it could be a completely closed system, but I'm always opening it and adjusting it."

The neat and orderly state of Chloe's quarters was unsurprising to Kindra, the engineer's personal space mirrored its owner. She crouched next to the terrarium. For a moment all she saw was the plants and the leaves. Then she saw a few of the small, segmented creatures moving around. Kindra looked into Chloe's face, illuminated by the terrarium's light. The engineer looked satisfied, pleased even. "You've created a mini ecosystem," said Kindra, smiling at Chloe. "Do they eat the leaves on the floor of the enclosure?"

"They do." Chloe nodded. "That, and any fungus or algae that's started to grow in the soil. I added those leaves there to the bottom to give them a jump start. The setup not very old, I just started it after I joined this ship..." The engineer opened up the top of the terrarium as she spoke, shifting the light aside to get in there, and sprayed a bit of water into it from a bottle that was sitting beside it on the nightstand.

Kindra watched the little creatures crawl around for a few minutes, appreciating the effort Chloe had put into this project. "Will the isopods multiply and outgrow this environment? Do they have natural predators?"

"They're not near that point yet," Chloe lifted up one of the leaves, readjusting it, before closing up the enclosure. "But I sell off the extras when they start getting crowded. Or trade them, for other species. At least, I did. Back home."

Kindra regarded Chloe thoughtfully, did she detect a tinge of nostalgia? "On a populated inner planet like Londinium, it must have been easier to find likeminded folks who share your hobbies. Is there anyone you miss?"

"Any one.... hobby?" Chloe asked, with a bit of genuine confusion showing in her face. "Or one person?"

"Either. Or both, whatever you feel like sharing," Kindra answered, now curious about the engineer's ask for clarification, as well as her hobbies and the people she missed. Kindra took a seat in the chair by the desk and smiled encouragingly.

Chloe shrugged. "I miss the rest of my bugs." The woman thought for a moment. She did miss her daughter, but she had no right to say that. It wasn't like they even talked very much. There was hardly any difference now between how often the two shared letters. But still, it felt like knowing she was at least on the same planet. "I miss Sibyl. My old boss. She always looked out for me." Chloe took in a breath. "What about you? Is there anything person, or thing, or whatever, that you miss?"

"Sure, being further from the core there are people I see less often than I'd like. My stepmother, Margaret. Or brothers and sisters from my Madrassa cohort. And other friends, and some clients." Kindra suspected that Chloe was holding back, but she wasn't interrogating the engineer, she was just getting to know her. Kindra smiled, as another thought occurred to her. "Creatures like your isopods must play an important role in terraforming processes."

"They do, but not as important role as some others. Like, you can't really see them, but there's some springtails down in the soil as well. Those play an important role. Isopods just help out a bit; and usually with larger pieces of detritus than the springtails."

Kindra was not exactly certain what a Springtail was, but she appreciated that Chloe did. Likely, the engineer could talk all day about her bugs, and their roles in terraforming and maintaining mature ecosystems. But, Kindra was running out of intelligent questions to ask so she got to her feet and smiled. "Thank you for showing me your pets. I'm glad to know you, Chloe."

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