"Cap'n Galway, 'sa-..."  Her words trailed off when she called her "Charlie," and the smile that lit up her face was like none other.  She bowed her head as her cheeks flushed, chucking as she spoke.  If Kale was trying to flatter, he certainly was doing well.  "Well, ah...ah mean, ah'm...nah, no one 'round these parts hires 'fer nothin' like that.  Most crews, if'n they're lookin' fer someone who'd be fixin', they look 'fer things like history'r years'f experience.  References, maybe even some'f a paper from some'n places sayin' 'ah can do what ah'm doin' an'th such, y'know?"

Kale grinned again at Charlie's look of surprise at his question, his eyes didn't leave hers as she muddled through her answer, "Well, I guess we ain't like most crews then." Kale said, then looked at her seriously, "You got somethin', Charlie - I never seen no one fixin' the way you just did.  If'n you'd take it, I'd like ta offer ya a spot on my crew.  It won' be easy - an' ya'd have ta leave this rock but ... well whattaya say?"

"Ah've...never left Whitefall, 'n I...ah mean..."  She looked back up at Kale, searching his eyes for a moment.  "Ah'd...would ah ever b'able t'come back?"  She spoke innocently, holding her breath as she waited for an answer.

Kale felt a sense of compassion for the girl as she asked her question in a breathless voice, his smile was gentle now, "Well I ain't sayin' never, we'll be flyin' 'bout the 'verse - we'll make some stops back ta Whitefall here'n there, but it would be long time.  I won't lie." he said.

She smiled again, nodding.  "Ah jus'...family's what's important t'me.  S'long as ya say ah'll get t'see them 'gain, then...well...yeah.  Yes."  She smiled bigger as she said yes, sounding more confident the second time around.  "Cap'n Galway, ah'd love t'be yer mechanic.  Jus' let me go home'n get my things, 'n ah can go t'night."

Rhaef had walked up to the doorway of the bridge and was leaning against the frame while most of the interplay had occurred. Seemed maybe he'd have to bite his tongue a bit about Kale bein' too trustin', especially considering his own circumstances. Yet the Bourdain kid had been a total bust, but well, maybe not total, cause his sister seemed to be the real deal. Rhaef knew more than foolin' around with the systems that ran the bird, he just flew them.

He winced when she mentioned burning their house, unlike Kale, Rhaef did know folk who would do that and a whole lot more in Kale's place. As the conversation wound down, he smirked, and exhaled on the cigarette he was smokin', "Bout time we found a decent mechanic, Kale. I've been flyin' her on kid gloves, and well, was always bit 'fraid what would if I had to open her wide, in a run." He stubbed out his smoke, and extended his hand to Charlie, "Name's Rhaef Sorendash, pilot, pleasure to meet you, kid."

Charlene stood up quickly, pulling down the short hem of her dress as she gave Rhaef an embarrassed smile, taking his hand with her free one.  "Rhaef, yea...a pleasure."  She looked back at Kale, and then to Rhaef, taking a step to the door.

"Ah'll go get m'things 'n say mah goodbyes, shouldn't take more'n an hour'r two."  She took another step, tucking a strand of ear behind her hair.  "Sa...ah'll be quick 'bout it, don'cha worry.  Jus' don't be leavin' w'out me."  With those as her last words, Charlene took off through the ship at a quick jog, her bare feet hardly making a sound on the metal floor.  Due to this, they could hear her laughing as she went, the sound of total glee in her voice.

"Seems like you found a live one there Kale, but she does have guts, walking into a ship her brother had just abandonned, and well, she's knows her stuff." Rhaef said with a ghost of a smile, the girl was another sign of a new life, a life where people did not judge him on what his past was.

Kale smiled and shook his head as the girl bounded off the bridge, her excited laughter floating in from the cargo bay, "She is somethin' ... 'lil Charlie - I think she'll fit in nice 'round here ... welcome ta Destiny ..."

~*~*~*~*~*~ E N D   F L A S H B A C K ~*~*~*~*~*~*~

With the memory fresh in his mind Kale put a hand on Charlie's shoulder and turned her to face him, "Come on, 'lil Charlie, we can do this.  I ain't ever seen nothin' that you couldn't fix, yer the best ruttin' mechanic in the 'verse - you can fix this too.  Just think.  What do we need?" he spoke calmly and directly, "We'll get through this ... we gotta ..." he said.

Ren watched the Captain and Charlie, and despite the conditions it was good to see them talking the last few months since Rhaef left had been hard on both of them, and he hoped that this would help bring them back together. "Yeah, Jei Jei, we get this done, tell me how I can help."

Charlie let out a shaky sigh as Kale set his hand on her shoulder, closing her eyes for a moment as she thought, silently going through the options.  There were Reavers trying to tear apart the space station behind them, and every time she tried to think of a solution she was distracted by the pounding of her own heart.

"Ah..."  She swallowed hard, opening her eyes again.  "Well...i's a cable hookin' t'tha electric, runnin' from th'outside'f th'station'n th'attack has prolly gott'n th'gorram bit a'tha emergency stat.  Sa, ah..."  She chewed her lip for a moment, looking back at Kale for a hesitant moment.  "Th'cable could be short-circuit'd, but th'probability a'tha overheatin' an'fusin t'tha ship is, y'know...sumthin like 50-50.  Th'cable coul'be severed, but it'd prolly shock anyone who'd be tryin' such a thin'.  Ah..."  She scratched her head again, leaning forward to look over the control panels.

"Th'only other option is ta somehow disrupt th'breaker tha's runnin' th'current, but tha's gonna disrupt all th'ships on our block.  So, y'know, if others'r runnin' t'their ships'n we cut it, all'f their boats'r gonna float off'ta space.  Ah dunno where th'breaker is, tha...prolly somewhere'n th'inside.  Maybe a'tha outside.  Ah dunno, Cap'n."  She let out another shaky sigh, putting a hand over her face.  "Ah dunno..."

Kale bit his lip as he listened to Charlie speak ... whatever they did to get this fixed it didn't sound like it was going to be easy.  He turned to Ren, "Can we pull up the schematics of the station?  They should have 'em on the Cortex." he waited a few moments while Ren worked and then leaned over him, his hand resting on the back of the pilot seat, studying the screen Ren had just pulled up.
He pointed to the connection points all along the docking rim, "Is this here what we're talkin' 'bout?  I looks like their connected ..." Kale bit his lip again.  If he was looking at this right and knew what Charlie was saying then she was right, cutting the current would not only free Destiny - but free all the other ships still docked as well.  And if there were others like he and his crew trying to get off this gorram station ... well he didn't know if he could live with himself, taking that option away from them.  Leaving them to the Reavers.  Of course it was only a matter of time - if the other docked ships didn't leave soon it wouldn't matter if he set them floating.  Their crews were probably better then dead anyway.

If they had to do it though - they had to do it ... the question was how though, "Do ya see where we'd go 'bout disruptin' the current, 'lil Charlie?" he asked and hoped that it was somewhere inside the ship that they could access it.

"Cap'n...'yer not makin' this any easier."  She spoke through her hand, still covering her face.  She kept thinking she didn't want to die, and it was interrupting everything else she was trying to figure out.  She took in another slow breath, blinking back the tears and looking at the schematic again.

"Th'breaker...i's th'lectric conduit tha's runnin' th'whole block.  Since tha's all holdin' together th'ships, tha's somethin' we're not gonna be able t'access here.  They'd have some'f security thing's on it, makin' sure none'f th'spacers comin' through can jus'be puttin' in a code'n breakin' all th'ships towed out'ta orbit."  She reached forward, drawing along the electrical current line with her finger, tracing it slowly.

"Sa here's th'thing, we don'hafta get to th'main breaker t'be breakin' everythin' here.  Th'whole system's workin' on a closed loop."  There was the twinge of a smile at the corner of her lips as she spoke.  Maybe there was a silver lining here after all.  "W'tha means is that y'break one part'f th'circuit, th'whole thing'll collapse.  So ah'm thinkin...w'can get t'it right around here."  She pointed to a section of wall by the ship, tapping the screen a few times.  "Break off th'section of th'wall, find th'right current, set some'f a corrosive on th'cable, an' that'll do th'job.  Tha's assumin'...tha's goin' out'f th'ship, Cap'n."

Ren watched the interplay, and winced, he finally looked at the others and said, "Captain, what else we can do?  I mean I can send a wave out on all frequencies about a Reaver attack, but who's going to come to our rescue?"

Ren turned to the console, and began typing furiously, trying to find hailing frequencies for the other ships in the bay, maybe they coud coordinate and save as many people as possible. "Captain, permission to try raising the other ships, to see what their statuses are?" Ren said hopefully.
This message was last edited by the player at 16:40, Sun 08 Oct 2006.

Kale felt like he'd been kicked in the gut as Charlie looked up at him with big eyes, her hand covering the rest of her face - telling him he wasn't helping.  She was right, he wasn't helping ... but he didn't know what to do.  He wanted to be able to hold her and tell her it was going to be alright - but it wasn't going to be alright.  Not unless they figured out someway to get off this space station.

The she said it.  Going off the ship.  In order to get Destiny free they were going to have to brave the Reaver infested station.  That meant death at the best.  He shook his head, "We can't do that - we get off this ship an' we're good as dead." he said, then looked to Ren as he spoke up and nodded, "Ya, send out a distress signal ... don' know who in their right mind'll come ta save us but it's worth a shot.  Open lines ta the other ships, let's see if we can reach anyone." he looked back at Charlie, "Goin' out there ... breakin' the cable - that the only way lil' Charlie?" he asked.

"Cap'n, tha's a fully grounded powerline tha's runnin' 'tween th'sides.  S'not like we're gonna take a knife'n snip it in bits'n stuff, y'know?  Tha's a cord tha's gotta be 'bout round's my arm.  Gonna hafta set a corrosive on it, an'that'll take a minute'r so t'eat through.  Once tha's broken, Destiny's jus'gonna break off, though.  Tha's gonna break all th'docking mechanisms 'n we're gonna be free, so...y'know."  She sighed, looking back at the screen.  "Whoever's on board best be'in on board, ah'm sayin, y'know?  Kinda that point'f no return."

Kale listened to Charlie with an almost blank expression, then nodded his head, "So we gotta be sure we're ready ta go." he didn't have to say that they had to be sure that Geoff and Wei weren't coming back - both Ren and Charlie could fill that in on their own.  It was the thought that was sitting in the back of all of their minds anyway.

Ren nodded as the Captain spoke, and set about sending the distress signal out of the cortex, short and to the point, "Mayday, mayday, Reaver attack at Torrance Space Station, need assistance." He set the message on a loop in hopes that someone would find it, then he opened a wave channel to the other ships, hoping to get feedback on the situation.

With the distress signal sent out Ren focused on seeing if they could get in contact with any of the other ships.  He was having no luck though, no one was responding to him - although it appeared that the signal was reaching them.  Either there was something damaged on their end ... or no one was still alive ... or they were all just too busy trying to get their own asses saved to respond.

Kale spun around then as he heard a loud banging sound coming from the cargo bay, his blood went cold, "Reavers." he said in a low voice, "they know we're here.  We gotta act fast." he looked to Charlie, "If we can get you out there you think you can gut us unstuck?  Ya wouldn't be goin' alone mind ya - I'd go with ya - but if that's what we're doin' we gotta be sure it's gonna work and we gotta be sure now.  'Cause we don' got the luxury 'o time."
This message was last edited by the player at 22:34, Sun 08 Oct 2006.

Charlie jumped as the banging came from the cargo bay, putting both her hands on the seat that Ren was sitting in.  He could feel her limbs shaking, but she was doing her best to keep it togeher.  "Cap'n..."  She started, and it sounded like it might have been protest, but then he turned and made eye contact with him.  She bit her lower lip to keep it from quivering, watchin him as tears slid out of the corners of her eyes.

"Yeah, ah...ah jus'need one'f th'power drivers t'get th'plates off, tha'll take 'bout a minute'r two.  If'n ah'm needin t'do it real quiet, tha's gonna take a bit longer, also dependin' on how many'f th'bearin's are on.  Then t'set an'spray th'corrosive, that'll take another minute."  She took in a shaky breath, letting go of the chair and opening one of the lockers, getting the smaller toolkit out.  "Once it's eatin' through th'cable, we're talkin...anywhere 'tween 30 seconds 'n two minutes.  S'gonna put off one helluva smell'n such, so if'n y'think they'd smell it...once it's set, we can't be stickin' round it."  She pulled out the power screwdriver, checking the fittings on it once and then tucking it into her pocket.  She also took the can of hexadrone, shaking it a few times by her ear to make sure that it had enough in it.

It was everything Kale could do not to cave in at the sight of Charlie's tears.  But that couldn't be helped right now.  He knew she was scared - they all were.  If they wanted to live through this though then he had exactly no time to coddle her, "Alrigh'," he said, doing the math in his head, "So we're lookin' at 'bout 3 minutes under the very best circumstances - 6 or so at the worse." he took a deep breath and wasn't surprised to hear how shakey it was.  His head was racing 6 minutes ... they had to stay out there for 6 minutes without being overrun by Reavers.  He didn't say aloud how much that sounded like a suicide mission to him.

"We'll need a diversion.  We can't just go waltzin' out there - they'll be all over us ..." he turned to Ren, "Ren, stay here, see if ya can't get through ta any of the other ships - Charlie, you go get whatever we're gonna be needin' ta pull this off.  I'm gonna get Connor, Kyoko and Acacia - we'll need there help."

He nodded then to both of them, a signal to get moving and then stepped out of the bridge heading towards the cargo bay where he assumed the others were - the doors should hold for now, but they had to be prepared.

[To Destiny: Dining Hall -> in route to Cargo Bay]

Ren nodded, and continued to send his waves at the other ships, hoping to get a response. He turned to Charlie, her tears were breaking his heart.