It was a thirty-minute trip of careful driving back to base. We were finally able to pull into the lower garage, just above the basement. A small team of four man and women were waiting for us to park the bikes. They didn't waste any time with confiscating and covering the body before taking it away. Shaye grabbed a large cart to unload the supplies onto. I grabbed my backpack from my locker that was only a few steps away. We moved the engine onto the cart and started to gather the smaller pieces. Looking around I made sure that no one was watching before opening the secret compartment in my bike and quickly throwing the smaller pieces into my bag. Shaye moved the cart an inch to the right, blocking one of the repair men from seeing me. She tapped on the edge of the cart and I quickly zipped up the bag, throwing it over my shoulder as I stood up. The man walked over to us.
"Hey, guys, any repairs needed?" he asked.
"The power cell on bike one is warn" Shaye said.
"Bike two could use some new tires, but other then that everything feels fine" I said.
He nodded his head and called his buddies over with their tool kits. We grabbed the cart and left in a hurry. Shaye went to the registration office to log the items of the days mission. I went to the engineering wing a floor up on the opposite side of the compound. The engineering wing was mostly empty around this hour.
"Rueben, over here" Ruger whispered.
"Ruger? Where are you?" I asked.
"Over here… behind the boulder crushing machine" he said, still whispering.
I walked over the really huge machine in the corner near the door and peered behind it. Ruger was playing with control panel in the back. Replacing the warn wires and a fried control panel.
"Did it break down again?" I asked.
"No, it's completely fried this time, we had to send in an order for new control panel and circuit board… you should have smelled the smoke that came off of this thing, everyone was blaming each other for farting" he said while laughing.
I tried to hold it in, but I couldn't help but laugh. He put the panel door back on and stepped out of his little crevice. He opened his tool kit and threw his scattered tools back into there places. I leaned up against the door way, waiting for him as he finished cleaning up his mess.
"Did you bring something for me?" he asked.
"More like something for our group" I said while walking out of the doorway.
We walked out of the room and made our way to the bunkers were Ruger, Shaye and I have been living in since we were young. Shaye was already there waiting for us to arrive. Ruger placed his tool kit on his bed and sat beside it.
"You both are looking very suspicious today" he said.
I handed him my bag and flopped onto my bed. He opened the bag dumped the contents onto the floor by his feet. He smiled as picked each piece up and examined them one by one.
"You found the pieces I was missing and there in pretty good condition" he said.
"Yeah, we found something else that's really going to make your day, but we are going to have to steel it back from the repair rooms lock up" Shaye said.
"Well… What is it?" he asked.
"A fully functioning fighter jet engine, only miner repairs needed" I said.
His face lit up like the floating lights in the sky when the off-planet shipments arrive. He was about to start dancing when the door bell rang. Him and Shaye shoved the components back into the bag and shoved it into the vent under my bed. I ran over to the door and peaked through the small glass looking hole. Our master and few of his top security were standing right outside our door. I waited for Ruger to close the vent and sit back on his bed. I opened the door and stood back as the master walked in.
"Master, what do we owe this pleasure?" I asked.
"136, 137, and 125, there have been concerns that you all have haven't been registering some components from your scavenging trips… have you been steeling from me 136?" He asked in his most intimidating voice.
"No, sir" I said bowing my head.
"Then you won't mind if we search your room" he said.
"It's not like you are giving us a choice" Shaye said.
"No, I'm not, you belong to me, 125, you are my property, now I would like it if you would show some respect to your master" He said, getting frustrated.
She bowed her head and avoided eye contact with him. Ruger did the same, before the master even looked at him. The master held his arms behind his back, interlocking his fingers and pumped out his chest. He held his head up high as his security searched the room. One of his bigger guys was getting close to the vent. When no one was looking I kicked the side of the bed.
"Ow, ow, ow" I said, holding my leg up.
The big guy looked up at me and forgot what he was doing. He stood up and looked straight at me. I acted as if I broke one of my toes, trying hard to keep up the act.
"Did you find anything?" The master said.
"No, sir the room is clean, nothing to find here" the big guy said.
The master gathered his security and left the room, angry. We waited until they were far away from our room before closing the door and lifting our heads.
"That was to close" Ruger said.
"If Shaye and I can get the engine and meet you back at our hid out can you finish the ship tonight?" I asked him.
"Yes, I will only need a few minutes to install the last of the smaller components before installing the engine and after that it should fly" he said.
"Okay, then we will get the engine, you head to the hid out, install those parts and we will meet you there after we have obtained the last component" I said.