Filing from the galley, Chief Booker pulled Lenny and Luci aside, "you two get your equipment together, then meet me in storage locker Alpha7... let's say thirty minutes?"  Both gave the man a nod of the head and left to gather what each thought they might need for the salvage operation.  Approximately a half hour later, they met again at the door of the locker.

"Well, here we are Chief," Lenny said to the man as he and Luci approached him, "what's up?"

With a sly grin on his face, Booker replied, "you'll see.  I think you both are going to like this."  Opening the door to the storage area, the Chief walked over to a crate marked atomic batteries and lifted the lid.  Reaching down to remove what appeared to be a dummy top, Tyrell stepped back and motioned to his crew mates, "have a look."

"Holy crap, you've got to be kidding me!", Lenny gleefully exclaimed as he saw what the crate contained.

"Impressive," Luci added with a smile as she knelt to further examine the contents.

As I waited for the Chief, Luci and Lenny in our makeshift shuttle bay on the lower deck of Cargo 4,  I was in a slight bit of shock when the trio appeared wearing the newest model of the Federal Empire's tactical battle armor, 'slash', EVA suits.  Knowing there was only one person who could have procured the suits, I turned toward the Chief and began to ask, "where in the hell did you get ...", then stopped myself short, raised my hand and finished, "... never mind, I don't want to know."  With a smile on his face, Tyrell confirmed my question and answer.  "It's utterly amazing what seems to just appear on this ship," I quipped as my crew stood there staring at me with the proverbial 'shit-eating grin'.  The jovial mood helped ease the tension and once again the four of us went over the salvage plan.   "OK, the rest of the crew and myself will be on the bridge monitoring everything," I told the three as I started to depart, "go ahead and mount up, I'll call when all's ready."  Turning to go, I stopped and turned to my friends and in the best commanding voice I could muster, called out to them,  "be careful and come back in one piece... that's an order!"  All three turned at my words and I couldn't help but be touched when the Chief and Luci came to attention and saluted, while Lenny returned with a thumbs up and shouted "you got it, boss!" 

Arriving on the bridge, I found the other half of my crew anxiously awaiting me.  "Krebs, you've got the chair. Keep an eye on the sensors for any power surges, weapon arming, anything that looks like trouble," I instructed the man, "also for any other ships approaching the area.  Keep the engines hot and ready to get the hell out of here fast if we have to.  You've got everybody's six, stay alert."  Answering with a "yes ma'am", Krebs climbed into the pilot's seat and began watching the monitors.

"All right, now the rest of us will keep what's called an overwatch on a certain member of the salvage team.  I'll be keeping an eye out for Luci," then addressing each woman, I continued, "Janice, you're going to be Tyrell's shadow and S'dira, you'll be Lenny's guardian angel... are we all clear on that?"  In unison, both answered to the affirmative.  "They all have a camera on their helmets, we'll see what they see.  If you notice something you think might not look or feel right, sing out.  The old saying 'better safe than sorry' is in effect... remember, these are our friends and next to nothing is known about the Gondaari.  I'd rather abort this mission over a bad feeling than bury a crew mate."

As each of us took our places, I turned back to my crew and reassured them, "now that we have the gloom and doom out of the way, to quote an old Earth saying, 'there be gold in them there hills' and we're going to get our share before the rush.  So what say we get this party started?"  Pushing the button to open the comm channels, I gave the command, "Shuttle One, you are clear to begin salvage operations."

The reply brought a small tear to my eye as Luci responded, "roger that, command.  This is Aria's Dream moving out."

To be continued...

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Not sure what's going on?  Well give this link a click: A Little Introduction Is In Order and hopefully it will clear things up for you.
Thanks for dropping by and hope you enjoyed yourself!  Until next time, this is Aria... signing off.

Minbari Sharlin Cruiser model courtesy of daniel181 at ShareCG
Sci-fi City Shuttle model courtesy of Herminio at ShareCG
N7Ryder Armor by Forender at Forender . Com