This story is about the challenges and difficulties faced by the maintenance engineers that have to constantly support and maintain the spacecraft of the Rebel Alliance fleet.
Rated K
Hanger Mayhem
By DJ Wyatt
Two X-wing Starfighters screamed into the hanger at a speed higher than normal. Several maintenance Ensigns and an Officer were fuelling a near by Officer looked up at the two X-wings flying by and shook his head. "Got to be Jedi's."
"What make you thing they're Jedi, Sir?"
"They're always coming in hot. Better send a few droids over to have a look at them. I'll bet they are all shoot up from the looks of them."
"Yes Sir."
The two X-wings crossed the hanger and simultaneously landed perfectly in unison, right in front of maintenance bay door.
The Officer through his hands up, "Damn it! Can't they see that's a no landing zone? Some one let those guys know, they can't park there!"
Just then a voice come over his communicator. "Lt Hanson, move all available maintenance personnel over to the two X-wings that just landed. They have some pretty bad damage and need to be repaired ASAP.
Lt Hanson rolled his eyes. "Copy that hanger control." He gave the order and everyone in the hanger converged on the two damaged X-wings. As the Lt Hanson got closer he grabbed the first Ensign he came to, "Did anyone tell them they can park here?"
"No Sir, the two Jedi's were out and gone before the gear was down good."
"All right, someone go and get a tug and drag these things away from the maintenance bay door. From what I can see, there are some big parts we're going to need that we can't get if we don't move these ships out of the way."
"Already on it Sir." The Ensign hurried away.
The Lieutenant walked around the two X-wings taking a mental note of many tasks that will have to be preformed to make them airworthy again.
An Ensign holding a small box in his hand came running up, "Sir, we have a problem."
"What is it Ensign?"
"I went to get the tug when Ensign Chaves informed me that is was in-op. I did a quick diagnostic check on it and it has a bad control module." He held the small box up in the air.
"We've have two tugs Ensign, get the other one and get these things moved out of the way."
"That's the problem Sir, the other tug is in the maintenance bay and we can't get the door open enough to get it out."
Lt Hanson's face was turning red, "What about replacing the bad module with the good one off of the operating tug."
"Wont work Sir, It's a different model!"
"What about having a pilot or droid fly it out of the way?"
"Sir, they're to badly damage."
The Lieutenant's radio came alive. "Lt Hanson, we need those X-wings up and running now!" yelled the voice, "We've got enemy fighters inbound."
"How long?"
"Maybe an hour." answered the voice on the radio, "Those are the only fighters available. Everything else is on the other side of the system engaged in battle. Make it happen Lieutenant!
"Yes Sir!" Lt Hanson turned back to the Ensign, "You, go and find those two Jedi and get them back here. Maybe they can use some of there hocus pocus and move there ships away form the door."
"Yes Sir!" the Ensign took off as if he had just engaged his hyper drive.
Lt Hanson gather everyone together, "Time is short people, we have enemy forces headed our way and these two X-wings are our only hope. Everyone except you three," he motioned toward the three standing closest to him, "get to work and start tarring down only the essential systems to make them battle ready. If the two Jedi get here in time, maybe they can do something to help us move the X-wings out of the way. In till them, we are on our one. Now, get to work!" Everyone ran back to the X-wings and started to work except the three he told to wait. "I need you three to find every gravsled you can and bring them back here."
All three Ensign had a confused look on there faces "What are we going to the with all those gravsled, Sir?"
"Jedi aren't the only ones that can make things float in the air."
The Ensign understood and took off running. The two X-wings had people and droids crawling all over working feverishly. When the first gravsled appeared Lt Hanson opened an access panel and made some adjustments to its settings. It wasn't long before there were a dozen gravsleds resting in front of the X-wings. When the last one arrived, he instructed the ensigns on the process of changing the setting and set them to work. Once they were done, they positioned them under the nose and wings.
One of the Ensigns was scratching his head, "Sir, I've done the math and I don't think this is going to work. These gravsleds aren't rated to lift this much weight."
Lt Hanson was pushing a gravsled under the engine. "Ensign, I find your lack of faith disturbing. It will work. These gravsleds can lift way more than they're rated for. The only problem is that it will greatly reduced the life of its power cell. Power cells are expensive, so they de-rated them so guys like us don't used them for stuff like this." Lt Hanson remotely operated all gravsleds simultaneously and set them to full power. "Everyone stand back!" he yelled. Slowly the gravsleds rose in the air and lifted the X-wing just enough. "Now, everyone push."
"Sir, why don't you just remote drive the sleds where you want it?"
"It takes to much power and with all these sleds, it would be unstable. Now push!"
They all heaved and grunted. It took some time but once it stared moving it was easier. They placed the X-wing where they wanted it and repeated the process with the second X-wing. As soon as the second was clear of the maintenance bay door several Ensigns opened the door grabbed needed parts and went to work.
Once again the two X-wings were covered with Ensigns and droids hard at work. As the last access panel was being replaced the two Jedi along with the ensign who had been looking for them entered into the hanger bay. They raced to the X-wings and climbed in. As one of them was climbing the latter to the cockpit he turned and looked at Lt Hanson. "Lieutenant, you really need to get a handle on your crew. These repairs should have been done a while ago."
Lt Hanson just smiled, "Yes Sir, I'll do that Sir."
The two X-wings took off together just as they had when the landed and flew out the hanger doors. The Lieutenant closed the hanger doors and the blast shields. They spent the next two hours waiting for news of the battle that was happening just beyond the planet's atmosphere.
When the news finally reached those who were waiting in the hanger they all cheered. The two Jedi had wiped out an entire squadron of enemy Tie fighters. They opened the blast shields and the hanger doors and prepared the hanger for their arrival. The hanger was already filling with other personnel waiting to great the two heroes.
When the two X-wings arrived the made there approach just as they did the last time. Fast and low. They approach to land in the very same spot they had last time, right in front of the maintenance bay doors. Only this time they found two maintenance tugs parked there. A quick look around revealed an area that had large yellow words painted on the floor, "X-wing parking". It was much brighter than the other faded yellow making else where on the floor. They landed in the designated area and exited their ships. They were greeted by a large group of cheering personnel. As the two Jedi walked across the hanger floor, they left a trail of yellow footprints that follow them out the doors.
"Can you believe those guys, Sir? They just made a huge mess of the hanger floor, that we are going to have to clean up!"
The Lieutenant let out a long sigh, "Well Ensign, this is what it's all about. Doing our part for the Rebel Alliance. Some times that means cleaning up some one else's mess. It's the thankless jobs like ours that makes it all work."
"Sir, you maybe right, but it's the people like us that are really going to make the difference and win this war."
"I couldn't have said it better myself. Now you guys get that paint up before it dry's. We've got two X-wings to repair . . . again." The two X-wings sat smoking, covered in damage parked right where they should be.
The End
