[Santo - Shipyards and Salvage Yards]

[walk_ins]

[master post]

People come here to do business and get a job done. They're usually looking for something in particular, or have a vague idea of it at the very least.

The acres of parts, and places to put them in, don't have much rhyme or reason to them, as far as organization goes. It means you need to either have a lot of time on your hands for exploring, or to know who to ask to find what you need.

Over in the shipyard section -- it's one big open space, made of poured concrete, where captains can land their ships to take on repairs while their passengers go have fun. The people over in the shipyards generally aren't having fun, and they probably won't take too kindly to visitors nosing around.

Comments

[badinlatin]

The reply back as they finally retrieve the three remaining parts they need from this pile:

"If you hit me if I say 'yes', who will pay for the parts?"

He does a level job of not smirking.

[gonna_live]

Kaylee hits him on the arm anyway. "Who'll fix your ship?"

[badinlatin]

"'Nara," Mal offers absently.

[gonna_live]

"Not like me, she won't." Kaylee reaches for a bungee net and starts to attach it to the sledge.

[badinlatin]

"Fair enough. She'd have fun braiding the dead wires, though. Her 'n River'd be there for hours."

[gonna_live]

Kaylee hooks the last bit on the edge, and straightens up, hands on her hips. "And you wouldn't have a ship that'd fly, neither."

[badinlatin]

"Worth it to watch you twitch in the corner about it all, and come back and kick us in the collective pigu. What're we after next?"

[gonna_live]

Kaylee rolls her eyes and fetches out the datapad.

"We're gonna go with the centrifugal compressor system. Try sayin' that three times fast."

She falls in line behind the sledge.

[badinlatin]

Mal doesn't.

(Try having to legitimately say "Sallie Reynolds sells sows only on Saturdays" at market as a child.)

Timothy, however, does attempt.

By Attempt #3, it's become 'shentifigal comprehshin system', and a short small-talk laugh follows.

[gonna_live]

Followed by more business, followed by arranging to borrow the sledge for their (numerous) purchases, followed by the actual purchasing.

"You get to drive," announces Kaylee as she finishes hitching the mule to the sledge.

[badinlatin]

"Oh why xiexie." Mal goes for magnanimous; it's up to Kaylee whether or not he fails at it.

It's a few more minutes before Mal lets out an off-the-cuff "This weren't so bad."

[gonna_live]

"We're lookin' at a week, week and a half of work," Kaylee warns. "And I'll bet you whatever you want that you won't be sayin' the same thing five, six days into it."

[badinlatin]

"Neither will you."

Mal's quiet for a second or two before he manages: "We do have a backlog o' folk wanting to visit our particular where and when, in the Bar."

[gonna_live]

"Yeah?" Kaylee's watching the scenery go by. "We're grounded. Might be a good time for it."

[badinlatin]

"Santo won't know what hit it. Could be a decent distraction.

"...Won't leave you slavin' away while the rest of us go gallavanting off."

[gonna_live]

"Well, you don't got a job to do, and I do." With finality. "We got the parts, and I don't aim to see we're here for weeks on end."

[badinlatin]

"I was tryin' to say you got helpers if you wanted 'em."

With equal parts Was just offering and No reason you have to be working by yourself.

[gonna_live]

Kaylee checks a sharp response.

The thing is -- every time Serenity has issues like this, it's surrounded by a certain level of bad (like somebody getting shot, or impaled), and it's a certain level of bad that really could have been avoided (Kaylee feels) if she'd just been paying a little more attention. Or knew how to work miracles. Or could badger Mal into loosening purse strings more effectively.

They're not lifting off Santo until Kaylee is sure, entirely sure, that every system -- every single one -- is not just at, but above her usual standards.

(She feels guilty.)

"Okay," is all she says.

[badinlatin]

Mal's never really done all that well with badgering.

At least there are no swords involved.

But the response was not something Mal'd expected -- he'd been looking for something in the 'Like hell is someone uneducated touching my engine room' camp. Or the 'You're actually volunteering for duty?' one.

"A bit for your thoughts."

[gonna_live]

"I'll ask for it if it turns out I need it." Short. "Okay? I'm gonna call ahead, get Jayne out here to help us move all this."

[badinlatin]

"Fine."

[gonna_live]

The rest of the trip back is quiet, and once they get there Kaylee's occupied with carrying things and moving things and making sure nothing gets dropped when it all gets carried back to the engine room.

It's a little hard to walk back there, once everything's settled. Kaylee stands by the door, at the bottom of the short staircase, arms folded.

All of a sudden, she feels exhausted.

She looks over at Mal; he gets a slightly tired (and apologetic, maybe, if you squint) smile.

[badinlatin]

Mal does actually squint; he's thinking.

"When we change the old parts out, any of 'em gonna be worth sellin' off for scrap?"

[gonna_live]

"Maybe." Kaylee looks back at the casing. "Could be. Some of 'em might be worth salvaging for extras, some of 'em might be too bad even for scrap. We're kind of humped. And I don't even know how bad."

[badinlatin]

"We'd be humped if we hadn't found the parts we needed," Mal corrects. It's an important distinction.

"Can't fix everything midair, after all."