Story-time: Chill Out
Hey guys,
Sorry for the lack of updates, but I have been a busy feline! I wanted a good venue to post up the most recent piece of fiction I've written for the RBW2010 lore and this seemed as good of a place as any!
So, here you go. Hope you enjoy it, feedback appreciated!
- Kitt
RBW-2010: "Chill Out"
Oh, not now. Literally any time except now.
In the four years the mechanic had been aboard the Britannia, she'd never once seen a fault with the station's air conditioning system. Given the notoriously temperamental nature of the units in question, Ressa had eventually put this down to... well, she wasn't quite sure. Call it fate, call it sheer blind luck, but with the plethora of mechanical problems this place threw at her on a daily basis, she'd been immensely grateful for its co-operation.
Except now it was 34 degrees Celsius all over the ship and rising fast, so seemingly that era had just come to a somewhat heated close.
"Holy hell, s'gotten hotter than a summer vacation on the surface of Venus up in here! What's the deal, Res?!"
The red panda silently rolled her eyes, turning her head as far as the access duct would allow to meet the dingo's gaze, "If I knew that, then it'd be fixed, Blake. You're not the only one baking in your fur, ya know?"
The canid flashed his trademark mischievous grin, "Hey now lil' lady, didn't mean nothin' by it. I'm sure you've got it all under control as usual. I'm just thinkin' 'bout that shuttle full of party animals we've got five hours out... I'm pretty sure they didn't sign up for the sauna package."
"Gee thanks, hun. I'd totally forgotten about the thing we've been working our tails off organising for the last year. I'll get right on it in that case!", a rather forced smile and the well-aimed oily rag sailing past her ship-mate's head further illustrating her feelings on the matter. "Now, did you come here just to annoy me?"
The dingo chuckled, "Pretty much. It's knockin' off time for me. Just got done with the last of the cargo runs for supplies, so I'm gonna go lay up a while."
"Best of luck sleeping in this heat, furball."
"Ah, but you forget! One, I'm a dingo. I can deal with a little warmth, sugar."
"And two?"
"The A/C on my shuttle is still runnin' juuuuust fine."
Since the rag seemed not to have got the point across, it was a wrench that was to barely miss the dingo this time.
"Go enjoy your little refrigerator then! I've got enough things to worry about without you wasting my time, dogboy!"
"Fair enough, hun. I'll get outta ya fur." He grinned once more, leaning in to pat the side of the duct in a patronisingly reassuring fashion, "Seriously though, best o' luck."
Had the dingo not decided to make his exit at this point, it would have been a full toolbox heading his way next. And it sure as hell wouldn't have missed.
Its annoying how time seems to just speed past whenever you really need to get something done. The shuttle was now just three hours out, the temperature was a balmy 38 degrees and Ressa's patience was wearing thinner than Josef's threadbare sense of humour.
It'd been four hours since she'd started traversing the station's venting systems. She knew exactly where all the vital components were, but it was a case of finding the right one. What the hell was even the problem?! The betrayal of the air conditioning system was becoming more personal with each passing minute.
The comm radio at her hip gave a buzz, "Just wonderin', Ressa... ya ever plannin' on bringing the A/C back up, or am I gonna have to throw Josef in the canteen's deep freeze?"
Through the static hiss, Ressa could just make out the security chief's retort, "I'd sure like to see ya try."
"I'm doing the best I can down here cap'n! I'm as hot as the rest of ya and then some, ain't a soul aboard this vessel that wants the cooling working more than I do right now." she replied in a half-exhausted tone, wiping the sweat from her brow before resuming her clambering.
The radio-distorted voice of the cougar broke the monotonous metal clang of her exploration once more, "Ya ever seen a really warm polar bear? Lemme tell you, it ain't a pretty sight and it sure as hell ain't doin' wonders for his temperament. Seriously, what's the situation down there? Are we gonna have this fixed before our visitors arrive?"
The mustelid already had her muzzle buried deep in yet another maintenance panel as she began to reply, "Well... I can't say cap'n. Looks like something's blown somewhere in the system an' I'm doing my darndest to work out what. S'been a long time since I had to troublesho-" Something caught Ressa's eye and in a flash the red panda was half-buried in the heart of the machine before her. "Hold on a sec... I think I got it..."
In the cockpit, Hale perked his ears some, leaning into the comm panel a little closer, "Don't go playin' with me now. Ya think we've got this fixed?"
Ressa squinted as her eyes adjusted to the darkness, straining to confirm her suspicions, "Oh yeah, no doubt. We've got the fresh scent of ozone, some pretty electrical scarring and a smoking hole where the primary capacitor bank used to live. Must have taken out the whole damn system when it went. And well... I hate to break it to ya Cap'n, but the nearest replacement is a good two days out..."
The cougar at the other end of the station sighed deeply, slumping down upon the comms desk, "Please tell me that's a very bad joke, Ressa."
"Afraid not, sir. We ain't taken on parts for this thing for years, never had the need to." The mechanic braced herself for a fully justified dressing down; it'd been her responsibility to keep the spare parts stocked and her stupid, misplaced faith had overridden her judgement. She was beginning to feel really rather bitter about this whole mechanical back-stabbing business.
Hale took a moment. One, two, three deep breaths. Ressa had screwed up, that was for sure. But taking it out on her now wouldn't make matters any better. He steeled himself before replying, "Okay. So what now? 'Cause this place sure as hell can't pull off the beach resort vibe."
The red panda wracked her brains, was there anything on board that she could salvage a part from or repurpose? Hell, she'd appropriated components from weapons shipments to fix the communications rig before now. Surely there must be something...
Her eyes flashed briefly in the muted darkness and a wicked little grin spread across her muzzle, "I think I might just have an idea, Cap'n."
Not fifteen minutes later, Ressa, Hale and Josef were stood together in the docking bay, looking down at the shuttle containing the slumbering, work-shy dingo.
"And it'll definitely work?" the captain enquired, looking somewhat more dishevelled than normal. He had nothing on Ressa, her fur a tangle of oil and sweat.
She nodded, "For sure. Same model, it's just a scaled-down system with fewer nodes running. Wouldn't take me more than ten minutes to strip it out, neither."
Josef's displeasure was written quite plainly across his face, "You're tellin' me that little low-life had a fully air-conditioned shuttle sittin' down here and didn't think to tell a polar bear inna heatwave?!"
"That's about the size of it, yup."
"Well, he ain't gettin' away with that, let me tell you..." snarled Josef as he stormed off down the stairs, the oppressive heat exacerbating his already foul mood.
Ressa was right. It didn't take her more than ten minutes to strip the capacitor bank from 'Wild Stalyn' whilst the canid slept inside, blissfully unaware; a state in which he was to remain for a good thirty minutes. Right up until it started to get real warm in that little runabout.
It was a few moments after that rather rude awakening when Blake realised that someone had changed the unlock codes on the shuttle doors.
"Guys? Where the hell are y'all? This ain't funny, ya hear?!"
His radio buzzed faintly before the voice of the female mustelid came through, "Good morning, sunshine! You slept well, I trust?"
"Ha ha ha, yeah, good one, Res. Now how about y'all lemme out of here before I end up lookin' like god-damn roadkill in the sun?!" He pounded on the keypad with annoyance as it failed to unlock for the seventh consecutive time.
"Ya know what the best thing about those little RX-13 shuttles is? It's that they're so easy to maintain. Everything you need to get to is behind one little hatch. Ya know, things like the air conditioning modules... and the heating system..." Although he couldn't see it, the dingo could hear the self-satisfied smirk on her face just fine.
"This is all because I ragged on ya earlier?! Ya gotta grow some thicker skin, ringtail!"
"You wish, mutt. Captains orders, ya see. I just happened to mention you had exactly the part we need in that cute little vehicle of yours and well, ya did say that you dingoes were fine with being a little warm..."
"Was it Cap'ns orders to lock me in here and bump up the god-damn heating too?"
There was a new voice on the radio this time. A decidedly deeper, bear-like and much more pleased with itself kinda voice. "Nope. That'll have been my idea. Thought we might as well take the chance to teach ya the joys of benevolence an' sharin' the wealth. The codes'll change back in a couple o' hours time, so quit your whinin'. Take some relaxation time, ya know... Chill out."
After a prolonged string of expletives that would never find their way to print, the canid finally resigned himself to his fate, slumping upon the nearby bunk.
And boy, did he ever sweat.
The temperature had peaked at damn near 40 degrees and talk of mutiny had become noticeably less flippant, so whoops of celebration from throughout the station rang through the maintenance ducts as a rush of cold air preceded Ressa's emergence from the tunnels.
"Everything's shiny cap'n. Should take about half an hour and then everyone'll stop wanting to shed their coats quite so much."
The cougar slapped her on the shoulder, the usual joviality back in his voice, "Good work, Res. Still got a couple of hours to go before the rabble arrive and I think we've all earned a drink."
"That's the best idea I've heard all day..." Josef grinned, "Well, 'cept locking the dingo in his own personal oven, that is."
The captain affected his serious tone for a brief moment, "Just how long did you set those door codes for anyway? He's gotta be there for when everyone turns up. No way he's getting out of that one."
"Ah stop fussin'." The ursine nudged his old friend in the direction of the door, "He'll be free to annoy us again in half an hour."
Ressa briefly glanced back at the shuttle, the slightest glimpse of concern in her eyes, "I hope he makes it to the Arrival Lounge in time."
Hale smirked, "I just hope he takes a god-damn shower."
Sorry for the lack of updates, but I have been a busy feline! I wanted a good venue to post up the most recent piece of fiction I've written for the RBW2010 lore and this seemed as good of a place as any!
So, here you go. Hope you enjoy it, feedback appreciated!
- Kitt
RBW-2010: "Chill Out"
Oh, not now. Literally any time except now.
In the four years the mechanic had been aboard the Britannia, she'd never once seen a fault with the station's air conditioning system. Given the notoriously temperamental nature of the units in question, Ressa had eventually put this down to... well, she wasn't quite sure. Call it fate, call it sheer blind luck, but with the plethora of mechanical problems this place threw at her on a daily basis, she'd been immensely grateful for its co-operation.
Except now it was 34 degrees Celsius all over the ship and rising fast, so seemingly that era had just come to a somewhat heated close.
"Holy hell, s'gotten hotter than a summer vacation on the surface of Venus up in here! What's the deal, Res?!"
The red panda silently rolled her eyes, turning her head as far as the access duct would allow to meet the dingo's gaze, "If I knew that, then it'd be fixed, Blake. You're not the only one baking in your fur, ya know?"
The canid flashed his trademark mischievous grin, "Hey now lil' lady, didn't mean nothin' by it. I'm sure you've got it all under control as usual. I'm just thinkin' 'bout that shuttle full of party animals we've got five hours out... I'm pretty sure they didn't sign up for the sauna package."
"Gee thanks, hun. I'd totally forgotten about the thing we've been working our tails off organising for the last year. I'll get right on it in that case!", a rather forced smile and the well-aimed oily rag sailing past her ship-mate's head further illustrating her feelings on the matter. "Now, did you come here just to annoy me?"
The dingo chuckled, "Pretty much. It's knockin' off time for me. Just got done with the last of the cargo runs for supplies, so I'm gonna go lay up a while."
"Best of luck sleeping in this heat, furball."
"Ah, but you forget! One, I'm a dingo. I can deal with a little warmth, sugar."
"And two?"
"The A/C on my shuttle is still runnin' juuuuust fine."
Since the rag seemed not to have got the point across, it was a wrench that was to barely miss the dingo this time.
"Go enjoy your little refrigerator then! I've got enough things to worry about without you wasting my time, dogboy!"
"Fair enough, hun. I'll get outta ya fur." He grinned once more, leaning in to pat the side of the duct in a patronisingly reassuring fashion, "Seriously though, best o' luck."
Had the dingo not decided to make his exit at this point, it would have been a full toolbox heading his way next. And it sure as hell wouldn't have missed.
Its annoying how time seems to just speed past whenever you really need to get something done. The shuttle was now just three hours out, the temperature was a balmy 38 degrees and Ressa's patience was wearing thinner than Josef's threadbare sense of humour.
It'd been four hours since she'd started traversing the station's venting systems. She knew exactly where all the vital components were, but it was a case of finding the right one. What the hell was even the problem?! The betrayal of the air conditioning system was becoming more personal with each passing minute.
The comm radio at her hip gave a buzz, "Just wonderin', Ressa... ya ever plannin' on bringing the A/C back up, or am I gonna have to throw Josef in the canteen's deep freeze?"
Through the static hiss, Ressa could just make out the security chief's retort, "I'd sure like to see ya try."
"I'm doing the best I can down here cap'n! I'm as hot as the rest of ya and then some, ain't a soul aboard this vessel that wants the cooling working more than I do right now." she replied in a half-exhausted tone, wiping the sweat from her brow before resuming her clambering.
The radio-distorted voice of the cougar broke the monotonous metal clang of her exploration once more, "Ya ever seen a really warm polar bear? Lemme tell you, it ain't a pretty sight and it sure as hell ain't doin' wonders for his temperament. Seriously, what's the situation down there? Are we gonna have this fixed before our visitors arrive?"
The mustelid already had her muzzle buried deep in yet another maintenance panel as she began to reply, "Well... I can't say cap'n. Looks like something's blown somewhere in the system an' I'm doing my darndest to work out what. S'been a long time since I had to troublesho-" Something caught Ressa's eye and in a flash the red panda was half-buried in the heart of the machine before her. "Hold on a sec... I think I got it..."
In the cockpit, Hale perked his ears some, leaning into the comm panel a little closer, "Don't go playin' with me now. Ya think we've got this fixed?"
Ressa squinted as her eyes adjusted to the darkness, straining to confirm her suspicions, "Oh yeah, no doubt. We've got the fresh scent of ozone, some pretty electrical scarring and a smoking hole where the primary capacitor bank used to live. Must have taken out the whole damn system when it went. And well... I hate to break it to ya Cap'n, but the nearest replacement is a good two days out..."
The cougar at the other end of the station sighed deeply, slumping down upon the comms desk, "Please tell me that's a very bad joke, Ressa."
"Afraid not, sir. We ain't taken on parts for this thing for years, never had the need to." The mechanic braced herself for a fully justified dressing down; it'd been her responsibility to keep the spare parts stocked and her stupid, misplaced faith had overridden her judgement. She was beginning to feel really rather bitter about this whole mechanical back-stabbing business.
Hale took a moment. One, two, three deep breaths. Ressa had screwed up, that was for sure. But taking it out on her now wouldn't make matters any better. He steeled himself before replying, "Okay. So what now? 'Cause this place sure as hell can't pull off the beach resort vibe."
The red panda wracked her brains, was there anything on board that she could salvage a part from or repurpose? Hell, she'd appropriated components from weapons shipments to fix the communications rig before now. Surely there must be something...
Her eyes flashed briefly in the muted darkness and a wicked little grin spread across her muzzle, "I think I might just have an idea, Cap'n."
Not fifteen minutes later, Ressa, Hale and Josef were stood together in the docking bay, looking down at the shuttle containing the slumbering, work-shy dingo.
"And it'll definitely work?" the captain enquired, looking somewhat more dishevelled than normal. He had nothing on Ressa, her fur a tangle of oil and sweat.
She nodded, "For sure. Same model, it's just a scaled-down system with fewer nodes running. Wouldn't take me more than ten minutes to strip it out, neither."
Josef's displeasure was written quite plainly across his face, "You're tellin' me that little low-life had a fully air-conditioned shuttle sittin' down here and didn't think to tell a polar bear inna heatwave?!"
"That's about the size of it, yup."
"Well, he ain't gettin' away with that, let me tell you..." snarled Josef as he stormed off down the stairs, the oppressive heat exacerbating his already foul mood.
Ressa was right. It didn't take her more than ten minutes to strip the capacitor bank from 'Wild Stalyn' whilst the canid slept inside, blissfully unaware; a state in which he was to remain for a good thirty minutes. Right up until it started to get real warm in that little runabout.
It was a few moments after that rather rude awakening when Blake realised that someone had changed the unlock codes on the shuttle doors.
"Guys? Where the hell are y'all? This ain't funny, ya hear?!"
His radio buzzed faintly before the voice of the female mustelid came through, "Good morning, sunshine! You slept well, I trust?"
"Ha ha ha, yeah, good one, Res. Now how about y'all lemme out of here before I end up lookin' like god-damn roadkill in the sun?!" He pounded on the keypad with annoyance as it failed to unlock for the seventh consecutive time.
"Ya know what the best thing about those little RX-13 shuttles is? It's that they're so easy to maintain. Everything you need to get to is behind one little hatch. Ya know, things like the air conditioning modules... and the heating system..." Although he couldn't see it, the dingo could hear the self-satisfied smirk on her face just fine.
"This is all because I ragged on ya earlier?! Ya gotta grow some thicker skin, ringtail!"
"You wish, mutt. Captains orders, ya see. I just happened to mention you had exactly the part we need in that cute little vehicle of yours and well, ya did say that you dingoes were fine with being a little warm..."
"Was it Cap'ns orders to lock me in here and bump up the god-damn heating too?"
There was a new voice on the radio this time. A decidedly deeper, bear-like and much more pleased with itself kinda voice. "Nope. That'll have been my idea. Thought we might as well take the chance to teach ya the joys of benevolence an' sharin' the wealth. The codes'll change back in a couple o' hours time, so quit your whinin'. Take some relaxation time, ya know... Chill out."
After a prolonged string of expletives that would never find their way to print, the canid finally resigned himself to his fate, slumping upon the nearby bunk.
And boy, did he ever sweat.
The temperature had peaked at damn near 40 degrees and talk of mutiny had become noticeably less flippant, so whoops of celebration from throughout the station rang through the maintenance ducts as a rush of cold air preceded Ressa's emergence from the tunnels.
"Everything's shiny cap'n. Should take about half an hour and then everyone'll stop wanting to shed their coats quite so much."
The cougar slapped her on the shoulder, the usual joviality back in his voice, "Good work, Res. Still got a couple of hours to go before the rabble arrive and I think we've all earned a drink."
"That's the best idea I've heard all day..." Josef grinned, "Well, 'cept locking the dingo in his own personal oven, that is."
The captain affected his serious tone for a brief moment, "Just how long did you set those door codes for anyway? He's gotta be there for when everyone turns up. No way he's getting out of that one."
"Ah stop fussin'." The ursine nudged his old friend in the direction of the door, "He'll be free to annoy us again in half an hour."
Ressa briefly glanced back at the shuttle, the slightest glimpse of concern in her eyes, "I hope he makes it to the Arrival Lounge in time."
Hale smirked, "I just hope he takes a god-damn shower."