Previously http://mdarinyoung.wordpress.com/2012/05/03/menagerie-w-b/ and http://muketsuhanagames.com/2012/04/29/menagerie-recruits/
Standing there staring at the engine, Bilabo wished he had thought to bring his overcoat. He hated cold days and since the Iron Hide 2 hadn’t lifted off in over a week the engine room was not the usual balmy over 100 degrees that he liked, the room was cold or at least that is how it felt to his scales. He rubbed his claws over his arms trying to warm them up, but it wasn’t having the effect that he desired. Well, the Captain had called and told him to finish up repairs they would be lifting off in a day or sooner thus he had headed to work without his coat.
The other problem with cold temperatures was that they made him feel lethargic and honestly he didn’t feel like working on the engine today. Bilabo had planned that the last of the repairs were going to wait another day or so, until he got the call. Plus he had wanted to get into town to see if he could find some spare parts. Ah well, he thought, best not to think about what could’ve and just focus on what is. With that, Bilabo turned around to one of the consoles and work benches and started up the diagnostic program. While the program churned away he focused on getting the right tools into his tool belt.
The tool belt cinched, Bilabo walked over to the engine, found a familiar foothold and started climbing up to where he last stopped working. Crouched over in the small space, Bilabo started feeling better as the space warmed up with his body heat. Maybe he would get this work done today after all. He pried the panel off of the compartment and started working on the components. Within minutes he saw what the diagnostic program was going to tell him; that coolant pumps three and five were going to need replacing soon. His experienced eyes told him probably next trip, if nothing stressful happened. He rolled his eyes at the thought. Nothing ever went smoothly. That was one of the reasons he liked being part of the crew, something new to keep him busy everyday. Sometimes twice.
Two hours later, Bilabo was tightening the last fastener on pump five. All cleaned, they would last as long as the parts were willing to last. He just hoped it would be long enough for them to get to another port. For the rest of the day Bilabo moved from place to place on the giant engine fixing what he could, replacing what he had parts for and offering up silent prayers for those things he could do nothing about. At the end of the day he had a list of problems that was more detailed than the diagnostic report, but he knew that the Captain wouldn’t want to hear his “techno-speak” and would read the report. When he got to a new port he would find the parts that he could off of his list. Until then he would keep the engine and ship running.
One Comment (+add yours?)