| Electrical Lesson |
| Summary: | Poppy, Shakes and Galen all speak in the berth about injured, broken birds, and repairs. |
| Date: | 25 Feb 2042 AE |
| Related Logs: | Bus Repair |
| Players: |
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| Pilot Berths |
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| The battlestar's pilots call this place home. Bunks line the walls with grey curtains to cover their sleeping areas. Lockers sit between each pair of bunks and a round metal table sits in the center, furnished with simple but comfortable steel chairs. A hatch at the rear of the room leads to a communal head. |
| Post-Holocaust Day: #364 |
The swarms were leaving a giant dent in the ships - literally and it was all hands to help. With being cleared for deck duty recently, Solstice had spending her precious off-duty hours crawling the deck in a beautiful bright orange coverall, mixing with grease and dirt from the metal sidings of the mechanical beasts she flies.
Stepping in through the hatchway door, she is flexing her left hand steady and rolling her wrist. Tugging at the coverall, she shimmies her left arm out to let the clothing hand from her right shoulder, curls haphazardly layering her face from the quick uptie of her hair. She mutters something in Sagittaron and goes to her locker. The twisting of her wrist turns into her right hand rubbing over the flesh of it's opposite.
Khloe trundles in from the head, having just come from a shower. Small mesh shower bag in one hand, and towel draped around her shoulders keeping her still-damp hair off her back, she makes a straight line for her locker. Dressed in little more than her undershirt tank-top and briefs, she dials the combination to her locker (one of the few lockers that actually have padlocks) and throws it open. Lo, is the glory of the OCD pilot's locker; it glows with precision and orderliness. Fishing out fresh underclothes, Khloe partly uses the open door as a privacy screen and begins re-dressing, casting a glance over her shoulder to ensure the front hatch is closed, first, of course. She pauses when there's entry/exit, not paying attention to who comes or goes, and zoom! Changed.
Galen had spent the morning working out, took a shower and a nap, then headed for the first part of the afternoon to the trenches, helping the deck crew repair one of the catapults. Knowing work needed to be done was always something Galen didn't like have looming over his head, and getting that catapult back to 100% meant that launches would be faster and, with luck, they'd be able to respond faster the next time a swarm decides to test their defenses. His flight suit is open around his waist, T-shirt covering his upper body, a small pouch of something bouncing around his neck at the same level as his dog tags. He makes a beeline toward his berth, jiggling the handle twice to get it open, nodding to Khloe (after she's dressed, and if asked, NO he didn't look >.>) as he passes. "Afternoon, Captain."
"Poppy." Comes the name in idle recognition from Solstice as she opens her own locker with a soft metallic swivel. The ECO rolls her right arm out of the greasy coverall and ties it about her waist as she reaches in with her right hand and grabs out a few books. A faint mark of grease paints her cheek as she turns, hooking the locker closed with her foot and moving for the table to take a seat in the midst of the beds.
She rolls her shoulder anew and slides into a seat with a sigh - leaning back as her eyes close. The books are an afterthought and rest against her lap. She wets her lips and rubs her hand up along her neck and down her right shoulder, the skin a little red.
Once fresh underthings are on and tanks and fatigue slacks get pulled on, Khloe glances over at the greeting. "Shakes, right?" She asks, as she crumples up dirty clothes and crams them into a mostly-empty laundry bag. A stiff-wire brush is produced, and Poppy begins going over her hair, head and upper body tilted to the side. No gentle ceremony with her; knots just get tugged out. "You look beat. Been helping down on the deck like Boots, eh?" Eyes travel past her to track Galen briefly, perhaps with a hint of distrust - but she's quick to focus on Solstice again.
Galen is the new guy, so it'll be a bit before he's earned even the smallest measure of respect in the Captain's eyes. He's got to show he can pull his weight and not get splashed on his first combat mission, otherwise why would anyone even give him the time of day. He sits on the edge of his bunk and flops back with a thud, the blankets rustling beneath him.
"Yeah, Shakes. Solstice..Vasco. Whatever works. Shakes wasn't my first choice." As are most callsigns. She rubs her hand up over her face and through her hair to let it down. The flow of curls falls, some glinting with grease. "It's been a lot of work. Just too bad the condition they came back in, that and the loss of the crew." She says rather quietly of Mouse and her ECO.
The ECO moves her engineerng books to the table, idly opening them and fingering through the pages. "But everything seems to be under control - ships are slowly being pieced together."
Khloe quickly gets through brushing her hair, gives it a final pat down and squeeze from her towel, and banishes both to her locker. A quick swipe of deodorant, and Poppy nudges her locker shut with her foot. She begins the practiced movements of her usual regulation braid. "Going to be nothing left to the air wing but sewn-together birds," she mutters disapprovingly, but it's clearly not meant as a judgment against Solstice. Braid, braid. "If Drips isn't on CAP or training, or sleeping, he's usually down on the deck helping out, too. I suppose it's good that I have zero mechanical aptitude else I'd never sleep." Glancing over at Galen's flop, she offers, "Tired already, Ensign?"
There's two ways Galen can answer that - either smart-ass, which is how he was before the Military, or the 'Correct' way, which is what he does. "No Sir, just inspecting the ceiling for structural flaws." He sits up, swinging his arms above his head to gain a little momentum. "I am pleased to report that the ceiling is in A-ok condition. Sir."
"I am afraid to report, that they alread are." Says the Lieutenant. Her gaze moves then to the Ensign and honey eyes regard him in that distant study that she affords all. Shakes pulls another chair closer and puts her feet up, stretching out as another sign helps release her tense body. Wetting her lips she rubs at the grease on her neck and then her cheek, only smeering it further. Thumb to pointer - she rubs the two pads of her fingers together to try to wear away the grease before giving up and wiping it on the coveralls that garishly gleam about her waist in their orange hue. Her tank top is looked down at and she frowns some, consideirng a shower after having seen Poppy looking quite chipper after her own.
"Smart-ass," Khloe replies dryly to Galen, although it isn't accompanied by her usual deepening frown. Just her regular one. Achievement unlocked? She pads over to the center table where Solstice is sitting, finishes tying off her braid, turns one of the seats around so the back is facing forward and plunks down into it. Chipper is not an attribute often applied to the Knights SL. "There's a reason why military-grade soap removes the top two layers of skin," she offers to Solstice, nodding at her grease problem. "That stuff is vile."
Well that wasn't too terrible of a backhand. Galen chuckles. "Part of me thinks they put ground up sand into the bottoms of the bottle for extra abrasive properties, but there's no denying it works. Just don't put cologne or anything alcohol-based on your skin until you've gotten used to it." Galen rubs the back of his neck from his sitting position, wincing at the memory before getting to his feet and padding over. "I'm Galen, the new guy. Mind if I ask what you're reading?"
"Vile is an understatement." she states to Khloe, still feeling the oil linger on her fingers. Shakes looks up at Galen as he joins them. "Uhhh…nothing that most people care to read in their off time.." She slides the book towards him, stretching out a little more in her chair and rolling her shoulder. "Principals of Electrical Engineering. Figure I better brush up seeing as the Raptor bit me today..rather a hot plate did." She winces a little and rubs her left hand, the jolt from it causing her some lasting numbness through her hand. She sits up, drawing her legs off the chair a little as she then adds towards Poppy, "How is Drips and the others doing?" Meaning the others who had been injured.
"He's on light duty, which means he's healthy enough to get into trouble," Khloe responds. "Bubbles has been back flying for quite a while, much to my disapproval, but I'm no doctor. Hosedown is still in recovery, I think - It'll be a while til we know how long it'll be before she's flight-worthy." There's that tell-tale frown. "Frankly, we're getting frakked. I'm glad we've jumped someplace where I hope they'll leave us alone for a while. I'm not one to shy from a fight but attrition wars with no hope of relief just aren't sustainable."
All these names, and none Galen knows. Hopefully he'll get to know them soon, alive and well, and not at their memorial services. "I mostly did physics…and my repair is basically on farm equipment which, surprisingly, translates fairly well to the heavy stuff we use. Just don't ask me to calibrate anything major, and we'll be fine." Galen gives a grin to the lady who didn't introduce herself, even though he did. He makes an end-run around the table and takes one of the unclaimed seats. "They're treating us like a foxhunt. Just enough to keep us off balance." Galen shakes his head, running a hand through his short hair. "From your lips to god's ears, Captain."
She shoots the book over towards the new guy, "Read up on this..I have marked the pages that apply to the electronic stations on the Raptors and Vipers.." She offers. Shakes then unhooks her legs from her chair and sits up fully, leaning over the table and one of the smaller books before her. Her eyes shift to Poppy and she nods slowly, taking it in, "At least they are alive." She says faintly, "Lords be praised for that. This new jump, as you say will hopefully give us some time. To possibly even do more with the birds than - patch them up." She frowns some and looks over to Galen, a hand lifting to worry that grease spot once more. "Solstice Vasco." She offers finally, as if she hadn't forgotten but found it of no rushed importance to share her name. "Or Shakes." A brow lifts with that name and she adds, "Farm equipment won't shock you like a frakkin hotplate will." That said, she stands and stretches, moving then to undo the overall, hooking the boots off and placing them to the side as she opens her locker once more. Stepping out of the garish orange and just in PT shorts, Shakes then rolls the dirtied coveralls and stuffs them into a laundry bag. "Think I may hit the laundry room in a few." She murmurs.
Khloe nods after Solstice, watching her as she retreats to her locker; once she starts disrobing she turns her attention back to Galen. "I'm sure that if you wanted to help out, you could. You'd just need my permission - which you have - and then permission from the CAG to talk to Chief Damon. I'm sure they'll take whatever help they can get. Just operate on the grounds that your primary responsibility is to fly a Viper. You let your other duties slack and I'll weld your ass to a bulkhead."
Yay, homework. It's not like he didn't have other things to do, but in the middle of a war, free time is a luxury that one really can't afford. The slid book is stopped by the lifting of his fingers, the very real weight of it thumping against the heel of his hand. he turns it, peering down at the marked pages. "It's not physics equations, but it's something I can work with…" he murmurs before his head swivels to pay attention to Khloe and not Shakes, nodding. "It's not an order, but it's something that'll help. Aye-aye, Sir. i'll check with the CAG ASAP."
Drawing out her sweatpants, she tugs them on and then grabs for her tennis shoes. Tucking them under arm, Shakes then ties off the laundry bag and tugs it out of the locker with a thud to the floor. She drags it over to her chair and sits back down, getting about tying the shoes on. Her gaze lifts to the book, "Should you need some help, let me know. It was my area of study at the Academy." She states.
She makes a motion with her hand and then looks up at Poppy. "Sir, perhaps you would find time to run me through some Raptor sims. After the Aerilon Recon, I feel I may need to brush up on my piloting. Being alone out there shocks one in to remembering that to get away you need to be able to fly and not just fire up a suite."
"Good boy." Well, Galen is over a decade younger than her. "Poppy's #1 rule: if you're not bathing, sleeping, or on duty, you could be doing something to make yourself a better soldier." Rolling her shoulders stiffly, giving a faint wince, she says to Solstice, "To be fair, I've got the Raptor competency of a green Nugget. If you want tips, you should hit up Toast, or maybe Pony. Definitely Toast; she can point you in the right direction."
"Thanks, Solstice, I will. I'm not too bad about asking questions if I have no idea. Last thing I want to do is assume I know something and cause a viper to auger in somewhere unpleasant due to something I did." Galen rubs the edge of the book he was given with the pad of his thumb, feeling the weave of the cloth binding, the pages. It's a tactile sensation not given much anymore. Inclining his head toward the captain, he asks. "Sir, you okay? you're acting like you've got a pulled muscle or five in there."
"Honesty, the best policy." she states in regards to them both. Shakes ties off one and hooks her next foot up, tying the other in short order before the foot rests back on the ground. She looks between the two and then pushes herself up. "Damage that book and it will be the last thign you touch." She says in an uncharacteristic tone from Solstice. She grabs her other two books and gives them a toss to her bunk. The bag of her laundry is taken up with a slight grunt.
A thin eyebrow goes up at Solstice's overly-protective nature of her book. Followed by a wry smirk. "I'd be careful, Ensign," she warns Galen. "Never come between a lady and her engineering manual. And no, I'm fine. Just stiff, and old." Pushing up with hands on the back of her reversed chair, she intones, "I think it means I need a catnap before CAP tonight. Try not to read too loudly." Nodding to Galen, and then flashing that smirk again at Solstice, Khloe pads over to her bunk and climbs up and in. Zip goes the curtain.
"No need to worry. I'll treat it like my very favorite thing." Galen flips open the book to one of the marked pages and starts to skim - apparently this is the one that doesn't begin 'So you want to fix Vipers.' That's the kid's version. This one is chock full of engineering, voltage specs, where not to touch, where to touch if you want to fix the problem, etc. It's going to take a while for him to digest this all, and even longer to put it to memory, but Galen'll get there eventually. "Good sleep, Sir." he calls before the curtain closes, tapping the book with a fingertip when he turns to Solstice. "I take it these are as rare as hens' teeth, then?"
"Sir." Shakes says to Poppy, a faint upturn of her own lips at the jest made about the book. She was right though, her gaze shifts back to what Galen has in his possession. Solstice gives a nod of her head to his comment as she settles the large bag to the chair. "It's not like I can hit a colony and pick up another." She says faintly. "The library here is good for many things, but they don't have everything. That edition is my academy one. It has all my footnotes in it. That in itself makes it worth something." She says, tilting her head as her eyes lift from the book to him.
Galen purses his lips and nods knowingly. "I read you, Shakes. I'll keep it in the condition I got it in. Promise." A page is turned rather carefully, the paper rustling as he does so. "Any specific systems that we need to concentrate on? I'm guessing life support, weapons, comms, directionals…the usual suspects? Or will I just be the guy handing the wrench or screwdriver to the guy who knows how to fix the problem?"
Tilting her head some, Shakes considers his question, "At this point it can be any of them. Been recently having trouble with the ECO stations shorting out on us..or the PiRC." She states. She narrows her gaze. "I am headed down for laundry, I gotta go now or work in damp uniforms. Come with and I can help you, otherwise you are out of luck for the moment." She states. Hoisting the bag finally, she lets it rest to her shoulder. "Otherwise just start with the neutral wire's section. That will explain their purpose. Probably the biggest problem we have thus far with the electrical systems." She advises and takes a step towards the door, lugging her clothes.
"I'll come with and help carry. Gives me an excuse to do the laundry I have building up, and the last thing I want is to be 'that guy' in the bunks with only one pair of clean anything." Galen closes the book, slides out of the seat, and jogs over to his bunk to grab his laundry. "let's go."
"Alright." she says and waits for him. Solstice then opens the hatch for him. Stepping out with the Viper jock, the ECO falls to silence as they move through the decks.