Pancake proves to his peers

<snip>
Who cares?" Said Jay. "Soon I'm going to be Captain again, and I won't need to
know this stuff."
"I care, Chrysler!" Pancake said. "I'm your boss now, and I want you to fix all
the soup machines on this deck by this evening."
"How many are there?"
"Eighty seven."
"Eighty seven?! No chance!"
Justin shook his head. "That's not a positive attitude is it?" He said.
<end snip>
<OOC – Sorry Andy, I was too excited, and I couldn't wait so have posted again!>
Who: Justin Pancake and his new helper 3rd Technician Jay Chrysler
Where: Engineering deck
When: A long time after Jay started fixing the chicken soup machines
Justin Pancake bit his lip as he tried to figure out why the Plasma manifold
wasn't filtering enough power into the secondary intake relay. If he didn't
figure it out in five minutes it might leak, causing the circulatory
electron-buster to breach, which in turn might cause the automatic electrical
nebulon to engage, which might cause the Blue Dwarf to explode.
Justin's heart beat really fast in his chest. This was exciting!
He'd never been truested to work on jobs like this before, usually he'd be given
the really smeggy jobs like cleaning the chicken soup machines, or polishing the
kinetic induction valves. But now, he wasn't the bottom of the ladder anymore.
There was someone beneath him.
3rd Technician Jay Chrysler appeared behind him. "I've done those jobs for you."
He said.
"Cleaning the chicken soup nozzles?" Justin asked.
"Yes."
"Yes what?" Justin asked, with his hands on his waist.
"Yes smeghead?" Jay said sarcastically.
"No, yes sir! You're supposed to say yes sir when talking to a senior officer!"
"Smeg off!" Said Jay. "I'll remember this when I'm Captain again, and I'm I'm
transferring you to another ship. Or abandoning you on an ice-planet somewhere."
Justin ignored him, and looked on his electronic tasklist. "Okay, so it says
here that you need to go collect some things for the department."
Jay groaned. This was just the latest in menial tasks that Justin had made him
do.
"Do you know where Engineering Supply Room 4 is?"
"Of course I know where that is. I used to be Captain of this entire ship!" Jay
said. Although actually he had no idea where Engineering Supply Room 4 was. He'd
never been there, and he'd never needed to go there.
"Good." Said Justin. "I need you to go and collect some things."
"What things?"
"There's a few. You'll have to write these down." Justin said.
"Oh what?" Jay held out his hands, indicating that he didn't have anything to
write on. "Can I borrow your iPad?"
"No." Said Justin. "Here's some paper and a pencil."
Jay took them both and fiddled with the pencil. "What's this?"
"It's a pencil." Justin said. "Engineers use them when we need to make notes."
"Don't be daft. Just let me borrow your iPad." Jay said.
"No! This is mine. Use your pencil!"
Jay turned the pencil over and over in his hands. "How do I turn it on?" He
asked.
Justin groaned. "You've been a Captain for too long, you've forgotten how the
other half of us live!" He said. "Just remember these items. I need you to ask
for:
"9 Spirit level bubbles.
"3 tine of Tartan paint
"A Left-handed sonic screwdriver
"A Bucket of steam
"A jar of elbow grease"
"A glass hammer"
"And 3 metres of Fallopian tubes. Got that?"
Jay was too distracted trying to remember the items, he didn't even consider
that they might be joke items. He nodded and walked towards the expresslift
elevator.
Justin chuckled to himself, and was still chuckling when Spannerface walked over
to him. Justin stopped laughing and flinched.
Spannerface was one of the engineers, he was a tall guy with incredible muscles.
He was the sort of guy you needed around when you needed to move some heavy
engineering equipment. He was named Spannerface after an accident several years
ago when he was working close t othe extracter fan near to the reactor core. His
spanner had slipped and caught the fan, where it fired the spanner at him at an
incredible speed. Spannerface was too much of a tough guy to duck, and so the
spanner embedded itself deep into his cheek. Spannerface hadn't pulled it out
since.
Spannerface was also a bully with a terrible temper. He hated anyone looking at
the spanner in his face.
"Pancake you little shit." Spannerface said.
"Oh hi." Pancake said, nervously.
"Are you looking at my spanner?" Spannerface said.
"No. No of course not!" Justin said.
"Good." Said the tough guy. "Well I've heard that you've got yourself a little
lacky?"
Justin nodded.
Spannerface had a little gang of friends. The friends followed him everywhere,
and laughed at his jokes. Justin had always wanted to be in the gang, but they'd
always treated him like scum. Spannerface didnt really do much work, he had an
assistant who did the work for him.
"Good one!" Said Spannerface and slapped Justin on the back, winding him. "I've
heard you've been treating him like shit too?"
Justin wondered what the correct response was here. Was it possible that
Kotchanski had sent Spannerface to tell Justin off for treating Jay like crap?
It seemed unlikely, as Spannerface loved treating his assistant like crap.
"Yes." Justin said, and gulped. "I just sent him to Engineering Supply Room 4
for some spirit level bubbles and some tartan paint."
There was an uneasy pause, and then Spannerface's face cracked into laugher as
he got the joke. He slapped Justin on the back again. "Brilliant!" he said. "Now
that you're part of the gang you can come and join us down the pub?"
Justin was shocked. Was this all it took to be accepted? To make friends with
the bullies you just had to bully someone else?
Justin grinned and went with them. He felt accepted.
< Does anyone want to join Justin in the pub? Perhaps pick a fight with
Spannerface? Jay, what do the people at Engineering Supply Room 4 say when you
ask for those items? >