Chapter 2: Repairing a Piece of Space Junk

Ferb was rewiring the food replicator's wires when Candace came in. He didn't bother to look up as she spoke.

"You really ought to pay attention when I enter the room, Lieutenant." She told him coldly.

"That rank means nothing to me anymore, Candace." Ferb replied as he detached and reattached one of the wires, "Or am I only allowed to call you Captain?"

"That's quite a lot of insubordination coming from you, 'Toe-the-line-but-never-cross-it-Flynn-Fletcher.'"

Ferb only shrugged as he disconnected and reconnected one of the wires reconfiguring the power.

"I guess even the most steadfast and brainwashed of soldiers wear down over time."

Ferb didn't reply, merely furrowed his brow as one of the next connections he intended on fixing shorted and sparked.

The orange-haired captain laughed, smirking as he used the pen to detach and reattach the wires so that the sparking would cease. "Trying to escape is pointless. Even you can't manage to break out with paperclips and a plastic pen."

"Had I intended on escaping," Ferb began as he replaced the panel, locking it with a solid click, "I would have done so already." He began to work on another panel. "The food replicator's fixed. I figured that actual food would be more pleasant than inedible goo."

Candace raised an eyebrow. "How could you manage a feat like that? You've been in here the whole time."

"All the wires in this ship interconnect around these three walls."

"What?!" Candace asked, alarmed. "That's preposterous!"

"Actually," a higher-pitched Indian voice spoke up for the first time, "His assessment is correct. All connections intersect around those three walls."

"Including sublight engines, life support, and the force field on the outside of the brig," Ferb pointed out. "but I haven't bothered with those, despite how inefficient life support is currently."

Sighing, Candace raked her hand through her hair, making a note to solve that error. "Lieutenant," she said with a slight hiss, "what are you even doing here? I highly doubt you would ever desert the elite fleet. You're supposedly one of the best engineers and pilots they have."

Ferb simply slid his hand into the front right pocket of his landing suit and pulled out his flight log book. Sliding it through the food slot, he looked at her and then at the log book rather pointedly.

After reprimanding Baljeet for not searching him first (a job that wasn't even his, he was just an engineer), Candace read through the last four entries made.

Without even hesitating, she jabbed the button on the wall, dropping the force field around the brig's walls.

She threw the log book at his feet. "Consider yourself a member of the crew." To the other man in the room, she said, "Baljeet, show him to his quarters. The empty one will suffice."

"I am just an engineer, Captain! How many times do I have to tell you that? I am not a security guard, not a maintenance worker, and most certainly not a secretary! I am an engineer! That is all I am!"

Sighing, Candace told him calmly, "Your shift has ended, Baljeet. Swipe out, and on your way up, show him to his quarters."

Closing his mouth quietly, he replied, "Yes, sir. Sorry, sir."

Shutting and locking the panel, Ferb stood and followed Baljeet out of the room and into the elevator. As the doors closed, Ferb saluted her silently, and nodding her head curtly, she saluted him soundlessly.

No words passed between the two young men until the elevator doors opened with a ding to the control room.

"This, I believe, isn't the correct floor." Ferb pointed out calmly.

To which, Baljeet replied with a sigh as he pressed the button again, "It is always doing this. The elevator goes to the last floor it was on before it goes to the floor that was actually selected."

"Sounds like a wire is connected to itself," Ferb commented, "That glitch will be the very next thing I fix."

Then, the doors opened on the residential floor. "Isabella's quarters are the closest to the elevator. Next is mine, then Buford's. After his is Phineas', and last is yours."

"Much appreciated, Baljeet." Ferb smiled. "I think I'll retire for now."

"You do not wish to join me in the mess hall?"

"Unfortunately, at the moment, I am full of inedible green goo. My digestive system doesn't quite know what to do with itself."

"I believe retiring would be the best course of action, then." Baljeet said curtly, and slid into the elevator as quickly as he could. So quickly, he forgot to ask the now-returned British-born young man why the captain had looked so flustered.