No! I said I wanted fries with that, not shoes!

Who: Jo, Zodar, Dean
Where: Bay 3
When: Sometime before the wedding
With some difficulty, Jo piloted the injured Phoenix into Bay 3, constantly fighting the ship’s desire to list sideways into the bay walls. The lateral stabilisers had been completely shot to hell when Zodar had blown the hatch to disengage the Evil Valkyrie. Amazingly the airlock seal had held during the explosion, but it had left a substantial amount of work to be done before the midget would be restored to its former glory.
“And not much time to do it in,” murmured Jo to herself as she landed the craft near the maintenance lockers.
“Great,” crackled Zodar’s voice over the comm. He emerged from a storeroom pushing a trolley laden with tools and waved up at Jo as she unbuckled the harness, and made her way to the door.
Suddenly, the Bay doors slid open to admit a very tall black haired man, who weaved his way over to address one of the dispensing machines.
"Ok, pilot, reporting! What you want me to do again?" said Dean, attempting a salute and almost toppling sideways from the sudden movement.
“Evening sir, may I take your order?” said the dispensing machine.
“Uh, I want to speak to someone in charge,” said Dean, squinting at the grey blur in front of him.
“Coming right up,” said the machine before unloading five pounds of haggis on the man’s feet.
Jo exchanged a look with Zodar, and crossed the floor to tap the pilot on the shoulder. Dean turned and blinked myopically at her, seemingly oblivious to the muck that covered the lower half of his legs.
“Can I help you?” she asked.
“I heard over the comm. That you needed a pilot to help out,” Dean hicupped.
“Anyone familiar with the systems of blue midgets really,” Jo replied, “We have to fix the Phoenix up in under 12 hours.”
“Right,” Dean said, rubbing his hands enthusiastically, “Let’s get started then.” Jo studied him a moment, then turned to the dispensing machine.
“Two lightly grilled kippers,” she said. “No problemo,” the machine replied, dispensing a large packet of Jamaican coffee beans, which landed with a plop in the swamp of haggis. Jo picked it up, wiped the worst of the lumps off and handed it to the drunken pilot.
“First of all, eat this. Then you may help.” She turned and walked back to where Zodar was cutting sheet metal to fit the holes in the outer hull. He looked up at her, “How did you know the machine would give you that?” “Had a bit of experience dealing with them while repairing my own ship,” she smiled, “They all seem to have similar voice recognition problems. Where do you want me to start?”
*****************************
…3 hours later.
Jo finished welding the panel to the Phoenix, patching up one of the worst gashes, and raised the face shield to inspect her work. Dean cautiously approached, apparently still enthusiastic to help.
“Need a hand?” he offered, noticeably more sober.
“I suppose you could start on the cosmetic restoration, as most of the panelling has been fixed, but you should check with Zodar to find out what else needs to be done.”
********************************
Looking back over his shoulder, Zodar saw Dean approaching.
"Hey, could you hand me the dry-solder console just there?" Asked Zodar, holding something in place on the panel. Dean looked around. A small device with a keypad on it was on the table. Not knowing it was what Zodar wanted, he searched around and found something similar to a toothbrush.
"Here you go." said Dean as he handed Zodar the brush.
"No, mate. That's a magnetic dispel brush. If I used that, the whole ship would go haywire."
"I knew that...." Said Dean, chuckling nervously.
"What I want is on the table there. The little unit with the buttons."
Immediately recognising it from before, Dean picked it up and was amazed at how heavy it was.
"Got it." called Dean, handing it to Zodar.
There was a faint blipping of digits on the keypad and a yellow light was emitted from the device. Zodar scanned the light over the panel. The replacement circuit boards glowed a faint purple in response to the light.
"How is it doing that? Glowing purple, I mean." Asked Dean, awestruck.
"It's the residual power that was stored in the remaining boards. When I dry-soldered the boards, they were integrated into the existing matrix."
"What?"
"Purple means they work."
"Oh."
Zodar activated the docking mechanism and the clamps disengaged, letting go of the remains of the Evil Valkyrie's docking hatch which fell to the ground outside the shuttle. Annoyed yells echoed from outside.
"Oops. Perhaps I should have warned Jo before I did that." Said Zodar, exiting the shuttle to say sorry.
*************************
“Zodar! For crying out loud, watch it! Please,” Jo yelled as the shredded metal detached from the Phoenix and fell to the ground with a clang, narrowly missing the spot she was standing. “I was lucky that stayed in one piece,” she said as Zodar stuck his head out of the hatch. “Sorry Jo, I should have warned you,” he said, climbing down the ladder. Dean followed.
“Yes you should have,” she said angrily, pulling off the face shield and wiping a sleeve across her forehead. “The basic cosmetic welding has been done. The edges just need to be machined smooth and this section repainted. I still need to take a look at some of the maneuvering circuitry though.”
Zodar nodded, “Well I’ve finished the repairs inside, I’ll come and take a look with you.” Dean stood to one side, forgotten. “Anything I can help with? Repainting or something?”
“Oh yeah, sure,” said Zodar. “Paint and protective clothing is over there. We’ll just be up here if you have any questions.”
********************************
Halfway through the repair operation, Zodar and Jo heard an excited shout from Dean. Jo, in the middle of soldering together a rather important circuit, sighed, “You go see him. I can manage this part on my own for the moment.”
“Right,” said Zodar, climbing down to where Dean was standing, covered in copious amounts of paint and looking very pleased with himself.
“What do you think?” he said. Zodar looked up. Across one entire side of the midget was painted an almost perfect reproduction of Picasso’s “The Old Guitar Player”.
“Uhm….” Zodar stood there open mouthed, “Nice work. Hang on just one moment.” He disappeared into the Phoenix and returned a few seconds later. “This is what it should look like,” he said as he handed Dean a photo.
“Oh, ok. No problem,” Dean smiled and refilled the airbrush, “Won’t take long.” He started whistling happily as he got back to work.
Zodar shook his head in amazement and chuckled as he returned to where Jo was cursing after burning her finger with the soldering iron.
**************************
…Another 2 hours later.
Jo stretched walked over the malfunctioning dispenser unit. The Phoenix was finally finished and operating as smoothly as ever.
“One serving roast beef, with a side of potatoes, pumpkin and gravy,” she said. The machine served up a chilled strawberry smoothie. “Thankyou for your order. Enjoy your meal.” “A job well done guys,” Jo smiled, toasting the two tired men with her drink. “Wait! It needs something else,” said Zodar as he crazily scribbled something on a large piece of card and ran to attach it to the rear of the Phoenix.
“Does this thing dispense beer?” asked Dean, tapping the machine thoughtfully.
“Don’t know, but you’re welcome to try,” said Jo with a grin.
*************************
OOC: Sorry Dean, we already had something in mind =) But thanks for helping us out anyway hehe. Congratulations, you’re now a master artist.
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