fandomhighdorms | The roof, Wednesday evening

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The roof, Wednesday evening

Nadia lay on the edge of the roof on a towel with one of the books from the library open in front of her. She knew from her conversation with Alfred that she wasn't likely to find any details about Walter's mission itself in the books, but at least she could get an idea of the area he was getting into. And maybe a better idea of where he came from, in general.

The ideas she was getting weren't pretty. But then, she'd learned early on that a lot of things in life weren't.

Distractions would, of course, be entirely welcome.

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"Yeah, she and Marty kind of adopted me. Which is weird, but sweet." Nadia peered into the space where the panel had been. "So, what are we looking at?"

"The major fuel line couplings are in the way of where the engines are attached, so all we have to do is..." Cally reached in to unhook a fuel line, fogetting this would send waste oil and fuel accelerant splattering down onto her face.

"Get really disgusting," she ginished, wiping the muck off her face.

"Wow. When you said parts of the job were dirty, I didn't realize they were that dirty." Nadia grabbed some tissues from her pocket and offered them to her. "That stuff isn't dangerous, right? Just icky?"

"Just icky," Cally said. "But still kinda dangerous if I swallow any, which I thankfully didn't." Cally wiped her face with the tissued and sighed. "Okay, but that's exposed the engine latchings, so I can see if there's... nope. Nothing wrong in there."

"Right." Nadia blinked into the mass of machinery. "Nothing wrong."

It was apparently supposed to look like that. Mental note. "What next?"

"We hope that the panel will go back in place, after I get the fuel line back hooked..."

More goo splattered down on Cally.

"Up."

"It's just going to keep doing that, huh." Nadia would offer to help, but had no idea what to do. "Maybe we should have a bucket or something under here?"

Cally pointed at a nozzle switch next to the fuel lines.

"See that? That makes sure to shut down the flow. If you remember to switch that? It doesn't goo you."

"So . . . should I switch it? Or are you enjoying the goo?"

Cally finished rehooking the fuel line. "No point, now." Cally said. "And no, I'm not enjoying the goo. There is a time and place for dirty stickiness, and this is not one of them."

"Point taken." Nadia held up the panel. "So now we put this thing back on?"

"That's the idea," Cally said, trying to see if it would pop back into place.

Nadia watched, holding her wrench ready for putting the bolts back in and trying to remember which way to turn them.

"Where did you learn this stuff?"

"Dad," Cally said, holding the panel up. "He was a Crewman Specialist in the Fleet. Up until he got honorably discharged with a small pension."

"So you helped him out?"

"He stayed home after that, since he couldn't get a job," Cally said. "So he taught me, and homeschooled me, and everything."

"Why couldn't he get a job? It was an honorable discharge, right? That means he didn't do anything bad?"

"It means he lost his foot in an accident," Cally said. "One they didn't officially blame on him, since it wasn't his fault, but he got scapegoated whenever he tried to use the Fleet as a job reference."

"That . . . wow, that really sucks."

"But it means I got to spend a lot of time with my dad, so it worked out okay for me," Cally said. "And between my mom's teaching and dad's pension, we got by fine."

"That's good. And you got some useful skills out of it."

"Exactly," Cally said, shooting a glance down the underbelly of the Viper. "Okay, I'm suddenly not up to checking the rest of this tonight. You okay with quitting for now?"

"Sure. It's not like I could keep working on it without you." Nadia smiled. "Well, I could, but that'd probably be bad."

"Possibly, Cally said, rolling out from under the Viper and standing up.

"Oh, ugh, it just ran down my shirt."

"Yick. You should probably grab a shower, then."

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