Sometimes It's Enough

From RPGnet
Jump to: navigation, search

Galley of the Summer's Gift
July 24, 2521
Evening during the Schweiss negotiations - 2100 hrs

Joshua closed the door on Botany Bay, having spent the last hour getting it back into working shape. The hydroponics had kept the various plants alive, but alive was all they were after 10 days of neglect during their enforced absence at the logging camp. But with a few more days of attention and tender loving care, he thought, it'll be back in fine form again. As he shut the door behind him, he could hear Nika quietly cursing accompanying the sounds of mechanical rattling. She must be trying to make a fresh pot of coffee. But the machine had gotten temperamental in the last few months. It worked...most of the time. But when it didn't work properly, you had to know exactly how to position it. Also exactly where to give it a good whack.

He walked into the galley to see Nika staring at the coffee machine with a look he wouldn't wish on a Blue Sun executive. He came a little closer and said, smiling, "Mind if I help you with that? She's gotten a little cranky in her old age."

---

When she turned to eyeball him, the baleful expression softened... barely. Nika was not at her best before her coffee; and when coffee was not immediately forthcoming it made for a rough morning. Finding the machine not working in the evening wasn't quite as big a problem, thank goodness. She grunted acknowledgement, stepping aside to let him work his magic with a disgruntled snarl at the machine.

She leaned a hip against the counter, waiting for caffeine. Her stare at the coffee machine held the intensity of a cat just waiting for a mouse to pop out of the wall. Coffee better come outta that thing, ferserious.

Absently she tucked an errant strand of hair behind her ear while she stood there. As always, her hair was neatly confined to its French braid, pinned up out of sight, but there were lines in her forehead that might indicate that it was time to start pulling the pins out of it. She'd been pretty quiet of late.

---

Joshua made his way over to the coffee machine and gave it a quick questioning stare, as if to ask why it was causing trouble for the nice lady. Then he adjusted the filter slightly, settled the pot slightly differently, and then finally shifted the whole machine a couple inches closer to the wall and the plug. The wiring had gotten unusually sensitive and moving it a few inches forward or back could cause it to give it out. As he leaned over to turn it on, he whispered, "C'mon, play nice for me, okay?" He didn't really believe the coffee machine could hear him...but what harm could it do?

The machine quietly purred and came to life, chugging away at creating a fresh cup. Joshua grinned. "There you go. Give it a couple minutes and I'll have a fresh cup of java in your hands. If I hadn't been straightening out the Bay from our 'enforced absence', I would've had it already. But it works out. I was planning to find you at some point soon anyway."

---

"Can I have the coffee before you give me more bad news?" Nika asked in a vaguely surly tone. She looked immediately contrite. "I'm sorry -- don't take that wrong. Headache is making me cranky. What's on your mind?"

---

He nodded. "We can wait for the coffee. And it's not bad news. Not really news at all. Just had a question to ask. Well, sort of a request plus question. A requestion." As he was talking, he reached up into the cabinet and got Nika an empty cup and slid it across the counter to her. Better she had the caffeine in her. Didn't want her to take this in the wrong way.

---

She waited in silence for the pot to brew enough of the strong black liquid to pour it into her cup. And once she'd taken a fortifying sip, Nika sighed. "Hit me," she invited Joshua. Her tone was dry, but on some level she's wondering what the heck he has in mind now.

---

"I didn't do my job at the logging camp," Joshua admitted, running his hand through his hair nervously. It was true, but it still made him uncomfortable to think about. "If I had Read the doctor earlier or better, we might have ended up in a better situation."

He looked over at Nika. He didn't want this to sound like a criticism, because it wasn't. But somehow he knew it would end up sounding like one anyway. "When I don't do my job, I need you to do your job and tell me to do mine. Does it bother you to ask me to use my Reading ability, Nika?"

---

"Yes," Nika answered succinctly. She took a long swallow of her coffee, letting that settle with him, and then explained. "It doesn't bother me to ask you to use your cooking skills or your negotiation skills in a situation. I don't even mind asking you to read surface scans of people just to get their mood. It's no different, to my mind, than what Christian did with body language. But I don't ask people to do things for this crew that I wouldn't myself do in their shoes. So I never asked him to have sex with someone for money or to our advantage, nor would I ask you to deeply scan someone if I can find another way. It's too much like.... askin' someone to strip another person naked for our benefit." She was not sure she was explaining it right, but it was as close as she could come at the moment.

---

"Do you think what I do is immoral?" He wouldn't be surprised if she did. Joshua wasn't real sure where he stood on the issue himself.

---

She had to think about her answer to that one. "No," Nika finally said. "Not immoral, just.... really really personal. Like.... spying on someone at their most intimate moments," she admitted. "It makes me uncomfortable. And yes, I've asked you to do it in the past, but I don't want it to be.... something that we all just *assume* should be done. If that makes any sense. Relying on you to read someone every time means that I don't trust my own instincts. Which means they atrophy from lack of use. I look to you to ... reinforce my instincts, correct them when they're faulty."

---

He nodded. "And honestly, I don't want you to have to tell me every time. If I were doing my job, I'd know when to do it. I've gotten too far away from my training, I think." He reached up and got another cup and poured himself some water. He wasn't a big coffee drinker, but his mouth was getting awful dry. He took a sip and then continued, "Sorry, it was a bit of a copout to ask you. I'm the one with the ability. The one trained to use it. You should be relying on my expertise, instead of me trying to pass the responsibility off on you. Won't happen again."

---

"Don't do that," Nika shot back, setting down her coffee. The faint frown lines between her brows tighten once more. "It *is* my responsibility. Abdicating the decision to you entirely also means I'm not doing *my* job. We are a team, Joshua. You, me, Rina, Arden. And it means we each do what we do best, *but* we also each function as part of the whole. It's my job to make sure that we do that. And this time? We didn't. We all pulled in slightly different directions. It came out okay in the end, but it's a lesson in how *not* to act, don't you think?"

---

He nodded. "No kidding. I've taken several lessons from it. I was not a very good team player, that's for sure. I'll do better next time." He took another sip of the water. "Well, hopefully, there won't be a next time that involves getting imprisoned by slightly incompetent criminals."

---

Nika had to chuckle at that. "They were incompetent, yes. We could have taken 'em out on the second day with a few well-placed hand-to-hand moves. But what would that have gotten us? Seems to me that it came out pretty good all the way around." She took another swallow of her coffee. "We're not the most ... skilled folk around either. We're just doing the best we can to get by, mostly."

---

"Only thing I've ever known, really," Joshua said thoughtfully. "If you don't count Blue Sun, that is. I have a hard time imagining anything else. I love everyone on this ship. I think I could be happy flying around just getting by for the rest of my life. And I don't know whether that's a sign of being comfortable or a lack of imagination."

---

"Guess it depends on who you ask," Nika observed mildly. "I used to think it was more than enough. Most of the time I still do. But there are also times when I miss the adrenaline rush of the things I used to do. Then again, when we're in the thick of it now, there are probably just as many times that I miss the peace of just runnin' cargo." She grinned. "Guess you could say I'm never satisfied with what I have. Always lookin' over the horizon, as my daddy used to say."

---

"Thank you for making just getting by worth doing." As he put his empty cup down on the counter, he quickly moved forward and gave Nika a hug before she picked up her coffee again. Or before she could protest, for that matter. He let go fairly quickly - he didn't want to upset her. He just started running the water and rinsing his cup. He motioned to her cup with his head. "I'll be by in an hour to refill that or fix you a new cup."

---

She was surprised at the move, getting hugged and released before she even knew it was going to happen. Nika looked startled, and she flushed a little with a faint smile. Well then.... She cleared her throat and took her coffee cup with her. "Much obliged," she drawled as she slipped out to go toward the bridge with a small smile playing about her lips.




Go to Joshua's Crew Page or to Nika's Crew Page
Go to CREW or TIMELINE
Go to Mutineers