Author's Note: Merry Christmas to my Russian Readers! Also, this prompt was suggested by Acertainoperaphantom.
V is for Voltage
Maru took pride in being a being a miracle worker…of being a vehicle who could take the parts that he had been handed and find a way to make things work. He took incredible pride in his work, but there was a certain point one a vehicle simply needed to put his tire down and say no. This was one of those moments.
"This isn't going to be compatible." Maru said flatly staring at the weather station that was sitting on the park's superintendent's desk.
"Not right now, but if you just swap out the plugs things should be fine." Cad waved his tire dismissively, which further lowered Maru's opinion of the superintendent. Which was actually a pretty impressive feat because the mechanic had assumed that that opinion had already hit rock bottom.
"This is going to involve a lot more than just swapping out a plug."
"A plug and some wiring then." Cad mouth twitched into his 'you are wasting my time' smile. "Just make sure that you make the time to get the needed work done by this afternoon."
"Sir…if this was a toaster jury-rig something to make it work, but this is a scientific instrument. It needs a specific voltage for the sensors to work properly otherwise all the readings it produces will be crap."
"I really can't be that important." Cad shot back hotly, and the mechanic literally had to bite his tongue to keep himself from swearing at the SUV. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to stop a small snort of distain from sneaking out.
"You do realize that it is important enough that they literally include the voltage information on a tag on the slagging instrument?" Maru motioned with his tine. "But what is really getting me about this conversation, is the fact that we are even having it. This weather station is for the new tower, why aren't you speaking contractor putting the tower together about this?"
"They refused to install the station I ordered."
Maru allowed a broad toothy grin to spread across his face. "Well then, it sounds like you picked a contractor that is worth keeping around." It looked like Cad was about to open his mouth, but Maru did not give him an opening. "I do believe that I have taken enough of your time and I have a number of work tasks that need to get done, so I will head back to base."
"But what about the weather station?" Cad said with an impressive pout.
"See what it will take to ship it back and get a refund…" Maru shrugged as he inched closer to the door. "Then order a weather station that was actually designed to function in the US."
If Cad tried to make additional comments, Maru didn't know because he had quickly closed the door behind him and had made a beeline to the airstrip. His tines were crossed that Cabbie's engines were warm and the two vehicles would be halfway back to base before Superintendent Cad Spinner came up with any more additional questions.
