Concordia Veil
The bot's legs started dancing about a little as if it was growing anxious. It kept tapping the relay and then moving out of the way. "It needs to be replaced... The core wire has a diminished return value on the data sent through it..." The voice that sounded this time was one of the child again, and its tone matched it's impatience to the dancing.
"I see." Amelia said, letting go of the wire as she shot a quick glance towards the spiderbot. Before she did anything else, though, she stopped to check her Datajockey again, reading Sienna's message and letting out a sigh after he finished it. She was really 'grounded' inside the ship for as long as the other woman was out there. Putting the Datajockey down again, she turned her attention back to Crash. "This isn't really my specialty, I'm just the navigator. But if you tell me what I need to do step by step I think I can handle it," she said to the bot.
There was a soft screech that came from the 'bot, one that could quite easily be mistaken for a sigh. "You ever work with wiring harnesses before?" It clattered about a bit more eyeing her before poking at two endpoints of the relay, a dry droning male voice started up. "Begin removal of the old relays from the control box by removing the sheet metal screws holding the relays in place. Save your screws. All wires, both white -black on older units- and red, connected to the relays will be removed. With the relays loosened, remove the two large screws on the terminal block holding the relay wiring in place. The wires at this point should be crimped into two large silver connectors that also will contain one red wire each. Follow each red wire and remove the push-on connectors from the fuse holder and the transformer bottom tab.
"Use a gentle side to side rocking and pulling motion to remove these connectors. Be especially careful when removing the connector from the transformer to avoid damaging it. Remove the red connector from the top-center transformer tab also. Remove the double red wire on the circuit board labeled center tab. carefully pull the relays and all attached wires out of the control box.
"To install new one please reverse operation. Please be careful as not to electrocute self, unit will laugh uncontrollably and point at the now cooked flesh sack."
Amelia rolled her eyes back. Yeah, she knew how to replace a cable, she had grown in a spaceship after all, so she knew how to do some of the basic things without getting too complex, but that wasn't the reason she said what she had, though. A faint smirk crossed her face as she listened to the spiderbot, widening a little as it talked about the electrocuting part; she wouldn't have to worry about that, having both the Dusk suit and insulated gloves over it. "Well, it's not that I don't know how to replace it, it's more that the tools I'd need to do it aren't with me. You kinda took them." She said to Crash with a hint of mischief.
With another sighed data screech, it would almost remind someone of old dial up sounds. It clattered away off to its hidden nest making sure to go there by an long round about route going through tight passageways that Amelia couldn't follow. So It returned with a bag of tools dropping them in front of her. "ThErE."
"Thanks." Amelia said, crouching down to inspect the bag, and confirming that those were, in fact, her missing tools. "How did you get these without me or anyone else noticing anyway?" she asked casually as she removed the tools she needed to perform the repairs. There was even a similar wire harness inside the bag. She didn't dare to reclaim her tools back, though, at least not yet as they still 'belonged' to Crash. The replacement of the harness went smoothly after that, being performed with a practiced precision by Amelia.
"I know my ship quite well... I have been living here only for six or some years now... I can go anywhere i want without being seen." The voice has shifted back to a bland generic female voice. It was watching her movements and the process she was going through, making sure she didn't screw up any part of the replacement.
"Ah," Amelia said as she finished screwing and securing the new cable harness in place. It was interesting to her, even funny, how Crash claimed the ship, and made her wonder how Sienna would react to that if she found out about the spiderbot. "Well, Sienna did say the last occupants were very... eccentric," she said to it, turning around to stare at the spiderbot as she dusted off her gloved hands on her pants before crouching down again to put the tools back in their original bag, "What do you do with these anyway?" she asked right after that.
"I do not know about them, I was asleep for a while... I don't do anything but keep them away from you..." it's mandibles chattered a bit again before it climbed down to retrieve the panel. It took a moment for him to replace it and reconnect it to it's seating. "Does that bother you?"
It took her a few moments to respond to that as she cautiously thought about what to say next. "Well... You kinda got me in trouble for it, but then again I tried to wipe you..." she said, looking down and scratching her head, her expression was difficult to tell between being ashamed or just alarmed by the awkwardness of the situation. She hadn't know Crash was Crash up until a few minutes before, and it seemed she still wasn't over it.
It chittered again before skittering up her side to her shoulder. "Next part?" it asked in her voice again, making her wince from both listening to something speak in her own voice and the sudden contact as she gasped in surprise.
"I... Uh..." she said, at a loss of words as she felt the many robotic legs from the spiderbot poking on her skin as it crawled on her, making her shudder. Amelia slowly reached down to retrieve her Datajockey, surprisingly worried that if she moved too fast she'd drop the spiderbot somehow. "I don't think we have the tools to replace the wireless systems... So what do you mean by the connection to the flight controls missing?" she asked, her voice still calm.
"I have no direct control over the flight systems... I have been having to cross hack through sixteen subsystems and reroute the data through the sensor hardware before bringing it back to the controls. Even then I was only able to do mild ajustments to your preprogramed flightplan." It lightly moved so that it was gripping her Dusk suit's seams and thick point so not to hurt her as he rode along.
Amelia was sure that giving it full control over the ship's flight controls was a bad idea, she would rather stay moored in Black Moon than risk being alone in the ship with the spiderbot. "You know I really shouldn't help you with that," she said to it, although she stared ahead instead of looking over her shoulder towards the spiderbot.
"It makes perfect sense. I can monitor the ship and the sensors at all times, and help keep it on course. Plus, as you said, you are just a navigator. If the ship is attacked or it ends up in a situation that gets out of hand I can take control and make the necessary calculations, and maneuvering decisions far faster then any one aboard." It's voice changed over to Sienna's, "The blond one would like the fact that my ship is safe."
"But how can I know that you simply won't run away with the ship given the chance?" Amelia asked. She was perfectly aware how an AI could perform calculations or react faster than any 'normal' person, and although she probably would've accepted it if there wasn't that liability, it still wasn't her choice to make, since it wasn't her ship and she still wasn't even sure if Sienna wouldn't completely flip once she found out about the spiderbot.
"All things being equal, you don't. Though the Blond had removed a start relay for the ship. There are also lock outs on the main control systems. Those, though, I can get through given a few minutes of calculation time." It's voice shifted to one of a mischievous child, the laughing chitter didn't help that image. It was sure the Navigator wouldn't give it control but it was at least had to try. "Or shall we sit here and troll the networks for interesting images and video?"
"She what?!" Amelia asked Crash, stopping dead on her tracks and this time looking over her shoulders to stare at the spiderbot directly.
"She removed a main start relay, and put a lock out on the main control system. It is something that is normal in small ships like this." The 'bot didn't twitch or anything. It really didn't see the issue at hand.
Amelia's shoulders seemed to drop as she considered that. Not only did Sienna not trust her, but she also would rather do something like that behind her back. "Ugh, that bitch!" she said out loud, the fact that the very captain of the ship couldn't be straightforward to her crew-members and being paranoid instead was what infuriated her, it was toxic. If Sienna thought she would steal the ship she'd damn well-
No, Amelia slowly calmed down, taking a deep breath. Ironically, it seemed that she could trust the spiderbot that had been trying to undermine her efforts even more than he could trust the ship's captain, at least Crash was straightforward about things and that was good enough for her. "Might as well just waste time since there's nothing else to do," she conceded to it, trying to find a way to best make use of the 'free time' she had while the rest of the crew was away.
