15. Tell Me About Rain #3
"Understood. Well, Borran has this gentle way of knowing exactly what you need when you yourself don't, and I've never felt more seen." Selowen nodded her head, letting Charlie own that sentiment all herself. So Charlie continued by her own choice.
"Okay - Kess? Absolutely terrifies me, but I think that's the point," she remarked with a fake grimace.
Selowen actually chuckled at Charlie's expression.
"I kind of respect the hell out of her though.
I feel like she'd take on the biggest beasts for her friends and loved ones.
And though she's intimidating as all hell, she carries it well and makes it clear she's focused, and driven, and willing to lay down protecting those she cares about, you know? "
Charlie paused, then, thinking of the other crew members onboard. "Torvax, well, he asked me seventeen questions in a row once and I'm still not sure if it was an interrogation or a conversation. I like to think it was his way of getting to know me, and I can only hope my answers were right."
"They were."
"They were?"
"Yes, I know personally." Selowen chuckled again, this time low, quiet, and long, the sound settling into the grove like one more layer of the peaceful calm blanket they were under in its atmosphere.
Charlie joined her, until Selowen's next question.
"And what of the Captain? How do you think she fairs in our group? "
Charlie's hand stilled on the Niblet's back. She looked down at the creature rather than at Selowen. "The Captain..."
She searched for words. "The Captain is..." But nothing she came up with seemed to fit.
She had a dozen answers but none of them were right.
"She truly seems like a fantastic captain," Charlie finished.
Selowen took a sip of her tea and said nothing else about it, but Charlie saw the old woman look down at the Luminthra as its glow suddenly deepened toward violet.
After her tea with Selowen finished, Charlie walked through the corridors on the way to the Engineering Lab.
She had her Walkman clipped to her belt and was listening to Katie's mix tape from 1979.
She let her hand graze against the wall as she continued down the hall, the hum of the engine, now running at full power and maximum efficiency, thank you very much, thrumming underneath the tips of her fingers.
As she approached the lab, she lifted her fingers off the wall and walked through the bay door.
"What song was that?" Tavi asked as he spun in his chair to face Charlie.
"Sorry?" Charlie asked, confused.
"That song," Tavi replied. "The one you were just singing."
"I was singing?"
Tavi chuckled. "Yeah, and pretty well I might add. But seriously, Spark Plug. What was it?"
Charlie was taken aback a moment. Singing in public and the use of her new nickname?
She now understood how a fish felt in a glass bowl. "Um," Charlie said, moving on. "It's called 'Shake Your Body' by a group called The Jackson 5."
"Can I hear it?" Tavi asked. Charlie nodded her head as she rolled over to Tavi's station with her Walkman, gave him the headphones, and pressed play. Tavi listened for a few moments and then got into the beat.
"THIS ONE SOUNDS FUN," Tavi shouted as he started moving his head to the rhythm.
"GOOD TO KNOW," Charlie responded.
"WHY ARE YOU SHOUTING?" Tavi asked, one eyebrow raised. Charlie laughed.
"Why are you and Tavi shouting at each other?" Maren asked as she walked up to their stations.
"Tavi's listening to a song on my Walkman. He doesn't think he's being loud."
"HI MAREN," Tavi remarked, proving Charlie's point. Maren laughed.
"Ah, I see now." Maren looked down at the Walkman in Charlie's hands. "What song is he listening to?"
"A GOOD ONE."
"Thanks, Tavi," Charlie teased.
"YOU'RE WELCOME."
"It's called 'Shake Your Body,'" Charlie answered, turning to Maren again.
"Can I listen to it next?" Charlie smiled widely at Maren. This was the first time she had asked to listen to any of Charlie's music.
"Yeah, totally!"
"I'M ALMOST DONE."
"Tavi, stop shouting."
"I'M NOT SHOUTING! I KEEP TELLING YOU, SPARK PLUG," Tavi said incredulously, shouting. Charlie rolled her eyes.
"Spark plug?" Maren questioned.
Tavi answered. "BORRAN."
"Ah," Maren replied, seemingly understanding all with just the one word.
As Charlie watched Tavi enjoy the last few choruses of the song, she suddenly noticed she and Maren were just...
waiting. Waiting for Tavi to finish his turn, which would then turn to them waiting for Charlie to rewind the tape, and then waiting again while Maren listened to the song. She wished she had a stereo.
Charlie stood still. She may not have a stereo, but she had a spaceship. A spaceship with advanced technology. And, right now, the two best engineers on the ship standing right in front of her.
"Challenge time, friends. How do we get the ability to play music on the ship?
" She asked, holding up her Walkman, pulling the headphones directly out of Tavi's ears with a 'pop'.
"Not just through headphones, where we have to wait one by one to listen, but instead, play it in the whole bay?
" Tavi's eyes grew, matching Charlie's, and Maren smiled as the idea formed in her brain.
"In fact, there's got to be a way to bring it to the whole ship.
Or at least parts of the whole ship when someone wants to listen. "
Tavi's whole body tilted toward her like she'd just offered him a gift. "You want to—" Tavi stopped. "Wait. Like integrating music into the ship's systems?"
"Can we?"
Tavi was already moving, his hands rummaging through the boxes of parts and old pieces of machinery to get his brain pumping for answers. Maren and Charlie watched him as he chucked parts all over the workbench.
"The ship's datapad system already supports audio output," Tavi said, hunched over his console.
Charlie moved beside him and Maren leaned against the doorframe next to him, watching his display.
"We can easily link all datapads to audio output systems in every room, quarters, even a bathroom stall if we wanted to.
" Then Tavi stopped and swiveled his chair to look up at Charlie.
"But?" Charlie asked, reading his face.
"But, the problem is getting the music into the ship's systems. The format and capturing the music, making it workable for the ship's processing. Your cassettes are analog. Everything on the Emberkind is digital."
"So we need a bridge," said Maren.
"So we need a bridge," repeated Tavi, pointing at Maren with the screwdriver in his hand, then turned back to Charlie.
Charlie looked down at the Walkman, then held it up. "How about the magnetic tape? Can you read the magnetic tape directly? Use it to bridge to the systems?"
Tavi's eyes widened slowly. Charlie could almost see his brain working through it, until finally he clapped his hands together, the screwdriver falling to the floor. "Thatta girl!"
Charlie raised a fist and held it at level for Tavi. "Pound it, Tavi!" Charlie exclaimed excitedly. Tavi looked at her like she needed therapy.
"Why the hell would I do that? I thought you were gay?"
Charlie's expression changed to confusion. "What?" Then she realized her words. Without context, well, Tavi's reaction would make sense.
"No, well, yes, I am but, okay... hold on, let me explain."
"Please do," Tavi remarked, his expression not changed.
"It's actually an act of congratulating one another, in celebration, or success, or triumph, or, well, just awesomeness."
"Okay, that's making it better."
"You just, hold up your fist like this, how I'm doing," Charlie moved her hand back to where it was. "And now, you make a fist as well."
"Do I have to?"
"Just humor me, please." Tavi shrugged, then made a fist and raised it to Charlie's hand's height.
"And now..." And then Charlie hit her fist against Tavi's, her fingers extending to their full length as she pulled her hand away while making the sound of a crowd cheering in "ahhs."
"What... was that?" Tavi asked, his fist still held in the same spot.
"The explosion of joy after celebrating with your friend over their success."
Slowly, Tavi's expression changed from confusion, all the way to excitement.
"Ohh... okay. Actually, that is awesome. Quick!" Tavi shouted out to the whole Engineering Bay. "Someone succeed at their task so we can 'pound it!'" Some members of the bay gave Tavi looks, but he didn't seem fazed.
"I just finished my sandwich?" A crew member to the left of their stations said out.
"Yes!" Tavi jumped off his stool, ran to the crew member, and taught him the move, to which they exclaimed "Pound it!
", both making the explosion move after.
Charlie smiled, then looked over at Maren, who looked like she was trying to dismiss the silliness of the room, but Charlie could see the real want behind her eyes.
"Wanna 'pound it,' Maren?" Charlie asked, Maren's eyes going wide and a big grin spreading across her face.
"I thought you'd never ask!" Maren squealed, as she ran over to Charlie, and they commenced together.
Twenty minutes later, after almost every crew member in their immediate surroundings had learned how to 'pound it,' they finally got to work.
Later that afternoon, Maren had designed a physical adapter using components from a decommissioned diagnostic scanner, Tavi had written the conversion software, and Charlie had rigged the Walkman's output into the adapter using a wire she'd salvaged from a vent panel.
It all was held together by a few prayers from each of them to their own deities.