#44: Banana Slug - Coffee Briefing

..............................................................................................................................................

(One morning.... days later)

The Dragon Lady and her Orcs had a long standing habit of taking their breakfast together before starting their day. It had began with coffee and donuts but had developed, over time, into a significant meal. It was also an impromptu business meeting.

However, more and more people seemed to be attending, possibly it was for the free donuts? Everyone could fly like superman now while inside the Banana Slug. SSmoke made that possible. Anyone could get anywhere inside the village very quickly. Thus the Dragon lady had declared that they would henceforth have their breakfast, and daily planning sessions at Ernie's.

.................

“Notice that our lad has found a lady?” Marc said quietly to Kamiko Akiyama. Chad, Cody and Cody’s mother Sheila were standing in the breakfast line ordering monster omelettes.

“It was time for Sheila to find someone” Kamiko said ”She doesn’t have the personality to live alone and there is also Cody. Cody would do better if he had a more immediate father figure. I approve.”

Captain took a bite of his omelette and smiled his approval. Chad was a good kid, as were they all.

“I hadn’t been seeing much of them lately” Marc TwoFeathers said “ I understand that they have projects that are keeping them busy?”

“You haven’t heard?” Captain said “They been busy designing and building new equipment.”

“Oh?” Marc said “What kind of equipment?”

“ Cody was TDY for a while. He spent almost every waking hour helping the two ladies who saved our egg baby remodel their life-pod.” Shelby said. He fell silent for a moment considering the baby. He closed his eyes in thought for a moment in thought.

“I’ve heard they used the ladies new ride as a prototype for a new type of watercraft as well as working on a redesign for the Slug. Something about a backbone, and something was said about Carl’s cows among a great many other topics. They’re keeping busy. The new man, the drifter Wilbur, has provided considerable input. He has a different way of looking at things that seems to work out very well.” Kamiko said “Sheila told me a little bit about it when she came to me to discuss Cody.”

Captain and Marc both become alert.

”Is Cody alright” they both asked, speaking on top of each other. Cody was their Buddy.

“It’s not what you think” Kamiko said with a smile. She had high hopes for these boys, they meant well.

“She wanted my opinion about what might be the effect on Cody of being away from children his own age so much. The boy is with adults much more than he is with his peers.” She said.

“I always wondered about that myself” Marc said. “Only backwards”

“You always were a bit backwards” Captain chided.

Marc looked down his nose at his brother, Captain. “ahem”

“I always wondered what were the perceived benefits of teaching children to deal with other children as equals. They’ll only be children for a short time. Why not teach them to deal with adults? They’ll be with adults for the rest of their lives” He said.

Captain looked at Marc as if he had crawled out from under a rock. Not that he disagreed, he didn’t, but that was astute. How unlike him.

“Quite right” Kamiko said “that’s just one more way that public education fails. I told her that Cody would be just fine and not to worry about him.”

Cody saw them and waved. Captain and Marc waved back. Shortly Cody, his mother and the Chad were making their way to the breakfast table.

“You sure you don’t mind us joining you?” Chad said. He was from a different culture. He and Sheila had been born DamnYankees. DamnYankees weren’t like Texans much, even if it had been a long time since these particular Texans had lived in Texas.

“Absolutely not” Kamiko said “In fact I’d probably take offense if you didn’t eat with us, then I’d have to send an Injun after you to take your scalp.”

“It’s been so long since either of these two have had the opportunity to take a scalp. They’d have probably fought with each other like two dogs over a bone to determine who got the privilege. They never were very good at limited engagements so it would have no doubt escalated into Total War. A great deal of collateral damage would ensue I’m sure. People would died. The Banana Slug would most likely sink.” She said

Sheila was grinning. Chad was choking back a laugh himself. Cody was impatient, he was hungry.

“So you see, by eating breakfast with us you are probably saving our lives, averting a minor genocide, and avoiding serious environmental risk. ” Kamiko ate some more omelet.

“I don’t think you have any more leg left than I do “ Chad said to Sheila “She’s been pulling them pretty hard. You better sit down.”

Cody ignored the by play, sat himself at the table next to his buddy Marc and began to eat.

“You ought to SEE our Manta boat Officer Marc” he said “It’s gnarly.”

“That’s a terrific idea“ Chad said “Actually you DO need to see his boat. He and some of the other kids have come up with a great all purpose design. Joshua, Yvette, Akatsuki, and I spent most of yesterday helping them conjure the first man rated prototypes. They’ve already invested hundred of hours on dozens of smaller, specialized, tele-operated models but these are the first large general purpose versions meant to carry people.”

He neglected to mention Naomi and Julie’s ride. He no doubt felt that it wasn’t his place to mention it.

“We’re doing final systems checks, tweaks and initial sea trials today. It’ll be ready for public demo soon. Tommy and Sally are going to preview it and show it off to their parents and friends first thing in the morning. The afternoon is open I think, would you all like to see it then?” he continued.

“Captain and Marc’s eyes were wide open. Would they? Oh Hell yeah.” They looked at Kamiko.

“You two feel free. “She waved a hand at them “You too Shelby. I know how much you all like the technical aspects. I’ll look after things here while you are gone.”

Shelby breathed a sign of relief. Kamiko would look after the baby while he was gone.

........................
The Next Episode is
#45: Banana Slug -Sea Trials…
The Previous Episode was
#43: Banana Slug - Bar-B-Q…
The First Episode was
# 1 : Prologue…
..............
Book One: SoulStone
..................................................
I'm

@everittdmickey
.
I write
SPECULATIVE FICTION
My books on Amazon.
I engage in political commentary
and
generally talk about anything that strikes my fancy
on
Steemit
and
Sola

When watching the LameStream FakeNews Media

it's hard to tell what’s true or when they are lying isn’t it? It seems that they are more interested in influencing public opinion than they are reporting the facts.
SteemPunk Snail Image from Pixabay