"God damn it, Annie, I told you not to touch that!" Garry shouted at the girl from across the cramped bridge. A vein popped out on his temple as his face reddened in anger.
"But I thought it might -" the girl started to explain, but Garry roared at her to "get the hell out" before she could finish. Almost in tears, she fled the compartment.
Muttering to himself, Garry sat down at the engineering console again and scrolled through a list of all systems aboard the ship. Several reported to be damaged but most were unscathed and working normally. He isolated the damaged systems and sorted them by importance to the vessel's continued functioning. Then he sent the list to the mechanics and engineers Trenton Outpost had dispatched to help with the repairs of the craft.
"Garry, the mechies are gonna get to work now," Clyde announced over the intercom.
"Good. Tell them to hurry up," Garry replied exasperatedly. He then slouched in his seat and retrieved a flask of whiskey from his jacket's pocket. Taking a drought of the spirit, he leaned over the console in front of him and accessed the external video feed of the past three hours. Forwarding through it, he searched for the moment when the pirate Corran Sei opened fire at The Goldfish without a warning, taking out the ship's shield with a shot from his bomber's antimatter cannon.
"This way please," Clyde said to the group of Universal Shipping engineers that entered through The Goldfish's airlock. He walked ahead of them toward the engine compartment. Without a word the half dozen men followed him. They're tool cases rattled with all sort of equipment and their overalls made the sound of plastic sliding over synth-wool as they marched down the tight corridors of the ship.
"Niiiice," one of them commented when they passed the vessel's living room. Clyde wasn't sure whether the engineer had meant the more or less luxuriously outfitted compartment, or Carla, who was lying on a couch in nothing but a bikini. Clyde assumed he could guess what the man had referred to.
---
Annie walked through the corridors, sulking. Why did Garry always have to be so mean to her? He wasn't that way to Carla. And he hardly even knew her! While Annie had been with him for years. She couldn't think of a reason for his behavior.
She was still lost in her thoughts when Clyde rounded a corner just ahead of her. Behind him were five or six strangers.
"Hey, Annie," Clyde said, looking at her worriedly. "Were you crying?"
She hadn't noticed that she indeed had been crying. A lone tear still clung to her cheek, not willing to fall off like the others had.
"Oh, it's, uh, it's nothing," Annie lied. She knew Clyde wouldn't believe her, but he wouldn't press the matter either. Instead he turned to the men that were waiting behind him, pointed in the direction of the engine compartment, and gave them a datapad. When they had marched out of hearing range, Clyde rapped his left arm around the girl's shoulder and squeezed lightly.
"So, what's up?" he asked in the friendly tone he always used when he talked to her. Annie liked him. He wasn't like Garry. He didn't treat her like a dumb piece of dirt. Instead he was always nice to her, tending to her when she was upset or hurt. Like a brother, almost.
"It's just... it's just Garry," she muttered, suppressing a new wave of sobs. "He's always so awful to me."
Garry chuckled a little. "Don't worry, Annie. He likes you just as much as I do."
Annie looked at him as if he was demented. "Like me? He always insults me and yells at me!" She couldn't believe that Clyde was actually ignorant enough to believe Garry had any positive feelings for her at all. But again he chuckled.
"Oh Annie," he said with a grin. "He's only trying to impress Carla. And since you're the only other girl on board," he squeezed her again, playfully, "he doesn't want you to be around him as much. So that he can concentrate on her."
Carla smirked when the engineers passed by the living compartment. All of them had taken a quick peek at them, but one had even commented on her appearance. She loved messing with men. So easy to manipulate. After contemplating whether she oughta ask one of them to "help her with moving the couch," she decided to just go back to reading her magazine and let the guys do their work first.
She was just reading about the newest fashion trend on planet Malta when she heard two people talking a bit further down the corridor. It sounded like... Clyde. Isn't he with the engineers? she thought. The other voice must have been that girl's, Annie. Thinking of her made Carla smile. Such a nice girl. Though it sounded like she was about to cry. She wondered what the two were talking about.
---
Garry was slouching in a seat at the engineering console, drinking from his flask of whiskey again, zapping through the ship's internal security cameras the way he often did when he was bored. Since they were stuck here at Trenton Outpost until those more or less competent wannabe-mechanics were done fixing The Goldfish, he didn't have much to do. No piloting, no shooting, no seeing interesting place, no meeting interesting and hopefully attractive females. He missed the last bit the most. And that although they'd only been moored here for two days so far.
Could've been a lot worse, he thought. Good thing we had the shields up. He remembered the adrenaline pumping through him when he was taking evasive maneuvers while the Sei was tailing The Goldfish. Had one antimatter torpedo passed by the shield, he and the others would've been dead.
Lazily switching from camera feed to camera feed, he finally came upon two that were interesting. One showed Clyde and Annie talking to each other in a corridor. Wish we had microphones. The other let him take a peek at Carla in her bikini. Garry grinned.
"Are you sure?" Annie asked Clyde. His reasoning for Garry's behavior didn't seem too plausible to her.
"Sure I'm sure," he replied laughing. "I suggest you go to the bar with Carla and have a nice time. Maybe you'll meet a nice guy there."
Annie grinned. If she found a guy only half as friendly as Clyde, she'd be happy. She nodded and ran off toward the living compartment.
---
Clyde watched the girl round the corner before he turned on his heels and headed down toward the engines.
The engineers had already gotten to work on some of the easily accessible damage. They were chatting among each other as they fiddled with their tools, so Clyde just stood there, leaning against a wall, watching. After a few minutes he lost interest and decided to go check on Garry on the bridge.
"Heeeey," Garry laughed when Clyde entered the small compartment. The space smelled of liquor, and Garry seemed to be the source of it.
"You've been drinking," Clyde stated neutrally. He didn't like Garry a whole lot. And he really didn't when he was drunk.
"Sure, why not," Garry lulled. Then he leaned forward in his seat and muttered, "Been flirting with Annie, eh?"
Great, Clyde thought.
"No, why?"
Garry chuckled. "Don't lie to me. I saw it on the vid." He took a swig from a flask he clutched in his right hand and pointed at a screen nearby with his left. "Wanna screw her, don't you?"
Clyde clenched his fists. He really didn't like drunk Garry.