Hands of Blue's Ship

[Medieval Kevin]

Hands of Blue's Ship

[Hollywood Heidi]

***Wendy enters from Serenity - Cargo Bay***

Wendy walked through the small ship, gauging the location of the missile and stopped in front of large metal plate. "The workings should be behind here," she said, tapping the the warning symbol subtly engraved into the metal. Easy to miss if casually walking the ship but obvious if standing before it with intent to remove the panel. Wendy worked her fingers into the small gap on one side and started to pry, knowing that one of the others would be quick to follow suit with the other side.

[Cavanaugh]

***Cavanaugh enters, following Wendy from Serenity - Cargo Bay***

"Exactly how much do you know about Alliance heavy weapons?" Cavanaugh asked, casually offering Wendy the proper tool for removing the panel. "I mean I'd expect you to be fully familiar with small arms but I'm not sure what your training is on the larger stuff. That plate will be magnetically sealed. Easy to remove quickly with the right tool but hard to just pry off."

It didn't take long for the two of them to remove the plate. Cavanaugh whistled at what he saw beneath. "Now there is a thing of beauty," he said. "You have to give this to the Alliance naval engineers; they certainly understand the concept of elegance of design. The Strikers were never this sophisticated. Then again they were meant to be one step up from disposable."

[Medieval Kevin]

Mal

**Enters from Serenity: Cargo Hold**

    They walked up the ramp to find both Carter and Cavanaugh inspecting a larger panel that seemed to be what they needed. "No offense people but four heads are better than two when it comes to my ship and my crew." He positioned himself so Kaylee could get a good view. "What do you need, darlin?"

[Cavanaugh]

Cavanaugh

Cav was relieved to see the Serenity's engineer. She'd displayed an incredible knack for jury rigging delicate and complex equipment when he'd blown an engine and she'd helped him install a new one. She'd ignored both his suggestions and the half serious proposal that had followed. He'd learned later from Inara that Kaylee and Simon Tam were an item.

"It looks like a standard system but they might have thrown in a few wrinkles. If blue boy there does have the system tied into his heart beat, there has to be a monitor on him, a receiver on the ship and something to tie it in to the fire control system. Likely there is something on the bridge. Unless he's got a timer hooked in somewhere, we're good as long as his heart stays beating. It's a four stage system; monitor and timer, receiver, fire control and weapon. Improper tampering with any of them might be capable of firing the weapon. I'm also going to assume it's rigged to fire if the target moves. It might fire if this ship moves as well, because if I was as sneaky as Wendy says these boys are, I'd have all sorts of intrusion countermeasures built into the control systems."

He looked at the other three. "So, who wants to tackle what part of the system? My best bet is disabling the weapon, either here or at the weapons itself. Bad news is that is likely to take two of us to disable the gun."

[Medieval Kevin]

Mal

    "It looks like a standard system but - tied into his heart beat, there has to be a monitor on him, a receiver on the ship and something to tie it in to the fire control system - Four stage; monitor and timer, receiver, fire control and weapon - Tampering - capable of firing the weapon - Rigged to fire if target moves - All sorts of intrusion countermeasures."

    The captain's head quickly started to hurt. Why couldn't things ever be simple? Each time never prepares you for the next either. Mal took a moment and a deep breath. "Well you and me... can do... weapony things, we'll stick Kaylee on the box and that just leaves the console on the bridge? That fed's heart will keep beatin, for a little while anyway." He really hoped that would do it but waited for more bad news he knew had to be coming.

[Cavanaugh]

Cav

"Sounds good to me," Cav said. "Kaylee, you sing out if this Shee-niou goushi give you any guff. Fire control systems are like fuel control systems with two components. Stop the power to the weapon or stop the power to the ammo feed system and you're shiny." He didn't, of course, mention the possibility of triggering the one already in the pipe; Kaylee wasn't stupid but she was timid.


He looked at Wendy, then at Mal. "Let's go take a missile launcher apart. We'll leave the cockpit to the lady. Try not to break too much. We can get some serious money for this bird."

*Shee-niou goushi = cow sucking (piece of) dog shit

[Storyteller]

Was she conscious this whole time? Kaylee wasn't so sure as big bits and pieces of the current goings on were missing. So much she knew though was that this ship had its guns on Serenity and they needed to stop it.

She was quiet as everyone else talked on how to go about doin' that. It was hard 'nuff getting the world to stop being all fuzzy without trying to get a lot of words into the mix. Instead she tried to quiet the throbbing in her head and focus on getting her eyes and hands to cooperate.

"Can do it." She got out when she heard her name. "Need some wire cutters."

[Cavanaugh]

Cavanaugh

"Wire cutters coming up." He hit the wall with his fist.

Absolutely nothing happened.

Cavanaugh began to turn red. He cleared his throat and hit the wall again. Again nothing happened.

Swearing under his breath, Cav took a closer look at the wall. He grunted and hit the wall a third time. This time, a panel slowly opened on silent hinges. Stored neatly inside were a number of tools.

"Maintenance stash," he said. "Ship's got a dozen of them."

[Hollywood Heidi]

"Exactly how much do you know about Alliance heavy weapons?" "I mean I'd expect you to be fully familiar with small arms but I'm not sure what your training is on the larger stuff. That plate will be magnetically sealed. Easy to remove quickly with the right tool but hard to just pry off."

She gritted her teeth at the insult but held her tongue. She'd rather shoot herself than repeat one more time that she was working at half capacity with the added bonus of a raging headache. Of course she knew ships, weaponry, and the like inside and out. But right now, when it really mattered, she was having a frustratingly hard time accessing that information in the clutter of her brain.


"Now there is a thing of beauty," "You have to give this to the Alliance naval engineers; they certainly understand the concept of elegance of design. The Strikers were never this sophisticated. Then again they were meant to be one step up from disposable."


"No offense people but four heads are better than two when it comes to my ship and my crew." He positioned himself so Kaylee could get a good view. "What do you need, darlin?"

More people. More clutter as she tried to process the verbal exchanges and block out the onslaught of so many emotions emanating from all these people. Somewhere in the chaos of Serenity's cargo bay, she'd lost the strength to hold up the carefully constructed wall that allowed her to filter those feelings that people emanated. 'Reading,' as most people had referred to it as. Those who didn't learn to control it lost their sanity. She'd seen it happen. Through it all, she maintained a poker face and tried to come up with a task that would allow her to be of use in something away from the group. Cav saved her the trouble.


"Let's go take a missile launcher apart. We'll leave the cockpit to the lady. Try not to break too much. We can get some serious money for this bird."

"On it," Wendy said. "I'll also wipe their database. Leave nothing to trace what happened here and keep Serenity off the radar."


Without waiting for a response, Wendy headed for the cockpit, feeling the slightest relief with each step that distanced her from others.

[Medieval Kevin]

Mal

    The captain watched Wendy depart for the bridge and once Kaylee had her hands on the tools she needed he exited to the exterior of the ship. It was a tricky thing to find a handhold but Reynolds managed to get himself topside and extended a hand down to Cav to help him up. Once they here facing the turret Mal's face just scrunched up. "So... can we just unload this thing? Don't fancy getting myself all corpse-ified." he said casting a sideways glance at his companion.

[Cavanaugh]

Cavanaugh

"I'm on board with that, Captain Reynolds," Cav said. "I like it when my entrails don't become out-trails. The missile will be too big for us to unload but we have a bunch of other options. We can bleed the pressure out of the hydraulics and drop the launcher until it is pointing at the ground." Cav scratched his head. "Of course that will only work if they don't use a mag-lev system. They aren't as common as the hydraulics because there is more that can go wrong with them but they provide smoother aiming adjustments. If it's mag-lev, we go to plan B, which is pretty much the same as plan A, just with a much higher chance of losing fingers. Failing that, plan C."

"What's plan C?"

"We disable the missile."

"Is that easy?"

Cav shook his head. "That is why it's plan C."

[Medieval Kevin]

Mal

    "That is why it's plan C." Cavanaugh said. Reynolds was starting to get irritated. He didn't know this system and the fact that his counterpart did cast a growing light on his background... "That's all fine and.. dandy. I don't know this newtech Fèihuà dài, so lets get to the knocking this thing out." Mal pulled out his pistol and aimed it at the hydraulic line.

Fèihuà dài - Sack of crap

[Hollywood Heidi]

As Wendy stepped into the cockpit, she took a moment to gather her scattered brain as much as possible. With her eyes closed, she took in a deep breath, held it, and then let it out on a sigh. Her head was still pounding something fierce but at least the addition of the other people's emotions like a pickaxe chipping away at her strength and sanity was gone.

Wendy approached the console and found her tired body inching toward the chair. A little sit-down. A little rest. No, she told herself. That could be like allowing someone with hypothermia to go to sleep. Keep moving. Keep the ody and mind active, she told herself.

Opting to stand at the console, Wendy made quick work of the ship's programming. She was relieved that at least this was still coming easily to her. Her hands flew over the controls and the screen, quickly disabling flight and then into the communications, disabling them as well. She hacked into the positioning and navigation systems and embedded a code. Anyone attempting to locate the ship would show that it was in the black, continually on the move and out of reach of whoever attempted to pursue. She programmed various short, terse responses to auto-reply, should a single contact be more persistent in getting in contact. It should hold off any suspicion for a good while, especially since people were well aware the Hands of Blue did their own thing and did not appreciate anyone meddling or getting in the way.

Next, she hacked into their information center, entering a code to remove any recent documentation regarding the Tams or Serenity. But only recent. Removal of older information already known by the Alliance or Blue Sun would in itself draw attention to Serenity. She pulled the outgoing communications and reviewed them. Their tendency for privacy showed only a few. Just basic orders for supplies, maintenance, and such. Nothing regarding what they were up to.

Satisfied she'd gotten everything covered, Wendy went to shut down the system but paused. A few more clicks and she typed in her new search. Carter, Wendy. She watched as her file came to life. Old stuff she'd already read and a couple of new entries. A report on the slaughter at the bar where her past had collided with her present leading to her status as AWOL. Orders by the Alliance for her capture for questioning. The Blue Sun's reply that her retrieval was already in the works but refusal to release her to the Alliance. The Alliance's rebuttal that though she worked for Blue Sun, she knew too much and because Blue Sun couldn't manage to keep her in line, she was a threat to the system. Back and forth they went with the last communication by the Hands of Blue with promise to revisit the issue once she was retrieved.

The last item on the list was an unnamed file. Encrypted. She pushed a few buttons, entered a few codes. Heavily encrypted. This one was proving to be a challenge. More typing. More codes until finally, she'd gotten past it. She stared down at the document. One page. Just an image with a single word written across it. It was her. And across it in big, bold letters was 'DEACTIVATE'.

"Deactivate?" she said, dumbfounded. After a pause, she felt the anger boiling up. She punched the console and the screen flickered. She ignored the pain in her knuckles and bit out, "I'm a person. A human being. Not a ruttin' machine!" Words she'd wanted to say to the Hands of Blue ironically wasted on a machine. It furthered her anger but her mental war path was interrupted as drops of liquid hit the screen. Puzzled, she looked up but saw nothing. Another red drop hit just as she realized what it was. She dragged the back of her hand under her nose and it came away streaked with blood and reminded of her situation, she again found her anger boiling. She angrily swiped her hand across the screen, smearing the blood across her image. She'd leave it there to become evidence. Let whoever found the ship link her to the Hands of Blue's disappearance. What did it matter when she'd probably be dead by the time they found the ship. Serenity and her crew will be in the clear and a dead perpetrator meant a dead end. Case closed. Move on to the next.

Wendy made angry strides for the small med bay and then their cabins, tearing them apart. Tossing things out, overturning drawers in hopes of finding a stash of her meds.

[Cavanaugh]

Cavanaugh

"Mal? Pull that trigger and the launcher won't settle, it'll jam.  That's why we need two of us for this job."  Cav extended a wrench towards the Serenity's captain.  "See that block that the hydraulic line connects to?  There's a bolt in it.  Loosen it slowly, until you see a red liquid coming out.  I'm going to do the same over here.  We need to bleed this off at as close to the same rate as possible.  It should take ten minutes or so for it to piss out enough that the launcher won't be able to lift enough to target your ship.  The system will try to correct the aim, so the pistons will keep extending.  Keep any body parts you aren't willing to lose out of the way because there is going to be enough power still in the system to cut right through anything you care to put in the way."

Cavanaugh grinned.  "Look on the bright side.  We don't have to bleed electricity into the hull like we would with a mag-lev system and we're pretty much guaranteed to keep all our fingers.  I'm good to go, so we'll start pulling the plugs on your order."

[Medieval Kevin]

Mal

    "I'm good to go, so we'll start pulling the plugs on your order." It was a simple gesture but Mal appreciated the Captain differing to him. Reynolds took the wrench from Cav and took his place at the block. "On three... one... two... three" Mal started to turn the tool until he saw the juice start to pour out. He made sure to adjust the flow to match. "So far so good." the captain said while he hoped this was the extent of it... And that he got to keep all his appendages.

[Cavanaugh]

Cavanaugh

"We should start getting a low pressure warning,"  Cavanaugh said.  "When you see the pistons start to extend, you'll know the pressure is starting to bottom out.  Shouldn't take more than a minute for it to start.  We just need to do it slow enough that the system doesn't overreact." 

In his wildest dreams, Cavanaugh had never imagined that the techniques he had learned trying to keep the tanks working on planet Serenity would be put to use saving the ship of a former enemy from allies of his former commanders.  He was grateful to have come to an understanding with Mal.  The former Browncoat was a good man.  The fact that they had once been trying to kill each other years before was something both men studious chose to ignore.  After all, it hadn't been anything personal.  It had been war and during wars men tried to kill each other.  It was just the way it was.

"Did you ever regret it?  Fighting, I mean.  Ever wish that you'd never signed on that dotted line?"

[Medieval Kevin]

Mal

Did he ever regret his decision? That was a loaded question... One that commanded a moment or two. "The mission? Or the ones next to you?" That wasnt difficult. He just shook his head. Mal felt like they would be on the same page as he looked Cav in the eye. "The ones that put us there though... The ones just watching..." Now that was a different story entirely. He didnt finish that last sentence as he turned his head back to watching the red liquid pooling onto the hull plate at his feet.

[Cavanaugh]

CAVANAUGH

"Bean counters and number crunching bun tyen-shung duh ee-dway-ro who don't think of the men on the ground as worth anything more than shiong mao niao?"  Cav snorted derisively.  "It took ten thousand casualties to make it half way.  Let's throw in twice as many men, never mind that the enemy is more prepared any you'll be crippling or killing twenty thousand men.  We'll own that useless piece of rock until the enemy throws thirty thousand at us."

He shook his head and made a small adjustment to the flow rate on his side.  "This is a conversation that needs to be had over a case of very cheap, very strong booze."

Somewhere inside the ship an alarm started chirping.  "And there is the pressure warning, right on time."



BUN tyen-shung duh ee-DWAY-RO = Stupid Inbred Stacks of Meat

Shiong mao niao = Panda Piss

[Storyteller]

Kaylee grasped the cutters in her right hand and stared into the swirling mass mass of colored wire in front of her. Disabling fire control systems could be a mite tricky but really wasn't all that complicated. Just a matter of cuttin' the right three wires in the correct order to disrupt the energy flow to the weapon's main circuit board. Course you could cut the power to the ammo feed, like Cav also suggested. That only required takin' out the excelsior cable but it was the riskier option. No way of knowin' if a surge from the disruption would overload the trigger system and cause the ammo in the pipe to launch. Didn't want that. 

Carefully she picked through the mess, her head still Wu Toh Wu Now but clear enough that she knew she could get the job done. 

"There you are," she said under her breath as she caught sight of the blue wire that was her first target. Her hand reached into the pocket of her coveralls searching for the pair of needle nose pliers that she kept there. She brushed past a screwdriver and a socket wrench before her fingers closed on something smooth and round. Brow furrowed, she pulled it out to examine the foreign object. Even taking her recent head injury into account, Kaylee was very sure that she had no idea how the data disk had gotten into that pocket. Replacing the disk, she made a mental note to check it back on Serenity and continued her task. Carefully holding the blue wire with the pliers, she made a clean slice through. One down.

The next wire, a yellow one, stood out and was handled quickly. But it was harder to suss out the last one. After several minutes of searching, it was down to two nearly identical red lines running from the same circuit. "Wua Ser Tian Jwoo." 

She thoroughly looked both over, before deciding on the one to the left. As the cutters gingerly cut through the plastic coating, Kaylee held her breath until the system powered down. All done. She leaned back heavily, the urge to sleep becoming overpowering now that the danger had passed. 



*Wu Toh Wu Now- muddled
*Wua Ser Tian Jwoo- Redundant, unnecessary complicating something

EDITED TO INCLUDE THE DISCOVERY OF THE DATA DISK

[Medieval Kevin]

Mal

    "This is a conversation that needs to be had over a case of very cheap, very strong booze." Reynolds nodded in response. "I'm sure we could arrange that, have a nice quiet... drink." That last word came out as a big of a grunt as he worked his wrench through a kink in the threads. They both reacted to the sound of the alarm and almost simultaneously Mal noticed the infrared censors on the turret die off. Kaylee was a marvel, they all deserved some r&r from this one. "So..." he tried to check off Cav's laundry list in his head. "That's everything right?"

[Cavanaugh]

Cavanaugh

"Looks like Kaylee killed the targeting system,"  Cav said with a nod.  "Nothing beats killing the target twice.  Even if the hydraulics freeze up before the tube depresses far enough to point at the ground, Serenity can take off without triggering a launch.  You're good to go, Mal.  Let's get off this gorram ship and put some boots on the ground."  He chuckled.  "We could also put some boots on a certain blue handed dipshit too."

[Medieval Kevin]

Mal

    "Serenity can take off without triggering a launch. You're good to go, Mal." The captain turned his head to the side and looked at Cav. It really was moments like these that he didn't bother to learn this kind of... maintenance. There was always someone around to take care of things. He did not take it for granted though. They where people he could count on, people he trusted. And right now in Mal's mind this man before him was one of them. In a perfect world they could have been flying together.

    Reynolds stood up and gave him a nod. "You've done right by us Captain and I do believe we owe you one for that. We'll be saddling up to get out of this whole but we won't be breaking atmo until we deal with that suit, he can't afford the fare. I reckon you have questions like the rest of us so I'll have Wash transmit you the rendezvous. We'll see you and your friend there." Whenever Wash got his hide back to them, Mal thought to himself as he hopped down from his perch and headed for Kaylee, to get her back to the ship.

**Mal and Kaylee exit to Serenity: Infirmary**

[Cavanaugh]

Cavanaugh

Cav watched Mal go.  He wasn't sure where the actual tally stood.  Whether he owed Mal or Mal owed him, it really didn't matter.  They would likely end up swapping debts until one of them met their end.  He too climbed down from the missile turret.

I wonder if I can get St James to take this thing off my hands?  Guaranteed he could have this thing dismantled inside of six hours.  He'd make a butt load on the weapons alone.  I'll have to send him a message....

"Time to go, Wendy," Cav called out.  "Is it too late to tell you not to set the self destruct?"

[Hollywood Heidi]

Nothing. Not one of her pills stashed somewhere. Wendy leaned her hands on the counter and calmed herself. Letting them get to her was shortening her time. She grabbed an empty box and began loading it with useful medical supplies. A small gesture compared to what she wanted in return. She knew the captain already had a heap of troubles aboard his ship and was mighty protective of them. Wendy would be a new trouble and her presence would be a threat to the crew.


"Time to go, Wendy," "Is it too late to tell you not to set the self destruct?"

Wendy took in her soundings and snorted. It looked like self destruct had been activated in the med bay area. She carelessly tossed aside another useless item, the sound of breaking glass somewhat therapeutic. "No, I was hoping they'd find the ship," she called out. Catching a glance of herself in the small mirror, she cringed. "I'll be ready to go in a minute. I take it Operation Dismantle Missile was a success?"

As she spoke she ran a towel under water and stood in front of the little mirror, wiping at the dried blood smeared beneath her nose.

[Cavanaugh]

Cavanaugh

Richard followed the sound of breaking glass.  "More along the lines of 'Operation Give the Missile Launcher Brewer's Droop'," he answered.  "Kaylee managed to take out the targeting system, so we're good twice over."   He looked at the blood under Wendy's nose.  "Should I be worried?" he asked. 

[Hollywood Heidi]

With a sigh of resignation, Wendy spared him a glance in the mirror before looking back at her own reflection. "No. Perfectly normal at this stage." A couple more quick swipes and all evidence was removed. Well, from her face. As she turned, she made a half-hearted attempt to scrub at the drops on her shirt. "Just a bit more excitement than's good for me, is all." She carelessly tossed the towel on the counter. "But why would the Captain risk taking me on board if I look like a dead woman walking?" She picked through the items still left out, adding a few to the box as she continued.

"If you plan on scrapping this ship," she said, recalling his comment on self destruct, "make sure to leave enough for them to find." The word dripped with contempt for Blue Sun. "I've removed any traces of Serenity from their database. They'll link this all to me. Agent Carter gone rogue, which is what they already believe. By the time they find it, they'll assume I'm dead." She knew with her chances, she probably would be. She gave a casual shrug before picking up the box and heading toward Cav and the exit. "Problem solved. Case closed."


***Wendy and Cav exit to Serenity - Cargo Bay***