Conflagration

Lyssa's Big Mouth

The next day, Lyssa was back out at the platform with too little sleep. She was showing yet another goon how to use the manual valves on the HEVA suit's rebreather. This one didn't even get far enough to start practicing his search pattern before he lost control of the mixture and nearly suffocated in the suit's hypoxic environment. Lyssa stood well away from the man as his comrades rescued him from the suit, her machinist's hammer at the ready.

"Idiots," she said, not realizing she'd said it aloud.

"It ain't easy," said a voice beside her. She recognized the voice even before she turned to see Sgt. Scalps standing there. How had such a big man managed to inch so close to her without her realizing it?

"It ain't that goddamn complicated," Lyssa felt pride-bound to defend the work she'd done modifying the suit. "Your guys are just dumber than a bag of pickles."

"If we had a better mechanic, maybe it would be easier to use..."

Lyssa knew that Scalps was intentionally goading her, but she couldn't resist. "If we had somebody to wear the suit that wasn't as stupid as you and your goons, maybe it would work." Only after she said it did Lyssa realize that everyone was staring at her.

"There's a lot o' shit to do all at once," the guy still in the suit said. He was sitting on the ground with he suit's crystalanium canopy standing open above his head. He had an oxygen mask over his mouth. "Watch these gauges, flip those valves, search for a tiny piece of circuit board in the mud."

"That's three things," Lyssa retorted. She walked to where the practice search pattern was set up on the platform's deck. "You can't handle three things? Like this: First, check your gauges." Lyssa held her left forearm up to her face, pantomiming the suit's wearer checking the gauges. "Second, adjust your mixtures." She pantomimed making a small adjustment to one of the valves. "Third, take a step and look around for the control card." She took a step on the search grid and scanned the deck before her. "No control card? Repeat the process. It really is that simple. You guys are just rushing it, trying to cut corners and search two or three squares between checking your mixtures. You lose control of the gas mixture and you pass out. Only thing is: down there on the bottom of the lake, there won't be nobody to help you."

Lyssa didn't like the way they were all looking at her.

"Okay, Ruiz," Scalps said, "you've convinced me. You're hired. You're doing the dive tomorrow morning."

"What?!" Lyssa exclaimed. Several of the pirates laughed at her. Only too late was she realizing her folly. She looked out at the gently lapping lake surface. She hated that water. She knew there was something in that water and she knew it was watching her. "I can't do that dive," she protested. "That suit's too heavy. I can barely stand up in it!"

"Won't the suit be lighter in the water?" This oh-so-helpful contribution came from the medic who'd fabricated her gold tooth the other day.

Lyssa looked at Scalps. He just raised an eyebrow at her. Fuck, Lyssa thought, he's right. It will be lighter in the water.

"Better get yourself a good night's sleep tonight, Ruiz. Tomorrow, you're goin' into the water and if you don't come up with that control card, then your girlfriend will be useless to us...at least as a pilot. I'm sure the boys can find some use for her."

Lyssa heard several lecherous chuckles from the men around the platform as she eyed the HEVA suit nervously. Like it or not, she was going to have to do the dive and do it right. There was more than her own life hanging in the balance.