Peso
"Yes! On with the tour!" Hallie said loudly turning towards the doorway, "Min already went over everything in the kitchen –"
"Did you tell him the garden pod door has to stay closed?" Kodi interrupted, he was currently handing dishes to Min to load into the dishwasher.
"No, no one told me that yet. Why does it have to stay closed?" Peso asked.
"Oh yeah sorry I didn't even think about it, but yeah you wouldn't have had any way of knowing," Min said adding more dishes into the dishwasher, "the garden pod has to stay closed at all times, or else the chickens will escape."
"And no one wants to deal with that." Kodi added, "trust me, it's chaotic."
Peso opened his mouth, then closed it, but they couldn't actually mean… "I'm sorry, uh chickens?" Peso asked, positive he was misunderstanding something.
"Yes, Pike brought his chickens along," Hallie explained, "it was his stay or quit hill to die on and he argued that since Kodi had his bees –"
"There are bees too?" Peso didn't remember anyone mentioning animals on the sub.
"Bees, butterflies, beetles. Gotta have pollinators if you want a successful, healthy garden. It's part of the reason the first garden pod failed so miserably, well that's my personal theory at least. Plus, the hive was brand new, and I wasn't about to abandon it." Kodi told him.
"Can, can you bring bees and bugs on a submarine?" Peso asked. He wasn't sure if it seemed unethical to him or not. They were bugs, but at the same time they were bugs confined to a submarine.
"Well really you should never keep honeybees in a greenhouse," Kodi admitted, leaning against the counter, "but like I said the colony was brand new. I didn't want to abandon it, and with it being so small and the garden pod so big I thought I could risk it. Bumblebees would have been better for pollination though. The butterflies and beetles all came later. They're all important in keeping the life cycle of the garden pod going with minimal intervention from me."
"The Captain was completely against it at first, but it turns out you can easily bribe someone with honey and fresh eggs. So now we have chickens and bees." Hallie laughed, "Though Grover was sad because he still couldn't bring his dog. But, Kodi has his bugs and Pike has his chickens and now the garden pod has to stay closed at all times for escape reasons, technically for all the animals but also because roosters are loud, and they have no idea what time it is, so they go off all day with their loud annoying cawing." Hallie rolled her eyes.
"Mr. Gagahan wanted to bring a dog on a submarine?" Peso could only think of all of the impracticalities of having a dog on board.
"Barret tried to help him too. He completely supported it; they even made the Captain a whole presentation and everything." Min said leaning onto the counter island cupping her chin in her hands.
"What?" Peso couldn't help but feel as though no one knew how to tell a complete story.
"It's something the Captain lets us do if we disagree with him about an issue," Hallie explained quickly, "We can present our alternative ideas or arguments to him. Originally it had to be in writing and it was just to the Captain, but things got changed up a bit with Dashi's arrival. Now it can be in any form, but you have to present it to the whole crew."
"Dashi's horrible about it too," Tunip said as she was wiping down the countertops around the stoves.
"No, she isn't, her approach is just a bit…brutal?" Kodi said attempting to defend the woman.
"Dashi has a slide show prepared," Hallie explained to Peso, "It's just all the slides have various forms of the Captain is wrong and I am right on them."
"She calls the Captain stupid," Tunip argued, "It's terrible and disrespectful."
"She panders to the people," Kodi argued back, "The engineering team sees the word idiot tied to someone and they think finally I'm smarter than someone." He finished dramatically, then laughed at his joke.
"Oh my god," Hallie said rubbing her temple, "don't let Barret hear you say that! Also Grover is right in the freezer! And can we all stop making our crew look like a bunch of horrible people in front of our new doctor?" she gestured towards Peso.
Peso patted her on the arm, "It's okay, it doesn't make anyone seem like a horrible person…well maybe a little. You all live in close quarters though; you can't be expected to get along at every moment."
"You say that now, but just wait until there is an actual argument and everyone is picking sides. It's the worst." Hallie said softly.
"Aw okay I'm sorry," Kodi came around the counter and wrapped his uninjured arm around Hallie. "I'll be nice."
"Why are you being nice? What did you do now?" Grover asked, stepping back into the kitchen.
"What's your verdict on the freezer unit?" Tunip asked him, stepping into his path and stopping him.
"It's definitely putting off some heat, but like Min said I don't think there's too much we can do while on board. I wrote down the model number and manufacturer though, hopefully I can find something online and get a better idea of how to proceed. With any luck, it's something we can fix. If not," Grover shrugged his shoulders maybe there's something we can rig up to hold us over until we go in for repairs. I'll see what I can find out and let everyone know tonight."
Tunip nodded her head, and he stepped around her and made his way to the exit.
"We should go too," Hallie said to Peso as she slipped out of Kodi's hold. She grabbed Peso's arm and pulled him after her, following Grover out to the hallway. "Let's grab you a headset first and then we can do the tour. Sound okay?"
"However you want to do it is fine with me," Peso told her. He did want to see the rest of the sub but he trying to just go with the flow. The two headed into the med bay while Grover headed towards the ladder leading to the lower levels.
Once inside the med bay Hallie walked over to the counter behind Peso's new desk. On each end of the counter was a floor to ceiling cabinet, on the end closer to the med bay's bathroom there was a small sink. On the opposite end, closest to the entrance was a small black box with a silver latch. Scattered between the sink and black box were various jars and containers holding things like cotton swabs, depressors and other similar supplies. The rest of the counter space was taken up by the many other supplies that they had unpacked and were waiting to be put away.
Hallie headed for the black box and Peso followed closely behind her. He hadn't noticed the box earlier or even paid much attention to the counters earlier, but he had been more focused on unpacking everything than the room itself.
She flipped the latch up and there was a soft pop as the top came away from the base. "The headsets are all stored in waterproof charging boxes, just in case the Octopod ever floods, or something, we don't have to worry about replacing them all."
She opened the box and revealed the six curved earpieces resting in charging ports, their attached microphones curled into small, indented spots beside them. In the front portion of the box was another indented area, this one holding a tangle of wires.
"So, you get a choice between wireless and wired. I like the wired one, I just plug it in and forget about it, but some prefer the wireless. Their battery life is terrible though and you'll have to switch midway through the day." She stepped back to make way for Peso. "And lastly, they have to be put back at the end of the night from wherever you got them from, after lights out everyone just switches to calling or messaging."
"Are there radios as well or what do you connect these to?" Peso grabbed a wireless type and turned it over in his hands.
"Oh, they just connect to your work phone, whichever one the IORCE gave you. In the very beginning, we used both radios and work phones, but then once the option to just use our phones came about, we all opted to do that because it was just easier and cheaper for the organization to just buy one instead of both." Hallie explained. Peso nodded, pulling out the phone Rogers had given him earlier in the week.
"So, you'll have to turn it on here," she pointed to a small button on the earpiece, "then connect it to your phone, then there's an app and I know it starting to sound like a lengthy process but trust me when I say it's easier than always carrying around both."
She quickly walked him through the whole process and had him repeat it by himself. Once satisfied she told him to click the button on the small mic and try it out.
"What do I say?"
"Just say your testing your mic."
He clicked the button, then immediately let it go, "Okay, in theory, that sounds easy but in practice…" He trailed off. He had never used a radio or anything like this before, in the hospital they used pagers, texts, and calls over the announcement system. This should be simple, it was pushing a button and talking, but something about it still felt so…awkward.
"Just do it! No one cares I promise." Hallie couldn't contain her giggle.
Peso pressed the button on his mic again, "This is Dr. Guin…just testing my microphone?" he released the button and looked at Hallie, "Did that work?"
She nodded her head, "Yeah, at least I heard you," they both wait for a response over the headset. After a few moments of silence, Hallie raised her hand to her mic, "Could someone confirm Peso's mic check please?"
"Nah, yeah you're good. I heard you." A voice said over the radio. Peso thought it might have been Kodi's but it sounded a little different. He wondered briefly if everyone sounded slightly off over the headsets.
Another voice asked, "What did you end up choosing? Wire-free or corded?" Again, he wasn't completely sure but that one might have been Dashi.
Another voice answered, "There's nothing wrong with being corded. At the very least we aren't scurrying around looking for a charge." That one was definitely the Professor, even if the voice was off there was no mistaking the accent.
"I chose the wireless," he let go of the button and asked Hallie, "Does it actually matter which one I choose?"
Hallie shook her head, "Dashi and the Professor just like to bicker about which is better. They're probably up in the HQ driving everyone else crazy. Now that you have a headset let's –"
They both felt the floor rumble beneath them and Dashi's voice over the radio announcing that their descent had begun.
"Ready for the tour?" Hallie finished her earlier question with a sigh then quickly brought it back to a smile.
"Sure." Peso nodded.
Hallie clapped her hands together once and started, "Alright so you already know the level above us is the HQ and that's where they do everything involving controlling the Octopod and setting its course and all that stuff that doesn't really involve us. The level we're on right now everyone calls the work floor since it's got the med bay, the lab, the kitchen, and the garden pod. You know," she gave her shoulders a small shrug, "It's the level where all the work gets done. Below us is the residential level and then the last level is the launch bay." She motioned at him with her hand to follow while she walked out the door.
She pointed down the hall on her right to a circular door at the very end of the hall, "Behind the ladder to the Residential Floor is the entrance to the first residential pod, where the Captain's and Kwazii's rooms are. Down this hallway," she took a step and turned to point down the hallway separating the lab and the med bay, "The door that's just before the pod entrance, on the wall on the lab's side, that door is the Professor's room.
"His room has two separate entrances, one on this level, and then because his room is connected to the library below us, he can easily get to the residential level. The library is the only place on the Octopod that has an actual staircase. It's steep but it's easier for the Professor than constantly having to climb ladders." Hallie explained, she looked over at Peso, "Am I going too fast or are we good?"
"Good so far," he agreed, nodding his head. "So, then the garden pod is the third pod, and its entrance is in the kitchen," Peso listed, then asked, "so what is the fourth pod for? And where is its entrance?" He looked behind them, but it was just the ladder to the HQ, there was no circular door at this end of the hallway.
"The fourth pod," Hallie said, "is connected to the residential floor. It's the recreation pod. It has some gym equipment, games, and a drop-down screen. It's basically the only place to have fun here and you can use it at any time. Except," she turned to face him again, "you can't use it on Tuesday nights. It's reserved for Girls' Night."
"You have a Girls' Night?"
"Yeah, we do. It sucks being on a crew of mostly men. We need time away from all of you men, mainly to bitch about you all."
"Okay, fair enough," Peso laughed, "Why isn't it connected to this floor like the others?"
"Because we wanted its entrance to be closer to the bathrooms, since we do use it most often for its gym equipment."
"Okay that makes sense, I guess. Does it unbalance the sub or anything by having one pod connect at a different level?"
Hallie looked at him, "Does anything about this sub say I'm very well balanced and hydrodynamic?"
Peso laughed, "Honestly no. Okay then is there anything else I need to know about this floor?"
Hallie thought for a moment, "Tunip watches the kitchen like a hawk, so it's nearly impossible to sneak snacks," Hallie shrugged, "Oh, and if the kitchen ever floods for any reason, we have to seal the lower level ladder and open those grates on either side of the med bay door. The med bay has the only floor drain on this level.
"It's a whole dumb process. I don't really get it, but apparently, there's important stuff below the kitchen, and beneath the important is all the bedrooms, and since we're right above the bathrooms it's easier to connect the floor drain into the bathroom's drainage system," She waved a hand, "Ask someone from Engineering to explain it to you some time. I just know it's annoying because then the lower bathrooms are cut off from the upper levels and everyone has to use the bathroom in the med bay and I just realized that I'm kind of rambling and I should probably stop now."
Peso held back a laugh, "No, you're fine. This is all good information to know."
"Thank you," Hallie said giving Peso a small smile before continuing, "Now I know Shellington said we can't go in the lab, but he never said anything about not opening the door."
"I don't think he'll like that."
"I'm okay with that," Hallie stopped at the entrance to the kitchen. "Did you want to see the garden pod?"
"Can I?"
"Hmm, hold on." Halie leaned into the kitchen, "Hey Kodi is it okay to go into the garden pod?"
"He already went back in," Min said coming over to the doorway, "But he said no one is probably going to want to go in there. The bees are mad, apparently, we didn't do a good enough job taking care of them."
"How do you take care of bees properly?" Peso asked, "Don't they just fly around and live in their little bee box?"
"That's what we went with," Min said putting up her hands, "but I guess there's more to it than that."
"Hey, I did my best," Hallie said defensively, "I don't like bugs. But if the bees are mad than we are definitely skipping the garden pod for now."
"I am okay with that." Peso agreed, he knew better than to mess with angry bees. "So, the lab than?"
"Ohh, Shellington is going to be mad at you guys," Min warned.
"We're just going to stick our heads in. It'll be fine. He won't even notice. Besides, the lab doesn't just belong to him. We also have to use it at times." Hallie argued lightly.
They left Min at the doorway and continued the short way to the door of the lab.
"We'll at least tell him what we're doing," Hallie explained, pushing a button along the top of the keypad, that Peso hadn't realized was a button. "Shellington?" Hallie asked, they waited, there was no response at first, then the monitor screen popped up with the message 'There is no one in the Laboratory.'
"What? Are you serious?" Hallie said, pushing the long button on the panel, "He made should a big deal of having things to work on and he isn't even in there working?"
The door slid open to reveal an empty room.
"He seriously did," Hallie complained, stepping into the room.
"Are we going inside?"
"We're not going to touch anything or even go in far," Hallie answered, waving him in.
The room was everything Peso expected. A very bland, slightly off-white room with lab equipment and chemicals stored in dark colored bottles, and the occasional sign posted above certain tables declaring they held hazard materials. Cabinets with glass panels on the front ran around the upper portion of two walls, Peso could see glass containers and more bottles inside of them. "Yep," he said looking around, "It looks like a lab."
Hallie laughed, "Yeah nothing too amazing, and really, we don't have to concern ourselves with anything on that side of the room. This is the only thing we actually need or use." She gestured to a machine next to her. "Do you know what this is?"
"It almost looks like an oversized Hematology analyzer." Peso answered, he wasn't a lab tech, but he knew enough to help out at least in the lab. Mainly handing things to the technicians but he could mostly indent lab equipment.
"That is almost correct," Hallie smiled, "it's all that and more! Not only can it analyze blood work, but" she swung her arm dramatically in front of her, "it can also do basic swab tests! That way we can get results fast if we need them. Like if someone actually gets sick, we can swab them and see if the database recognizes it."
"That is neat. So, it's like a couple machines all rolled into one? I like it."
"Yeah, it's one of my favorite things to use and I rarely ever get to use it." Hallie commented, "But that's pretty much it for the lab. We," she pointed between him and herself, "don't really need the lab for much other than this. It was too big to fit in the med bay, that's the only reason it ended up in here." She added.
"I see. I do have one question." Hallie nodded so Peso continued, "Where does that door lead?" He pointed over Hallie's shoulder towards the far corner of the room.
Hallie looked over her shoulder, "Oh, that's Shellington's room. I don't even know why I looked. It's the only other door in the room."
"Oh," Peso said trying not to make a face, "That makes perfect sense. I know I personally love falling asleep to the smell of chemicals. So, it would make sense to have a room right off a lab."
Hallie laughed again, "I mean to each their own is all I can say. I think I've only ever been in Shellington's room like once and I don't remember if you could smell anything in there."
"That's probably for the best," Peso said after a moment, "I don't think rooms should have memorable smells for the most part. It gives unkept, you know what I mean?"
"Stop it," Hallie said through her laugh, she cleared her throat, "We should get out of here. I don't want to get caught by Shellington and I think we're getting close to pushing our luck territory."
Peso stepped back through the door, "So are we moving down to the residential floor now?"
Hallie stepped out after him and pressed the button on the door panel again to shut the door, "Yep going down."