She'd spent the rest of the night, and a portion of the Saturday afterwards, for herself. Ever since she'd left the Fred Meyers warehouse, even when she was escaping from the Seattle area, she'd remained under her human disguise. It had slipped occasionally, like the times she'd been relying on the glow from her island for light, but she hadn't ever returned to her old… uniform.. until Friday night. Her rigging had stayed out, her makeup had remained unapplied, and her cane had helped her retain her footing in the mountainous terrain, despite her heels.

Originally, she'd justified it to herself as a way for her paint-and-chip detail to complete some much-needed maintenance. That was true, of course, but after most of their work was done she'd continued without her disguise. The risk of being spotted was low, considering the terrain, so she'd tolerated it as not even pretending to be human for once was refreshing. When the Wo-class had almost reached the crest of a mountain, she'd remembered looking up and seeing the indomitable channel of stars that spanned across the sky, the familiar Milky Way. With Chehalis and Centrelia's light pollution, the celestial band was noticeably dim compared to when she'd witnessed it on the open ocean, but after so long under Seattle's obstructing glow…

She hadn't realized how much she'd missed it. Deep, she could even see Mars for the first time since she'd read about it! She'd probably caught glimpses, but with all the trees, buildings, and clouds…

The carrier squinted, focusing her rangefinders on the dot in the sky. Hmm, it might be a little red, but that also could just be her mind adjusting her perspective to match the Wikipedia photographs. She still wasn't sure if she could believe the claims that humans had gotten a machine on such a distant planet. Still, considering how much more capable human rockets were in comparison with her tiny tims, she wouldn't, no, couldn't rule it out. She had no idea. Before now, Trinitite had never really thought about the planets as anything other than moving dots against the steady field of stars.

This break also let her focus a little more on her recovery. After weeks of work at the expense of pretty much any other repairs and quite a lot of cannibalizing of other systems, Trinitite's crew had resurrected her damaged machine shop. She still wasn't sure if using human tools wouldn't have been better, but she didn't have money for those, so the point was probably moot.

Anyways, she was starting to heal again. The worst of the damage wouldn't be mended without a drydock, but it was progress. Maybe, if she could procure a house of her own, but that didn't seem particularly attainable even without doing any research into the prospect.

However, when the sun rose on Saturday, the experience was much less relaxing. The Wo-class was keenly aware that her white-and-black rigging stood out against the mottled grays, greens, and browns of the terrain around her, so once the sun rose, so did her stress. After the third time she'd scrambled for the tree's cover at the sight of distant contrails, she gave up on staying conspicuous. The rigging was stowed, she reapplied her cosmetics, and changed her clothes. Exploring the forest was still relaxing, despite the constant reminder that she was in hostile territory.

When the sun dipped below the mountains around her once again, she was ready to reenter human civilization. This week, she'd be manning the dreaded cashier post, but it would lead to the money she desperately needed. Hopefully.

Her spirits dropped, however, when she got to work.

"Hey." The unfamiliar human greeted, his rangefinders only meeting hers for an instant, before settling elsewhere on her hull. "You the new hire?"

The abyssal nodded to his question, not wanting to betray her disappointment. Who was this? Alex wasn't nearly as good a teacher as many other abyssals Trinitite had known, but she had kind of been looking forward to learning from him. She didn't really know him, obviously, but Alex was much more familiar than this guy. She'd been under the Jack in the Box Fleet for almost a week now, and hadn't seen him before.

"Alright, see me after you change." The human, whose name tag denoted him as 'Clifton,' boredly dismissed her, nodding towards the back of the building. After that, he seemed to turn his attention back to the still-broken milkshake machine, tinkering with… something. Trinitite wasn't sure the human was actually doing anything useful. When the abyssal turned away to get changed into uniform, however, she felt his rangefinders on her once again and became sure he wasn't doing any real work.

Looking busy was something she was familiar with. There were times where you could only get so far ahead on maintenance, you didn't have the supplies for any more training, and you simply couldn't stay busy for every hour of the day. Every abyssal knew how to look useful around a princess whether it be their own or another they occasionally worked around, so seeing such habits here shouldn't be too surprising. However, Shannon was no abyssal Princess. Trinitite hadn't seen this 'Clifton' around before, but it was safe to assume the vast majority of his time was free, more than any abyssal besides herself would know what to do with. Wasting the time the Jack In the Box fleet was paying him to use… it felt like a betrayal to her.

Should she report this to Shannon? No, she didn't know enough about the broken machine to really be certain her coworker was wasting the fleet's time. Plus, their boss didn't have much reason to prefer Trinitite's word over Clifton's. Besides, like on the construction site, a few minutes lost wasn't that big of a deal, was it?

...Where was Alex? Hopefully, the register training wasn't going to happen until tomorrow, and he'd be there then.

Unfortunately, she had no such luck.

"You know what to say, right?" Clifton asked, the human's hands resting lazily in his pockets.

She didn't. At least, Trinitite didn't think she did. The abyssal had a feeling that Clifton was expecting her to say yes, she took a guess.

"Uhh…" She started, looking over at the register. "When a new customer enters, I greet them by saying 'Welcome to Jack in The Box, can I take your order?' Then, I…" She looked at the register more thoroughly. The large screen reminded her somewhat of the library's computers, but she hardly knew how to use those either. "...I don't know."

From Clifton's sigh, you'd think Trinitite had just admitted she didn't know how to launch her aircraft. With effort, he propped himself up, fishing his hands out of his pockets as he shuffled over to the register. He pointed at the screen, flecks of lint obvious on his gloved finger.

Why had he been keeping those in his pockets, anyways? It had to be against the sanity regulations or something, right?

"It's simple." He reported, boredly pointing towards the images of food that had mirrored the ones on the menu screens above them. "Punch in what they want…" He jammed the touchscreen with a wide finger, hurrying through several arrays of options before settling on the red 'cancel' button. "...grab the receipts, give one to the customer, and yell the order to the people in the back. You get all of that?" He looked back at Trinitite, his disinterested gaze suddenly hardening to let Trinitite know her answer better be yes.

The Wo-class gulped, abruptly realizing she was unaware of Clifton's real position in the fleet. Even on the slim chance he was on Alex's level in the hierarchy, the abyssal was well aware that dozens of undefinable factors could make the rotund man much more powerful than he seemed. Trinitite had a lot more questions, but just this once she'd resort to figuring them out herself.

"Uh… yeah."

Clifton nodded grimly, the energy and interest seeping out of his face.

"Just focus on looking pretty and doing what the customer says." He pointed to the employee who'd been managing the other register, a woman the abyssal only now recognised as Stephanie. "If you get lost, just do what she's doing." With that, he turned back to the broken milkshake machine, his movements carrying a finality that promised he'd be ignoring Trinitite from now on.

She was on her own, not that Clifton had been much of a help.

The Wo-class turned back to the register, uneasily taking her position behind the screen. This was it. Trinitite was manning the station she'd been dreading, now, and without nearly as much training as she'd been hoping for. Didn't the person at the register also get people their drinks and stuff? How did she do that? She knew it wouldn't last, but Jack in the Box was thankfully not busy at the moment. Besides the three groups eating at tables right now and a couple of humans patiently waiting for their orders, they were empty.

Movement caught the abyssal's attention, and her rangefinders snapped to the fast food joint's entrance. There, throwing his weight behind the glass, was a customer. Pressure built in both her boiler and her crew as he watched the man approach, but she fought the panic down. This was nothing compared to hostile aircraft or submarines. She just had to keep reminding herself of that.

The customer was male, entering the restaurant with the lanky stride of a cruiser. He was wearing ruffled, thin clothes that seemed to hang off of his body, dragging behind him as he rushed into the building. His attention seemed mostly focused on his phone, but he looked up long enough to survey the room's other occupants. The Wo-class almost flinched away from his gaze, reminding herself once again that she wasn't in any real danger. Besides, there was a good chance he would go to her coworker on the other register, meaning she'd get a chance to examine how it was done from behind the counter.

Then, his gaze abruptly returned to her, and Trinitite realized her luck was only sinking further. He was coming right for her! Trinitite braced against the counter, preparing to give him the best smile she could: Enough of a smile to look friendly, but subdued enough that her sharper canines weren't revealed to the human.

Hopefully it looked natural.

"Welcome to Jack in the Box," She recited, the canned greeting feeling alien on her lips, "can I take your order?"

"I'll take a Bacon Breakfast Jack, no combo." He rattled off, and Trinitite relaxed a little. That was just pressing a button on the screen and shouting a command to her fleetmates in back. Like a second torpedo she hadn't seen coming, however, the human struck with one more request. "Add an original Iced Coffee, too."

Coffee? Trinitite didn't know how they made that! Was there a coffee machine here, like at the construction site? She'd never operated that, either! Trying her best to hide her panic, she nodded, punching the order into the console.

"Bacon Breakfast Jack with an Original Iced Coffee?" She asked, and the customer nodded. "Aye aye, that'll be fifteen ninety-seven."

The customer grunted something about "this goddamn war," but produced his card anyway. Trinitite pressed the 'card' button on the register, and watched him hold the plastic square against a device on the other side of the counter.

…and just like that, the Jack in the Box fleet had his money. Somehow. Trinitite didn't understand how humans found abyssals so strange, considering how magical their own technology was.

"Would you like..." she asked, the word for the paper slip her cashier just produced abruptly escaping her. Panicking, she weakly plucked the paper from the machine and held it up for emphasis. "...this?"

"Nah." The human shook his head, and Trinitite was left with the piece of paper in her hands.

"Uh…" What was she supposed to do with it now? It remained in her starboard hand, hanging loosely next to her hip as she instead focused on getting to work. "Alright, it'll be right out!"

She turned, preparing to shout the order back to the kitchen. Just how loud should she be, again? She knew she could out-yell a human, but she didn't think they were screaming at the top of their lungs when calling orders, either.

"Bacon Breakfast Jack!"

Hopefully that wasn't too loud. She had other things to worry about now, anyways, such as that coffee she needed to make. Deep, how did she make coffee? Trying random machines was obviously out of the question, which meant she had to ask for help.

Of the two options she had, neither looked promising. Clifton was supposed to teach her how to do everything at this post, but he was still 'busy' with the milkshake machine. Clifton had ordered that she ask Stephanie if she had any questions, but the abyssal was hesitant. She knew her coworker already didn't have a good opinion of her, for some reason, and bothering her didn't sound like a good way to repair that. Still, she didn't have much of a choice…

While she hesitated, Stephanie seemed to catch her desperate gaze, her face contorting into a smugness that she'd only seen on some abyssal princesses. Was she enjoying Trinitite's struggle to learn the post? Anger flashed in The Abyssal's bridge. What had the Wo-Class done to her? Was the human like this with everybody or just her? It hurt a lot more than her abandonment by Clifton, who was clearly leaving her to sink or sail out of self-interest. Stephanie gained nothing out of her confusion, but still enjoyed it!

As if to prove she wasn't too ruthless, she motioned to what Trinitite assumed was the coffee machine with a jerk of her head. Okay, she knew where it was, now, but before she could ask how to use it, her coworker turned and greeted another customer. That left her last option as disturbing Clifton again.

…Damnit, where was Alex, or anyone else she'd worked with the past week? She hadn't even had any problems with the customers yet, and today already felt like it was going to be exhausting.

This chapter fought me a lot, but I think I managed to get it into a passible state after banging my head against it enough. I know this story's premise is Trin at the job, but the character interactions between the Wo and the People she meets are a lot more interesting for me to write, so getting this one out was a bit slow. The fact that I shifted it away from a bad customer like I originally planned to bad coworkers helped, I think. She'll have plenty of time to face Karens in future chapters, anyways.

Next chapter should be a bit more fun for me to write, considering it involves Alex and ties back into the wargaming subplot I ignored in this chapter, so hopefully it'll come out pretty quickly. Hope you enjoyed this one!