RavensDagger

  Chapter Fifty-Two - The Meic

  Oft underappreciated, always underpaid. Ship meics are the bae of human civilization, and acc to themselves, if it wasn't for their tireless work, all of humanity would find itself sug vacuum.

  A few rare meics had a more humble approach to the craft, treating it as art rather than glorified maintenance work.

  A more on bunew that they had the power to turn off the scrubbers, redirect the air, and turn a ship into a mobile sarcophagus. These meics were unappreciated by their corporate owners, but they earned a solid pay before being repced.

  Ivil khat the options for that kind of wed from awful to only barely tolerable, with a few sparkling exceptions.

  Today, she was going to question one of those exceptions.

  Not for herself, of course. She did not care for such things. Rather, she was questioning things oy-Six's behalf.

  The truth was that Ivil was ed that the young woman wasn't reag her full potential. Twenty-Six had a brilliant mind and an incredible amount of talent. She assionate about ships and genuinely seemed to love what she did.

  Ivil had listeo her rant about the Sappho's air filtration system for an hour the previous night and had been amused the eime. The only sour note was the knowledge that Twenty-Six might very well never amount to anything but a simple ship's mei some old rust bucket.

  That was, in Ivil's opinion, unfivable.

  If she and Twenty-Six ended up together... well, then that would be ohing. Twenty-Six could pursue her passion with the entire Martia if she so chose. But if they didn't work out, then Ivil still wawenty-Six to e out on top. She had stumbled across Ivil's attention, and now she'd reap the rewards.

  Ivil had pondered what to do for Twenty-Six ht and decided that the best course of a would be to seek advice, and that meant questioning the only person nearby whom she would trust with such matters.

  Leaving the Sappho, Ivil made her way over to the berth over where the Held Together was moored. A few automated repair drones were very slowly fitting some ing in pce over some of the scars left on the ship's hull. That level of repair work could easily be automated, though the cost was likely not so easy to swallow for the captain.

  Oering the ship, she found herself assaulted by the Held Together's familiar odour. It wasly pleasant. Stale oil and sweat. The smell of a space that had held a number of people for too long without proper ventition.

  Maybe Twenty-Six was onto something when she exposed the glories of an above-par filtration system. It would certainly work to keep the stink at a lower level.

  "Evelyn?" Ivil turo find Sonic Spectre standing in the ship's hold. The Tech-Maid straightened her back, hands g together over her stoma a dignified, submissive pose. "I was not expeg you here. Five me, I didn't prepare any hospitalities."

  Ivil waved it off. "It's fine," she said dismissively. "I was actually here looking for you."

  "Oh?" Sonic asked. "How may I be of assistance?"

  Ivil gnced around, even though she was well aware that they were alone. "Are we private?" she asked anyway out of courtesy.

  "We are," Sonic replied easily. "Is something the matter? Is it urgent?"

  "No, it's nothing urgent, I merely don't feel like pying to any charades at the moment," Ivil said. "It's about Twenty-Six."

  "Oh! Have you decided that she's the one? I'm surprised but not disappointed, she's a kind young woman and I think her unique perspective on life could improve your own point of view. It may even have a positive impa the greater Martian society."

  Ivil wasn't here for this, but she gestured for the Tech-Maid to go on. "tinue."

  Sonic blinked behind her one-expression mask. "I feel like I may have misprehended something."

  "Go on anyway," Ivil said. "You have my permission to be ho."

  She paused for a long moment before she nodded. "Very well. Twenty-Six is young, attractive enough, if in an unventional way, and kied. I suspect that her meical inations would make her a favourite amongst the Tech-Maids of Mars, and while her ins as a Saturnian might frustrate some of the more... pure-minded Martians, that same in might also draw in others who view diversity and immigration favourably. She has no family to speak of, no close political or corporate ties. She'd make for a very ral spouse in the eyes of the politically ined, in short."

  Ivil hummed. "I think she's cute and greatly desire to pinch her freckled cheeks."

  "They do seem very pinchable, ma'am."

  "In any case, I'm not certain that she's the one. In fact, I'm having some difficulty deg how to approach her. heless, I suspect that you're correct about her demeanour. She's kind and positive. I wao e out of this situation ahead of where we found her, regardless of the oute."

  "I see. And what would that entail?" Sonic asked with a slight tilt of her head.

  "I was thinking that we could either find work for her in a more prestigious position, or perhaps fund her further education?"

  Soniodded. "That would be acceptable. Have you sidered giving her a schorship to one of the primary Martian uies? Some of them have links with the Tech Maids, as teical professionals and peers. They would accept her with open arms, especially with her new civing her a slight edge, and your endorsement giving her... an inparably valuable edge."

  "Do you think she'd like that?" Ivil asked.

  The Tech-Maid sidered it. "I think she'd like the results of the education. I don't know if the school enviro is one she'd necessarily enjoy, but the subject matter itself is one we know she likes."

  Ivil was about to acquiesce wheiced that someone roag. The very same someohey were talking about.

  Twenty-Six was now in the ship's airlock, waiting as the Held Together's a pressurisation system did its work.

  "She's ing," Ivil said. "Do you have any idea what she'd been doing over here?"

  "Twenty-Six has been ing and going for the st day or so. She's been pleting minor repairs. I believe she's making full use of the part-assembler and printer on the Sappho," Sonic said.

  "Ah, that makes sense," Ivil replied as the interior airlock opened and Twenty-Six slipped into the room.

  The young woman walked right past Ivil and Sonic, humming a happy little tune as she went.

  She froze by the door, her humming stopping mid-heurned and bli the two. "Uh, oh, hi?"

  "Hello," Ivil said.

  "Greetings," Sonic replied.

  "Oh, shoot, uh, what are you two doing here? I mean, no, you're allowed, so... anyway! Hi!" Twenty-Six's face turned as red as her hair and her eyes flicked to everywhere but the two across from her.

  Ivil resisted the urge to squeeze Twenty-Six. It was being increasingly difficult to do so. "Are you here to fix the ship up?" Ivil asked.

  "As well as I ," Twenty-Six replied. "I've been printing things non-stop over on the Sappho... wait, that's okay, right? Using the Sappho's printer like that?"

  "It's perfectly alright," Ivil replied.

  "Cool! So I've been making repts for... well, nearly everything. There's a lot of stuff you just 't print, but there are so many parts that you remake whole and then it's just plug and go. So much easier than patg things with foam and duct tape and chewing gum."

  "Are you here looking for more things to repair, then?" Ivil asked.

  Twenty-Six snorted an indelicate ugh. "I could spin around and point to something random and it would need some fixing in here. Nah, I'm getting my dolly."

  "Pardon?" Ivil asked.

  In lieu of expining, Twenty-Six went to the far end of the hold and undid a pair of tches holding a small wheeled ptfainst the wall. She bent down and unfolded a handle on it and tugged the ptform after her. "This is my dolly," she said. "It's for carrying parts around in low-G. I was gonna go to a local scrapper and pick up a few things. They have a catalogue of parts oatio, and half of them are misbelled. They don't know what they have!" There was a gleam in her eyes. "And that's a mistake I'm going to capitalise on. I want, like, a million different rept parts that we get for cheap."

  "Things you ot print, I imagine?" Sonic asked.

  "Exactly! Well, some you bsp;but you he files for them, and I 't find some. The Held Together has some parts that pre-date ship-board printers, no one's made the parts in any sort of CAD, or if they did, I 't find or afford them. So I'll have to fix things the old fashioned way. Some bits are just not printable. Filters and some eleics."

  "Hmm, well, I hardly let you go on your own," Ivil replied. "It would be unbeing of me to let you get hurt out there. Did you want to e as well, Pendergast?" Ivil asked while projeg that the answer would be no.

  "I'll leave you two to it," Sonic replied sagely. "Enjoy yourselves!"

  ***

  RavensDagger

  The 26ers out there are gonna be happy with the couple of chapters, I think! Some of my stories are on TopWebFi!-amon Bun-Stray Cat Strut-Lever A-Dead Tired-Heart of Dorkness-SpeddonVoting makes Broccoli smile!

  The following books are avaible as paperbacks (and as Ebooks) on Amazon. Oh, and there’s like, a billion audiobooks of my stuff now!

  (The images are links!)

  All proceeds go to funding my addi to buying art paying for food, rent, and other ies!

  Thank you so much for all your support everyone! And thank you extra hard for allowio do this for a living; I’ll do my best to keep you eained!