Orange Team Onward!

[voidtreckermods]

Arrival

Their flight path makes sure they are well out of the way of both the battles taking place and they get to the shield station within an hour as long as they fly quickly.

There are no enemy ships around but it is clear there has been an attack, the shield disk itself is damaged and there seems to be no power in the station.

Once they dock they will be met by some technicians who quickly explain the situation.

Help is needed everywhere. The power needs repaired, the shield needs repaired from the outside, there are injured technicians who need medical care. There is a small med-bay available.

Maintenance

Once the initial crisis is dealt with it is a case of keeping up with things. A patrol is needed to guard the station from other attacks, there are four shield stations in total and so the voidtreckers may chose to split themselves once things are a little calmer.

Keeping up the shields is an almost constant job, especially with the attacks. Once one thing is fixed it seems another thing is down. The maintenance itself is very technical but there are parts that can be done by the unskilled as long as they have direction.

Comments

[so_dark_a_road]

Arrival

Curufin is a little disappointed that they don't get to fight before they reach the station. He's familiarized himself with the weapons systems of the dual fighter he came in on, and he knows he'll have to make use of them sooner or later. But for now, as soon as they dock, he goes straight to the station technicians and offers to be of use. They escort him to the power generator and try to catch him up to speed on how it works and what they need him to do. He also offers to get into a space suit and go outside with the technicians to work on the damaged shield disk.

If anybody from Orange Team is going along on either of these projects, he'll grin and make jokes on the way. "How many VoidTreckers does it take to screw in a lightbulb?" he asks, reviving an ancient riddle that he's always found amusing.


Maintenance

Curufin helps with several of the maintenance tasks and then begins to get stir crazy. So he volunteers for the guardian gig. He hops into the dual fighter craft with a partner and goes out to patrol the space around the station. As they clear the station dock and zoom out into space, he whistles softly. "This is quite a view. Very different from the way things look from the windows of the train!"

Arrival

[diamondsfortears]

Daia himself has been... pretty much useless. Machines are such a foreign concept to him. He's trying his best, but honestly? He might just be making things worth.

He's lost in the beginning stages of a repair when Curufin cracks his opening line. Daia, takes a moment to look up, rather thankful for the break.

"Uhm… how many?"

[so_dark_a_road]

"A total of three. One to invent a new way of doing things and two to hope it works!" He laughs a little, and then goes to help Daia.

He doesn't mind if Daia doesn't know much about repairing machines. Everybody starts from somewhere.

"Can I help you with that? If you hold the pliers upright like this, you'll have more room to unscrew the nut in order to get that screw out of there. And it'll work just as well." He demonstrates the hand position and how to torque the tool in order to unscrew the nut from the base of the screw.

[diamondsfortears]

Daia tilts his head, thinking over the joke on repeat.

"Why would they invent a new way of changing a light bulb?" It doesn't make very much sense to him. Just do it the way it's always been done.

"Please." He'll accept all the help he can get, and he listens diligently. He watches and mimics Curufin's movements and...

"I did it!"

Daia's face lights up immediately.

[so_dark_a_road]

"It's a joke, and this type of joke always focuses on the circumstances of the people who are the butt of the joke. In this case, of course that's we VoidTreckers. We're all so out of our usual environments -- I mean, who in their own world lives on a train??? Let alone a Void-hopping train! -- that we have to improvise a lot. So I made the joke be about people who improvise and invent."

Curufin smiles to see Daia's face all lit up.

"Yes, you did it! And now you can replace the wire. Looks like it got fried by a current surge when the Empire's weapons hit the station. Let me know if you need anymore help -- I brought extra wires and cables, just in case." He sets down the tool box he was carrying and opens it. It's full of reels of wire and cables, plus connectors and the tools that are needed for this sort of work.

[diamondsfortears]

"Oh." He's... still not sure he gets it. But he smiles anyway, if only to be polite.

His delight delves into widened eyes of fear.

"It.... it fried what?"

He begins sifting through the tool box, trying to look at everything in the thing he's trying to repair. Oh, he sees a broken wire. He reaches his hand in to grab it and...

"OW!" He yanks his hand back and puts his fingers in his mouth, tears forming in his eyes.

"Why did it bite me? What did I do?"

[so_dark_a_road]

That's okay, sometimes jokes are specific to a particular world, and it can take a lot of world-hopping to become used to other worlds' humor.

"It fried the wire and the insulation that protects it. Electricity is one of the basic forces in the world, in all the worlds. It can be very useful, but it can also flow out of control and do damage."

He sees Daia is reaching for the wire and makes a move to stop him, but too late.

"Here, let me see." He reaches for the hand again, and he speaks in a soft voice. "That's exactly what electricians say when they get a shock. 'Damn, I got bit!' Actually, you just touched a bare wire that was apparently still carrying some electrical current. It leapt into your fingers, and that hurts. But don't worry, it happens to everyone sooner or later. Don't blame yourself."

[diamondsfortears]

Daia gives his hand to Curufin to look at, whimpering a little. The tears keep flowing down his cheeks. It really stung, after all.

He nods a little at Curufin's explanation.

"Okay..." He sniffs and rubs his eyes with the hand that didn't get zapped. When Curufin releases his hand again, he'll look it over. Then he'll look back at the console. He's not so sure if he should try again or just admit defeat. The idea of getting zapped again is certainly unappealing.

[so_dark_a_road]

Curufin takes the hand and examines it carefully. An electrical shock can really sting, but apparently the current was not strong enough to cause an actual burn. There's no sign of one, fortunately.

"Your fingers are all right, luckily."

If Daia wants to continue, Curufin will work with him, not taking over for him but acting as a guide. If he wants to quit for the day, Curufin will walk with him back to whatever area of the station Daia would like to visit next.

Maintenance

[internetsexsymbol]

Ok, Reigen knows this is not a road trip that he's going on, and the thought ofdriving one of these things is a little intimidating (he's not a bad driver by any means, but what are the rules of the road?!), but still, seeing just how many stars are out here, he can't help but be a little awe-struck.

"It's space! The void is just a bunch of random colors, but this is...this is space!"

[so_dark_a_road]

Rules of the road? Heh. Probably the same as for ships in the ocean. Get on the scanners if you see another ship, identify it, and if it's one of yours, communicate. If it's not one of yours, but it's a friendly ally or simply not an enemy, signal and give it a wide berth.

"Yes! This is space! I've read books about it, but I've never seen it before. Can you believe the luminescence of all those stars and nebulae?" He gives a soft whistle.

And then they reach the distance from the station that should be their orbit, and they start to circle around it.

[internetsexsymbol]

"Right, it's crazy to look at up close...you can only get a good look at this stuff through telescopes where I'm from!" Reigen is still a little enamored, but this is a serious time, so he clears his throat to make himself seem less like a kid at a theme park.

"Anyway, do you see anything that looks like it's not supposed to be there?" He squints at the the space structures, looking for something that can be seen as damage.

[so_dark_a_road]

"I envy you your telescopes. We had a few in my world, but I didn't own one of my own." Curufin is a bit like a kid at a theme park, too.

He peers out at the station, miles away but large and easy to see in detail. "Yes, I do. It looks like the one of the solar arrays has been hit. I hope they have spare units in storage, though I can't imagine they wouldn't." He gazes around, imagining the enemy space craft that must have been here earlier to do the damage. Hopefully there aren't any such ships still lurking around out there somewhere.

[internetsexsymbol]

What a great combination, two crafty men with the same sort of awe as children on a shiny new spaceship.

"Crap, you're right. We should probably report that so someone can repair that." He leaned in, squinting at the damage and what unit it's attached to. They should start taking notes or figure out who to message. Is there a phone in here? Reigen presses a button that looks to have a similar purpose, a few static noises going off when he does so. "Ground Control? Is that you?"

[so_dark_a_road]

A marvelous combination!

Curufin did bring his notebook, so he pulls it out of his satchel and starts to scribble.

Ground control answers. "Orange 115, this is Station Control. What's up?" The craft they are flying being designated by the VoidTrecker team that is flying it, and by it's hanger number. A makeshift way of keeping track of the flights.

[internetsexsymbol]

Whoa! Reigen's eyes sparkle a little when he gets actual contact with the base, but he tries to stifle his excitement at using the new technology, putting on his most official-sounding tone.

"It's working--*ahem* Orange 115 reporting solar array damage to station sector..." Reigen pauses to get the number printed on the station. "Five. We'll keep you posted on additional damage."

[so_dark_a_road]

"Roger that, Orange 115!" comes the answer on the speaker. "We'll notify Engineering and Maintenance, and we'll be grateful for any further observations you might make."

Curufin smiles at the official sounding tone -- Reigen does that well! -- and then he lifts his mike and adds, "We'll make a few more orbits around the station and then head out a little further on a regular patrol."

He says to Reigen, "This is kinda fun, huh?"

Arrival

[marriedanidiot]

"What's a lightbulb, my Atarinke?" His mother brings him food and drink, and raises a tolerant eyebrow at him.

[so_dark_a_road]

Curufin gratefully accepts the refreshments, wolfs down a sandwich and gulps the drink, and then answers: "A lightbulb is a little bit like our Elvish lanterns, only there's an important difference. We summon light to inhabit a globe of glass or crystal and awaken when we breathe on it or ask it to wake. But the so-called 'modern' civilizations accomplish this by purely physical methods. They build a generator that makes electricity -- you know, the power that drives lightening bolts -- and then they hook it up to miles and miles of copper wiring to carry the electricity to various places and devices. The electricity flows into the lightbulbs and causes a special substance or connection within them to glow with light. It turns the electrical energy into light energy. Voilá! The lightbulb is lit."

He smiles with affection and then asks, "What are you planning to do on this station? Have you decided yet?"

[marriedanidiot]

"I see." She considers. "It seems a little inefficient to need so much wiring! But I suppose Men cannot call the light as we do."

She smiles at him.

"I am of little use to the engineers! That is your Art, my dear. But I can patch wounds easily enough, and I know how to keep folk calm. I delivered our warning - I hope it was enough."

[so_dark_a_road]

Curufin chuckles. "It's true that from our Elvish point of view, it's an inefficiency, those enormous lengths of copper wire. But it works. And I have found it most interesting to study these methods."

He smiles back. "And you have your own Arts, quite a few of them. Including some of the healing arts. So that is what you are going to do, work in the station hospital? I think your patients will be lucky to have you involved with their care. And you did keep us all calm when you delivered the warning contained in the dream we both had. I hope so, too -- that everyone absorbed the information and will be on the alert."

[marriedanidiot]

"Needs must, I suppose."

She nods and ruffles his hair. "I am no healer! But I raised seven of you. I know how to patch a bruise and sing small cuts closed, at the least."

[so_dark_a_road]

He grins, her son the engineer.

And he smiles even more when she ruffles his hair. It's impossible to describe how comforting that old gesture is, how it reminds him that he is loved and always was. "You may not be a healer formally, but you certainly had to use your skills, what with being mother to seven sons who could never resist a challenge, even when we were little. Bruises, cuts, even a broken bone or two, from what I can remember."

[marriedanidiot]

"Broken bones, burns..." She shakes her head at the memory. "Ai! Tis a wonder none of you managed to break your necks with the stunts you pulled!"

Not just her seven either, after all, as Nolofinwe's bunch were hardly any better, and for all Findarato might play the good boy, he's just as bad as the rest, as evidenced by his siblings.

[so_dark_a_road]

"Oh right, I forgot about the burns! That time I tried to pull a branch out of the bonfire we children had built down in the ravine below the city. Maedhros and Maglor didn't let me walk back up the slope, they insisted on carrying me. 'Ammë, I burn my hand!' I said, when we came into your garden. You were amazing on those occasions, you never panicked, always remained calm and reassuring. I was impressed even at that age."

He smiles at her, and the love in his eyes is obvious.

True! The cousins were just as adventurous, and they got just as many injuries. Luckily they had their own adults, who dealt with the hurts most of the time. Unless of course, the Fëanorian brats and the Nolofinwean and Arafinwean mischief-makers were playing together and got into trouble together. Then it was likely they'd go to the house nearest them.