Part II. - The Engineer
Blake left Tuatha as soon as the ship docked on Aland. But since Sebastian always hurried somewhere, Jimmy wasn't really surprised. He did his usually after-flight check, and than stood up from his chair, stretched a bit and made his way through airlock and into the shipyard. He didn't plan on going there at first, but he figured he might as well try to find some equipement for Tuatha, since he's already here anyway.
His first steps, however, led him to a small bar. There wasn't many people there, since most of the people were working, and Jimmy was gratefull for that. He needed a big cup of coffee, something to eat and a little rest. His stomach was grumbling, because Jimmy didn't eat anything since morning, and even than he only managed to grab small piece of synthpaste, since he was rushing to the Freeport for the cloak. The meal turned out better than he expected. It wasn't anything amazing, but it was hot and there was a lot of it. When he was finally full, he grabbed his cup of coffee, paid for the food and left the bar.
Jimmy wandered through the halls, visiting various small shops, but there was nothing really interesting there, so he slowly made his way to the hangars, where ships and large equipement were sold. He slowly walked through them, checking them for anything interesting, but he didn't really expect to find anything. After all, this was an IMG base, and he had no doubts about who gets the best stuff that finds its way here. Much to his surprise, his expectations were prowen wrong.
In one of the hangars he found several large scanners, lined up in the row for customers to examine them. A young woman was sitting near them, cleaning some small device.
"Excuse me lass," he asked "these scanners are yers?"
She raised her head and looked at him.
"No, not really. I'm just paid for selling them. You want to buy?"
"Depends. Some of them are quite large. Are those for battle ships?"
"Nah. Those here are gunboat or cruiser mostly. Battleship scanners are much larger. We have a few, but they are stored elsewhere."
"Larger? How much? Ye think I could fit one on Corvo?"
"Corvo, huh." She shrugged "Well, it's unusuall, but not really impossible. Corvo is certainly large enough to hold and power it, though you might need to sacrifice a bit of the cargo hold. If you really want I can show you some of the more powerfull scanners... and poke around your ship a bit to see if we can come up with something"
Jimmy smiled.
"There's no harm in tryin', eh? Let's see what ya got. By the way, the name's O'Brian."
She led him to the back of the shop, and through a corridor which ended in a large hall. Several Large crates were stored there, each with detailed descriptions. They walked by them, and she explained what each of the scanners was capable of. It took some time, but Jimmy finally settled with one. It costed him another few hundred millions, but it was in the top shape, better than he would actually expect to find in this place.
While his new piece of equipement was being moved to his ship, the woman examined Tuatha. She was genuinely surprised when she saw the cloak Jimmy bought earlier this day, and she spent quite a lot of time studing it. Her expression slowly turned from awe through disbelief to anger.
"Yo, O'Brian, who rigged this thing?" she shouted from inside of the ship.
"Uh... the guy I bought it from, why? Is there somethin' wrong with the cloak?"
"Something?" She growled, "The whole damn wiring is all messed up! It would probably fry all your power network if you ever turned it on! The guy who did this was complete and utter moron!"
"Oh... Is it really that bad? Can something be done 'bout it?"
"Trust me, O'Brian, it really IS that bad. And yes I can rewire it, connect it properly to the network, but it will take time. And if you want the scanner too, damn it won't be easy. He messed up some of the connections too. Amateur."
Jimmy sighed.
"Okay, I believe ya. Try to fix it if ya can, please, I'll pay ye extra if ya want."
"Oho, I like that! Fine, I'll get on with it. I hope my boss won't be mad I closed the shop for so long, but he isn't exactly paying me much anyways."
She rushed away and returned with a small cart full of tools. She dragged it into the ship and began working. It took her the rest of the day, but when she finally emerged, she had a satisfied smile on her face.
"Now it should be working. It's not optimal and it can still cause some trouble, cause the current power network is not exactly calibrated or prapaired for such drain. Powercore can easily handle it, but wiring might burn. I'd be carefull if I were you."
"Aye, in keep in mind. Now, how mu..." he was interupted by a loud sound. The women pulled a small comm device from her pants and took the call.
"Yes?... What?! Listen, I was working for a customer! ... No! He bought one of your scanners so I had to wire it up! ... Are you serious? You know what, either you drop this bullshit or I quit! ... Yes I'm serious! ... Well, good luck finding someone willing to put up with your attitude!"
She showed the comm back into her pocket and breathed heavily for a few moments, trying to calm down. When she noticed Jimmy's confused expression, she chuckled.
"That was just my boss... well, my former boss now. But nevermind that, I'm actually curious, what are you planing to do with this ship of yours?"
"What do you mean?"
"Only a three kinds of people would bother installing this cloak and scanner on anything smaller than a battleship. Smugglers, those trying to catch them or people who stick their noses where they don't belong. You don't strike me for a cop and this ship isn't exactly practical for large scale smuggling so..." She left the sentence unfinished.
Jimmy couldn't help but laugh.
"If ya have to ask," he said, when he was finally able to catch his breath,"I actually do inted to poke me nose where it does not belong."
"In that case, you're going to need someone who will make sure the ship is going to hold together given how much extra equipement you already installed."
"That's true yes, but why are you... oh, right." He laughed again, when he finally realised what she wanted.
"Consider yerself hired, miss...?"
"Summers. Abigail Summers."
"Well then consider yerself hired, miss Summers."
She grinned.
"Just call me Abby, boss."