Private Repair & Rapport

[James 'Slinger' Antilles]

James sauntered along the streets of the cyber city known as Neo Echelon. Truthfully it was in some ways James's kind of planet. It had poverty, crime, ruthless overlords that needed to be overthrown and a thriving underground economy. The only problem was James grew up on the prairie, while he could handle life in the city, he preferred planets with a taste of the simple life. Wide open plains, simple farming, tight knit communities that looked out for each other.

Big cities like on this world made his shoulders itch. Unfortunately, it was also the best planet in the system for the ship repairs he needed. One of his automated droid brains had fried. It wasn't urgent just his schematics scanner on his engine mod. Right now, it just meant that James had to be thorough while checking the engine, since while no halfway decent mechanic entirely depended on the schematic's scanner, it did help identify early problems often.

James was a half decent mechanic, and could keep his ship in the air, but he couldn't repair an advanced droid brain by himself let alone without the necessary supplies. Whatever they might be.

James had asked around and the best option he could find was this place. James thought to himself with a wry doubtful raised eyebrow. Axiom Systems & Repairs. James decided it sounded exactly like it presented itself, as a dive repair shop nestled between a parts recycler and a shuttered café.

James took a breath and walked in. Experience had taught him on worlds such as this people did whatever they must to survive. If that meant ripping him off, they'd do it in a heartbeat. Then again, he'd asked around with certain sources some of whom he might even trust at least when they were all saying the same thing.

James hoped he wasn't making a mistake. While not one to judge based on looks, Force knows plenty would doubt James on first glance, and had done so to their peril. He also believed in trusting his instincts. Right now his instincts were telling him this could go either way. Either they were an honest cybernetic whiz who stuck a fair deal with their customers, or they were a leech who would do anything say anything to cut a paycheck, most likely to feed whatever their favoured vice was.

Fortunately, James's favoured vice was gambling, every so often one had to make a gamble to survive on the fringes of the galaxy. No risks didn't only mean no reward, it meant being stuck in the slums. Of course, depending on luck gets you on the drift, no fuel cells, towed out to the scrap yard. It was a delicate balance, on in which James intended to play his hand and see what happened.

Worst case scenario, he wasted his time and would have to keep a close eye on the ship's engines for a little while longer. Assuming it wasn't a virus that would spread across the other droid brains.

"Hello?" James called out as he entered the shop.

"Captain Slinger, I'm here about parts for an integrated droid brain? It's fritzing on the schematic's scanner."

Ana Rix

 

[Ana Rix]

The interior of Axiom Systems & Repairs was nothing like the polished storefronts farther up the block.

The moment James stepped inside, he was met with the low, constant hum of machinery and power converters, layered with the faint scent of ozone, lubricant, and warm circuitry. The space was narrow but deep, stretching back farther than it looked from the street, its walls lined with modular shelving stacked with salvaged components, sealed crates, and neatly labeled bins of parts. Half-disassembled droids and cybernetic frames occupied worktables along one side, their exposed wiring and optical units glowing faintly in standby mode.

On the opposite wall, holo-displays scrolled diagnostic readouts and schematic overlays in muted blues and greens, their light reflecting off metal surfaces and transparent tool trays. A few battered chairs sat near the front counter, clearly meant for clients who knew they might be waiting a while.

Behind the main workbench, Ana Rix stood in the middle of a diagnostic cycle.

A soft-blue holo-interface shimmered in the air beside her worktable, projected from a low-profile emitter built into the surface. Data streams flickered across it as her fingers moved in practiced patterns, adjusting parameters and running cross-checks without ever fully looking at the display.

She was dressed simply and practically: a fitted charcoal-gray tunic beneath a light slate-colored jacket with a high collar and reinforced seams, the sleeves rolled just enough to keep them out of the way. Dark straight-cut trousers and well-worn low boots completed the look, functional and unremarkable, chosen for long hours on her feet rather than appearance. A slim utility band rested at her wrist, its tools and ports integrated seamlessly into the design.

When James called out, her hands paused.

She glanced up from the holo-interface, eyes sharp but neutral, taking him in with a quick, instinctive assessment. No hostility. No suspicion. Just quiet professionalism.

With a small gesture, she minimized the display, letting it collapse into a thin ribbon of light at the edge of the table, and stepped around the bench toward the front counter.

"Afternoon," Ana said evenly, her voice calm and unhurried. "You've got the right place."

She stopped a comfortable distance from him, resting one hand lightly on the counter while the other folded loosely at her side.

"Integrated droid brain, schematic scanner module," she repeated, more to confirm than question. "Fritzing how, exactly? Lag, corrupted readouts, full shutdown, intermittent spikes?"

Her gaze stayed on his face, attentive rather than intrusive, already building a mental framework of possible causes.

"Do you have the unit with you," she added, nodding faintly toward his pack and gear, "or is it still installed in your ship?"

There was no sales pitch in her tone. No promise she couldn't keep.

Just a technician ready to solve a problem.

"If you can give me a few details," Ana continued, "I can tell you pretty quickly whether it's a clean repair, a partial rebuild, or something that needs a full replacement."

A small, professional half-smile touched her lips.

"And whether it's worth your credits."

James 'Slinger' Antilles

 

[James 'Slinger' Antilles]

James considered the young woman the same way he'd consider a poker player at the table. After a moment he made a decision. James considered himself fairly good judge of character and of people, he could spot cheats, frauds, fakes, scammers, con artists and grifters from a mile off. The woman just didn't smell right for any of those.

At least, on the level enough to risk further negotiations. James shrugged so far he had committed nothing but his time, he could always walk away if it didn't feel right or the price was too steep. So far though his instincts said she was on the level.

"The Droid Brain is on my ship, I didn't want to risk extract as it's all tied into an automated system. My ship has ten droid brains five for weapons, one for co pilot, two for engines and one for operations and defence." James explained typing into his Comm Arm Band for a holo projection of his ship, and bringing up the ship's schematics function.

"Most of the ships schematics work fine."

"Piloting, weapons, operations and defence all work fine. The engines still running, but everytime I access schematic's scanner it does this. I disconnected the integration with the other droid brains in case it was a virus."

James pulled up the schematic's scanner for the engines.

"So far it's isolated to the schematics, but if it's a virus I don't want it spreading to the other systems, preferably before I have to replace all ten droid brains. If just the one engine schematics can be fixed without ripping out the entire system, I'll call it a win."

James reached into his Outfit's satchel pocket vest and downloaded the ship's schematics including the engine schematic's scanner onto a stick passed it over to the young woman. While she looked it over, James looked over the shop.

He knew a home when he saw one. This one was well loved, well lived in and well looked after. It might be messy, but then James never had time for the sterile cleanliness of Imperials or the stuffy fashion of Naboo. This was a shop where people worked, who loved what they did, took pride in it. Part of that pride would be giving their customers a fair deal and good service. James could accept that. It was the same sort of pride a farmer took in his fields or a rancher with his herd.

It might not be quite his scene, but he liked the grounded nature of it all. You wouldn't find up jumped politicians hanging out in here and as far as James was concerned that was all for the better. This was a place of honest work for honest folk.

It was comforting and reinforced James opinion of her. Still he had to keep in mind that to survive on a world like this one had to be prepared to make some tough calls. It wasn't James business nor concern what those calls had been, rather a reminder not to underestimate this young woman who had her own thriving business in the heart of a cyber city.

"Apologies, I didn't catch your name?"

Ana Rix

 

[Ana Rix]

Ana accepted the data stick without ceremony, her fingers closing around it with the same practiced ease she used for every tool that passed through her hands. There was no rush in the motion, no performative confidence. Just quiet competence.

She crossed back toward her workbench, gesturing lightly for him to follow if he wished, and slotted the stick into a narrow port built into the side of the table.

A soft chime sounded as the system recognized the device.

"Ana Rix," she said simply, glancing back at him over one shoulder. A small, professional smile followed, polite but genuine. "Owner. Lead technician. Occasionally, my own quality control department."

The holo-interface beside the bench expanded again, blooming into layered blue and green projections. Ship schematics unfolded in midair, rotating slowly as her system parsed the data. Engine housings. Power distribution nodes. Neural routing between the droid brains. Diagnostic overlays stacked themselves neatly as new information streamed in.

Her expression shifted almost immediately. Not to worry. Not to alarm. To focus.

She leaned in slightly, one hand braced on the bench edge while the other scrolled through diagnostic logs, isolating error reports and cross-referencing them with system timestamps.

"Good call on isolating it," Ana said after a moment, tone calm and approving. "If it were a viral cascade, that would have slowed it down significantly. Probably saved you a full system wipe."

She pulled one schematic closer, expanding the engine brain's interface architecture and highlighting several flickering data paths.

"Let's see…" she murmured, more to herself than to him. "Scanner module… neural handshake… translation layer…"

Her fingers moved in quick, precise gestures, pinching and rotating elements in the projection, peeling back layers of software architecture until raw routing logic was exposed.

After a few seconds, she straightened slightly.

"Alright," Ana said, turning enough to meet his eyes again. "So far, this doesn't look like a classic virus. No replication signatures. No hostile overwrite patterns. Your other brains are clean."

She shifted the display again, isolating a cluster of corrupted subroutines.

"This looks more like degradation in the interpretive layer between your engine brain and the schematic interface," she explained. "Think of it like a translator that's slowly losing words. The core system still works, but the way it explains itself to you is breaking down."

Her gaze returned to the display, thoughtful.

"Could be memory wear. Could be a power fluctuation that scrambled part of the archive. Could be an old firmware patch that didn't age well." She glanced back at him. "The good news?" A faint, reassuring smile. "You don't need ten new brains. Not even close."

She tapped the highlighted section. "This is localized. Fixable. Either I rebuild the translation layer, or, if the hardware's compromised, swap the scanner core without touching the rest of the system."

Ana folded her arms loosely, still studying the data.

"I'll need to see the unit in person to be certain," she added. "Onboard diagnostics only go so far. But from what I'm seeing here…"

Her eyes lifted to his again, steady and confident.

"…you're well within 'worth fixing' territory."

James 'Slinger' Antilles

 

[James 'Slinger' Antilles]

James listened with a half amused half bemused expression, a quirked eyebrow and a small smile. If she was playing the part she was playing it well. She knew enough technobabble to confuse, James followed enough of it, about a third to recognise she knew what she was talking about. James shrugged internally to himself and decided the pot might as well be staked.

He'd risked far worse for far less, he'd escaped worse with less. Extending a bit of trust wasn't going to be the worst mistake he'd ever made or make. Besides James liked the girl. She had a brusque no-nonsense attitude about her, something James could appreciate. Not that James didn't appreciate a good yarn, or spinning of a tale. Rather he appreciated directness when work was on the line. It demonstrated a degree of forthrightness. Which in James's circles was a quality sorely lacking.

"Glad to hear it ain't a virus at least" James grunted mollified. As well as a little chuffed that she had acknowledged that isolating the unit had been the right call. James was confident in his ability to patch up the engine, maybe even make a modification or two. Cyberware was a whole nother world entirely. It included too much babble speak for one. James fancied himself an ear for languages, but he drew the line at diagnostic dialect.

"Alright cyber doc, how much is surgery gonna cost me?" James asked with a deep breath in his drawl,, he focused up on the issue at hand. Negotiations on price. Not that James was looking to filch her, but he ain't forking over a fortune for vague promises it'll be fixed either.

It was at this stage of negotiations James almost preferred the dodgy kind of fixer. Sure the job was fifty fifty on being half arsed but it was also fifty fifty on whether or not you could work out a deal. A job for a fix, some smuggling supplies maybe, even trade off.

James was tempted to make such an offer up front, but thought he'd hear her terms first. If it was too high James could make the offer anyway, it would put him in a bad bargaining position to have made it as a counter offer, but so far Ms. Rix had played it straight. James could at the very least attempt to do the same.

Ana Rix

 

[Ana Rix]

Ana listened without interrupting, eyes still moving across the diagnostic readouts as the data continued to scroll through her interface. A few more lines flickered into place, and she gave a small, thoughtful hum under her breath before finally looking up at him.

There was no hesitation in her expression. No salesmanship. No dramatics. Just calm professionalism.

She reached out and tapped a few commands into the console, saving the current analysis, before answering.

"At the high end," she said evenly, "you're looking at five thousand credits." She paused just long enough for the number to land, then added, more casually, "Realistically? It'll probably be closer to half that."

Her gaze met his briefly, steady and transparent.

"Depends on what I find once I'm inside the core routines. If it's just corrupted indexing and a misfiring translator layer, it's a clean fix. If someone tried to patch it wrong before, or if the memory lattice is degrading…"

She shrugged lightly.

"That's when it gets expensive."

As she spoke, Ana had already started moving.

She crossed to one of the side cabinets and slid it open, revealing neatly organized rows of tools and diagnostic modules. One by one, she began pulling items out with practiced efficiency: a compact neural interface probe, a pair of micro-calibration drivers, a sealed data-scrubber unit, and a slim portable analyzer.

Each went into a padded field bag resting on the workbench.

"No hidden fees," she added, glancing back at him as she clipped the bag shut halfway. "No 'surprise complications' unless there actually are complications. If it ends up cheaper, you pay less. If it runs high, I'll tell you why before I touch anything."

She slung the strap of the bag over her shoulder, then picked up the data stick again, tucking it carefully into an inner pocket.

"I don't like charging people for maybes," Ana finished, her tone calm but firm. "I charge for work."

A faint, professional smile touched her lips.

" So. If that works for you, I'll need access to your ship and about two hours to start. Longer if I find anything weird."

She gestured lightly toward the door with her free hand.

"Your call, Captain."

James 'Slinger' Antilles

 

[James 'Slinger' Antilles]

James quirked an eyebrow at the price. Even at the high end it was less than he'd expect a high end price to be. Five thousand was almost the entire price of new equipment, he'd expect most grifters to attempt twice if not three times that in repair. Then the real negotiations would begin, even on the low end he'd have expected around four thousand. James considered pretending to consider the offer for a few moments then just chuckled.

"Deal young lady." James confirmed and spat in his hand holding it out for a handshake. A moment later he coughed awkwardly and wiped his hand on his coat.

"Apologies, too much time on frontier worlds." James smiled wryly in embarrassment, shaking his head.

"My ships docked at the Eavesdown Docks, not far from here." James shrugged "The Wilderness Tempest."

James decided to neglect mention James changed the ships name every system or so. Saved from being identified too often. As far as most people were concerned his freighter was just another rust bucket junker. James liked to keep it that way.

"Well, I guess I'll lead the way." James grunted and grinned, feeling good about getting such a good deal. James's ship was more than just a ship, it was a home, he took pride in it working well, in top shape, he depended on it, both for his livelihood and his survival. It was a relief to know that whatever was ailing her would soon be fixed, and that she was in good hands while doing it.

James lead the way to the docks.

"So what's your favourite thing to work on?" James asked. A naturally chatty man by nature, James enjoyed talking to people, learning about their passions, interests, lives. James knew it'd be rude to ask how a young lady such as herself came to be running her own shop, and he wasn't interested in digging into her past, that was a dangerous conversation to be had on most worlds.

Asking about her work however seemed safe enough. If she chose not to engage in conversation, James would respect that, which honestly he half expected given her pragmatic attitude so far. She didn't seem the type to deal with fluff easily, but he didn't see the harm in reaching out, making the offer of easy conversation as he saw it.

If she elected not to engage in conversation he'd respect that as well, but awkward silences made him tense. Far too much silence just before blasters were drawn and everything went haywire in his experience, unless of course it was too much drink and loud angry voices. A balance needed to be struck between the two of calm decorum. Where one could participate in gentle conversation with ease, without pressure or expectation. Those were the card games James enjoyed the most, where no real money was on the line except what one could afford, no ruffled feathers over losses, no lives or livelihoods on the line.

James enjoyed getting to know people, it was one of the reasons he travelled so much. Sites you could see on a screen or holopad, but people until you looked em in the eye, spent some time with them, people had to be known in person.

Ana Rix

 

[Ana Rix]

Ana watched his reaction to the price with quiet attention, already used to reading the subtle tells of people doing mental arithmetic in real time. When he agreed without trying to haggle her into the ground, a small flicker of approval crossed her face before settling back into her usual composed professionalism.

She accepted the offered handshake without comment, even with the awkward pause and wiped palm, her grip firm and straightforward.

"No worries. I've worked with worse."

As they stepped out together and began moving toward the docks, she adjusted the strap of her tool bag on her shoulder, falling into an easy walking pace beside him. The noise of Neo Echelon pressed in around them: hover traffic, distant vendors, humming generators. She navigated the cluttered walkways without breaking stride, clearly familiar with the city's rhythm.

When he asked his question, she glanced at him briefly, considering, then allowed herself a small, thoughtful smile.

"That's easy," she said after a moment. "I like systems that talk to each other."

She lifted one hand slightly, fingers moving as if sketching invisible schematics in the air.

"Integrated networks. Data streams that shouldn't work together on paper, but do when you tune them right. Engines talking to nav. Sensors feeding into diagnostics. Droid brains sharing processing load instead of fighting for it."

Her tone warmed just a little as she spoke, quiet enthusiasm slipping through her usual restraint.

"Most people focus on the hardware. Plates. Circuits. Power cells. That stuff matters. But what I really enjoy is the flow. Information moving cleanly through a system without bottlenecks. No lag. No corruption. No weird feedback loops."

She nodded faintly to herself.

"When everything's synced properly, you can feel it. Ship responds better. Diagnostics stop screaming. Power draw evens out. It's like the difference between a band warming up and actually being in rhythm."

She glanced sideways at him, a trace of dry humor in her eyes.

"Probably sounds boring to most people," she admitted. "But to me, a clean data stream is almost relaxing."

After a beat, she added,

"And it's usually where the real problems hide. Anyone can swap a fried part. Not everyone can find the line of bad code that's been quietly ruining your day for six months."

Her gaze shifted ahead toward the distant outline of the docks.

"So if your schematics scanner is misbehaving, there's a good chance it's doing something interesting under the hood," she said.
"Which means I'll probably enjoy fixing it."

At that, she gave him a small, easy smile. Friendly. Professional. No pressure in it at all.

James 'Slinger' Antilles

 

[James 'Slinger' Antilles]

James let out a relieved chuckle as she accepted the handshake. Sometimes James forgot with always trying to look for the play, that some people liked forthrightness as much as he did. James found himself relaxing as they walked. It was nice to just have a regular genuine day every once in awhile, with no pressures, no literal dead lines, no lives on the line. No mission or job to perform, other than taking care of a minor inconvenience. All in all this little excursion couldn't have gone better. He'd found an honest trader at a fair price. That was worth as much as gold or praxeum in this galaxy.

James stood out a little on the streets of the cyber city but only a little, cities like this were used to travellers, traders, visitors from all over the galaxy. All sorts among them, whether they be noble, businessman or space cowboy.

James felt him relaxing as she talked about her work with an easy rhythm. The time for searching for every hint of a con had long passed, now it was just two people going about their business having a friendly chat. James could enjoy that in peace without being on constant edge he'd have to be in other negotiations.

Listening politely James nodded.

"I can see that. I'm more of a parts man myself, but it's the flow of the engine parts, the pieces of the whole that make it work. A ship has a rhythm, a tune to her, you gotta listen to that tune, if you pay attention to her, she'll tell you what ails her, before you even have to put her in repair. Truthfully something was up when I was checking the scanner, I didn't know what until the scanner started fritzing. Most pilots, mechanics, or captains would have assumed it's a non issue, but I knew when she was talking to me. It ain't wise to ignore her when she speaking to ya. Some fools learn that the hard way."

James shook his head, at such foolishness.

"Anyways she was telling me something was wrong, and I couldn't figure out what, so I asked around for the best care she could get for her cyberware. Some folks I trusted mentioned your name. Here I am."

They arrived at the docks in good time. James entered the codes to access the dock, then the codes to access the ship.

"I'm a fair hand with a spanner or torque wrench if you could use an extra hand?" James asked, getting a little anxious now that his precious ship was in someone elses hands. It wasn't that James didn't trust her, he just didn't like anyone but him working on his baby. It felt wrong, like watching your girl kiss another man.

Ana Rix

 

[Ana Rix]

Ana walked alongside him at an easy pace, her hands tucked briefly into the pockets of her jacket as she listened, head tilted just enough to show she was paying close attention. She had always liked people who talked about machines the way James talked about his ship, not as property, not as equipment, but as something alive in its own way. Something that deserved to be understood rather than simply fixed.

When he finished, she glanced up at him, considering his words for a moment before nodding slowly.

"That's a good instinct," she said quietly. "Most system failures don't start loudly. They start…subtle. A timing hiccup. A delayed response. A data lag that shouldn't be there."

Her gaze drifted briefly toward the docked freighters ahead of them, rows of steel hulls and glowing port lights stretching into the haze.

"People who only look at error codes miss that," she continued. "They wait until something breaks instead of listening when it's just uncomfortable."

At his mention of asking around, the faintest hint of surprise crossed her expression before settling into something closer to quiet appreciation.

"I'm glad they sent you here, then," she added simply.

When they reached his ship, and he unlocked the access panel, she stepped aside to give him room, watching the familiar ritual with the kind of respect reserved for people who truly cared about their work. As he offered to help, she didn't hesitate, answering him honestly rather than politely dismissing it.

"Torque wrench won't do you much good on this job," Ana said with a small, knowing smile. "Most of what I'll be working on is diagnostic, calibration, and micro-routing. A lot of it happens at the interface level."

She tapped lightly against her wrist unit for emphasis.

Then she gestured toward the access hatch and the engine housing beyond it.

"But a spanner?" she continued. "Yeah. I'll definitely take that. There are still physical mounts and isolation frames I'll need opened up."

Her eyes met his again, steady and professional, but warm.

"And it's your ship," she added. "You know her better than any schematic ever will. Having you there helps."

She shifted her bag higher on her shoulder and nodded toward the ramp.

"Let's take a look and see what she's been trying to tell you."

A faint, genuine smile touched her lips as she turned toward the entrance, ready to get to work.

James 'Slinger' Antilles

 

[James 'Slinger' Antilles]

James smiled gratefully, relieved, that he could be useful. James was by nature a doer of a person. He didn't like being left to sit around doing nothing while there was work to be done. James was many things, a grifter, thief, smuggler, rebel, even occasionally con man, but he wasn't by nature lazy. At least not when it came to work to be done on his own ship, or benefit. Nodding James took the deep breath one does when they were about to get to work. He took off his hat and coat. It was important to be comfortable while working. No point adding extra stress to hard work.

Walking over to his tool box, James picked out a spanner and started working on the physical mounts and isolated frames. It took a good deal of muscles to get them loosened, but not as much as it would if they were rusted on. James took care to oil his parts regularly, keep things smooth, plus added a nice shine which he enjoyed.

"So what do you do with yourself when you're not working?" James asked curiously casually. "Wait lemme guess, you gotta couple of pet projects lyin round always something half finished that needs get done?"

James grinned and chuckled to show he meant no harm or criticism.

One of the reasons James couldn't ever give up his ship, was the thought of sheer boredom at settling down. Doing a mundane job, mundane work, mundane life. No excitement, no adventure. Even on the jobs where nothing happened at least James was visiting new places, seeing new sites. Admittedly he was a lousy tourists. James had never been the type to wait hours in line to see an exhibit of art or history. It was the people James was interested in. He liked meeting new people and new peoples. Learning what they were like over a drink or a friendly card game.

As such he was a naturally chatty person. James was curious to see if Ana represented the standard of this world, or was an exception. So far she'd treated him with forthright dignity and fairness. That was big bonus in his books. It made him more curious however not less. In James experience worlds like this were a struggle, as was life most places in the galaxy. People would do just about anything to try and get ahead, or at least fed.

Ana Rix

 

[Ana Rix]

Ana worked in quiet rhythm beside him, fingers moving with practiced ease as she unpacked her diagnostic kit and set it neatly along the edge of an open panel. Small tools were lined up by size and function, as if she hadn't thought about it, habits formed over years of working in tight spaces where efficiency mattered more than aesthetics.

A slim cable slipped into a port. A scanner blinked to life in her palm.

She glanced up at him when he spoke, a faint hint of amusement touching her expression as she listened.

"Honestly?" she said after a moment, her tone easy, unguarded. "I'm… pretty boring."

She checked a readout, frowned slightly, and adjusted a setting before continuing.

"No half-built speeders in the back room. No secret weapons projects. No experimental droids."
A small smile tugged at the corner of her mouth. "I tried that once. It turned into three months of lost sleep and a minor electrical fire."

She slid a panel aside and leaned in, peering at the inner framework.

"Most of the time, when I'm not here, I'm reading. Researching. Pulling down data archives. Old schematics. New firmware updates. Black-market design notes when I can get them."

Her eyes flicked briefly toward him, then back to her work.

"I like knowing how things work. Not just one thing. All of it. Ships. Cybernetics. Medical tech. Comms. Navigation systems. Even agricultural automation, if it crosses my feed."

She shrugged lightly.

"A little about a lot beats being an expert in one thing and helpless everywhere else."

Her scanner chimed softly. She nodded to herself and made a note on her datapad.

"So yeah," she added, glancing back at him with a mild, friendly look. "Work, study, sleep, repeat. Occasionally, eat something that isn't nutrient paste. That's about as wild as it gets."

There was no embarrassment in it. No defensiveness. Just quiet honesty.

"What about you?" she asked lightly. "Besides keeping your ship happier than most people manage with their partners."

James 'Slinger' Antilles

 

[James 'Slinger' Antilles]

James gave small chuckle.

"Heh"

Out of the side of his mouth, a wry half grin accompanying it.

"Honestly? It sounds peaceful, which speaking as someone who's seen enough of the galaxy to know, that's rare. It should be treasured when found. Most people in a peaceful life seem to dream of adventure, those who've been on adventures know that a life of peace is worth…" James paused shook his head with a wry grin as he realised he had been about to spout an adage he didn't really believe. "Well maybe not more than the stars, else I'd be doing it as well, but close."

"I know what you mean about knowing a little about a lot. I knew just enough to know my baby needed repair bad and soon. Wouldn't even known that much if I pretended everything was always going to run smoothly with no need of repair."

"Still it ain't all bad got to come to a planet I ain't ever seen before, that's always a plus. Managed to meet an honest tradeswoman that ain't nothin either." James inclined his head slightly at Ana as he said it.

As they worked James considered her a little more closely. If he'd been just a little younger he'd be flirting something fierce tryin to get her number. Right now the thought wearied him, he was worried about his ship and didn't want to screw up her best shot at repair. Besides he was pretty sure he was old enough to be her father. James wasn't sure when that had become a consideration of his not flirting with a pretty lady but apparently at least in this case it was one. Besides so far they'd been forthright with each other no need to go spoiling or complicating that further.

James barked a laugh at her closing question or perhaps salvo?

"You ain't wrong. I could never hold down a relationship half as long as I do with either of my ships. My last er entanglement in that regard said all my care and attention goes to my ship first, my jobs second, relationships a distant third." James chuckled and shrugged a little regretfully.

"Ah well a life among the stars ain't an easy one, it can get awful lonely in the black of space. Part of why I like a bit of a chatter every time I dock usually with whoever will listen. Mostly I just travel from system to system. I like to say I ain't ever hit the same system twice, but truthfully that ain't so, too many old friends I like to keep an eye on. Still I like seeing new places, meeting new people. Too many people spend their whole lives dreaming of getting out, going away, a life of adventure. Figure I'm one of the few who can do so without signing up to some big government or bad debt to do it."

James shrugged, somehow conveying his contentment with his life in the one movement.

"Bet you meeting some interesting character in your shop though ain't ya?"

Ana Rix

 

[Ana Rix]

Ana listened as he spoke, hands never fully still as she worked. One gloved finger scrolled through diagnostic layers on her datapad while the other adjusted a thin cable along the exposed interface port, her movements practiced and precise. She nodded occasionally, not interrupting, clearly comfortable letting him talk while she focused on the task at hand.

When he finally trailed off, she glanced up at him briefly, a small, genuine smile touching her lips before her attention returned to the circuitry.

"Peaceful is…underrated," she replied lightly. "Most people only realize that after they've spent a few years putting out fires they didn't start."

She shifted closer to the open panel, angling the datapad so he could see.

"Right now I'm running a deep integrity scan on the neural lattice," she explained, tapping a few commands. "Your engine brain isn't corrupted, which is good. What's happening is more like…signal fatigue. The data pathways that feed the scanner are degrading faster than the rest of the system."

A small stream of diagnostic symbols rolled across the display.

"See these fluctuations?" she added, pointing with the stylus. "They shouldn't be there. It's like static in a conversation. Everything else still understands each other, but the scanner keeps mishearing."

She adjusted a component, tightening it carefully.

"I'm going to rebuild the routing layer and re-sequence the firmware," she continued, tone calm and matter-of-fact. "That should stabilize it without ripping the whole system out."

After a moment, she glanced up again, realizing she might be getting carried away.

"Sorry," she added with a soft huff of amusement. "I can keep going if you want, but I know that gets… technical fast."

She set the stylus down and reached for another tool, her movements unhurried.

"As for interesting people," she went on, a hint of dry humor in her voice, "yeah. They come with the territory."

She tilted her head slightly, considering.

"Smugglers, slicers, pilots, collectors, the occasional conspiracy theorist…it's a mix," she said. "But so far, nobody's barged in here trying to hurt me or steal my inventory."

Her eyes flicked to him, faintly amused.

"Which I consider a very solid success rate on a planet like this."

She returned her focus to the exposed systems, still smiling just a little as she worked.

James 'Slinger' Antilles

 

[James 'Slinger' Antilles]

James tried to follow along as she explained the details of her workings to him. Most of it flew over his head, he supposed if he tried, he could concentrate on individual sentences or perhaps individual words, but mostly it just left him shaking his head in confusion. James mind eventually caught up with the crucial bit of information. She wasn't going to have to rip the entire system out.

As she worked James reconsidered his assessment of her age. Not many youths talked of their life of putting fires out, they were too busy starting them. It took age, experience and a good bit of wisdom to come to the realisation that peace is underrated. Plenty of veterans never realised it and too many youngsters actively sought to provoke the opposite. If she was as young as she appeared she was wise beyond her years, even so she lacked the bubbly energy of youth interspersed with the energy crash outs of course. Ana was steadier than that.

James shook his head and made a gesture to continue. Recognising a process that helped one work when he saw one. Ana wasn't the first person to talk aloud to anyone that would listen to work out a problem. James might've even been guilty of it himself a time or two.

"Please continue. I might just learn something useful." James requested.

If it helped her work, James was more than happy to be a sounding board. Even if it didn't he meant what he said, he just might learn something while she worked through her process. Either way James was a chatty person by nature, it wasn't in his nature to tell someone to shut up about innocuous detail, so long as it was within adjacent interests of his own. Anything to do with his ship, had more than his adjacent interest.

James chuckled slightly to himself as she described her usual clientele. It sounded about right. All the usual sorts of characters that one accumulated in meeting throughout the galaxy. James was more than half curious what species some of them might have been, but it felt rude to ask. Nothing worse than an obnoxious tourists asking 'what are you?' even by proxy.

"What's the worst or most interesting job someone's brought you?" James asked with a chuckle.

Ana Rix

 

[Ana Rix]

Ana didn't look up right away when he asked. Her attention was still on the open diagnostics pane, fingers moving in smooth, economical patterns as she rerouted data threads and rebuilt priority queues one layer at a time. A soft-blue holo-interface shimmered beside the workbench, lines of code and signal maps shifting as she worked.

"Worst is usually boring," she said after a moment. "Burned regulators. Flooded processors. People who ignored warning signs until something caught fire."

She paused just long enough to tighten a coupling and reseat a micro-node, then continued.

"Most interesting?" A faint note of amusement slipped into her voice. "Probably an akk dog prosthetic I built a while back. The client had been rebuilding the animal for almost a year. Durasteel reinforcement, ocular implant, neural assist link. Half biological, half machine."

She glanced sideways at him briefly, checking that he was still following, then turned back to the display.

"Keeping something like that balanced is harder than most starship work. Too much signal and you overload the nerves. Too little and it stops responding naturally. Took weeks of calibration."

Her fingers highlighted a section of James's schematic, isolating the unstable pathways.

"Your ship's easier than that," she added calmly. "This is just worn timing lanes. See these?"

She rotated the projection so he could see.

"They're drifting out of sync. Not broken. Just tired. So I'm rebuilding the routing layer and re-sequencing the firmware so the scanner stops fighting for bandwidth."

She leaned back slightly, giving her eyes a brief rest before continuing.

"Once that's done, everything talks clean again. No replacements. No surgery. Just… better circulation."

A small, almost shy smile touched her lips as she glanced at him.

"Interesting jobs usually belong to people who care about what they bring in," she said quietly. "Like you. Or that client."

Then she turned back to her work, already refocusing.

"Alright…give me another minute. I'm stabilizing the last channel."

James 'Slinger' Antilles

 

[James 'Slinger' Antilles]

James sighed and shook his head.

"People not taking care of their machines. Machines are more than just tools, they're instruments, instruments with which one can make music. Having a smooth running machine is like having a finely tuned, well oiled, musical instrument at your fingertips. If one shows the proper care, dedication and love to an instrument it could last lifetimes. There's a reason junkers can be retrofitted, redesigned and modified to your hearts content. They were meant to be updated, meant to be kept in tune."

"The first rule of captaining a ship is love. You take a ship up that you don't love, she'll shake you up and spit you out, sure as a turn in the world, love keeps her in the air, tells you she's hurting 'fore she keens, makes her a home." James said with a sigh.

James raised an eyebrow at learning of the akk dog. He grunted as it had never occurred to him to keep a pet alive through cybernetic enhancements. It made sense though, if it worked on all the various flavours of sentience then why not work on a different animal all together.

"I've thought bout getting a dog, not one of those butt ugly Corellian Hounds mind, maybe Vulptex or a Vornskr if I could get one young enough to rear." James said thoughtfully

"Had a whole pack of cattle dogs as a kid. I miss em." James smiled sadly.

James could respect a man who'd been willing to do anything to keep his dog alive, even if it meant shilling out for a bunch of bio-organic cybernetic parts.

James decided to shut up while she concentrated on the last parts of his ship. He wanted her focused, which meant not being a distraction. What if he said something at the wrong moment and she accidentally ripped something she should in fright? The thought was enough to make a man shudder.

Ana Rix

 

[Ana Rix]

Ana listened to him in quiet focus as she worked, one knee braced against the side of the open access panel while her fingers moved with practiced precision along the exposed circuitry. A slim diagnostic probe rested between two contact points, its indicator light pulsing softly as data streamed across her nearby display.

She didn't interrupt him. She rarely did when people talked about things they loved.

When he finally fell quiet, she adjusted one last connection and eased back slightly, wiping her fingertips on a clean cloth before answering.

"When I was younger, I had a few pets too," she said gently, a faint note of nostalgia threading her voice."Nothing exotic. Just…things that needed care and routine. It teaches you early that maintenance is a form of affection."

Her eyes flicked briefly toward him, then back to her work.

"Same principle with machines," she added. "They don't respond to sentiment, but they do respond to consistency."

She gestured with her chin toward the exposed engine module she was currently re-sequencing.

"This section is stabilizing now," she continued, tapping lightly on the housing. "Once I'm done here, I can run a broader diagnostic sweep on the other systems if you'd like."

Her fingers resumed their careful adjustments as she spoke.

"They might not be showing any issues today," she went on calmly, "but stress fractures, signal drift, minor feedback loops…those like to hide until the worst possible moment."

She glanced up at him again, this time with the hint of a knowing look.

"And who knows what tomorrow decides to throw at you."

Then, with a small, professional smile, she returned her full attention to the circuitry, letting the soft hum of the ship fill the space between them.

James 'Slinger' Antilles

 

[James 'Slinger' Antilles]

James listened, smiled and nodded, he found himself relaxing in her presence. In James world despite feigning otherwise, one tended to be constantly on edge, even your friends could turn on you at a better price. It left a man tense and ready for betrayal from every corner, that was just your friends. There were plenty of open enemies that came with them, ones who'd kill you or worse take you alive and kill you slow. Some of em simply because they enjoyed it.

It was nice to have a regular conversation, with a regular person, whose biggest concern was doing her job well. James could admire that sort of simple life, half the time he thought about getting a simple life like that. A ranch maybe, or even a garage or perhaps if he didn't mind the montomy a regular trade route between two planets just back and forth, over and over until the routine made him want to surrender to it.

James shuddered. Sounded like hell now that he thought of it. Despite it's dangers or perhaps because of their excitements James by and large enjoyed his life. Still it was nice to take a break from the mayhem once in a while and have a nice chat with amiable folk.

"I was going to do a diagnostic sweep anyway, but I'd appreciate the outside professional perspective." James nodded. Whimsical thoughts gone when it came to the care and maintenance of his ship.

James chuckled.

"Ships like this always have one or two problems hiding in the cyber circuits." James admitted.

"While I'm here, I may as well get the full check-up." James almost sighed outloud wondering if it was going to cost him even more to get that done, he believed her when she said she wouldn't try to gouge him unfairly, but he also knew she wasn't going to skimp to charge him what she thought was her fair due.

Ah well best to take care of the ship before your wallet.

Ana Rix