Totw (step as yet un numbered) Sing-a-long ch 4

[Star Ranger4]

(first scene)

“Ah!  Welcome back, Ensign.  Your timing is amazingly good,” Muck greeted Diamond Forces nominal FNG as he entered.  “Get over here.”  Muck looked in the bags and nodded.  “Better than what I feared, Kid.  Lets get the ice and the beer in there.”

“Hey, isn’t that?”

“A 20mm ammo can?  Yes.  Best all around storage container I’ve ever found for everything but Vacuum.”  Muck puttered about adding milk and butter to a pot on the mobile burner that was plugged into a big box that was, in turn, plugged into the big black vehicle called FRED.  He then added a couple of scoops of yellow powder from a storage container, then turned back and inspected the beer.

“Huh.  Not Canoe Beer[1] .  I’m impressed, Kid.”

“Credit to my Da.  He’s a brewer.  Learned a thing or two from him before I decided I wanted to be a Pilot.”

Muck nodded at that, then poured the contents of the first pot into the second and started stirring vigerously.  “So, Ensign.  Made up your mind yet?

“About?”

“What to call you out of the cockpit.  Diamond 3 is… unwieldy.”

“Actually, I think I’m good with Dick.  It may have started as being mean…”

“But you’re going to show everyone not all Dicks are… ahem… Male members?”

“Exactly, Sir.”

“Muck.  Let’s save the sir-ing for her Honor the Mayor and the Commodore. Come on, Dick.  Time to eat.”

“OI!  Kisaki! Doc!  CHOW!!!” Muck bellowed as he carried the larger of the two cooking vessels to the improvised table while Ensign ‘Dick’ Davis carried ammo can with the beer.  Gamlin and Chiba were just sitting down as Muck returned with the other pot and serving utensils.  Gamlin eyed the contents of the Wok with some suspicion, though.

“What do you call this?”

“Hash, Boss.”

“A dish of Nor Am heritage via Irish and English Immigrants, Sir,” Dick added.  “Not something you’d find outside of a specialty place with the way Asian cooking has spread since the Rain of Fire.”

“Personally, I credit the way Lynn Minmai caught the hearts of everyone.  Knowing she grew up over the White Dragon restaurant kinda captured their stomachs as well.”

Gamlin looked unconvinced, but started eating.  “Not bad, but I normally think of this cut as grilled over open flame.”

Muck just grimaced and pointed at the fire suppression system in the ceiling of the bay, drawing knowing nods from Dick and Gamlin, but a very confused look from Dr. Chiba.

“There is context here I am not getting,” Chiba admitted.

Muck reached over and smacked the choking Ensign on the back before answering.  “Because you’re a medico and an egghead Doc.  We’re in a maintenance bay right off a main hanger space.  A whole lot of flammable things around you don’t want to have combust.”

“The sort of stuff that can make even a colony core like this one go BOOM,” Gamlin agreed.

“There is a video they show at the end of the Damage Control unit for us flight officers.  It may be labeled a fire suppression system but its more like a flood on demand just waiting to happen,” Dick chimed in, having caught his breath.  “Something brought into the Spacy from the US Navy when we consolidated.  Fire and Aircraft liquids equals really bad news.”

Muck nodded sagely.  “There is a sea story about such a thing that was probably lost in the Rain of fire.”

“Then how is it you know it?”

“Told ya you’d get read in on this over Dinner.  Well, its Dinner.  Gamlin and Chiba already know this.  So, consider what your about to hear take poison before reading stuff Kid.  So, it is like this…”

* * * * * * * * *

“If my Plane Captain told me something like that, I’d be convinced he was pulling my leg, Muck.”

Gamlin Coughed a couple of times before taking a swig of his last beer.  “Welcome to my life, D-3”

Muck simply sat back and shrugged.  “And yet, No Shit, here I am.”

---

[1]  Canoe Beer.  Military slang for low alcohol brews that are… as we put it “F*ing close to water”.

[Star Ranger4]

“Which,” Chiba said into the momentary silence, “Feels like as good a moment as there is to say that I’ve convinced the Mayor and the Commodore that FRED there will be an asset in Diamond Force’s ongoing mandate as far as on-board operations. You can even use the maintenance crews to fix FRED as long as it doesn’t affect their keeping your fighters flight ready.”

“Speaking of,” Gamlin picked up. “This is now our space, both as a ready room and maintenance shop. Our flight-line will be right outside the doors there. Flight sim consoles and maintenance gear and personnel should be arriving throughout the night and setting up shop.” Gamlin made an arcing shot that dropped the beer can in a handy recycling bin. “Which means no more beer. Come the morning, we get working as a team. 4 hours in the simulators, 4 hours live flight practice, 4 hours patrolling the Colony.”

“Sounds kind of hard on you and Dick, boss…”

“If we can’t take a joke, we shouldn’t have joined Muck. And we can sleep when we are dead.”

“Lack of sleep can make that happen sooner rather than later.”

“Not being a cohesive team will do the same thing.”

[Rajvik]

chuckles there is a reason old hands of her call the USS Forestal the Forest fire

[Star Ranger4]

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Muck glared at the the fellow members of Diamond Force as he came out into their common living space.  “TEN SECONDS.  TEN Bloody seconds I was behind the curve rolling out of my rack and I wind up tail end Charlie?  All I can say is you two better not have sucked up all my coffee.”
 
Kisaki Gamlin just smirked as he hoisted his mug in Muck’s general direction.  “We always preferred tea on Mars.”
 
Muck accepted a mug from Dick and inhaled deeply.  “Ahhh.  Okay, kid.  You get to live at least one more day.”
 
“Can’t say I blame you, LT.  Where the heck did you get this?”
 
Muck made a wave with the hand not holding his coffee cup.  “a couple of fica thataway.  When I had braked, it was outside of a little coffee place called “The Slave of Coffee” in Syracuse, New York.  Run by a guy by the name of Joe Coffee.”  Muck took a moment and glared at a coughing Gamlin.
 
“Anyway, Joe welcomed me and had me describe the perfect cup of coffee.  He mixed and ground and brewed and your tasting the results.  The best damn cup of coffee I ever tasted.  Then he looked up and outside and saw FRED.  He asked me if he was mine and I said yes.  He then pointed at an amazing machine behind the bar and said he’d give me 5 pounds of roasted beans to my prescription if I could deliver that to a friend of his, one Jake Stonebender, at his bar in Long Island.”
 
“So you did.”
 
“Yes, and Dick there is reaping the benefits, thou…  Tea drinker.”