It was something called a driver coil. And it was serious.
"Shit Skip, I know we talked about replacing it at the last overhaul, but..." Tor began but the Captain interrupted him with a tone of anger that was not what Cherry has come to consider characteristic.
"But you said it was good for another five thousand light years! God fucking damn it Tor, now we're fuckin' stuck here in the middle of nowhere with no damn engines and fuck all power!"
Cherry had never seen her Captain mad. She thought about their encounter with the Galberon pirates and how calm and composed he'd been and she felt a deep discomfort rising from the pit of her stomach.
E16's full compliment was gathered in the ship's engine room, around the main systems display that dominated a console in the center of the room. Fem hung his head and shook it briefly. Heb paced. Tor looked pained as he grasped to find some explanation or fix that would make his error of judgement less costly to them. Cherry stood to the side, a look of deep worry on her face, her arms folded across her chest.
Her knowledge of the ship's engines and power systems was limited to what she'd learned in the classes she took before she left Earth and what she'd picked up in her short time on board, which in practice meant she knew little. Still, she knew enough to understand that a clapped out driver coil meant the end of the line.
There was no repairing it. The coil would need to be replaced and no ship routinely kept a spare, they were just too large and too expensive.
So the look of worry she bore reflected this knowledge, but she felt even more concerned at the all too sudden fractiousness that had crept into the heretofore entirely positive dynamic among the crew.
Up to now, ever since the moment she had come upon Phil cheating on her, without much of a plan, everything had gone right for her. She was enjoying life, having lots of great sex and most of all enjoying the company of good people. She was really starting to feel at home on E16.
As she felt herself slipping into self-pity, she checked herself. Perhaps there was an opportunity here for her to develop a new role for herself among the crew.
She knew her streak of positivity and success was never going to go on forever. Sometime, something was going to happen to put an obstacle in her way and she could either stand there sullenly, arms folded in sullen regret, or she could do something about it.
"Fuck, god damn, shit, son of a..." The Captain's pacing and random swearing sealed her resolve and she slammed her hands down on the console.
Heb was startled from his angry reverie. Tor gave her a look that she understood as 'what the fuck are you doing?' and she thought she detected a hint of a smirk in Fem's face.
"Look, we can stand around here cursing each other..." she began.
"Cursing that son of a..." Heb interrupted, throwing an accusatory arm towards Tor and leading the engineer to flinch.
"Captain!" The steel in Cherry's voice cut the captain short and he glared at her instead and although the heat of his rage now seemed turned on her, Cherry was not dissuaded from her plan.
"We can stand around here feeling sorry for ourselves or we can start to dig ourselves out of this shit. Pointing fingers and focusing on who's fault this is will get us nowhere. We need to work as a crew to find a solution."
When she'd finished speaking, she felt a little bit like vomiting.
It had all seemed like such a good idea a moment ago. She tried to gauge reaction. Fem was definitely smirking now. Tor's look had changed to a pleading one and was directed towards Heb who for his part continued to glare at Cherry.
Presently, absent even the usually constant thrum of the engines, silence hung like a dead weight in the ship. After several moments, Cherry noticed that she was holding her breath.
Finally, slowly, the Captain's glare seemed to soften and he leaned against the bulkhead with a long sigh, lowering his head.
"Well, shit. Thank you Cherry. I think I needed that," he began, raising his head to face her once more. "You know we've been through our share of scrapes in this ship -- Tor, Fem, you know what I mean, hell even in the short time since you joined us Cherry we've been boarded by fucking pirates!" He was smiling now.
"And every time, back even to my father's time as master of this boat, and his father's before him, we've never failed to... to dig ourselves out of the shit." He paused now and looked for a long moment at Cherry, a soft and warm smile across his face. "I guess even I need to be reminded sometimes of just how much we are capable of when we work together." His gaze shifted now towards Tor.
"Skip, I'm really sorry..." the engineer began but the captain cut him off with a wave of his hand.
"Tor," he began, approaching the engineer, "it's me who should be apologizing. This is no more your fault than it is mine. You've kept a 75 year old freighter running like a song for a lot of years now. You're one hell of an engineer, you're my friend, hell -- you're my brother Tor, and I'm glad to have you aboard." He extended his hand and Tor took it eagerly, pulling Heb into a manly embrace where they clapped each other on the back a couple of times.
"Aye, aye Skip," Tor said.
Cherry almost made an audible sob but managed to hold it in. After a moment to gather himself, Heb returned to Captain mode.
"OK then, we've lost the driver coil and we don't have a spare -- let's work the problem. Tor, any chance we can repair it?"
"No way Skip, it's completely shot. Only good for scrap now," the engineer replied grimly.
"That's what I thought. Suggestions anyone? Come on now, no idea too stupid."
"What about the shuttle?" Fem began, "is there any parts in there we could salvage to get us moving?"
"Not a bad idea Fem," Tor looked intrigued, "but the shuttle's parts aren't compatible with E16. We salvaged it from an old Brolean cruiser about 10 years ago, the parts just won't fit together."
"But we could use the shuttle to leave the ship, right?" Cherry felt an idea beginning to form.
"You mean abandon E16?" Heb seemed indignant at the thought.
