A Learning Experience

From TFC Galactopedia

Nerio quickly grabbed hold of the equipment rack, steadying himself as the ship lurched violently to starboard. He groaned as his tool chest flipped, spilling across the machine room floor.

"Damn it, Jay, what the hell are you doing up there?" he yelled into the comm unit, "I told you to lay off the maneuvering thrusters until I'm finished repairing the intakes. If you blow the manifold, we're dead!"

"We'll be just as dead if we get hit by a turbolaser blast!" The pilot barked sharply back. "How long 'til we can make the jump to Hyperspace?"

"They wouldn't be firing at us if you hadn't run off with that Spice. Once I get the sensor array back online, the navicomputer will need to recalculate the jump from scratch. Then, and only then, can we bring the Hyperdrive motivator back online and get the hell out of here. Now, if you would stop distracting me..." the jaguar growled, picking up a hydrospanner that had rolled away.

"You want to get paid, don't you? Once I sell that Spice, you get your cut, and can go on your merry way."

Jadus Grey rolled his eyes and stabbed off the comm unit. "Engineers..." He grumbled under his breath and juked the little freighter up and down to avoid the streams of coherent light spilling from the customs picket on his tail. In concession to his hired mechanic, he at least made an effort to keep a relatively level course.

The freighter's hold bore a jumble of half-worthless items, in which were secreted several kilos of stolen Kessel Spice, a commodity heavily regulated by the Empire. Its customs agents made every effort to control the flow of spice, but the blackmarketeers always managed to smuggle out a few shipments. This was only Jadus's second spice run, though he had smuggled plenty of other contraband in the past.

Normally, the thick-furred and thick-skinned Maine Coon cat did his work solo, but the Pearl Nova, his worn-out freighter, was on her last legs. In a bar on Ord Mantell, he heard rumors of the jaguar's qualifications, and brought Nerio on board hoping for one last profitable run before recycling the Nova. Now, faced with the engineer's acid tongue and short temper, he was wondering if he might have made a mistake.

The cockpit hatch flew open and Nerio dove into the navigator's chair with a growl, scanning the navicomputer for any signs of life.

"Start the calculations for the next jump, and get your paws away from that maneuvering thruster! One more jolt like that last one, and you'll blow the starboard engine back to Kessel," Nerio barked.

Jadus entered their destination into his controls, for the third time, and triggered the jump preparations. "I don't think they'd be very happy to see us back there about now, this thing had better work," he remarked acidly.

"Oh no, you hit that thruster, and we’ll be space dust. They’ll just get the engine," Nerio hissed, watching the status of the Navicomputer. As the calculations finished and status went green, he closed his eyes and flicked on the power grid for the Hyperdrive. The motivator groaned below decks, but the charge indicator showed ready. He shouted to the pilot, keeping a hand at the cutoff switch, "Okay, hit it!"

Wincing as the ship's rear took one last blast, Jadus grabbed the Hyperdrive levers and pulled. For a moment his stomach clenched as the cockpit lights dimmed. Would Nerio's repairs hold, or would the motivator choose this time to burn out and leave them stranded? Then there came the familiar flash and the streaks of starlines as the Pearl Nova leaped into hyperspace. Jadus stared out the transparisteel viewports and breathed a welcome sigh of relief.

Nerio watched the readouts closely, monitoring drive status and reactor output, paying no attention to the view. "We're only reaching sixty percent of drive output," he remarked, "At this rate, it'll take an extra week to reach Commenor. And that's assuming your junk-shop motivator lasts that long. If you'd put more money into your ship, and less onto the Sabbac table, you might stand a chance out here."

Jadus glowered over his shoulder at the jaguar. "I only pay you to keep it running, not for your opinions on my management skills. If you've got a problem with the way I run my ship, you know where the airlock is."

Nerio looked up from the console, a smirk on his gray muzzle, "Considering the state this ship is in, I doubt I could get it open." He rose from his chair and vanished from the cockpit before the pilot had a chance to retort.

Grumbling under his breath, the Maine Coon locked the cockpit door after Nerio left. He had nothing against the engineer, but he hadn't expected Nerio to be quite so critical when he hired the jaguar on. He thought he was getting a simple mechanic. Instead, Nerio reminded Jadus more of a pushy father-figure. True, Nerio had perhaps twenty years experience on the pilot, but that didn't make the smuggler resent the jaguar's snide commentary any less.

In the engine compartment, Nerio crawled beneath a power coupling to pull out the last wrench that had escaped during Jadus's wild maneuvering earlier. "Damn hot-shot pilots, always pushing technology to the limit. This thing was obsolete before I could walk," he mumbled to himself, kicking a bulkhead and throwing the wrench into his toolbox with a loud clang. Even so, Nerio had seen plenty of relics like this one attain far more light-years than their designers ever dreamed of. After ten years wandering the outer rim, he'd repaired more broken-down freighters than he cared to remember. It didn't pay nearly as well as Figg and Associates, but anything was better than serving the Empire.

Nerio followed Ecclessis Figg to Bespin long before the Empire formed. For years, he designed communications and sensor systems to track mining vessels in the vast clouds of Bespin. After Cloud City was taken over to supply Tibanna gas for the Empire's ever-increasing forces, Nerio joined a freighter crew and quietly slipped away. He picked up odd repair jobs as he passed from spaceport to spaceport, trading brainpower for dinner on many occasions.

Sticking mainly to the middle and outer rim, Nerio's travels had taken him to many of the less appealing worlds the galaxy had to offer. Fortunately, the Empire's grasp here was weak, so avoiding their scrutiny was a trivial matter of a haircut and a few hacked datacards. With his name plastered all over the holonet around Bespin for dereliction of duty, he thought it best to vanish quietly. Undoubtedly, some of the systems he'd engineered were beginning to fail from lack of maintenance, and the last thing he needed was an Imperial patrol dragging his hide back when they couldn't get something to work.

Oftentimes, like now, he found himself hired on to a second-rate pilot like Jadus aboard a creaky, dilapidated, antique of a freighter. It made him wonder why he kept doing it. The money wasn't THAT good, the company was worse, and the food.. well, we won't go there. Still, it was a job, and it kept the Empire off his back... most of the time. Jadus's spice-hauling attempt meant Nerio could very well be in danger again, through no fault of his own. Grumbling, he rummaged in his toolbox with no real purpose in mind. If Jadus's little fling set Imperial watchdogs on Nerio's tail again, the jaguar would wring the kitty-cat's neck.

As he slammed his toolbox shut, suddenly an echo in the hull caught his attention. His ears perked and he closed his eyes, then pressed an ear to a bulkhead. "Oh Shit!" yelled the engineer, as he quickly ran to the nearest control panel and rapidly flipped breakers open. The Hyperdrive motivator groaned loudly as it discharged, and Nerio was thrown to the durasteel floor as the ship violently dropped back into realspace. He lifted himself to his elbows, with a groan, and listened as the creaking sound went from inaudible to frighteningly loud. Regaining his footing, he ran to the maintenance hold to grab a plasma torch and some metal scraps. The ship's comm lit up and Jadus's voice boomed through the hold, "Emperor's black bones! What do you think you're doing, Nerio?" Before the jaguar could reply, a deafening crack echoed through the hull, and klaxons began warning of a pressure drop.

The engineer switched off the comm and warning systems, silencing the ship, and cocked an ear to listen for the tell-tale whistle of escaping air. Ears swiveling, he traced the sound to the rear cargo bay. A panel was rattling with the pressure difference as air slipped around its edges. "Gotcha," the jaguar muttered to himself, pulling on a pair of welding glasses. Just as he lifted the plasma torch and prepared to patch the leak, Jadus came storming into the bay.

"Ripped us out of hyperspace, disabled the comm system, ignored orders from your captain? This had better be good, jungle cat, or you're walking home!" screamed the irate pilot.

Nerio calmly turned around, goggles down, and ignited the torch. A small blue flame, as bright as a sun, glowed in front of his muzzle. Cursing, Jadus winced and shielded his eyes.

"Cut that out! Nerio, I'm warning you..."

"And I'm saving your ass," the jaguar cut him off, "A hull breach in hyperspace would have ripped us to pieces, now go away and let me work." He turned back to the rattling panel, bringing the torch to its edge and gently heating the warped metal.

Jadus gaped at the black jaguar, momentarily stunned speechless. Nerio gently laid a bead of hot metal across the opening where four rivets had burst free. He slowly thickened the seal, red-hot metal occasionally singeing his fur, but this had to be perfect on the first try. Twenty minutes later, satisfied with his handiwork, he cut off the torch and removed the goggles. Turning around to put down his tools, he realized Jadus was still standing there.

"You're welcome," Nerio said, cleaning up the few solidified drops of metal slag that had fallen to the floor beneath his work.

Still staring, Jadus watched him clean up and trot out of the room.

"Well I'll be a rancor's uncle..." Shaking his head, he followed the engineer out of the cargo bay. Nerio was nowhere to be seen in the main lounge, for which Jadus was profoundly grateful.

His elation was short-lived, however, as he climbed back into the cockpit and found the engineer leaning over the navicomputer, reprogramming destination coordinates. Grumbling under his breath, Jadus sank into the pilot's seat.

"So where are we, anyway?" asked the 'coon cat.

Nerio looked up from the display, "Somewhere in Hutt space from the look of things. We didn't lose much air, so that weld will keep us breathing, but another jump might rip the hull apart. I need to get a look at the damage from outside."

Jadus frowned. "The nearest 'safe' port where we can make repairs would be Nar Shaddaa. Think we can make it that far, even limping along at sublight?"

The jaguar nodded to Jadus's nav display, "We're already on the way."

"Well at least something's going right for once," Jadus mumbled, running a hand through his mane and standing it on end. "Get some rest, if you can. This'll be a long trip..."

Nerio climbed down out of the cockpit and returned to the rear cargo bay, inspecting the weld once more before wandering back to his quarters. It was about this time he noticed his hands shaking, his heart pumping, and the adrenaline flowing in his veins. Then he remembered why he kept doing this.