Moving on Up
Aft of the common area, on the upper deck, the engineroom is state of the art. Boldly stating the engineer is a fanatic, the bulkheads are painted a high gloss white as are the engine housings, with accents of polished brass and stainless steel. Ducting, pipes, and wiring bundles are well marked and laid out in an orderly fashion. The engineering console is on the fore bulkhead. Stainless steel workbenches are along the starboard hull along with an orderly desk, office chair, and cabinets for all the necessary manuals.
Along the other bulkheads are storage cabinets and bins for parts, tools, and all the other things necessary for a well run ship. All are clearly marked and laid out in a very convenient fashion. The deck plates are grey as are the gratings giving access to areas under the engines and reactor. The lighting is protected and very bright, giving good illumination for work. Red emergency lighting is mounted in the corners.
Moving to a new ship is always tiresome and busy. Especially when moving tools and parts and finding out what needs attention on a new ship. Jacob is looking over the console attached to the reactor at the moment. He fires up the reactor to check on his initial power plant. <English>
Storn mans the Engineering Console.
Lights around you flicker on as the main reactor powers up.
"Do you know," begins Kit," whomever the previous engineer was he must have been a bit OCD but I kinda like it. A place for everything and everything in it's place as my nan used to say." She finishes unpacking the last collapsable crate, putting the spare parts away into the labeled compartments which can now house them. Tucking the folded crate away as well she moves over towards Storn, "How is it looking?" <English>
The air turns fresh and a gentle hum can be heard as life support is activated.
Terminals all around you power up as the computer systems are powered.
You feel a sudden rumble as the engines activate.
A loud roar is heard as the steering thrusters activate.
"Well, the reactor is running good. The systems are powering up, life support, computers.. engines. Got a little rattle there but probably from not being used in a bit." An alarm starts going off on the reactor, bringing his attention back to it. "Hit the emergency stop on the maneuvering thrusters. Looks like they are overheating!" <English>
Moving quickly Kit does as instructed, the flipping up the cover and then slapping the flat of her hand hard against the emergency stop button. "Shit," she says with a frown. <English>
Storn reaches for the icomm on his utility belt, "Conoger, reactor is up and running. Check sensor and computer system on the bridge. We have a problem with the thrusters, emergency shut down due to over heating when powered up. Kit and I will start testing to find the problem." <English>
"What the hell was that?" Riley peeks his head into the engine room. He's holding a box of personal effects...mostly porno mags. "Brand new ship and you two already trying to blow it up?" He grins at Kit when he sees her. They haven't addressed his ass-hole move the other night, but he knows it probably pissed her off. <English>
Kit frowns and moves over to the console, standing near Storn so she can peer at it. "Diagnostics say anything specific or just general SNAFU in the thrusters?" Her head turns and she snorts at the sight of Riley, "Jealous you didn't get to damage her first, fly boy?" <English>
Storn taps on the terminal turning off the power to the thrusters. "Hard to tell, they started over heating as soon as they got power. Either we got two wires crossed somewhere or the power coupling is shorting out. It shouldn't have showed that much heat so fast. We should also check and make sure that reading itself isn't faulty." He pauses and taps a finger to his forehead. "Someone find me a damn wiring schematic and we can start putting just a little bit of juice in through the systems and start diagnosing where it's fucked up." <English>
"I'd never damage her. These hand will make her sing." Riley says with a knowing wink at Kit. He's starting to get under her skin and he can't help himself. "From that knocking I heard, you sure theres nothin' come loose on the outside?" <English>
Kit opens her mouth to reply to Riley's inside joke but...yeah nope she's got nothin' just colour staining her cheeks a bright red. "Schematic, coming up," she tells Storn. Once more the previous engineer's penchant for obsessively putting things away in labeled compartments, compartments she used, comes in handy. She brings over the schematic and lays it out on a workbench. "We'll need to check her outsides too," she muses. <English>
Esther has been working with things she could. With the help of Conoger, she had lockers installed in various places on the ship as well as stored items brought over, MULES, doc beds, stretchers, motorcycles.. Then of course there were all her personal items. Who woulda thunk she had so many clothes!! She steps into the engineering, peeking her head in. "How's it going Snookie-pie?" She grins an evil grin towards Storn. <English>
"First thing's first, let's not panic or start grasping at straws. We come up with a plan and attack the problem." Storn looks over the schematis allowing the rest of the systems to run through diagnostic loops. "Damn it.. I guess Conoger is out of communicator range." The engineer mutters and leans down to look at the wiring schematic and pushing his glasses down his nose to get a better look at the small diagram. "Would be better if I could fire up those thrusters without an immediate over heating." <English>
Riley Sets his box of indecency down and wanders all the way in to look over Storn's shoulder at the schematics. "What if we re-route the coolant from the one thats working and just fire up this one by itself? If it still overheats at least then you know it's not the cooling systems." <English>
Kit gives Esther a nod in lieu of a verbal greeting. "You're the chief, I'm just the diminunitive helper," she tells Storn with a grin. When Esther calls the chief engineer 'Snookie-pie' and he doesn't even bat an eye Kit starts to chuckle. "It's more fun if they rise to the bait." Speaking of, she picks up a waded up bit of paper she had used for packing and lobs it at Riley's head. <English>
Storn frowns and just looks over his shoulder at Riley, "There may come a time when I have to do a field slop job to get us flying, but I assure you it won't be until I have exhausted every other avenue. In the mean time, we are going to find out what is wrong before we start hacking up the systems on wild ass guesses of what will fix it." He finds the wire he is wanting. "Ok, take the multi-tester and hook it up to the white with purple wire. Check the resistance, it shouldn't be more than 35 ohms." <English>
Esther is dissapointed he didn't rise to the bait. But to her, Storn looks a lil grumpy. Oookay then. She just stands to the side and listens for now. She looks to Riley, "Hey. You got all your belongings over?" <English>
That means her. Kit pulls her own tester from a compartment on her belt of wonders and after a glance at the schematic walks further away and opens up the brass covering over the section where she knows she can easily test the purple wire. As the needle moves on the multi-tester she reads out the result to Storn. "Want me to try the green wire now?" <English>
Riley glares a Kit in mock anger as he gets hit with the paper. It's on now. Meanwhile he just shrugs off Storn's critique of his engineering skills. They've saved him in a pinch before, but the guys chief engineer for a reason. And he's probably right, canabalizing a new ship probably isn't the best way to approach it. "The last of it's at your feet, Cap." he says referencing the box of pornography. "I would have put it up, but Kitty here wanted to look through it first and pick out some for herself." <English>
A loud roar is heard as the steering thrusters activate.
Storn rolls his eyes at the banter about Riley's box of goodies. He pauses a second and pushes some power through the thruster system. "We should be reading four megawatts through the wire. That'st the hot wire, so be careful." He tells Kit while doing some math in his head. <English>
Esther glances down to the box of fun. "Oh!" She reaches down to get the old magazine. "Phoenix Lixx. She sure is pretty." She talks of the dimunitive dark-skinned woman. She picks up the magazine that was on top and thumbs through it. <English>
Kit ducks under some ducting so she can get to the otherside and test the wire there, as she moves she flips Riley the finger to let him know what she thinks about him and his jibe. Using her multi-tester she carefully touches it to the green wire and once more tells Storn the results she gets. "I'm wondering if there isn't some thing further down, or maybe even external? The old engineer was clearly a stickler, but if th ship has been dry docked planetside for a while maybe something bumped it outside?" <English>
"If we are getting the right readings here, then it will be that way until we reach the power coupling where it feeds the thrusters. Let's shut down the reactor and test each of the leads from the coupling. This baby has a few thrusters and we need to find out which one is causing us a problem." Storn says while leaning back up with a glance to the reactor before, tapping the keys to shut it down. <English>
The incessant hum from the ship's engines suddenly fades away.
The air suddenly becomes stale as life support loses power.
Riley catches the finger and silently mouths the word 'yes please' in reply. Heading back to the captain he looks over hew should at the mag in her hand. "Yeah, she is. I actually met her back on Paquin. She's still damn fine. You know she's got kids now?" <English>
Esther pulls out a centerfold with alovely pose. "Well. Most women that do this, only do it for a short time. They move on to have a real life." She folds the magazine up and tucks it back into the box. "I couldn't do it. My body is too scarred from warfare." She shrugs. She then looks towards the engineers. "Say, is there anything I can do to help?" <English>
The exciting part of being an engineer isn't working your way wire by wire through an entire series of thrusters, nope, this is the dull but necessary part. "Might as well do a few small repairs while I'm at it. Can one of you get me a three mil socket from the workbench please?" She peers over at the box near Riley's feet then looks away quicky. <English>
As the reactor goes quiet and the auxiliary lighting in the room comes back to life, Storn scratches his head in thought. "I don't think so, Skip. Though keep your comm handy if I need you to power up the reactor for the thrusters. She has just over half of her fuel reserves so we can test out as needed." Storn then reaches for the most important part of any repair process, his big damn wrench. <English>
Riley looks his Captain over in a new light. She's got curves in the right places...scars or no, she'd do fine. They touch up all those pictures anyways. Kit's request for a socket snaps him out of it, and he opens the box at his feet and fishes out the tool. "Sure thing babe. You need anything else?" he says with a playfully false domestic sweetness as he slides the socket across the deck plates to where she's working. He's was tempted to send the wrong size, but he doesn't want to slow down getting this ship running. She's one woman he can't WAIT to get his hands on. <English>
Esther is watching the proceedings. She knows some basics about the ship, but all the intricate wirings and internals and such.. well.. that is why she pays the engineers. Then she can feel pervy eyes on her and she sort of gives Riley a sideways look, a single brow arching. <English>
Kit snorts at the overly sugary way Riley addresses her and response in kind, only her voice is laced more with sarcasm, "No thanks, puddin-pop." Using the socket wrench she tightens a few minutely loose connections and glances over in tim eot see Esther giving Riley a version of the stink-eye; which of course amuses her. "Stick your foot in your mouth again, Ri? I hope not. Those things don't look like you wash them often." <English>
Riley is taken aback a little by Kit's sarcasm. She's not the quiet, shy little girl he's remembered. Of course she probably wasn't all that shy back then, but he remembers what he wants. Whether or not she's always been that snarky, he kinda likes it. "Oh I didn't know you were into feet. I'll have to be sure I keep em cleaner for you." He completely ignores Esthers glare. He's pretty used to that look by now. <English>
Esther frowns now, though remaining silent for a moment. "Hmph." That is all she grunts at Riley at first. But on second thought, "Riley, since you are done with your personal belongings. You can go help bring over the items from the galley. Food -and- dishes and anything else." <English>
Raising her head from the task she was doing Kit wipes the back of her hand across her cheek, smearing it with a bit of oil. "While you're doing that, Ri, if you come across some cookies I wouldn't mind you bringing me some lunch like a good little wife." She snaps her teeth at him and then wriggles further down the pipe of wires she's working on, getting deeper into the confines of the tight spaces one can find in engineering. <English>
"Aw C'mon Cap'n, we're just fooling around." Riley says defending himself, but when Kit throw out the wife comment it goes a little to far. "Ooooh you Meh Lien Duh Iyah Jee. ANYwhere in the verse, and your back to bust my balls." He's laughing but more out of rage than humor. He turns his glare back at Esther as if to question why the hell she hired her. He doesn't say it, but it's written all over his face. <English>
Esther tests her Command against a 60 difficulty. The result is successful (9).
Conoger enters at that time and stops, arming to have heard something he may rather not be around for. Though since he had entered he is most likely going to lean against the door frame and watch for now. <English>
Esther glances at Kit, then at Riley. She narrows her gaze, especially when he throws insults at her. "Kitchen. Now." She points to get him out of the room, hopefully deescalating the situation AND getting the galley supplies moved over to the ship. "It is not a request." <English>
Kit is wisely quiet, or perhaps just busy working, it's hard to tell as her dark head is blocked from view by the internal part of the thruster. Undoubtedly however, she and Riley will hurl insults again later. Or have angry sex. Probably both. <English>
Riley holds his glare a moment longer, deciding whether it's worth pushing. He yields. In angry haste he bends over to pick up his box, and the bottom gives out, spilling magazines, and data chips with god knows what on them all over the deck. A little hologram projector activates and starts playing a VERY inappropriate scene in miniature. The pilots face is red with frustration and he hurls the broken box against the wall and stomps off toward the exit, but can't get past Conoger who's filling the frame. He just stares daggers at him as if it would make him move. <English>
Conoger watches and listens in interest, there is a firmness on his face. Sure its covered by hair but he seems serious. As Riley comes up to him Conoger steps out of the way. Was he afraid of the look? Does not matter but he does say ."Will work on your anger issues soon enough." now inside the room, letting Riley thorough. <English>
Esther watches as Riley moves to depart and she looks to Conoger. "Eh. Let him be for now." She says to her XO. She then moves to the broken box, bending down to pick it up and refold the bottom. "Let's get all this smut picked up." She quietly begins working to collect the magazines, vid-chips, holographic images. <English>
Looping an arm loosely over it, Kit swings out from beneath the section of one of the engine's thrusters and looks about. She wasn't paying much attention but seeing the mess and winces. "There's a collapsable crate just tucked down behind you Esther. If you chuck it all in there I'll take it to him later." Her chin lifts in a nod of greeting for Conoger. "So, the jist of it is the thrusters are taking in too much heat. We're trying to narrow it down to which of the thrusters. Storn sent you a message but you were out of range at the time." <English>
Riley stomps of down the hall; which might actually be loud if he where wearing shoes, but isn't nearly as dramatic as he intended. So he bangs around as much as possible on his way down to the cargo bay. <English>
Esther moves to get the crate and pops it open. She collects the items, stacking the magazines in the bottom before putting the vids on top. She doesn't seem phased by the collection. Sex type stuff is all part of being human. Once the items are put in nice and neat, she scoots the crate to the side. "I will let you take it to him, Kit. I umm.." She glances to her hands. "I am going to go wash my hands.. That one magazine was.. sticky.." <English>
"See ya, Con." Kit moves over to check on the schematic she laid out over the workbench, running her hovering finger over it as she looks to see where she needs to head next. "Huh? Oh sure, Esther...aww man." She groans, her nose wrinkling, when the other woman's words register. <English>
Storn ducks out from beneath a panel he had hidden behind to check on some things, "Well the sensor reporting the over heating is working properly. So we definitely are getting some feedback through the system somewhere. Let's go check on that coupling. Anyone seen a ladder?" <English>
"I'll go check the other ship," offers Kit. "It might not have come over yet. Meet you outside in a few," she says to Storn. And she might as well take Riley's skin mags and flicks and drop them in his bunk while she's doing that. Save someone else from getting into a sticky situation. <English>
Aces - Main Corridor =>Aces & Eights<=
A long hallways that connects the inner rooms of the ship. The steel plating that lines the floor is painted the same dark blue as the entry way and small white safety light continues down the hallway as they illuminate the floor and show the entrances to other rooms as they flow up and around the doors with a soft glow.
Riley is cursing under his breath as he comes up the steps from the cargo bay. Tucked under his left arm is a box of kitchen supplies. In his right hand is an open bottle of whiskey that was presumably in said box when he found it. He brings the bottle to his lips, and obscures his vision completely as he crowns the top of the stairs. <English>
As she heads towards the cargo bay with the intention of disembarking, Kit passes Riley coming down the stairs. "I put your stuff near your bunk." she says and then turning she can keep her eyes on him she adds, "You know you're pretty hot when you're stroppy. If you get all hot and sweaty doing that work and want someone to scrub your back later I'd be happy to volunteer." With that she skips down the rest of the stairs and saunters out, quickly, wanting the last word. <English>
Bone Yard - Boros
Mountains of technological refuse may be found here, within one of Boros' many second-hand scrap yards. From old-fashioned electrical scrap to modern Engines, one never knows what treasures may be found within these thick duracrete walls.
The yard itself is expansive in dimension, and separated from its neighbors through the existence of a tall razor-wire topped duracrete barrier. A small sales shack sits near the public entrance, which appears to double as an apartment. A plethora of security cameras keep constant vigil. If you can't fly with Zid's you might as well be dead!
OOC NOTE: Just because you see a ship here does not mean it is for sale. When ships are available, the staff do auctions and the like for them to give all people a chance. You cannot just walk into this room and buy one of these ships, thank you.
Kit does as suggested and fetches a ladder from the old ship then brings it over to the new one so she and Storn can check the coupling. She looks up at it from the ground, narrowing her eyes as she searches for any hints of what might be wrong. <English>
Riley struts down the ramp with a bit of swagger now as he makes his way back to the old ship for another load. The whiskey bottle is still in his hand, but it's visibly emptier than when Kit ran into him a few moments before. She knows how to push all his buttons, and her words in the cargo bay flipped him from one heated passion to another. Damn she's gotten into his head good. While on his way, he watches his 'wife' as she's being all engineery, and leers like she's dancing a pole instead of carrying a ladder. <English>
Storn holding onto his big damn wrench and turning a bolt to reveal a place for the ladder to hook on. Storn looks over at Riley and a little bit of a frown crosses the man's face, "Hey, lush. How about less whiskey until you get the stuffed moved over. If I can't find my damn peanut butter cause you forgot it while undressing my assistant with your eyes, you might wind up a tatoo," he turns the wrench over, "Saying Made on Persphone." <English>
Her head turns as she hears someone coming down the gangway and she turns a little red at the look Riley is giving her. Kit coughs, must be some dust in the air, and focuses her attention on setting the ladder on the hooks made to hold it. She turns even more red when it's obvious the usually oblivious Storn wasn't quite so oblivious that time. Thinking she might be safer up the ladder, Kit shimmies up it to peer at the thruster. <English>
In spite of Storn's threats, Riley takes another swig and heads up the ramp of the old ship. He turns around for a second to catch a glimpse of Kits behind as she shimmies up the ladder. He takes another swig, then heads in to grab another box <English>
Storn just shakes his head and turns to follow Kit up the ladder, "Look to the left you will see a hand hold to keep heading towards the top of the ship." The big man slings his tool bag over his shoulder so that he can use both hands. <English>
"Got it," says Kit as she literally reaches up to get the handhold. She moves further up, the rubber soles of her boots perfectly suited to the hand and footholds on the exterior of the ship. "Hey Storn," she calls back to the head engineer, "I'm sorry if Riley's being a dick. We...we're from Boros and neither of us has been back since we got married...not until now. It's...anyway, you get the idea." <English>
Esther stiffly makes her way to the ramp of the new Aces from inside. She leans against the frame, rubbing at her tender abdomen. Her gaze turns about to look at what is going on. With a wince, she moves down the ramp and towards their old ship. She has decided to go help Riley with packing the galley since she can't do much with the engineering aspect. <English>
Storn shrugs slightly as they make their way along the footholds. "It ain't me he needs to be apologizing to. Well not unless he forgets my peanut butter then he will rue the day he thought about whiskey." It would be quite funny, if Storn wasn't serious and not sporting his usual smile. "Look for the third panel from the dorsal comm antenna." <English>
Riley makes his way out of the old ship again arms loaded with boxes. The bottle is tucked in the crook of his elbow; the level of amber liquid inside is getting dangerously low. Surprisingly he's still walking a straight line with pretty sure footing. <English>
Kit inches forward, looking small against the backdrop of the Osprey. She reaches down and pulls a portable drill from a special modified loop on her belt. With careful steady hands she begins the process of removing the panel. "Let's hope it's just a simple repair job and not a complete set of fried wiring this side." <English>
Storn nods his head, "Yeah, I am hoping so to, though to be honest with as much heat as it was generating when we get it to Steel Dragon we will need to run more wire for the thrusters. I don't trust wires once they are exposed to that much heat. Something has to be causing it." He kneels down and slips his bag of tools on the surface of the ship. "How does she look?" <English>
Esther pauses at the bottom of the old ship's ramp, looking back to Storn. She calls out, "We just need her to get us flying alright for now. After we finish our work on Jiangyin, we will go to Sink's shipyards." She looks to Riley. "Damn.. I want some of that.." She gestures to his flask. "I can help pack the boxes.." <English>
"Uh uh uh, I seem to remember a rather strict 'no fun' policy when it comes to injuries." Riley stops and shakes his head. The whiskey in the bottle swirls with his movement. "Damn Doctors." The bottle slips from his full arms and lands on the ground with a dull thud. "Oops I guess I dropped something." he says with a knowing smirk. "You mind getting that for me Cap?" There's only about a glass and a half left in there, but the bottle smiles up that them enticingly. <English>
Once the panel is off and secured so it won't slide away Kit leans in and begins testing the wiring using her multi-tester, just like she did inside. It's a meticulous and tedious process. While she does this Storn undoubtedly does things with his Big Damn Wrench(TM). After a while it becomes apparent what the problem is. "Well shit," mutters Kit. She calls down to Ester and Riley, "Looks like one of the thrusters is in need of re-mounting. We can't take off until it's done or we'll all end up blown out the ass of the ship faster than a teenage boy would be in the hands of a Companion." <English>
Esther grins up to Kit. "Well get 'er mounted right!" She calls up. Then she glances down to the bottle and leans down, scooping it up. She takes a swig from it, coughing pathetically as she does not often drink. "Thanksss." She rasps out, handing the bottle back to him. <English>
Riley chuckles to himself at Kit's analogy, and grins at the Captain as she gives him the bottle back. "She certainly knows how to turn a phrase don't she? Never new I married such a cunning linguist." His speech isn't too slurred yet, but that last bit could be easily misunderstood. With that he heads into the new Aces. <English>
Kit gives Esther a thumbs up and turns back to her work and what is undoubtedly a quiet and somewhat more stoic conversation with Storn. Maybe one or two snide quips are exchanged, but she keeps her verbal imagery down to a minimum. <English>
Riley comes back down the ramp empty handed just in time for Esther to order him to get the rest of the boxes. He loads them up obediently enough. "I think there's one more box left in there. Looks like it's just cola though." <English>
Esther laughs. "We can't forget my cola! It's my uh... secret addiction. I had a boyfriend that used to keep telling me that it was giving me a fat ass.." <English>
Riley sneaks a peak at the Captain's ass while he's loading boxes....just to see if her boyfriend was right. He doesn't comment. <English>
Because ships don't repair themselves Kit keeps on working, handing Storn things he needs and following the instructions she is given as they repair the thruster. Eventually she gets told to go check things inside and so ends up shimming down the ladder. She strolls towards the gangway and nods to Riley and Esther, her, "Hey," a little breathy. <English>
Riley fills his arms with the boxes that won't fit on Esther's dolly. He smiles a pervy smile at Kit when she greets them panting, he likes seeing her breathing heavy. "Hey," he says back, and carries these last boxes on to the ship. <English>
Esther pushes the dolly. She really isn't supposed to push, but it is better than lifting! She grunts and takes the boxes towards the new Aces. Her gaze turns to Kit, smiling. "Hey. We ready to move?" <English>
Riley earns himself a bit of a look from his wife, though he's unaware of it as she's oogling his backside. After Esther speaks Kit nods, "We can be ready in about ten minutes. Just need to stow the ladder and run one last minute diagnostic check on that particular thruster, but it looks good. We'll replace the wiring later." Seeing Esther struggle she offers to take over, "Want me to do that?" <English>
Esther sighs and looks to the dolly. She relinqueshes it to her. "Thanks.." She says. "Eh.. I can't stand this." She grumbles. What did she expect when she got all stabbed in the gut with a Reaver blade? She offers a smile. "I promised to let Riley do her first flight. I will wait for him to get done." <English>
If Kit has any reservations about her drunkard of a spouse flying the ship she keeps them to herself and just pushes the dolly up the gangway and into the cargo bay. "I had thought he'd worked for you for years, not just a short while. You two have a good rapport." <English>
Esther moves along beside her, smiling. "Well." She cants her head. "I actually took time to try and talk with him and found we had some things in common. Thing is, he tries to run away from his pain and poblems instead of facing them. I hope to work with him on that." <English>
"Yeah," says Kit quietly. "The drinking is new. Guess that one is on me. Funny thing, I'm the exact opposite. I hate being drunk. Hate not being in control of my own body." <English>
Esther shrugs. "I was addicted to a narcotic once. It's not fun. It wasn't fun for me. Trust me, despite what he says, it is not fun for him." She says softly. "Ok.. I am ready to get inside." <English>
