In the early morning, Zarah went to knock Eisley's shoulder so that he could wake up Warp. Also she asked him to point her to a room where she could do the reparations and possible surgeries. Her 'patient' was amazed how eager she was to help him with his arm. She had everything with her in the early hours, the tools and even the detached hand part. A fifth finger had appeared into it and the last ones were also renewed.

"Don't ya wanna eat breakfast before the job, Za?" Warp laughed when he saw her straight bolting into the empty room. He had barely had the time to button his trousers and find a shirt for to appear in front of her in a proper outfit.

"Uh... I guess we gotta eat, this may take quite long. And I hope the chef will give me at least a candy bar to put in my pocket, I know my stomach will croak like a toad in few hours", she put it into words.

 After half an hour, she was in total action. Warp was put to sit on a comfortable chair, whose right armrest was widened to a table. Zarah sat on a low chair so that the work ground was to the level of her chest. On a dumbwaiter, she had her tools, some lubricants, purifiers, antiseptics, hygienic tissues and so on. With a big wrench, she opened his arm and sighed deep as she peeked in to the machinery.

"Ye, toxic diodes, what a jungle of bioscience..."

"Well that's what the folks here said, too, when they checked out the inners. Zarah, you don't have to do this, if..." he began.

"No, no, I'll fix it, just sit and relax!" she cut him rapidly short. She was actually facing a messy nodus, but did not want to show it to him. She was so much in debt for him that this was the most minor thing she could do for him to give back at least something. She placed large microscope goggles over her eyes and took the labour into her hands.

 Hours went by. She had unfastened a pile of circuit cards and dug to the biotic parts of the arm. The reason for the disability was very complex. The crystal, from which the flamethrower, plasma riffle and the rest of the contraptions got their energy, was rundown. Also, some of the circuits that were compulsory for the functions of the weapon parts, were burnt through. She could do nothing to them, only took them out and added to the heap of trash.

"I'm afraid that ya won't be able to use your flints any more..." she complained.

"That's just the same, it ain't pretty nice to think that a part of you is a weapon, anyways. Guess I'm not the guy any more that enjoyed blasting ships and folks out if his way. How much I wish that I'd have a proper arm of flesh and blood instead of that rubbish", he murmured.

Just then and there Zarah accidentally snapped one of his large blood vessels broken. She was namely working with the layer that connected his vessels and sinews to the artificial parts. Warp exclaimed for pain and she got into panic.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, Warp, I'm sorry..." she stammered and caught the bleeding tissue with tweezers. In a breeze, she had attached the vessel back to its place and soldered a bio-plastic insulant over it.

"Heh... there ain' no anesthetics around? I mean, if you're gonna amputate the whole arm", he grimaced.

"I'm sorry... I can't use such things to this, it..." she panted in terror as she though that she had hurt him very badly.

"Za, relax. I was just kidding", he cleared up.

 The work went on smoother. She got some sense into the combination of the organic tissue and metal parts. The studied information from the times of her polytechnics courses came lively into her mind and she did the rest of the job without mishap. It was very late when she finally got to set the loose hand part to its slot.

"Now... easy... the last circuit..." she bit her lips and soldered the remaining connections. Then the molten metal was rapidly solidified with the flash-drier. With a nervous expression, she uttered: "Okay, try to twist and shift the hand part."

Warp did what was requested and soon bent his fully functioning fingers with a happy smile. He caught a tool from the dumbwaiter and it stayed there in his hold. "It's perfecto, Za, unbe-LIEV-able!" he laughed.

"Now... I hope the thing continues to work even next week, oh twisting torques, what a job!" Zarah sighed fatigued. She closed the hatch, twitched the large wrench and finally flopped down to let her upper body rest on this huge metal body part. "Uf... now ya got five fingers, longer ones, at least ya can move them..." She was completely worn out and inadvertently laid quite long on her position.

Warp leaned down to her and suddenly she noticed that he had taken her hand into his own. Brownish-black mess covered her hands almost until wrists, because of the blood and machinery lubricant. And for her horror he had started to rub her fingers. "Uh, no, no... stop that..." she noted anxious.

"Stop what, babe...?" he whispered. Then he took her hand up and gave some kisses above the wrist where was no mess. His eyes twinkled slyly.

She got more nervous after hearing how she had been suddenly called and what he did to her. Troubled she uttered: "M-My hands are dirty!"

He took his face very close to her and whispered at her ear: "My hand is dirty, too. From all the crimes I've done..." Carelessly he wiped the grimy hand to his shirt and was next cuddling her cheek with his fingertips. He had not had a single chance to caress her after she was brought in as a captive. This moment was not definitely to be missed. Finally they were alone and even, enormous tenderness filled his heart as he thought that she had so kindly given him his right hand back.  Now he was quite amazed to notice that she instantly closed her eyes and seemed to turn quite feeble when he gave her a couple of tokens of affections. So, encouraged by this, he moved his fingers to her neck and began to fondle her other cheek with his thick lips. Unexpectedly his fingers sensed something cold and hard just a little over her collar. He picked the object up and comprehended it being the old steel necklace he had once given her. It was something excessively rough and heavy for her to wear, like a chain around her neck. But there it just seemed to be as she would always wear it.

He eyed it for a while, holding it in his hand and fiddling about the large flat pendant that was attached to it. This bauble never had had any money value; it had been some kind of gift from somebody he did not remember any more. However, seeing it now around her neck after all this time, got his expression to a dolorous smile. "I see that you haven't... forgotten me..." was the quiet utterance almost against her lips.

She opened her eyes that had been closed an eternity and took a look at him. "How could I have? You saved my life. How could I forget something like that?" Then she cast her eyes on the spangle. "This has been my only memory of you. I know it's not actually meant for a small woman like me and it always has made my shirt front look quite odd, but..."

Warp did not need more explanations. He was now dead sure about how she felt, if she had slavishly dragged this kind of thing from day to another. He stood up, sat on the floor and grabbed her tight to sit on his lap. His feelings were so fervent that he kissed her almost the same way he had done in front of the guards. Only now, he could kiss her as long as he wanted, since there was no one else around. He felt her warm lithe body in his arms, sensing her heart beat getting faster and the tremble, which was caused by him, shaking her whole being. He had pinned her arms against her sides so that she was not able to escape. So, frail she sat in his clutch as he fierily expressed his feelings.

 After an undetermined span she woke up to feel that Warp was caressing her cheek with his lips again. With his flesh hand, he kept cuddling her neck and occasionally stroked her hair. "I see ya like this, don't you...?" a voice asked softly at her ear. "Ya like it that I keep you in my arms... my babe."

She was so out of her breath that was not able to answer anything.

"I fell in love with ya, then, do you remember...?" the ardent voice continued "And what the feeling is now, it has grown to the sizes of a dinosaur. If ya wonna hear it, again, so I say that I love you, babe."

She inhaled weakly as he fondled her lower lip with his thumb, letting his lips slide along the side of her jaw.

"Ya feel the same, do ya? I would expect a reaction a bit different from this, if ya wan'ed to reject me." This time he kissed her lips for conclusion. "There... ya could even use another good kiss, maybe a hundred, don't you think...?" he grinned slyly to the fainting girl.

She attempted to form the words that cruised in her mind, but it was hard for her to get them out. She got so much strength, yet, that she could make him read from her mouth the sentence 'I love you'.

The cunning expression on his face faded and a gentle smile rose instead. He pressed her tight against his chest and put her little head to rest under his chin. "Deep in my heart I knew it... if only I wouldn't have to let you go... I'm so glad that you're finally here with me, though, maybe just a little time, but to know that I haven't waited for all this time in vain... I once was on Capital Planet, stood on the cliff above your window and saw how you put the curtains over it... I wished then that I could some day meet you again."

A small sniffle came from under his arm. "Why... didn't you come to me, then? I would have let you in."

"I'm so sorry... it would have been too dangerous, then. I was still fleeing, bounty hunters of Zurg after me..."

"From day to day... I had nothing but my depression with me, I've loved you all the time you've been gone..." the sniffing increased.

Warp raised his regard from her and pain shadowed his face. He knew she would go away, again and lastly, she was actually a prohibited person in the community for the moment. It was not easy for outsiders to come to visit Xatagah, since the security was very strict and the laws even stricter. With his heavy heart, he could not think the situation to fall again to that point that he would have to be ages separated from her, maybe not be ever allowed to hold her in his arms again... No, he had to do something. He knew some of the other community members had the permission to bring people from outside, then why not he?

"Za, please, don't cry, we'll figure something out so that we don't have to lose each other like that any more. We'll figure something out." he soothed her with a warm voice.

"How?"

"We'll go to talk to the Council of the Eldest tomorrow. They decide the things here and I'm sure they can bring a solution to us, so that our love will remain like it is now..."

  They winced as a knock was heard from the door. Warp lifted Zarah up from his knees and rapidly wiped her cheeks dry.

Neder put his head from the gap of the door and blurted: "Boss, the tech stock keeper Kuikelo wants to talk to you."

---The tech stock---

 "Now, would ya tell me, what's the problem?" Warp eyed bored some matrix on a control screen.

Kuikelo leaned over the table and pointed at the screen with his finger. "This is the chart of the functions of the nanocapacitors. Can't you see, the indications are too high! They have transported us wrong kinds of parts from Kar-Sina."

"Twist-jumping quasars! You're right! The omicron-ray radars will never work, they'll blow up if we use these to charge the circuits!" Warp exclaimed.

"And then there's more. Your boss is wondering why we don't send him the ready machines... well, there ain't no ready machines, 'cause the parts are wrong."

"Oh, quarks... do I need to visit his office again for to explain the circumstances? It's not our fault if we get Monday devices..." the blue alien sighed. "Have you checked out that there is no box of model AT-AT-222 left?"

"I have. And there's not a single one lurking in the shadows."

"Why do I always have to be there face to face with him, if there's a problem..." Warp cursed. "I'd have now som'thing a lot more interesting going on than to visit Trade World..."

"You know your boss does not trust into the comm. devices and doesn't allow dogsbodies", Kuikelo commented.

"Right... ya send him an encrypted message and tell him I'll be there on Friday, local time."

....to be continued...