Rbz27: Need a Fix

General Summary

It took a few days before Benesh, with a rental dunkey, found and rejoined the crew. He was aghast at the damage to the ship, "What did you do to my poor baby?"
But the crew knew all too well the damage to the ship. They had settled into a routine of fixing the parts of the ship that could be fixed -- some of the power and lighting, and parts of the hull that could be resealed. After the initial shock wore off, he joined them in repairs as well. One issue stood out from the other -- something was draining power from the ship's internal grid. Saskia isolated the problem to one of the compartments in the engine room. She pulled the cowling off to reveal a writhing nest of snakes! She jumped back in shock, kicking and killing one of the closest specimens. The rest of the crew hurried over to see what was wrong... maintaining a healthy distance from the writhing mass.
Benesh decided to approach, moving slowly to avoid provoking them. But the snakes hardly reacted, the mass writhing and coiling about one of the engine's power couplings. On a hunch, he tried throwing the switch to cut main power from the engines. The thrum in the ship suddenly cut out, replaced with the whistle of the warm, humid breeze, and the squaks and hisses of the myriad of animals outside. The snakes seemed to uncoil from the compartment as well, spreading out and spilling onto the floors. Getting a better look at them, it seemed they were not snakes at all but some sort of arborial eel, possibly ones that were drawn to, even feeding from, the ship's power coupling. Having lost their object of interest, the eels simply wandered about on the floor, and it took only menial labor to shovel them out of the ship.
That night, they gathered around a tatter schematic of the ship. Without central power, the engine room was now lit by bioluminescent vines and flowers, some of which were starting to grow in naturally. The schematic was scribbled over with notes representing repairs, patched, and components that were beyond saving. As they examine the notes, it quickly dawned on them that they would need outside help getting the ship back into space again. The engine was on its last legs already, and mad dash and crashlanding had done it in for good. To fabricate a replacement, they needed two components: a small but rare and expensive Z-converter for the reactor, and a room sized Z-fitted specialized workshop. Without these, they might as well be shopping around for a new ship.
After some debate, Saskia decided that she would work one of her own contacts -- a old partner in crime that had parted on bad terms. She excused herself to the privacy of her room to connect a vid call to one Alexis Murad. The call connect to Alexis in the midst of... intimate activities, seemingly at some kind of night club. After some convicing, Alexis points Saskia toward Miranda Enterprises's nearby planetside shipyards.

---

Several weeks later, late in the evening, the crew arrive at the Miranda Shipyards in costume. Benesh wore the rugged leathers of a seasoned teamster and Saskia was in middling businessware, complete with a hand tablet. The others were dressed for gardening -- Quinn having drab garb of a practitioner of the faith while Reinhard was in laborer coveralls. They split into two teams: Benesh and Saskia heading for the Z-fitted Workshop and the others heading to find the Z-converter.
The workshops, Alexis had confided, were sometimes flat-packed in a larger Miranda warehouse building for shipping to remote locations, or even off-planet. And once past the guard post, the crew make a beeline for this warehouse. The building was immense in size. It was several floors high, but wider than a stadium in each direction. Pallets of various goods were stored on high shelves, and large beasts of burder stomp down the overlarge aisles, herded by teamsters. Mammoth creatures, with padded digits at the end of its massive trunks, picked pallets off shelves and lowered them down on its tusks onto awaiting rhinotortles.
While Benesh stood mesmerized at this sight, Saskia walked to one of the side kiosks. She had concocted a story involving a broken hand tablet and some forged back-up codes. The clerk helpfully processes the printed codes and handed over some stamped forms as well as something that resembled a long shepherd's hook. He handed that over as well and closed the handful of windows that kept popping up from the terminal. He was already turning to the next in line when Saskia notices that one of the closed windows was some sort of security warning -- clearly someone was hot on her trail!

Report Date

26 Nov 2022

Primary Location

Elysium

Related Plots

• S2. Z-Heist

Related Characters

• Alexis Murad