Blomar and George finished up on their tour through the ship. They had visited all of the future work sites and now made their way to the mess hall to grab a bite to eat and talk details.
The ship itself was almost entirely empty by now as the crew had collectively decided that a week of leave was best to be taken now rather then later, courtesy of Lt. Streets, because who knew what the world would look like in a week or if it was still there at all. The pirate life could be a bit jerky in that regard. It had taken some convincing by Bonnet to make Lt. Streets 'agree' to this sentiment, which was more of to a diversion than actual convincing as the crew made their escape via the Nori's old mining drones. Streets, who had been expecting something like this let it slide. The captain would have personally demanded the crews attention if it had been critical to their current work and the last couple of weeks in space had been a bit of a morale drain. Brains don't quite work the same way in the isolation of a space ship. People could get sick in the head just from extended space travel. 'Monkeys need trees' the Nori briefly flashed on Sybil's terminal. Sybil agreed and that was pretty much the end of the matter.
In the mess hall George and Blomar were having a moment. They sat, side by side, eating some O'Nutri while they were looking at the ship schematics. George could barely hold in his excitement and drew more and more little details into the plans.
'Say Goerge, how have you been these last ten years? whats this with all the Jorge stuff?'
George didn't even look up from his work and briefly, with a just tad of annoyance said:
'You remember that stunt we pulled on our graduation ceremony?'
'No?'
'Of course you don't, you were so pissed we left you to sleep it off in a tattoo studio ... by the way, how do you like your penis' George giggled.
'What? I am perfectly ok with my regular sized old stick'
'I meant the one on your back'
'You what?'
'Maybe you should look in the mirror once in your life mate'
Blomar, who up to this point had kept his cool, was suddenly becoming aware of a feeling he had fought for years to control. He thought he had conquered it but now it came back with a bang. Doubt. Doubts about who he thought he was, who others thought he was, who George thought he was and what the literal fuck they had done to his backside.
'Well Blomi, after we had our fun with you, we set off to party a little more but were in need of a ride. And before I realized what had happened I was wanted fugitive and a stowaway on an old freighter that, unfortunately for me, was due for a suicide dive on Haradhere. I've been stuck here ever since and thought it safer to assume a new identity.'
'Wow man, I did wonder where you had gone off to but that takes the cake, you know what happened to Jerry that night?'
'He died.'
'He what?'
'He died, we snuck aboard the scrap ship together, he got found out about and spaced half way to here.'
'Damn that sucks'
'To Jerry'
'To Jerry'
They raised their glasses and toasted to the life of a friend long gone.
'Back to the matter at hand, where do we start George?'
'Cut her open, see what's what, and make an inventory'
'And after?'
'Well we are going to need a couple of things that aren't lying about'
'Such as?'
'An energy shield generator. You don't want to keep on flying this bucket through uncharted space without something that can at least defuse the impact of something hitting the ship at relativistic speeds. The ship is tough, she might just take a couple of hits, provided they don't puncture her reactor and annihilate all of you in a nuclear blast of epic proportion, but why risk it. You said endurance racing didn't you? so I'm guessing you are in it for the long haul. So a shield gen it is.'
'Ok, where do we get one?'
'You don't, that is premium tech, coveted. You ll have to trade something for it and find one that is big enough for your ship.'
'Don't give me that George, surely you know of someone ....'
George stared at him.
'I do know of someone that could have one, but I doubt he will give it to you.'
'Who is it?'
'You have met him. A couple of months back some kid stranded here with his daddy's pleasure yacht. His ship is mostly scrap now, but I'm sure it still has a couple of goodies. Kid goes by the name NoobMaster9000'
'Wait isn't that?'
'Yes that kid'
Blomar felt the anticipation for retribution rise up from his guts. This was just the way he liked it.