Star Wars Roleplay: Chaos

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Stupid Junk

Kurt Meyer

Let Me Push That Button
[member="Fennec"]

"Stupid piece of junk." Kurt said in a loud sigh as he slumped back against the support strut of his ship, the vessels hyperdrive sitting out in the open in front of him.

The ship's hypderdrive was malfunctioning, or rather, Kurt had broken it during a nasty encounter with some pirates. He had been tasked by the company to deliver some Corusca gems to Empress Teta, the delivery had all been fine and well until pirates had snagged him out near the core. Somehow they'd managed to get an interdictor to pull him and other ships out of Hyperspace, of course he'd managed to evade them for a time, and eventually through the clever use of his own hyperdrive he'd managed a micro-jump across the system. Doing that allowed him to get away from the pirates but had the unfortunate effect of frying half the drives systems.

It still worked, just instead of being a class two, it was a class seventeen.

That simply wouldn't do for his job.

Kaile had wandered off on one of her little personal missions, going out of the system and heading towards the outer rim, when he'd asked where she was going she had simply given him the excuse of family. Of course, that left him alone, stranded on this blasted trade station. The good news was that the company was doing some shifting in its payment plans, meaning he wouldn't have a delivery for quite some time, hopefully he could get the drive fixed by then and everything would be okay.

That assumed that Kurt would actually be able to fix the damn thing. He had been a pilot for nearly all of his life, had been a pod-racer and had even worked with the Republic Navy, but he was not a mechanic. He knew a few things, simple things, like redirecting powerflow and making sure the power core didn't overheat, but actually fixing the damned thing? No, that hadn't been his job.

If he couldn't fix it? Well, he had always been a good liar.
 
Space Stations: a star-mouse's preferred pit stop.

Melting pots of the galaxy's drifter community - all manner of race, creed, and title collected here in this tiny tin can of the big black. [member="Samael Rekali"] had stopped for a refuel, his first true outing with the young Urchin acquired not but a few days prior. To his delight he'd found that the ship seemed to be in an improved mood thanks in part to the attention of the girl. It was a long ways away from operating on all cylinders, but having a few more working lights could never hurt.

He'd given her a tiny stipend of credits to get some rations for them both, putting a strange amount of trust in the child that had been fending somewhat successfully for herself for who-knew-how-long. She had yet to say a word but had snatched away the allowance and darted off with purpose.

A mouse knew it's way around the thicket, especially a hungry mouse - didn't matter where that thicket was. Just follow the smell of the food vendors and fill your bag, girl.

Fill it she did. Amazing how far such a short amount of credits and a quick hand went. Though Sam would come to learn quite quickly that she was of a particular palette. No amount of meat had managed to find its way into the pack. Guess Sam was about to become a vegetarian.

Wending her way back through the ships in a lop-sided spindle-legged gait, the one-armed girl hefted about the weight of her bag while simultaneously stuffing her face with some sort of deep-fried, suger-coated vegetable wrap.

"Stupid piece of junk."

She came to an abrupt halt, cheeks full and lips caked with powdered sugar, a dribble of grease rolling down her chin. Did someone say junk? Grey eyes searched, following the sound of clattering tools until she rounded the backside of a downed vessel to find a man slumped in self-defeat. Chew chew. The Urchin approached, staring first at the man and second at the naked bulk of the hyperdrive, pupils going wide.

Chew chew swallow. Fennec wiped her mouth on the sleeve of her oversized leather jacket before pointing at the mechanical beast with her lunch. No words spoken, only strange gestures. This was the language of spacers lost in translation.

[member="Kurt Meyer"]
 

Kurt Meyer

Let Me Push That Button
[member="Fennec"]

For a moment he didn't say anything.

There was a pause as he tried to decipher exactly what the hand gestures meant, at first he thought they might have been some form of lost sign language and that the girl was mute. That was quickly tossed out the idea window as he heard her chewing loudly, though in theory she could still be mute, just a very loud eater. Either way, he simply stared for a moment, trying to think of what this girl could possibly be trying to say to him.

His eyes narrowed, and then slowly he nodded.

"Uhh..." Kurt trailed off. "Sure?"

He wasn't exactly sure what he had agreed to, but...well why not?
 
CLUNK. Bag met ground and landed in a sad, squashed sort of state, watching silently after the girl as she stepped forward and around the hyperdrive. Her grey eyes scanned every inch of visible metal and circuitry, giving no hint of scrutiny so much as...familiarity. Like reading a book in a language one knew. Back by Kurt he suddenly found her lunch shoved at his chest and his tool chest absconded from wherever he left it.

Like a fish out of a net she wriggled free of her oversized jacket and tossed it with her bag, revealing that she had, without a doubt, only one arm. This did not seem to hinder her as she leaned forward to inspect the open paneling that the man had previously been working on.

Without hesitation the girl lifted her only hand and began sorting through.

[member="Kurt Meyer"]
 

Kurt Meyer

Let Me Push That Button
[member="Fennec"]

Kurt didn't say anything, though his eyebrows did raise slightly.

It wasn't every day that you saw a one armed teenager pretending to be a mechanic, and the way she acted about the hyperdrive it was rather clear that she was indeed a mechanic, or at least she thought of herself as one. Kurt had to admit that he never had much luck with these sorts of things. In the Navy he had always relied on the engineers to fix the damage he did. Those guys had been great, a tad angry with him at all times, but always great.

"So uhh." Kurt said quietly, looking over the girls shoulder. "Know a lot about hyperdrives?"

Great conversational starter really. He doubted that she would actually be able to fix it, mostly because he was entirely sure that in trying to fix it himself he had done more damage in the long run.
 
Girl did not reply.

Instead she continued to fiddle with the internal mechanics and wires, using her single arm to fish through the opening and feel about. There was a curious nature to how she did this - it didn't seem as though she were looking for physical flaws, but sampling the electronics through various areas. Jigger a few things, push her fingers against the circuitry. Wait - a bit like how Kurt was presently waiting for a response in their conversation.

Rejigger, re-position, wait.

Her nose twitched.

Withdrawing her arm, she stood back and moved around the massive bulk of the hyperdrive, diminutive form slowly working its way along the frame. She touched at different areas, perhaps checking for a pulse, opened a few other maintenance panels, checked there too. At last she came to a stop towards the off-side, opposite of Kurt.

His tool box slowly began sliding across the floor on its own accord. Don't mind me, just a toolbox doing toolbox things.

[member="Kurt Meyer"]
 

Kurt Meyer

Let Me Push That Button
[member="Fennec"]

Kurt stood awkwardly for a moment.

Trying to start a conversation with someone that wasn't answering was rather awkward, but then again so was just standing there and watching her work. Usually when mechanics were fixing things that he had broken they preferred to yell at him about what he had done to the thing they were fixing. He had experienced that more than once while in the Republic Navy. The grease monkeys on the ship had always been rather angry when his fighter had come back with dents and a half broken ion engine. Kurt remembered one time when he had returned with the blaster cannon barrels completely bent.

That had been an awkward conversation.

As it turned out though, silence was far more awkward then being yelled at. When he was being yelled at he could at least offer some excuse or a winning smile dashed with some charismatic saying about how he did what he had to do, but in silence...well it just felt like he was being judged. A frown pulled at his lips, and Kurt slowly slunk closer towards the girl.

"Uhh...Need a hand with anything?" His face contorted as he realized what he said, his eyes widening slightly.

Maybe silence was better.
 
Kurt's toolbox hit his foot mid-slide. It rattled like a small blind dog that had walked into a wall, backed up a beat, then hovered forward into his foot again.

Bonk. Rattle. Bonk. Clank.

Girl's head popped out from around the hyperdrive, wide grey eyes searching around for that wayward toolbox. When she saw it stuck at his foot she reached around and pointed at it, eyebrows raised. It was needed apparently.

[member="Kurt Meyer"]
 

Kurt Meyer

Let Me Push That Button
[member="Fennec"]

This was perhaps, one of the strangest interactions that Kurt had ever taken a part in. Generally when people fixed things they spoke and cursed, offering some sort of suggestion on what not to do next time. This girl...well he really was wondering if she was mute. The question could have been posed, but he decided that he'd already made enough of a fool of himself already.

With one hand he scooped up the tool box and offered it to the girl.

He tried to smile. Throw her a bone.

Briefly it went through his head that Kaile might have been overall better at this situation. The former waitress had always been quite good at getting people to talk whether in a friendly or rather hostile manner. He should have asked her how she did that, maybe after this experience he would.
 
Without a word she took the box and dropped it at her feet, nudging the top open with the toe of her boot. The tools shifted about in his box without any physical effort of her own - little drawers pulling open and closing as if a ghost were rifling through it. Finally a single tool presented itself. It wasn't quite what she was looking for but with the limited assortment it would have to do. Urchin bent to snatch it up and went back about her work.

She wrenched and yanked, banged and grunted before finally prising free a seal that had melted shut due to overheating, causing oil to back up in the system. That backup began to freely drizzle from the opening and pool on the floor below - hyperdrive oil was not cheap, but the remnants were spoiled. Fen pulled her arm free, covered in oil and grease, and presented the man with the seal.

He would need a new one and more oil. A costly repair.

[member="Kurt Meyer"]
 

Kurt Meyer

Let Me Push That Button
[member="Fennec"]

Oh.

Kurt eyed the small part, leaning in towards the girls hand and raising an eyebrow. His own palm came up and wiped away the much from the burned out seal. He thought that he recognized the part, though what it's actual name was he couldn't quite recall. He did recall however that replacing it was a tad on the expensive side. The Courier grumbled slightly, frowning and thinking about his options. He couldn't really go anywhere without a hyperdrive, but replacing the seal could get incredibly expensive depending on which vendor he used on the station.

His lips turned into a frown, then his eyes settled on the girl.

An idea formed in the back of his mind, something that seemed a tad far fetched. "Can you rig it?"

He wouldn't mind the idea of having a...less than perfect hyperdrive, especially if it could last for two or three jumps. That way he could make it to a junk world and find the part he needed on the cheap instead of purchasing it from a wholesale vendor here. Kurt wasn't made of money after all.
 

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