Crew Needed, Parts Wanted

It was a testament to his long period of time outside of proper civilization (or at least what he understood to be proper), that upon seeing a couple of kids rollin’ into town on a work mule his mind immediately began to disassemble the machine and value each part. It was a decent bit of kit and worth more as a usable vehicle than as bits. He sighed, a heavy huff of white breath spilling out and evaporating before him. Rowan could feel his mind-twisting under his own self-judgment. He was no thief. At least not yet. And pilfering shipwrecks didn’t count, as much as he was sure the Alliance wouldn’t agree.

Rowan was pretty certain they’d come from the recently landed ship, the one who’s mechanic had scarpered from. He watched them disembark before stuffing his fists into his pockets and shuffling a little closer.

“Nice rig.” Rowan said, from a decent distance. He was little more than a lump of thick clothes in the rough shape of a person. A scruffy bear could be seen beneath the shadow of his hood. “Planning on leaving it there?” This was added with a warning tone.

“Why? This place so bad I need to carry it with me?” The blue-eyed boy said with an arched eyebrow. He pocketed the key before helping the pigtailed girl down. It would be pretty hard to stead a mule here, in the snow. It could easily be tracked given that most of the folk around here went along by horse or wagons. Plus Vas had the keys, so unless one planned on hotwiring it didn’t seem so unrealistic to be able to leave it alone for a short while.

Rowan shrugged. “I mean, not usually. But there’s a lot of people in for the festivities.” It was like a challenge was unravelling before him. The temptation was strong. “You come to see the lights?”

“Maybe later.” The blue eyed boy said in a cool tone. “Were on the clock right now, hunting for parts for repairs.” He said feeling suddenly paranoid. “Hey, Serena maybe we should chain up the wheel … just to be safe.”

“On it!” Serena said chipperly, giving a small wave to the stranger.

The stranger let the kids sort themselves out for a moment. Maybe they weren’t kids… now that he was closer they looked to be a little older than he’d guessed. Still, he assumed them to be a bit wet about the ears, and if they wanted parts...

“I got a ‘shop full of parts. Betting I have something you need.” Rowan suggested, recognising the opportunity for what it was.

“Sampan par… I mean, Firefly class parts?” the pigtailed teen asked.

Eyebrows shot upward on Rowan’s face. “Not… specifically. But I can probably get you something that’ll tide you over. Depends what you’re looking for.” This girl was strangely cheery.

“Bunch of parts to repair the shuttle.” Vas said as he helped out Serena. “Trying to get it operational .. got me a list. The boy said digging in his pockets for the parts list.

Rowan pulled back his hood. “Isn’t this the sorta job for a ship’s mechanic?” He queried, knowing all too well their tinkerer had gone her own way.

“Supposed to be, but we dunno where Marisol is, so it became a deckhand and crew chief thing.” Serena replied with a shrug, pointing between her and Vas. “Besides, on the Lunar Veil doesn’t matter what your job technically is, matters what job needs done, according to the Captain, anyway.”

Vas just grumbled about crazy mechanics never around when you need them.

Contemplation rippled across Rowan’s features. “Makes sense.” He concurred, but inwardly wondered why the default crew was so… green looking.

“Are you lookin’ for a ship? We’re looking for people. That is… Crew Chief is looking for deckhands. I’m just good at it.”

“Are you lookin’ for a ship? We’re looking for people." Serena asked. "That is… Crew Chief is looking for deckhands. I’m just good at it.”

That made Rowan pause for a decent while. He seemed to be inanimate, frozen perhaps by the chilling wind that came in sporadic gusts through the town. The former engineer was hit by a savage excitement at being off this rock, it surprised him.

“Depends. What’s the pay?” He almost blurted out.

“Depends.” She shot back, using close to his accent as she could muster. “What do you do?”

Brow pinched briefly at the mimicry. “Fix stuff, mostly. Rest of the time I’m either pulling stuff apart or hunting.” It was strange being interviewed on the street, and by a pair of teenagers. “Shouldn’t I be talking to your Captain about this? Perhaps we should look to getting you those parts, feels like we’re jumping the gun here a tad, no?”

“You will. I am the Crew Chief so it’s my job to sift out who gets that far to begin with.” Vas said handing him the parts list. “So … you think you can help us out with these parts?”

Rowan tried not to look horribly sceptical at this lad being the crew chief, and he tried to not contemplate or infer what that might mean the rest of this crew like. He tried…

Taking the list in mitted hand, the older man cast a brief glance. “I have most of this.” A business-like tone fell over Rowan’s voice, the thin vale of the ‘outlander’ twang dropping entirely to a voice a little more refined. “But not everything. There’s a possibility of customising parts but I’d have to see the boat to give you confirmation on that. If you have credits, I can drop most of this off at your ship this afternoon.”

“I’ll need an estimate of how much you plan on charging us.” The blue eyed punk responded reasonably. “Me n’ Serena got other things to get done so if you want you can meet us back here in say ‘bout an hour?” He offered.

Rowan nodded in agreement. “Prices are negotiable of course but at a glance… I’d say a couple hundred silver for each of these parts,” he indicated on the list, “but the neutron regulator doohickey will need to be made to measure. And that’ll set you back some, unless you can find it elsewhere.” And there was fitting to be added into the mix, but he could talk about the cost of that when it came to it.

“Why don’tcha meet us back at the ship?” Serena offered. “This way if the Captain’s there, you can meet him too, and the Lieutenant and the Doc and Marisol, the engineer, and then you can see the Lunar Veil too. She’s somethin’ else.”

“Or that.” Vas shrugged.

“Rowan Fox, by the way.” He added, somewhat belatedly.

“Serena.” The teen said, pointing to herself. “The Lunar Veil’s the only Firefly at the docks, you can’t miss ‘er!”

“Should make her easy to find.” The former engineer said with a smirk. He pulled his hood back up. “In an hour then, Chief, Serena.” Then he turned and made tracks for his cabin.

“I liked ‘em.” Serena decided, watching Rowan trek off. “You think he’s gonna show up?”

“Dunno.” He shrugged. “But either way that might be half the work done and then some. Might actually get to have some fun and see the skylight tonight.” Vas said pretty satisfied over it all. If it went well. Though he wasn’t sure the man was gunning for a position at deckhand when the Crew Cheif look half the man’s age!

“The skylight sounds amazing!” Serena chirped, loping after the crew chief, looking over her shoulder at Rowan one more time. Hopefully, they’d see him again.