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

[Enan Breese]

“I think there are rags around here somewhere,” Enan got up and quickly searched through cupboards. Or at least, as quickly as you could search when everything was locked. He understood why things were locked, but it still drove him a big nuts some days that he had to unlock and lock everything just because he couldn’t remember which cupboard something was in.

He did eventually find the rags in the forth cupboard and Enan got a handful of them, tossing them over to Becca, “There you go. And don’t beat yourself up. I’m sure this ship has seen worse cooks.” Enan was more than sure of it. Judging by the men Grace usually hired, he was willing to bet that most of them wouldn’t know how to make fire without a step-by-step guide. They seemed to be positively prehistoric, though you didn’t need too many brains to fire a gun.

“Just put them in the sink when you’re done eating so they can drain out,” Enan told her, heading over and settling down to eat breakfast, “There’s some place to put that laundry, but I can’t remember for the life of me where it’s supposed to go.”

[Rebecca Ranger]

“Thanks.” Becca caught the rags Enan tossed her and set about moping up the spilled milk. “I certainly hope there haven't been worse cooks here. If there have, I'm surprised theres still a here for us to be. Not being able to cook is a real hassle though, honestly. You really can't live on your own. Sam always told me that since I couldn't cook, I had three options. I could live with him, I could hire a cook, or I could work on a ship.

I haven't got nearly enough money to pay a cook, and as mean as it might sound, I didn't want to stay with Sam forever. Then it turned out I was good with a gun and, hey, here I am.” She shrugged, carrying the rags over and dropping them into the sink with a wet squish. “Although I can't really think of anything else I'd rather be doing, so I guess things worked out for the best.”

[Enan Breese]

"I'm not sure there's much you can do in here to wreck anything," Enan looked around the kitchen-slash-medbay at all the stainless steel, and the capped drain on the floor. It reminded him of the few time he'd been down to the hospital's morgue. Everything was made out of steel there too, and they had a drain as well. Except there's wasn't capped. Enan could only assume the cap was to keep anything from bubbling back out if the saucer flipped, "Everything's already down to bare basics."

Becca's decision to become a mercenary seemed like the punchline to a joke. Enan couldn't help but grin. It did make sense, in a strange sort of way, "Sounds like it has. And you can always do something different. I never planned to be travelling through space, but... life's got a way of changing your priorities." He shook his head a little, still smiling.

[Rebecca Ranger]

Becca smiled at Enan's comment about there being nothing for her to break. She was sure that there would be something. If there was, she would certainly find it. Had Sam made that comment, she would have taken it as a personal challenge, but she didn't think such behavior would endear her to her fellow crew members.

“It sure does.” Becca was living proof that life could suddenly and completely redirect a person's path, and in the end, there wasn't really much anyone could do about it. After all, it wasn't like she could just stroll down to the memory bank and withdraw the last thirty-some-odd years.

For the first time, Becca wondered why life had chosen to erase all that time from her mind. But could life chose? On the one hand, she didn't want to believe that any force but her own controlled her life. On the other hand however, she had what could be considered pretty clear proof that she was not ultimately in control of her fate. “Enan,” She said suddenly, “Do you believe in destiny?”

[Enan Breese]

“Destiny? I dunno,” Enan thought about it for a moment. He hadn’t ever really given much thought to the idea of destiny, “I can’t say that I really do. I think things happen, but I don’t think anybody’s set down a path and you have to follow it. There’s always some other choice or a way off of it.”

“But… I do think sometimes things work out the way they need to, even when you’re not aware you needed them to work out that way. I guess that’s destiny in a way, but I don’t think of it as a fixed thing,” Years of living with a twin who happily fell into trouble had taught Enan that people would do whatever they wanted to, no matter what sort of path they were supposed to be following. If they wanted trouble, they would find it. Caden could have found it in a secluded monastery if he really wanted it, “You can always opt out if you wanted to. I think most of us see a path and we follow it because it’s easier than getting bogged down in the unknown or it’s less stressful to follow the path of least resistance. But you can always step off the path if you really wanted to. Nothing’s concrete.”

He shrugged, “I don’t know if that’s what you were looking for or not, but… we make our own destinies. We choose to follow them, or we chose not to. Right now, I’m off my path and blundering through the woods. It’s not what I thought it would be but the metaphorical scenery is really nice,” Enan grinned at her, hoping that he hadn’t completely lost her in what had become a sort of rambling metaphor.

[Rebecca Ranger]

“I understand what you mean. It's just that, destiny can be so... cruel. I don't know.” Becca shook her head. “I'd really like to think that I'm in complete control of my life. I'm not sure why, but I really hate the idea that something else is controlling what happens to me. It feels like being trapped. I mean, if our lives are controlled by destiny, then we have no free will, and if we have no free will, then what is it that makes us individuals, what makes us any different from computers?”

That was what it felt like, Becca thought. It felt like she was a computer, and someone had just decided to erase her hard drive, with no thought for how that would effect her. She felt the sudden, burning desire to tell Enan the truth. He seemed like such a nice person, not the sort of person who would use her secret against her, as Sam had warned. But he had also warned her that even people with really good intentions could end up hurting you accidentally. She could never remember having to keep a secret before. It was harder than she'd expected. “So,” she said after a moment, attempting to change the subject, “This planet we're going to... What is it like?”

[Enan Breese]

Enan got the hint. Time to let this drop and move onto something else, something a little less sensitive. Free will was a good topic to debate, but it could get easily get ugly.

“I’m not sure, I’ve never been there either,” Enan confessed. He’d spent part of the past few days looking up information about Heimdall, hoping maybe he could prepare himself for it, “It’s Heimdall, so it’s going to be hot and bright. Grace already said we’ll need to carry a ton of water with us if we go anywhere, since it’s so dry and so easy to get dehydrated.”

“The Network said there’s some sort of war going on at the moment between the Goblins and Dwarves, and some of the local ranchers keep getting caught up in the middle,” He told her, remembering a news story he’d watched last night, “I hope we’re avoiding that. I’m not really sure why we’re going to Heimdall, but Grace has a good reason for it,” or at least, Enan hoped she did.

Sometimes he really couldn’t tell what was going on with that woman.

[Rebecca Ranger]

Enan's description of Heimdall was fairly on par with everything else Rebecca had heard about the planet. It was hot, dry, and bright. Of course, she hadn't quite connected that with having to carry water at all times, but it certainly made sense. She hadn't heard anything about a war between goblins and dwarves either. But then, she had only just remembered that there were goblins on Heimdall at all.

“I hope we don't get involved in that. War is bad.” Becca paused. Was war bad? Did Enan think so? She had no right to have an opinion on it, given that she had no experience with war. She hesitated a moment longer. “Isn't it? I've never been to a war.”

[Enan Breese]

“I’ve never been either, though I’m pretty sure we’re safe calling it bad,” Enan grinned, shaking his head a little. Some of the other med students in his class had gone to help out the military, or to provide aid in a few war zones, but Enan had decided to try his hand at something less… human-focused.

“I can’t say that I’ve paid much attention to any of the squabbles Terra’s gotten into. I’m a bit oblivious when it comes to those sort of events. I get involved in my work and I just… forget,” Enan admitted. It was hard to care about things happening millions of miles away, especially when it didn’t directly affect him. Of course, now they were going there, so it might, “I don’t really have an opinion on war. I figure it’s more of a play-by-ear thing, you know? Sometimes it’s bad, but maybe sometimes it’s good. I don’t know enough about Heimdall to tell you which one it is. Only that it’s between Dwarves and Goblins.”

[Rebecca Ranger]

She wasn't quite sure why, but Becca felt relieved to hear that Enan didn't have much experience with war. He seemed like a pretty nice person, and it would have been awfully unfair if he had been involved in something so horrible. There it was again, the automatic assumption that war was a bad thing. But where did it come from? Perhaps from some whisper of a memory? Or maybe Sam had instilled that opinion in her. Had she ever talked to Sam about war?

“I don't really pay much attention to news either.” Becca agreed. She would have liked to, but there were so many other things she was busy looking up on the network, trying to learn all that she had to know. And now here was an oportunity to learn more. “Do you know much about them?” She asked Enan. “The Dwarves and Goblins?”