NaNoWriMo Story Snippets

65. Excerpt from a ZAMPATA extra scene

Bayley and Iyo doing repairs on ZAMPATA, and discussing adding weaponry to the ship without Roman's permission.

Bayley thought Finn's facilities would be difficult to beat and she wasn't wrong, but Asuka's—like she was in so many other ways—was in a league of her own. The garage for the complex was about the same size as the village Bayley's grandmother came from, except it had better infrastructure and indoor plumbing. "This is amazing," she breathed. Other members of Zampata would probably complain about the smells of oil and metal and burning, but to Bayley those were almost like fine perfumes. She could tell the differences between different grades of oil just by their scents and could often tell the origin of even the most obscure parts just by how they were assembled.

Iyo watched her wonder with vague amusement. "I suppose so. I admit, I've been spoiled by Asuka's generosity. I could make do with far less, of course, but she always tries to make sure we have the best of everything."

Bayley stopped in front of something that looked like it should have been a power source of some kind, except it lacked any connector ports. "What is this?"

"Hm?" Iyo followed her gaze and picked up the strange rectangle. "Oh, it's an amplifier. Solar-powered. We have chargers on the roof and we just slot them in when they're drained. This one is amplifying the air purifier. See?" Holding the amplifier, Iyo walked towards the centre of the room and gradually Bayley heard the air purifier starting to chug a bit more. "They help prevent wear and tear on the machine's parts, which means fewer repairs overall, and they're easy to recycle. The park that Roux loves so much?" Iyo tapped the amplifier before putting it back in its place, and Bayley only noticed the small glowing circle on the air purifier when it started to glow. The chugging sound stopped almost instantly. "The cases of these are recycled to build the slides."

"Wow." Bayley had mastered the art of reusing things until they were practically dust on Zampata out of pure necessity, but usability was built in to almost everything on Kana. If an object didn't have more than one purpose, it at least had a way to be repurposed later on. It was an ethos Bayley appreciated, even if she did crave the simple pleasure of having something brand new once in a while. "That's so smart."

"Asuka wants Kana to be self-sustaining. She can avoid interference from The Authority if she's not beholden to them.," Iyo pointed out. "If a design works out particularly well, she invites engineers from other non-Authority planets to come here and learn about it." She gently took Bayley by the elbow and led her away from the amplifier. "I'm sure Asuka would give you some of those for Zampata. You would have to recharge them whenever you were on a planet, though."

"Sometimes that doesn't happen often," Bayley answered. As much as she loved flying amongst the stars, being on a planet definitely had a lot of advantages. "But I'll still take you up on that, if Asuka okay with it. I'm sure I could find a way to make them useful on Zampata."

Iyo glanced up at the aforementioned ship with a mixture of wariness and wonder. "It's impressive that she's still running," she said simply, tilting her head as if that would improve the view. "Most mechanics would have given up on this ship years ago."

"Most mechanics also don't talk to their ships." Bayley was pretty sure that wasn't actually true. Most mechanics rambled away as they worked—to themselves, to the machine under their hands, to whatever poor soul happened to be within earshot. It could be a lonely job, so you tended to take advantage of any audience you got. But she knew she treated Zampata more like a friend than most mechanics would. That was why she avoided what was commonly called 'percussive maintenance' —a kinder way of saying hitting things—and hesitated to cross-train Dean or Becky so they could help her. Despite the luck of the Irish, Becky was best kept away from the inner workings of machinery if possible, and Dean's lack of finesse was most evident around tiny but important parts.