The lift doors slid open to reveal a long corridor that didn't seem to have any doors except for the one on her immediate right. It was an inconspicuous single door. That had one palm reader as an entry, a peep hole, and that was it.
She stood next to Riddick. He put his hand on the palm reader and gave a clicking and buzzing noise. Then a moment later it gave a harsh beep, which was paired by a lit up red light. 'Access Denied.' The robotic female voice said coldly. Riddick tried again, and again it gave him the same cool rejection, except this time it added insult to injury. 'momentarily out of order'. He swore quietly. She felt the annoyance radiate off of him in waves. He started to look at it, but there was nothing to tamper with.
Minx's mind started to click as she tried to remember anything she knew about palm readers. One thing she remembered clearly, was they were temperamental and finicky things. If the littlest thing went wrong, it wouldn't accept you. Riddick let his hand fall to his side, and she noticed a splotch of grease on the heel of his hand. That was probably it, that and the fact that it wasn't working.
She absently put her palms on the front of her jeans, feeling a hard lump in her pocket. It was her pocket knife. It came with the standard mini laser, file, knife, and screwdriver. Except she got a black market issue that had a wire melting tool that could ruin any standard wire. She thought it was rather smart.
Riddick tried again. But this time it didn't even respond. Sighing she looked at him. "Lemme have a go." She said, taking out her pocket knife. She saw Riddick smirk, "Alright, you're the girl scout." He said in a slightly deeper voice. She shook her head brushing past him to kneel in front of the reader. He stepped back to lean against the wall, with his arms stubbornly folded across his chest. His face expressionless, coupled with that ominous goggled stare. She had to admit he looked entirely menacing like that. Although she couldn't figure out why a sudden spur of heat flowed through her in that moment.
Brushing the feeling away before she could analyze it, Minx turned her full attention to the task of opening the reader. Running her hands along the frame she found a couple of slits. They probably would open it.
Holding her pocket knife, she touched the top of it. Where there were five buttons one for each tool, she hit the one that chose the knife. It swiftly glided out into the open and locked with a faint click. Sliding the knife into the bottom slit she pulled the knife towards her. A moment later, it gave with a delicate pop.
Through all of this she felt Riddick's eyes on her. Pausing to slip her knife into the top slit she repeated her previous movement. But this time it didn't budge. She heard Riddick give a slight chuckle. Pulling the small blade out of the slit, she hit the file tool button with her index finger, at the same time pressing the knife button with her middle finger.
The file slipped out as the knife snapped back in. Letting out a quick huff of breath she slipped the file in the slit, and began to work it back and forth, slowly the door began to give.
A minute later the palm reader's frame gave an almost audible crack, the door swept smoothly open on it's own, to reveal a forest of multi colored wires. Nestled contently together, intertwining, crossing, and braiding around eachother. Shit, what a mess! Minx mused begrudgingly.
She started examining the wires, remembering the flash light in the base of her pocket knife she twisted it at the middle, flipping it around she stated to move the wires aside. After a few minutes she found the problem. There were two stripped wires that were not touching. Carefully she moved some neighboring clumps of wires aside. After they were firmly out of her way, she crossed the two wires and used her laser to melt them together. Soon as they touched a couple of lights lit up and a routine of clicking started.
Pushing the frame shut Minx stood, pocketing her tool. "Now try it, Einstein." She said with a satisfied smirk. She stepped aside at the look he gave her. "Oh, better take that grease off your right hand first." She said motioning to his hand. He removed it using his pant leg, then pressed his hand to the reader. After a couple of seconds and a lot of clicking, a ding sounded, and a green light lit up. 'Access Granted.' The feminine voice stated, as the door opened.
Riddick looked at her with a slight smirk tugging at his lips. "My hero." He said sarcastically, allowing her to walk in first. "Anytime." She said mimicking his words from earlier this morning. Yeah, this girl scout just saved your manly ass. She thought to herself, allowing a small satisfied smirk to cross her lips.
It disappeared and turned to slight amazement as she noticed the massively equipped engine room that lay before her. It was like a whole other ship entirely.
