Several days after Reltud had arrived at New Tythas would find Aurelis back at that table, in the desk chair, at the manifest check in. She looked better than last time, but still wasn’t completely herself. Her attitude, spoke mountains of her boredom as the woman had become a grumpasaurus in the last 48 hours.
She was looking through a datapad of the expected ships coming in with supplies and passengers. Someone brought her a caf and set it on the table. Aurelis looked up at the employee and gave a curt nod, as a rather irate looking woman in clothes that looked like she’d been through a housefire stormed up. “ Hey.” “2 minutes.” “No, now.” Aurelis shifted her gaze from the employee to the woman, looking bored and unamused at the same time. “ 2. Minutes.” The woman slammed a hand on the table, knocking over the freshly delivered caf, spilling the liquid over the surface onto Aurelis’s pants, hot and searing. “ I said NOW.”
Reltud would walk up, already scanning his datapad for more odd-jobs to complete, but looked up briefly at the woman.
After a long, withering gaze, he said dryly, “You know, I often find spilling someone’s coffee on their pants is the best way to get their attention as well. You know, not usually in a positive way, but still.”
He went back to his datapad. “Phaelor. You said you have a job for me. These odd-jobs are paying peanuts, and I need income.”
“I do, stick around.”
Aurelis rose from her seat as calm as can be,“ Since you don’t want to wait 2 minutes, you can pay the late fee of this tariff,” she turned to a financial officer nearby,“ Tack it onto their bill.” “Now, what the kriff couldn’t wait two minutes.” Aurelis voice was low, cold and dangerous as she turned back to the woman. She was very, very calm. Definitely not someone who sits at a dock, or sits as a bureaucrat, this steadiness made the woman take a step back. The woman’s eyes flicking towards the pin on Aurelis’s collar as if finally seeing it. Who she had pissed off.
“We were guided to the wrong hangar, and now my ship is damaged and we’re being held here and I have 3 more deliveries to do within the week.” “How many people have you talked to.” “4 and we keep getting run around in circles.” the more the woman talked the more strained she sounded. “Silversun, with me, lets go solve a dire problem.” Aurelis said, pushing emphasis on the word dire like it was something being held with disdain. “Lead the way.” Aurelis stepped around the desk to follow the woman towards the offending hangar.
[Roll Perception Reltud]
Reltud sighed. “Fine, fine. Let’s go get their ship dealt with.”
Reltud would start to follow her, quirking an eyebrow at the knives he could see, assuming that there were more he couldn’t.
“So, what’s the play? Just expedite their departure? Make SE-2 and I repair it before sending them out? Crack skulls until people stop acting like they’re paid to scroll the holonet?” There didn’t seem to be an eagerness for cracking skulls, only a simple acceptance that he might be paid to do so.
“ Certainly the first two, the third is yet to be seen.” Aurelis answered. They followed the woman, Phaelor and Silversun flanked by two armed guards. The offending hangar, was indeed too small for the cargo hauler. Whether this was a clerical error, or the Captain’s negligence had not been determined yet, Aurelis turned her head towards one of the guards,“ Pull the records for the hangar and the ship.” He nodded and pulled back, heading for the ‘air-traffic controller’s’ office. The edge of the starboard wing was blackened, scorchlines trailing along the edges of the exterior plates towards the main body. She looked at Silversun,“ You’re up, see what can be done to fix this issue, report your findings before you start.”
[Roll Mechanics or Perception, don’t forget your bonuses and feats]
Reltud walk up to the ship. “Permission to pull their sensor logs for the damage?” He didn’t wait for an answer, plugging in his Device Interface H.U.D. to the docking computer and immediately searching for the cause of the damage. “SE-2, while I’m doing this, use my datapad to cross-reference the damage against historical diagnostic data. Look for patterns consistent with pilot error and those consistent with damage caused by dock workers. We won’t assume they’re trying to screw us, but nor will we assume they’re victims.” Reltud would continue searching, as SE-2 said, “Oh, yes, of course master, I’m sure a droid like me has nothing better to do than read repair manuals for you. Such a wonderful use of my abilities.”
Aurelis stood by as Reltud worked, with her arms crossed over her chest. While he and his non-too-pleased droid ran their diagnostics, some minutes passed, and the security detail returned with a tablet. He did not look happy, and once Aurelis looked over the tablet, scrolling a bit as she read the records, her expression didn’t change. “ Bring the controller in, and the captain of the ship in Desh-8.” The security detail nodded once and disappeared. Still with the tablet in hand Aurelis turned towards the female captain,“ It appears there’s a larger issue at hand, the damage to your ship will be fixed, the tariff fee removed… a little patience while Silversun here finds the problems and gives an estimate of how long it will take to get your hauler back in the sky.”
Reltud looked up. “Looks like we’ve got a gash running alongside the starboard hull, pierced the first two layers. My guess? Tried to stow a ship too big in a hangar too small, and then put a ship next to it. I’m guessing…. an hour for a patch job? Much, much longer if we actually want to replace the parts, but since it didn’t pierce too deep, welding on a patch shouldn’t be an issue.”
“ And the interior fire damage?” Aurelis asked.
Reltud lets out a long sigh. “Honestly? A mop and bucket, and some basic repair parts. My guess is the system was screaming it was being attacked, and the fire suppression system got knocked into activation. So the suppressant got into electrical parts, caused some electrical discharge, and started a minor fire. Nothing too serious. Maybe…. an additional hour or two? The patch can just be welded on and checked for integrity, the electrical parts will require a bit of calibration after they’re replaced.”
“Get to work then,” Aurelis said calmly, handing him an access card to the hold that carried tools and parts the dock kept on hand for situations like this. “ Out in the hall turn left, two doors down on the right you’ll find the hold for wires and spares parts and soldering spools.” Aurelis turned back to the captain,“ 3 hours it seems, will be how long you are held up from here. If your crew assists, I’m sure it won’t be that long.” The tension in the Captain’s shoulders seemed to ease, though she was still stiff.
[Roll Mechanics, the higher the result, the less time it takes to fix. So like 10 minutes per 2. ex: a roll of 10 takes 50 minutes off those 3 hours]
Reltud looked at SE-2. “Go and get the parts, while I get started here. They want their ship repaired, they can assist by staying out of my way, and, of course, pointing out all the…. nonstandard modifications they’ve made, so I don’t end up frying myself.”
SE-2 snapped off an incredibly sarcastic salute, and started to walk, far slower than it needed to, to the supplies.
“All right, listen up,” Reltud said, addressing the crew. “You don’t want to be stuck here, and I don’t want to have to figure out whatever ‘fixes’ you geniuses developed on your own. So you stay out of my way, and you only pipe up to tell me when I’m about to touch a deathtrap. First step, get to work. I’m a mechanic, not a kriffing janitor, so your first step is to clean out all of the fire suppression foam while I work on patching the hull.”
Reltud got to work, with SE-2 arriving an excruciatingly long time later, almost a half hour. “Finally. SE-2, hold the patch pieces in place while I weld.”
“Oh, yes, master. Of course. We PK series excel at mindless manual labor. Oh. Wait.” As SE held on the patch, Reltud welded, spending approximately forty minutes welding, and quadruple-checking, the patch job, to ensure the hull would hold.
In the meantime, the captain of the other ship who had taken this hauler’s hangar was himself, hauled into this hangar. The traffic controller was also escorted into the room after finding someone to sit his seat for now.
Aurelis looked over the controller,“ Would you like to explain this discrepancy?” she asked, handing over the tablet. The controller looked calm at the onset, but Aure could feel the man’s hands shaking as he took the tablet.
“This, is not my doing.” “Really, then why did you authorize him,” she pointed at the male captain,“ to land in a priority hangar, and move her ship,” she motioned to the female captain, then to the damaged ship,“ Into a hangar too small, resulting in damage and delay.” The controller shook his head. “ Who is paying you a kickback to get their luxury goods sorted first.” The controller sealed his mouth and just kept shaking his head. Aurelis plucked the tablet out of his hand. “ Until you want to admit who is bribing you, the cost of the ship repairs, the mechanic’s time, and any damage resulting in the delay of the building supplies this one is delivering will be reimbursed by your salary. For initial costs, that’s 267 credits. And you are suspended from work until further investigation is concluded.”