Space Shift Stories: McGuffin 46

Repair and Resupply

The Swift, which carried the Carpenters. Arrived near the city. Celestine fiddle the controls to land the Swift slowly. She removed her seat belts and walked near the door.

"You need your ship fixed right?" Celestine asked me.

"Obviously." I replied.

"Strife. Let's go"

"Why are you bringing the bear?" I asked. Looked at Strife and mouthed an apology.

"Because Strife actually knows about repairs."

"Excuse me?"

"You might have requested for this ship to be remodelled. But it wasn't you who did it. And also, the guys that remodelled this thing said that there were about five loose parts that were duct taped together." She sharply broke it down for me.

"Duct tapes works wonder. Ask Strife." I replied as I looked at Strife. He shrugged me off. "Okay what should I do?"

"Stay here. Enjoy the music maybe" Celestine replied. Both of them walked out of the ship. But Celestine peeked her head in. "She's my cousin, so don't do anything stupid."

They closed the door and walked out of there. Out of the Swift, they both looked at the Carpenters. The bottom part was entirely totaled, the wings bend and broken in a few places. "That's a rough landing." Celestine said.

"I know" Strife replied. He opened the door of the Carpenters. They went inside and checked that everything. He opened the diagnostic menus "I have a diagnostic report. Engine has a leak, and wiring are messed up."

"That could be repaired, do you have a metal right?" Celestine asked Strife.

"Yes. Although we need a few things."

"Like?" Celestine worriedly asked.

"Wires, metal filaments, and few engine replacement parts." Strife said worriedly.

"I thought you frequently resupplied."

"I was holding it off because Julia said she wanted a documentary on scavengers. I just want to highlight this part." He nervously laughed.

"And here I thought Rover was the one who likes being in the spotlight." Celestine scoffed in a friendly way.

"Rover, you hear me?" Celestine said over the radio.

"I am still on my chair, in case you're asking" I replied.

"Good. Stay there, we need to buy some things. Be back in twenty"

"Can I get a burger?" I asked.

"No. Over and out." Celestine ended the transmission. She nodded at Strife, the polar bear "Let's go"

They both got out of the Carpenters. Strife opened his holowatch, he was about to open a ride sharing app. Celestine stopped her. She pointed a car on the port. "What's that?" Strife asked. "Don't tell me we're gonna steal it?"

"Of course not. I rented it before entering the orbit." Celestine confidently said. She tossed the keys to Strife "You're a better driver than me"

"Fine" Strife caught the keys and unlocked the car. "I'll be your chauffeur" He opened the door for Celestine. He searched for a repair shop. He saw one location, they decided it was the best place to start.

"And bodyguard." Celestine laughed as she got inside the car. Strife followed. They drove out of the port and into the main town.

The entirety of Sima Gaia is peaceful. There are a few ancestral buildings that have been renovated to have store fronts. Some are occupied by small shops while others are filled with franchises known throughout the system. Their ride is pretty much silent, with the exception of the radio filling the entire car

Strife decided to break the silence. "Did you know that Rover was trying to pick-up your cousin?"

"Really?" Celestine was surprised. "Knowing my cousin, how did Rover take the rejection?" Celestine asked.

"Actually he didn't get a chance. I dragged him out before he could make an embarrassment of himself." They both had a good laugh. "Did you work with Rover on your last job?" He asked her.

"Well... Yeah" She gave a brief pause. "He, as much as I'm embarrassed to say, saved me" Celestine smiled. So did Strife.

"Well even if that man might act like a douche, he is a good man. I think it's because he was taken out of his planet and raised by a man with questionable morals" He paused and looked at Celestine. Even without words they understood what Rover is to them. "He's a good man" Strife gave another pause. "But not a good pilot" Both of them said in unison.

Laughter filled the car as they continued their journey. They arrived on the place where they could pick-up the parts. It was on a junk shop, parts shop hybrid. The entire store has a typical counter which hold every products behind, with glass displays showing other big parts for sale. There is also an open space for the scraps that comes in. my theory is that the owner sells new parts and used that is taken from the junk that he receives. Nobody was at the counter at the moment, there is however a bell. The duo both looked at each other then onto the bell. Strife rang the bell. They waited but no one responded. They rang it again.

There was someone shouting from the back. It was incoherent, but it became clear as a man walked to the store front. "How may I help you?"

"We're looking for these" Strife said as he handed out a list to the man.

The man looked at the list. He read through them thoroughly. He then shouted in an alien language. After a few a hulking alien walks out, he said something to the man. They both conversed in the alien language, which both Strife and Celestine did not understand.the man looked at them both. "Boss says he has them. And it's 50,000 credits"

"Excuse me?" Celestine reacted.

The alien spoke again, his assistant translated "That's the best he can give. Also, if you don't like it then you can find it somewhere else." The alien added something, which was also translated. "And from what I know, it's not sold anywhere here."

"We can't bump down the credits. We only have 15,000" Celestine tried to reason.

The alien shrugged and waved his hand in rejection. "I'm sorry but we only sell to serious people with credits" Both of them walked out.

Celestine was frustrated with what happened and decided to walk away as well. But Strife just stood there calmly. He suddenly spoke in the language the same as the alien. The alien looked back and replied.

The assistant and Celestine were silent, as the two of them talked. It was a quick back and forth between them. It could be described as two genius taking a minute to get in sync. Which they did, as the conversation ended with a hand shake. Strife smiled.

"What did you tell him?" Celestine asked Strife.

"He gives us the item, free delivery in exchange for a junk we found." Strife simply replied. The alien talked to Strife one last time. They agreed to make it a convoy delivery.

They waited for the alien and his assistant to load what they bought in to their truck. Strife and Celestin both entered back to the car and heads to the port to finally start the repair.