| Loose Wires |
| Summary: | Marko and Solstice meet on the hangar deck. light repair work and team building ensue. |
| Date: | Tue Feb 15 2042 AE |
| Related Logs: | None |
| Players: |
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| Hangar Deck - Port |
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| The single largest rooms on the Cerberus are the hangar decks. Each flight pod consists of two stacked landing bays with adjoined decks and hangars, which along with computer-assisted landings results in a faster Viper recovery rate. Mirror images of each other, these two huge areas are located on the flight pods. The inboard sides of the deck, closest to the ship's main hull, are lined with parking and maintenance bays for Vipers and Raptors based aboard the battlestar. The outboard side of the deck contains the launch tubes used by the Vipers for standard deployment. Huge blast doors seal the deck into four sections, each one containing an elevator that leads up to the flight deck directly overhead. The fore-most section contains an elevator system that leads towards Aerospace Fabrication. [Condition Level 2: Danger Close] |
| Post-Holocaust Day: #353 |
It's 22:18 hrs, do you know where your ECOs are? One of them, Marko, is busily going through the recently repaired Harrier-307, home of he and Classy's near shoot-down from a few days ago. The young ECO is perched in the seat at his station, scrupulously running through checklists and repair logs to make sure the formerly shattered console and computer behind are working up to snuff. From the noises he's making, he sounds impressed both with the speed of the job and the skill with which it's been done.
Harrier-303, the recent bus of both Toast and Shakes was shot just the day before. Mostly in the front much to the Major's dismay and injury. Still, unable to sleep with the possibility that something may be off with the instruments, Solstice decided to dress down and make an appearance. The sound of her shoes crossing the port hanger floor towards the patched up Harrier sound. She rubs her hand up through her hair and jumps up the wing and then opens the hatch, leaning back to let it open. That is when she sees the other Raptor - not so empty. She lifts a brow, tilting her head to see who is within. Unfamiliar with whoever it is she slides into 303 and takes a look about, first checking to see if the deckhands had patched over the front hole.
Ah-ha, it sounds as if there's someone else on the prowl on the tarmac tonight, another Raptor jock by the sound of it. "Who goes there?" Marko calls over his shoulder as he sets the master control panel into a full auto-diagnostic. That should keep the thing occupied for a few minutes, more than long enough to give him a chance to see who's joined him.
She mutters something under her breath as the console has a bit of a time firing up. She tugs at the grey sweat top and lets it read back on her chair as she starts to lean over and go through a manual boot phase, allowing her to access into the main core of the terminal. That is when she hears the question and she half swivels in her seat. Shakes rises up from it and moves to the open hatch, hand on the side as she looks towards 307. "Lieutenant Vasco…Shakes." She says, as if she longed for a different call sign.
"Hey, Shakes. How are you feeling?" Marko asks, hopping out of 307 and making his way to stand by the hatch to 303. "You and Toast got shot up a little." he adds, sounding concerned. "How's she doing, as well?"
"Flasher." She says in recognition. "Yeah, just a little. Too many to try and scramble the other night by myself. CAP turned into a nightmare - again." She explains. Shakes studies him and the nods her head. "Toast is a little scratched on her arm but she's doing better already. Minor shrapnel and I am just fine. Didn't get a scratch." Her tone is all matter of fact and she can hear the sound of her ECO station revving up. She casts a look over her shoulder. "And how are you doing?" She asks him.
"That's a relief." Marko replies, nodding a little. "How's your gear workin?" he inquires further. "Yeah, CAP's turning into a nightmare a little too often for my tastes." he adds, wincing a little. "What's with all of these three striped Raiders? Where the hell are they coming from and why did they just start surfacing now?" he asks rhetorically, sounding as if he just might have a thought or two of his own on that subject. "Pain in the ass." he sighs.
"That is one way of putting it." She intones at his last remark. "As far as I know, just a little trouble in the boot up process, was going to circumvent it.." She explains and then starts to head back in, giving a brush of her hair from her face in the places it comes loose. Shakes motions with her hand. "Actually.." she pauses and stops, turning back towards him. "I had wanted to go give that ship a look. The one they have holed up." She explains. There is an actual glint to her gaze. Mischief?! Shakes? Absurd.
"Heh, it's definitely something to see, all right." Marko chuckles, nodding slowly. "Have they had any luck getting any power to the damn thing? Been so busy with CAP that I haven't had a chance to get over and check it out since they brought it aboard."
"I wouldn't know, haven't even gotten a chance to really look it over." Her fingers itch for the chance though. Solstice steps back into her Harrier, moving for the ECO station and sliding into the seat. "We got another the other day too.." She explains. "Another marked raider, I am beginning to think they are a subsect…" She states, "As if this group had broken away from the Cylons. We have never seen markings before but in every form of military or organization, markings denote a difference or change." She says as she begins to go through the motions of manual boot.
"A breakaway group?" Marko asks, cocking his head a little. "Hadn't thought of that….You think if that's the case, maybe it's possible to talk to them?" he muses. "I mean, if we could get them to stop frakking shooting at us long enough, of course." he chuckles.
She casts a look over her shoulder at him, "You going to get close enough, Flasher?" She says wryly. "I think I like our chances continuing to avoid confrontation. But that ship we have is going to keep bringing them" She sighs and watches as some subset is not booting. She hits the reset again.
Shakes fools with her console and then adds, "They may not even half what we call the skin-jobs. They could be pre-skin-jobs yet. Which means centurions, which means very little reasoning from past experience."
Marko nods. "Yeah, you're probably right." he replies glumly. "They wanted to talk to us, they'd have tried to by now, no doubt." he sighs. "So, more problems. Greaat…Because, you know, we didn't have a few thousand fairly monumental ones to start with."
"Until we can get off Cerberus and actually find somewhere to hold out, there will always be troubles. Just be glad to be alive and fighting." She says in a cool sense of a support from the usually withdrawn woman. As the ECO station reboots, she stands and moves for the forward section, meaning to see further if all is able and ready for next flight. She slides up and moves to sit in the pilot seat. Strange - every time she does sit there. She's not used to getting a bigger picture. She has her DRADIS.
"Hey, you mind?" Marko calls, gesturing to the ECO's station. "Maybe we can do something about that hang on boot-up." he suggests.
Shakes considers the offer and she motions with a faint wave of her hand, "No by all means, please." she intones and leans over the pilot's controls. It seems the knuckledraggers have done their job and all seems back in place. Solstice looks back over at Flasher in silence. "Any change?" she asks.
"Well, let's see what we've got here." Marko replies, starting to run the station through it's paces. "Okay, function-wise, everything looks good. Let's see what happens when we try a reboot." he says, restarting the system. "Do you know where it's freezing up during the boot up sequence?"
"I thought it was catching up on the secondary power circuits…I was beginning to think perhaps that something had been loosened or short circuited during the hit." She says. Rising up from her seat, Shakes moves closer to Flasher, leaning over the back of the chair to watch the screen closely. Slowly she lowers and moves to the panel below the DRADIS system. She starts to twist and pull at the panel to loosen it.
Marko bobs his head slowly and waits as the system begins to boot normally, then hangs _hard_ about ten seconds in. "Sounds like you might be right." he replies. "Hang on a sec, lemme get my kit out of Bertha." he says, standing up and moving for the hatch. "If that's all it is, fixing it shouldn't be that big a deal."
"Sure, that would be great." Down on a knee, she pulls the panel free and reaching up for a flashlight, she starts to look over the interior of the panel. Rolling to her back, she scoots closer and clamps the flashlight between her lips and teeth. Her hands reach up and she begins to check over the connections to the DRADIS station. A soft zap and she pulls her hand back a moment, muttering something in Sagittaron.
"Back in a sec." Marko says, hopping out and making a beeline for the Raptor he and Leyla use almost exclusively when it's in working order. In no time at all, he's climbing back into 303 carrying looks like a bright pink floral nylon bag of the kind tween-age girls use for little handbags. "Okay, let's see what we've got here." he says, setting the thing, in all of it's bright pink splendor, on the deck and starting to peer into the open maintenance hatches. Unzipping the bag, he digs a small metal flashlight, in full metallic purple neon and switches it on.
With her own smaller flashlight in hand, its not shedding much light at all. She turns it off and throws it aside as she looks up at him from her position upon her back next to the opening. Shakes smirks a little and eyes the bag. She clears her throat and her face goes impassive again. "Nice bag.." She comments and motions for him to shine the light, reaching back into the opening. "Somethings loose, I just got zapped.."
"Yep…looks like it's the power coupling to the LAMPS gear." Marko replies, chuckling at the compliment. "Thanks. You think the bag's sissy looking, you oughta look inside, see what I did to the tools." he grins as he pops the flashlight into his mouth and digs inside for a pair of rubberized gloves.
She pushes herself up and dares a look into the bag. A brow rises higher as she draws a short breath. "Really flasher.." she starts and then smirks a little. Shakes digs back into the problem, sans gloves at the moment, turning to allow Marko room should he want access to the panel. She reaches back in, grabbing the covered runs of wire to get a good look at the back of the system. "I can't see but I think it's here. Give me the light and get down here with me. I will hold the wires back and you can have a go."
Inside the bag is a nice-looking set of electronics tools of nearly every description, each of them tucked into their own little holder affixed to the inside of the bag. It'd be a fantastic kit, except for one wrinkle, Marko has covered as much of them as possible with the most _adorable_ girly-looking shrink wrap. Where that wasn't possible, they've been painted pastel or neon colors in pinks, blues, red and purples.
"Heh, you better believe it sister." Marko says, pulling the handle of the light out of his mouth to do so. "My friends back home were always 'borrowing' my tools." he explains. "And of course, once the borrowed them, I'd usually be lucky to see them again inside of a month." he smirks. "I cajoled, I threatened, nothing worked. So I decided to make them as girly-looking as I could. They never touched the damn things again."
"No need to explain..kinda wander why you aren't called…Pink or something. Mind if I?" she asks him in a rather smooth - placid voice. Is she joking or serious? Maybe both. Shakes shifts further, edging over so he has room to slide in next to her. She holds out her hand for the flashlight, curling her fingers as she looks up at him from almost nearly sticking her head into the console. "Pink…flashlight."
"Heh, that's because the only other person who knows about them has about the least sense of humor of anyone else in the squad." Marko smirks. "She just sort of shakes her head, rolls her eyes a little and goes back to work." he chuckles, reaching inside to attempt to tighten the connectors. "There we go….That _should_ do it. Try it now."
Tugging herself out to sit up, she releases the wires and looks up at the controls. She hits the reset button again and watches in patients. "Well they can stay hidden if you like." Her humor is lost. It was there and then gone, freezing back over. Shakes moves to rest on her knees and waits, hands settling to her thighs. IT keys up with a beep and as the DRADIS screen warms up the bootup doesn't stall this time. There is a twitch of a smile. "There" She says.
"Poor knuckledraggers have had their hands so full with all these CAPs, they probably just forgot to double check it." Marko says, shrugging a little as her puts his gloves and light away. "Glad to be of service, Shakes." he grins to the woman, pulling himself up and dusting off his posterior.
She looks up at Flasher and nods her head. She rises to her feet slowly, rubbing the finger that got zapped with her thumb. The tingle was still there but normal feeling was returning. "Thanks." She says in afterthought of his 'your welcome' in a sense. "You are not a bad ECO, Flasher." A compliment. Stepping up in the world of comradeship. Solstice looks to her station and reaches down to fix the panel into place, going back to a knee. "The marking of our tools.." She starts. "It was a wise idea…"
"Heh, thank you, Shakes." Marko chuckles teasingly, shaking his head a little. "I'm pleased that I have the confidence of my comrades in arms." he chortles softly. "You ain't so bad yourself." he adds, giving her a teasing little bow. "So, how do ya like flying with the Old Lady?"
"I have to admit, I miss Priest at the helm..but Toast is a more than able substitute. She can fly my bus any day." She explains with a metallic *click* as the panel fits into place. She rises then, slowly and dusts off her pants. "Has been slick enough to get us out of a few situations." She nods her head, placing one hand to her hip. "Allows me to do my job without fear of being rocked out of my seat. I haven't flown with any of the other Raptor pilots."
"Yeah, she's one smooth bus driver, no doubt." Marko nods, smiling. "First flight I took when I joined the squad was with her. Can you say _nervous_?" he chuckles. "It was worse than when I took my finals at ECO school."
"Listen, Flasher." She says and steps up to him. Shakes gives a nod of her head to him. "You got brains, you have talent and from what I have seen are one of the good guys on this ship." Solstice draws a breath and then continues. "Never be intimidated. Know where you do your best, do your job and know that is all you can do. Never be nervous, no matter who you fly with, because you are worth it." She may be over the top but she is offering a compliment none the less which is a very odd thing from her. First Andrea, now Marko. Her honey eyes study him and she says very simply, "The CAG is an impressive officer, good at her job. I know she expects the best out of us. You give it." She intones and smiles faintly before she looks down to his tools. "I know your secret, I might steal them now."
"Yeah, you're right, I know. But, Gods, I was a lowly little Ensign at the time on my first deployment." he explains, shrugging a little. "All I did the first few weeks on this Godsdamned ship was salute." he chuckles throatily. "Steal them? Heh, first, you gotta _find them, and if you did, and stole them, then how will I be able to disarm the bomb I planted?" Marko grins to Solstice cheekily.
Her eyes flash a moment at mention of a bomb. "Don't think I won't take you seriously. Less suspicious people have done worse." She eyes him a bit closely and then gives an audible 'nah' and shake of her head. Shakes gives a faint roll of a shoulder. "Well I guess we are done for if you can't. Still got your tools. I call it a win." She says dryly. Vacant humor but it's there. ECO bonding is a cute thing when it involves the Sagittaron.
"Heh, first rule in my former line of work, 'Know thy tools and keep them sacred.'" Marko replies, bowing slightly. "There's nothing quite as embarrassing as trying to run a ferret line onto somebody's server and finding out Tyrannosaur's 'borrowed' your universal interface." he snerks. "Asshole…And I'd ask him, oh, dear friends and neighbors, I'd ask him what he did with the thing, but he'd be so smoked up, he'd just look at me all glassy-eyed and start giggling."
The vague reference to something not quite so 'legal' is made. "I see." She says placidly. There is a new consideration in her gaze as Marko is looked over. Hmmm she seems to say and turns to power down the ECO console and grab up her sweat jacket. She tosses it over her arm as she turns back to him, "You have some strange and colorful background I don't much about..nor have experience in, Flasher." She admits.
"Heh, well, we all had our reasons for signing up. Mine was to curtail my more anti-social tendencies." Marko chuckles, giving a little shrug. "But, it has come in handy. Anytime you wanna learn a thing or two, you let me know. They make this kind of stuff out to be one step short of magic, but if you've got a halfway logical mind, it's pretty basic, really." he smiles. "Just a matter of knowing what rules you can bend and what rules you can break."
"I would really like to think I don't need any additive help." She says. He is considered again and she starts to step past him. Shakes pauses, looking at him across her shoulder. "Thanks for the offer, but I think I will pass." The ECO tugs at the sweatshirt and slides off her Harrier and waits. She looks back up at Marko, waiting for him to exit before she closes the hatch. "Your help has been greatly appreciated, Flasher."
"Fair enough." Marko nods, chuckling softly as he prepares to depart. "But I wasn't going to teach you anything nefarious." he adds. "Just give you some pointers in case you wanted them. The offer stands." he says, shrugging in a friendly type way as he moves to exit the Raptor. "And, I'd appreciate it if you forgot I know how to run ferret lines." he adds with a playful wink. "The last thing I need is to be explaining to the Master At Arms how I can drop a networking cable into damn near any computer I can get my mitts on and access it remotely."
"I don't kiss and tell, Flasher. Your secrets safe." she explains and nods her thanks at his offer. She actually clears her throat as she had thought he meant something nefarious. Shakes gives a once over to her hair, straightening her top a little as well. "And thank you for the offer, I will think on it. Though I may pass still." She starts to turn as the Raptor hatch begins to close, "Flasher, not that I say this often. You are good company. Galley tomorrow to go over ways to improve the insulation of the ECO stations? It could help with the rolling about in flight." She says, waiting for his answer.
"Insulation?" Marko asks, tilting his head a little. "What do you mean, Shakes?" he asks, clearly not understanding her. "And thanks." he smiles. "I try to keep from being _too_ boring. You're okay, yourself, by the way." he adds pleasantly.
"Good to know I don't rattle everyone." She says unfazed. "Something to keep the wires from coming loose, padding, still breathable though…" She eyes the Raptor a long moment and then settles her gaze to him. "I figure two minds are better than one and if I see Spiral change in the berths one more time, I might think about giving up Air-Wing for another division." An idle threat.
"Heh, Shakes…" Marko replies in a mock-reprimanding tone that his increasingly hard to suppress laughter is making impossible to pull of. "That's just part of the joy of being in the Wing." he giggles, pausing to bend slightly at the waist. "And if you think Spiral's bad…." he chortles. "You…hehe…You haven't reckoned with Bunny yet." he laughs softly, shaking his head slowly. "Don't get me wrong, I love the guy to death, I really do. He's a damn good pilot and super nice, but _GODS_, man, Get some clothes on!" he chortles. "We have the technology!"
That actually summons a smirk upon Solstice's face. A foreign sight and the woman clears her throat. "Yes, truth be told. I just, well. To be honest, that Bunny caught me off guard the other night in the rec room. I should have fled when I saw Trask leaving.." she admits. "I ended up in a cuddle bomb for about several minutes." She shakes her head, rubbing her arms faintly at the memory of it. Not one for cuddles - no sir.
"Heh, yeah, good old Bunny and his cuddles." Marko chuckles fondly. "He's never tried to cuddle me." he sighs. "I'm almost hurt." he smirks as they walk. "But yeah…back to your original point, we could break out the line specs and see what we could come up with. Although, I gotta caution you, a lot of the reason they didn't har everything down tighter than they did's for ease of maintenance." he points out. "We make it too complicated and the knuckledraggers will have our heads mounted on stakes in the middle of the hangar."
"Count yourself lucky.." She says. Shakes gives a tilt of her head and then lifts a brow. "It doesn't need to be complicated…just something to ease the stress on the wires and connections really. Something that won't hold the heat and be able to cushion a blow." She is already pondering over it. Solstice draws at the twist in her hair, letting her curls down with a rub of her nails against her scalp. Sigh.
"Well, like I said, we could always go over the specs and see what we can come up with." Marko replies, nodding a little. "Didn't say it was a bad idea." he adds simply. "Just that, well, you know." he shrugs.
She pauses and looks over at him, rubbing at her scalp. "I understand, they don't like us messing with the ships, but I like to keep my ECO station working." She intones. Solstice side steps towards the stairway, her hand lifting back to her scalp once more. What she wouldn't give for a bath. She sighs in thought and then shakes her head. "Just ideas, Flasher. That is all. Besides, I think I may have scared several wing-mates away from me. I know I am not the most friendly person." She admits.
"If you're having that kind of problem, it sounds to me like you need to have a heart to heart with your deck gang, Shakes." Marko replies. frowning a little. "Me and Sweet Pea have pulled some maneuvers that'd make a quail lose his lunch and my station never even _hiccuped_." he says. "Starting to sound to me like you've got some kind of fault in your system someplace. Want I should talk to the chief about it?" he asks, real concern evident in his tone. "These things are designed to take all manner of g-forces and stresses. If they're working right, they wouldn't pull a hair over a hard tug or two."
Apparently communication went awry. "Ummm Flasher..I was talking about the pilots…my personality. I am a bit withdrawn. I mean I was just hoping." Boy failing at social interaction. Shakes clears her throat. "Right, I will talk with the chief..don't worry." She is quick to patch it up. "Thanks Flasher."
"Oh, _that_." Marko says, wincing a little as he realizes just how much of the boat he's missed. "Heh, frankly, I wasn't going to comment on that because most people I know that feel that way are completely full of crap." he chuckles. "There's nothing wrong with you. Shakes. You're are as you are." he shrugs. "People can either get on board with that, or not. Not your problem, in my view." he smiles. "My wife's always going on about not being good enough and I'm half tempted to smack her when she does 'cause it's completely bullshit and she's smart enough to know it."
She waves it off quickly, actually grimacing a bit. Can of worms. Shakes stands there and listens, taking in the personal info without a bat of an eye. "Yes well, everyone is there own worst critic, right? We never see ourselves as perfect. If we did, then well..we would just melt at mistakes, might as well be cylons." She jests. Bad jest but it still is one. "Thanks though, Flasher. Maybe its just because you are an ECO." She guesses, "But you are easier to talk to than the pilots," She turns to go and adds, "I will see you tomorrow…rest well."
"Heh, well, when you're the true professional in the bird." Marko replies, puffing his chest out for a moment before chuckling the braggadocio away. "Hit me up next time we're at chow together. I've got the diagrams we need in my rack, we'll go over them." he adds. "Take care, Shakes, and for Gods' sakes." he smirks teasingly. "Go take a _shower_…." he teases, giving the woman a playful and _very_ light push towards the hatch.
Her hand draws away from her hair and she looks back at him a moment, lips parting in semi embarrassment. She swallows and then lifts a brow, going stone faced. "I was going to anyways…" She says rather stiffly. That's good ole Shakes. She rubs at her back a little where he touched her but there is a break to her face some, to that icy exterior. "Tomorrow." she repeats and then turns back, making straight line for the stairs and eventually for the pilot berths.
"Heh, Only playing, Shakes, only playing." Marko says, chuckling and shaking his head a little as he too ducks into the hatch and starts to make his way up the Midship Stairs.