The Search for Coffee - [Morning, Day 5, Risa]

Consciousness did not begin without coffee.  Unfortunately, coffee did not happen without credits.  Credits did not happen without being conscious to work.

Bloody universal paradoxes.

Sleeping in the sand had been pretty pleasant even after the suns went down, but eventually there was a chill in the air as the darkness wore on, and he was awake again well before the suns came back up.  He'd still managed a fair amount of sleep, so that was good.  Being awake and a little cold without coffee, though, was bad.  Well, sort of awake.  If you could call sitting under a pier with your arms wrapped around yourself, shivering a bit and staring and yawning at an ocean awake.  And sort of bad, if you considered that yesterday was the first day he didn't suffer some kind of asskicking, at least physically speaking.

Considering his luck on Risa, he didn't hold out a ton of hope for today.

Regardless, after shivering and staring out at a dark sea for awhile, Scotty finally made to start the day.  Motivation and initiative, at least in the work sense, had never been a problem for him; he wasn't afraid of hard labor or even menial tasks if it kept him fed and sheltered.  So, firmly giving himself something of a pep talk (a drowsy, decaffeinated pep talk) he managed to climb back up from his spot and hit the streets.  First he went to his locker; quite a hike from his 'bed'.  The suns still weren't up, but the horizon was getting lighter.  Then he took the complimentary soap from the hostel, and caught a shower in one of the just-opening public beach houses.  Still, unfortunately, decaffeinated; the shower felt pretty good, though.  Then he took his newly scrubbed and cleaned self and hoped that he could charm someone into giving him a job.

His PADD listed a few odd jobs that were open to college-age workers, and he figured he qualified for that.  Courier... he could do that.  Escort... Scotty supposed that was probably akin to tour-guide.  It paid pretty well.  Actually, it paid really well, if all he was going to be doing was escorting people around and rambling on about Risa.  After a quick check of local landmarks and attractions, he figured he'd go for the gusto and give it a try.

The guy hiring for that job didn't seem really put off that he had lost his ID -- a technical truth -- in the least.  He gave Scotty a once up and down, probably to go and guess if he was physically up for walking tours, and Scotty remained utterly oblivious.  Hell, if he managed this, he could probably be fairly well ahead of the curve by nightfall and he would certainly be able to afford a cup of coffee.  So, naturally, he put on the best good-natured, well-mannered look he had.

He got the job.

It was the shortest job he ever had.

Three minutes and twelve seconds later, there was a surprised Risan and a very baffled 'agent' looking after a very furiously blushing Scotsman as he stormed out of the building muttering under his breath a number of less than complimentary things about using the right words to describe the right jobs.

And he still didn't have any coffee.

Holding the Line - [Original Enterprise, Starbase 4]

Most of his crew was fairly scattered, though aside one they stayed fairly close to the Enterprise.  Nurse Chapel had requested leave to go and visit her mother, and Scotty had granted it, but near everyone else stayed within the system and fairly ready at hand.  Command had sent him a message, pulling him out of a restless sleep where he was dreaming of a beach somewhere, a fresh-water beach under gray skies and filtered sunlight, and Scotty started his day without even a proper cup of coffee.

There were three admirals who poked him for questions, before he'd even had his caffeine fix, and he did his best to satisfy their answers.  They were going to send the requisitioned replacement parts, which was definitely a good thing.  They still had made no call on a change of command, though.  They'd prodded and poked until he was practically ready to leap through the monitor on them, but at least the word so far was that they hadn't decided on replacing Kirk, Spock and McCoy yet.  They also requested a written clarification on a number of statements that couldn't easily be clarified.

That was another reason why Scotty didn't want to be Captain.  He hated the paperwork.  He had enough of it running his own division, let alone the whole ship.

Regardless, he finally got a cup of coffee and felt a little more alive when he got on the business of the day.  He checked up on the repairs that had been done through the night, checked the assignments for the day, made sure to check in with his senior staff.  He checked in with Montana Wolfe, who seemed to be warming up to him slightly -- she tipped him a salute with her own coffee mug when they finished their quick briefing.  He checked with security about their prisoner, who had apparently behaved throughout the night.

And still with his coffee mug in hand, now on his third cup, he headed down to the brig himself.

The Voyage... Still Coffeeless - [Risa, Day 5, Noonish]

After the very failed attempt to get a job as an escort -- he would never mistake that for tour guide again, no -- Scotty hit the streets again.  He was definitely hungry, so he needed some kind of fast credits.  And, he really wanted a cup of coffee.  Now, more for the comfort factor than as a wake-me-up, but regardless.  He wasn't given to relying a whole lot on creature comforts, but he still really wanted a coffee.

A courier job was considerably less well-paying, but Scotty was fairly sure that it would be far less painful to his pride.  Besides, he was in good enough shape to jog and Risa did have a decent public transit that was free.  With that and his PADD, he was sure he could pull off being a courier enough today to maybe earn a meal, and a room for the night back in his little hostel.

( Read more... )