A Trinket at a Time
He was out of space.
There was no denying it, no more twisting the laws of physics and space-time to try and create more room for Lazarus's piles of junk. The multiple collections of random crap had, not surprisingly, resisted Val's attempts to put some order around the chaos. It was like the little miniature anteater sculptures and folded sketches of unknown landscapes had decided they liked where they were, thank you very much. His pad had a database of over eighty of these assorted knickknacks and yet, he felt like he had barely made a dent.
It had all started with the chess set and those damn records. Val had come back to his room wanted to make it his own, to create that sanctuary he had on Pacquin. And maybe while he was doing it, find some clues to where the gorram hell his father had found a bunch of surf records.So he had a very clear goal. Get all the stuff organized in a way that he could make a list of what he had and also be able to find anything in the list at a moment's notice. He didn't want to throw the stuff away. It could be useful. But assorted hours later, he had temporarily retreated from the battle front. No matter how many times he looked at that room, there was no way to organize everything in it that would give him any actual space of his own.
No, the conclusion was clear. Val was out of space in his room and he was going to need assistance with next steps. Thankfully, he knew exactly who he could turn to.
Tuesday, 01 May 2525
Vandenburg, Boros
Georgia (Huang Long) system
Vikki had woken early and fortified with tea and toast for breakfast, she hit the machine shop to see what sort of trouble she could get into. She ran her hand over the machines with a sense of wonder and appreciation. She'd long dreamed of having a shop of her own and while she'd had the use of one in college, the one on Delilah was hers. Getting out of bed in the morning was more joyous with each passing day and it made her injuries ache less just being surrounded by the equipment and the possibilities they represented.
All she needed was a project to work on and thankfully, there were no shortage of those. Vikki had sorted through a pile of steel block she'd saved from the clutter of the ship and was machining a valve coupling for Poco's never-ending list of repairs when Valentine found her.
He wasn't sure whether Vikki spent more time in the machine shop or in her room. Not that it mattered. Val was willing to bet that if he asked her which she called home, he'd make money on the machine shop more often than not. He motioned for her to come over. "Do you have a minute or two to talk?"
She saw him enter from the corner of her eye and she just managed to make out his words over the whine of the lathe. She nodded to show she'd heard but kept her attention on the valve taking shape under her hands. Just a few microns more ... The numbers ticked upward and finally blinked green. Done!
She turned the lathe off and gently freed the valve. Eyeballing the millwork, she judged it clean and set the valve aside with a pleased sound. Poco'll flip. He's been grousing about that leak for a week. Turning from the bench, Vikki pulled off her safety goggles and smiled, unable to squelch the little spurt of excitement inside to know he was looking for her. "Sure. What do you need?"
"Have you seen the inside of my room?" Val thought through that statement briefly before clarifying, "Or more appropriately, have you seen all of Lazarus's geegaws scattered all over? I'm taking them on and I'd like your help with a side project relating to that." Hopefully she could help. The chaos in that room was going to drive him insane.
Vikki's insides fluttered at the invitation even though she'd understood what he'd meant. She turned around to get a grip, hiding it by pulling her shop apron over her head. Once she faced him again, she had herself in hand. "I have actually. They are a bit much." She started for the door. "Were you looking to contain them out of sight or display them?"
"Walk with me." As they headed back out the door in the direction of his cabin, Val handed her his pad. Technically, it was the Golden Dragon's pad, but he was pretty certain it was the least of their concerns. The little silver colored device had taken a little scuffing and minor damaging over the last year or so, but it was a durable piece of machinery that had served him well.
"You can see that I have 86 items listed and that feels like it is scratching the surface." He had come with a numerical labeling system based on position in the room. The spreadsheet on the pad listed items by size, description, numerical label and location in the room. And each item had a notes field where he listed concerns and questions. As a hobby, it was a little dreary, but he wanted to be thorough. "I need a file cabinet." A pause. "For knickknacks of assorted sizes and shapes."
It was a pretty straightforward project and Vikki immediately started thinking of graduated drawer heights and depths, with internal compartments to keep things from rattling around loose. Even so, it would help immensely if she could see the items in question before deciding on a design. One man's description was another man's misdirection and Vikki didn't want to start off on the wrong concept. Even so, some things could safely be determined before she got under way.
"You'll probably want to keep most things contained with a few things on display in rotation," she began, swiping through the spreadsheet pages. "That way you can keep your quarters fresh and interesting and still have everything stored away. You'll want to have anything on display firmly secured, too. Last thing you'd want after one of Rachel's stunts is to walk into a disaster area."
"So, actually..." Val interrupted. "I want them out of my room. I'm trying to keep my space sparse." In other words, he thought, the exact opposite of the way his father kept it. "So display is not as key as long as they are accessible."
He smiled at Vikki. "But keeping them stable is still important." As he said that, they arrived in front of his door. He swiped the door open and gestured inside. "Welcome to the disaster zone."
She crossed the threshold and blinked. The last time she'd been in his quarters for anything more than a quick word, it had been cluttered. A pack rat his father might have been, but the man did have a knack for making things fit. Vikki very carefully edged into the room and stood to the side, slowly taking everything in.
He wants this stuff out of his cabin … Hmmm. That mask would look good on the wall in the casino. Those plates could be mounted in the passenger lounge… And so it went inside her head as she catalogued and repositioned and repurposed what she saw.
"Excuse the mess. Of course, it was an even bigger mess the way my father left it." One third to half the junk was occupying certain prime locations. In combination with the piles of unsorted stuff, space was at a premium but there was a chair available and the bed was clean. Val, not wanting to confuse any issues pointed to the chair and said, "Feel free to sit down...or just take a look around. I don't know what you have in mind, but I trust your judgment." He went over and sat down on the bed.
Permission given, Vikki picked her way to a pile that had an ornate mask, similar to the one in Nuri's village. She held it up and said over her shoulder, "I know you want to get all the fiddly-bits out of here but does that mean they're all going into storage? This would make a good display piece in the more public areas of the ship. And this over here …," she added, carefully picking up a large piece of carved bone elephants walking nose to tail, "I can see this mounted over a door somewhere or maybe behind the bar at the casino."
She sat down in the chair, put the two pieces carefully on the floor, and leaned forward with her elbows on her knees.
"I can make cabinets to keep all these in but really, it would be just as easy to make display cases for them. We could group similar small items together and frame them under glass and hang them on the walls. Any flat artwork can get framed as well. The bigger pieces like these," she pointed at the mask, "they can liven up the living spaces. I know you want the casino to look nice and you've got a great start with the things you've got in here. What do you think?"
He held up his hand. "I have only two requirements. First..." and out came the first finger, "it not be stored in my room."
Second finger. "And second, that we easily be able to access something if we're looking for it. Work with the spreadsheet on my pad and me to make sure we know where everything is."
Val looked at her carefully, gauging her mood. He hadn't meant to put her to work as an interior decorator. She was so much better than that. But she seemed to generally be excited. Part of the mad genius thing, he guessed. "My original plan was kind of a file cabinet - I wasn't thinking display. But it is a good idea, if you're excited about it."
"Oh." Vikki sat back quickly. "I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking. I was rude to just barge in here and take over and really I didn't mean to intrude it's just you've got so many lovely things in here and it's sad to think they'll never see the light of day and be enjoyed for themselves and … I'll … just stop … talking now, sorry."
She rose and turned the chair around and slid it softly in place at the desk. She gripped its back hard and spoke to the wall in front of her. "I can make filing cabinets for everything. I just need to measure them to get the dimensions right. I can make sectioned inserts to keep everything from rattling around and some of the cases can be glass-fronted so you can see what's inside. I can rig a locking mechanism that will keep the drawers from sliding open during maneuvers that won't need a key to secure."
Now that she was fully engaged in drawing up the plans in her head, she felt able to face Valentine again. "We have so much metal lying around on Delilah, I think we can make the storage cases out of that and they'll be strong and fire resistant, but if you want some cases made out of wood, I can do that too."
"Vikki. Turn around and look at me." His voice was calm and even kind, but left no room for argument.
Taking a slow breath, Vikki did as he asked.
Val stepped forward and put his hands on Vikki's shoulders, looking her in directly in the eye. She had the potential to be something amazing if she didn't continue to sabotage herself this way. Val intended to put a stop to that.
"I'm not perfect, Vikki. Just because I had an idea doesn't mean it was good or worth doing or more importantly, that your idea wasn't better." He let her shoulders go and turned briefly to motion at the collections of his father's trinkets. "These piles of junk defeated my steps to organize it. That's why I came to you."
He smiled and turned back to face her. "You're the expert. I want you to act like it. Own your idea. What's our next step?"
It took a moment for his words to sink in past the warm weight of his hands and the dizzying nearness of him … but sink in they did. Vikki took another deep breath (and suffered a gut punch from delicate scent of his cologne) and answered him.
"Get every last thing out of here. Your cabin is too small for the job. We have tons of deck space. We should use it. Just spread everything out, see what we've got. Name it, log it, stow it." She managed a tight-lipped grin. "After all, you won't know what you need if you don't know what you've got."
And *that* was the Vikki he wanted to see.
He grinned. "Okay, pick a deck space and let's get started. I'm excited to see what my mad genius will end up creating to help display these."
And with that, he was one step closer to making all of this *his* and not just another obstacle from his father.
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