“Did you really make Adams cry?” Dick asked Lilliana when she returned to the command deck.
“I wanted to cry myself when I saw that Regan cut the old bars in half to knock them out of the array all at once,” Lilliana said. “Not that I blame her. It would be nice if we could pop them in to get enough juice so we can put down in Rylea, but there was no way we could have seen this coming. Anyway… how did you hear about that?”
“Leo told me,” Dick said. “He was up here again… I sent him back to the hold, of course.”
“Well, how did he hear about it?” Lilliana asked.
“He said Bard told him.”
“What was she doing in the hold?” Lilliana demanded. “She’s supposed to be gathering the slag from the engine room.”
“She wasn’t in the hold, she was in the galley,” Dick said.
“What were Leo and Regan doing in the galley?”
“Space if I know,” Dick said. “Bard said something about many-toothed, tentacled horrors from beyond the furthest reaches of something, something… you know how she is. I think they were just making sandwiches.”
“When did you talk to Regan?” Lilliana asked.
“She came up here to offer me a sandwich,” Dick said.
“And this all happened in the time it took me to get Galatea into bed and walk back up here?” Lilliana asked.
“Sure an’ that don’t speak too highly o’ your seductive powers, The Gypsy,” Regan said from behind Lilliana, startling her. Lilliana spun around to see her, holding a plate piled with massively overstuffed sandwiches. “Sammy?”
“You’re supposed to be cleaning up the engine room!” Lilliana reminded her.
“Relax!” Regan said. “I wouldn’t have abandoned my post without puttin’ someone on it, to be sure.”
“Someone on it?” Lilliana repeated, close to exploding. “Regan! I told you to do it yourself, because I don’t want word getting around the ship… or do you want half the crew to desert the moment we touch rock in Rylea?”
“Now, don’t you think I know that?” Regan replied, sounding a little hurt. “That would be why I brought in Handjob… sure an’ ya know she won’t go flappin’ her mouth about it.”
“Don’t you think Handy might find a little difficulty in completing that particular task?” Lilliana asked pointedly.
“A little adversity to triumph over never hurt anybody,” Regan said. “Anyway, it’s not like I had much choice, did I? Anyone else would have blabbed for sure.”
“You could have chosen to do it yourself like I ordered,” Lilliana said.
“Couldn’t,” Regan said, shaking her head. “Because o’ the eldritch horrors from beyond the furthest shores o’ the dreamin’ mind what had infested the kitchen. It was an epic battle, like, an’ in the end, the only way to defeat the shapeless gibberin’ wretches was the pure an’ simple belief o’ a child, an’ mustard.”
“So, in essence, you saddled Handy with a vital resource recovery task so that you could make sandwiches with Leo,” Lilliana said.
“Only as an unforeseen side effect of vanquishing cosmic horrors… and here, now, it’s not as vital as all that, is it?” Regan said. “Ya couldn’t sell that scrap for a tenth of what we’d need to refill the array, could ya?”
“Don’t I know it,” Lilliana admitted resignedly. “But, I’ll take whatever we can get… which makes it absolutely vital that every last ounce of alloy is collected from the engine room.”
“Oh, don’t ya be worryin’ about that,” Regan said. “I’ve got every confidence in Handjob.”
“Well, just to be sure, go back and help her,” Lilliana said.
“Oh, to be certain, I will,” Regan said. “But, what if the elder gods show up again?”
“Put them to work,” Lilliana said. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a few calls to make, before we crash into Rylea.”
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