"That's it, I'm out!" Mona pushed herself up from the low table with a grunt. "Si' down, Mona." The brunette shook her head as she began to pace across the common room. "As if Bellerophon ain't securitied enough, this guy Hamer's paranoid as a…guy who's real paranoid, see, I can't even think up a decent simile no more! Dex, there ain't no way we're gettin' into that parlor." The mechanic allowed his head to roll back onto the common area's couch. "Aw, come one, we only been at it…six hours straight. Don't tell me that teenage brain o' yours is givin' up already." "Hey, you know I like crime as much as the next girl. But why don't you get the Cap'n or Miss Penn to help you with the plan? I jus' try not to crash this thing." "A service we all deeply appreciate." Mona beamed up at the Companion as she descended the stairs. "H…hi, Miss Penn. How are you today?" Daphne squirmed a little under the girl's adoring gaze. It had been this way since she'd come aboard and Mona had heard she was a real live Companion, but Daphne was still a mite uneasy about having someone looking up to her. She just smiled. "I'm fine, Mona. I think Rachel wants you on the bridge." "That's my cue." Mona slapped Dex's shoulder good-naturedly, then sprinted up the stairs, sparing a final, blushing nod for Daphne. The Companion nodded awkwardly as she went. "Wei yao." Dex cleared his throat, finding it difficult to look at the redheaded Companion, as usual. "The, uh…the Captain doesn't really need her, does she?" "I'm sure she will by the time she gets there, but I heard the shouting and I thought you could both use the break." "Thanks." Dex scrubbed his face with his hands, then felt it heat up as the Companion sat down, like always, just a little too close. "So, what are we working on?" "Uh…tryin' to figure on how t' break into a floating island and steal somethin' that's tagged for state-of-the-art security systems at all access points without callin' in a substantial local Alliance presence or gettin' anyone killed." Daphne noted wryly that he'd managed to say it all in one breath. "Oh. Any way I can help?" The hand that stroked down his thigh as she said it was more an act of reflex than anything. The mechanic began to blush harder. "Uh…we, uh…was just lookin' for a weak spot…in the system." "Probably not one of my considerable talents. I could…go get Mariah, see if she'll help you probe for weak spots." Daphne smiled to herself knowingly; no one without ten years of Guild training in body language would have been able to pick out the sudden flaring of the mechanic's already red cheeks. Daphne pulled back from his side slightly. "Or I could ask our dear captain, but I imagine Rachel's answer would just be to blow a hole in the place as a distraction." Daphne chuckled. Then stopped. "What?" "Blow…" Dex's eyes came back into focus, and he began laughing. Daphne barely registered the sloppy kiss on her forehead before the mechanic was gone, feet clanking on the stairwell leading up toward the engine room. The Companion stared up after him, confusion settling into the silence of the common area. "Uh…you're welcome?" "How long 'til we hit Bellerophon?" "'Bout twenty-four hours, Miss Wu." Rachel nodded and turned from the bridge and emerged into the galley. "Saul." The big cook nodded cordially, then went back to hacking away at the burnt protein that coated the bottom of his favorite omelet pan. "Leo, your lordship." The two Chens nodded, and the elder turned his eyes back to the Go board situated between them. The younger stood. "Rachel. How, uh…how are you?" "Can't complain. Well, I could…" She nodded absently. "Somethin' you need?" "No, I just…wanted to make sure. You…couldn't complain." A corner of the smile made it out before Rachel suppressed it. Luckily, before she had to speak, the sound of metal fingernails scraping across a chalkboard made of human suffering managed to draw her attention down the aft corridor. When she reached the engine room door to find Daphne and Mariah on either side and Dex hunched over what looked like a giant battery, Rachel stopped. And blinked. And yelled. "What in the sheng ling yu bu tong is goin' on in my engine room?" It was obvious the mechanic couldn't hear her over the continuing sound of dragging and welding. "Daphne! What the hell is this?" The Companion shrugged, but was still watching Dex with a blend of fear and amusement. "I don't know, one minute I was insulting you and then he just jumped up and ran in here and started building a…whatever one of those is." "Well, I'm glad I can serve as a source of inspiration and Dex will you shut that damn torch off and tell me what exactly you are doing?" "Cap'n what's makin' all that racket…" Mona stopped short as she filled in the remaining space between Mariah and the captain. "Oh, lord, not again. Last time he got a flash o' genius like this I couldn't get no sleep for a week." Rachel looked at the other women standing in the doorway and sighed. It was going to be a long day. "He comes out to eat, let me know." Dex reached for another piece of solder without thinking. He didn't have anything even resembling the right parts to make something like this and actually make it work, but that had never stopped him before. Just like he had done with the truck engine when they'd gotten stranded in the fields after dark, that first time his flair for machines had made itself known. And just like that first time on the farm, when he finished he looked up and saw a great number of very confused people staring at him. "Dex?" "Hey…Rach. What're y'all doin' here?" "Y' got all obsessive again." "Oh." He nodded matter-of-factly. "That our secret weapon?" The mechanic smiled tiredly. "You know it." Mariah edged nervously into the room, not quite sure whether it was safe to touch whatever it was that the redhead had spent the last four hours constructing. "What does it do?" "Create a series of highly focused electromagnetic pulses along an arched conduit designed to sync into the estate's distribution network instead of the power supply directly." Daphne nodded thoughtfully. "Shiny. I've always wanted one of those." "Dex, pidgin version?" The mechanic took a deep breath. "Okay. I got a plan…"