'Skeleton Crew' - by Daniel Orrett

Aboard the Guinevere, Croft gives Elizabeth a better understanding of the ship and her crew.

Check out this Patron-Exclusive Anthology short, written by Daniel Orrett and performed by Ben Prendergast and Emily Serdahl.

Thank you all for your continuing support.

Fair winds!

Full Transcript:

ELIZABETH:

That you Croft?!

CROFT:

Yeah Boss, just down here!

ELIZABETH:

Two sugars right?

CROFT:

Ah, thanks Boss you’re the best.

ELIZABETH:

You seen my jacket anywhere? I think I left it last time I was here.

CROFT:

Oh yeah it’s in the galley. Sorry I was gonna get it back to you but I got caught up with this.

ELIZABETH:

No worries, what’cha working on?

CROFT:

Ah, just messing with the torpedo guidance packets, we picked up some new ones right before we left Tantalus and not all of em are synchronized yet. This ship never really got off the drawing board so it takes some tweaking to get new hardware to communicate with it.

ELIZABETH:

Man, is there anything you don’t do on this ship? Weapons technician, pilot, mechanic.

CROFT:

Chef.

ELIZABETH:

Chef, of course.

CROFT:

Eh, I like keeping busy. Never been very good at being bored.

ELIZABETH:

I know what you mean.

But doesn't this cause problems? Surely you can’t be running down here to tighten bolts when you’re chasing pirates or whatever.

CROFT:

Yeah this ship was built for a crew of eight. But Cass has had a load of aftermarket systems installed for automation, most of this stuff handles itself well enough without needing anyone down here.

ELIZABETH:

Damn. That can’t have been cheap.

CROFT:

Yeah, no kidding. One of these autoloaders is worth enough on its own to buy another ship. It’d be a kinda crappy ship but still.

ELIZABETH:

Surprised you guys never brought on more crew. Gotta be cheaper than all of this.

CROFT:

Eh, the Skipper’s never wanted to hire on more hands. Pretty sure her and Meds only hired me back in the day so they could get this thing off the ground in less than a week. But then I made a Strawberry Roulade so they decided to keep me.

ELIZABETH:

Hah.

Still, lot of effort to go to just to keep a small crew.

CROFT:

Guess so.

ELIZABETH:

You’re very loyal to her.

CROFT:

Ahh. Took me a while to find a place I really wanted to be. Got her to thank for that.

ELIZABETH:

Hey Croft… Am I good here?

From what I'm hearing it sounds like four’s a crowd on this ship.

I don’t want to be an intruder.

CROFT:

You’re good, Boss.

You work in space long enough, and you figure out that the part of a ship that needs the most care and attention is the crew. You’ve got to quietly look out for them, find the little frictions and smooth them over, keep an eye on how they feel... just be there for them.

She likes having you around Boss, and so do I.

ELIZABETH:

Thanks Croft.

CROFT:

Thanks for asking.