POV: you lose your legs in a horrific ship crash as a child that sparks an obsession with the very thing that hurt you, leading you to become an expert in engineering so that you can make sure nothing like that will ever happen to you or your loved ones again, and you go so far as to mark your new legs with the same markings and colors as the current ship you service because you cant tell where you end and it begins
ooh for the hour of need prompts maybe “aren’t you going to say I told you so?” or “things must be really bad if you're trying to say I was your best chance at being helped” for whatever inspires you there? <3
“You’re pushing yourself too hard.”
Lenora loved Halin. Really, she did. And she, unlike her other gearhead partner, wasn’t one to throw that word around lightly. Lenora loved Halin for everything she was and everything she had done for the teenager’s sake, but sometimes Lenora wanted to stuff one of her oily rags into the captain’s mouth so she would stop nagging.
She dropped her arms with a huff, wrench banging against the grates as she angled her head to look over her shoulder. Halin, the esteemed Captain Aino, leaned against the opposite wall, arms crossed and obsidian eyes peering into Lenora’s soul. “So?”
“So,” Halin started as she kicked off the wall, her steps light against the metal floor as she came to lean next to the panel Lenora was currently ripping into. “I don’t want you to crash and burn. This isn’t a pressing issue. There’s no need to push yourself.”
Crash and burn. The very thing Lenora was hired to prevent the Actium from doing when she was 15. She knew Halin’s endless patience and compartmentalization skills had already catalogued the bum compressor low on the task list. And there really was no rush in fixing it since they were currently landed on a barely scouted moon, hidden away from any rival gangs or Mandate enforcers. But Lenora did not have Captain Aino’s patience. She wanted it done now.
Time just slipped away when her hands were in an engine. She didn’t have to think about the past, or whatever Halin was getting them into in the present, or the ache in open space that haunted her ever since she lost her leg. Exhaustion and twitchy eyelids were a small price to pay for that. Halin just didn’t get it.
As if the perceptive hag could sense her thoughts, Halin sighed and stood up straight, her tiny stature somehow more commanding than Millie’s. “I better not get a call from the medbay about you,” she grunted, the uncomfortable weight of her gaze never leaving Lenora’s eyes.
Lenora had a few choice words in return, but she bit them back. Despite her annoyance, her respect for the Captain just wouldn’t let them out. She nodded and turned back to her work, telling herself that she could let them out on Raiden when she was done.
The hum of the ship’s core systems and the quiet conversations of her crew melted away as Lenora meticulously took apart the machinery. She didn’t know how long she sat there, forgoing food or water as she assessed every individual component before piecing it back together. A weight settled on her shoulders and pushed from somewhere inside her skull, forcing her eyelids lower as she fumbled with an evaporator coil.
“Lenora.” Erin’s voice was as gentle as his hands as they came to rest on her shoulders, her arms still trapped in the panel. “Do you have any idea how long you’ve been sitting here?”
“Fuck you,” she managed to mumble, brain not comprehending the low timbre of his voice as she willed her fingers to work correctly.
“Your words are as sloppy as those chords.” He ran his pointer finger across the mess of wires. “If you keep going like this, you’re gonna have twice the work in the morning when you have to fix all of these mistakes.”
Erin sure knew how to say the bitchiest words in the nicest tone. She begrudgingly admitted he was right, that the Actium’s condition was only being tainted by her mindless engineering, but only to herself. He didn’t need the ego boost. Still, she relented, only hurling a few obscenities at him as he helped her up.
The walk to the medbay was a slow one, Lenora’s prosthetic clicking against the grates as she leaned against Erin. As much as she adored this ship, she often cursed its layout. It was two small levels, three, if you counted the tiny observation deck Halin had converted into her space, with all of the cramped crew housing on the second story. Usually she could make it up the rung ladder by herself, but with the phantom pain in her leg and the migraine building behind her eyes there was no possibility of that, and Erin certainly wasn’t strong enough to carry her up. The medbay was often her room on nights like this, as it was located on the ground level and had a bed.
It also had an Amara, which Lenora ruefully remembered as she awoke.
Amara cleared her throat as Lenora stirred and lifted her hand to protect her face from the foreign light streaming in from the porthole. “You’ve finally decided to join us.”
Lenora turned onto her side, back facing the doctor. “Don’t tell Halin about this,” she croaked.
“You should damn well know by now that nothing happens on this ship without me knowing about it.”
Of course Amara would run off and tell Halin. She turned back on her side with a groan, glaring as the Captain came into view. Halin turned to Amara, the burn scars dotting her face pinching as she frowned. “Is she ok?”
Amara hummed as she walked over to the counter in the corner. “She’s fine. She just needs rest and liquids.” She grabbed a water bottle from a cabinet and set it down on the tray table attached to the bed. Lenora snatched it away and gulped it down.
Halin nodded her head, and Amara took the signal to leave. The captain remained upright, hands stuffed in her pockets as she watched Lenora’s every movement.
Lenora threw the bottle to the ground, knowing full well she’d pick it up later. “Aren’t you going to say I told you so?” She grimaced at the thought.
“The thought had crossed my mind.” Humor laced Halin’s voice as her mouth quirked upwards. “But I think I’ll leave that task to Erin.”
“Cruel and unusual, Captain,” Lenora sighed, though she was grateful that the inevitable lecture was being pushed back, even if it was going to be delivered by that optimistic oaf.
Awkward silence settled with the dust as Halin continued to stare at her, the dark voids of her pupils revealing none of her thoughts. It kind of made Lenora feel guilty for landing herself here, which in turn made her more pissed off. “If you’re waiting for an apology-” She stopped when Halin raised a hand.
“I’m not. I’m waiting for your prefrontal cortex to finish developing.” She sighed, shaggy bangs dancing around her head as she shook her head. “Look, kid. There are times when I have to push you, times where I need you to work to the brink of exhaustion for the sake of this ship, for the sake of us.” Halin took a couple steps forward, landing just an inch from Lenora’s legs draped over the side of the bed. “Which means you need to take advantage of the down time we do have. Am I understood?”
Lenora leaned back on her arms so she could look up at Halin. “Is that an order, Captain?”
Halin reached over and tousled Lenora’s hair. She huffed dramatically, pretending to hate the contact. “Yes, it is. And here’s another one: You’re off today. Go steal some of Esther’s video games.” Halin flicked the teen’s nose. “And pick up that damn bottle.”
Yeah, Halin was a little overbearing and way too damn perceptive. But Lenora couldn’t help the warmth that bloomed in her chest as she reached down to pick up the plastic bottle and threw it in the trash. She cared, annoyingly so, but it was caring all the same.
And even though Lenora had an attitude, she never disregarded an order.
