T is for Timing

As far as vehicles went, Rake was a tug of few words. In fact, he often managed to make Windlifter seem like a conversationalist. The few times that Maru had interacted with him in the past, the mechanic had struggled to get more than a couple words out of him. So, when Rake showed up at his Hanger seemingly out of the blue, Maru couldn't help but be intrigued.

"Pulaski is sick." Rake informed Maru without any further explanation.

"And why are you telling me this?" The mechanic asked genuinely confused.

"He is sick and because of everything going on at the lodge he hasn't been gotten checked out…and now it has been going on for 15 days and I was running out of options…"

"…So you came here." Maru finished the sentence for him and got an affirmative bounce on his tires. "Alright, where is he."

"I finally got him to take a nap."

"Where?" Maru looked out towards the tarmac.

"At the firehouse." Rake said without batting an eye…which of course caused Maru's curiosity to increase dramatically. Most tugs simply were not street legal so it could be a pain traveling long distances and Maru hadn't noticed any other vehicles on the tarmac which caused the mechanic to have a growing question.

"How in the world did you make it up here?"

"Trails mostly…" Rake shrugged his tines, "though there were a few places where I had to take the road. Luckily you don't get too much traffic close to your base, so I thought everything would be fine as long as I turned on my lights."

"Ah…" Maru knew wasn't a particularly safe mode of travel, but the smokejumpers did it on a regular basis, so the park staff tended to ignore it. "Well, I suspect that Pulaski might be finished with his nap. I suggest that we take Cabbie back."

The flight to the lodge took minutes, which kind of made Maru feel a bit guilty because he knew that Rake's hike up to the Air Attack Base must have taken the little vehicle hours. But Maru had learned long ago it was better to work smarter vs work harder, and hopefully this quick flight would help Rake find other ways of letting Maru know when he was needed…like say, using the radio.

The firehouse was dark and quiet when Maru and Rake entered carrying the mechanic's field kit. They quickly discovered that Pulaski hadn't actually finished his nap, which was a pretty clear testament to just how rotten the fire rig must have been feeling. After a bit of effort, he was able to gradually rouse Pulaski enough to get the big guy to list his symptoms and pop his hood. It only took a few minutes later to identify the primary cause of the issue, a chewed up chain that was clearly skipping and causing Pulaski's timing be absolutely lousy.

"I need you to run down to the Guest Repair Station and have them pull this part for me." Maru passed Rake a slip of paper. "Tell them to charge it to the Park's Workers Comp account and that I will make sure to file all of the required paperwork by the end of the week."

"The superintendent…" Rake said quietly, clearly uncomfortable with the situation and Maru knew exactly why. The Cad Spinner had decided that the Guest Repair Station was for park visitors and only park visitors.

"Leave Spinner to me." Maru said flatly. "The SUV might get a stick up his tail pipe about this situation, but he still has enough common sense to know that a mechanic's word is law."

Once Maru finally got the part he spent two hours getting it installed and running tests to make sure that none of Pulaski's other parts had lasting damage. Once it was clear that Rake had called him in time and he didn't have to replace a bunch of pumps, Maru then spent another hour giving a more awake Pulaski a proper lecture not ignoring major damage like that again. With his work finally complete, he called Cabbie to come pick him up. While he waited for his ride, he made one last stop.

"Ranger Jammer?" Maru knocked on the door of one of the rangers on staff the mechanic trusted most.

"Yes?" The vehicle looked up from a tall stack of paperwork.

"Can I get your help on something?"

"That depends on what it is." Old Jammer stated, but also gave Maru his full attention.

"Can you keep an eye on Pulaski for me?"

"Of course…what am I watching for?"

"Nothing in particular. He just really needs someone in his court right now…" Maru trailed off trying to think of how he was going to explain the situation while staying diplomatic about things, then he decided to throw diplomacy out the window. If he was going to trust Jammer to be his eyes on this project he could trust him with the whole truth. "The Spinner set some very unrealistic expectations for the guy and it is starting to effect Pulaski's health. For example, his timing chain was chipped slag and the only reason how

"Sounds like he has got Rake solidly in his corner."

"He does, but Rake can't do it by himself." Maru closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "Honestly, I suspect that if we don't keep on eye on them one of both of them will end up playing martyr on us and you know as well as I do just how big of a mess that is to clean up after."

"Ah…so the two of them a similar dynamic to the one Blade and you had when you started."

"Exactly." Maru smirked back. "I knew you would get where I came from."

Term- Timing- In order for an engine to fire properly the proper mixture of fuel and air must enter the cylinder just as the engine's piston reaches the top dead center (known by mechanics as TDC). Depending on the vehicle matching the fuel/air mixture with the position of the piston is achieved by using either a timing belt or timing chain. The amount time required for the proper mixture to be build up is about the same amount no matter how fast the engine is running so having pistons firing too soon or too late significantly alters the performance of the vehicle and requires a mechanic to tune up the timing.