The stripes make all the difference

Who: Jo, Brett, a number of Jays
Where: Docking Bay 26
Jo marched through the hangar doors, a grim expression on her face, and
looked around for her XO, Brett Hertzche. What she encountered instead
froze her to the spot.
“Nice isn’t it,” said Jay wandering over to her wiping his hands on an
oily piece of cloth. Jo gave him a look of baffled disbelief.
“Whaddya think?” asked a second Jay, appearing at her side with another
Jay look-a-like. Jo’s expression changed to one of puzzlement.
“Took us a while to get that drive system hooked up properly,” he gave
a low whistle, “Nice piece of machinery you have there.”
Jo finally found her voice, “Well yes, it is. But how ..? It was
completely shredded. And exactly how many of you guys were cloned?”
Jo looked slightly amused now. More Jays were drifting over to the
little group.
“Oh just 5000. We’re part of Zodar’s fix-it army,” he grinned, “we
found it broke, so we fixed it.”
“With a few ... modifications,” added another.
“I can see that,” murmured Jo, gazing out at the Quasar 4: mark II. It
was still sleek, although now much more compact than the original.
Which was fair enough, considering the amount of undamaged structural
components they had been left to work with. The end result was
slightly smaller than a Starbug, and the design had definitely been
executed with Jay’s usual flair, spoilers and all. It had even been
painted a bright metallic-flecked orange-red (because everyone knows
red ones go faster), with two yellow ‘go-faster’ stripes.
Jo walked towards the ship and laid a hand on the newly painted
structure with a bittersweet smile.
“All this work goes into finally fixing you, and those damn vultures
will be sure to confiscate it if they find us, by force if necessary,”
she muttered, smile replaced by a slight scowl, “Mind you...”
Her train of thought was interrupted by a yell from above, “There you
are. I was just about to fill out the paperwork for a search party.
That senile computer aboard this giant flying rust bucket is useless in
trying to communicate with anybody, let alone someone who’s not
officially registered as crew.” Brett had appeared at the top of a
tower of scaffolding still assembled against the ship.
“Come on up,” he beckoned to her, “I’ll give you the grand tour,” he
added with a flourish and a grin.
Once she reached him, Brett turned and ducked through the airlock. Jo
followed, making a close inspection of the door mechanism.
“Welcome aboard, Captain,” he said cheerfully with a brisk salute. Jo
turned to answer with a salute of her own
“I contacted Alexei,” she said calmly.
“And you survived the inevitable tongue-lashing? The Commander must be
losing his touch,” Brett’s smile faded when he saw Jo’s bleak
expression. “What’s happened?”
Making their way through the corridors towards the recently rebuilt
drive room, Jo brought Brett up to speed with the content of her
conversation with their Commander. He was silent once she finished.
“What do you plan to do?” he asked eventually.
“I don’t know exactly. But I’m not walking out on Alexei. All this,”
she gestured all around her, “meant too much to him. Our first
objective is to leave this ship. They know where we are now. The
current appearance of the ship, and possession of the duality drive
will give us an advantage, but we are too much of a risk to them while
we remain outside their control. They’ll catch up with us eventually.
Everyone will have to make a choice whether they will stay behind or go
renegade.”
“Hrmm, tough choice. Be shunted into professional oblivion or head out
on an adventure into unknown danger,” Brett chuckled, “But I think my
decision is obvious.”
Jo smiled and felt herself relax slightly, “Thanks, I have the feeling
I’m going to need all the help I can get.”
Entering the drive room, they continued their conversation in hushed
voices while the crew bustled around them completing various system
checks. Jo shook her head, resisting the urge to sigh, “He’s been
completely shattered by this, Brett ...” She broke off, interrupted by
the communications officer.
“Captain, there’s a message coming through for you...”
OOC: Ready when you are Onion? Phil?
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