Solace & Taproots

2.15

Bex focused intensely on their gear maintenance routine that morning so she could get it done correctly, but a little ahead of schedule, and went in search of Pat, then to Christine, then the door to Sam's workshop. After two unanswered knocks, she opened the unlocked (yay!) door, called out for Sam, waited for a reply that didn't come, and grabbed what she'd tucked just out of sight next to the door. A furtive glance around, and then she slipped inside.

Moving swiftly to the private space in back, she swapped the existing light bulb in the lamp's flexible arm for the one she'd gotten from Pat. Then, she put the small spray bottle (from the Logs team's "housewares" shipping container that doubled as a "warehouse") atop a cracked photocell "coaster" from Sam's junk parts bin.

She quickly scribbled a note on a sheet pilfered from the top of a blank notepad:

Hey there Rose,

Look, it's us! Pat says if you keep the soil moist and the lamp on several hours a day, this will take root and grow. (I know, the symbolism is a little much. I swear it's just coincidental. I was just going for the stupidly cute pun that was too good of an opportunity to pass up.)

Thank you, always.

"Your girl",
R. Marie C.

Folding it over, she propped up in front of the small herb cutting in a tiny planter pot and saucer. That handled 'sending flowers', but she felt it left 'send a text the day after' an open item.

She knew Sam would be helping Comms work with some of the visitors to run wire from a new exterior radio antenna — this one for a system that should hopefully enable data bursts to and from similar stations. Starting in the main comms and control center, she walked the most logical route towards where she thought she remembered Sam saying the antenna was going up.

She hadn't thought to be looking up as she moved through the corridors, so she almost walked right on by before realizing that ladders didn't typically get left leaning against steel storage cabinets in front of the doors, and toolboxes didn't usually get left on top of those cabinets. When she paused to investigate, she heard scuffling and light scraping sounds and peered into the conduits, pipes, and ductwork overhead.

Above the cabinet she caught sight of a single foot protruding from familiar coveralls (rolled-up cuff and all). Sam was bracing herself with it on the wall and her opposite knee against a sufficiently chunky pipe like a spider monkey climbing a chimney.

Rebecca chuckled at the absurd imagery, and Sam's face appeared over a set of parallel electrical conduits. "Oh, sure. NOW someone tall shows up. Gimme just a minute to get this slack past where it was binding up." More scuffling ensued and then she plopped down onto the cabinet with a boom, the sheet metal amplifying her landing.

At the bottom rung of the ladder, she turned and hopped directly to Rebecca's arms, landing some of her weight on one foot, holding the other up a few inches above the ground as if she was dragging a toe on skates. She held on like that while fishing a radio from her pocket and holding it to her mouth over Rebecca's shoulder. "Ok guys, go ahead and pull it the rest of the way." Then, turning her mouth to Rebecca's ear, her voice softened and she sighed out her next sentence. "Mm. Hello my dear, my Remy. To what do I owe this pleasantly distracting surprise?"

Rebecca made a happy little humming subvocalization and a chuckle. "Why hello, Rosie. I could use your help with my radio."

Sam stepped back to support her own weight and stuffed her radio back into a coverall pocket, and as Bex handed hers over, she enjoyed how their fingers brushed just before she spoke. "Well, our radios, actually."