[4] [ video ] - in which the Tranquility gains a new shuttle!

[zooms]

[ He's tired as hell and not exactly in the best of health yet - there are faded red blotches dotted along his bare arms and exposed face and neck in between long streaks of black engine grease where the chickenpox sores are yet to fully heal - but Hotspur's in one hell of a good mood. In fact he is practically beaming down the video feed as he makes his announcement to the ship at large: ]

Hey, crew. [ Yeah, you guys are all crewmates whether you like it or not. Deal with it. ] I know we're all feeling pretty grim after the past couple of weeks so here's a bit of good news--

[ He steps aside and the feed spins wildly as Hotspur readjusts it to focus on one of the shuttles in the hangar bay. It's beaten up and still has a few exposed panels that need to be refitted but all in all it's looking pretty good. ]

The good ship Tranquility now has a second working shuttle!

[ Said with all the pride of a new father, which as far as Hotspur's concerned is kind of accurate. A quick zoom on the name of the shuttle - Spirit - that had been chosen by Kasumi several months back and daubed with pain-staking accuracy on the flank of the little ship by Hotspur himself. ]

Thanks to Tony's input we've changed up a few things while we were fixing her up so she's way speedier than the other shuttle. I reckon she's gonna make for a bumpy ride though - but that's what you get when you go for speed over stability. [ Not that he seems to mind. At all. ] But she hasn't been tested out yet! So that's going to be... interesting.

[ 'Interesting' here equates to 'exhilerating yet vomit-inducing'. ]

Starbuck, Joker -- I'm going to let you guys fight it out over who gets the honour of flying her out on her maiden voyage and who has to sit shotgun. But you better bring her back in one piece; me and Tony have got a little game of Space Tag to be getting on with.

( OOC NOTE: if your character has volunteered to help out with fixing up any of the ships down in the shuttle bay over the past four months then VOILA here is the fruit of your labour! Feel free to blag that your character helped out with any particular bit, even if it was just passing wrenches and making coffee. c: )

Comments

[whatatoolhewas]

She's all mine. I call dibs. Dibs.

[zooms]

[ cue an Eyebrow Raise of Disbelief. ]

...Somehow I don't think calling dibs is gonna fly with Kara.

[astrogate]

Wanna bet?

[ A smirk. She isn't going down without a fight. ]

video;

[astrogate]

This test is mine. [ So much that she is chomping at the bit to get in the driver seat.

Which has her flashing a smirk at the corner of her lips, before she is letting out a quick chuckle in amusement. ] If I can manage to fly a raider, I think I can fly this thing. [ Can we say COCKY? ]

video;

[zooms]

A raider? [ Hotspur has heard about a lot of the ships from other universe's - details shared in moments of supreme geekiness in the same way that civilians might gossip and brag about celebrities they've met or golf handicaps - but that's not one he thinks he's heard before. ] What's a raider like, then?

[cutsofftheirlimbs]

Not too shabby, from what I see. I'm no pilot, but hey, I know good tech work when I see it.

[zooms]

[ There's a grin that borders on the edge of bashful as Hotspur raises his hands. ] Thanks, but I can't take much credit. Most of the work in putting her back together again was done by the rest of the team. [ A pause before Hotspur adds curiously: ] Are you familiar with shuttles much?

[51stcentury]

Not bad, huh? The little engine that could. [Have a grin in return, Hotspur. He's put a lot of time and effort into that shuttle, as well as starting on a few other ones here and there]

[He's done enough work with Hotspur in the shuttle bay to know the other's been out for a while, even without the tired look or spots to go from] How're you holding up then?

[zooms]

[ OH GOD JACK one grin from you and Hotspur's back to being a bloody smiling fool all over again look what you do to him. ]

Ah, I'm doing good, sir. Thank you for asking. [ Hotspur grins and extends a free hand to run it over the rough metallic hide of the newly-completed shuttle. ] Feeling on top of the world now we've got Faith flight-worthy again. And thank you - thank you again, that is - for helping out. [ He pauses happily and finishes: ] Couldn't have done it without you, sir.

[statsraaden]

[Hotspur is back. After a whole month in sickbay, Hotspur is back. Right on time to finish repairing and tweaking the shuttle. Stats is overjoyed; he was starting to worry. A whole month being sick is no fun at all. Stats knows for experience; he's once been injured bad enough to be out of it for a whole year. He shakes off the thought.

And now they're finished. Stats beams with pride. Whether it's for himself, the whole repairing team or the shuttle is not clear. Perhaps it's for all of them.]

We did!

Oh, by the way, it's good we have a faster one now. We have one of each. [He laughs.]

And it's good to have you back. Feeling better?

[zooms]

Yeah! Much better, thanks for asking. The downsides of coming from a future race of humans is not having the right antibodies, apparently. [ A small shrug; Hotspur's never been one for rolling around in a sickbay feeling sorry for himself. ] Feeling a hell of a lot better now we've got this shuttle finished, really. Best medicine I could wish for. [ Hotspur laughs but casts a rueful look at the other shuttle - the older one, unmodified and still as flight-worthy as she had been from before the first jump - as the laugh dies away to a chuckle. ] Although, not going to lie, I'm still pretty fond of the other shuttle. This modified one is going to speedy and all - which is great, don't get me wrong - but the older one is more like the heavy fighters I used to run back home. Flies like a brick but it's got character, you know? Speed isn't always everything.

video;

[entrapments]

Oh- oh my god you guys made that? Seriously?

video;

[zooms]

Uh - not made, not exactly. [ He lifts a hand and scratches sheepishly at an old chickenpox scar before admitting: ] Repaired. Less impressive, I know.

voice;

[goingsilent]

[ That picture message actually drew a laugh out of Kasumi. And seeing the video of the ship makes her smile widely enough that it's audible in her voice. ]

I hope she lives up to her name.

voice;

[zooms]

[ The response isn't instantaneous by a long shot; Hotspur pauses to check and double-check the origin number of the mysterious name-giver with this new incoming message before even beginning to formulate a reply. With a marvelling little shake of his head he switches his comm device to the voice function to match Kasumi's and issues a reply: ]

Me too. [ a beat. ] You know, as the namesake it's only fair you get to go for a ride at some point.

video;

[sweetmotherofgod]

[ Oh, man. Look at him, all excited like a kid. Heather can't help grinning right back. ]

Hey, you!

Spirit, huh? Very cool.

video;

[zooms]

[ Whereas Hotspur's grin had been rather general (and a little bit self-satisfied) before it slowly transforms in to something a little bit more familiar and easy-going as he recognises Heather on the other end of the video feed. ]

Hey yourself!

[ A little glance back at Faith over his shoulder. ]

So it gets the Heather Mason seal of approval, yeah?

[theshabbiestofmen]

What precisely does it do?

[zooms]

What, this? [ With the video feed refocused on himself Hotspur casts a glance over his shoulder at the blurry shape of the shuttle behind him. He turns back to the feed with a brief frown; he's never yet had to explain what a shuttle does. ] Uh - it's like... a people mover. But for traveling through space. [ A beat. ] Does that help?

video;

[goldshirt]

You're gonna need a ref for that game of Space Tag.

[he's pleased, and it's obvious. he'd been down a few times, when he could find the time. there was nothing that soothed Jim more than being elbow deep in wires and data of something he could fix.]

video;

[zooms]

Whoa there, are you sure you want to volunteer for that, sir? [ Hotspur adopts a mock-serious tone of voice as he sagely warns Kirk: ] I'm not entirely sure Stark's planning on playing nice, you know?

[video]

[coffeeking]

That's good news. Will you lot be working on the other ones next?

[video]

[zooms]

Yeah, that's the plan! [ Hotspur beams down the video feed at Ianto; any friend (of any interpretation of 'friend') of Jack's was certainly a friend of his. ] I mean, Faith was the shuttle that needed the least amount of repairs and she took something like three months to get up and running. [ The smile turns rueful as he concludes: ] Don't know how long it'll take to do the next one. Maybe double that.

video;

[odinsons]

[ ahhhhhhhhhhh whoa. this is so cool. thor is impressed and confused but mostly impressed. he's never seen anything like this before. not really. this seems a bit cooler than riding in one of those silly cars on earth. he's the literal embodiment of the chinhands emote rn, hotspur, you don't even know. ]

Does it travel the whole of Tranquility? [ . . . ] Did you do this all yourself?

video;

[zooms]

It travels the whole of the outside, yeah... [ A small correction that amounts to a whole lot in the long run. He beams, visibly proud of the degree of interest he seems to have garnered from the other man, and reaches out to brush a hand over the shuttle's exposed panels off-screen. ] But not by myself, no. We had a whole load of help from all kinds of people - and we couldn't have done any of this 'em.

video;

[starked]

[ you know, screw this, he's proud of his work, thank you very much, so whatever, video it is. ]

If she's too bumpy we can always make an adjustment or two. After tag. They'll get to have fun. [ fun means, well, if it blows up oops. or alternatively, if the steering is weird oops. ] Which reminds me, I don't care which of them gets it but if it gets broken, I'm not going to be held accountable for what I might do since that took way too long to get up and running like this.

video;

[zooms]

Well, I don't reckon either of them will be complaining too much; I think they're both just happy to have a new bird to play with. Me, I'm just happy that I'm now a flight officer in charge of two ships. It's a little bit more respectable than just the one, I reckon. [ A crooked smile, but only a small one; truth be told, he's not bothered about appearances or anything like that. He could be flight officer for a fleet of rubber dinghies and he wouldn't really care. ] Kirk's offered to referee the tag, by the way. Apparently one of us can't play nice?

[video]

[profligates]

I'd say this is cause for a celebration!

[video]

[zooms]

[ With a rueful laugh Hotspur nods in agreement. ]

Yeah, maybe. It's not like we've had much to celebrate around here recently...

voice;

[laufeysons]

[ Oh Hotspur. Somebody missed you!!! Which probably doesn't bode well for him let's be honest. ]

Congratulations. [ Not that he sounds super menacing..or anything... ] So tell me, what are the greater implications of this success?

[ i.e. can they leave the ship now, or what? ]

voice;

[zooms]

[ ahhh Loki-sama!!! ]

The greater implications, sir? [ He repeats Loki's words dumbly, pondering the question as his gaze slides away from the screen to scan the hangar deck. ] Uh. Well, it's good for morale. It shows that despite all of us being landed in a pretty desperate situation we can still overcome it and start working pro-actively to fix things up. And I guess when we next come across a space station more people will be able to take a trip and visit it...

[ He glances back up at the screen expectantly, clearly hoping that that had answered Loki's question adequately -- until another thought hits him. An altogether more unpleasantly pessimistic one. ]

Oh, and-- well, if something happens to the Tranquility and we need to abandon ship then the shuttles have a better chance of making it to another ship or a planet than the escape pods.