Marcus Valerius (gear_head) wrote in kobols_legacies, @ 2008-01-17 22:30:00 |
|
|||
Current location: | Hanger Deck, Shangri-La |
Winding Up
Having returned from the Avalon Anika pulled on a pair of coveralls she kept stashed in a locker on the hangar deck and started to inspect her baby from stem to stern, leaving nothing unchecked that could be tampered with in full view and not be questioned. That is of course if the frakking bastard didn't have some mates in on the deal with him who would cover his arse and let him get away with murder.
Marcus had been called to the deck earlier in the day to help diagnose a problem with one of the lifts that raised and lowered small craft between the pressurized hanger deck and the landing/launching areas that were open to space. One of the hydraulic boxes had refused to work properly and freezing the lift as a result. It had taken himself and the engineer responsible for the lifts two hours to diagnose what the problem was and other hour to fix it, and in the process he'd gotten hydraulic fluid and grease slimed all over his coveralls.
The engineer had gone back to his office to change into a fresh set and then swung by one of the kitchens to snag a bite to eat before making his evening rounds of the engineering sections of the ship. His final stop of the day was back on the hanger deck to check on the freshly repaired lift.
Satisfied that everything was in working order, he stepped through the maintenance hatch and out onto the deck itself.
The familiar profile of Anika's ship along with the more shapely profile of said owner came into view and the mechanic frowned. Anika wouldn't be crawling all over her ship unless something was wrong, and he knew damn well there hadn't been anything wrong the day before as he'd done a tune up on her 'toy'.
"OK, what did you break?" He asked, more as a way to jerk her chain than any other reason. The young woman was fanatical about proper maintenance and would never have taken it out if she thought there was a problem. "And what's got you so riled up?"
The look on Anika's face would have been enough alone to confirm what her friend thought, but the tone in her voice would alert him to there being something else bothering her, a few things in fact. “Stupid frakking asshole tried to kill me, Marcus, that’s what!” she snapped, glaring at him as she swung out from beneath one of the exhaust pods. “Bent a frakkin’ control arm on one of the forward thruster nozzles and I nearly smeared myself all over the frakkin’ landing deck of the Avalon!!”
Marcus raised an eyebrow at the outburst, his curiosity piqued at the unusual tone of his friend's voice. He'd known Bethany and Anika both for several years now, having met them when he'd still been a summer intern for the previous chief engineer back in his college days. The young woman's normally sunny disposition was definitely absent, and he could think of several reasons why.
Still, the thought of someone trying to deliberately kill Anika got the bulk of his attention. "It's obviously been fixed or you wouldn't be back here. Have you talked to the cops yet? Which ship has the guilty party?" The police would need to be notified, but the Engineer made a mental note to put the word out amongst the technical community of the fleet for some less official punishment to be dealt to the offender. Some things couldn't be left to solely the police, and they might not have enough evidence to bring formal charges.
He meandered over to her ship and unlatched the access panel leading to the thruster control rods. Marcus propped up the panel and ducked his head underneath to get a good look at the machine underneath. "Looks like they did a good job on the replacement, but that isn't surprising." His tone was one of grudging respect. "Military mechanics know their stuff. They have to if they want to get anywhere near a Viper's engine. Anyone give you any grief on getting a replacement made?"
“Stupid frakker also stole parcels out of the cargo bay last time I was there, and my lighttube!” she snapped, and added, “No, I’ve only just got back and I don’t think the cops can do anything, I don’t have any proof, so they’ll just ignore it!” Her anger still evident. When he asked about the repairs she grunted, jerking her head a little. “No, the guy there was real obligin’. Said they were to see to it ASAP, probably wantin’ to get me and Sting off his precious hangar deck, like we were messin’ the place up or something.”
Marcus pulled back from the compartment and brought the panel back down into place, making sure it was properly locked down before turning and facing Anika. The details of the sabotage along with the items stolen were mentally filed away, the little frakker who'd nearly gotten her killed wouldn't escape punishment in one way or another. As for the other thing...
He knew her well enough that the tone of her voice gave her away. "A guy huh? Real obliging? If he said to make it a priority then he must have some kind of pull. Who was he?" Marcus shifted to brush away an imaginary piece of dirt from the hull so she couldn't see his grin. Whoever this guy was he'd definitely gotten her attention, something that not many guys had done over the years.
“A colonel he said, though he wasn’t sporting a uniform so he might’ve just been jerkin’ my chain.” She ignored the fact the tech had given him the respect she figured a colonel would draw from anyone below them.
"He wasn't in uniform huh?" Marcus chewed on that for a moment. He supposed she could be right, but it would be a dangerous game for the guy to play if he got caught by his higher ups.
"Nice of him to get the control rod replaced for you. He ask for anything in return?" He'd known certain types to try and take advantage of a situation like that, and even though he didn't think of her in a romantic sense he'd have to be deaf dumb and blind not to know Anika was a gorgeous woman. "Try and get a little somethin' somethin'?"
She snorted, turning to open up the cargo bay hatch on that side and propping it up. “He was at least smart enough to keep his brain out of his pants,” she told Marcus as she leaned into the bay and checked the cabling and hoses that ran through there. She grimaced as she saw that at least the lighttube was still in this pod, unlike the other and closed the hatch.
"More interested in talking flying, so seems he has more than just two brain cells," she added, rolling her eyes.
"Awfully down on a fella you just met," Marcus observed with a smirk. "He must have done something to get you so riled up about him."
The withering glare she gave him would have sent most other people packing, but Marcus was used to her moods, and her ‘attitude’ regarding anything military. The fact he was right just made her crankier and she hated that it bothered her. That he bothered her. After all, how could she diss someone who really hadn’t done anything to earn it other than be in the career he’d apparently been born to.
“He’s on the Avalon,” she muttered as if that explained everything, “isn’t that enough?” The fact she should also feel at least some gratitude for him having made sure her ship was repaired without any delays didn’t help.
Marcus wasn't fazed at all by the look. His old boss and mentor had been far more moody than Anika had ever been even on her 'bad days', and he knew her too well to take offense. "Sure it is, if that's enough for you." Not that he particularly cared one way or another once he'd satisfied himself that the officer hadn't tried to take advantage of her.
He leaned against Sting's hull and watched her climb around the ship. "Just seems to me you're all worked up over nothing...was he cute?" This was almost as fun as playing pyramid, winding up Anika.
Her head jerked up at the question, almost smacking into the edge of the tailplane she was currently crouched beneath.
“How the frak would I know!” she snapped at him, “he’s just a frakkin’ khaki dude who at least had good taste in birds,” she continued, glaring at him. “This variety that is,” she added dryly, slapping the tailplane before ducking back under it again to hide her face, or at least to continue looking at the craft’s rear control surfaces. That was as good an excuse as any at least.
A knowing chuckle was the only reply as Marcus moved to open another access hatch. While he was here he might as well check on some of the other components of Anika's ship. "Whatever you say Niki."
She had issues with the military, he knew that, but this was something different entirely. Anika was far too worked up for just your run of the mill pilot. "Still...must have been nice to talk to someone about piloting, right? And what ship did that deckhand try and get fresh with you on?" He hadn't forgotten about that, either. The man in question would find himself learning a nasty lesson.
She grunted, a begrudging admission that what he said was true, it had been … different, she was willing to admit, to actually have someone recognize the quality of her ship. So often people’s ignorance as to its real abilities blinded her to anything else they might think, especially when they tried to come on to her and make out they knew what they were on about when it came to flying.
“Get fresh?” she snorted, wondering whether the bastard’s attempt to smear her on the side of Avalon could be described that way. “The frakkin’ bastard is on the Shiloh, and if I see him again he’s gonna wish he wasn’t.”
The information was filed away for future reference. Marcus knew the chief engineer of the Shiloh had his hands full with that rust bucket of an antique freighter, and the man owed him more than one favor. The information about Anika's near miss would be passed to him the next time the two men spoke, with the unspoken hint that the deckhand in question should be dealt with.
He wouldn't ask for the man to be killed, Marcus had his limits even in these times, but the incident definitely called for more than a slap on the wrist. At the very least the man should be on the receiving end of a blanket party...or two. If it were one of Marcus's people who'd pulled a stunt like that they wouldn't be out of sickbay for a week.
"I don't think you'll have to worry about it, how often do you actually get over to the Shiloh anyway?"
She looked at Marcus for a long moment, knowing the man had more contacts around the fleet than any other engineer, just given the sheer size and complexity of his charge. The Shangri-la was one of the largest ships in existence but it was also one of the most well endowed with technical staff, having been fully operational and with her full contingent when the attacks happened, so wasn’t caught on the hop like a lot of the smaller ships who couldn’t carry full engineering support. It gave Marcus a good deal of weight, along with the fact he was an excellent engineer.
She gave Marcus a nod in silent acknowledgment of what he’d said. “Not much, thank the gods, as we don’t have anyone on there who’s a part of the co-op, so it’s only the very rare delivery, and there ain’t many of them,” she admitted, almost feeling a sinister sense of satisfaction that the deckhand would realize he really shouldn't frak with her, or any other woman hopefully.
Marcus met her gaze evenly, knowing full well she knew what he meant, even if he didn't paint it in black and white. When she nodded he ducked his head under the access hatch. There was no way of knowing if the little shit had sabotaged or frakked up anything else without going through each system one by one. He'd stay and help Anika perform the needed diagnostics, and continue to wind her up every now and again about this Colonel of hers.
After all, if he was going to be spending his leisure hours working on her ship again he had to get entertainment tonight somehow.