Phoenix Rising.

Who:- Katrina Salter
Where:- Flight Deck
When:- During the Salvage mission.
Katrina crossed her arms and huffed. Mk.10 was supposed to be here. "10:00
hours sharp!" he had said. "Then we'll call him down to the flight deck and
unveil it!"
It was now 10:30 and there was no sign of the smegging droid. She wasn't to
know that he'd inadvertantly wound up on the derelict, so as far as she knew
he had just forgotten, which, being a machine, there was no excuse for. At
least there wouldn't be, if the only other sentient machine on board, Holly,
wasn't a complete arse, which proved that anything was possible when it came
to sentient AI's brains.
She glanced over at the large object in the centre of the flight deck,
covered over by an even larger tarpaulin. Jayne had even come in early to
move it from the maintenence decks to the flight deck before her shift this
morning and now, because Mk.10, the person who had insisted upon being there
when it was unveiled so that he could, as he had put it "See his little face
light up!" before coughing in a manly fashion and saying "Um..yeah, so I can
get some credit..yeah that's it..", hadn't even turned up.
She fumbled with her mobile, and looked up Jayne's number, ready to call her
and ask her to move it back to the maintenence decks and do it when Mk.10
could actually be bothered to turn up when she was interuppted by the large
doors entering from the corridor hissed and clunked open, a figure stepped
through, flanked by an armed security detail, muttering.
"Damn captain, more interested in stealing some useless bric-a-brac from a
derelict that mounting a potential rescue mission for any survivors on the
downed 'corp. ship".
"Jay!" Katrina said, panicking. "What are you doing here?"
"'Treena, hun, I'm the CNO, I work here..and I'm about to fly these guys" he
gestured to the security team "Over to the Space Corp ship to check for
survivors" he spotted the tarpaulin-covered object. "What's that..? why is
it on my flight deck?"
"Oh this...oh nothing just a Starbug I'm fixing..."
"Why is it covered up?" Jay asked, lifting a corner of the tarp.
"Jay WAIT!" Katrina protested, but it was too late, he'd yanked the canvas
off.
The tarpaulin fell away, and behind it stood a gleaming, black and orange
Blue Midget. Gatling Guns, where the mining arms would normally be
glistening in the low light, high-powered exhaust pipes rising from the
hull, a detailed flame motif adorning it's fuselage.
"We...wanted it to be a surprise.." Katrina explained, "Mk.10 and I felt bad
after what happened to it when he went nuts, so we rebuilt it for you..."
"The..Phoenix!!" Jay exclaimed, in an excited, high-pitched squeal.
"Yep" his girlfriend replied "Good as new...well, alot of it IS new,
salvaged from other ships, it was too badly damaged to repair entirely, it's
almost a complete new build..but we think it's better than ever."
"How?"
"We've replaced the old fusion core with ION engines, should be more
efficent than ever so the actual engine power, of both main sublight engines
AND the secondary turbo boosters."
Jay loved those boosters, they were what won him his race against John Keats
a few years back
"Also the manouvering thrusters, have been linked to the ION engines to make
them more..."
"I get it!" Jay interrupted "you're saying my ship is EVEN faster and MORE
manouverable than it was before!"
"Erm..yes.."
"So I'm EVEN MORE untouchable!!"
"Kind of..we had to sacrifice the armour plating in places...."
"Pfft..The Phoenix was never that heavily armoured..never a problem, I don't
get hit..."
"We've also upgraded the weapons systems, as well as the gatling guns, you
now have a standard missile complement, and a launcher for them to the fore
of the ship, and an aft torpedo launcher.."
"I love you.." Jay said
"I love you too" Katrina replied
"Sorry, babe..I was talking to the ship!"
Katrina gave Jay a terrifying look.
"Kidding!!" he kissed Katrina "Can I take her for a spin now?"
"sure!" She tossed him the keys. "Just go careful Ok..."
"Never..." Jay replied "All aboard guys" He said to the security team "Who
needs a Starbug for a rescue mission..."
A few moments later, Katrina smiled as she watched the Phoenix gracefully
rocket out of the Blue Dwarf into space, doing neat little loops and rolls
as it did so..
<tag to anyone who wants in on a potential rescue mission instead of
looting! (you get to ride in a cool ship!>