"Right," Alfred said distantly. The uncertainty in her answer was not particularly great news for him or his crew. He knew exactly where the chest had been after it had been opened, and he could more or less walk a direct step-by-step path with her or someone else from the Ministry, if that was what it took to get this thing under control. He had no idea where it had been before being opened, or even how long it had been on board before he'd found it. If they needed to start that investigation from scratch (and handled it about as efficiently as they'd handled the investigation so far), then it seemed likely the Voyager would be dockside for months. Ugh.
One more ladderwell brought them to the door of the cargo hold, which Alfred opened for her. The room inside was crowded, since they hadn't unloaded hardly anything except the perishable food they'd had on board. Crates and boxes were stacked as high as the ceiling would allow, then strapped down tightly so that they would stay put during a roll from a heavy sea. There were aisles between the rows, but just wide enough for a single person to walk through.
"So it was back here," he said, moving towards one corner of the hold. "Stuck out right away because it wasn't tied down the right way. We tried to open it here, then stopped when it — uh, started doing that thing," he said vaguely. He realized that if he was going to continue this narrative, the next place the chest had gone wasn't particularly somewhere he wanted to stand around alone with Zelda. They'd taken the chest up to his cabin after it had become clear it wasn't a normal chest — which had made perfect sense at the time, when his goal had been to keep anyone onboard from meddling with it and making it worse. How was he supposed to know that he'd be touring a Ministry official through the track the chest had taken in the near future? And how was he supposed to know that Ministry official would be Zelda?
"And, uh — then we moved it to my cabin," he mumbled awkwardly. "Which, uh... you know where that is."
MJ made the most Alfredy of sets and then two years later she made it EVEN BETTER
One more ladderwell brought them to the door of the cargo hold, which Alfred opened for her. The room inside was crowded, since they hadn't unloaded hardly anything except the perishable food they'd had on board. Crates and boxes were stacked as high as the ceiling would allow, then strapped down tightly so that they would stay put during a roll from a heavy sea. There were aisles between the rows, but just wide enough for a single person to walk through.
"So it was back here," he said, moving towards one corner of the hold. "Stuck out right away because it wasn't tied down the right way. We tried to open it here, then stopped when it — uh, started doing that thing," he said vaguely. He realized that if he was going to continue this narrative, the next place the chest had gone wasn't particularly somewhere he wanted to stand around alone with Zelda. They'd taken the chest up to his cabin after it had become clear it wasn't a normal chest — which had made perfect sense at the time, when his goal had been to keep anyone onboard from meddling with it and making it worse. How was he supposed to know that he'd be touring a Ministry official through the track the chest had taken in the near future? And how was he supposed to know that Ministry official would be Zelda?
"And, uh — then we moved it to my cabin," he mumbled awkwardly. "Which, uh... you know where that is."
MJ made the most Alfredy of sets and then two years later she made it EVEN BETTER