Jak Phoenix

by Matt D. Williams

Chapter Six - Cyan

  After Jak filled up on the greasy breakfast foods available in the eatery, he headed back out into the bustle of the station aside Rusty and Baxter. At this point his headache had subsided a little, but would come and go in pulses. Next time he drank with Rusty, he’d stick to the standards and avoid the colourful stuff.

  The three pals made their way through the crowded ring of the station, past the shops, past the various life forms and back through the thick steel door leading toward landing platform six.

  “I think you’re gonna be pleasantly surprised, my friend,” said Rusty, his loud voice echoing through the long rounded tunnel. “They’ve made wonderful progress. Cyan has really been a huge help.”

  “So I’m getting the premium service?”

  “Yep,” answered Rusty, “but don’t worry, you can owe me.”

  “Perfect,” said Jak, shaking his head.

  The smell of burnt metal and plastic and fuel hit them as the doors at the end of the tunnel slid open for them. The clanging sounds of repair echoed throughout the domed structure. Several repairmen were about, fixing modules and units which Jak didn’t recognize and shuffling parts back and forth. Jak got about two steps from the door before he halted in response to his first sight of the ship. While he was not easily dazzled, the quick progress on the repair of his baby was adequate to freeze him.

  The first thing he noticed was the large heavy duty jacks placed under parts of the ship to level it out where the landing gear had collapsed. Two of the landing gear had been totally removed and some of the others had already been straightened and set properly into the ship’s body. Kent was busy welding in a panel over one of the severely damaged areas. Rusty’s staff had even cleaned some of the black burn marks from their earlier scuffles, making the ship a more uniform color. In some spots it was even shining.

  Rusty turned around from a couple steps ahead to find Jak. “You coming?”

  “Yeah, sorry.”

  “I want to show you a few things,” said Rusty.

  Jak caught up and they walked around to the starboard side of the ship where Rusty pointed out the various cosmetic fixes and described the healed injuries of the Tempest. They walked around to the front of the ship where Jak immediately spotted an addition.

  “We got these babies off a Slane Cruiser,” said Rusty. He patted the heavy titanium cylinders affectionately. “Two cannons, one on each side. Your old guns were holding on by a thread, so we ripped them off and figured you’d like these instead.”

  The large cannons weren’t in the greatest shape, likely sourced from a derelict ship, but they would help out nicely in a jam and if nothing else gave the impression that their ship was fierce.

  They circled around the front of the ship and proceeded to walk over to the entrance ramp, which was still open to allow access for the repair crew. The inside of the ship was unevenly lit from a series of portable service lamps. The mechanics hadn’t dared turn on the ship’s power until a full inspection was complete, with the goal in preventing an explosion or massive electrical death charge. Jak saw a shadow on the inside wall of someone approaching the door hatch.

  The young woman that came into view in front of the three men startled Jak in that she was the last thing he would have expected to be aboard. She walked a few steps down the ramp and stopped as if to maintain her position on the high ground.

  To say she was beautiful would have been an insult, for she had the kind of emanating beauty which made it difficult for an observer to breathe. Her exquisite appearance was able to shine through the grime and filth she had gotten herself into while performing whatever repairs she had been doing on the ship. Jak figured she was a few years younger than him, if her race did indeed age at the same rate as his.

  The girl observed the men with indifference while she cleaned off her graceful hands with a dirty cloth. She wore a black tank top and dark beige pocket-covered pants, held on by a leather tool belt. Her long satiny dark blue hair was styled in a way which would make it impossible for one to guess she was a mechanic. The front was swept over to the right while the rest was pinned back and flowing freely down her back.

  Oh no.

  “We might as well get over the awkwardness now,” she said, eyeing Jak. “I am the one you harassed last night.”

  Jak caught Baxter and Rusty eyeballing him and for once no response came to him. He would never have admitted that if he would have run into that girl sober last night, he would have been afraid to talk to her. He hoped nothing else was going to come flying back into his memory throughout the day.

  “My name is Cyan, if you want to refer to me as something other than baby.”

  Jak was caught up in analyzing her curves and form. Her high cheek bones formed a gorgeous face even with the stray smears of carbon and grease. Her eyes matched the color of her hair. What did she say her name was?

  Rusty snapped Jak back into focus. “Meet my newest mechanic. Her parents were old friends of the family. She just got here a little while ago and has been doing unbelievable work. Cyan, meet Jak and Baxter.”

  “Your ship is a real piece of crap,” she said. “But,” she continued as it looked like Jak was about to respond, “we’re about to throw the main power back on and with any luck the ship won’t detonate. You’re welcome to join.” She turned and walked back into the ship’s hallway.

  Jak nearly passed out as she turned and allowed him the view of the back of her shaped and firm body. Something told him to follow as he started toward the ramp. What did she say she was doing?

  Rusty and Baxter shared a glance and followed Jak into the ship. They met up with Cyan at the end of a hallway in the dimly lit engine room. She entered the doorway and kicked some of the unidentifiable items on the floor out of her way in order to make a path to the control panel.

  “Here goes nothing,” said Cyan.

  She grabbed on to the heavy main power breaker and forced it up with ease. Two seconds later a clunk echoed through the ship and a low hum began. The lights flickered on and the slight hum, which Jak and Baxter never really noticed due to its persistence, steadied.

  With the lights growing brighter, Jak could see the disaster of a mess in the engine room. Nearly everything was strewn about and the contents of every shelf were dumped onto the floor. Cyan took a look around with an expression of disgust mixed with some amusement.

  “And this is how you keep your engine room?” she asked.

  Baxter tried to take some of the focus off Jak. “Actually, we were in a bit of a battle and I guess I knocked a few things over.”

  Cyan gave Baxter a fake smile. “Well then I guess you can start cleaning it up.” She forced her way between the men and walked out the door of the engine room.

  Jak noticed how a little perspiration had given the smooth skin of her exposed shoulders a slight sheen in the newly bright light. Her arms were thin, with a faint definition of muscle. The few out of place silky hairs on her head just added to her appeal. She smelled like fruit. Who smells like fruit when they are sweating and working on a ship?

  “You alright, Jak?” asked Rusty, well aware of his current status. He didn’t respond. “Jak?”

  Jak shook himself out of the daze as he looked down the hallway, even though Cyan was no longer in sight.

  “So what are we doing?” asked Jak.

  “Going up to the cockpit to reboot the system, I’d assume,” said Baxter. He then also forced his way between the other two and headed down the hallway toward the cockpit.

  In the cockpit, Cyan opened up a panel on the wall exposing the various electronic control modules of the main computer.

  “You have to switch on the kernel backup first, then throw on the capacitance regulator,” said Baxter.

  “I thought that looked a little different,” said Cyan, in a nicer tone of understanding.

  “I added a couple of redundant systems that run parallel to the master, to help with the many buffer overflows we get from
this old computer.”

  Jak and Rusty looked at each other as if to confirm silently that they both had no idea what the other two were talking about.

  Cyan bent forward to check the rack of equipment a little closer. She ran her finger from the top to the bottom, analyzing each module as her fingertip passed over it.

  “Not a bad idea,” she said quietly, “with what you have to work with here.” She flicked the switches on the panels Baxter had mentioned and waited for their status indicator lights to turn green.

  “Hey, honey,” said Jak. “This is my ship. And it’s been able to get us through some pretty bad situations.”

  Cyan ignored Jak, located the main computer switch and depressed it. The lights dimmed slightly for a second or two, then returned to their correct level. Baxter’s computer screen came on with a sequence of progress bars as the system went through its boot cycle and tested itself.

  “Greetings, Jak,” came the feminine voice of the Tempest over what seemed to Jak like every speaker in the ship. “Welcome back ... Self tests are now in progress.”

  For the first time, Cyan made direct eye contact with Jak.

  “Well, Captain,” she said, “I see you chose the woman’s voice. How original.”

  She again rushed her way past the men and out of the cramped cockpit. She walked to the ramp and exited the ship with an intense focus on the next job at hand.

  “Sorry, but when she gets her mind on something, there’s no stopping her,” said Rusty with enjoyment over the mistreatment of Jak.

  “She’s delightful,” said Jak. It might not have been sarcasm.

  “She’s already thrown half this ship back together for you guys,” said Rusty. He couldn’t sense if Jak’s attitude was one of hatred or attraction.

  Jak was flabbergasted. He still wasn’t even sure how much time had passed since he saw her on the loading ramp. How could such a gorgeous girl have torn through the broken carcass of his ship and got it running in less than a day? It would have taken Baxter and himself a week to figure out where to start and another week to fix their mistakes after they made the wrong decision. He had never seen a girl like this before, especially as a grease monkey in a rough space station. It remained to be seen if her attitude was on par with her extraordinary figure and mind. What was her problem?