Christo watched the new guy wander off out of the corner of his eye.
"You flown with him yet, boss? I'm hopin he's not like that when he's in the cockpit.
I mean, I've known Marines younger than that an all so he's a man an its his life, yeah? I just wouldn't want him wandering into someone's sights while some thought or other catches his attention."
After a moment, he went back to discussing a run for picking up a supply of Gadolinium in Gallia and dropping it at the IMG shipyards.
A couple of days later Hyun resurfaced from his cave just in time to catch Sunny as he was finishing some things. He hurriedly brought Sunny into his "lab." There were random materials scattered about organized in some form or fashion as to what it would be anyone's guess. In the middle of the room there was a table with a slightly glowing light. Hyun waited for the door to seal as a hiss from the private air supply kicked in. Once the room was secured he tapped the light on the table. The lights grew dim as a 3d holo-projection came into view just off the table. "I finaly finished the modle. He said his face quite possibly being the greatest light source in the room. "Let me know what you think and if you have any questions." He continued as he began scrolling through some things on a second terminal on the wall.
Nesrin wasn’t sure what would happen when she walked into a biker bar, but she’d assumed it’d work like the movies - either everyone would shoot her or they’d crap themselves. What actually happened was a disappointing shade of grey - they ignored her, which irritated her slightly. There was something uncanny about not being the most interesting thing in the room.
Blackport 66. She sniffed, wiping her nasal canals against a three inch knuckle. She’d only been breathing the moribund atmospherics for an hour and she’d already caught something noxious - which was a startling in the ass considering her differently normal RNA made infections practically impossible. Even the germs made no sense in this place. The gravity field was so inconsistent she’d been at point seven gee at one end of the hall and two at the far end - the gym was dialled down to point three, which made her chuckle. These guys aren’t so tough, she bravadoed.
It had taken her a good thirty minutes to find the ‘Rod hangar, even though she’d scanned out the station plan before she’d docked up, the ‘Port was like maze in the height of tourist season with a broken down exit - it was so packed with other people as lost as herself it took a martyrdom of willpower to refrain from carving holes through the pressure walls until she fell into the right compartment.Allah reward me. Nesrin groaned, as she lent against the heat-marked ceramic walls of the hot rod’s hangar. But there was the prize.
A sleek, bronze crescent, trailing wires and maintenance cables, her service hatches open, her port side discoloured, her star shield cracked, her engine bay sliced open. Nesrin was surprised - she expected it to be trashed.
Pretty good, Sunny. Remind me to treat you as a man of your word. Mind if I dig around inside? The guys at DockSec did their job properly and didn't trust me with the DefLock codes.
THE SYNDIC LEAGUES
(A co-operative of Rheinland's Shipping Unions, retired from a life of piracy.)
Sunny would later come into the hangar where the ship would be located to take another look at her and would noticed the lights already lit up. He heard some noises too and would walk on over to see who was working on it...
"Hyun? Yeah around?" He walked into the hangar and looked up again to see the familiar brilliant-looking Starflea staring back at him. He noticed sticking out from inside a pair of legs poking out but not matching Hyun's. "Ey how's the view from in there." He called out.
Suddenly there was a rustling of papers and boxes from a corner of the garage. Hyun stood at attention well as best one could manage in a dream state. "Ready and rearing t..." the rest of the sentence faded off into slumber land. Hyun was well known by this time to often be caught sleeping in different areas of the ship due to the various projects he oversaw. As he fell asleep standing his body lost its balance and tumble to the floor. "Huh; hey. he startled awake ready to take on the floor in a match to retake his sleep however he soon realized the foolishness of his endeavor and came to freshly woken up. "Ah Sunny I didn't see you there... I am still having trouble with the heat issues and power transfer systems. The simulations just keep coming up with giant balls of fire. He smirks at his end remark but hides his childish side with a morning cough. As his adrenaline settles he notices the pair of legs sticking out of the ship. "Ah is this some fresh brains for the operation?" He asks Sunny, he then patiently waits for replies to his many comments.
Elhertani’s neodymium knuckles knuckles delved deep into the guts of the craft, a surgeons hands with the implied violence of a steam press. On her fingertips, thin, membranous lines of silicate pressure transducers probe the stress responses of wires, cables and coils, like a child tugging another child’s hair experimentally to see if it will fall out. Satisfied, Elhertani struggled her hephastusian frame out from the folds of the surface hatch, the zaffre pinpricks of her hollow eyes expanding back to a mimicry of something almost human. A computer’s approximation of a woman.
Someone was moving behind. Beyond focus. Within reach. Close enough to stab or kiss.
Nes snapped around like the abuse end of a bullwhip.
“God damn it, Sunny; provide fair warning if you’re gonna’ oggle. Roadmap to avoiding an early grave: don’t silent walk on a seven foot cybergirl with combat shock and hair-trigger nerves - I nearly buggered up your baby by ripping the fusion phase regulator out of the core. Christ.”
She’d clamped herself around the butt of her lamina with such dead-handed fury she could feel the polymer buckling under her touch. Straining a smile, the cyborg lifted her hands away from her sidearm, splayed her steel fingers in the air in what she hoped was a universal example of deference and exhaled, low and slow, the practiced hypernea of a soldier whose seen too many shells.
“I’ve been digging at the fusion spool itself - don’t get me wrong, whoever wired this thing is a mean weld, and clearly knows a thing or two about antimatter initiated fusion process, but you run this power core to the wire and you’re going to get scalar distortion blooms. In english, it’s going to stall when you turn the key, and nobody wants a banger that won’t turn over two-point-seven times out of twenty starts.”
Nes habitually chewed her lip with a row of polydantium wolf teeth. Her mouth filled with copper. God damn, she has to stop doing this.
"So whose the Kus' you've got working on the corner? One of your boys? I don't see any surface tats."
THE SYNDIC LEAGUES
(A co-operative of Rheinland's Shipping Unions, retired from a life of piracy.)
"Huh... sounds like there's still a hell of work on her left." He grins a little as he looks on both of them. "And yeah... Hyun this is Nesrin, Nesrim Hyun... I'm sure you both will get along. Anyway, we are going to need a report on progress soon. Perhaps there are some things needed to get as well or we need some extra hands for some things. The engine too... right right..." Sunny says as he also wanders into talking and thinking to himself.
He shakes the thought off for the time being. "In any case we need a clear direction to follow and that involves getting a good concept down for the engine. Hyun, you said you had something down for that? I remember also another idea involving using the propulsion system of a Cruise Distributor and scaling that up. Christo mentioned something along the lines of there being a rule of cubes to be able to do that sort of thing. Well... whatever it is we come up with.... she's got to have the potential to go faster than ever.
"But you're right, Nesrium, we need to handle as well the other parts to makes sure she runs as smooth as we can..." He says, putting his hand in his pocket and looking up at the ship.
Hyun stood there for a moment oogling at that masterpiece that towered infront of him. His Eyes quickly picked up on the visible atrificial elements that he saw and he began to wonder if any part of her was organic (though he new at least some of her was organic). He continued to stare with an inventors grin as his mind raced trying to fit the puzzle together. That is until he saw her face and realized what he was doing. he Quickly straighten up and introduced himself properly. "Hyun Shik, head engineer of the AFC Speed Wing." He stated maybe a little too fast and definitely flushed. "It is good to meet you. Any help you can give is greatly appreciated." He finished with a low bow something he never could quite shake off from his home country when he was truly apologetic.
The bion grinned, extending her hand that'd intimidate a spade.“Nesrin Khan, chief quartermaster for the fighter engineering with Battlegroup Auxesia - you know, purple cyborg people with flechettes up their arses. I’m a great fighter mechanic, terrible fighter pilot. A do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do type.””
Nesrin slapped the star flier’s flank, patting it with the respect of a rider with an obedient mustang.
“This fighter’s small. Real small. I’ve worked on component miniaturisation before. It’s going to be tricky for you to properly stuff her with components. Pass me an auto spanner.”
THE SYNDIC LEAGUES
(A co-operative of Rheinland's Shipping Unions, retired from a life of piracy.)
Hyun quickly shook the outstretched hand with the biggest grin on his face (along with some slight blush). He didn't hesitate to grab an auto spanner and hand it to her (well after he found it under the pile of papers he had been napping in. He pulled out some paper and started sketching designs on to it. Hyun was great-full for the new brain he was running dry on a lot of ideas and it was good to have someone to bounce ideas off of. "So what do you think of a laser engine?" He asked blatantly.