Narchi slumped in the chair as Perro in bridge exclaimed,"It's stable!I can't believe you got the Relative Inertial Frame back on-line!" Narchi snorted,"WE got it back. Neblae suggested the crystals might have gotten knocked out of sync when we crash-landed. I'm so frikking stupid! My girl is a genius." Neblae chortled and draped tiredly over him and rested her head on his and said,"I'd be a genius IF I had thought of that immediately! NOT eight hours later! I need to take a nap." Narchi said, "So...can I step off? I mean 'Permission to go off-duty?' or whatever protocols there are? I'm too tired to care right now." Lieutenant Mei of the Colonial Authority Space Command stepped up and saluted, and stated,"I am ready to relieve you, Assistant Chief Engineer Narchi." Narchi looked at her and almost laughed. He said instead,"You CASC guys sure are gung-ho. If it's alright with Perro...he IS the Chief Engineer,ya know?" Perro said over the open intercom,"Narchi, you and your mate go get some sleep. The blizzard will last for another seven hours.A heavy lifter has been dispatched from Friggia to take us to their capitol city. You might want to be up for that. Lt.Mei can sub for you until then. Besides...if Jeet isn't asleep right now, he can keep an eye on things,too." Jeet exclaimed,"HEY! You ex-robot, are you accusing me of sleeping on the job? Who snaked fiber-optic through that ventilation tube? Hunh?" Narchi laughed,as Neblae said,"Besides, you lazy supervisor! You sat on your metal butt and WE are the ones to lube up Jeet to slither through the pipes!" Perro sounded amused as he said,"That IS why I prefer to supervise. You are relieved, Prince Narchi." Narchi heaved himself out of the chair with a groan,"Get offa me, ya wench! I need a shower and then to bed. You lazy thing! Just dying and reconstituting your body and a space battle and eight hours of the hardest manual labor we ever had to do and you're limp as a dish-rag! Married for a couple of days and you've just fallen apart!" Neblae hung onto Narchi and chuckled, "Yeppers! That's what marriage does to you. Nyeeheeheehee!" Narchi sloppily saluted back to Lt.Mei and caught Jeet's eye. Narchi signed to him one-handed," [woman] [spying, watching us] [let what happens-happen][listen watch communication and report to me later] [?]" Jeet responded,"[Understood]." Narchi and Neblea limped from the RIF engineering bay, while Neblae called over their shoulders,"You did good fiber work, Mei!" Mei thanked her, and sat in the chair Narchi had just vacated. Jeet said tiredly,"I can teach you how to lube a Squirrel-derived Beastman, later if you want?" Mei laughed, "I DON'T think so! The crew of this vessel certainly IS creative. Even the robots have an over-abundance of personality." Jeet bristled. He said tersely,"They are MACHINE-LIFE--NOT robots! Robots cannot really feel OR breed! I've come to really respect some of them,too. I'm going to run some tests on junction-box 113 on the port side to ensure no more burn-outs. Hold down the fort, here." He left with irritation burning in him. Mei shrugged. She knew Beastmen wear their emotions right at the surface, which made them unreliable, in her opinion. She made sure the room was clear and no intercoms were open, and touched her communicator. "Vice-Admiral Klimnt, secure, encrypted channel: This is Mei. I'm ready to relay the plans to the RIF engine to the Colonial Authority." Klimnt's voice was cold as he said,"Good work, Agent Mei! You've done well. Begin transmission." She did as ordered with a certain satisfaction. On the bridge, Perro monitored the out-going transmission. He turned to Narchi and said,"You're a surprisingly good judge of people!" Neblae smiled at Narchi,"He most certainly IS!" Narchi said,"Too gung ho to be believable."He hugged his wife and said,"Let's go to bed." --TO BE CONTINUED!--