Tea, Biscuits & Engineering

Posted on Sun Sep 20th, 2020 @ 5:30pm by Alden Loxley & Chloe Waltz PhD

Mission: The Milk Run
Location: Hera Boneyards - Fortune's Echo
Timeline: Day 14 Afternoon

It wasn't difficult for Chloe to tell why she was here, since as the shuttle swung down through atmo to dock, the young woman had an extremely clear view of the damaged, badly burned Firefly. Looked like a couple of guys were welding hull plating, but the main bulk of her work would obviously be internal.

"Welcome to our humble home, Chloe," Alden said, with a slightly forced smile. "Fortune's Echo. She's had a rough day, but you know that."

Alden left Ali and Karen to sort the shuttle and led the way quietly from the shuttle to Chloe's new quarters. They clanked down a few steps to pad along the metal catwalk of the mid-deck, down another flight of metal steps, through the comfy seating area, past the infirmary and up to one of the two big middle rooms on the lower deck.

"Noah had the room next door," Alden told her, gently. "So don't worry, this one is all safe and clean. One of my crew, Tristan is next door to you, the Doc sleeps just up there," he pointed to a ladder over to their left as they faced her door. "And the rest of us are up on mid-deck. If you need something you don't got, just ask. And help yourself to the galley, it's a communal area. Can I get you anything right now, or do you want some time to yourself first?"

"I..." Chloe looked at the room. It was bigger than she expected; but still far less luxurious than her home in the Core, and even less than her temporary quarters on the Legerity. She couldn't let any of those negative thoughts show, though. She knew this one of their better rooms, and it wasn't the crew's fault that she was getting stuck on this ship. "Thank you." She gave a quiet smile. Besides; she wouldn't be here forever.

"Can you show me the galley?" She asked, in response to Alden's question. She knew the layout of a Firefly, and she didn't ask out of fear of getting lost; she simply didn't want to show up there for the first time as a stranger, alone, in a ship where she didn't belong.

He couldn't help but feel sorry for this young woman, dragged from her shiny, expensive job and her shiny expensive ship, loaded onto a perfectly serviceable shuttle and then deposited on an old, cranky Firefly with the sole purpose of unfucking it from its current state. It wasn't fair, and Alden had no idea why Sibyl had selected Chloe for this... punishment?

"Hey," he said, with an apologetic warmth to his words. "I know we're not exactly as fancy as you're used to, but we really appreciate your help and I promise I'll look after your needs as best I possibly can, Ms Waltz." Alden canted his head and smiled. "I can definitely show you the galley, sure."

He led the way, up the infirmary adjacent steps and down the aft all. Then Alden presented the big communal room to Chloe with a flourish of his hand and offered an escape from whatever was working through her mind right now.

"How bout I make you a mug of tea, and you can ask me any pressing questions you have with this little nightmare we're all sharing?"

The touch of warmth in the Captain's voice really did help. Chloe gave a tentative smile at his comment. She looked around the room when she arrived. It felt... homey. Not as fancy as the Legerity, sure, but this felt like a place that had been lived in. More like a house than a ship. Carefully, the engineer took the closest seat at the table, more than ready to sit down.

"A mug of tea sounds nice," she answered. That was true, right then. She could really use a warm mug of tea. She was glad at least that the Captain too recognized this all a nightmare - or was that sarcasm? She could never tell. She chose to believe that he wouldn't be mocking her about this "nightmare", as he so called it.

Alden watched his temporary new engineer regard their room and wondered what Chloe made of the ramshackle old Firefly he called home. She was quiet this one, not unpleasantly so by any means, likely out of her depth and feeling out of place, so definitely worthy of some time and attention. He fired up a kettle and placed two tea bags in two mugs, gave her a chance to take this all in.

"You sound like my sister," Alden told her, and grinned as he added. "That's a compliment, by the way. Danni swears by a good brew, says it heals all ills."

He poured boiling water onto the bags and smelt the milk despite it being freshly purchased from town just this morning. "Sugar?" He asked, then rummaged in a cupboard and pulled out a battered old biscuit tin.

"Danni." Chloe repeated the name out loud. "Nice name." Hearing that this strange Captain had a sister made seem more... human. He was a person, after all, wasn't he? Not just a symbol of everything the Core wasn't. "Sugar would be nice," she gave a shy smile. "I must admit I have a bit of sweet tooth." Chloe found it almost strange to see tea prepared in an actual kettle. She had had a machine to make it for her back home. So had the Legerity. It had been a long while since she had prepared it old fashioned way. Would everything be like that out here? The "old-fashioned"way.

"I'll let her know you think so," Alden said, amicably. "My lil sister hated it as a kid, she thought it made her sound like a boy. We had to call her 'Danielle' or she freaked out." He chuckled, poured the milk into the mugs and checked with a spoon that the colour was acceptable. It was.

"Sugar it is then," he agreed, dropping one white cube into the left mug and none into the right. "And biccies," Alden added with a child-like grin. "Plain shortbread or chocolate. Homemade." He placed the mugs down, one in front of Chloe, the other at a place setting across the table from her, then sat down and removed the lid from the tin.

"Help yourself, Chloe," Alden suggested, stretched his legs out under the table and leant back, stablising himself on the bench by leaning against a flattened palm beside him on the old wood.

Even Chloe could tell that Alden was trying to be welcoming. Still, she felt a wild animal, tied down and trapped here, just waiting for the trapper to come and finish her off. She knew Sibyl had to leave her here... that didn't make it more comfortable. "Thanks," she smiled weakly, taking a shortbread treat from the tin. She ate in a tidy, prim and proper sense. Tiny bites. Everything you'd expect from a woman from the Core.

"It's good," she said. While that was true, she said it mostly out of politeness. "Where'd you learn how to make these?"

Alden cradled his mug of tea and gave Chloe enough visual attention to be polite whilst not staring at her eat, and remained quiet until she asked him the question. "My grandmother taught us as kids," he answered. "I grew up on my mother's family ranch on Ezra." That wasn't a secret, and he was proud of the fact. "How about you? Don't mean to pry, so no offence taken if you don't want to talk about it. Where's home for you?"

Ezra. Interesting. "I've got a place on Londinium. Practically the other side of the planet from where I grew up though." She always thought she lived far from "home", far from her parents' house, but looking at this crew who left their homes to live entirely for a life in the black, "the other side of the planet" probably meant nothing to them.

He wondered what Chloe knew of his home planet as Alden listened to the engineer speak of her own home world. Londinium? Niiiiiiiice. He grinned. "Sounds plenty fancy," he said, honestly but with no malice in the statement. "Always wondered what it'd be like to own a house..." He mused out loud, casting his gaze about the ship's most communal area. "Do you go back there a lot?"

"Sometimes." That was a bit of understatement. That was where Chloe lived, simple as that. Sure, she traveled... or had traveled... with Sibyl and her ships, but when she thought of "home", she pictured her house. Still, it felt empty with just her there. No family. No kids. Just her, alone. "Well, most of the time. I guess it'll be pretty empty for a bit, while I'm out here." She took another sip of the coffee. "Property is fairly cheap on a lot of these outer worlds. If you really want to know what it's like to own a house," she shrugged.

Alden nodded. So, no family in the house to go back to at least, he considered, curious as to Chloe's story. He didn't need to download all of that information right now though, there was no need to interrogate the poor woman. "Well, you'll be back there soon enough I reckon," he said, optimistically. "Local engineers are done with the bulk of the work by the end of today. Just needs everything hooking back up, testing and working out the kinks and you're home free, right?"

He kinda hoped she wanted to stay - saved him trying to find another engineer right now when the Verse was being untrustworthy - but Alden wasn't expecting that. "I dunno," he answered her with a wry smile. "I've not lived in a house since I was.. 17.. be sorta strange to not have home move around." Besides, he didn't have anyone to settle down with, and that, in Alden's mind was a prerequisite.

Chloe looked up at Alden with open doubt when he said that the "local engineers" would be done with the bulk of the work by the end of the day. "This Firefly will take a lot longer than that to do anything but limp along. I don't know what you did to her, the poor thing. She's a Firefly not a warship." In this, Chloe sounded more confident than anything else she had said today. As much as she would like to get home... she could tell that she wasn't meant to be there. She had messed up, and now Sibyl couldn't have her around. Besides, she had a reputation: she wouldn't just get this ship back up into the black, she had to get it running smoothly once up there. Looking around it and she doubted it truly ran smooth, even before it was shot at. As much respect as she had for Sibyl's brother, this Firefly needed work. "I'd like to stick around to work out those kinks for a bit."

"I've never lived in anything but a house," Chloe admitted. "It must be strange to be moving around all the time. I guess if this is your job... but then, do you ever get a break? Do you have family you back and visit?" She supposed that she would, for some time, be in that same situation. But still- it's not like everybody here was some rootless drifter, right?

Alden fidgeted in his seat at the mention of family. "I spose," he said. "I'm used to the ebb and flow, the downtime in the black, the uptime on the worlds. And yes, I have people back home. My mother, my sister and her family." He offered up a thoughtful smile. "But my family is also here. Always will be."

To Chloe's open engineering concerns, Alden brought a resigned realism and a bright smile. "Firefly's are always kinda limping along," he told her. "But we don't usually get shot up the backside with a coupla missiles, so there's that." He sipped his tea and considered a more serious response.

"Hull plating's all fixed. And they found us a replacement engine, but she's a little older than the Echo's last one. And when I say 'replacement' I mean they dragged most of the bits from three or four Fireflys caught up here as flotsam and jetsam from the war. Cost me some serious credits, but they're patching her back together well enough, far as I can see." Alden took a long moment to regard Chloe with respect and curiosity, not staring, but finding a visual measure of this temporary help they'd been gifted.

"We don't have longer than that," he half-explained. "Sooner or later those who shot us are likely to head back here. Personally, I'd prefer to be long-gone before they come knocking and shooting."

"But..." Alden noted for the record. "I ain't gonna complain any if you want to stay with us awhile and help get her properly fixed up. So long as you don't mind the rough and ready set-up, working while you travel and likely being harrassed by a nameless bird. Fair warning though," he added. "We move around a lot."

A longer pause. "But if you want off, out and away, I can promise that I'll give you a choice of ports from which to disembark. It'll depend where we are, though, obviously."

"I think I'm supposed to move about for a bit." Chloe hesitated for a moment, taking in the information about the ship while trying to decide whether to tell Alden more. She was never a good liar. Never good at keeping things hidden. "So I got to stay and get her fixed up." Getting a Firefly "fixed up" could take as long as she wanted, depending on where she drew the line on "good enough." "I'll be fully honest with you, though," she continued, deciding that if she couldn't trust this Captain she was screwed anyway, "Sibyl didn't just send me out of the goodness of her heart." Chloe was trying her absolute best to not say anything stupid. "There was a little... issue at my job, and now Sibyl doesn't want me beside her, for PR reasons. I swear, nothing to do with my work ethic. Your Firefly is good hands."

Oh. Well, now, that was interesting. Alden frowned, nodded his head and listened to all the pretty words leaving Chloe's mouth. "Thank you," he said, sincerity wrapped overtly about that sentiment. "Appreciate your honesty, Chloe." And Alden meant that with every fibre of his being. There was enough subterfuge here, more than enough, for his liking, and he had wondered at the ease Sibyl loaned them one of her finest. This, this made sense.

"My First Mate - Alison - she'll chastise me for this later," Alden told his new engineer with a self-effacing chuckle. "But I'm gonna trust you, Ms Waltz. And you don't have to tell me what happened to get you sidelined, but... if you do ever need to talk to offload some, on this ship you have options. Good ones." He sipped his tea and sighed. "Expect Ali will want a chat up front though, fair warning. All I ask, is that if you're setting to be attracting any serious attention that'll affect the rest of us, you tell me now. I don't wanna be finding that out later. Deal?"

"Thank you." Chloe found immense relief in the fact that he hadn't asked what had happened. It's not like there was something dangerous or dramatic to hide - but she had snapped at her old coworker, lost her temper. It was embarrassing. Chloe should've been better than that. What sort of "serious attention" did Alden mean? Was that the sort of "serious attention" that got the ship hit with a missile? Was that a common enough problem to have to warn her about? Chloe was a bit glad that joining this ship hadn't been her choice, because if it had been, she might've been regretting it. Her life before had been mostly calm compared to the storybook lives that the people on this ship seemed to lead.

"I worked on a Firefly, before, by the way," Chloe mentioned, trying to change the subject while reaffirming her skills to him. "It was one of the ships I used to test my thesis. I know my way around them."

Alden nodded. He saw the pale shadows of some of Chloe's internal thoughts, but only via the emotions that played at her features. She looked... calmer now, but also pensive, and he was curious more than concerned because he had the distinct sensation that his new engineer had a lot more to worry about from him and his, than they did from her. Not even intentionally, but this was just how the Verse seemed to want it.

"Glad to hear it," he said, finishing his mug of tea and offering up a genuine smile. "Because I have a feeling we're really going to need your help." Alden paused though, leant forward and indulged his curiosity on one score. "Thesis?" He asked.

"My phd project; it was about a new way more accurately confirm the force of an engine." Chloe smiled a bit; she liked talking about her own research. It wasn't that she liked bragging; she genuinely liked the subject. "When I worked with Sibyl on engine designs we wanted to make a cheaper way to test them."

"Wow," Alden reacted on an exhale with some secondhand pride in the young woman before him. "You're real smart huh?" He added, with a wonky grin. "So you two designed engines? Colour me impressed." He suddenly felt a little inadequate to be having a real conversation with Chloe, but pushed that emotion down swiftly and deep. "And now you're stuck on ancient Firefly with a bunch of Border folk," he half-apologised. "Well, except for the Doc. And I ain't real sure about Ali either."

Did... did he not know anything about the company? Had Noah not told him about it? Had Sibyl's brother been... ashamed? Chloe blinked. "I like these ships!" Chloe added on at the sort of apology. That part was true. "I love the Fireflies. And the older ships. They make me wonder sort of ships the people from Earth-that-was came on. A marvel for their time really; and a testament to how far our technology has advanced." The woman talked with genuine enthusiasm about the ships. She herself hadn't really met the doctor, and she had a suspicion that Ali didn't like her, so she didn't comment on the other part of that statement.

"Me too," agreed Alden easily. "I like the lived-in feel of them, and the sense of history. But the first ship I part-owned was a Sandfly." He looked for a moment as if he was about to say more, then didn't. Instead, he offered up a wry smile. "I should check on Ali, if you're staying I need to run it by her too and she might have questions for ya. Also - fair warning - everyone's likely gonna be a bit emotional for a while," Alden noted, feeling sorry for the newest newbie on board. "Noah was definitely part of the family."

Chloe returned a smile, though it was more uncertain and shy than wry. She felt bad; she was no replacement for Noah. She hadn't met the man, but if he was Sibyl's brother he must have been a great guy. She might be able to work on ships, but she couldn't hope to live up to his personality. She couldn't hope to become part of this "family". It had taken her years of effort to almost feel like part of her company's family, and look at how well she had screwed that up... Chloe's smile faded. "Thank you," she said quietly.

"It'll be alright," Alden promised, with eternal optimism fuelling his supportive words. It would be, right? They needed an engineer, and now they'd have one. No one could possibly be mad about that... "They all just need a little time, that's all." He nodded. "It'll be fine. Make yourself at home, okay?" He'd take Ali for a walk, yes, then if she was going to yell at him, no one else would hear.

"I hope so," Chloe said as she drank the rest of her coffee. She didn't sound particularly convinced.

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