Getting Settled In [2430-2-2-Wednesday-9:00 am]

[Rebecca Ranger]

For a split second after Becca opened her eyes, she had no idea where she was. Then the memories came rushing back to her. Thank God too. She was sick and tired of not remembering things. But she remembered now she was on Grace’s ship, the Queen of Spades, in space. She was in space! It was strange how shocking she suddenly found that fact.

Becca sat up in her bunk and rubbed the drowsiness from her eyes. She swung her feet to the floor and reached underneath the bunk for her boots. After slipping them on, she stood and made her way to the showers, careful not to wake anyone else.

Ten minutes later she emerged, wearing a fresh set of clothes and drying her wet hair on a small towel. Tossing the towel back into her bag, Becca wandered out into the hallway, looking around curiously at the ship's mostly metal interior. She followed the perpetually curving hallway for a bit before coming to the dinning area, where she heard the sound of someone else moving around. “Morning.” Rebecca said, raising her hand in greeting as she entered the room, looking with interest at the man who stood a few feet away.

[Enan Breese]

The spacesickness had come back with a vengeance. Something about Terra had gotten to him. Maybe because the last time they'd stopped for any length of time, it had been on the Underworld, and that thing was one giant spaceship. Having real dirt under his feet had been great, but it had also ended up biting him in the ass when they went back out into space.

He hadn't been able to sleep, and so, Enan had gone downstairs to the kitchen to try drink something to calm him stomach, and to maybe catch up on the news. Grace had been asleep, and he hadn't wanted to wake her, not sure if she had gotten the sleep she needed, or if she had only dropped off an hour before he woke. Piloting kept her up at the strangest hours. It was too bad he couldn't talk her into just getting a dedicated pilot, but he had a feeling that she wasn't happy unless he was busy.

Enan was a bit surprised to hear someone else up. It was the new woman, what was her name... right, Rebecca. "Morning." He returned, still fiddling with the viewscreen. He left it for the moment, extending out a hand to her, "Enan Breese, ship's doctor. Sorry I didn't drop by to say hi yesterday, but I caught up doing inventory."

[Rebecca Ranger]

The man held out his hand and Becca shook it. “Rebecca Ranger. But you can call me Becca if you want.” She waved his apology away with her other hand. “Hey, it’s not a problem. I’m sure things get very busy around here.” Actually, she wasn’t sure at all. But Enan had already earned points with her because he was a doctor. After all Sam, the man who had saved her life was a doctor. Well, sort of anyway.

“I’m glad to have a doctor on board anyway.” She said, finally. “My friend Sam is a… medical student.” He had said his studies were ongoing. But although her memories started not long before that, Becca hadn’t been born yesterday. And she was of the opinion that ‘thrown out’ was going to be pretty final.

[Enan Breese]

Becca had a firm grip, and she met his eye when they spoke. That was good. He already like Becca more than he'd like either Castle or Szar. She seemed a lot less aggressive, like she had less to prove than either of them. "Not that busy. Usually. Action has a habit of sneaking up on you when you least expect it to." He didn't go too much into detail. She was a mercenary, she already knew the score.

"Medical student? That takes me back." He smiled and shook his head a little. Those had been hard days. You worked your ass off, you barely slept, and you crammed as much knowledge as you could into your head. It was strange to think that he'd gone to medical school, worked so hard to get a job at a Inbetween clinic, and now he was serving on a smuggler's ship. He'd been pressganged at first, but there was no way to deny that he was here of his own free will at the moment. "Med students don't always make the best of friends. We tend to be flakey, espeically during midterms and finals. If Sam's anything like I was, you might need to give him a kick in the pants over the Network every once in a while."

[Rebecca Ranger]

“Really?” Becca was intrigued by Enan’s description of life aboard the ship. She had been prepared for just about anything when she’d signed up to work on a space ship, but she hadn’t been prepared for nothing. Which was what it seemed like the next few days would be, according to both Enan and Klove. Just waiting around with nothing to do.

Enan seemed rather interested in Sam, but Becca shook her head in answer to his comments. “I don’t know that a kick in the pants would do him any good. Besides, I doubt he’s much like you are, or ever were.” Sam could certainly be flakey, but not for the reasons Enan seemed to think. And Becca had a hard time imagining Enan ever having had Sam’s reasons. Then again, she found it hard to imagine anyone anyway but the way she knew them. Sam had said that was another product of her stunted memory. But then, what did he know?

[Enan Breese]

"Doctoring on a ship is 20% preventive maintenance, 10% action, and the rest is just spent waiting." Enan explained. He still remembered his practicum, and late night shifts in the E.R. Some nights you did nothing but look at sore throats and cranky babies inbetween all the waiting and paperwork. Other nights, you barely got a chance to blink, up to your elbows in somebody's ribcage with a dozen other people close behind, all with their own urgent emergencies. The clinic hours had been less hectic and far more organized, but it was the same. Some days everybody needed you. Other days, nobody did. "Unless somebody falls the wrong way down the stairs, or injuries themselves playing darts, I won't be doing much while we're traveling."

Becca seemed less sure about her friend. Maybe she was right. Med school did chew up and spit out a lot of kids. Still, it was best to stay positive. You never knew when you might open your mouth and cram your foot in. "Maybe, depends on what sort of man your friend is. I wasn't much of a wild child in my youth. I had a twin to keep an eye on, and I was too busy getting him out of trouble to bother getting myself into it."

It was funny in a way. Two months ago, he had his stable little life, and he liked it that way. Now he was on a ship full of smugglers who barely gave him a moment's peace. Caden would have laughed at Enan, if Enan knew where the hell his brother had gotten off to. "What about you? Any family?"

[Rebecca Ranger]

“Sounds pretty boring for you.” It seemed that life aboard the ship was going to be a lot like life with Sam most of the time. A whole lot of sitting around without much to do. Becca was surprised, but not altogether disappointed. She laughed however when Enan described his relationship with his brother. “And yet here you are, on this ship, performing deeds of questionable legality.”

But she froze at Enan’s next question. What should she say? Why had she never thought about it before? Why had it never occurred to her that she might need a cover story? In the end she decided on telling as close to the truth as she could get. “ I don’t really know. I was adopted by Sam’s family when I was a little kid. I can’t really remember much before I met him… So, what’s your brother doing now?” She added quickly, changing the subject.

[Enan Breese]

“Here I am.” He agreed, laughing a little with Becca. “But that’s a whole other story that I’m not sure I even want to get into. I’m still on the straight and narrow more than my brother, even if I’m on this ship.” He decided not to get into the whole ugly business of kidnapping, even if he had decided to stay in the end. It was hard to explain exactly why he had stayed, It was more than Grace being attractive. He liked her, maybe more than he'd liked any woman in quite a few years.

Enan noted the look of uncertainty on Becca’s face. Her story explained that one easily. There was probably more to it, but Enan could fill in the gaps easily enough. Adopted kids didn’t always like to talk about where they’d come from, since they usually didn’t know. So, when she changed the subject, he went without a fuss.

“Right now? He was working as an engineer on a ship. But the last time he messaged me, he had to catch a ride on another freighter to get back to Terra because he’d gotten in over his head in gambling debts. Again.” Enan sighed. Family gave him such a headache sometime. “I’m not sure what he’ll do when he gets back. Probably lay low until he sees another opportunity to jump at. I love him to death, but… you know how brothers are.”

[Rebecca Ranger]

Enan’s brother sounded like quite the character, and Becca found herself hoping she’d get to meet him some day. She almost responded to Enan’s last comment with ‘No, actually I don’t know what brothers are like. Please tell me, I’d like to find out.’ But a few seconds before the words left her mouth, she realized two things.

The first was that she had just told Enan she’d grown up with Sam’s family, so he’d have been her brother. The second thing was that for all intents and purposes, Sam was her brother. He was the closest thing to a family she could remember having. So she said, “Yeah. Sam drives me so crazy sometimes. The first time I wanted to use a gun, he said, ‘As your doctor, I recommend that you do not attempt to fire that weapon.’ ” She laughed at the memory. “He’s always complaining about being worried about me, but he doesn’t seem to have any idea that I worry about him too. And the things he does are much more dangerous than the things I do!”

[Enan Breese]

Enan chuckled, nodding as he recognized Becca's situation. It sounded like Sam was a lot like Caden. Brothers really were all alike, no matter how your family situation shook out. "That's family for you. They think they've got all their stuff under control, but they can't trust you to do the same. I don't think it ever changes, no matter how old you get."

His stomach lurched again and he made a face as he fought off the spacesickness. ""scuse me." He said, and headed over to the fridge, getting it unlocked and looking inside. At least he'd anticipated that this might happen, and before they left Terra, he grabbed some stomach-settling drinks. Enan pulled twisted the top off of one and took a healthy swing. He smiled at Becca, shrugging a little. "Spacesickness. Something about artificial gravity gets to me. It's one of the reasons I hadn't left Terra in years, before Grace."

[Rebecca Ranger]

It seemed that Enan understood exactly what Becca was talking about. Given that she didn’t have many experiences to work with, Rebecca had never had the feeling of sharing an experience with someone else, of understanding exactly how they felt, because she had felt that way too. What a strange feeling, to understand someone so deeply, and to know that they understood you with the same intensity.

Her musings were cut short however, as a strange expression flitted across Enan’s face. Concern was her first natural impulse, but with it came a much stranger feeling, a tugging inside her. It was a feeling she’d been having with increasing frequency over the past few weeks. It was as if there was something inside her, a wild animal, struggling to free it’s self. The creature’s will was equal with hers; to go to Enan’s aid, but feeling it stir inside her froze her to the spot. Enan didn’t seem to require her help however, and his explanation somewhat dissipated her worry. The strange feeling left a moment later as well, but Becca couldn’t help feeling shaken.

[Enan Breese]

Rebecca looked shaken. Her worry was kinda touching, but Enan felt a bit bad that she'd somehow made her feel worried. Most of the other crew members had just shaken their head at his spacesickness. Enan had another sip of his drink, and then glanced in the fridge to see what else there was for breakfast. There were eggs and meat, but he felt like something much lighter today. He grabbed the milk instead and set it on the counter, shutting the fridge and locking it, and then looking through the cupboards for cereal.

"Would you like a bowl too?" Enan offered, grabbing a pair of bowls from the cupboard, and some spoons, "Nobody's much of a cook on this ship. We had one but... he's not around anymore." It seemed easier than saying 'he was shot in the head, and I think Grace may have fed him to a vampire', which was not what you wanted to say to what was one the first sane people he'd seen on this ship. "So we mostly make our own food."

[Rebecca Ranger]

She would be forever grateful to Enan for not commenting on what she assumed had been a strange change of expression on her part. Sam had quickly grown used to these momentary changes in her, but the first time it had happened he’d recoiled in shock, claiming that from her expression he’d have thought she was about to eat him. She had been angry with him at that particular moment, but certainly not that angry.

“Sure.” Her response to Enan’s invitation of breakfast was slightly delayed, but she soon forgot about that. She was laughing again as he mentioned the absence of a cook. “I’m afraid I can’t really help much with that. I could try of course, but I’d be more likely to burn the ship to pieces than to make anything edible.” She decided not to add that this was only a slight exaggeration.

[Enan Breese]

Enan brought everything over to the table, sliding the extra bowl and spoon over to the seat across from him. He poured himself a bowl and added milk, and shuffled the rest over to Becca, “From what I can tell, neither are the rest of us. I’ve got the basics, and Grace can whip up a few not-so-basic meals, but she’s usually too busy for that. And Klove undercooks everything-“

He almost added ‘because he’s a were’, but caught himself in time. Enan didn’t know what Becca’s feeling on Weres were, and this wasn’t the time or place to get into it. Especially not since Becca and Klove were getting along good. Castle had disappeared pretty soon after he found out Klove wasn’t human, and Klove wasn’t showing it, but Enan remembered what it had been like to be eighteen and to have people who were supposed to be your friends ditch out on you. It had to be even worse when they were ditching you over something you had no control over.

“-so steer clear of him unless you like your meat extra rare,” Enan joked, since that was a better option than the other, “I’ll stick to cereal for now. You don’t need to do anything but add milk,” He ate a spoonful of it, stirring up the bowl so all the dry stuff on top ended up soaked. Cereal always reminded Enan of Saturday mornings, when he and his twin would get up and eat a whole box of the stuff while watching science documentaries.

[Rebecca Ranger]

Becca listened with amusement as Enan rattled of a roster of the crews cooking abilities. She found his comment about Klove rather odd. Not because it seemed strange to under cook food, but because she did, in fact, like her meat very rare. She'd even eaten it raw once, despite Sam's protests that it would make her sick. It hadn't.

“Klove seems like a really nice kid. If he can't cook, then well, at least I know I'm with my own kind.” Becca smiled, pouring cereal into her bowl. She picked up the milk jug and twisted off the cap, but tilted it too far forward. Milk splashed out much too fast, drowning her cereal and spilling onto the table as it overflowed the bowl. She sighed. “Even if I am the worst of the lot. There wouldn't happen to be napkins on this ship, by any chance?”