"Whatever Happened to Captain Rex?"
Chapter 34
Hodges led Rex to the furthest point back in the ship. They could go no further as the ship was crumpled from the landing at this point, the metal bent from the impact. A pair of booted feet was barely visible, upside down, plunged deep inside an access hatch.
"Servo!" called a voice from inside the hatch.
"Hello, Captain!" called a chipper clone in green camo armor, completely missing his right leg from just below the hip socket on down. He was leaning against the hatch, handing tools down to the booted figure, deep inside the hatch. "Servo, coming down," he said, leaning in as far as he could, and carefully handing down the tool. He reached down to accept something back. "My name is Tank," the clone said, making eye contact with Rex, but still busily working at the same time. "Pleased to meet you in person, Captain." Tank pulled up a hydro-spanner and replaced it into the box of tools he had sitting next to him. "We're making good progress. We should have power restored-"
"Ow! Ow! Ow!" There was some dramatic sparking from within the hatch. Rex and Mako looked at each other, and then back at Tank. He gave them a reassuring smile, "He's alright." He then leaned way down into the hatch, and said softly: "Hey Tek, you OK?"
"I'm OK!," called the voice inside, "just a little singed. Remind me not to cross those wires again… OK, well, now we know what the connection isn't…. OK, OK, what about these two?... hang on…. give it a moment… come on, baby… don't blow up…"
Rex and Mako exchanged a concerned look, and then looked back at Tank. He gave them a calm, reassuring smile again, and said: "He was kidding about the blowing up part." He then leaned down and whispered: "You were kidding, right Tek?"
In response, more sparks erupted from the hatch, causing Tank to pull his head back out of the hatch abruptly. With a sputtering whine, the power on the ship blinked several times and then came back on. Rex could hear the heaters started blowing. A cheer went on throughout the ship.
"Ah, that's the way it's done!" called out a satisfied voice from within the hatch.
"You, OK, Tek?" Tank called, the upper half of his body leaning into the hatch, "that was an awful lot of fireworks there."
"A few minor burns. My armor protected me from most of it. I probably should have been wearing my helmet and gauntlets. But, well, anyway, it's fixed," Tek called out from within the hatch.
The pair of feet slowly worked their way back out of the hatch revealing a clone dressed in the distinctive green camo armor of the 41st Elite Corps. The right side of his face was scarred from what looked to be an explosion, and one of his eyes was translucent, and scarred all around. He also had some new, more recent burns on his face, likely from all the electrical sparking that happened when he rewired the ship. He was missing some fingers on his right hand, and wasn't wearing armor on either hand. His hands had also suffered some electrical burns. But, none of this seemed to deter him. He scrambled out of the hatch, and pounded Tank on the back with satisfaction. "Well, that's done it, then!" He looked over and noticed Rex. "Oh, hello, Captain! Pleased to meet you! I'm Tek!" he stuck out his hand, the one with the missing fingers, and enthusiastically shook Rex's hand. If the burns on his hands bothered him, he certainly didn't seem to show it. "I hope you don't mind that Tank and I took it upon ourselves to fix some of the electrical wiring."
"Nice job," Hodges said, nodding his head toward the lights, "you did it again, Tek. Always saving our arses, you are."
"Yes, well done," Rex said, "I didn't think we'd get the ship back online so quickly."
"My pleasure, Captain," Tek said, "although, I have to admit it was a bit self-serving. I was watching out for some of our guys. Two of the guys in the bio-beds are from the 41st Elite. So, I guess you could say we were being self-serving."
"I don't think watching out for your brothers counts as being self-serving," Rex said. He looked at the burns on Tek's face and hands. "Track down the medic and get those burns treated. No more working until those burns have been properly taken care of." Rex looked over at Tank, "I'm ordering you to make sure that he gets himself looked at."
Tank nodded, "Yes, Captain. I'll make sure of it."
Tank and Tek headed off to find a medic.
Since his eyes had adjusted to the darkness, the ship now seemed very bright. And, with the glaring brightness, Rex could see the extent of the damage.
"Well, I guess this ship isn't going anywhere soon," Rex said, looking around at the crumpled back section.
Mako looked at Rex curiously, "Are we planning on going someplace, Captain?"
Rex shook his head, "No, just thinking if we need to get away from those pirates. We may not have seen the last of them, and I believe we might have angered them just a bit."
"Just a bit, sir," Mako said, "although, in all fairness, they did start it."
"True," Rex said, "but, I don't think that will count for much, if they start gunning for us and we are stuck here on the ground, immobile."
"Point well taken, sir," Mako said, "I can see why they put you in command."
Rex glanced sidelong at Mako again, "Are you sucking up, or do you always talk like that?"
Mako shrugged, "I don't know. I've never been anywhere close to the command structure before."
"A pity, you have a knack for this kind of work," Rex said.
"Well, then, it's a good thing I got shot then, eh?" Mako said.
Rex smacked him again, across the chest plates.
"You do that a lot, sir, you know," Mako commented, looking down at this chest plates.
"I know," Rex said, with a smirk, "it's because you aren't allowed to hit back. Come on, let's go check on the pilots."
"Not fair," Mako said, still looking down at his chest plates, "that's so not fair."
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