The ship was airborne, back in the black. Joe could feel the China Doll shift from atmospheric flying to being back in the darkness of the verse. It was somehow a settling feeling for him; a chance to relax a bit, but not too much. He picked up a push broom and began sweeping up the cargo bay. He remembered sweeping the bay with Miss Abby on occasion. He missed her dearly. He thought about Abby as he worked. He felt real bad about what happened to her. He knew he had no control over himself when he beat that guy on Greenleaf. He didn’t think he killed him, but then he was not in any sort of mind to be aware of much. When the cargo bay was swept clean, he climbed the steps up to the galley. He tuned the cortex to music. An appropriate song began to blast through the speakers paired around the room. [center][url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAgnJDJN4VA]Back in Black[/url][/center] The first thing to do was gather up the dirty dishes and get them cleaned up. [i]‘I never made that coffee cake I told the doc I was going to make. Always tomorrow.’[/i] Joe scrubbed some pots and washed the coffee cups. He placed everything on the drying rack, then emptied out the coffee pot. He rinsed that out thoroughly, then filled it with water. He pulled out a filter, filled with coffee grounds and set the pot to brew. He looked at the cups, pots and dishes in the drying rack and began to dry them with a towel. Once put away, he laid out a few more of the cleaned cups. Then he went into dry storage to see if any of the pastries he’d made were still any good. Two of the pies were still good. They would need to be thrown out in three days; one apple pie, one blueberry pie and one peach cobbler. There were also chocolate chip cookies, raisin cookies and sugar cookies left over. A pot of beef stew sat idling in the cold storage. It was good for another three days. ‘Might as well heat this up for a meal.’ Joe pulled the stew out, set it on the stove and set it to heat up. The coffee was ready, a few pastries were laid out for people to take as they needed and the stew was heating up. Next Joe wanted to inventory his foodstuff. He made of a list of what he had on hand: [indent] a dozen green peppers A dozen red peppers three cucumbers asparagus green beans peas, carrots 1 lb. potatoes beets lettuce cabbage 1 lb. onions celery two pounds of MacIntosh two pounds of Cortlands two pounds of Spencers several pieces of meat in the freezer[/indent] There was a leftover pot of chili that was pretty old. A few other unrecognizable things needed to be trashed. He threw them out into the garbage chute and then began cleaning up some pots. The passenger, Edina Wyman came in with some glasses to be cleaned. Joe included those in with the pots and other sundry items that appeared to accumulate as he cleaned out cold storage. By the time he was finished, the stew was ready. He poured himself a bowl, a cup of coffee and took some crackers for his soup to eat a lunch meal. He sat at the table to eat his meal while looking through the cortex for some recipes. [indent][i]Honey Garlic Pork Chops Pork Chops in a mushrooms and garlic gravy Baked Ham Scalloped potatoes Twice baked potatoes.[/i][/indent] All wonderful ideas for a dinner meal. He settled on the Pork Chops in mushrooms and garlic gravy with garlic mashed potatoes and bacon bits and a side of peas and carrots for dinner today. When his soup bowl was empty, he poured another cup of coffee and took a piece of peach cobbler. He returned to the table to play solitaire, drink his coffee and eat the dessert. After a half hour, he decided it might be time to pay a visit to the ship’s mechanic, Yuri.