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Post by quillan on Aug 8, 2009 0:27:48 GMT -6
Thomas eagerly shook the man's hand. Finally it seemed like someone might not want to shoot him today.
He looked at the man's face. Animalistic.
He wondered if this was the captain or just a friendly patron of the ship put in charge of guarding it while the captain was away.
"Er. What? Yes! Yes. Well..." He was stumbling with his words again... It was not a very good day for him.
"I suppose so. I mean... I am a cook and all. I just came from the big boat over at 178-C. The... Adeala or something like that. They were looking for crew and I decided to step in and see if they would be interested in taking on someone to cook for them."
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Post by Klove Makem on Aug 8, 2009 0:35:43 GMT -6
Klove shook the man's hand. His face froze when he heard mention of Solomon's ship. Crew members? Made sense. A ship that big needed a crew. Pilot, medics... cook. All important in their own way.
"Really?" Klove said, keeping his voice level, "A cook? That's neat. You can come on the ship and take a look. My captain won't mind." Grace wouldn't mind because she wouldn't know. Klove's mind raced. A cook. Solomon's cook.
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Post by quillan on Aug 8, 2009 0:50:57 GMT -6
"... Can I?" Thomas asked in surprise. He must have hit a turn in his luck. He went from being threatened by burly men to being invited on by a skinny animalistic man. It could very well end on the same note, but he kept his eyes open for any situation to get him off of this hole of a planet.
"So... Just up the ramp, then?" Thomas said as he started in on the ship.
He had some idea of where things were on a ship like this from seeing old diagrams when he worked in a restaurant. Especially considering that it should all just be one big circle. If you go around long enough you should be able to find what you're looking for.
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Post by Klove Makem on Aug 8, 2009 0:59:28 GMT -6
"Yeah, go on straight through." Klove came up with him, raising the ramp after them. There wasn't any point in leaving it open. One way or another, this guy was staying on the ship. He couldn't kill Solomon. Couldn't even puncture the man's tank. But maybe he could steal some crew. That wasn't enough, but it would have to do.
"Just follow the hall around. It's the door on the far side." Once the door was shut, Klove caught up to him. The Queen's lights lit the way to the open door, and to the dark room. The lights flicked on the moment someone entered, illuminating the mess hall.
On the left was the fridge, a huge hulking thing that took up most of the wall. The freezer was on the bottom, while the doors opened on top. In the far right door was a spout for cool, clean drinking water, and a sink set into the bottom of the fridge to recycle water used. You couldn't afford to waste water in space. You never knew when you might be stuck out longer than you'd like.
On the far right were the stoves. They were big and wide, two separate doors to allow things to be cooked at different temperatures. It wasn't a perfect system, it leaked heat sometimes, but it was useful when there were too many crew members to just serve one dish. Burners were on the top of the right stove, and a plain grill on the top of the left. Above were cupboards with dishes and all sorts of cooking utensils, most of which were brand new and still unused. A prep-station was to the far right, tucked between the stove and wall.
Everything had padlocks on them. "The locks are to keep them from falling open if we have to stop suddenly." Klove explained, knowing they looked weird. He pointed to the key on the wall, "That opens all of them, if you want to take a look inside."
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Post by quillan on Aug 8, 2009 23:50:43 GMT -6
"No no no! It's wrong... All wrong. I mean... Look at it! Does it look like an effective kitchen design?! The fridge is much farther away from the stove than the people are. What do you want me to do? Cook humans and serve them to the vegetables in the fridge?"
Looking back and forth between everything barred and latched away. He thought it was interesting. Despite his outburst, he wouldn't mind serving food on a boat like this.
Thomas smiled.
"Well... I..." He began as he grabbed the key and started opening things left and right.
"OH! I see. Of course. Makes sense now."
Thomas looked back at the man, "Do you know anything about Solomon Taylor? I was just on his boat yesterday... Well, I say yesterday. See, I was up quite late just running around the neighbourhood well... yesterday and today have nearly blended in together... So I'm not sure if I'm losing my wits or if I'm just acting normally and all of this is in my head... Either way... I decided to swing by since he asked all of the potential crew to and this ship just... Caught me my surprise..."
Looking back and forth from the grill to the fridge, "I Just want to know if he's... reputable."
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Post by Klove Makem on Aug 9, 2009 0:00:05 GMT -6
Klove snickered. The guy probably wouldn't have made the human suggestion if he'd known what Klove really was. Anyway, guy was right. It was a pain in the ass to cook here sometimes. But when you were in space, efficiency got thrown out the window in order to build a kitchen that kept the cold things cold and the hot things hot, and the weight balanced out.
"I... know a bit about him." Klove knew that his face had been in Klove's nightmares for years and years. Him and a dozen other men and women whose faces Klove knew better than his own. "He's ex-military. A deserter." He didn't mention he was part of the Nox massacre. Most Terran's didn't even know about that. Their government simply didn't report on it, and if it wasn't on the Network, then it simply didn't exist.
"We need a cook. I bet we can pay better too." He said impulsively. Klove didn't know if Grace even wanted a cook. Hell, he didn't know anything about this guy. But if Solomon wanted him, then Klove was going to make sure that Solomon didn't get him. "I know we can pay better."
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Post by quillan on Aug 9, 2009 0:08:08 GMT -6
"You know" Thomas said, "How much better? What's the ship's boarding situation like?"
He paused, sniffing the air, "do you smell that?"
It smelt a little like iron, strong and metallic. Must have been from that steel table. Thomas shrugged.
"Just, if you don't mind me asking, what exactly do you do on this boat? It's quite an old design... Certainly doesn't have alot of the new government standardized tracking beacons, does it?"
Pausing to look down the circular hallway again, taking note of how the lights came on at the first sight of interactive life.
"...How much better?"
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Post by Klove Makem on Aug 9, 2009 0:21:04 GMT -6
"Two-hundred and fifty credits a day, base pay. That's what you're guaranteed. But as part of the crew, you get a share of the profits. The more you contribute, the more share you get." Kloved took another look at the man. He didn't look like he was totally wet behind the ears.
Klove paused and sniffed the air. Nothing but the normal smells of metal. Maybe a little cow's blood from the meat Klove ate for dinner, but it was a kitchen, you expected that. "No, I don't."
"No tracking beacons. No anything government or otherwise on this ship. We're... freelancers. We run cargo that other people don't like to touch. I don't mean just illegal stuff either." Klove quickly clarified. Yeah, they were smugglers, but that wasn't all they did. He sat on the table, "We're running blood to Nox. It's legal but just risky enough that most people won't do it. But it pays a lot. If our buyers all show up, we're looking at half a million. And you get a piece of that. Maybe two percent. Maybe more."
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Post by quillan on Aug 9, 2009 22:10:15 GMT -6
"T-That's quite a lot." He stammered.
"T-That's a really good amount... I could buy nice socks. Not the normal nice kind, either. The expensive green for one sock kind... Would I be at any sort of risk on this boat? Are there things that could get me into a rather unfortunate situation with a meat cleaver?"
Thomas paused to look around and breathe out. He could see himself on this boat just as easily as on the Adeala, with or without the cleaver situations.
"I'm not a fan of under the table operations. But I'm certainly familiar enough with them. ... So where do I sleep?"
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Post by Klove Makem on Aug 9, 2009 22:17:35 GMT -6
"From the crew? No. Not unless anybody feels like talking a spacewalk without a suit. Grace settles fights the hard way, so they usually don't happen at all. As long as you do your job, you'll be fine." There hadn't been many people blown out the airlock. Most times, the knowledge that it could happen was enough to keep people on neutral terms. When the alternative was suffocation, suddenly the annoying twerp two bunks over didn't seem so annoying.
"Just down this way." He motioned for the guy to follow him. Klove could hear Grace talking to someone upstairs. Probably best to leave her alone if she was showing them her cabin. He stepped into the crew quarters and gestured to the bunks, "Take you pick. Castle, the other merc, has his stuff in that one." He pointed to the bunk in front of the door. Then he turned and pointed to the one beside the dart-board, "I'm in that one. We'll be leaving in the early morning, so you'd be better off sleeping here."
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Post by quillan on Aug 9, 2009 22:42:59 GMT -6
Thomas looked at the room full of bunks. Which one to choose, he thought. He paced back and forth and then decided on the one on the outer wall closest to the showers.
"Always wanted a nice view..."
As per usual, Thomas' very few personal items were in his inner coat pockets. Being fairly late and not having much to do, he decided to settle in if he was going to stay. He would be leaving behind alot of items, but they were mostly clothes and those could be easily replaced with the cash from this ship.
He turned to the man, "Alright... So if someone I should meet comes along... Or perse the ship is about to crash... Waking me up or giving me some notice would be a nice start."
Looking back at his bunk he placed a blurry photo on the portal's ledge.
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Post by Klove Makem on Aug 9, 2009 22:50:56 GMT -6
"You'll see plenty through the port hole." Klove used to bunk against the wall, but staring out into empty space sometimes made him feel queasy. It didn't bother him that he was flying through it, only when he had to actually see it. It was probably the animal part of him.
"No problem. Once we get off Terra tomorrow, Grace will have a mission briefing and everyone will get a chance to know each other." Klove paused, then added, "Grace likes her scrambled eggs with milk. If you make them like that, you'll get on her good side."
Klove pointed to the cheat near his bunk, right under the dartboard, "There's a bunch of different stuff in there if you're bored. We've got some padds and decks of cards, and darts for the board."
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Post by Jared Castle on Aug 9, 2009 23:17:36 GMT -6
Castle had been searching for a good weapon store to perhaps find some new weapons. He also needed to stock up ammunition for his Desert Eagle. He had almost used up all the bullets in his last mission. He was on his last mag. Jared had bought four new magazines for the handgun. He couldn't find any good new guns that he wanted. He was picky with his firearms.
He returned to the port and entered the Queen of Spades. He walked into the crew quarters. He stopped in the doorway. "Oh, I'm not interrupting, am I?" Castle asked.
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Post by Klove Makem on Aug 9, 2009 23:22:44 GMT -6
"It's cool, come on in." Klove had seen Castle this morning when he woke up, but he hadn't really talked to him. Mostly they'd both eaten breakfast and gone out to do what they needed to. "I was just showing uh..."
Klove paused. He still hadn't gotten the cook's name. "I've been showing the cook around the ship. He just signed on. It'll be nice having real meals, instead of Grace cooking. It's not her speciality." Most things Grace made were alright, but there was no beating food made by someone who actually loved making it, as opposed to someone who did it as fast as they could so they wouldn't waste time.
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Post by Jared Castle on Aug 9, 2009 23:36:00 GMT -6
There was a man standing in the quarters talking with Klove. He was tall and gangly. He acknowledged that it was okay to enter and then did so. A new cook? Good idea. Jared thought.
He didn't want to cook for himself. It wasn't that he was lazy, but he just wasn't that great at cooking. He could imagine Grace cooking. She didn't seem like someone who was a good cook. He moved to his bunk and pulled out his Desert Eagle. Unloaded the clip to see how many bullets were in it. He re-inserted the mag into the gun and put in back into his bag. The he took the new magazines out of his back pocket and put them into his bag as well.
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