Repair Report

                            By:

                         Fox Cutter

05/07/96:

I shuffled through the stack of PADDs in my lap, looking for
one in specific. Finally finding it, I turned it on and
skimmed through the index. I quickly found what I was
looking for, and leaned forward to stab a button on the
control panel in front of me.

In the bay outside of the glass, an alarm sounded. A second
later there was the crack and straining of metal as the roof
slowly started to part, bit's of dirt falling to the floor.

Through the growing hole I could make out one of Prid's many
moons, and hovering above was the outline of a ship blocking
the stars, its gray underbelly softly illuminated by the
lights in the bay.

There was a loud thump as the ceiling opened to its full
width. Hitting the send button on the comlink, I said:
"Okay, lower it down."

The underbelly of the ship split open, and from its cargo
bay slowly lowered my ship. It stopped when the ship was
about 10 feet from the floor.

"Releasing cables." The voice over the comlink told me.
Outside, the five massive cables that were connected to the
ship in different places unhooked themselves and pulled back
into the ship above. My ship settled down against the
gravity lifts on the floor.

"Thanks, guys," I said on the link, "the cash is in your
account already."

There was a beep of the link closing, as the ship moved away
from the opening. Hitting the needed buttons, I closed the
ceiling. Then, following the instructions displayed on the
PADD, I raised the docking struts until they matched the
contours of the ship, and increased the gravity to normal
(the bay had been set up to have a fifth normal gravity,
even though it was on the planet).

I dug through the PADDs again, looking for yet another
manual, the same thing I had been doing all day. Finally
finding the one I wanted, I moved over to a second console,
and punched in the needed commands. There was a bleep, and
the system started to run some basic soundings of the ship's
space frame.

"What'ch'ya doing?" Oriana said over my shoulder.

I jumped a bit, turned and looked at her, "Don't do that."

"Do what?" she smiled innocently.

I shook my head, "Sneak up on me like that."

She leaned forward a bit, "Now why would I want to do that?"

Rolling my eyes, I said, "I don't know, but you seem to
enjoy it."

The lioness chuckled, and gently placed her index finger
right between my eyes, pushing my glasses down a bit.
"You're a silly fox."

I gave her a lopsided grin, "I wish; sadly, I'm just human."

She looked at me directly with her green slitted eyes, her
finger still on my forehead. "Well, maybe we can look into a
way to fix that."

Shrugging, I was about to reply, when there was another
bleep from the computer. I turned around, knocking Oria's
finger off my head, pushed up my glasses, and read over the
screen.

"What's wrong?" she asked me, pulling over a chair.

I shook my head. "Nothing, it just finished doing a basic
sounding of the space frame. There are a few weak spots
along the port side, and in the front. Should be easy to
repair, and the space frame should be able to support a
hypo/hyper drive system combination."

She grinned, "Well that's good."

"Yes," I said, picking a PADD I had set to the side. "Next,
I need to tell the system to strip off the outer and inner
hulls."

Setting the PADD down, I picked up another one which I had
the foresight to mark with a sticky note. Following the
instructions, I punched the needed steps into the computer.
"Ok, that should do it."

Oriana hummed to herself, reading over my checklist,
"Replace the hulls... why not reuse them?"

I looked over at her, "That's a simple one. The outer hull
is designed for hyperspace, but it doesn't have the
shielding needed for hypospace. Without it, boom."

She chuckled, "I can understand that, though I don't
understand why."

"Basic high speed inter-galactic transportation. Hyperspace
works most places, but hypospace is faster. The problem is
unless you have a ship big enough to carry the point
generator, you have to rely on the rings to get in. Very few
verses have even the basics for hypospace, although most
verses have a system derived from one or the other."

She looked at me, shaking her head a bit, her hair flipping
into her eyes. "Great exposition, but what's the point?"

I paused for though, "Not much really, it's just something
I've looked into, and I have a habit of flaunting my
knowledge."

"And you say you have no ego," she said and patted me on the
back.

"Well, most places I don't."

Chuckling a bit, she set the PADD with the checklist in my
hand, "You forgot something on your list."

"What?"

She pointed out the window to the ship. "Naming the beast."

I gave her a evil grin, "I have a few names already. This
and that, a few obscure movie references."

She brushed a strand of her hair from her short muzzle.
"You're not going to tell me are you?"

"Not until the first time I take it out, maybe in a month or
two. It depends on how much of the floor plans I have to
revamp."

Oria tapped the checklist, "Well, I can help speed this up a
bit."

"Yes, please!"

She grinned wide, the raised part in her hair-lip spreading
a bit. "Well I'm not much of an expert, but I can get a
computer system for us."

I grinned back, "That's great! That will take a week and
some off. Though you may want to check the current computer
mountings; if you can get one that needs minimal changes it
will go even faster."

She hugged me, "Thanks! I'll look at it when I can. I have
some other stuff to take care of first, though."

"What?"

Picking up her jacket from where she must have dropped it
when she came in, she said, "Well, I ordered something a
while ago, and I have to go pick it up. It's a long trip
from the closest fold, so it will take a few days to get."

I nodded, "Ah! Well good luck, and be careful... even if
it's an open verse, there are people out there who will want
to hurt you."

"I know, Fox. I will be careful, and just so you feel
better, it is an open verse, and there is a species closes
to mine there."

"That's good. I'll see you then."

"Not if I see you first," she said, putting on her jacket.
Then with a flick of her tail, she left.

-----

This story (AFiW #119) is copyright 1996, 2005 by Fox
Cutter. Hardcopy reprints limited to one per person, all
other rights reserved. This story may not be distributed for
a fee except by permission of the author, and this copyright
notice may not be removed.