It seemed that no time had passed at all when the alarm went off and woke him. He blinked, trying to clear the remnants of a very strong dream about Jack from his thoughts as he stretched. The dry air of the cabin was also making him parched. He got up and went over to the small sink to wash up. After dressing he checked the status of the upload with his PDA which was connected to the laptop and saw that it was going slower than he had expected. He frowned thoughtfully. Time to see if he could do anything to speed that up, he thought.
Leaving his cabin, he headed back to the computer centre and entered the room. Ensign Matthews was no longer at her station and a young man who barely looked old enough to be there sat in her place. Ianto shook his head at the relative young age of the staff. He nodded to the ensign as he sat down at his station and logged in. Scanning the system, he noticed that there was a bottleneck in the connection to the computer center mainframe itself.
Frowning, he rolled his chair over to another station and logged into that. The next shift arrived while he was doing that and he ignored the curious glances as he rooted about the mainframe trying to find the reason for the network issue. Once he had found it, he unlocked the port in the room to allow him better access from his laptop. A glance over to his right showed a marked increase in the transfer rate. He sighed with satisfaction.
The hailing whistle of the comm. echoed in the room and the new man who had entered answered it nervously. "Computing."
"Is Agents Jones available?" A voice asked and the young man turned toward Ianto nervously. He gave the man a reassuring smile and rolled over to the speaker.
"Jones here," he replied.
"Mr. Jones, I'm Felicity Dowell, General Maddock's assistant. We met a while ago at your facility," a very young woman's voice said tentatively.
"Hello Lieutenant Dowell, I do remember you," Ianto said warmly. "How may I help you?"
"Well sir, I have an unusual request from the General," she said, stammering a little as if she were embarrassed.
"One can only imagine," Ianto said and she giggled. "What was his request?" He could tell that both ensigns in the room were listening avidly to their conversation.
"Well sir, he asked if you could teach me to make a proper cup of coffee," she said.
"Ah, I did promise I would do that. I would be happy to do so," Ianto said with a smile on his face. "In fact, if you have time now, I have some downtime while I wait for my program to upload. Would you like to do this now or later?"
"Oh, now would work," she said eagerly. "I'll come down and can bring you up to the officer's mess."
"That would work, I could murder a coffee just about now," Ianto said before ending the call. He went back to his laptop and continued to work until the access bell rang and the ensign who wasn't at the navigation station went to answer the door. The general's aide walked in and looked around curiously.
"Perfect timing, Lieutenant," Ianto said as he locked off his laptop and turned around to smile at her. He stood up and walked toward her to shake hands with her. "It's good to see you again."
She blushed. "Good to see you, sir. Shall we go?" Ianto nodded and followed her out the door.
"How is Myfanwy?" She asked shyly.
"As well as a pterodactyl can be, I suppose," Ianto said with a grin. "She's fine, thanks for asking." She indicated a nearby lift and they went up several levels before exiting onto another floor. They chatted about her experience on the Valiant while they walked and he had to hold back a grin several times as she told him about life on board the ship. Eventually they ended up in the officer's mess and she led the way over to a coffee service station. Ianto paused and surveyed the equipment with an expert eye.
"Let's see what we have," he said. He opened the coffee urn and grimaced. "Oh, my." Several kitchen workers watched them curiously as he moved about and looked at the machine from several angles before checking the supplies. "No wonder the poor man is desperate," Ianto exclaimed. Lieutenant Dowell giggled at his expression before covering her mouth and looking around.
"Let's start fresh. That's the best way to do this," Ianto said decisively. He unplugged the coffee urn and picked it up. "Could you please show me where the nearest sink is?"
"Over here, sir," she said and led the way into the next room. The kitchen was bustling with the post lunch clean up and the prep for the evening meal. Ianto wound his way over to the sinks located at the back and dumped the whole pot into the sink. Several workers gaped as they watched the dark liquid pour out.
"See, look at this," Ianto said and gestured for the Lieutenant to move to the other side. He gestured to the stuff remaining inside the urn. "This needs to be cleaned out." He grabbed a pair of rubber gloves abandoned by the sink and put them on. He quickly cleaned the sludge out of the bottom, shaking his head as he worked. Once he had cleaned it thoroughly he handed it to her to carry back into the mess hall. "Here, take this and fill it up with water. I don't suppose you have anything not tap on this boat?" She shook her head. "We'll just have to make do then. It will still taste better now that it's clean."
He watched as she carefully lugged the heavy urn out of the kitchen. He then proceeded to show her how to make the coffee, telling her how to do each step and watching off to the side while she did it. Once she finished she set the pot brewing and they waited. Once the light came on to signify it was finished he nodded to her. She poured him a cup and gave it to him.
"Good," he said after taking a sip. "Try some. Not as good as Torchwood, but then that's an industrial sized machine. Can't hope for miracles, after all!" She laughed as she tried a cup. "Is the Captain served out of here or elsewhere?"
"She has her own private dining room up on the executive level," the Lieutenant said and Ianto nodded.
"Well, the same principle applies. Just need to do the math on the amount of coffee to the size of the pot. I would recommend seeing if you can get something fresh to work with and that should make the general happy." Ianto said with a grin. If he accomplished nothing else on this trip, this would be enough. He stifled a chuckle at the thought that this was more important than the upgrade to the vessel. Looking at his watch he saw that he should really head back and see how everything was going. "I need to get back."
"I'll bring you," the Lieutenant said. She put down her mug and he did the same before following her back down several flights to the computer centre. "I'll probably be back for you to bring you to dinner. Shall I meet you here or your cabin, sir?"
Ianto paused at the entryway. "We can meet here. I still have some work to do before then, so it's easier to meet here. See you then." She nodded and he entered the room, not seeing that she stared after him with a look of hero worship in her eyes as the door closed behind him.
