trans_9 | One Way or Another [Open]

Down in the Vatican, Cale Tucker is tinkering away in one corner of the basilica as he installs the food preserver that he'd constructed--complete with it's own power source--at the request of the guy (Sawyer) who'd taken it upon himself to turn the cathedral into a fortress. It'd taken him some time to get the thing completed, but after some long hours of arduous work, Cale had come through. It wasn't the most attractive of machines considering it was built from materials he'd scavenged from the labs--sometimes from under the Brainies' noses--but it would work, of that he was positive.

Once the thing was secured to the wall and floor to keep it from falling over and getting damaged, Cale stepped back to admire his handiwork for a moment before walking over to collect the plate of slop that he'd taken from the mess hall for his test run. Taking a deep breath, Cale dumped the slop and edible plate into the insertion funnel at the top of the machine, flipped the switch and crossed his fingers.

There was a low hum and, while it took several seconds, eventually a small, vacuum-sealed package of dried slop and edible tray emerged from the discharge panel. If Cale's calculations were right--and he was positive they were--this little package should last at least six months. That meant, assuming they managed to preserve enough food, the crew should be able to last at least that long on the off-chance they had to hole themselves up in the basilica for an extended period.

Feeling pleased with himself, Cale let out a loud 'whoop' as he picked up the package and ripped it open to take a taste.

"Bleh," he gagged, tossing it over his shoulder. "Still tastes like crap."

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When on a weird ship thing in a giant mostly-abandoned city, who would turn up the opportunity to see the Vatican without flights, hotels, and pushing though the crowds of annoying tourists? Not Lois Lane, that was for sure.

That's why Lois was standing right there, and she had to sidestep to avoid being hit by a flying package of slop, thank you very much. Maybe she should have announced her presence BEFORE she got too close. After all, you never knew with some of these crew members.

"Somehow, I wouldn't expect it to taste any better packaged for on-the-go," she informed him.

Cale turned to find Lois standing behind him, roughly in the direction that he'd tossed the package of preserved slop, and shrugged. "Hey, a guy can hope, right?"

"I think that one's pushing it a bit."

She gestured at the machine in question.

"So what are you building down here? I didn't expect the Vatican to look like such a wreck."

"Hey, don't look at me," Cale said, feeling no desire to take the credit for trashing the Vatican. "I just built this--" he gestured to the food-preserver "--Sawyer did everything else."

"Sawyer, huh." Lois shrugged, and invited herself up closer to get a better look at the machine. "I'm pretty sure he'll be flayed alive as soon as the Catholics get their hands on him."

She took a peek in the insertion funnel.

"So what's the benefit of packaged soylent green?"

"Well," Cale said, stepping forward in an effort to keep himself between Lois and the machine. He didn't want or need her breaking it. "Apparently, Sawyer's trying to turn this into some kind of bunker or something in case we get attacked again and have to hole up for a while. So, we'll kind of need it, considering the alternative..."

When he moved forward, she edged back.

"Personal bubble, Skippy, respect the perimeter. I'm not going to break it."

"Yeah, that's what they all say. Right before they break it."

Ignoring that and changing the subject back was easier than arguing with him over that.

"So what else do you and Sawyer have planned in case we DO get attacked again?"

"I don't know," Cale shrugged, looking around at the changes that Sawyer had made to the basilica. "You'll have to ask him. This is his project. I just built the machine like he asked. I did my part. Now I'm more concerned with trying to tap into the external communications array and find a way to send a message out."

"And how far have you gotten with that?"

Not very. He's been a little distracted by...things.

"It's a work in progress," he answered. "But I'll get there. Trust me."

Lois mm-hmmed it, almost skeptically, mostly because this kid looked like he'd get carded to buy cigarettes. Sure, he could have built a glorified shrink-wrap machine, but tapping into an external communications array? She'd believe it when she saw it.

She moved onto inspecting some of Sawyer's renovations, and then said, almost flippantly, "What's your plan of action to get there? Going to crawl around vents until you find a phone jack?"

"A what-jack?" Cale said with a confused expression. He's from a thousand years in the future, Lois, phones are a little out dated by then and Cale isn't really all too keen on human history...

"A phone jack?"

Lois lifted an eyebrow.

Still confused.

"What the heck is that? Did you just make that up?"

"You can make a shrink wrap machine but you don't know what a phone is?" She tried to think of an equivalent. "Like... a two-way radio that you dial into? Ring ring, telephone?"

"Well, excuse me, your majesty. Not everyone is as big on ancient Earth history as you are," Cale jabbed back.

"History? What the heck do you have to communicate with, then, if you don't have PHONES?"

"Uh...the ship's interstellar external or localized internal comm systems...," Cale replied with a very 'duh' tone in his voice.

"That was definitely my second guess," she replied, with just a touch of sarcasm.

One Way or Another [Open]

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