Chapter Thirteen: Cafe

My tongue aching, I mumble, “Today has fucking sucked.”

After we returned to the train, something that really didn’t take long after Brianna showed up, we plugged the Doberman into my hangar before coming up to the cafe car. Once there I was handed a hot chocolate, which hurt but was so fucking nice after my tongue literally freezing.

I was expecting a rather boring basic kitchen with seating to match before I got in here, but to my pleasant surprise, it was surprisingly vibrant. Between the chrome trim, apple red furnishings and checkerboard wall motif, this place is obviously designed after a mid 20th century diner. It’s a rather faithful take on the classic design, though the screens plastered along one wall showing various camera feeds along the train definitely aren’t related to it.

Behind the bar Marcus snorts, shaking his head with a smile at my whinging. “The first one always does, kiddo.”

I groan, sinking against the table to hide my head in my arms. “Not you toooo. Why does everyone call me that?”

Brianna chuckles as she sits at the bar, eating a fry as she asks, “You do know you just graduated right? It comes with that, anyone older than 20 probably considers you a baby.”

Wha-

I look at her in stark confusion. “What! I’m twenty though!”

She pauses. “Sorry, forgot the starting age for your school, I meant 22.”

Puffing my cheeks a bit, I roll my eyes. “Whatever.”

Marcus snorts again as he pours a mug of coffee. “Classic kid statement.”

Before I can even get a chance to argue, the door to the cafe opens to reveal the conductor… and another exact copy of the conductor, this time in overalls and covered in oil stains? I blink and narrow my eyes as they take a seat at one of the booths, both of which giving me a look before very deliberately looking away. Typical.

Brianna waves as they enter. “Liam, David! Is the lead locomotive doing okay?”

The conductor sighs, shaking his head. “In that initial rush from the herd, Jun pushed it too hard and it was damaged enough that we aren’t going to be able to use it until we get back to civilization. We might be having a longer layover in Kansas City than I thought.”

The overalls one sighs. “Liam, just say it like it is, the newbie cost us time, and time is money. We know how you feel about that kind of thing.”

I deflate a bit as Liam shakes his head. “It’s a risk that comes with new hires David, I can’t get mad at her for that. From what she said it was an honest mistake right?”

I quietly respond with an affirmative “Mhm”, which gets me a very brief look of pity from Brianna before she quickly moves her eyes away.

Marcus moves over, placing the coffee in front of Liam. Must have known he was coming. “Where is Jun, anyways?”

“She took the transport drone back to the rearguard hangar,” David casually explains, “Wanted to take a look at the Doberman after the ED encounter to make sure the electronics weren’t fucked.”

I rise up in curiosity. “Can we ride the transport drone? Is it even rated for carrying a person?”

Liam sighs so, so deeply. “No, Grim, we cannot ride the transport drone. Jun just uses her power to cheat. Don’t tell the company, because she’s gotten caught doing it too many times and is on the verge of being fined or worse for it.”

Tilting my head, I ask, “Didn’t you say her power was air control, how does-”

Marcus cuts me off as he pours another cup. “Pushes herself down into the drone, acting like a pseudo seatbelt. Not worth attempting otherwise, since the thing can move pretty fast.”

“It’s pretty convenient since she’s the one who does most of the classic engineering work along the train,” Brianna mutters, “Plus if you need a shoulder to cry on when we’re moving, she can be there as long as she’s not on locomotive duty.”

Huh. Nice to know. “How does locomotive duty work? I know that we have two Engines that aren’t Mecha Pilots so…”

David clears his throat. “Basically, we sit in a comfy chair at the center of the big ass locomotives and diddle ourselves in the freetime we have.”

Liam slaps his twin’s shoulder. “Be nice.”

“What? It’s not like I’m lying. We literally don’t do anything but sit there, a SAI drives the train.”

Liam gives his brother a look. “That’s confidential, you know?”

David throws his arms up. “She’s a coworker, she’d find out eventually! I just ripped the bandaid off!”

It takes me a second to parse what this is about. “Wait, there’s no internet connection. Do we have a SAI datacenter on the train? Where?”

The other escort Engines groan, and Liam runs a hand down his face. “It’s in the caboose, behind your hangar. We were going to tell you after the first trip but I guess the cat’s out of the bag now.”

{“Sorry, Grim.”} I jump as an artificial masculine voice comes out of a large speaker in the corner of the room. {“I’m Brion. I was told not to say anything.”}

“I-It’s fine?” I hesitate. “How much control over the train’s electronic systems do you have?”

{“Enough.”}

Well that’s slightly unsettling. I glance over at the others, but they just look away as my eyes near them. Why are they acting like this?

“So like,” I start, then take a moment to rethink what I was about to say, “Is this because I was from Texas?”

Brianna nervously chuckles. “I mean, Brion is technically illegal there. Can you blame us, we don’t know you.”

“Oh no, I get it.” I tap my fingers on the table as I consider something. “I’ve had to deal with the SAI thing for a while now, so I’m used to it.”

That has the others in the room glance at me momentarily before they all quickly look away again.

Marcus is the one to ask. “Sorry, what does that even mean?”

I snort. “My best friend is a SAI, she has to be sneaky.”

That seems to get Brion’s interest. {“Wait, is this the Maribelle that you got on a call with before we left signal range? I thought that connection looked strange…”}

“Ayup.”

{“Huh.”} Brion pauses, then states, {“Y’know, I think I’ve heard of her before.”}

Uh-oh. I break out into a cold sweat, knowing some of the things that Maribelle has done. Um. Quick, change the subject Minea!

“So why did you even get me a Doberman S if you thought I might be a SAI bigot? You do know it has an egg in it right?”

This time everyone in the cabin slowly turns to look at Brianna, who flushes a bit. “O-Oh, it does? I didn’t know?”

Liam pinches the bridge of his nose. “Brianna…”

She throws her hands up in the air. “Look, it’s not my fault! I had to use the shitty Texas Mecha Dealers for this, and they had like no advance search that I could use!”

“You coulda just asked me.” I mutter, “You had my number at that point.”

“I mean, sure.” Brianna pouts, crossing her arms. “But I wanted to surprise you…”

I narrow my eyes a tad. “What if I hadn’t liked it? That seems like a bit of a risk.”

“Bah, we’d deal with that when it came up.” Brianna pauses, then slams her hands into the bar as she stands up. “I’m going to go reset my alarms. To be safe. Totally not because I don’t want this conversation to continue.”

Marcus rolls his eyes. “Keep telling yourself that chika.”

Brianna flips him off with a huff, then storms out of the Cafe car. I stare as it clicks shut automatically behind her, a bit of guilt rising. That probably should have been me, if I hadn’t changed the direction the conversation was going when Maribelle came up…

“Don’t worry about her,” Liam quietly states, “She’s just embarrassed.”

I blink. “That certainly isn’t how I read it.”

“She hasn’t had a younger coworker before,” he explains, “So she wanted to impress you somehow.”

“Ah…” I suck on my lip for a moment. “Now I feel even worse.”

“If it makes you feel better, it was bound to happen eventually sooner or later.” Marcus says as he sips on his coffee. “That girl could get life in prison over a parking ticket.”

It takes me a second to parse what he said, but then I sigh with a smile and shake my head as I stand up. “I’m going to go see what the damage on the Doberman is looking like, then pass out I think. I’m so fucking tired.”

“Nice to meet you again, Grim.” David says as he waves, purposefully looking at the wall beside him. “It’s certainly… interesting to experience your fear myself, that's for sure.”

I shrug as my hand pushes the door open. “I’m used to it, I’ll send a message in the chat before I come up from now on.”

Marcus frowns. “Now, it’s not that bad, that doesn’t seem-”

“That would be appreciated, Grim.” Liam glares at my fellow escort. “I apologize in advance if we don’t come at those times.”

“Uh…” Frozen, I chew on my words for a moment. “No offense taken? Maybe. Bye.”

I shut the door behind me before they can respond, then flare my boost for a half second to leap up on top of the car. After waiting a moment to make sure nobody follows me out, I quietly sigh to myself, then start moving towards the siren song that is my bed.

It’s nice that the other escort Engines don’t seem to be too against my presence, but… There’s something about the conductor just not being able to look at me directly that sets me a bit on edge. Like I can’t rely upon his orders to make sure I’m safe.

When I reach the edge of the car, I don’t even bother boosting as I leap over to the next. That turns out to be a mistake as I fuck the force I need up and barely get a foot onto the next roof, stumbling to catch myself as I do. I really fucking hope nobody saw that… Checking over my shoulder to make sure there’s nobody, I brush off some dirt from my leg as I resume my miniature journey.

Um, okay, time to put my mind on something other then me being a total fucking klutz. My coworkers; They’re an interesting bunch, at least the ones I’ve met in person. I’ll hold my judgment on Cicada until I meet her in a bit. My general opinion on them at this point has shifted from curious to cautiously optimistic… at least about everyone but Liam and his brother.

Brianna is a bundle of energy for sure, but she has a serious enough side that I don’t think I’ll mind talking to her in the long term. Her established relationships with the others seem strong, though she did not react well to me pushing on her back there. Hopefully that doesn’t go on to fuck me over in the future…

The next hop confirms that I just need to flare my boost for a second to make passing between cars effortless. I might be running low on DE for right now after that chase, but I have more than enough for this. Combat might be impossible though.

On a different hand, I don’t know enough about Marcus yet to really get a good idea about him beyond him being scarily good at dealing with Extradimensionals. I really owe him for saving me there… I should make an effort to not get on his bad side. Considering how hungover he was when we first met, I’m guessing he’s someone worth getting close to as well, loyal and all that.

I pause, glancing off into the distance when I see movement. Narrowing my eyes, I zone in on the general area for a moment, then sigh in relief as I see that it’s just a normal boar, digging at a small area in the ground for some reason or another. Big pig not worth worrying about.

I haven’t known Brion for very long, but considering he didn’t rat Maribelle out to everyone immediately is probably a good sign. I might be biased to SAI in general though, so I probably should try to take it slow rather than immediately giving him the benefit of the doubt. I think he probably has too much control of almost everything around the Train for me to trust him 100% fully unless Maribelle talks to him and vouches for him.

Walking up to the edge of the next car to confirm a theory, I glance down at the mechanical coupler connecting it to the next in the chain. Like I suspected, a thick wire that shouldn’t technically be there is haphazardly stretched out beneath it. Must be what Brion is using to have such decent bandwidth even while stationed at the back of the train.

David and Liam… I think I might try to avoid meeting them in the future if I have a chance. They are obviously uncomfortable around me, and neither showed much interest at all in trying to overcome the fear to become my friend. If my past experiences are something that I can trust, it isn’t worth my time to try and convince them otherwise. It’s unfortunate, but I don’t think I can do anything about it.

It was probably a pipedream to hope that all my coworkers would be my friends… Still doesn’t mean that it doesn’t hurt that they won’t be. Also doesn’t mean I won’t do my damndest to make sure they won’t die. It’s my job after all.

Noticing my cars nearing in the distance, I speed up just a tad, soooo ready for today to be over already. I know I thought that I might have difficulties sleeping earlier, but honestly? I’m more worried about nightmares with how fucking tired I am. I really, really hope that there aren’t any attacks in the night.

Hopping down when I reach the hangar car, I take a deep breath to prepare myself for what might be another rejection, then open the door and step inside. I find that it’s pretty much the same as how I left it, minus the woman checking the electronics in the neck of the Doberman. The engineer glances up as I get closer, does a double take, then chuckles and shakes her head as she stands up and puts a hand on her hip.

“Hey, Minea, right? You really did a number on this thing today!”

Freezing, a lump suddenly appearing in my throat rather than words. I’m a tall woman, being just a bit under six feet tall, but oh my god she has to have a head or more on me. Her slightly tanned skin does something wonderful for the well kept muscles that she definitely is showing off on purpose with the tanktop she has on, highlighting them in a very particular way. Her electric blue hair is shaved on one side and cut rather short on the other, which also does a decent job of showing off four individual piercings on her left ear.

With a knowing look she smirks, and my heart immediately does a flip.

This…

This might end up being a problem.

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