Skyreign

26: The Merge

"Still nothing?" asked Rose, who had just hopped up onto the bridge from the landing of the deck below. Single bounds of five or ten metres were not uncommon for her, and the planet's lighter gravity had yet to start weakening her compact yet powerful muscles.

"Just lots of weapons carelessly left around," said Olsein as he ascended the stairwell, dusting his hands off, "hell of a show you and your mother put on."

"Better than the one here," Laura scoffed in her chair, "go help Darrick, Rose. We've been grounded long enough."

Rose simply nodded and descended the stairs past Olsein.

Janeth crossed her arms, tapping her foot, looking at Laura expectantly.

"Yes?" said the Captain evenly, "well?"

"You're forgetting something terribly crucial," said the ancient woman, in a voice that sounded so young for the age Laura had to estimate Janeth was.

After a long pause and attempting to figure out what it could possibly be, she thought of nothing out of order, aside the entire electrical system. "Enlighten me."

"You know this," Janeth shook her head, "you all do. It's plain under the sun."

"Just tell me, Janeth."

"I have had my moments of brilliance aplenty," Janeth shrugged nonchalantly, "and I know it for a fact you have the intellect required to figure this one out, even in the absence of your engineer."

"I'm not half the engineer Edge was," she frowned, especially so in having to admit a fault.

"You have talents of your own," Janeth hummed, "enough so that you should know what to do."

"Well it's not exactly 'plain under the sun' as you so eloquently put it!" Laura argued. Slowly, she repeated to herself quietly, "plain under...the...sun. The sun."

Janeth faintly smiled.

"The sun. Noregite is photovoltaic. Right!" she stood suddenly, rushing to and down the stairs, "I should have known!"

"Clearly, you did know," Janeth said quietly, staring off into the distance.

"Darrick!" Laura shouted before trotting into the engine room, "Darrick, reroute power intake to draw from the hull!"

Both Darrick and Rose were busily tinkering away on the various circuits behind pried panels in the room. Both Darrick and Rose halted in their tracks upon hearing Laura's revelation.

"I should have known," said Darrick with a sigh, the sigh of a man who worked tirelessly for nothing at all.

"So simple," Rose shook her head, tossing a worn wire coupler aside, "and none of us thought of that sooner?"

"We always had Edge to keep everything running," Laura leaned on the door frame while the two diverted their attentions to the master power intake above the core, "we never had to think of this stuff."

Moments later, a few wires were transferred over to the hull feed, and immediately, the ship came to life.

"Yes!" Darrick cheered.

Rose simply smiled at him.

"Don't stop now," Laura said as she headed to the bridge, "but good work, you two."

As she ascended to the bridge, Janeth was already at the console, looking over the various systems coming alive. She kept her eyes more closely on the alerts screen, reading them over and over before finally looking up to Laura, "someone's trying to call you."