Alfred frowned at her explanation. He could understand where she was coming from, he supposed, but it was the sort of answer that would have made any sailor frown; there wasn't a single space on the ship that wasn't essential. When one's career was sailing off and being isolated on the open ocean for weeks or months at a time, every bit of space counted — particularly since expansion charms, the typical magical solution for such problems, were generally not well trusted by sailors. One failed expansion charm could blow out the side of a ship and see her sunk in ten minutes — Alfred had a flat-out ban on them on the Voyager, and most captains did the same. As a result, they had to use all the space they had in the good old fashioned Muggle way — by shoving things into every nook and cranny. There were rooms, for instance, built all the way into the forward prow of the ship, with the walls slanting in from both sides the further from the door one went.
"That, ah, might be difficult," he said hesitantly. He didn't want to be argumentative when he was trying to help her, but if any area of the Voyager remained cursed in the long-term, it would seriously impact her ability to do anything useful underway. "It's all... pretty essential. Especially the areas the chest was in," he continued, shaking his head. The midships cargo hold, the hallways right in the midst of the Voyager on every level, the main deck, his cabin — it wasn't as though they could just do without any of those. His cabin could maybe be set aside, but that wasn't ideal. The cabin was more than just a place to sleep, after all — if it was just that, he could have easily switched to any bunk on the ship. But it was also an office, and it was where difficult decisions were made, where sailors were disciplined, where navigational briefs were held... a captain couldn't very well go underway without a space to do those sorts of things.
Although, he reflected, if they couldn't get the curse out of the Voyager the problem of how to deal with the loss of the cabin would not be his problem, because that would mean they couldn't get the curse out of him, either. Even if it didn't kill him in the next few weeks, he couldn't set sail like this, with it hanging over his head. Alfred knew what it was like to lose a captain, and he wouldn't do that to his crew.
"But, ah... yeah. We can start there," he conceded, with an almost sheepish shrug.
MJ made the most Alfredy of sets and then two years later she made it EVEN BETTER
"That, ah, might be difficult," he said hesitantly. He didn't want to be argumentative when he was trying to help her, but if any area of the Voyager remained cursed in the long-term, it would seriously impact her ability to do anything useful underway. "It's all... pretty essential. Especially the areas the chest was in," he continued, shaking his head. The midships cargo hold, the hallways right in the midst of the Voyager on every level, the main deck, his cabin — it wasn't as though they could just do without any of those. His cabin could maybe be set aside, but that wasn't ideal. The cabin was more than just a place to sleep, after all — if it was just that, he could have easily switched to any bunk on the ship. But it was also an office, and it was where difficult decisions were made, where sailors were disciplined, where navigational briefs were held... a captain couldn't very well go underway without a space to do those sorts of things.
Although, he reflected, if they couldn't get the curse out of the Voyager the problem of how to deal with the loss of the cabin would not be his problem, because that would mean they couldn't get the curse out of him, either. Even if it didn't kill him in the next few weeks, he couldn't set sail like this, with it hanging over his head. Alfred knew what it was like to lose a captain, and he wouldn't do that to his crew.
"But, ah... yeah. We can start there," he conceded, with an almost sheepish shrug.
MJ made the most Alfredy of sets and then two years later she made it EVEN BETTER