Chapter Thirteen - Dodge Stonewall
The three crewmates of the Tempest shared a few nervous glances as the metallic bangs and squeaks of the opening of the opposite door seemed to echo throughout their ship, while the angry voice from the other side made its way through. As the door slid open, a shot of hot air and burnt fumes filled the docking area. The pounding and knocking sounds of repairs and reconstruction rattled across the metal walls of the ship’s hull.
A frustrated looking Dodge Stonewall ducked and poked his head and shoulders through the low circular hatchway with a look in his eyes that could very well have killed them all instantly if he had wanted. His leather flight jacket was singed, blackened and torn in some places. He had wrapped a dirty white cloth around the top of his bald head and tied it at the back, for the protection of a small burn wound. His dark complexion was accented by smears of dirt, grease and dried blood. He was holding a hammer.
“Damn it, Jak,” he said loudly. “I’m a little busy here.”
Jak was at a loss for words. Baxter was scared. Cyan didn’t know what was going on.
Dodge waited impatiently for a response that didn’t come. “If you’re coming over here, then hurry up,” he continued in his annoyed tone. “Watch yourselves though. We’ve got dangerous problems everywhere.” With that, he disappeared back into his ship.
Cyan looked unimpressed. “Is he always like this?”
“Give him a break,” answered Jak. “His ship just crashed. That’s a big blow to a pilot’s ego.”
“You comin’?” yelled Dodge, from the inside of his ship.
Jak looked at Baxter in response to Dodge’s bellowing. “I suggest you don’t touch anything.”
“Yeah, I agree with you.”
Jak was going to do the same.
Jak led them through the dock port and into the Brigatine. Through the acrid smoke, which was still present in the ship, they could see the various damaged instrumentation and blackened walls. Miraculously, they still had enough power and unbroken circuitry to dimly light the ship. Dodge’s crewmen scurried back and forth, carrying tools and parts, trying to make some headway on the disaster.
“This smoke must be healthy,” said Baxter. At the moment, Jak was more worried about the hull caving in on them.
Dodge had placed a pair of protective goggles over his eyes and was engaged in hammering some kind of metal component, which Jak could not identify, at the end of a hall. Jak recognized Garner, who was holding a steel rail steady for Dodge while he finished the job.
After a few more strikes with the heavy hammer, Dodge tugged on the steel rail to test his work. When he felt the job was completed, he turned to face Jak, Baxter and Cyan, who were standing still — too timid to move and accidentally get in someone’s way. He pulled off his goggles and asked, “What do you guys need?”
Jak was again stumped. “Uh ... we heard you were in trouble and needed some help.”
“Nope, we’re fine.”
Jak took a look around at the charred destruction of the ship and in a cautious tone asked, “Are you sure?”
Dodge remained quiet as he stared Jak directly in the eyes. Baxter was ready to bolt back to the Tempest.
Dodge’s face then broke into a wide smile. “No, I’m screwing with you,” he said. “Great to see you, Jak.”
He walked over to Jak and delivered a solid handshake, with a friendly pat on the shoulder. Jak realized that Dodge only conveyed the most extreme emotions. He was either extremely happy or absolutely angry, there was no middle ground. Even though most people were frightened of Dodge’s temper, his fierce demeanour was usually more bark than bite; a lot of noise with only a little action, unless you were truly an enemy to him.
“You too, man.” Jak’s face obviously showed his sense of relief. “I’d thought you’d been hit on the head a bit too hard there for a minute.”
“No worries,” said Dodge. “Just a bit of a burn. I’ve been kicked around a lot worse.” He turned to face Baxter and acknowledged him with a nod and the statement of his name.
Baxter gave him a cautious nod.
Dodge paused for a second after spotting Cyan, who was looking impatient behind the two men. Jak hoped he would just say hello and move on.
“Who’s this?” asked Dodge loudly, looking at Jak. “Is this your new girlfriend?”
Jak winced at the blatant question.
Cyan answered for him. “No, my name is Cyan. And I’m just a passenger.” She gave him an empty smile, void of humour.
“Oh ... all right,” said Dodge. Looking at Jak, Dodge seemed to realize his slip of the tongue had caused some discomfort in him. Dodge quickly moved the situation along. “Nice to meet you,” he said to Cyan, as he reached forward and shook her hand. She nodded.
Jak changed the topic and got right to the point. “So, what’s the damage?”
“Well, the ship’s pretty much junked. That bastard Murdock blew us away with a whole pack of magneto mines. I honestly didn’t think the guy had the nerve. But, we should be able to get it going with a bit of hard work, just to get our cargo and stuff delivered, but I wouldn’t trust it any further than that. As soon as we get what we need done, it’ll be scrap.”
“Damn. Brand new too,” said Jak, looking around the ship for some evidence of the crippled ship actually being new.
“Don’t remind me.”
“So, what do you need from us?”
“I’m gonna need a power hook up, if you can spare some juice. Oh, and bit of booze for the boys here would be nice. Ours got all smashed up.”
“Done,” said Jak. “Are you sure you don’t want to come aboard our ship though? You’re sure this thing is gonna be safe to fly?”
“Gonna have to be.”
Jak sincerely hoped Dodge wasn’t letting his pride put him in danger. Jak also didn’t want to put himself in danger by pressing the subject any further. If Dodge thought the ship was salvageable, then it was. It wouldn’t be polite to keep second guessing the veteran space captain.
The conversation was interrupted by a call from across the ship from one of Dodge’s crewmates, requesting help with one of the many repairs.
“Hold on,” yelled Dodge. He didn’t like being interrupted, but his smile returned soon after. “I’d love to chat for a bit, but I gotta go help out Flannigan over there with some computer trouble. You know how it is.”
“I’ll give you a hand with that if you want,” said Baxter. Surprisingly, he seemed eager to get involved.
“Yeah, okay. But if you break anything else, I’ll kill you,” said Dodge. “I’ve got enough stuff trashed around here already.” No one was quite confident that his statement was a joke. Nevertheless, he threw his arm over Baxter’s shoulders and began to lead his new found assistant off to the computer banks. As dwarfed as Baxter was by Dodge’s intimidating frame, he fought to stand tall and avoid appearing like a small cowering child alongside him. Dodge turned back to look at Jak. “Grab me those power links.”
“Sure,” said Jak. Both he and Dodge shared a smile in their enjoyment of Baxter’s friendly torture.
Jak turned to face Cyan as soon as the two others had left them alone.
“Would you be able to do me a big favour?” he asked.
“What?”
“Dodge needs a lot of help here, and he’s never gonna get this ship running right by himself. Could you go down to the engine room and work up some of your magic?”
She responded as if she had known the question was coming and had been preparing an answer. “Look, I’m not a slave who you can get to do all your dirty work.” It was the complete opposite attitude Jak had hoped for. “He’s your friend. Why don’t you do it?”
“Fine,” answered Jak coldly. He started to head back to the air lock, then stopped and turned back to her. “And, since he is my friend, we’ll be staying here until the job is absolutely finished. Judging by the look of this ship, that is gonna be a very, very long time, honey. So, it looks like we may mi
ss out on your precious tablets, doesn’t it?”
Jak turned around again and walked quickly back toward his ship. He was absolutely livid now, but he didn’t want to make any more of a scene in front of Dodge’s crew. He had all but given up on the girl, although he did feel a grain of guiltiness, in that they both knew she would be a massive help to the situation, if they could just cooperate. He decided to give it one last chance before he exploded, and turned around one more time just before he rounded a corner. She was still standing in the same place.
“Look,” he started. He needed to raise his voice to be heard over the noise on the ship. He tried to visually block out the people, unwilling to have them observe him using a voice of surrender. “I only ask because you’ll do an amazing job.” He turned and left without waiting for a response.
As Jak ducked through the airlock, he realized that if she was still in the same spot when he came back over to Dodge’s ship, he’d have to kill her. No second thoughts. It was going to have to be either him or her.
On the Tempest, Jak slowly cooled down as he rummaged through one of his storage rooms and pulled out two coils of cable. These thick old worn cables would hopefully be enough to transfer some power over to the Brigatine, before they melted.
He went about the process of plugging in the ends of the cables to the power output sockets on his ship, while he mumbled to himself about Cyan. He couldn’t figure out why she got under his skin so badly and wished he could blank her out of his mind for a while. Maybe Dodge would take her.
Jak unrolled the cables through the airlock and onto the dirty floor of Dodge’s ship. He was hesitant to look up to see what Cyan was doing, but he forced himself to take a quick glance. She was nowhere to be seen. He hoped that meant she had caught on and gone to help.
Garner, Dodge’s number one man, helped Jak connect the power lines to a socket in the side of their power console. He hit a few switches and a comforting hum started immediately, followed by an increase in the brightness of the overhead lighting. Garner hit a few more knobs and started the ventilation system, sending a much needed cool breeze through the ship and starting the process of dumping out the toxic air.
Garner shook Jak’s hand in gratitude.
“So, who’s that girl?” asked Garner. With him being a young, decent looking man, on a space ship full of men, the question was inevitable.
“Don’t worry about it,” said Jak. He briefly considered that he may have passed on an opportunity to unload her.
“You should have seen her tear into the engines,” said Garner with admiration. “She stormed past Dodge and just started pulling things apart. I thought he was going to flip out, but I think he might have actually been a little scared of her.”
“Yeah, well Mrs. Stonewall isn’t gonna be happy when she finds out a young woman is playing around on his ship.”
“So what’s her name anyway—”
“Look, Garner, this girl will break your neck and your legs and probably more if you go near her.” Jak realized he might have jumped the gun, and tried to slow his delivery. “Just trust me, and you’ll be able to save your dignity.”
Garner smiled and was smart enough to see by Jak’s insistence, that she was a little more than a simple passenger and that Garner should probably drop the subject before he offended him.
“Jak, where did you find that girl?” It was Dodge now, shouting to Jak with a big smile as he emerged from the hallway leading to the engine room, wiping his hands with a rag.
Jak rolled his eyes and said nothing in return.
“She sure knows what she’s doing back there,” continued Dodge.
“I’m glad you’re impressed,” said Jak.