Chapter 21
It had been about 2 hours since they had first been captured, it was hard to tell exactly how long with out a watch, and Harper had been working diligently on the plan, but Beka could see he was starting to slip. The 'dammit's' that came whenever something went wrong were becoming more and more frequent, and his good left hand was having trouble getting the hairpin to go where he wanted it to. Finally she couldn't stand it any more. She knew that he would hate her for asking it but she also knew that he couldn't fix it in time the way he was going.
"Harper, do you need some help?"
"No, I'm fine," a bead of sweat formed on his forehead. He seemed to have the beginnings of a fever.
"Well I can see very well that it will be a while before you get that done, if you don't die first, so I'm offering my help. You can take it or leave it," she looked at him expectantly, exasperatedly, and he looked up at her from his project for the first time in hours.
"Fine," she could see how much it pained him to actually admit that he needed help.
"Good," she moved over so she could see his progress. He was trying to prod a wire out far enough so he could work around it without removing it from its socket. "What now?" she asked.
"Well... um I don't know. This is too fine a job for there to be two people working at the same time so..." he trailed off. While he was talking he was still attempting to bend the wire away but it kept jumping back to its original place whenever he tried to fix it to one spot. Exasperated, Beka reached over and easily moved the wire herself and used both hands to get the thing in place. He looked up with indignation, but swallowed it and allowed Beka to be his hands.
"Ok, um, could you take that red wire there and attach it to that socket there for me? ...No, the other red one... To the left... yeah, that one," he instructed her in this way for the rest of the time it took to re-vamp the commlink.
It had been about 2 hours since they had first been captured, it was hard to tell exactly how long with out a watch, and Harper had been working diligently on the plan, but Beka could see he was starting to slip. The 'dammit's' that came whenever something went wrong were becoming more and more frequent, and his good left hand was having trouble getting the hairpin to go where he wanted it to. Finally she couldn't stand it any more. She knew that he would hate her for asking it but she also knew that he couldn't fix it in time the way he was going.
"Harper, do you need some help?"
"No, I'm fine," a bead of sweat formed on his forehead. He seemed to have the beginnings of a fever.
"Well I can see very well that it will be a while before you get that done, if you don't die first, so I'm offering my help. You can take it or leave it," she looked at him expectantly, exasperatedly, and he looked up at her from his project for the first time in hours.
"Fine," she could see how much it pained him to actually admit that he needed help.
"Good," she moved over so she could see his progress. He was trying to prod a wire out far enough so he could work around it without removing it from its socket. "What now?" she asked.
"Well... um I don't know. This is too fine a job for there to be two people working at the same time so..." he trailed off. While he was talking he was still attempting to bend the wire away but it kept jumping back to its original place whenever he tried to fix it to one spot. Exasperated, Beka reached over and easily moved the wire herself and used both hands to get the thing in place. He looked up with indignation, but swallowed it and allowed Beka to be his hands.
"Ok, um, could you take that red wire there and attach it to that socket there for me? ...No, the other red one... To the left... yeah, that one," he instructed her in this way for the rest of the time it took to re-vamp the commlink.
