She found her supervisor just inside the worksite, the human staring contemplatively into a cup of that dark liquid, it's heat creating clouds that faded as they rose towards his face. Austin looked up at the sound of Trinitite's footsteps, meeting her eyes.
"Ah, you're back."
He didn't seem particularly surprised, her supervisor focusing Trinitite's thoughts with a simple nod.
"Aye." The abyssal nodded back, suppressing a smile.
With her newfound knowledge, she'd developed her theories as to why so many humans had been staring at her. She'd hoped she was wrong, but even if she wasn't, the proportion of staring humans was lower than that two days ago, and her supervisor only seemed to be interested in her as a source of labor. Briefly, she contemplated adding some clever remark, but even if she could think one up in time, she wasn't sure she'd ever be on those kinds of terms with her immediate commander.
"Well, the crew's where you left 'em." He said, motioning towards building two. "Feel free to grab some coffee from back in the office before you go."
"Ah…" She stalled, taking a look around the worksite and noticing several more white cups. "...Thank You."
It didn't matter why humans liked this coffee so much, if they all loved to have some, she needed to procure some for herself. If coffee had been spicy, she would have been in serious trouble, but the bitter drink was pretty inoffensive, although perhaps a little too bitter for her taste.
Dan was still too busy to address Trinitite when she reentered the office, but his commander was tending to a device that she'd heard humans referring to as a coffee machine. The worksite's commander gave the abyssal a friendly nod as the large machine steamed and gurgled. For a moment, Trinitite was reluctant to approach the darker-skinned man. Sure, he (Trinitite could't place his name, for some reason) had seemed friendly enough when Trinitite had first joined The Fleet, but that could have just been to avoid chasing her off. She was what… three levels below him in the hierarchy? Sure, this fleet seemed more relaxed about that sort of thing, but that was significantly lower in the hierarchy then the simplified command structures Abyssals liked to use.
"Coffee's brewing." He commented, forcing the Wo-Class into a conversation and offering her an empty cup. "It'll be half a minute."
"Okay." She replied, hesitantly accepting the empty cup. "Thanks."
A few seconds passed, Trinitite's attention focusing on the machine as the pitch it was emitting steadily fell.
"...So." Thomas started again. "How do you like your coffee?"
The Wo-class couldn't do anything but balk at the question. The machine only produced one type of coffee, right? Well, there was no way she could invent a good answer, and Dan knew Trinitite hadn't had it before recently, so she guessed she didn't have to lie about her knowledge.
"I don't know." She admitted. "Just had my first cup on Saturday."
"I see." The human knowingly replied. "Dan probably had you drink it straight, too."
"Unpolluted, Thomas." The man in question interjected, not looking up from his computer.
"Right." Thomas answered. "He likes his coffee incomplete, but most people prefer it with some extra ingredients." The coffee machine filled the office with a short beep, interrupting Thomas's next sentence. "See, try this:"
Withdrawing the container of completed coffee from the machine, he filled his cup with the deep-brown liquid.
"Start with the coffee," Replacing the container in the coffee machine, he then reached into a box filled with multicolored packets, removing three of the white ones and showing Trinitite the label. "Add two or three sugars. Go for the pure sugar, the artificial stuff'll just give you cancer." Tearing open the three packages and dumping a white powder into his drink, he tossed the empty packets into a bin filled with them, reaching into another bowl and grabbing a thumb-sized blue container.
"Add some cream…" Peeling away the flexible lid like a yogurt container, he poured a smooth, white liquid that disappeared into the dark drink. "Stir it all together..." Grabbing a thin stick of wood from another container near the coffee machine, he dropped the stick into the cup and spun his hand, the dark drink immediately transforming into an even, chocolate brown. Holding the cup up triumphantly, he took a quick sip of the liquid, releasing a contented sigh before concluding. "And voilà! You have good coffee!"
Trinitite paused, looking at the coffee. It looked completely different now, meaning its taste probably was fairly different as well. Her attention changed to the coffee machine, and the three containers sat next to it. This… this was going to be the first recipe she followed, wasn't it? Unlike the complex instructions in the recipe books or printed on the back of the food containers, it was fairly simple, but you weren't summoned knowing how to guard a convoy. This was simple, like operating her elevators, but practice with this would no doubt help her further down the line.
"It looks good." She stated, although truthfully she was unsure about it. Pouring her own cup, her hand moved to the rows of packets stuffed into the first container, before stopping. She'd be conservative with her ingredients, only grabbing two sugars, but Thomas had warned her to stick to the 'pure' sugar. If the other versions were bad (and she remembered she needed to add 'Cancer' to her research list), then why did Thomas stock them? Wasn't he in control of the logistics here?
"Is 'Cane Sugar' pure?" She asked, looking through the labels. Sugar was in a ton of recipes she'd read, but not of any use on it's own. Again, reinforcing that this was following a proper recipe here.
"Oh, yeah." Thomas clarified, and Trinitite plucked two packets out of the container. "I just meant avoid the artificial sweetener."
"Got it." The creamer's container was disappointing. With a human watching she would have had to throw the whole container into the nearby bin anyways, but she'd still been hoping to see a nice aluminum lid, not just cleverly-disguised plastic. Again, she couldn't enjoy a slight taste now, but later on, when no one was watching, a bit of useful metal might have gone nicely with this new coffee. Assuming it was any good, that is.
Stirring the ingredients together with a stick from the third container, Trinitite watched as the creamer swirled and dissolved into the coffee, mixing to create what looked like an entirely new drink. As soon as the drink's texture became consistent, a swirl of bubbles all that told Trinitite it was shifting, she rose the cup to her lips, taking a cautious sip.
"Huh…" The Coffee's dark bitterness remained, but it was complemented by a pleasant smoothness that kept it from becoming too overwhelming. Additionally, there was a sweet undertone to the drink, combining with the change in texture to completely change its dynamics Before she'd swallowed the first one, she took another sip, swishing the hot liquid around in her mouth experimentally.
"See?" Thomas asked, glancing back at her more immediate boss. "It's better, right?"
Trinitite had to agree, but considering that Dan was the one who hired her, she wasn't sure it was all that safe to go against his opinion.
"It's not bad." She tempered, but she guessed her body language might have given her true opinions away. She couldn't help herself! This was the first recipe she'd completed, after all.
Luckly, Dan still was too focused on his computer to look up at her.
"Hey." He shrugged. "As long as it wakes you up, I guess."
That's what coffee was supposed to do? Trinitite hadn't noticed anything like that, but if it was subtle…
"Alright, make me some money, okay?" Thomas asked, returning to his own post with a cup of coffee in his hand. It sounded like a dismissal, so Trinitite nodded.
"Aye Aye!"
It was a lot easier to avoid saluting when your starboard hand was cradling a cup of hot liquid. With her dismissal she turned, the fruits of her 'labor' in hand as she made for outside. The steam wafting away from the cup was invisible in the office, but turned into a dense fog in the cool morning air. She took another sip, savoring the drink. Coffee was simple, and not really good enough to recommend to one of her sisters, but this was the result of her first successful... food combination exercise, so The Abyssal enjoyed every sip. Finding her mother would always be her primary goal, but part of her couldn't wait to start using those recipe books.
Trinitite thought she'd find her immediate supervisor with the rest of the crew, but when she got to Building Two's second floor, all she found was Alton and the other two in their little… work division? The research she'd done on building terms hadn't covered what the smallest unit of employees was called.
The darkest-skinned of the three smiled at Trinitite's approach, while Alton nodded and Sern looked away suddenly, scratching his neck. Well, that practically confirmed that the latter human had suspicions. The abyssal's eyes narrowed for a moment, before she forced herself to loosen up and return the first human's smile. It didn't seem like those suspicions had spread, at least.
"You're back!" The rough-skinned man- Tirto, Trinitite finally remembered- exclaimed. "We'd thought Alton had driven you off!"
"It'll-" Trinitite stuttered, a witty comeback dying sputtering as the abyssal was suddenly unsure if she was saying the right thing. Ah well, she'd already started. "...uh, it'll take more than that to drive me off."
"Ah, Sern then." Tirto replied, triggering a chuckle in Trinitite that she hadn't expected. Quickly, she got herself under control, looking to the target of Tirto's verbal jab. Sern was still avoiding eye contact with Trinitite, but his cheeks were a crabshell red. Maybe he had shared his suspicions on Trinitite after all, and his fleetmates had dismissed the possibility. It meant that she'd have to be extra careful, but as long as she was, she probably wasn't in much danger of discovery.
Sern wasn't likely to move against her without support, after all.
"...So," Alton started, "How was your Sunday, Elizabeth?"
"Um-" Caught off guard by the question, Trinitite's mind raced. "Pretty good?" Of course, a simple answer like that probably wasn't enough, so she poured over the events since she'd last left work, trying to think of the most 'human' things to talk about. "Have you ever heard of Baskin-Robbins?"
This time, it was Alton's turn to laugh. Had she said something wrong?
"Well, it's only one of the largest ice cream chains out there."
"Chains?" Trinitite echoed, before realizing she had murmured the word out didn't know what a chain had to do with ice cream, and certainly hadn't seen any when she had been there, but that didn't mean the meaning wouldn't be obvious for a human.
"It is a term for a business with a lot of locations." Tirto clarified, uncharacteristically hesitantly. "I have never been there, though. Is it good?"
"Well," Trinitite replied, nodding in thanks as she recalled the overwhelmingly good flavors. "It was worth the visit." She understated.
"So you like ice cream, then?" Tirto asked, giving Sern a look for… some reason. What could that mean? Liking ice cream couldn't be purely an abyssal thing, right?
"Who wouldn't?" A voice from behind Trinitie interjected, and she turned to face Austin. Their supervisor had just gotten within ear reach, his stride slowing.
"Anyways, in today's meeting I promised Dan we'd get the floor's cages finished and ready for inspection by the end of today." Trinitite looked away for a moment to check on the rest of the floor, unsure if Alton was a little too optimistic. The consequences here couldn't be that bad, but nevertheless that was a situation she was all too familiar with. "Since we haven't started on the stairwell yet, I'm going to have most of the guys working on that, leaving you four with the rest of the pillars. Sound good?"
With just the four of them? That did sound optimistic. Well, it was never smart for the new ship to complain, so Trinitite added to the collection of acknowledgements from the rest of the small crew.
"Awesome. Sern, you're with Austin. Tirto, you get the new girl." He immediately turned towards another small group of workers, waving his finger over his shoulder as he walked. "Tally ho, folks."
Huh. For once, there was a phrase she did understand.
Nobody tell Saratoga her daughter is learning how to drink coffee, but not the navy way!
Anyways, I tried to get this chapter out pretty quickly, as a new semester is starting next week. Who knows if that'll affect my writing speed, I do think I'm getting better at writing...
Next up, another interlude! It's been a while since one of those, right?