Repair Report

                            By:

                         Fox Cutter

5/7/96:

I shuffled through the stack of PADDs in my lap, looking for
one in specific. Finally finding it I activated it, and
skimmed through the index. Finally finding what I was
looking for, I leaned forward and stabbed 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 parts, 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 ship blocking
the starts, it's grey underbelly softly illuminated by the
lights in the bay.

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

The underbelly of the ship split open, and lowered from it's
cargo bay, my ship. It stop lowering 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 where connected to the
ship in different place, unhooked themselves and pulled back
into the ship above.

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

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, then I increased the gravity (the bay
was set up to have zero-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
spaceframe.

"What'ch you 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 seam to
enjoy it."

She chuckled, and gently placed her index finger right
between my eyes, pushing my glasses down a bit. "Your a
silly fox."

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

She looked me in the eyes 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. Turing 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 spaceframe. There's a few weak spots along
the port side, and the front. Should be easy to repair, and
the spaceframe should be able to support a hypo/hyperdrive
system combination."

She grinned, "Well that's good."

"Ya," 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 post-it note. Following the
instructions, I punched in 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 place, but hypospace is faster. The problem is
unless you have a ship big enough to carry the point
generator, you have to really on the rings to get in. Very
few verses have even the basics for hypospace. 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
knowledge."

She patted me on the back, "and you say you have no ego."

"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.
"Your not going to tell me are you?"

"Not until the first time I take it out, maybe 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 on her cat like 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 stuff to take care of first."

"What?"

Picking up her jacket from where she must have dropped it
when she came in, she said, "Well, I ordered something a bit
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.