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tygati^__^ Stole M's Kidnapped icon. Personalized it. ;) Hee.
Have drabble that turned into a Ficbit. >.>; For this story, is suggested you have read: No Matter What, Be Careful What You Wish For, Paper-Training and Here Kitty Kitty, and Poor Kitty. In more or less that order. >.>; If you're not sure, then basically anything that involves the Melee. ^^;
---
Repair Costs (or: Why Master Engineers Should Be Kept Separated)
Something shot sparks and a cloud of rather nauseating black smoke caught Formane squarely in the face. He coughed and scrambled backwards, groping blindly for his oxygen mask and inhaling deeply once he had it on, glaring balefully at the smoldering parts in front of him. Apparently, even an elite custom-built ship like the Melee couldn't survive a fight with five drug-runners and come out unscathed.
At least they were alive, which was more than could be said for the slagging runners and their merc ships. Unfortunately the battle had taken out the Melee's primary weapons systems and crippled her light-drive. Getting the light-drive back online and operational was going slowly, but he'd get it eventually. The problem was with the weapons systems.
Everyone on board knew that the Melee was a one of a kind ship. A sparkling jewel in a sea of glass. Beautiful. Deadly. Unique. Unfortunately, the fact that half her systems had been designed and built from scratch meant that most of the conventional repair methods didn't apply. Under normal circumstances it wasn't a problem. He just had to think back-asswards and diagonally and everything was fine. Not counting the headaches, of course.
But this... The central interface circuits had actually fused together, and the library manuals seemed to have been written in gibberish. Some parts seemed to make sense, but others were nothing more than random diagrams that didn't appear to actually correspond to anything on the ship. He was starting to get the feeling that whoever had put them together had just picked up the designer's notes and shoved them in a file without bothering to make sense of them first.
"Well?"
Grimacing, Formane crawled out from beneath the panel that had so rudely gone up in smoke. "If I had about three turns to puzzle through the nightmare blueprints or access to the original Engineer, maybe. That last shot really hurt."
Cornelius grimaced. "In more ways than one. Thank the stars for emergency eject systems. I seem to remember being told that without them our brains would have melted when the system went down."
"Pretty much," Formane agreed, getting to his feet. "The secondary weapons systems are still operational, but they're practically useless with the PCIS circuits like they are."
Cornelius regarded him for a long moment, wincing slightly. "You said... if you had the original engineer... you could fix it?"
Formane frowned curiously. "Probably. Do you know how to reach him?"
Wincing again, Cornelius sighed. "No, but I know someone who does. Come on." He wrapped an arm around Formane's waist and leaned against the engineer, ears flat against his hair. "I'm really, really going to regret this..."
Thirty-seven hours later Gypsy frowned at his console, then turned swiftly in his chair to stare at where Cornelius had slouched in his own seat. "Captain, we have an incoming call..."
Cornelius sat up a little straighter, frowning as well. "From?"
"The Ice Princess, which is sitting approximately fifty kilometers away off our starboard wing."
Trying not to cringe too badly, Cornelius sighed. "Put her on."
A lot of things changed in six years. Some things remained exactly the same. Tau Ceti, for instance, still looked exactly how Cornelius remembered him, slightly-stained navy jumpsuit and all. The people around him, the froo-froo snow-scape masquerading as a bridge, that was all new. But the infuriating Gremlin hadn't changed a bit.
"You overgrown alley cat, what have you done to my ship!?" Tau Ceti demanded furiously.
"It's not your ship anymore," Cornelius felt obliged to remind him, wondering how much trouble he'd get into with Kavalerov if he added a few new scratches to the old ones beneath the Gremlin's clothes.
"Fine," Tau Ceti spat, "What have you done to Pyotr's ship?"
"I didn't do a thing to your precious ship. Apparently you forgot to set it up appropriately for dealing with five angry merc ships firing at us."
"If you quit picking fights with people bigger than you, you wouldn't be getting your ass handed to you, now would you?"
On the screen a pretty man with light blue skin and darker blue hair laid a hand on Tau Ceti's shoulder. "Enough. The High Chancellor didn't send us all the way out here so you could get into an argument with Captain Lady."
Cornelius and Tau Ceti both hissed at him, though the man didn't seem to notice. "Captain," the blue man said calmly, "Please stand by to receive our Master Engineer. We'd prefer if you send him back in one piece, thank you."
Devoutly wishing he could just tell them all to go to hell, Cornelius sighed quietly and signaled to Gypsy. "Fine. We'll meet you in-"
"I can find my own way around, thank you," Tau Ceti snapped, spinning sharply on his heel and stalking off the bridge.
The pretty blue man winced and sighed quietly. "I'd apologize in advance, but it sounds like you already know him."
"Yeah," Cornelius replied with a grimace, flexing his claws and growling softly. "I do."
"So," a voice drolled, carrying a hint of arrogance and more than a hint of mocking, "You're the one they dredged up to try to keep my ship in one piece."
Formane looked up from the system he was working on to take in the figure standing lazily in the doorway. He wasn't overly tall and the loose fit of his jumpsuit hid his body shape, but the green of his skin and the long pointed ears were unmistakable.
"You must be the Gremlin Cornelius was talking about. You built the Melee." Polite, Formane, polite. He'd been warned that this wasn't going to be pleasant.
The Gremlin strolled in casually, vivid violet eyes gleaming as they looked him over carefully, then shifted to take in the general damage that had been done to the Melee's weapons systems. "If this is the best you can do, I think they need to send in for a replacement," he said off-handedly, lips twisted up into a smirk.
Stung slightly, Formane shot back, "Well if you actually made reasonable blueprints, we wouldn't have had to call you out here."
Those eerie violet eyes shifted back to blink at him in confusion. "Blueprints?" he echoed, obviously taken off-guard. "What blueprints?"
Formane blinked and dug his data pad out from underneath a small pile of wires, switching it on. "These blueprints."
The Gremlin paced over to crouch down and peer at the screen, taking it out of Formane's hands after a moment and switching through the various diagrams. "Huh... These aren't blueprints, they're my design notes." He calmly threw the data pad over his shoulder; it landed with a clatter somewhere on the other side of a terminal. "I don't make blueprints."
Formane sighed quietly. "I noticed. So what do you do when something breaks?"
"I fix it." A shrug.
"How?"
"I just do," the Gremlin snapped, dropping down heavily on the floor and prodding at one blackened mess. "That should not have happened," he muttered beneath his breath. "What the bloody hell did they hit you with, a plasma cannon?"
"Two plasma cannons, a phase emitter, a high-powered space laser, and all the standard stuff on top of that," Formane informed him flatly.
The Gremlin looked up and blinked. "Say that again?"
Formane drew in a breath. "Two plasma-"
"Never mind," the Gremlin said quickly, shaking his head. "Stupid pirates. Remind me to upgrade your armor and shielding before I leave."
Leaning back against the wall, Formane regarded his green associate thoughtfully. "So we're forgiven for frying our weapons systems now that you know what caused it?"
"Mmm, maybe. I have to see how bad the damage is."
"Bad enough." Formane shrugged. "The PCIS main circuits are fused and the primary weapons array is down. And that's just the big stuff."
The Gremlin regarded him thoughtfully, murmuring "fused" several times beneath his breath, then he shifted around so that he was comfortable. "All right. I'm going to go have a look. Don't go anywhere."
Formane started as the Gremlin calmly grabbed onto a handful of live wires, his eyes flickering shut. For several minutes he remained that way, motionless, then his shoulders relaxed and he stirred.
"Umf. Yes, bad enough. Though not a complete disaster." The Gremlin rubbed his temples irritably. "Interface system first. The Ice Princess doesn't have the firepower to defend us if someone comes along and I'd like to stay in one piece. What do you know about neural network pathways?"
"Neural pathways? Not much. I've always been an engineering geek. Never got into the bio stuff." Formane regarded him curiously.
The Gremlin grinned darkly. "How would you like to learn?" he asked.
Taken slightly off-guard, Formane never the less saw the challenge in the question. "Sure."
The grin widening, the Gremlin stuck out his hand. "Tau Ceti."
Matching the grin with one of his own, Formane shook it. "Formane."
Eleven hours, fifteen bottles of water, eight caf-tabs, five clothing changes, and two showers later, Formane was having the time of his life. The insane Gremlin had dragged him all over the ship to replace or adjust various parts, much to the annoyance of the crew who couldn't quite figure out why the deck plates in hallways and private rooms needed to be pried up.
Tau Ceti had been talking almost constantly once he realized that Formane not only was interested in what he was doing but could understand it with only a few sparing questions. They'd had a bit of a rocky spot when Formane had challenged him on one of his theories and the resulting argument had set them back nearly an hour's worth of work. In the end they'd stuck with the original design, but from a few things the Gremlin absently muttered when he wasn't set on making Formane the foremost expert in neural networking patterns, it sounded like he was more than interested in the proposed changes.
They'd just finished getting the PCIS back on-line and were about to test it when Cornelius arrived.
"You link in the normal way and I'll keep an eye on you to make sure-" Tau Ceti broke off suddenly as Cornelius's voice carried.
"Formane?"
"He's a little busy, pussy cat," Tau Ceti drawled. "Go find a nice corner to lick yourself clean in and I'll send him your way when we're done."
Formane winced. "Lius..."
"It's three in the morning, you arrogant brat," Cornelius snapped, tail lashing. "Or hadn't you noticed?"
"Aw, does the little kitty need his beauty sleep?" Tau Ceti mocked, scrambling out of the way when Cornelius lunged at him.
"Lius!" Formane grabbed onto the enraged half-cat, pulling him close and holding him in place with all his strength. "Quit that. And you-" He looked up at the Gremlin. "Would you please quit taunting him?"
"Let me go, Formane," Cornelius growled, claws flexing.
"I like taunting him." Tau Ceti shrugged. "But if you prefer I could just collar him again and call it good."
Formane blinked. "You did that?"
Cornelius went still. "Don't even think about it. Either one of you. I mean it."
"Why do you ask?" Tau Ceti grinned. "Want me to do it again?"
"No!" Cornelius hissed, resuming his struggles to get away from Formane.
Formane considered, tightening his grip. "That depends... can you customize it so it says 'Property of Forith Demane'?"
The Gremlin positively preened. "Of course. I'll even throw in a grav-leash to make things interesting."
"You are both dead," Cornelius growled, ears flat.
"Sold," Formane said cheerfully, oofing quietly when Cornelius elbowed him in the stomach but refusing to release his hold.
Grinning brilliantly, Tau Ceti scooped up a handful of extra parts, his fingers flying almost faster than Formane could follow as he manipulated them into doing his bidding. Barely more than ten minutes later he stood and approached, cautiously, his eyes on Cornelius's claws.
"As I don't really want to explain to Sigma how I ended up with more cat scratches..." He gestured.
Formane shifted his grip so that he mostly had Cornelius's arms pinned as well. The Gremlin stepped up close, snapped a silvery collar around the half-cat's neck, then skipped backwards quickly. "There you go. One kitty collar." He snapped a smaller, matching bracelet on Formane's wrist. "And that controls it. I'm sure you can figure out how to make it work."
Cornelius growled lowly, ears still flat against his head, the very tip of his tail twitching in displeasure. Formane considered him for a moment, then smiled at Tau Ceti. "Given that it is, as Lius said, three in the morning, I don't suppose you'd be amenable to a break..."
The Gremlin blinked, then laughed quietly. "I'll be on the Ice Princess when you want to resume." He sauntered toward the door, then turned and waved. "Ta-ta, kitty cat. Have fun." A moment later he was gone.
"Formane..." Cornelius grumbled sullenly. "You are not supposed to be adding to my humiliation. I swear I'm going to flay that Gremlin alive."
"Mmm, you can do that later," Formane murmured, tasting the skin of Cornelius's shoulder just below the collar. "But right now I want to play with the new toy that Tau Ceti was so kind as to gift me with."
"Forma-mmmmm..." The rest of Cornelius's protests were silenced as Formane pinned him against a wall and kissed him soundly, the press of his body revealing in no uncertain terms just how much he wanted to 'play.' "I'm not-" He gasped quietly as Formane's fingers sought out a sensitive spot. "I'm not wearing it in public."
"I never said you had to." Formane's eyes were bright. "This is all for me."
Far sooner than he'd expected, the repairs to the Melee were done. Tau Ceti had promised to draw up true blueprints for him, though he'd also warned that Formane might have to remind him a few times. Apparently Gremlins were easily sidetracked from 'non-essential' projects. More imperative projects, like the repairs to the Melee, were something else entirely.
Formane had always considered himself a geek when it came to technology and engineering things. Tau Ceti had successfully proved that there was a whole other level to technological obsession that he'd barely even touched. This was going to be one of the most fascinating friendships of his life, regardless of what Cornelius thought on the matter.
The half-cat was still sulking over the collar, though the gleam in his eye the last time Formane had seen him wasn't reassuring. Revenge would be had, the question was whether or not the rest of them would survive the fallout.
"I'll put you on the approved list for my workshop so the calls will actually get through," Tau Ceti was saying. "Unless I've blocked everyone and in that case you wouldn't want to talk to me anyway."
Formane laughed softly. "No, I doubt that anything would be that important," he agreed.
They were standing in the transport room, doing the space equivalent of swapping numbers that was a requirement for new friends while the Ice Princess debated whether or not they really wanted their Master Engineer back. From a comment Gypsy had made while trying to hold back his laughter, it sounded as though the discussion had come down to an arm-wrestling match to settle the matter.
Formane had simply decided he was very glad that he was on the Melee.
A few minutes later the doors swished open to admit Cornelius, who regarded Tau Ceti with equal parts hatred and determination. The Gremlin looked him over, lips quirking up into a lazy smirk. "Where's your collar, kitty cat?" he asked.
One of Cornelius's ears twitched, but he didn't rise to the insult. "Tau Ceti. As Captain of the Melee I am obliged to thank you for your assistance." He scowled. "Now get off my ship."
Tau Ceti's smirk widened. "You didn't say please, Lady Kitty."
Cornelius growled lowly, then took two steps forward to put him face to face with Tau Ceti. They watched one another intently for several long moments, then Cornelius lunged forward and roughly kissed the startled Gremlin. They both drew back as though burned, Cornelius's eyes narrowed, Tau Ceti's wide in shock.
"Get off my ship," Cornelius snarled, "Or I'll call Gypsy down here to continue that."
Tau Ceti stared at him for several long moments before shuddering and turning to march onto the transport pad. He was still making faces and rubbing at his mouth with his sleeve when the machinery kicked in and he disappeared.
Formane turned to stare at Cornelius, who promptly dug a bottle of water out of his sleeve and drained the entire thing.
"Yuck. Remind me never to do that again," Cornelius spat, shuddering.
Formane shook his head slowly. "I'm not sure which one of you is going to be traumatized more by the experience."
Cornelius shot him a glare, reconsidered, then reached out and yanked him close. "Do me a favor and erase the taste of Gremlin for me?" he asked.
Formane's lips slid into a slow smile. "On one condition," he said teasingly.
Cornelius's ears flattened against his head. "No."
"Then no kisses." Formane shrugged, struggling to contain his mirth.
Torn, Cornelius's ears and tail fidgeted all over the place before the half-cat finally sighed. "Fine, you win, I'll wear the collar. Now shut up and kiss me."
Laughing, Formane complied.
Have drabble that turned into a Ficbit. >.>; For this story, is suggested you have read: No Matter What, Be Careful What You Wish For, Paper-Training and Here Kitty Kitty, and Poor Kitty. In more or less that order. >.>; If you're not sure, then basically anything that involves the Melee. ^^;
---
Repair Costs (or: Why Master Engineers Should Be Kept Separated)
Something shot sparks and a cloud of rather nauseating black smoke caught Formane squarely in the face. He coughed and scrambled backwards, groping blindly for his oxygen mask and inhaling deeply once he had it on, glaring balefully at the smoldering parts in front of him. Apparently, even an elite custom-built ship like the Melee couldn't survive a fight with five drug-runners and come out unscathed.
At least they were alive, which was more than could be said for the slagging runners and their merc ships. Unfortunately the battle had taken out the Melee's primary weapons systems and crippled her light-drive. Getting the light-drive back online and operational was going slowly, but he'd get it eventually. The problem was with the weapons systems.
Everyone on board knew that the Melee was a one of a kind ship. A sparkling jewel in a sea of glass. Beautiful. Deadly. Unique. Unfortunately, the fact that half her systems had been designed and built from scratch meant that most of the conventional repair methods didn't apply. Under normal circumstances it wasn't a problem. He just had to think back-asswards and diagonally and everything was fine. Not counting the headaches, of course.
But this... The central interface circuits had actually fused together, and the library manuals seemed to have been written in gibberish. Some parts seemed to make sense, but others were nothing more than random diagrams that didn't appear to actually correspond to anything on the ship. He was starting to get the feeling that whoever had put them together had just picked up the designer's notes and shoved them in a file without bothering to make sense of them first.
"Well?"
Grimacing, Formane crawled out from beneath the panel that had so rudely gone up in smoke. "If I had about three turns to puzzle through the nightmare blueprints or access to the original Engineer, maybe. That last shot really hurt."
Cornelius grimaced. "In more ways than one. Thank the stars for emergency eject systems. I seem to remember being told that without them our brains would have melted when the system went down."
"Pretty much," Formane agreed, getting to his feet. "The secondary weapons systems are still operational, but they're practically useless with the PCIS circuits like they are."
Cornelius regarded him for a long moment, wincing slightly. "You said... if you had the original engineer... you could fix it?"
Formane frowned curiously. "Probably. Do you know how to reach him?"
Wincing again, Cornelius sighed. "No, but I know someone who does. Come on." He wrapped an arm around Formane's waist and leaned against the engineer, ears flat against his hair. "I'm really, really going to regret this..."
Thirty-seven hours later Gypsy frowned at his console, then turned swiftly in his chair to stare at where Cornelius had slouched in his own seat. "Captain, we have an incoming call..."
Cornelius sat up a little straighter, frowning as well. "From?"
"The Ice Princess, which is sitting approximately fifty kilometers away off our starboard wing."
Trying not to cringe too badly, Cornelius sighed. "Put her on."
A lot of things changed in six years. Some things remained exactly the same. Tau Ceti, for instance, still looked exactly how Cornelius remembered him, slightly-stained navy jumpsuit and all. The people around him, the froo-froo snow-scape masquerading as a bridge, that was all new. But the infuriating Gremlin hadn't changed a bit.
"You overgrown alley cat, what have you done to my ship!?" Tau Ceti demanded furiously.
"It's not your ship anymore," Cornelius felt obliged to remind him, wondering how much trouble he'd get into with Kavalerov if he added a few new scratches to the old ones beneath the Gremlin's clothes.
"Fine," Tau Ceti spat, "What have you done to Pyotr's ship?"
"I didn't do a thing to your precious ship. Apparently you forgot to set it up appropriately for dealing with five angry merc ships firing at us."
"If you quit picking fights with people bigger than you, you wouldn't be getting your ass handed to you, now would you?"
On the screen a pretty man with light blue skin and darker blue hair laid a hand on Tau Ceti's shoulder. "Enough. The High Chancellor didn't send us all the way out here so you could get into an argument with Captain Lady."
Cornelius and Tau Ceti both hissed at him, though the man didn't seem to notice. "Captain," the blue man said calmly, "Please stand by to receive our Master Engineer. We'd prefer if you send him back in one piece, thank you."
Devoutly wishing he could just tell them all to go to hell, Cornelius sighed quietly and signaled to Gypsy. "Fine. We'll meet you in-"
"I can find my own way around, thank you," Tau Ceti snapped, spinning sharply on his heel and stalking off the bridge.
The pretty blue man winced and sighed quietly. "I'd apologize in advance, but it sounds like you already know him."
"Yeah," Cornelius replied with a grimace, flexing his claws and growling softly. "I do."
"So," a voice drolled, carrying a hint of arrogance and more than a hint of mocking, "You're the one they dredged up to try to keep my ship in one piece."
Formane looked up from the system he was working on to take in the figure standing lazily in the doorway. He wasn't overly tall and the loose fit of his jumpsuit hid his body shape, but the green of his skin and the long pointed ears were unmistakable.
"You must be the Gremlin Cornelius was talking about. You built the Melee." Polite, Formane, polite. He'd been warned that this wasn't going to be pleasant.
The Gremlin strolled in casually, vivid violet eyes gleaming as they looked him over carefully, then shifted to take in the general damage that had been done to the Melee's weapons systems. "If this is the best you can do, I think they need to send in for a replacement," he said off-handedly, lips twisted up into a smirk.
Stung slightly, Formane shot back, "Well if you actually made reasonable blueprints, we wouldn't have had to call you out here."
Those eerie violet eyes shifted back to blink at him in confusion. "Blueprints?" he echoed, obviously taken off-guard. "What blueprints?"
Formane blinked and dug his data pad out from underneath a small pile of wires, switching it on. "These blueprints."
The Gremlin paced over to crouch down and peer at the screen, taking it out of Formane's hands after a moment and switching through the various diagrams. "Huh... These aren't blueprints, they're my design notes." He calmly threw the data pad over his shoulder; it landed with a clatter somewhere on the other side of a terminal. "I don't make blueprints."
Formane sighed quietly. "I noticed. So what do you do when something breaks?"
"I fix it." A shrug.
"How?"
"I just do," the Gremlin snapped, dropping down heavily on the floor and prodding at one blackened mess. "That should not have happened," he muttered beneath his breath. "What the bloody hell did they hit you with, a plasma cannon?"
"Two plasma cannons, a phase emitter, a high-powered space laser, and all the standard stuff on top of that," Formane informed him flatly.
The Gremlin looked up and blinked. "Say that again?"
Formane drew in a breath. "Two plasma-"
"Never mind," the Gremlin said quickly, shaking his head. "Stupid pirates. Remind me to upgrade your armor and shielding before I leave."
Leaning back against the wall, Formane regarded his green associate thoughtfully. "So we're forgiven for frying our weapons systems now that you know what caused it?"
"Mmm, maybe. I have to see how bad the damage is."
"Bad enough." Formane shrugged. "The PCIS main circuits are fused and the primary weapons array is down. And that's just the big stuff."
The Gremlin regarded him thoughtfully, murmuring "fused" several times beneath his breath, then he shifted around so that he was comfortable. "All right. I'm going to go have a look. Don't go anywhere."
Formane started as the Gremlin calmly grabbed onto a handful of live wires, his eyes flickering shut. For several minutes he remained that way, motionless, then his shoulders relaxed and he stirred.
"Umf. Yes, bad enough. Though not a complete disaster." The Gremlin rubbed his temples irritably. "Interface system first. The Ice Princess doesn't have the firepower to defend us if someone comes along and I'd like to stay in one piece. What do you know about neural network pathways?"
"Neural pathways? Not much. I've always been an engineering geek. Never got into the bio stuff." Formane regarded him curiously.
The Gremlin grinned darkly. "How would you like to learn?" he asked.
Taken slightly off-guard, Formane never the less saw the challenge in the question. "Sure."
The grin widening, the Gremlin stuck out his hand. "Tau Ceti."
Matching the grin with one of his own, Formane shook it. "Formane."
Eleven hours, fifteen bottles of water, eight caf-tabs, five clothing changes, and two showers later, Formane was having the time of his life. The insane Gremlin had dragged him all over the ship to replace or adjust various parts, much to the annoyance of the crew who couldn't quite figure out why the deck plates in hallways and private rooms needed to be pried up.
Tau Ceti had been talking almost constantly once he realized that Formane not only was interested in what he was doing but could understand it with only a few sparing questions. They'd had a bit of a rocky spot when Formane had challenged him on one of his theories and the resulting argument had set them back nearly an hour's worth of work. In the end they'd stuck with the original design, but from a few things the Gremlin absently muttered when he wasn't set on making Formane the foremost expert in neural networking patterns, it sounded like he was more than interested in the proposed changes.
They'd just finished getting the PCIS back on-line and were about to test it when Cornelius arrived.
"You link in the normal way and I'll keep an eye on you to make sure-" Tau Ceti broke off suddenly as Cornelius's voice carried.
"Formane?"
"He's a little busy, pussy cat," Tau Ceti drawled. "Go find a nice corner to lick yourself clean in and I'll send him your way when we're done."
Formane winced. "Lius..."
"It's three in the morning, you arrogant brat," Cornelius snapped, tail lashing. "Or hadn't you noticed?"
"Aw, does the little kitty need his beauty sleep?" Tau Ceti mocked, scrambling out of the way when Cornelius lunged at him.
"Lius!" Formane grabbed onto the enraged half-cat, pulling him close and holding him in place with all his strength. "Quit that. And you-" He looked up at the Gremlin. "Would you please quit taunting him?"
"Let me go, Formane," Cornelius growled, claws flexing.
"I like taunting him." Tau Ceti shrugged. "But if you prefer I could just collar him again and call it good."
Formane blinked. "You did that?"
Cornelius went still. "Don't even think about it. Either one of you. I mean it."
"Why do you ask?" Tau Ceti grinned. "Want me to do it again?"
"No!" Cornelius hissed, resuming his struggles to get away from Formane.
Formane considered, tightening his grip. "That depends... can you customize it so it says 'Property of Forith Demane'?"
The Gremlin positively preened. "Of course. I'll even throw in a grav-leash to make things interesting."
"You are both dead," Cornelius growled, ears flat.
"Sold," Formane said cheerfully, oofing quietly when Cornelius elbowed him in the stomach but refusing to release his hold.
Grinning brilliantly, Tau Ceti scooped up a handful of extra parts, his fingers flying almost faster than Formane could follow as he manipulated them into doing his bidding. Barely more than ten minutes later he stood and approached, cautiously, his eyes on Cornelius's claws.
"As I don't really want to explain to Sigma how I ended up with more cat scratches..." He gestured.
Formane shifted his grip so that he mostly had Cornelius's arms pinned as well. The Gremlin stepped up close, snapped a silvery collar around the half-cat's neck, then skipped backwards quickly. "There you go. One kitty collar." He snapped a smaller, matching bracelet on Formane's wrist. "And that controls it. I'm sure you can figure out how to make it work."
Cornelius growled lowly, ears still flat against his head, the very tip of his tail twitching in displeasure. Formane considered him for a moment, then smiled at Tau Ceti. "Given that it is, as Lius said, three in the morning, I don't suppose you'd be amenable to a break..."
The Gremlin blinked, then laughed quietly. "I'll be on the Ice Princess when you want to resume." He sauntered toward the door, then turned and waved. "Ta-ta, kitty cat. Have fun." A moment later he was gone.
"Formane..." Cornelius grumbled sullenly. "You are not supposed to be adding to my humiliation. I swear I'm going to flay that Gremlin alive."
"Mmm, you can do that later," Formane murmured, tasting the skin of Cornelius's shoulder just below the collar. "But right now I want to play with the new toy that Tau Ceti was so kind as to gift me with."
"Forma-mmmmm..." The rest of Cornelius's protests were silenced as Formane pinned him against a wall and kissed him soundly, the press of his body revealing in no uncertain terms just how much he wanted to 'play.' "I'm not-" He gasped quietly as Formane's fingers sought out a sensitive spot. "I'm not wearing it in public."
"I never said you had to." Formane's eyes were bright. "This is all for me."
Far sooner than he'd expected, the repairs to the Melee were done. Tau Ceti had promised to draw up true blueprints for him, though he'd also warned that Formane might have to remind him a few times. Apparently Gremlins were easily sidetracked from 'non-essential' projects. More imperative projects, like the repairs to the Melee, were something else entirely.
Formane had always considered himself a geek when it came to technology and engineering things. Tau Ceti had successfully proved that there was a whole other level to technological obsession that he'd barely even touched. This was going to be one of the most fascinating friendships of his life, regardless of what Cornelius thought on the matter.
The half-cat was still sulking over the collar, though the gleam in his eye the last time Formane had seen him wasn't reassuring. Revenge would be had, the question was whether or not the rest of them would survive the fallout.
"I'll put you on the approved list for my workshop so the calls will actually get through," Tau Ceti was saying. "Unless I've blocked everyone and in that case you wouldn't want to talk to me anyway."
Formane laughed softly. "No, I doubt that anything would be that important," he agreed.
They were standing in the transport room, doing the space equivalent of swapping numbers that was a requirement for new friends while the Ice Princess debated whether or not they really wanted their Master Engineer back. From a comment Gypsy had made while trying to hold back his laughter, it sounded as though the discussion had come down to an arm-wrestling match to settle the matter.
Formane had simply decided he was very glad that he was on the Melee.
A few minutes later the doors swished open to admit Cornelius, who regarded Tau Ceti with equal parts hatred and determination. The Gremlin looked him over, lips quirking up into a lazy smirk. "Where's your collar, kitty cat?" he asked.
One of Cornelius's ears twitched, but he didn't rise to the insult. "Tau Ceti. As Captain of the Melee I am obliged to thank you for your assistance." He scowled. "Now get off my ship."
Tau Ceti's smirk widened. "You didn't say please, Lady Kitty."
Cornelius growled lowly, then took two steps forward to put him face to face with Tau Ceti. They watched one another intently for several long moments, then Cornelius lunged forward and roughly kissed the startled Gremlin. They both drew back as though burned, Cornelius's eyes narrowed, Tau Ceti's wide in shock.
"Get off my ship," Cornelius snarled, "Or I'll call Gypsy down here to continue that."
Tau Ceti stared at him for several long moments before shuddering and turning to march onto the transport pad. He was still making faces and rubbing at his mouth with his sleeve when the machinery kicked in and he disappeared.
Formane turned to stare at Cornelius, who promptly dug a bottle of water out of his sleeve and drained the entire thing.
"Yuck. Remind me never to do that again," Cornelius spat, shuddering.
Formane shook his head slowly. "I'm not sure which one of you is going to be traumatized more by the experience."
Cornelius shot him a glare, reconsidered, then reached out and yanked him close. "Do me a favor and erase the taste of Gremlin for me?" he asked.
Formane's lips slid into a slow smile. "On one condition," he said teasingly.
Cornelius's ears flattened against his head. "No."
"Then no kisses." Formane shrugged, struggling to contain his mirth.
Torn, Cornelius's ears and tail fidgeted all over the place before the half-cat finally sighed. "Fine, you win, I'll wear the collar. Now shut up and kiss me."
Laughing, Formane complied.