Cally again finds Vance in the galley the next morning. As she enters two different aromas battle for her attention. The heady concoction of roasted beans emanating from the coffee maker, and the scent of warm buttery sweetness from the batter that Vance is stirring. Vance pauses to pour Cally her first cup of Joe for the morning and asks, “Second night on board, were you able to sleep any better?”

For just a moment Cally’s mind whirls, wondering if the Captain somehow knows about her nightmares and then realizes that it’s probably just the general assumption about sleeping someplace new. “Maybe a little,” Cally hedges, “but what about you? Do you even sleep? You were the first one in the galley yesterday and here you are again. It’s only a few minutes after five and you already have coffee made and it looks like you’re getting ready to make pancakes.”

“Good guess, but if you look you’ll see that the batter is a little bit thinner. I’m making crepes for breakfast this morning.”

“Crepes! Is everyone on this ship some sort of culinary artist up to and including the floating pink cloud that doesn’t even eat food?”

“I would lie and say, ‘Yes,’ but you’ve already met John. He’ll probably just make a sandwich ring or something else equally unimaginative,” Vance replies with a smile.

“Well expect me to be more on par with John once you throw me into the cooking rotation.”

Vance chuckles, “That’ll be fine, as long as we all share in ship duties, but is it really bothering you that I’m making a breakfast that you’ll likely enjoy?”

“No,” Cally admits to herself as much as she admits it to Vance.

“So what is it, then?”, Vance asks.

“I think I just need a way to blow off some steam,” Cally states.

“Sounds like you could use a workout. Why don’t you go hit the gym?”

“I probably should have asked where it was yesterday but I was caught up in the strangeness of working with Buzz.”

“Buzz is a unique crew mate,” Vance allows. “If you go down to the cargo hold you’ll see that there is a door that’s just forward of it. It leads to the gym.”

———

As Cally enters the gym, she can hear the iridescents click on as they sense her presence. The hum from the bulbs break the monotony of the thrumming sound from the engines. She looks around at the gym and sees about what she expected. A treadmill, some free weights held in place by magnetic clamps in case the push fields ever give out, a heavy bag, a speed bag, and some heavily padded tumbling mats.

She puts a few plates on a bar and lays back to work on her bench press. She continues to move from exercise to exercise for about 45 minutes, finishing with a 5k sprint on the treadmill. She knows none of the others could have maintained a sprint for so much distance, but they haven’t been genetically modified to do so. Even when she was running from danger as a kid, she only could have sprinted a short distance.

As Cally towels off she realizes Vance was right, she needed a work out. She heads up to join the others already feeling a lot better and ready for some breakfast crepes along with whatever other over the top items the Captain prepared this morning.

———

As Cally re-enters the galley she sees everyone, minus Buzz, is just getting ready to grab breakfast. Vance even has another cup of coffee already poured for Cally. As Vance hands it to her she can feel the warmth radiating off the ceramic mug.

“I was just letting Alina know that I want you to shadow her today and learn a little about how she runs engineering on this boat,” Vance states.

Cally turns towards Alina, “That sounds good to me, but do you mind if I grab a quick shower after breakfast before I join you?”

“No problem as far as I’m concerned, but know that engineering is kind of a greasy job. You might need another shower afterwards,” Alina warns.

“I was just working out, and I would feel better if I freshened up first.”

Alina turns towards John, “Once again John, you’re the only one on board that never bothers making a trip to the gym. Even Buzz heads down there occasionally and I don’t even think he has muscle mass.”

John manages a half smirk as he pulls his coffee mug away from his lips, “Hey, I expect we only get so many heart beats. I’d rather spend a few more enjoying holo-vids and a few less sweating on a treadmill.”

The crew continues to jokingly banter the rest of the way through their breakfast.

———

Cally enters engineering the scent of metal and oil hangs heavy in the air, mixed with the sharp tang of melting solder. Alina's tools clanking and clattering, and the occasional burst of sparks can be seen from a work table that Alina is hunched over. As Cally finishes stepping inside she scans the room and finds herself in a labyrinth of machinery with flashing lights, blinking screens, and cables snaking across the floor. Exposed conduits and circuit boards can be seen everywhere.

Cally closes the door to engineering causing a metallic clanging noise. Alina turns off her torch and sets it down before lifting up her metal visor exposing locks of matted hair and perspiration.

Cally looks at all the items sprawled across the work surface in front of Alina, more than a little surprised to see so much disassembled while they are actively flying through the astral.

Alina breaks the silence, “Hey Cally, are you ready to check out engineering?”

Cally replies almost numbly, “Yeah I am, but what’s going on with…”. Cally’s voice trails off as she motions towards the work table that Alina was just hunched over.

“Oh that,” Alina practically giggles. “I was just checking over some of our systems that are offline while we’re in astral.”

“When I was in the military I usually only saw our engineers playing with the air scrubbers and the water reclamation system while we were in the astral plane,” Cally remarks.

Alina just smiles and replies, “Well your military ships probably had crews that were given ample time to do everything while docked, but a docked freighter isn’t making money. Besides, our air scrubbers barely have any work to do thanks to Buzz.”

“Is that because he eats all our dead skin cells?”, Cally asks.

“Did Buzz already find an opportunity to creep you out with his dead skin cells thing?”

Cally simply nods.

“Well it’s more than that. It’s like he’s a carbon sink pulling a lot of the CO2 out of the air and liberating the oxygen for the rest of us. Prior to meeting Buzz, I had never met anyone of his species, but now I think every ship should have a Nuh-bess Roessius onboard.”

Cally continues to scrutinize Alina, who is still amidst a sea of dismantled parts and tools. Cally approaches the work table and peers at the intricate components laid out like a puzzle.

"So, what exactly are you working on?" Cally inquires, her curiosity piqued by Alina's technical expertise.

Alina looks up from her tinkering, a glint of excitement in her eyes. “I’m looking for ways to better optimize the power distribution to our lift-off rockets while compensating for the differing amount of gravity we encounter on various planets and space stations. I felt like our lift off from Agros was a little choppier than I would have liked for a ship running with a nearly empty cargo hold.”

“Hmm, I didn’t even notice. That’s an impressive amount of attention to small details,” Cally remarks, and then continues while visually scrutinizing the engineer, “You look younger than me, how did you get to be such an expert?”

Alina once again smiles, which is strange for Cally as she’s not sure she has ever seen so many smiles from any crew in such a short span of time. Even Buzz seemed to be smiling.

“My parents had an independent ship repair shop. We didn’t get any of the big contracts but we saw a lot of diverse ships and there wasn’t anything my folks wouldn’t work on. As soon as I was big enough to hold a spanner I was trying to help my dad fix everything. And the customers loved my dad, he had a dumb joke for everyone.”

Cally asks, “Were they dad jokes?”

“Yup.” Alina looks meaningfully at her work table and back to Cally before suggesting, “Why don’t you grab another welding helmet from over there and give me a hand.”

Cally grabs a helmet and attempts to help Alina on various tasks. While holding something in place for Alina, Cally asks, “Does this ship actually have enough power to handle everything I saw in the cockpit?”

“Yes and no,” is Alina’s initial response but then she continues, “What I have set our power distribution system to do is prioritize on certain systems, but when too many things try to draw on power simultaneously we took a page out of computing history and created a system of rapid task switching.”

Cally furrows her brow, “What does that mean?”

“So in the early era of computers, processing power was limited and often many people would be trying to use that one machine. Those early software engineers built into the computers the ability to do rapid task switching and it would do it so fast that it looked like everything was being done simultaneously, so we do something similar with power distribution when there are heavy draws. Certain things never get compromised, like our space-time bubble, but most things we power can actually be a little squidqy.”

“Squidgy? Is that a technical term?” Cally asks half mockingly.

Alina’s smile widens, “Yep, it must be. I heard my dad use it all the time and he was the best engineer I ever met.”

Cally can’t help but laugh, “So is this rapid task switching on power something that other ships do, because I have to admit that I’ve never heard of that before.”

“As far as I know, this is the only ship that does it,” Alina responds.

Cally looks even more impressed as she gazes around the engineering space, “Is this something that you came up with yourself?”

“Only partially. I was discussing our power distribution challenges with John, and he was the one that referenced computer systems so old you can’t even find them in a museum. We worked on it together, but he handled all the logic programming. I would say that it was 75% John and 25% me on this project, but that probably oversells my role.”

Cally finds Alina’s candor a little surprising. Certainly different from the rather braggadocious engineers she knew in the military.

Alina queries, "Do you mind if we change subjects?"

Cally nods and replies, "Go right ahead, what are you wanting to talk about?"

Alina glances at Cally and then looks away, “So Cally, do you think you could change the Captain’s stance on inspecting our cargo?”

“Alina, you don’t really think there is a bomb in that cargo do you?”

“No, but I really want to know what we're transporting,” Alina pouts.

“Sorry, but I think you’ve got an uphill battle to convince the Captain to open it. It sounds like he may have taken a few jobs from Halo Station over the years. Here, let me grab a spanner and give you a hand with that next piece.”

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Alina’s disappointment doesn’t linger on her face very long as she appears to have made a decision. As a mischievous grin reappears on her face they continue their friendly banter, “OK, let’s change the subject again, I told you how I got started as an engineer, but how did you end up as a greenie?”

“First of all we’re not called greenies,” Cally replies.

“Someone else tried telling me that already, but I decided I was going to go with greenie anyways,” Alina states.

Cally sighs but continues to answer Alina’s question, “Nara has public safety nets, but I kind of fell through the cracks. I was basically a street urchin while growing up although one foster home or another would enroll me in classes. Somehow I managed to graduate but I didn’t really have a plan, so I did like a lot of teens in that position. I joined the military. With regular meals, structure, and lots of exercise I suddenly blossomed. I took one exam that emphasized creative problem solving and apparently my youth had conditioned me to think outside the box. They moved me into tactical training and I did so well that they eventually offered me the bio-enhancements that have given me this beautiful complexion.”

The two women continue to share stories while working. Hours pass in a blur of circuits, diagrams, and grease-stained hands as they work side by side, tweaking, adjusting, and fine-tuning several of the ship's systems. Cally can’t help but be impressed by Alina's expertise.

As they finish reassembling one of the sub-systems, Alina wipes her hands on a rag and grins at Cally. "Not bad for a rookie," she teases. “We should go grab some lunch.”

“It feels like breakfast was ages ago. I can go for that,” Cally replies as she begins moving to exit engineering.

———

As Cally and Alina leave engineering, they see Vance and Buzz coming from the opposite direction getting ready to enter the galley as well. Vance pauses to hold the door for everyone while motioning in everyone ahead of himself. As they enter, Cally almost laughs when she sees that John is already in the galley and has made a sandwich ring for lunch, set out some fruit, and has both coffee and ice water at the ready.

John smiles as the crew enters, “Great timing everyone, I just spent the last ten minutes slaving away to prepare all this.”

“I don’t know John, but I think I might be competing with you for how fast I can throw a meal together on this ship once the Captain messes up and puts me into the food rotation,” Cally quips.

John laughs, “Speed and lack of effort, there is a culinary competition that I might be willing to vie for.”

Buzz chimes in, “Don’t forget to award points for lack of creativity.”

“Oh yes, I think if we develop a point system for this competition, that one should be heavily weighted,” Cally immediately agrees.

As everyone grabs food and gets seated at the galley table Buzz questions, “Did you do something different with the coffee?”

Vance actually pauses the trek that his mug was making towards his lips just in case there was something to Buzz’s query.

“I thought I would try something different. I decided to try and make it with love for my fellow sentient beings,” John replies.

“That would be different from the hatred and malice you normally spice it with,” Alina snorts before taking a sip.

Everyone goes back to enjoying their lunch.

Vance looks over at Cally and Alina, “So what did you two get up to in engineering.”

“Just making sure the waste reclaim is working right,” Alina jokes while winking at Cally.

Cally decides to run with it, “Oh yeah, she told me it was really important to keep it in proper working order for whenever John was making food in the galley.”

Around a mouthful of food John objects, “Hey, that’s not very nice.”

“Sorry John, it was one of those things that I advised Alina to do back when I hired her,” Vance jests.

“But seriously Captain,” Cally begins and everyone’s attention shifts to her, “I’ve never seen anyone strip down and tweak so many systems in such a short span of time, much less doing it while in transit. I don’t know how much you’re paying her, but it can’t be enough.”

Alina finds herself blushing at the praise.

“I’m glad to hear that you are impressed with Alina and everything she can do,” Vance says with a smile. “As far as pay, I thought she was paying me for the pleasure of flying on this vintage ship.”

Buzz interjects himself into the conversation, “By vintage the Captain means old, and I agree that Alina is quite the ship engineer.”

The chatter and banter of the crew continues for a while longer before everyone disperses to attend to their respective responsibilities.

———

Cally remains at Alina's side in the engineering room, a nearly palpable eagerness to assist with whatever tasks need to be completed.

“So what’s next on your maintenance log?”, Cally asks.

Alina smiles, “Believe it or not, I do want to check out our water reclamation system, just to make sure everything is working right.”

Alina can see Cally’s excitement ebb at that prospect,“If it’s gotta be done, let’s do it. Where should we start?”.

Alina’s smile becomes a little more sheepish, “You know the old spacer adage that yesterday’s pee is today’s coffee?”

Cally offers a simple nod in reply.

Alina continues, “Yeah we should check the brine filters and make sure the evaporation off of them is still within an appropriate range.”

“That sounds like it is going to smell fantastic,” Cally says facetiously.

“You’re going to find out just how right you are,” Alina responds in jest.

Cally and Alina continue to work for a few more hours managing general ship maintenance. As their work draws to a close Alina glances over to Cally, “I think we should call it a day so we both have time to get cleaned up before we discover whatever Buzz made for dinner.”

Cally looks at Alina skeptically before asking, “I know he talks a good game, but is his cooking actually any good? I mean he doesn’t even eat, he just kind of floats around while we all eat.”

Alina jovially responds, “Oh he comes up with rather unique takes on food, but somehow it’s always really good.” Alina continues, “If you don’t mind, I would like to hit the head first and grab a quick shower.”

“Sounds good, just don’t take too long so I can grab one as well. You were right about how greasy this job can be.”

“Maybe you can go bother everyone else while I’m in the shower and find out what movie they decided we should try and watch tonight.”

“Movie?”, is Cally’s one word question.

Alina responds, “Yeah, last night was game night, so tonight is movie night. I don’t know if it's Vance’s or John’s turn to choose.”

———

Cally runs into John out in the common area just as John is leaving the cockpit. “Hey John, I heard you might be in charge of tonight’s entertainment.”

John opened his mouth to respond, but before he could say anything, they were interrupted by a loud shout coming from the bathroom.

Alina can be heard shouting, “Why is it blue?!? WHY is my PEE BLUE!?!”

John couldn't help but burst out laughing.

But before he could fully enjoy the moment, the bathroom door flew open and Alina stormed out into the common area. Her petite frame was trembling with anger and her usually calm demeanor was replaced by a ferocious expression.

"What did you do JOHN?" she yelled, placing extra emphasis on his name.

“I may have added something to everyone’s coffee,” John admits as he starts to inch away from Alina’s slow advance.

Cally takes a few steps back to remove herself from the crossfire of what’s about to happen.

The petite Alina lets out a guttural roar, a sound that belies her small stature, as she surges forward charging after John. John tries to escape by leaping over a couch in the common area only for his neck to connect with an outstretched arm from Cally. Causing him to land awkwardly on the couch.

At this point Vance has managed to emerge into the common area where he sees a seething Alina, Cally casually standing in front of the couch, while John is rubbing at his own throat while laying awkwardly on the couch.

“What is going on out here?”, demands Vance. Buzz floats out of the galley to observe the spectacle as well.

Alina smacks the back of John’s head, “Why don’t you tell him.”

John manages to croak out, “Give me a moment, I was just clotheslined by our new security chief.”

Cally calmly asks, “And what preceded that?”

“I was running from an enraged Alina,” John states. His voice starting to sound a little stronger now.

“And why was I chasing you?”, Alina asks.

John coughs briefly before explaining, “It may have been related to a prank that I pulled on everyone, including Alina.”

“And what prank was that?”, Vance asks.

Buzz couldn’t resist interjecting at this point, “That would be related to whatever it was that John added to everyone’s coffee at lunch.”

Everybody turns their attention to Buzz, who somehow manages to look sheepish before continuing, “I tried to warn all of you that there was something different about the coffee.”

“So, how long will this prank affect all of us?”, Vance asks John.

John sighs, “I don’t know, maybe through tomorrow morning.”

Cally starts chuckling at first but soon it is a full on laugh.

“What’s so funny?”, Alina demands.

Cally’s laugh grows even stronger, “it’s just a harmless prank and you may have momentarily lost your mind over it, but John almost lost his head over the whole thing.”

Vance and even John start to laugh at the situation as the latter continues to rub at his throat. Finally Alina couldn't hold back her own smile any longer.

“If I’m still peeing blue this time tomorrow though I’m gonna get Alina to clothesline you again,” Alina walks back down the hallway shaking her head in disbelief, still muttering under her breath but at least no longer seething.

———

The crew gathers to find what Buzz has prepared for everyone tonight. As they enter Buzz announces, “Welcome to the Buzz Bistro where the experience is always electric, or wait is that eclectic. Whatever, just come in and eat.”

Vance turns towards Cally as they make their way into the galley, “You will find that Buzz is equal parts culinary artist and wordsmith whenever it is his turn to prepare a meal.”

Buzz continues as if Vance hadn’t said anything, “Our first side is a simple salad consisting of a mixture of leafy green vegetables, a small red fruit, various chopped seeded vegetables, and small pieces of stale bread topped with shredded coagulated dairy proteins.”

“That sounds like a standard side salad to me,” John notes out loud.

Buzz moves onto the next item, “Our next side is a julienne style cut of a starch root vegetable that has been deep fried to a crisp and which I have added the equivalent of food glitter to.”

“I’m pretty sure that he just gave us an overly complicated description of fries,” Alina comments.

“Next is our entree for the evening,” Buzz states before moving to reveal the next dish. “It is a ground bovine patty thoroughly cooked and also topped with coagulated dairy proteins and placed on a brioche bun that one side has received a peanut relish and the other side a fruit reduction.”

“It sounds like he prepared peanut butter and jelly cheeseburgers,” states an intrigued Vance as he considers how the flavors would meld.

Buzz continues to move showing glasses filled with a dark liquid and having a thick frothy head, “I decided to pair this with a dark lager that has a roasted malt and dark chocolate flavor.”

“A burger and dark beer! I don’t know how you feel about interspecies couples, but I think I’m in love,” Cally announces.

Continuing along the counter, Buzz reveals one last tray, this one covered by a silver dome.

“After everything else, what’s under the dome Buzz?”, Vance inquires knowing that Buzz wants someone to ask before providing the reveal.

Somehow, it’s like Buzz almost glows with pride as he beckons Alina to perform the honors of uncovering their dessert. When Alina uncovers the tray and a cacophony of smells waft from it including vanilla, cinnamon, a warm apple compote and even carrots. A cake can be seen, one piece has been cut and slid away from the cake so everyone can observe the layers. Rich orange brown layers covered with what appears to be a cream cheese icing.

Before Buzz has an opportunity to launch into an overly verbose descriptions of a carrot cake Cally calls out, “Beer me.”

John tosses one to Cally and grabs another for himself. Soon everyone is enjoying the greasy comfort foods that Buzz prepared.

Around a mouthful of burger Vance declares, “I might need my arteries to be cleaned out by an injection of plaque bots next time I’m planet side, but damn if this isn’t worth it.”

“Hear! Hear!”, declares John while raising his bottle. Cally and Alina both clink bottles with John and they all take a deep swig.

“Oh John, earlier I was going to ask what we’re watching tonight, when Alina stormed out of the double-R and announced ‘Urine big trouble’,” Cally grins at her own word play.

Alina almost chokes on her beer, “Was that a dad joke?”

Cally just smiles.

Vance clears his throat. “Actually, it’s my turn to pick the movie. I decided to subject everyone to Almost Remembered,” Vance announces before popping another fry in his mouth.

John speaks up, “I think I’ve heard of that. Isn’t it some schlocky B-list film starring Bic?”

Buzz interjects, “I heard it was based on a short story, We Can Remember it for You.”

Vance replies, “Both of you are right.”

“At least Bic Strong is easy on the eyes,” Alina remarks with a mischievous smile readily forming on her lips.

“Truth sister,” Cally adds while fist bumping Alina.

Buzz interjects with curiosity, “If something is easy on the eyes, does that also mean that something could be hard on the eyes?”

“Maybe,” Cally replies.

“It is times like this that I’m glad that I don’t have the same kind of visual perception as humans. I’ve never struggled with things being hard for me to see,” Buzz states.

“Sorry Buzz but the ladies don’t mean physiologically ‘easy’ or ‘hard’ to see. They’re providing more of an emotional response based on thinking Bic Strong is good looking,” Vance explains.

Buzz makes a static sound that the universal translator turns into, “Hmm.”

John chimes in, “Have you ever seen another one of your species and thought, ‘Wow, she’s pink, cute and fluffy! Maybe we should coalesce together.’? If you have, that might be considered easy on whatever kind of visual perception model you utilize.”

There is an awkward pause in conversation before Buzz finally responds, “You are a strange little man.”

The crew continues to banter and jest, even while watching their schlocky holo-vid. Vance ends up making some popcorn, but half of it ends up on the floor as the crew pelts each other with it. At the end of the night a lonely S9 droid finds itself rolling across the floor cleaning up all the stray kernels.