Don't you have a curfew? (Day 3, Late Afternoon/ Early Evening)

Serena finished reorganizing the useless junk in the hydroponics room, stacking boxes upon boxes, useless junk that hopefully soon would be dumped, and ran a mop across what little floor was left. The boxes were old and smelled like a combination of mildew and dry rot, so the teen was all too happy to have the task as complete. Of course, when the Captain hired a junker or at least rented a trash bin there’d be a lot more room. Truth be told, there wasn’t much more that could be done until then. Setting the mop bucket in the hall, she stood on two of the boxes to be able to cover a larger portion of the floor.

The amount of trash had finally resulted in Vas needing to talk to the Pilot it arrange a pick up. There wasn't much room to make with out throwing out the mountains of boxes. Most of it was damaged, dry rotted, mildew, broken crap. Anything that was useful, usable or in semi good condition was cleaned up, repacked and cataloged.

With the cargo bay cleared they could now start opening up a lot of space. So as his job entailed Vas was off to tell his deckhands the good news and start having them haul it all to the cargo bay for disposal. He nearly blew by Serena not expecting her to be in the hydroponics room.

Granted he called it that and it was supposed to be that but it was never actually put together and had become a glorified storage closet. Either way he came to a screeching halt.

"Oh Hey! There you are … where's the other two?" Vas asked curiously he was pretty sure one or both of them would have been in there, not Serena. Less there was chore trading going on.

“They ain’t back from town crew chief, so I thought I’d help finish out the days chores, so there ain’t double up tomorrow.” She explained, her foot going through one of the rotted boxes. “Nǐ èr dàyé de!” (Damn your second Uncle) .

“No? S’all most dinner time. Hm … I’ma run into town and pick them up then. Don’t want them getting caught out after dark.” He said mostly so no one got any ideas to ask him to cook. “I’ll let the Lieutenant no … Oh! We having garbage pickup tomorrow afternoon. So all trash into the cargo bay. You don’t have to be too neat about either just get it prepped. When i bring Gill and Haddie back well eat and double-time it.” He explained before walking to the Galley to let Riley know he was dragging the deadly Duo back from town.

Serena untangled herself from the box and couldn’t help but scowl. She’d moved all the junk from the rooms, and now it’d be moved again into the cargo bay, by herself? “But that’s not--”she looked over at the crew chief about to complain about the unfairness, but thought better of it. “I’ll get right on it, Crew chief.” She promised, putting the mop back into the bucket. Inwardly she grumbled about unlimited shore leave time for some of them as she picked up the first box.
“Good girl.” Vas called back. “Lieutenant I’m going to run into town drag my wayward deckhands from town. They ain’t back yet and I don’t want them caught walking back in the dark. Anything you need while I’m there? Shiney?” He asked poking his head into the galley.

“Hmm? Oh, Shiny, whose turn is it to eh, there’s peanut butter. We’ll be fine.”

“Get peanut butter got it … Crunchy or smooth?” He asked.

“Save your credits.” She called over her shoulder. “No word from the Captain yet, we’ll buy supplies when he comes rolling home.”

“Yes, Lieutenant!” Vas chimed going off to fetch his deckhands. “I got comm if you anything changes!” He called back.

“Comm’s on!” She replied, rooting around the refrigerator to make something to eat.

Countless heavy boxes after the crew chief left, Serena’s stomach started to grumble, and she’d barely made a dent in the storage room. “Pìhuà (bullshit) “ She swore, a nagging bit of worry nipped the base of her neck. It was getting dark, and there wasn’t a word from the crew chief. “Probably Gil and Haddie get to sit in a warm cafe with the crew chief, sipping hot chocolate right about now.” She groused, “While some shǎ zi (fool) stays on the ship.”

“You say something?” The lieutenant asked, near causing Serena to drop the box she was carrying. The fact that the sun was setting wasn’t lost on the Lieutenant either, and still there was no sign of the crew chief or his charges.

“Didn’t see you Lieutenant, and no, I didn’t say nothing. Did the Crew Chief call?”

“I’m sure he will once he wrangles them up, I’ll make you a deal, I’ll let you know when he calls if I don’t have to listen to you whine.”

“Done deal, Lieutenant!” The teen agreed, sheepishly slinking off to gather more trash.