Stars Above The Willow Tree

Chapter 15 - A Broken Door

 "Willow," Dethrhhek said, placing a large hand on her shoulder, "this is Tothetto. He's our Chief Engineer and ship's mechanic. While we're resupplying I thought you could help him out."

Willow looked the burly male up and down. She recognized him as the green and purple Tilith she'd run into in the corridor while trying to escape.

"Hello," she said.

He glanced at her, then back at Dethrhhek, scowling.

"So, you want me to babysit," the male said, folding his arms. It was not a question.

"No, I want you to put her to use. She's small, fits in small places you might not be able to reach."

"Oh, just what we all need. An alien mucking around in our ship."

The two started arguing and Willow tuned them out, glancing curiously around the bridge.

The ship had docked with the station so seamlessly she hadn't even felt it. Dethrhhek must have a good pilot. Or Aurora had taken over the docking sequence.

Though, now that she focused on it she could feel the pull to one side that denoted spin gravity over thrust.

The bridge was a small, practical space with several thick, gel chairs on rotating gimbals at various stations. The technology wasn't so different from human ships that she couldn't tell the radar station from the pilot's and communications.

Glancing at the door they'd come through, she remembered the sudden clunk as the one on the right had stuck and given up. Walking over to it, she pushed on the panel beside the doors and it popped open to reveal some circuits, wires and hoses and what she assumed was a fuse box.

Pushing some of the hoses and wires this way and that let her see that there was nothing wrong with the hydraulics—as far as she could tell—and none of the fuses looked burnt out, but tucked behind a metal plate, the use of which she didn't know, she found what looked like an in-line amplifier on the main power line to the door.

Frowning, she walked to the other side and opened the panel for the left door and dug around to discover the working side didn't have the amplifier.

Going back to the right door, she checked the slack on the cable. There was more than enough to reach...

With a shrug, she yanked the little device off and tucked it into the pocket of her jumpsuit as Dethrhhek and Tothetto started yelling at each other.

"Will you two shut up!" she snapped over her shoulder without looking as she twisted the two lengths of wire together. She sucked a quick breath through her teeth as she got a bit of a buzz from the wires.

"What are you doing?" Dethrhhek demanded, stalking up behind her.

"You know, I don't know what I was expecting. For some reason I thought that any species that had been spacefaring longer than my people would be a little more, I don't know, maybe just less the same. But turns out guys are the same no matter where you go. Y'all just leave shit broken, jerry-rigging crap that doesn't need to be jerry-rigged—"

Willow turned and glanced around, then focused on Dethrhhek, searching up and down his body. She turned her attention to the burly Tothetto. He appeared to have a utility belt full of tools with a roll of tape dangling off a hook on one side.

She walked up to him, and snatched it off the hook, quickly dodging back as he tried to grab it from her with a protest.

She didn't know if it was electrical tape or not but it didn't feel papery so she was sure it wasn't going to start a fire. She pulled off a strip of it, tossed the tape back to him, then turned back to the open panel so she could wrap the wires.