milliways_bar | (no subject)

If things get any busier at home Shephard is going to follow the example of a certain scientist he knows and go hide somewhere geographically isolated, maybe Svalbard, with a whole lot of weapons strapped to his person and refuse to talk to anyone.

... okay, that's two scientists he knows, honestly.

... he doesn't exactly know the usual run of scientists.

THE POINT: It's busy on Borealis, and it's busy in the Greenbrier, and it's busy in Rowlesburg, and he's still trying to cram his head full of the things he needs to know for all of his jobs, so he's cheating like a bastard by taking one of the textbooks he got from that wish he bought from Brimstone to Milliways, where he can study without small children, embarrassed sailors, or Marines trying to get his attention.

Why the children keep coming after him he doesn't know. They just do.

He'll be all right with putting the textbook- it's on the care and feeding of nuclear reactors and drive systems- aside to talk to someone as long as they don't ask him to do much beyond talk, and maybe drink.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"...I know the look of studying when I see it." Bossuet already has a drink in his hand; he nods at Shephard's book. "It doesn't need to be dry work."

Shephard glances up, one finger immediately coming to a stop on the last word he saw. "Ain't gonna lie, I could use somethin' about now," he admits. "Good to see you, Bossuet."

"Good to see you too, Shephard. Name your ambrosia and it will be yours--I was just going to get another myself."

...well, okay, he finishes off his glass after speaking, and now it's true.

Shephard grins crookedly. "I ain't aimin' for ambrosia. I'll be fine enough with a bottle of Cold Trail," he says. "The good shit's for after I memorize all this fuckery."

"That sounds dire." Lesgle glances down at the book, but what he can see is enough to convince him it's over his head. Definitely time for drinks.

He's back in a moment, a Cold Trail in one hand and a glass of brandy in the other. "So what are you trying to memorize? ...I ask, distracting you."

"Naw, don't worry about it," says Shephard, and closes the book. "Ain't like there's a deadline. I'm tryin' to git proper familiar with the engine room of my ship, 'n how it works'n all. I got some engineers, they're doin' most of the work down there, but it ain't proper for a captain not to know his way around that kind of shit."

"Ah. That sounds less dire, then. I erase any traces of guilt I might have felt about the interruption! But how is the ship? --Ah, and happy New Year; I think I haven't seen you since the calendar turned its page."

"She's doin' all right. Got her into and out of Svalbard waters without her throwin' a fit, so we're makin' progress," says Shephard. "Happy new year yourself They do much in the way of a party for that 'round here?"