Long overdue maintenance

Posted on Saturday October 19th, 2019 @ 15:44 hours by M'erah & Mercy

Mission: Hot Couture
Location: Shuttle Bay, Deck 15, S.S. Fawkes
1353 words - 2.7 OF Standard Post Measure

M'erah stood in the middle of the shuttle bay, shoulders slumped, eyes nearly closed because of the restless nights. They were expected to give the shuttle a good once over before taking it out into the atmosphere, "It does attract a lot of attention like this. Did the Captain say anything about giving it a new paint job?" The cat looked at the bright red colours and the medical insignia which he was pretty sure hadn't been used in about 30 years, and seemed to be indicating the medical services provided by this shuttle where local to 'Not Rangalor'.

"Captain said to get her ready. I assume that includes the paint job." Mercy flicked an ear. "Let's start at the beginning though, see if she'll boot up at all." she mused, opening the shuttle hatch and ducking inside.

A small and thoughtful nod from M'erah indicated that he agreed, he hadn't seen this shuttle in the time that he had been on the ship, let alone worked on in or booted it up, "How come you'rrre familliarrr with Federrration tech?" He asked as he followed the wolf woman inside.

"Spent two-plus decades in Starfleet working as Engineer." Mercy mused, folding herself into the pilot's seat with the grace of someone practiced-but-rusty. "Oof. I'm not as young as I used to be, that much is clear." as she started flipping switches, trying to power the shuttle up. "Spent more hours working on tin cans similar to this than I care to remember." The Sirran frowned, repeatedly flicking a big red toggle with nothing happening. "Left side wall, second panel from the right, about waist height. Can you open that and check the fuses?"

M'erah moved over to the indicated panel and pushed it to release the latch that held it back, "I was always going to end up on a civvie skiff. My parents always pushed me to go for a spot in the Academy" He shook his head, "I knew that wasn't for me, so I considered enlistment." Then a shrug, "turns out, also not for me." He looked inside the pannel and quirked an eyebrow at what he encountered, "This fellow's encounter with Starfleet also turned out to be short and agonising" He grabbed a dead vole and showed it at the Sirran, "Must've bitten down on a live wire."

Mercy scrunched up her nose. ".... I've eaten worse. Still, best get that out of here, dispose of it properly. And wash your hands when you come back." she mused, her voice resonant as she rose from her seat and headed to the exposed panel, ready to reconnect the wiring.

It only took a little while before M'erah returned, absentmindedly he licked his hand when he stepped into the shuttle, "You know, the prrroblem with Voles, they rrrarrrely live a solitairrry lifestyle." He perked his ears and tried to ascertain if he could detect any more of them with just his own Caitian senses.

"That's easy to solve." Mercy mused, wiping her brow. She'd reconnected the wiring, replacing the chewed one. Now the only evidence remaining was a scorch mark on the bulkhead. "We bring primary power and life support back online and cycle out the oxygen while we repaint the outside of the shuttle. Anything breathing inside will suffocate." Beat. "We'll deal with the smell later when we have more time." the large Sirran flicked an ear, motioning at the pilot seat. "Can you try primary power? Should work now."

M'erah stepped over to the main control panel and scanned it for a moment before locating the primary power switch, "Engage." He purred a bit at his own quip as he pressed the button.

Nothing for a moment. Then a flash and a loud crackle, the sound of electricity arcing and a yelp from the compartment in the shuttle. Mercy fell back, landing on her behind with a heavy resounding THUD, the fur on her muzzle singed. "Waah~ ... Oof. Ok. This is not a failure, this is us discovering a way not to do it. Cycle power off please. Let's try this again." she harumphed as she got back up again.

"I know I don't have yourrr keen sense of smell..." M'erah coughed a bit from the smell of burnt hair before reacting to the request to cycle the power off came, tapping a few buttons to power down the engine, "done." He turned to look at the Sirran sitting on the floor, a small bit of smoke still emenating from the black fur, "Arrre you surrre you'rrre a licenced engineerrr?"

"What, you want the job? Arm wrestle you for it." said the engineer with biceps the size of M'erah's thighs. "No? Didn't think so." as she stood up again, rolling her shoulders a bit. "Not my fault this rat's nest of a power distribution manifold is not up to standard spec." she grumbled, diving into the wiring again.

Despite M'erah's bulk he was more built for speed and agility than raw power, "I'd rrrun a 100 meterrr dash against you forrr it," he shot back before sitting back in the pilot's chair, "Is anything ever up to standard spec around here?"

"The amount of sass from deck hands is." Mercy flashed a grin. "Try again. Should work better this time. Less explosions."

"Sometimes, less is morrre." M'erah reached out and started up the sequence again. This time there was that familiar hum and purr of the shuttle electronics booting up, "well, therrre we go." He looked back and gave a toothy grin at Mercy.

"Nice." Mercy stepped back, tail giving a lazy wag. "Right. Next step. I go to program life support to cycle the oxygen. Can you go and find the paint we need? We'll paint the hull while life support cycles."

M'erah nodded and lazily got off the pilot chair, stretched his legs and arms as he started for the door, "Two cans of inconspicuous black paint, coming rrright up!"

[Fifteen minutes later]

The hull of the shuttle was starting to look a lot better with the medical colouring being washed away by the black thick paint the Engineer and Deck Hand where applying to it, "You know, it's almost soothing." M'erah commented as he started another patch of red and replaced it with black, "can you believe humans once made a song about painting stuff black?" He asked with a look that belied his excitement.

"Knowing humans it's probably some 'deep and edgy' song about how their soul is black and they want everything else to be that way too." Mercy said with air quotes. "They like that kind of overly edgy symbolism, I've found."

M'erah nodded a bit, "Caitian music isn't as good though." Somehow the cat-like vocals usually did little other than put people off from listening to it. They were pleasing frequencies for the Caitians themselves but for few other creatures in the universe, "I think there was one experiment to see if it could be used to suppress Tribbles' procreation."

Mercy laughed. "That bad, huh." she smirked. "Gotta agree with you though, they know how to make some good music."

"Any favourites?" M'erah felt their current task could benefit from a nice melody to distract them from looking over at the chronometer every ten seconds.

"Anything melodic and energetic, really." She did like her metal, though she knew it wasn't for everyone. "As long as there's power in it. You know, music that drives."

M'erah dug around in his pocket for a personal device, called up a music programme and queued up some energetic music, broadcasting it on the internal speakers in the room. Heavy bass in combination with a shredding guitar started to fill the shuttle bay with sound. His tail started to sway with the rhythm as a smirk appeared on his features.

"Mmm. A girl could get used to this music." Mercy smiled, bopping along to the rhythm as she painted.

[OFF]

Mercy
Engineer

&

M'erah
Able Deck Hand

S.S. Fawkes

"I see a red door and I want it painted black
No colors anymore I want them to turn black"