JPL ~ MCPO Caine & Noah Waterhouse ~ "Heard It Through The Grapevine" Part III of III

Posted on Thu Feb 19th, 2015 @ 5:12am by Master Chief Petty Officer Rik Caine

1,909 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: A Spot To Kill

=/\= Continued from Part II =/\=

"Get me some reference, and it should be easy enough," Noah returned with a small shrug. He eyed the contents of the glass in his hand, and drug it under his nose for a smell. It certainly wasn't his rum, but it didn't smell bad either. "If you don't have it, I'll just borrow some of Pond's Batman comics. I'll tell her you and I had been talking, chinning you call it? And I just need reference for a painting or something. As for paying me? Don't even worry about it, I only ever do art for hire when I need something. Right now, I've got a working ship and I'm a welcomed guest on this board. Hard to be in less need of money."

Rik smiled "you sir are a gent" he commented as he got up abruptly from the desk and almost bounded over to the shelving unit. Crouching down he slid open the door and rummaged through boxes muttering to himself "In here somewhere... I know you are". There was a momentary pause as, like a kid at Christmas he exclaimed with excitement when he found what he was looking for. Standing up he headed back to the desk dropping the graphic novel on the table as he retook his seat. "Should be a starter - and you're spot on; chinning is exactly what we're doing bo. You'll be fluent yet" he added before asking "could you... Add it into the program if you had the access codes? My skill is lacking in that area".

Noah watched with a smirk and a sip of the whiskey as Rik retrieved the treasured tome from its hiding place. He could see the overlap in personality with his sister, and could see him as a good match for her. Hopefully nothing insurmountable lurked with the skeletons in his closet. If the chatter that scrolled across the bottom of his lenses were any indication, he'd quite won parental approval too.

"I can make things look pretty, but if you want it to feel right, you might want to ask my Mum to install it. Though, there is where danger lurks, she's a genuine lunatic," Noah cautioned with another sip of the whiskey. Not bad, considering it's not rum, he mused to himself.

Rik grinned as he picked up his own glass and took a sip the whiskey; it went down smooth without the usual burn that followed. It was as classy as the dame it came from. "A lunatic?" He asked after moment of pause with a single brow rising above his ice blues that were looking at Noah and the goggles which allowed his and Amelia's folks to chin; or judge him. He hadn't quite worked out how this was going - hard to read people when they weren't physically present and what they said came second hand.

"Well I'm one for danger and I'm intrigued by what she could do to dial the program up; getting a little stale these days" Rik admitted hoping it could be revived.

"Are you s-" Noah started to protest, even as his eyes skimmed the bottom of his lenses. A snort escaped along with a small head shake. "Well, no time for second thoughts now, she's accepted... insists even. I'll put together the look of it, send the results along with your program and access codes, and she'll send back your torture. Does Pond know about the program yet?"

Rik finished the contents of his tumbler with one swift action and set the glass down before producing another PADD from the inside left drawer of his desk. "Excellent news!" he exclaimed sliding it over to Noah. "Here's the PADD with all the program details and access codes; apologies in advance for the poor coding. You can double-blink or whatever fancy thing them goggles do to transfer data" he said with a devilish grin and a glint in his eye. Rik paused and shook his head slowly "ain't got around to telling the dame that I dress up as a bat and go fighting hoods in Gotham" he admitted as he poured himself another measure.

Noah glanced at the PADD as he set his drink on the desk, but didn't pick it up. His fingers fell to his leather wrist band, and a couple of flicks brought up a holographic one handed keyboard. His fingers danced, and the PADD turned on. Data scrolled across the PADD's screen and Noah hardly paid it any mind.

Rik watched with interest as the wrist band kicked into life and the data flew across the screen of the PADD that remained untouched on the desk. "Engineering voodoo" he commented, not to anyone in particular but to himself as he watched; impressed with the pirate's toy.

A corner of Noah's lip curled up in amusement at the gum-shoe's remark; it was a phrase his mother slung happily at his father, as well as two uncles — one blood, the other not. He reached out to tap the PADD, shutting it off.

"She'll probably want to play with your program. I think the Batman comics she had were the ones with the female Robin? What was her name?"

"Stephanie Brown" Rik said without much hesitation. "She made a damn good Robin - shame what they did to her" he added after a moments thought. "And I'll have to invite Amelia to Gotham" he concluded with a smile to himself.

"She'll like that." Noah collected his drink from the desk and took another sip.

Rik let a warm smile play across his face as the thought of him being able to share Gotham with Amelia played on his mind. From the sound of it; she'd enjoy what the game had to offer as much as he did which only served to widen his charming grin. As his mind wandered to the redheaded dame he eventually snapped himself back to the room and cleared his throat. "So what will be done?" He asked with excited intrigue.

"I'm going to make your batsuit look good. What Mum decides to do once she gets the physics right on the cape and such, well, only the Flying Spaghetti Monster knows... she certainly isn't the sort to give warning." He slowly shook his head again; his sister's toy really had no idea what he was in for. "Mum's responsible for many insane holodeck programs. Pond should have a copy of the family holoprogram collection here, and it'll be available for anyone to use. If you want an idea of how masochistic you are, look through the collection. Tennis should give you an idea of her warped sense of amusement, particularly with the realism dialled up to eleven."

Rik allowed his signature devilish grin to creep across his lips. His eyes twinkling with excitement at the prospect of a better Gotham playground - and that he would be able to share this with Amelia. "Insane holodeck programs huh? Sounds sure swell to me" he quipped as he listened with interest to the collection. "I'll have to ask... and... Tennis?" he queried not really sure if this was some unusual version of the Earth sport that had been cooked up. Amelia certainly hadn't mentioned an interest in the sport.

"Long ago, before Pond or me, Mum was on a special assignment that involved high risk of encountering the Borg. You may or may not know of them, but last I heard they weren't a risk anymore," Noah explained, twirling the whiskey in his glass. "She made a training program on how to handle an encounter with them, and during the first years after the threat was eliminated, she still wanted Pond and me to prepare, just in case their elimination hadn't been effective. That's the Tennis program. As she relaxed the longer it'd been, she added more cartoonish game play and such, still with useful and truthful undercurrents to the play to teach all the right survival skills just in case."

Rik nodded with interest. "Sounds like fun; I'll have to ask Amelia for a game of Tennis" he said with a grin before pausing and letting his mind replay over the commentary from before. "Oh... and, flying... what now?" he asked after a moment realising the term had cropped up before and he was still none the wiser as to who or what a Spaghetti Monster was, why it could fly and how that linked to the man before him being dressed like a pirate.

"Flying Spaghetti Monster," Noah repeated; quiet, firmly, carefully. "The deity of the Pastafarian faith, of which I'm an ordained minister."

Pausing Rik opened his mouth to speak but couldn't find the words. He looked at the man slightly puzzled and reached for his glass and drained the contents. "The Flying Spaghetti Monster... Pastafarian?" He asked before adding "I'm sorry bo, can't say I'm familiar".

"It's okay, I'm used to people not getting it," Noah insisted as he snorted softly, and shook his head with a bemused smirk. "The important thing is that we love everyone as the Flying Spaghetti Monster does, and we learn and explore to experience all that he's seen fit to touch."

Rik nodded "well I don't fully understand what a Spaghetti Monster that flies is, but sounds like a sound philosophy to me" he said still not sure he understood but made a mental note to read up on it and ask Amelia any questions about her brother's views.

"Here," Noah said, reaching into a pocket inside his vest. He pulled out a small book with a soft red leatherette cover with a gold foil picture of a wad of spaghetti and meatballs, and gold leaf on the edges of the page. It had certainly seen better days. "I'm due to recycle that one soon and replicate a new one, so just see that it gets back into the replicator when you're done with it." He stood up and held the small book out to the gum-shoe.

Leaning forwards Rik outstretched his arm and took the book with a small nod of his head sealing the action. As he leaned back in his seat he took a long look at the worn book finding the image of pasta and meatballs fascinating. He flicked through the pages briefly before setting it down on the desk next to the Fedora and bottle. "Will do and that's mighty swell of you bo; I'll give it a read - still think my hat is better though" he said with a wink and a devilish grin letting his hand rest on the Fedora and running his hand over the ribbon band lightly.

"You would think that, what with fancying my sister and her giving it to you," Noah observed with a tip of his hat. "But I made mine." With that, he turned and headed out the door.

Rik couldn't help but chuckle as the pirate turned to leave "true enough bo, true enough" he said with a grin as he rolled the fedora up his arm and rested it over his eyes as he brought his legs up onto the desk and crossed them leaning back slightly in the chair. "See ya around!" he called out as the door shut behind Noah.

=/\= End Log =/\=

Master Chief Petty Officer Rik Caine
Security Investigator/Chief of the Boat
USS Vindicator, NCC-78213-E

Noah Waterhouse
Artist and Pastafarian Minister
The Pelican

 

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