Laundry Night

Posted on Wed Oct 23rd, 2019 @ 3:52pm by Captain Bethsabée Leroux & Lieutenant Commander Lukas Carter

Mission: Mission 1 - One Step forward
Location: Deck E - Laundry
Timeline: Before Arriving in the Delphic Expanse
983 words - 2 OF Standard Post Measure

Beth was sure that laundry had to be the most boring chore that she had ever had to do even out in space it was one of the necessary things in life. She wore gym clothes but her hair was wild around her face instead of the usual tied up out of her face look. She sat on top of the dryer waiting for the washing cycle waiting for it to finish so she could swap her clothes to the dryer and her to sitting on the washing machine instead of the dryer.

“Evening.” She greeted as someone else came into the compartment interrupted her reading of a tattered old looking paperback book.

Lukas Carter offered Commander Leroux a big, friendly smile and dropped his bulging sack of laundry in front of the closest free washing machine. Nearly a week's worth of blue jumpsuits and black undershirts were stuffed into the white-linen sack issued by Starfleet. "Guten Abend to you as well, Commander." His accent carried through his native tongue, imparting a crisp and throaty character on his words. "I've been putting this off just a little too long, I think." He added before popping open the lid to the empty washing machine.

The woman nearly replied to him in German before he carried on in English. She smiled as she looked at her own empty sack laid over the washing machine. "I believe I've been doing the same thing as it gets to this time of the week and this happens." She said putting her book down. The compartment was rather small with seven units.

"So do you stay for the whole cycle or do you trust your shipmates to keep their hands off your laundry?" He asked, emptying the sack of uniforms and undergarments indiscriminately into the bin.

"Oh, I am not here guarding my underwear." The woman said with a smirk. It was a well-known fact with so few women onboard there was no point and she rather thought her shipmate honest, none of them had much so there was no point taking from another. "I am here because of the silence..." She enjoyed the hum of the machines allowed her to forget everything and just immerse herself in the book.

"Ah, you need a break from the thrum of the warp reactor," Lukas observed. He tossed a detergent pod into the wash bin before starting the laundry cycle. "The designers didn't do a very good job of insulating the officer's quarters on E Deck."

"Something like that." Beth laughed softly thinking it was amusing for the Engineering to say that. "You would think seeing every crew has complained since the Enterprise they would have fixed that insulating issue qui?" She had seen the list of usual complaints from previous crews and it was the same thing over and over.

Lukas let out a belly laugh and shook his head. "They needed to fix the hull plating, power system, and data network first. That's not even including the new operations center the Captain had installed. Is it keeping you up at night? I might have a free work crew next week."

"You are laughing at me." Beth eyed him for a moment as he laughed at her expense. She knew it was a naive way to look at things. Yes, all those things were very important but so was well-rested crew. "I am hiding in laundry reading a book to escape the noise." She reminded softly.

"You're right, forgive me, Beth," Lukas said after recovering from his unexpected fit of laughter. He wiped a tear from his eye and let out a deep breath. "I can have the maintenance crew start retrofitting the crew quarters next week. Once we reach the next port, I might be able to call in a favor with Lieutenant Yi. He owes me one."

The Chief Communications Officer shook her head a little, feeling like she was showing her stupidity or worse her naivety for thinking that was a big deal to people getting decent sleep. She knew she couldn't function 100% without a good amount. "Always forgiven," Beth assured in his native language.

"Sorry, Commander. I think my joke backfired," He said, scratching the back of his head. "I can put together a schedule to retrofit the crew quarters with additional sound dampening material."

"No Lukas I apologise. I am tired. Jokes go over my head in moments like that." She assured with a smile as the machine she had been using finished its cycle. She glanced at it but did nothing for a moment before moving to put things in the dryer.

"We'll just forget about it, ja?" He offered.

The woman found her self grinning a little and crossed her finger across her heart to signify she would forget about it if he would forget about. "Easily." She grinned. "Though I did mean my apology, I am truly tired." She said with a nod, her book forgotten.

Lukas smiled and nodded his head. "It's accepted even if it's unnecessary, Beth," He said. His washing machine dinged and slowed to a stop. He fished out his uniforms and undershirts and dumped them into the dryer. "We're flying faster than the speed of light, and we're still doing laundry like our great, great grandparents. I don't know whether to be disappointed in humanity or technology."

"Both?" Beth offered with a sad smile. He was very truthful tonight and she couldn't blame him, you would think that once they could travel so fast that laundry would be different but it wasn't, it was still done exactly the same. "I should finish up and get to bed." She said explaining as her actions as she started to fold her finished clothes stuffing her book into a pocket.

"Of course, of course," Lukas beamed. "Thank you for the conversation, Commander. I hope you have a pleasant evening."

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