Vekkis holds the ship steady as the Z-95s close in.  Docking clamps extend from the fighters, reaching for metal bars newly attached to the ship's hull.  A series of impacts and scraping sounds reverberate through Bold Gambit, followed by a silence broken only by the thrum of the engines, and then by more bangs, clangs, and scrapes...

UY-3PO falls silent, peering up at the ceiling of the lounge...

"Right.  That's the first two locked on.  Two more to go." Vekkis comments.  "Starting to think we're going to make it."

In the turret, Juragga has an excellent view of the docking procedure...

Haarmon, meanwhile, is still working with the ship's computer.  Now, however, he keeps glancing at the metal ring...

Feeling helpless, Shard moves over to You-Why as Haarmon works.  "Okay, okay, let's check for noise."  Things seem to have calmed down, in any case.  Then she pauses for thought.  "Are you sure it was your shoulder?"

Her eyes narrow.  "Where were you standing when you heard the noise you think came from your shoulder, You-Why?  Point it out."  The droid should be able to do so near perfectly, and it might give Shard a starting point to start unravelling this tangle.

Rhijans focused on the sensors, feeling that they were starting to make a little more sense to him.  With the Headhunters so close to the ship, the only thing he was noticing was the Ubese freighter, making its departure from the system on a different flight path than they were using.  He didn't want any nasty surprises turning up on them at the last instant.

Juragga held his fire as ordered, and warbled as the Headhunters docked.  He had, quite literally, a catbird's view.

Below, the others were still trying to figure out what was broken.  He just hoped it wasn't the navcomputer or the hyperdrive motivator.  They'd be going nowhere quick in that case.

UY-3PO replies to Shard, "I was not standing anywhere, I was sitting right here.  Listen."  He moves his arm again.  "I believe it started after I fell during the frankly rather rough take off." 

There are more sounds as the last of the fighters lock themselves onto their support frames.

Vekkis waits a couple of seconds, then declares, "Here we go... "

Beyond the cockpit viewport the stars seem to stretch, becoming brilliant white lines radiating outward from a dark centre, and then the ship falls into that hole, and the view is replaced by the swirling colours of hyperspace...

Holding up the small ring, Shui eyes the droid's shoulder.  Colour isn't too far off, nor size.  Though how the ring could have fallen 'out', sliding down the droid's arm, she has no idea.  It could, she decides, be completely unrelated.

Leaning in closer, she frowns.  "I...yes."  A slow nod follows.  "You're absolutely right, You-Why.  I can hear it."  And she can, a small scraping not unlike crepitus in a human. "Small wonder you find it unpleasant.  Let's stop that, right?  Don't want anything to get damaged before we fix it."

Then the bottom falls out of her stomach.

Hyperspace!  They're away, and safe.  Closing her eyes, Shard lets out a long, slow breath.  "We're out, You-Why.  Safe."  She glances across the hold at Haarmon.  "We're out!"  Shaking with reaction, she holds up the golden ring. "Can...can you check your schematics and see if this is part of your shoulder joint?"  It seems incredibly unlikely the more she thinks of it, but one never knows.

They made it.  With one loss.  The sobering thought of Jacob's death puts a crimp on any true celebration.

Juragga let out a mighty Wookiee caterwaul as the stars slid into lines and the ship was safely away.  The Wookiee, old by human standards, was still not cynical enough to think their problems might not yet be over.  To him, they'd won...

As the stars slid into the mind-bending lightshow that was hyperspace, Rhijans let out a sigh of relief.  He didn't hold his breath, because that impeded functionality...but there were times when he didn't breathe normally, and this had been one of them.  One more hurdle down, he told himself.  They weren't home yet, but at least they were no longer floating over the planet and instantly identifiable as the attacking force that had made a chaotic mess of the mines.

"How long's this stretch going to be?  Do we have time to get your shoulder looked at?" he asked Lund.  There'd certainly been no time to do anything while they were boarding the ship, and the pilot's wound couldn't feel anywhere close to pleasant.  For the moment, they were safe, and effectively untouchable...it was time to see to the wounded and get everything properly squared away.

Leaning in close to the droid, Shard notices that the external casing of UY-3PO's shoulder does not sit flush with his upper arm.  A quick check reveals that this is not matched on the other shoulder.  The gap between the shoulder and arm is large enough that an object the size of the metal ring could have fallen through it.

Vekkis calls through to the turret, "Juragga, you can come down from there now, we're clear."  Then the pilot stands and comments to Rhijans, "Guess there really was nothing wrong with the old girl.  And now we're away from there, yes, I've finally got time to worry about me.  Thanks for the help back there, by the way."

He starts towards the lounge, then stops and looks at Rhijans, "Everything should be all right up here now.  Once the ship's in hyperspace, anything that's going to go wrong will be too quick to worry about anyhow."

And on that cheerful note, he passes out...

Rhijans was not the type to panic.  "Yeah, I kinda figured as much," he commented with acerbic wit as he moved to Lund's side.  He hoisted the pilot up over his shoulder, as best he could, and made his way aft.

"Medpac!  Pilot down..." he announced as he set Lund on one of the seats in the ward-room/lounge area.  "Anyone know if this thing has an autodoc?  He took one in the shoulder and toughed it out long enough to get us into hyperspace, but he needs treatment, NOW."  With what limited skills he had, Rhijans began to check the pilot over to make sure that he was just unconscious, and not something worse, and to make sure that the blaster wound was the only treatment needed.

OOC: Rhijans Thanus rolled 6 using 3 dice with the WEG Classic system with rolls of 2,{Wild}2,2. First Aid on Lund. At least I think I didn't make things worse...
This message was last edited by the player at 13:38, Sat 12 May 2012.

Juragga made his way down from the cupola and frowned, canting his furry head to one side as Lund collapsed. He knew little about medicine and even less about human medicine.  So he turned his attention to an area where maybe he COULD help.

"RaAAAAUUUuuuur," he commented wrily to UY.  Moving in closer, he took careful stock of the droid's damaged shoulder joint, holding out a shaggy paw for the mystery ring.


10:45, Today: Juragga rolled 5 (10 excluding the wild die) using 4 dice and +1 pips with the WEG Classic system with rolls of 5,3,{Wild}1,1. Droid Repair.

"Think we've found your problem," Shui notes, holding up the golden ring.  "This thing.  It's part of your joint.  Get it back in place, and you're...golden.  Again." With a small chuckle for her witticism, she shakes her head. "Don't worry - I'm not planning on muscling it back in.  I'll get an expert to fix..."

Her voice trails off as Juragga approaches and Rhijans ducks back into the cabin carrying Lund.  "Void!  You got this one, Juragga!"  Slapping the ring into his dextrous digits, she pushes herself up and hurries to where Lund slumps.  The pilot doesn't look good at all.

The PILOT.  Oh, that's just perfect.

"No idea about the autodoc...Haarmon, is there an autodoc aboard?" With only cursory knowledge of medical work, Shard carefully begins to examine the unconcious man.  Is he bleeding somewhere else?

That's it.  Refresher course when I get back.

OOC - Got a 5.  :(

Haarmon sighs, having been proven right, just not in the way he had expected.  He starts working at the terminal again, asking the ship for information.

Vekkis is still wearing the snowtrooper armour, and as far as Shard can see there is only a single impact point - a carbon scored patch on the front of his shoulder, with a hole at the centre that she could easily poke her thumb through.  Of course, exactly what she would be poking her thumb into might be a concern.  On the plus side, the patient chooses that moment to groan and his eyes flick open, though he doesn't seem entirely aware of his surroundings...

UY-3PO looks at Juragga, then over to Shard, then back again.  "While I am certain that you have the best of intentions," he says to the Wookiee, "I must ask you, do you have any experience with repairing droids?"

"No autodoc." Haarmon confirms, "Standard first aid equipment in a cabinet that should be...  just through there."  He points to a doorway...

Rhijans had already started removing the armor...he was pretty sure treating the blaster score would be a lot easier without it, and they might have to peel down part of the body-glove under-layer, as well.  He glanced up as Haarmon said where he thought the first aid gear was.

"Well, get in there and find us a medpac, then.  I know a little bit about flying, but I'd much prefer to have a real pilot in the chair when it comes time to land."

Lund groaned, and Rhijans looked back down.  "Sit tight, Captain, we'll get you patched up here in a moment..."  He was, for now, just tossing armor pieces in a loose heap off to one side...he'd worry about gathering them up and stowing them after something had been done about the wound.

"Great," Shard mutters.  "Okay, Vekkis.  Stay there.  I'm going to crack that armor as soon as I get the first aid pack." Patting his chest, she rises and bolts through the door Haarmon indicated, starting a frantic search for the first aid kit.  "On it!" she shouts, scrabbling through the cabinets.

Lo and behold, two pristine medpacks.

Hurrying back and nearly bobbling one in her haste, she drops to her knees next to the injured man.  "Ow.  Let's get this armor off you, Lund," Shard mutters, judging where to start and beginning work on the clasps.  Carefully.

One doesn't just roll a collapsed, blaster-shot man back and forth willy-nilly.

Juragga howled and narrowed his eyes in frustration.  He did have experience working on droids.  For some reason, though, this droid - or this part - was vexing him.

(OOC: Roll again?  Or just hit an impasse?)

Juragga attempts to slide the ring into the gap at the edge of the droid's shoulder cover, for all the world as if he were inserting a creddisk into a vending machine.  The ring, not entirely unnaturally, slips out again immediately and UY-3PO gives a passable immitation of a sigh.  "I am fairly certain that my shoulder can be opened up, if you have the correct tool.  That would, at least, allow you to see what you are doing.  I do occasionally wonder how organics ever managed to construct something as complex as even the most basic of droids." 

While Shard fetches two medpacs from the first aid locker, Rhijans starts removing Vekkis' armour, with a little help from the pilot, who seems to be recovering some of his faculties.  At least he is able to assist in the process of exposing the blaster wound, and answer a few basic question about his condition as Shard returns and starts working on him.  "I fainted?"  "That hurts."  "No, only there."  "Ow!"

The wound itself, now that it's visible, doesn't look too bad.  Well, actually, it does look bad - it is, after all, a hole, surrounded by burned and blistered flesh with fragments of melted armour embedded in it - but it doesn't look like Vekkis is about to die from it...

"Ahhh..."  Shard slowly nods. "Looks good, Vekkis.  Looks good."    Leaning over, she makes eye contact to get his attention.  "You're not going to die.  That's the plus side.  The minus side is that it needs a workup from someone cursed better at this sort of thing than myself.  So you're stuck with painkillers and not moving until we get ourselves back to base."

A shadow of uncertainty crosses her face.  "We...can get ourselves back to base without having you sit in that pilot seat, can't we?" Her gaze flicks up to Rhijans.  "Can you pilot this thing?"

The emphasis indicates most emphatically that Shard cannot.
This message was last edited by the player at 13:10, Thu 17 May 2012.

Haarmon watched the unfolding debacle with a combination of horror and resignation. Knew it was too easy, he thought. And I didn't even get any busty slave-girls.

"I could maybe look up some tutorials?" he suggested, feeling completely useless.

Rhijans shrugged.  "I know most of the basics...I mean, I wouldn't want to be the one at the controls if someone's shooting at us, but I should be able to handle a standard approach and landing."  He gave a tight-lipped grin that verged on being humorless and added, "I can't guarantee it'll be a good landing, but if all goes well, you should at least still have all your landing struts intact."

After all, he'd done alright with the demolition work at the mine, despite knowing little more than what the explosives were and how to set off the detonators.  Never mind the fact that there was a world of difference in the difficulty of landing a ship versus throwing a wad of detonite at an E-web...

Juragga warbled a complaint at the droid.  "Shut up and let me concentrate," he said.  This shouldn't be that hard, and the droid complaining and people watching was just making him frustrated.

Maybe ripping the arm OFF would make it easier to fix?

Restraining his temper, he tried to pop open the shoulder using his dewclaw, so he could replace the ring.

10:38, Today: Juragga rolled 21 using 4 dice and +1 pips with the WEG Classic system with rolls of 5,{Wild}6(+2),4,3. Droid Repair... this time for sure!

While others are paying attention to Vekkis Lund, Juragga manages to pop open UY-3PO's shoulder.  Inside, he can see exactly where the ring should sit.  There is a toroidal depression in the surface of the primary joint articulation servo.  Lubricant is oozing from a series of small pores in that depression.  Four small spring-loaded rollers surround it, but one has broken at some point, which probably explains why the ring popped out of place when the droid fell.  The Wookiee, with surprising dexterity for one with such large hands working in such a confined space, pushes the ring back into place and snaps the remaining rollers closed to hold it in position.

A request to UY gets the droid to move his arm and the ring turns as he does so, smearing lubricant over the joint's surface.  "Oh my!  You repaired it!  The noise has stopped!  Thank you!  You are surprisingly competent, for an organic, and a Wookiee to boot."  High praise from the cantankerous droid...

"Not going to die?  Damn!  It's only the thought of death stopping the pain that's keeping me going.  I suppose pain meds will have to do though." Vekkis jokes weakly, then turns his attention to Rhijans, "She's a good ship.  Practically flies herself.  You should be able to do a simple landing at Mothessh without any trouble.  The hyperdrive will tell you when you need to drop back into normal space, and I can at least sit and watch over you."

"We'll just have to remember to get the passengers to let go before we try for a landing."

Rhijans nodded.  "Somehow, I get the feeling that they'll be kinda eager to get off if they hear I'm sitting at the controls, but I'll be sure and give them a heads-up once we drop out of hyperspace."  Too bad I can't trade places with one of them, he thought.  At least that way, the only life I'd be risking would be my own...

But it looked like Lund would survive, and that was the important thing.  Rhijans glanced over at Shard with another tight-lipped grin.  "At the pace we're going, nobody's gonna want to be our pilot," he commented.  Two missions, each with a new pilot, neither of which would be repeating the next mission with them, unless they had a lengthy down-time and Lund recovered incredibly quickly.  Granted, Jalt hadn't been shot on their first mission...but he also hadn't been around to take the risk on their second.  Stuff like that was what reputations got made from.

Maybe, if they had a little down-time, Rhijans could get a little more pilot-training in...then they wouldn't have to worry about whether or not their reputation scared all the pilots off.  They'd just have to worry about the grade of space transport that the Alliance would trust them with...

Haarmon heaved a sigh of relief when the ring turned out to be a piece of the droid. "Good work, Rags," he called out. "See if you can shut down his never-shuts-up circuit while you're in there." The irony of that statement was lost on him.

Juragga grinned a toothy smirk at his success. He patted the droid on the opposite shoulder and said, "That'll do."

To Haarmon, he chuffed a victory bark before moving to his friend's side.  "So that's the good news," he said.  "Where's the inevitable bad?  How's Rhijans?"