[indent][indent][color=6ecff6]“She’s not on her last legs, if you know what she’s about.”[/color] Tes protested. [color=6ecff6]“She’ll run just fine provided you have a first-rate mechanic. Which, I’d like to fucking point out, you do. It’d pay you and Valkyrie if you listened to said mechanic every once in a while.”[/color] She rested her elbows on the railing of the gantry and looked down at Ruce. She counted up the years they’d flown together and found herself wondering how they’d made it so long without killing one another. She realised that, despite how different they were in practically every way, they worked well together. For all his bravado nonsense, he respected her as the skilled engineer she was and she respected him as her captain. Between Valkyrie, Benner and herself, they’d gotten themselves into and out of more scrapes than she could count. They had each other’s’ backs.

[color=6ecff6]“Of course it was a good bodge-job, I did it.”[/color] She said. She knew that Ruce was trying to rile her as per usual but she was adamant that she wasn’t going to rise to the bait. [color=6ecff6]“It wasn’t on its last legs at all but because you insisted on the bodge job and entering atmo so fast, it put too much strain on the brake servo. That’s where it came from.”[/color]

As the rear cargo hatch of the ship lowered, she vaulted over the railings that ran around the gantry and slid down the ladder on the other side. She landed with a thud as her boots connected with the cargo bay floor. Walking across the bay floor, she came to stand to the right of the captain.

As the cargo door touched down in the dirt and the ambassadors for the Zantu Expanse were revealed she found herself tensing up. Not out of fear, something else, like she was a coiled spring. She counted their number and let her eyes settle on those of one of the Urin bodyguards. They were heavily armed…perhaps too heavily for a simple trading party, but she knew how cautious the Expanse were about any meeting. She half expected to be hauled away to do the deal in some dingy warehouse somewhere. She became aware of the empty holster at her left hip and found herself wishing she’d brought Laverne with her. She heard the Captain speak about the hardware they’d brought with them. [i][color=6ecff6]Cheeky bastard.[/color][/i] 

[color=6ecff6]“Tes will do no such fucking thing until we’ve seen the money.”[/color] She growled, her eyes flitting from the Urin gunman to one of his Grannok employers. [color=6ecff6]“We compromised our ship to get this here in time for you. We’ve now got to replace a fuse cluster and about 12 feet of coolant pipe, so we’re already out of pocket. You can see all your shit's here but I'm not offloading a damn thing until you show us you’ve got our payment.”[/color][/indent][/indent]