[indent][indent][color=6ecff6][i]I need a conductive point…nothing too sharp…and something to produce a charge in the right place…can’t be too high though.[/i][/color] The problem danced around her head, igniting ideas as it went. She loved problems but she loved solving them more. She had almost forgotten about the wounds on her face. [color=6ecff6][i]Soldering iron, maybe?[/i][/color] The notion triggered a cascade. [color=6ecff6][i]Fucking of course…a soldering iron with a simple power cell attached, run through…[/i][/color] She glanced down at the carry case and remembered the diodes. [color=6ecff6][i]Wouldn’t run the risk of any electrical feedback but would be enough juice to fool the collider-brake relay into thinking it was needed. It’d take all the guesswork out of the whole fucking procedure.[/i][/color] She smiled but a stab of pain told her she missed a small piece of the fuse housing that was obviously still lodged in her cheek. Even so, she was happy she solved the problem. [color=6ecff6]“Took you long enough, you fucking idiot.”[/color] She said aloud.

Taking the towel away from her face, she plucked out the errant plastic shard and flicked it across the cargo bay. Although she immediately lost sight of it, she heard it skitter across the grated floor and disappear somewhere. She felt blood trickling down her face so put the towel back. She sighed as another thought hit her.

[color=6ecff6][i]I was going to use the diodes though…[/i][/color] With her free hand, she pulled the carry case across her lap and opened the lid. She’d bought two. [color=6ecff6][i]One will cement the bodge job on the relay but I’d have no spare…fuck it. First things first.[/i] [/color]

Pushing herself to her feet, she walked back into the engine room, pausing at the door to look disapprovingly at the engine. “Alright, let’s put that nonsense behind us and move forward, shall we?” She said before moving over to the right hand side of the room to one of the many access panels set into the wall. Opening it up, she was faced with an array of wires, readouts and three small servers, set on their edge against the housing. Retrieving one of the Full Spectrum Frequency Sensors from the case, she turned it over. Hot as it may have been, it looked in good shape. She pulled one of the servers out from the housing a little to get at a series of wires on the left hand side. Finding the one she needed, she gently freed it from the server and attached it to the wire outcrop on the top of the sensor. She then did the same with the wire next to it, at which point, the LED on top lit up and she slid the server back into place. There was enough give in the wiring to allow her to use the magnet on the underside to attach the sensor to the roof of the access point.

[color=6ecff6]“One down, four to go.”[/color] She said, closing the access panel. Starting with the access panel to the immediate right of the one she closed, the one housing the ship’s Helium Cryogenic Brakes, she moved around the ship, performing the same task. She covered as many of the Valkyrie’s major functions; engine, brakes, shields and life support. 

Finally, she returned to her quarters and tossed the carry case down on her bunk. Grabbing the last of the sensors, she sat down at her desk and pulled out her IMP. Turning it over in her hands, she pressed a small segment on the device’s underside which caused a small panel to swing open. She set it down.  From one of the drawer of her desk, she retrieved a small screwdriver and quickly but carefully dismantled the sensors housing. In the end, she was left with a tiny mother board with a nest of wires with the LED at the end of one of them. Picking up her IMP again, she pulled out a small section of wiring and cut a section out. Peeling away the wire cover, she bound the wires together with those of the sensor. Once again, the LED lit up and she smiled as the small blue light lit up the lower portion of her face. Lastly, she gently pushed the new addition back inside the IMP’s housing, closing the miniature door behind it. 

She slid her datapad across the desk so it sat in front of her and cast her IMP. It didn’t look or behave any differently, continuing its lethargic orbit of Tes’ head. The datapad responded to her touch and she rapidly tapped away at the holographic keyboard. She found the files she was looking for…

[color=7bcdc8]DOWNLOADING…0% 
DOWNLOADING…15%
DOWNLOADING…37%
DOWNLOADING…64%
DOWNLOAD COMPLETE[/color]

She smiled, tentatively using her neural uplink to navigate her IMP. It was a success. The sensor in the device was picking up data from the others she had installed around the ship. [color=6ecff6]“Now you can talk to me wherever I am, sweetheart…and what’s more, you can tell me exactly where it hurts.”[/color] She couldn’t contain her excitement. She smiled more than she had in recent memory but reined herself back in. She exhaled.

Picking up her datapad, she slumped down on her bunk. She thought about Ruce and whether or not he’d sorted out the new panels for the hull. She thought she ought to have a look at some just in case. As she opened the shopping portal, she found it booted on the last thing she searched for…second hand ships. She found the excitement drain from her as she flipped through the holographic images.

She flicked through a couple, nothing special, one pretty knackered frigate and fighter that had been salvaged. Neither one of them was what she was looking for but she felt an enormous stab of guilt and looked around the room. 

[color=6ecff6]“I’m sorry, old girl, I love you, you know I do, but I can’t be a ship’s mechanic forever…can I?”[/color] She asked, knowing full well there would be no response. She placed a palm against the wall and sighed. [color=6ecff6]“Fuck it all..”[/color] she said, turning off the datapad, crossing her arms behind her head, and lying down.
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