Peso
They headed across the hall to the larger entryway. Now that he was closer, he could see a gap in the wall where the doorway was, almost like a pocket door would have.
Hallie must have noticed him staring, "The flood door rolls down from the top and locks into the walls."
"Flood doors?"
"We are underwater, and accidents can happen." She explained, "it's all for safety."
"Is that supposed to be reassuring?"
"Would it make you feel better if I told you we only had to use them once? And it wasn't even flood related really. A pipe broke in the kitchen under the sink. And," she continued patting the wall, "we technically didn't even get to make the choice, the Octopod did."
"What?"
"She's the smartest thing you'll ever be inside" Hallie paused and pressed her lips together, "and I just heard what I said." She shook her head, "anyway…the Octopod is programmed to be very smart, it detected above-average levels of water in the kitchen and shut the floor doors."
"I won't speak for everyone," she put her hand on her chest, "but it scared the crap out of me. I was in the kitchen, trying to help Tunip and Min, when they closed and we couldn't open them from the inside, and it wasn't letting anyone open them from the outside at first. Dashi ended up having to override the system just to let us out. Even worse since we were, you know, panicking, we had stopped focusing on the pipe, so the kitchen was flooding for real. It was a mess, but it was also the first time something like that had ever happened. Tweak and Barret spent some time after that adjusting what was considered flooding."
"Sounds terrifying, but I may have just watched too many sci-fi horrors," Peso commented finally stepping into the kitchen.
It was a simple setup, kitchen on the right as you entered, and a long dining table to the left. To the furthest left and against the wall was a similar seating arrangement as the floor above, a restaurant booth like seat was tucked into the corner, almost like a small breakfast nook. Above one side of it a large flat screen had been mounted to the wall.
There was a large island counter with bar seating on one side on the kitchen side, and also a small hallway. On the wall opposite the entrance was a long oval door, shelves, and storage racks were on either side of the door heaped with vegetables, fruits, canning jars, and oddly eggs. The walls were a pale comforting yellow.
A tawny-skinned woman with vibrant red hair looked up from the table where she was setting. "We were starting to wonder if you were ever going to bring him around." She said to Hallie, then called, "Hey Tunip, the new doctor is here."
"I already knew that?" another woman's voice came from down the small hallway.
The redhead rolled her eyes, "No, like here-here. Right now." She turned her attention to Peso, "I'm Minako Takamoto, but you can just call me Min. Tunip is in the pantry, she'll be right out. What can we do for you two?"
"We were hoping we could help you set up for lunch, so Peso could get to know the crew!" Hallie said a bright smile on her face and voice full of cheer.
"And to also beg for a step stool." Peso tagged on simply.
Hallie's smile dropped, "You're not supposed to ask until after you're done helping." She hissed.
"Okay, I was wondering why you were using your 'sweetheart' voice." Min said, a small frown on her face, "You'll have to ask Tunip about that one, I don't get to make decisions like that." She waved her hand in the air.
"Ugh, are you still going on about that? I already said I overreacted, can't we just move on already?" the other woman came into the kitchen, holding a container.
Min didn't say anything. Hallie looked between the two, "This is Tressa Terrel, but we all call her Tunip, and I guess they're fighting so this is a great first impression." She said to Peso.
"We're not fighting, Min just forgot whose kitchen this is, and she didn't like it when I reminded her." Tunip snapped.
"Okay, I understand you're the chef, but the kitchen is also Min's workspace so really it belongs to the both of you." Hallie tried to reason.
"So, the med bay belongs to the both of you?" Tunip asked.
"Yes," Hallie answered quickly. Both women turned to look at Peso.
"It all belongs to the IORCE," he shrugged, he was not going to get tangled into workspace drama on his first day, without even knowing anyone, "We just work here."
Min tossed her hands up, "This is pointless. I have to finish setting the table, cause I know it won't get done if I don't."
Hallie let out a burst of strained laughter, "This isn't going anything like I had wanted. Hey, Min, how about I set the table, and you can show him the kitchen?"
The redhead thought about it, "it's just a kitchen, there isn't that much to see."
"I also haven't explained the door panels," Hallie said in a sing-song voice.
Min tilted her head to the side, "That's probably for the best, I imagine you would just tell him to hit the buttons until things happen. Is that okay with you?" She asked Peso.
"Whatever you would like to do Ms. Takamoto" Peso replied.
"It really won't be all that exciting," Min told him as she headed over. "I mean the room itself is self-explanatory. Over down that hallway," she pointed, "are the pantry, freezer, and Tunip's room. That door leads to the Garden Pod.
"We have a garbage can for compost, recyclables, and non-recyclables. Most waste from the kitchen ends up in the compost. They're all color-coded too, yellow is compost, green is recyclable, and blue is non. There are two dishwashers, one on either side of the sink on the island. Please never run them both at the time, it's best just to let us handle it." She gestured to herself and Tunip. "That's all I can think of for the kitchen."
She headed to the entryway and stopped at a panel next to it. The panel consisted of a large keypad, with a long flat button at the bottom that was about half the height of the keypad itself. To the side of the keypad and button, was an inset monitor, it matched the height of the keypad and button but was around twice as long, giving the monitor plenty of workable space. Finally on the other side of the monitor was a large white button with a pale orange, cartoon octopus figure on it. All three were about chest height from the ground. "The comm system is super easy too," she waved him over.
He stood next to her, and she started to explain, "So every door panel is going to look similar to this, some have smaller screens, but other than that they're all the same. This big button," she pointed to the long button under the keypad, "controls the door, just press it to open and same to close. Ours is the only one that doesn't do that." She pressed the button, and nothing happened, "and that's just because our door is a little different from everyone else's. Every other door in the Octopod slides closed from the side but ours comes down from the top and its only used in flood situations."
"Hallie did explain that somewhat to me." Peso said quickly.
"Oh good. So then moving on to the rest of the panel," she tapped two fingers against the monitor, "Every time you use the panel, you'll have to wake it up first unless you hit the alert button. Please don't use the alert button unless it's an actual emergency" She waved her hand towards the large button at the end as the monitor came to life with a welcome message and the same cartoon octopus in the center of the screen.
"Then you can just type in any room code, and it'll connect you to that room and you can chat over the speakers. Super easy, super simple. If you ever forget the room codes or haven't memorized them yet just hit the octopus," she tapped the image and a new screen appeared listing every room on the submarine, "and they're all right there."
"If there's something wrong with either the code or there's no one in the room an error message will pop up on the screen." She typed in the code 0063 for the med bay and just as she had explained an error message stating "There is currently no one in this room" a sad octopus sat in the bottom left-hand corner of the screen, with a tear on its face. "Dashi and I made all the little octopus emotes, and yes there are quite a few different ones. Some are animated as well."
"We rarely use this though since we all have mics and earpieces." She looked at him again, "except apparently you? Where's yours?"
"I didn't realize I was supposed to have one," he hadn't even noticed anyone wearing them even. But now that it had been pointed out he could see a small round black button-like thing attached to Min's collar with a wire on it leading upwards then hidden by hair.
They both turned to look at Hallie who was wearing a sheepish grin. "I forgot, sorry. It's in the med bay on the charger. I'll walk you through after lunch," She promised.
The door behind Hallie opened with a gentle whooshing sound and Kodi walked out into the kitchen. He pressed the long button at the bottom of the door panel next to the door he came out of. The door made another gentle whoosh as it slid closed. "Oh, you two come out of your cave finally?" he asked, an easy smile resting on his face.
Hallie made a face at him, "You finally come out of your cave?" repeated back at him.
Kodi's smile widened, "I had to make sure none of my plants were hurt while I was gone," Kodi told her playfully. "Did you get everything put away?"
"We're breaking for lunch, and then probably a tour. Don't look at me like that," she when after Kodi had given her a disbelieving look, "It's not a giant mess, and taking breaks is important when working on big projects."
"Also, we need a step stool," Peso added.
"There's one in the freezer we rarely use. You guys could probably take that one, right Tunip?" Kodi asked looking over at her.
"Seriously? You're just going to give away stuff we need. You don't use the step stools," she pointed her finger at Kodi then herself, "I use them all the time. You couldn't even understand how necessary they are."
"I understand, and if you aren't able to give one up, I get it. We can work around it for now," Peso told her, he hadn't meant to cause problems "The med bay has a large amount of under counter storage and we could also try utilizing the supply closet better."
"If worse comes to worst, I'll just have to get things down from the upper shelves. It's not that big of a deal." Hallie added.
Tunip sighed, "the one out here gets moved around a lot, I use the one from the freezer more than everyone realizes."
"Like I said it's fine," Peso assured her, "I'll also add one to the list for the med bay's supply order. The next supply drop is soon right?" he asked Hallie, she nodded, "we'll have to get an order put together soon then, not that we'll need much."
"You got us covered pretty well with what you brought now," Hallie agreed, "so we do have some wiggle room with what we can order this time." She played with her ponytail. "We could order bigger things or stock up on all the little things."
"We'll have to sit down and figure it –" Peso started but got distracted by the noise coming from out in the hallway.
"Sounds like engineering realized what time it is," Kodi commented.
A tall woman with pale mint green-dyed hair was the first of the group to enter. Even without the unusual hair color Peso would have known who she was just from her height, Turner Bunswik, the engineering genius behind the Octopod. She stopped short when she saw him, "Oh geez," she said bringing her hand to her chest with a laugh, "I forgot you were already here, Dr. Guin. I'm Tweak."
"How the hell did you forget when it's already been said multiple times over the radio?" The man who came in after Tweak asked, he was a few inches shorter than her, with black hair.
Interestingly, Peso noticed, they both wore very similar leather jackets. The man looked Peso up and down. Whatever conclusion the man came to seemed to be a negative one based on the face the man made, "I'm Barret Campbell, this is Pike Tailon," he pointed his thumb at the brunette man next to him.
Pike gave Peso a nervous look and nodded as a greeting. "And Grover Graghan," Barret swung his arm over his shoulder so his thumb was now pointed to the man still left standing in the doorway his head nearly reaching the top. Peso now fully understood Hallie's earlier comment of Grover appreciating the design of the Octopod. The man had to be around Shellington's height if not taller.
"Nice to meet you, Dr. Guin," Grover said with a warm smile on his face, "I hope Hallie hasn't been giving you a hard time."
"Like I even could." Peso heard Hallie mutter from behind him.
"No, she has been incredibly helpful since I arrived," He assured the taller man.
"Well, don't just stand there!" Tunip snapped at the newcomers, "grab something and help out!" she gestured to the plates loaded with food on the counters.
"I can probably drop something for you," Kodi smirked holding his casted arm up.
"Not today," Hallie grabbed him by his shoulders and spun him away from the kitchen towards the table, "you just sit your butt down." Peso smiled.
Min handed him a bowl, "Can you set this somewhere on the table, please? And can someone run up and grab the rest of the crew?"
"No need," Kwazii announced loudly as he walked into the room. "We heard the ruckus and came down." He grabbed food off a passing plate and popped it into his mouth.
"Kwazii!" Tunip scolded sternly from across the kitchen. He gave her an unapologetic smirk.
"We were finalizing our course," Dashi explained, gently pushing Kwazii towards the table and away from the passing plates.
"And it just happened to line up so you wouldn't have to help out in here, huh?" Min said narrowing her eyes at the other woman.
Dashi flipped her hair with one hand, "You know I avoid doing any real work." She walked around to the other side of the table and took a seat.
Peso's eyes flicked between the two women. No one else seemed to be reacting to their conversation so maybe this was normal. Or perhaps these two were also fighting? Suddenly both women burst into laughter. Ah, normal behavior then.
"Yes, you're both hilarious," Shellington commented, setting a plate down in the center of table then taking a seat beside Dashi.
The table was starting to fill up, Pike taking a seat at the very end of the table, the Professor sitting next to Shellington. Tweak took the seat to the left of Kwazii, leaving the head of the table empty but Peso assumed that was for the Captain, who was over in the kitchen discussing something with Tunip.
"The only open seat is between me and Kwazii," Barret said as he passed by, "you were looking a little lost."
"Thank you," he said then rounded the table taking the open seat next to the lieutenant.
"Why are you sitting there?" Kwazii asked as soon as he sat.
"This is where Mr. Campbell told me to."
"Sitting by me now?" Min asked from down the table, smiling at Barret.
"Well it just seemed like a good time to jump seats," he told her, a smile on his face as well.
"Captain says we can go ahead and start," Hallie said, taking her seat between Dashi and Grover and drawing Peso's attention away from his own sitting situation. "Tunip is showing him something about the freezer," she waved a hand, "I wasn't paying that much attention."
"We think one of the cooling units is broken or breaking down. We broke an icicle off it this morning, not thinking much of it, but now there's already a new one formed. So, it's either overworking and overheating, which is melting stuff around it and then freezing. Or not blowing air properly and just blowing like mist." Min explained.
"Why didn't you tell one of us?" Barret asked, spooning food onto his plate before passing the tray to Peso.
"I can look at it after we eat if you want," Tweak chimed in.
"Wow, you just do everything don't you?" Dashi joked, leaning over to add more vegetables to Kwazii's plate who was doing his best to shoo her hands away. Peso noticed for the first time that Dashi was wearing fake nails. He briefly wondered how she managed that while being underwater.
Min laughed, "If you want you can, but I don't know if there's anything we can do about while on board. Tunip was saying something about the whole unit possible needing to be replaced."
"How is it affecting our food supply?" the Professor asked his tone serious.
"We should be okay. We moved a bunch of stuff around so that nothing was directly in beneath the unit in case it is leaking water, we don't want ice getting into anything." Min answered, "We have room in the freezer right now."
"That's lucky then I suppose," Shellington commented, passing a plate behind Dashi and Hallie to Grover.
"Well, when it's time for a drop there might be a problem. But I guess we'll just have to figure things out during our next supply drop."
The normalcy of it all was almost off-putting to Peso. He couldn't stop himself from wondering when the last time he had sat down for a family-style meal, one he had actually remained at for more than twenty minutes. I wonder if every meal is like this? That could be a nice change.
"Dr. Guin, that's not all your eating?" Tunip asked reentering the room with the Captain. "Please tell me you're not a picky eater, Amber was, and it was horrible."
Peso looked down at his plate, which admittedly he hadn't put much on, "For the moment yes. I'm currently on a much different eating and sleeping schedule than everyone here."
Tunip shot him a look and started to say something but Captain Barnacles placed a hand on her shoulder, stopping her, "Let's give Dr. Guin time to adjust before you start in on his eating habits."
The two took their seats at the table, the Captain at the head and Tunip sitting on the other side of Min. "Speaking of adjusting, how is it going so far Dr. Guin?" the Captain asked.
"We are getting everything put away, but Hallie wanted to do a tour of the Octopod after lunch," Peso told him. He was looking forward to getting to see the entire sub, so hopefully, the Captain would approve of that plan as well.
"Has Hallie told you where we're heading yet?" Tweak asked, leaning forward so she could look down the table at him.
"No, she hasn't."
The Captain locked eyes with the Professor quickly then looked towards Peso. "How are you at learning on the go Dr. Guin." The Captain asked.
"I would like to think that I'm capable," Peso answered honestly, though now Peso was questioning why that was important.
"Then you had best be prepared Dr. Guin!" the Professor said excitedly, "I hope you like it hard and fast because we are headed to the artic."
Barrot burst into a fit of coughing from next to Peso.
"Are you alright Barret?" the Professor asked.
"I'm fine," Barret answered between coughs, "swallowed wrong," Peso heard the man say more quietly under his breath, "You're going to kill me one day."
Peso glanced over at Hallie and saw that she had her face buried in Grover's arm and her shoulders were silently shaking, Peso bit back his own laugh at the Professor's phrasing, while also trying to calm his sudden sense of panic. He wasn't sure how he felt about going to the artic. "Oh okay, how long will it take to get there?" He tried to keep his voice casual.
"It should take about five days to get there so you will have some time to get through some of the training you've been assigned." The Captain told him.
"What are the plans for once we get there? As in what are we going to be doing once we get there?" Peso was curious to know how they expected him to help, he guessed he could record data if they really needed help but he couldn't imagine he would be of much use. I'll probably just be staying on the Octopod. No need to get worried.
"We're going to be tracking a female polar bear. She's returned to the artic and hopefully, with any luck, she will have cubs with her." Shellington answered first.
"You're going to pop in on a mother polar bear with new cubs? That, doesn't that seem dangerous?" Peso asked. It felt like it could be dangerous to him, but maybe he was just being overly cautious.
"We're not going to "pop in" on her. We'll be observing from a safe distance," Shellington explained, "We also have to see if she was able to find a mate and carry to term, there's not much of their home left so every wild polar bear is important." He gave Peso a serious look, "Though if she does have cubs and we get the opportunity, we should try to get trackers on them as well and registered."
"There's a registry for polar bears?" Peso asked, he wondered if it was similar to a pet registry.
"Yes, the IORCE tags as many as we can. We're trying to monitor their population as much as possible." The Professor answered, "Other groups are working with us to keep it as up-to-date as possible. Though," the Captain frowned, "her tracker went offline recently so it won't be as easy as it sounds to find her."
"Why would a tracker go offline? Wait how are they powered anyway?" Peso was quickly realizing that he might be underqualified for certain aspects of this job.
"Most use batteries which is why tracker have to be replaced every few years, but any internal tag is just like a microchip that you would get on a pet, it doesn't send out a signal it just holds information," the Professor explained, his frown deepened as he continued, "There are two reasons why a tracker would go offline, one the battery died, or it was destroyed."
"They can't be easy to destroy though, so this one's battery probably just died then?" Peso guessed.
"That is what we're hoping. Though Mishka's tracker is a newer one, it wasn't scheduled to be replaced for three more years. Which," the Professor hesitated for a moment, "opens up the possibility of poachers. Hopefully that isn't the case though."
Peso hadn't even considered poachers. This trip to the artic was sounding more and more dangerous to him and he wasn't liking it, "Do you guys often deal with poachers?" Isn't that also kind of dangerous, he kept that thought to himself.
"It happens on occasion." The Captain said gruffly.
"What do you do?"
"Contact authorities and try to stay as far away as possible while still monitoring them, it's all we can do," Shellington said, his tone sounded bored to Peso, which made him think that they maybe dealt with poachers more than "on occasion."
"Yeah, you don't want to mess with poachers, mate, it can get messy fast," Kwazii added.
Well, that helped to confirm Peso's fears. They couldn't really be expecting him to be of any help.
"But," Kodi chimed in, "that's not the only thing we'll be doing, we're also gonna take samples of water and look at plants. It's not all scary and dangerous stuff. You could teach us how to build an igloo."
"Why would I know how to do that?" Peso asked him confused.
"Di-Didn't you tell that guy to take care of your igloo?" Kodi asked, now just as confused as Peso.
Peso had to think for a moment before he realized "that guy" was Alec, "That's just what people call my apartment. It's an ongoing joke." Peso explained, "I don't think you can build an igloo in Georgia, I'm pretty sure it would just melt."
Hallie burst into loud laughter from across the table, leaning across Grover to poke Kodi's arm. "Did you think," she started to say before stopping to take a few deep breathes, "Did you think he lived in an igloo?" she started laughing again. A few others joined in.
"I didn't know what he meant, I thought maybe they were doing a thing or something…" Kodi desperately tried to reason, his face gaining a deeper pink color.
"I don't think we got more than like twenty inches of snow total all last winter," Peso commented, "how would we even have built one?" The only way he could think of is freezing the water at someone's home and then taking the ice blocks outside, "that's way too much water I wouldn't pay for that."
"I'm just gonna be quiet for the rest of lunch, ya'll can ignore me," Kodi said dejectedly, staring at his plate and poking at his food with his fork.
"Why did everyone call it the igloo?" Min asked, leaning forward a little so she could look around Barret.
"I kept it very cold all year round, and," Peso turned his hand and gestured towards himself, "the whole penguin thing. It's Alec's favorite joke."
"Who's Alec?"
"One of Dr. Guin's old colleagues, he dropped him off today." The Professor answered, "He seemed like a nice fellow though we didn't get to speak much."
"More or less," Peso added shrugging.
"Is he an Internist too?" Hallie asked interested.
"No, Alec is a general surgeon. I might be biased," Peso's voice carried a hint of pride for his friend, "but I think he's the best surgeon we have in the whole hospital."
"I have a question," Grover raised a finger in the air, "what is an internist? Because it just sounds like you're an eternal intern, but I'm guessing that's wrong."
"Internal medicine specialist," Peso explained, "My main focus is on diagnosing and treating illnesses all across the entire health spectrum for all ages. I can do some basic surgeries but I prefer not to, though whenever I got really invested in a patient I would assist in their surgeries. But surgery is not my strong suit at all."
"Oh, we were just talking about this, he's been mostly doing ER work so he deals with all the crazy stuff." Hallie chimed in.
"It's not crazy stuff though," Peso said quickly, he didn't want anyone to get the wrong impression of his abilities. Probably shouldn't have said anything about doing surgeries…
"Well aren't you just Mr. Perfect," Barret said sarcastically.
"Far from it." Peso started but was interrupted by Pike.
"What's the crazy thing that's ever happened to you?"
Peso first thought was being told by the chief that I was going to work on a submarine, but they might not like that, so he went with the second option, "we gave a seagull a CT scan. It was surprisingly difficult." Based on everyone's non-reaction Peso guessed that wasn't quite the answer they were expecting either.
"What? Why?" Shellington asked from across the table, recovering from the small shock.
"The x-ray room wasn't available at the time."
"No, why did you give a bird a CT scan." Dashi clarified sharply.
"Oh, a nurse found it in the parking lot. It looked like it had been hit by a car, and I'm not a veterinarian, so I was just doing the best I could think of." He gave a small shrug, "the whole situation was a strange one? But it's fine now. Mittens just kind of lives around the hospital now causing trouble for everyone."
"You named it Mittens?" Kwazii asked giving Peso a side-eye.
"It kept trying to eat everyone's gloves, the vinyl ones not real mittens, but it felt weird calling it Gloves so we changed it to Mittens, and yes I do know how ridiculous this whole story sounds."
"Why didn't you take it to a wildlife rescue? You already admitted to not knowing what you were doing." Shellington snapped at him.
"As I think I said already I was just doing the best I could at the time. I missed the class on handling hysterical nurses holding half-dead birds." Peso shot back, he was aware he could have handled the situation better but he had no way of changing those actions now. "One of the nurses took Mittens to a wildlife rescue after we got it sewn up and its wing braced. It came back to the hospital on its own."
"How do you know it's the same seagull?" Tunip asked from down the table.
"From what I was told of Mittens' return, it just walked into the ER and headed straight for the break room, which is where we kept him for a while after treating him. Until Bennet was finished with her shift at least." Peso explained, "that and it had a tag from the rescue with Mittens written on it."
"It reminds me of working in the Everglades," Tweak cut in quickly, "We took care of injured animals too. We did try to be as hands-off as possible, but some would still stop by occasionally. It's a sweet story," she said to Peso, then looking towards Shellington added, "Just be happy the bird is still alive."
"He easily could have done more harm than good." Shellington spat.
"If there had been an alternative we would have done it, but it seemed like an emergency situation so we did what we thought best," Peso clarified, "but you too would have done anything possible after seeing Nurse Bennet in tears, trust me."
"Dr. Guin, you said Hallie wanted to give you a tour after lunch?" Grover interrupted, steering the conversation away from a possible argument, "What haven't you seen yet?"
"Everything basically," Hallie answered for him, "I've mostly kept Peso to myself in the med bay."
"That's somewhat true," Peso added, clarifying, "we were working so I wouldn't call it keeping me to yourself. Also, I've seen the kitchen and dining room, so not quite everything."
Hallie laughed, "Wow two whole rooms, you're right, you've practically seen everything." She waved a hand in the air, "you're good."
"You did cover the most important rooms already," Kwazii commented, smirking.
"Please stay out of the lab, I have experiments running that I don't want to be disturbed," Shellington said, looking towards Hallie and ignoring Peso.
"It's not like we were going to go around messing with things," Hallie replied, her brows furrowed with annoyance. Peso couldn't help wondering if Dr. Shellington was always this difficult to get along with. It was possible they were just having a bad start though.
"I didn't say you were going to; I'm just asking you to stay out of the lab. It's not a difficult request, Hallie."
"Actually Shellington –"
"Hey, speaking of experiments and research, what did you choose Doc? I forgot to ask you on the way here." Kodi interrupted Hallie. Ah, so both Grover and Kodi are peacekeepers.
"That's not important right now."
"I'm not researching anything."
The Professor's and Peso's voices overlapped. There was a beat of silence, then the questions poured in.
"You do realize that's the whole point of this organization, right?"
"What are we going to present at the conference?"
"So you're not gonna be doing any work?"
"How'd you manage that?"
"The board would never approve of that!"
"Enough!" the Professor called, not quite yelling but loud enough to make himself heard, "it was approved by the board. After this year's conference, it was decided that our medical team wouldn't present at next year's conference. That's why I didn't push Dr. Davidson to choose a research topic. Dr. Guin was also given the choice and he chose not to take on a research project for a variety of reasons. You will still both have to attend though," the Professor finished.
"That's fine I guess, but I wasn't aware that the IORCE had a medical conference," Peso said looking at the Professor. He suddenly felt as though he hadn't been told everything.
"It's not just a medical conference," Tweak offered, "All the subs get together and present their findings for the year, and we give tours of the subs to the public, there's a whole event for the public too. It's really fun."
"Oh," Peso searched his memories for anything about that type of event, "I'm drawing a total blank. I didn't know you did that."
"Well, the conference has never taken place in America, yet. There are only a few places in the world that all three of our subs can dock at once. We never got to build a port for them in North America." Tweak explained.
"Didn't you look into the IORCE at all after you were hired?" Dashi asked raising an eyebrow.
"Honestly? No." Peso answered, he wouldn't say that he was annoyed but just tired of this conversation already. "I had six days to completely uproot my life, close all my cases or find other capable doctors who I trusted to take them over, cancel every single event that was coming up in personal life for the next year…so I would say I was a little preoccupied. Oh, I also had to find and hire my replacement."
"Shouldn't that have been your boss's job? To find your replacement?" Min asked shocked.
"Usually, but I already had someone in mind."
"You already knew who you wanted to replace you? You were already planning on quitting?" Barret asked, Peso was impressed by Barret's ability to blend concern and sarcasm so seamlessly.
"No, Dr. Stone had been hinting that he was going to announce his retirement, and I guess you could say I was trying to plan ahead," Peso shrugged his shoulders half-heartedly, Dr. Stone's retirement didn't mean anything for him now.
Barret made a face like he didn't think that was enough of an answer but dropped the topic.
"I'm sorry Dr. Guin, I didn't realize I was taking a promotion away from you." The Professor said gently staring at his plate. Peso wondered if that was guilt on the Professor's face. He wasn't sure what the man would have to be guilty over though.
"Oh no, you didn't. It's nothing like that" Peso said putting a hand up, "Dr. Stone and I spoke on my last day, he already has a successor in mind and it wasn't me. So I'm not missing out on anything." He didn't feel like opening about his missing out on the job or that he might potentially still get the job when he came back, so he changed the subject instead. "Uh, but Chief Bunswik, you said subs? I'm only aware of the Octopod, but as we've established, I'm woefully under-informed, so, are there other Octopods?"
"Oh god no," she started laughing, "we are one-of-a-kind. But we also have the Leviathan and the Shark Sub. If you were freaking over the Octopod you'll die over the Levy."
"Will I?"
"It's massive! It's the biggest sub we have and originally its main purpose was to build the underwater ports for the Octopod. I mean just look at the size of the Octopod," she waved a hand over her head, gesturing to the entire room, "We can't dock just anywhere. Our repair station is even underwater too."
Peso's brain suddenly sparked with a memory of a news story, "The super-sub NASA wants but was denied?" he asked leaning forward.
"You saw that news story!?" Tweak asked her face lighting up.
"Honestly I only really remember the title, a patient was watching it." Peso clarified, he smirked as he continued, "I only really remember thinking what would NASA do with a submarine anyway."
"Use for the same reasons we did," Tweak explained hands gesturing everywhere and her excitement clear. Peso guessed she didn't get to talk about this often. "And they don't want the Leviathan itself, they want its plans. Barret shut up!"
"I didn't even say anything yet!"
"I think they want to build colonies on one of the moons with water," Tweak continued over Barret, "It's the only thing that makes sense. But they would literally have to construct it in space though, because there is no way to send something that heavy up through the atmosphere. Sometimes I'm just so tempted! I really am! Like I just want to know." It was clear to Peso she had thought about this topic often.
"You hear how crazy she sounds right?" Barret whispered to Peso.
"I heard that!"
The Captain stood up suddenly, "Okay, before this becomes anything more," he gestured at Tweak, "Dashi, Kwazii are you ready?"
"I'm ready to head out when you are," Dashi said grabbing her plate and taking it over to a dishwasher.
"Hold on," Kwazii said between mouthfuls, still taking more from a plate in the center of the table and stuffing it in his mouth.
"Don't do that!" Dashi scolded, walking back over to the table and smacking his hand.
"Dashi calm down. Kwazii don't stuff your face like that," the Captain huffed shaking his head at the two, "you can join us in the HQ when you've finished." He and Dashi left the headed for the door.
"No, wait, I'm coming! I'm done!" he stood grabbing his plate.
"Just leave it Kwazii I'll get it," Tunip told him standing from her spot to start gathering things off of the table.
"Thank you!" Kwazii called, voice still muffled, as he passed her. Tunip waved a hand at him and rolled her eyes, a smile still on her face. So much of how the crew acted reminded Peso of a large family living together. I guess living like this is similar to living in a multigenerational home. It wasn't hard to imagine the crew in a family structure either.
Around him, others were offering either help or where they would be if they were needed. Grover was going to check in the freezer so that Tweak would be able to be in the launch bay. Barret and Pike were going with her. Shellington was off to the lab and the Professor was heading to the HQ, he reminded Hallie to get Peso set up with his headset before he left the dining room. Kodi, Min, and Tunip were all staying to clean up.
"That just leaves us! Wanna get your ears in and go on a tour?" Hallie asked pointing at the earpiece on her ear.
"Shouldn't we help?" Peso asked gesturing at the table.
"You can go," Tunip answered picking up another plate, "The three of us are used to cleaning up after meals so you're good. Go learn about the Octopod."
"Well, if you're certain then I guess let's take a tour." Peso said, turning back to Hallie.