They'd hired a full-time mechanic and engineer, a guy named Bester. Pale-haired and tanned, he had a reputation as a genius mechanic; Mal wasn't so keen on him wandering around all shirtless and tanned in front of Kara, but it wasn't something he could stop without looking like he was jealous and possessive with no good cause to be.
He'd put his foot down as best he could with Kara, though; no more repair work that involved hitting anything with hammers, wrenches, pry bars or her head ... at least until her finger had healed up some. Course, no-one could tell Kara what to do when she had her mind set against it, but he'd managed to at least point her in the direction of the systems wiring, rather than the hard components themselves. Running wires and switching circuit boards didn't usually involve hitting things with hammers... although he kept off the bridge for a while, just in case.
He'd managed to secure them plenty of rations that looked to be decent quality and fresh food whilst they were in dock. It felt strange, having Bester aboard; where before there'd been a comfortably easy feeling, almost cozy come mealtimes when it'd just been two of them, now he seemed to be on edge. Of course, it didn't help none that Bester obviously thought Kara was worth considerably more than a once over. Still, she was her own woman; she wanted to take him up on his not-so-silent offer; that was her prerogative, not his.
He'd scrounged a remarkable amount of furniture, most of it old but still good; couches and chairs dotted one corner of the cavernous main bay, and a rugged little all terrain vehicle of the MULE pattern now hung from securing chains in that same bay. Next to what had once been the main med bay was a small room that seemed pretty fine for somewhere to sit, seeing as it could be compartmentalized, so he'd added a couple of leather couches and some odds and ends there, plus other bits for the crew quarters, empty or not.
Soon, they'd be ready to launch. That meant he should really be finding some sort of work for them.
It had taken her hours to get the wiring straightened out. There were more hacks and patches on the wiring than she'd ever seen on all of the G's old Mark II's put together. Theoretically, all she needed to do was to fire her up and things should run smooth. She was more than anxious to get the ship powered up and running, get her off the generators. She walked over to the console and started through the ignition sequence... and nothing. Time to track down where the next short was. Taking out the meter she started at the conduit to the bridge console itself... dead as a doornail, which meant that frakwit hadn't managed to get the engines online. She tossed down the meter and headed towards the engine room. "Bester! You better have a frakkin good reason why I've still got no engines online. You promised me they would be online YESTERDAY!" her temper was already flaring and she hadn't actually laid eyes on the supposedly genius mechanic yet.
Bester stood next to the engine shirt off to display his tattoos and coveralls belted around his waist. "What's with the bad karma? The engines'll be fixed when they're ready to be fixed. They ain't ready yet, they're just building up. Can't rush these things ... like a lot of other stuff..." He gave her a long, appraising look from toe to crown, and seemed to preen a little, pulling a pack of cigarettes and a lighter out of the waistband of his coveralls.
With eyes blazing angrily she snatched the cigarettes from his hand. "I want those engines fixed now. Actually I want them fixed yesterday. And I don't want to hear that it can't be done..."
Apollo: "Oh, it can be done... just need parts, which I've gotta go to town for. Maybe pick up a few other supplies as well..." He looked at his cigarettes, not even phased by her. "Stealings bad karma, you know?"
She waved them beneath his nose. "Consider these... insurance. You get them back when I get power to the bridge... you understand that?" angrily she knocked on his head for emphasis. She was more than a little riled up, bordering on the adrenaline high she used to get from combat...
"Don't be like that ... surely you don't need to try and ride me so hard, pretty lady. Well... at least, unless that's what you're into..." He gave her a broad grin, all easy confidence, and cocked his head at an angle probably designed to be charming or whimsical.
She was pretty sure her eyes would roll right out of her head, he didn't' honestly think that would work on her, did he? "Save the charm grease monkey, you're not my type, just get my frakkin engines fixed" Gods what she wouldn't do to have Cally or the chief around, the Serenity would have been in the air weeks ago...
He looked a little deflated at that, but shrugged and went back to the engines anyway, idly turning the main drive unit and poking various bits of it with a long-bladed screwdriver. "It ain't no big thing. We'll be off the ground before you know it, all alone in space..."
"Now that is what I'm looking forward to... space... after all, that's what this ship was built for..." she grated out as she turned to leave the engine room.
He grunted, already too busy poking at the engines to pay any attention to what she was saying, one hand scratching reflectively at the back of his head.
She stuck the cigarettes into the jacket of her pocked and stalked out, heading back towards the bridge.
Mal had been planning to be up on the bridge for the launch, but the hwoon dahn mule had come loose, and he'd been forced to lash it back into place. He'd come bustling up the passageway, all keen and eager ... only to see Kara walking away from the engine room, looking all hot and bothered. That made him stop and stand as still as he could so that he wouldn't be noticed.
She was so pissed off she didn't even pay any attention to her surroundings. Gods damned idiot... she was beginning to wonder if he knew an engine from a bottle of tanning lotion... her mood was completely ruined. She found herself heading back to her quarters for a shower.... she needed to clear her head before she started ripping pieces off of the would be mechanic.
He stood in the corridor like a gorram idiot for a few minutes, before heading down and around the corner towards his quarters. He'd done everything he could to make this place perfect ... and he'd managed it, by bringing Bester aboard. Now, Kara had what she wanted ... and it wasn't him. He shouldn't feel like this of course, because they were just friends.
Two hours later she was back on the bridge, checking the power relay once more, she fought the urge to scream in frustration. Still no power… "Frakkin idiot..." she muttered before calling out to Mal who was working in the galley. "Mal! Go find out why I've still go no frakkin power up here.... this is really startin to piss me off.
He couldn't make out what it was that he'd just heard, but it sounded like Kara calling out. Great. Now she was going at it with Bester in the middle of the day, loud enough to reach him even here in the galley. He should just ignore it; accept that she was moving on. After all, he kept telling himself that they'd made no promises, regardless of whatever her looks meant. That was the sensible thing to do. He wasn't feeling particularly sensible ... so instead, he took himself of to engineering. He didn't have to put up with Bester around - him, he could throw off the ship.
She poked her head out from the bridge, having not heard a response, "gods it figures.... why, twice in one frakkin day, do I have to go deal with that idiot." This time she made sure she kept the wire cutters in hand as she made her way to engineering
No sooner had he opened the hatch to the engineering compartment than he heard them; by the sounds of it , the two of them were going at it right between the main engine drive cylinders.
She made her way through the galley, taking a look around... she could have sworn Mal had been here just a minute ago, and the half cut up vegetables spoke even louder to that effect, but where the frak had he gone? She shrugged, a little confused, and started on her path to the engineering compartment.
"Alright Bester, you can drag your scrawny ass off my boat - I aint' havin' you aboard her..." He started to bellow as he set out into engineering, only to splutter into embarrassed silence as he discovered that the woman braced between both cylinders and hanging on to him for dear life wasn't Kara - not unless her hair had gotten a mite longer than he remembered.
Kara walked into engineering just a few moments after Mal, commenting over his shoulder. "Well... that explains why I still have no power on the bridge...
"That's not you ... you're not..." He did a double take. "Bester, who the hell is that gorram prairie harpy you brought on board my ship??"
No comments:
Post a Comment