USF Progenitor & Crew: Adventures in Cosmos 01

#90 (WIP)

Kirby laughed and took his mechanical gloves off, then pressed a button on his chest that receded the armored plating covering his arms. He waited on his fellow spaceship mechanic named Micah to catch up with the process. Kirby glanced at him with a smirk then at the broken down spaceship and proclaimed, "And I guess that's that for the cutter. Probably."
"You can't save it?"
"It wouldn't make sense to do that. We can salvage the parts instead, tell the owner we're saving them time. I used to do this shit long time ago. When you're ready, I can show you how to take this whole thing apart, easy. Can you pick that up?"
"You think the company will allow-you to do that?"
"That? What's that?" Kirby asked quickly, pointing at a power cord connected to a powerful electrical generator. "Hand me that there."
Micah walked over to the Starboard side of the cutter's cockpit then bent over. He reached down to pick up the power cord and began rolling it up nicely.
"Slowly," Kirby added.
"What?" Micah asked, sounding annoyed.
Kirby always found it amusing that Micah would be annoyed so quickly with anything he didn't quickly understand. He hid a smirk and held his bare hand out.
Micah walked the power cord over to Kirby and handed it to him. He scanned Kirby's blank expression and checked, "You good?"
"Yeah. Wondering where all my friends went today," Kirby sighed. He checked his mobile phone and noticed that nobody had responded to any of his text messages and memes. He grunted and glanced up from his phone and asked Micah, "Any ideas?"
Micah chuckled and told him, "How would I know? I don't hang out with your friends."
"You did that one time!"
"One time, but then I got called in. They didn't even have much to say."
"There we are," Kirby said, receiving text messages from the friend group chat. One of his friends was posting memes that amused Kirby. He stayed focused on his phone, typing a reply. Then, he ordered Micah, "Bring the tester this way."
Micah walked away towards the cutter and started up a machine, then programmed it to detach heavy fastener pieces from around the cockpit. The machine made some hydraulic noises and electronic whines. He rolled a tester machine towards Kirby while he was still preoccupied texting.
Kirby informed, "We're going to another planet after this. Not far from here. Safer there."
"Aw, that's no fun! I like being in a-ghetto-wrecked looking-," Micah smiled reluctantly at Kirby.
Kirby chuckled and turned the tester on, warming it up. He said, "I know. Easy credits." He threw the coil of cording onto the ground next to him and hooked the USV (Universal Space Vessel) type-R plug-in into the tester machine.

The tester machine's AI voice kicked on and announced: Greetings. Please select an option from the panel list.

"Good morning, sweetheart! Thank you!" Kirby replied with a smile. "Micah, turn the stripper off and start taking off the undercarriage bars."
"I am," Micah declared, sounding tired. He rolled himself under the cockpit of the cutter and slowly removed the long steel bar pieces, placing them to his side. "There's so much fucking rust in here."
Kirby chuckled and assured, "Yup. That's an agency's lube job. Pretty good, yeah?"
"No!" Micah reacted, throwing on his goggles. "It's fucking terrible under here!"
Kirby ha-ha'd and told Micah, "Next job, I'll let you handle."
"Ground job or-?"
"Dock."
"Oh, fun!" Micah sounded mixed between happy and concerned.
"We'll see," Kirby said, turning on administrative options and reading as many details on the cutter that the tester provided. He lit up a cigarette and took a puff, then pressed more buttons on the tester with the cigarette still in his hand. He shook his head, taking note of all the bad and missing codes. Ahead of time, he had already predicted the cutter was a scavenger's salvation.

Drake _ Back to Back