Just doing some business {Flakeblood}

[Etrofder]

Orias climbed though the hatch into the cockpit. "So, that's my girl." He said, taking a knee down by the access panel. "A lot of this stuff is all ready in order. Biggest problem is going to be that energy converter."

He ran a hand through his hair. "Thanks for showing him around, Vel. Go ahead and get yourself cleaned up. I think we can take it from here."

"Thank God." She stretched, pulling her hair out of the bun. She was accustomed to dirty jobs. They didn't bother her. But she lived for the moment she could take off and get herself back to pristine condition. "I'm going to take a shower. I'll see you boys in a bit." She winked and blew a kiss as she left.

Orias chuckled and shook his head, then looked to Casey. "All right, to business. What have you got in mind?" He asked as he ran a gloved hand along a weapon systems wire, tracing it to one of the faulty converters that seemed to be the root of his problems.

[Flakeblood]

"Hm."

Casey thought, trying to remember everything he'd seen and put it together in a way that would make sense. There had been tweaks here and there that hadn't been in the blueprints, likely because of the recent time of tampering, and he didn't want to blow them off if they were important.

"For now, I want to look this place up and down. I'll try not to mess with too much, though I doubt it'll make much of a difference at this point." Here he winked with a kinda of lopsided grin. "Still, don' want to get shocked by appliances and die, so I'll be gentle. Based on what I see and your own opinion, we'll figure out the best place ta start."

Observation was so key for jobs like this. One forgotten detail and BOOM, you just blew out some part that hadn't been an issue before. Not that Casey thought everything would go perfectly, but he wanted to have some idea on what he was going to do before jumping in.

[Etrofder]

"Sure thing." Orias agreed, pleased to note the care the engineer was taking. Sure, his baby was a little worse for the wear at the moment, but he knew he could have her put back together and ready to go in a few hours, sans weapon systems of course. And he wanted to keep it that way. It wasn't that he had intentions of taking off before this job was done, but merely the thought of being stranded without a working ship made him uneasy.

"Feel free to have a look around, and if you've got questions, ask away. Vel might not be much help here, but I know just about every nut, bolt, and wire in here. Some of them by name." He joked, then shook his head at how lame it must have sounded.

[Flakeblood]

"You got it." He gave a two fingered salute before practically bounding out the door in excitement.

Casey moved around the ship for a while, taking in the basic structure, poking through wires that were both connected and not, and just generally gathering information needed for the project. He paid special attention to the current energy system whenever he came across parts of it. He soon lost track of time, not that he was any good at keeping it before, and found himself wandering around one of the weapon areas.

"Mmmh. Yeah, definitely need to divert more power here, though it should probably be spread to avoid overloading anything else..."

Bringing the energy into the blasters in several different points would help keep the drain from being too much on any of the other systems, and it would probably help the weapons system stay charged and ready as well. No warm-up time would be a good advantage in a fight, and probably necessary to survival, given the size of the ship. Speed was more essential here than defense probably was. Okay, so he needed to figure out the three areas that the power would be coming from, especially given where the main part of the energy system would be located...

[Etrofder]

Orias spat a small curse as electricity popped and arced angrily. Velura had obviously over exaggerated a bit with the coffee pot. The machine itself wasn't going to shock her. The outlet it was plugged into was a different story.

But it wasn't exactly a difficult fix. It was more a problem of... forgetfulness. He picked up the small box he'd removed earlier. It was the transformer that kept too much energy from going straight to the outlet. He'd only taken it out to examine it, and try to get ideas for how to make a much more powerful one that wouldn't get overwhelmed by the far larger power draw the weapons needed.

It only took him a few minutes and a few more curses to get the device back where it belonged. And with the flick of a switch, the gentle bubbling of coffee brewing filled the cramped kitchen. "Thought there was going to be an emergency there..." He muttered, willing to bet that this was going to be the kind of project that required copious amounts of the caffeinated brew.

[Flakeblood]

Casey had gone back to wandering around when a bitter scent reached his nose. He changed course and moved towards it. Once he reached the kitchen, he finally recognized the smell.

"Oh hey, is that coffee?"

He could really use the caffeine right now. He'd gotten caught up in his calculations and ideas, and it probably wouldn't be the last time. Something to keep him focused would be welcome.

"Looks like it's not attempting to electrify people anymore."

[Etrofder]

"Sure is." Orias poured him a mug. "Wasn't nearly as big an issue as I thought it'd be."

He sat at the small table, sipping from his own. "Power issues in here should be taken care of. If you get hungry, just ask. I'm sure Vel wouldn't mind fixing something up for you."

"I'll just pretend I didn't hear you volunteering me." The woman entered, drying her hair with a white towel.  "At least you got stuff fixed in here."

Cleaned up, she was back to her usual self. It might have been unnecessary, but she'd gone and dolled herself up again, just to off set the mess she'd been earlier. Had to make a good impression on the help Orias had hired.

[Flakeblood]

Clutching the mug, Casey took a tentative sip. Ah, bitter. He wished he had some honey to go in it, but not only was it uncommon to find on Cancer, most people wouldn't keep it around for their coffee.

"Food would be a good idea, eventually. Caffeine can only work for so long, you know?"

At this statement, he gave a smirk before drinking some more of the dark liquid. He couldn't help his eyes as they looked over the woman who had just come in. She looked so different from before that he would not have recognized her in a crowd. It wasn't an unbelievable change, as Casey knew just how different one could look after working on machines so long, but it was still a stark contrast to earlier.

Pulling his eyes away before he started feeling awkward, he addressed his current employer. "So, what was the reason the power was overloading?"

Though he had a feeling about it, he wasn't positive. When Orias blew it off as not a big issue, Casey had gotten a little idea based off some embarrassing experience, and he was curious to see if his hunch was right.

[Etrofder]

Orias laughed a bit awkwardly. "I'd been messing around with some of the working components, trying to refresh on what made them work, compared to the damned weapon systems. Took out the transformer to give it a look over. That's when I figured I'd needed to get someone who could fix me up a more powerful one. Forgot to put the thing back in when I was done, I suppose."

Velura glared at him. "I nearly died because you forgot?" She grumbled irritably.

"You weren't going to die. Probably weren't even going to get shocked, though you might have fried some of the electronics if you'd kept trying." Orias waved it away.

She sighed and sat at the table with her own cup. "All right, whatever you say. Here, let me know when you get hungry. We've got a pretty well stocked kitchen." She smiled warmly to Casey, her attitude flipping with practiced ease.

[Flakeblood]

Casey smiled behind his coffee cup. He'd taken things apart in such a fashion before. It always was rather interesting when he forgot all about his current projects, since they would find inventive and sometimes painful ways to remind him of their 'not completed' status.

Not to mention the banter going on was pretty fun to watch.

"Yeah, no problem. I'll letcha know." He smiled back at Vel. "Can't say I'm the best cook for myself most of the time, so I'll look forward to your food."

Sustinence sounded good, but waiting maybe an hour would probably be best. He could already feel the caffeine taking effect, and he wanted to work while he had the momentary burst of energy. He turned to Orias.

"Anyway, I wanted to take another look around and work out some ideas about how to reroute the power grid. It'd go best, I think, if we could bounce thoughts off each other. So, coming with?"

[Etrofder]

Orias nodded, pushing his chair back and standing. "That'd probably be best." He agreed, rolling his eyes as Velura leaned back and flipped on the small tv in the kitchen, flipping it to her strange Aedolian soap operas. He'd never really understood what was so entertaining about them.

He lead him down to the central core, the room humming gently with the gigantic power core that took up so much of the available space. "Seems like the best place to start."

[Flakeblood]

"Agreed."

Casey walked slowly about the room, examining the core before turning his thoughts outward.

"So, what's this thing distributing to right now? And how much to each system? I got a basic idea, like how much is being poured into the engines and such. Still, I think it'd be good to know how much is going into the other systems too, like life support, navigation, and all that other good stuff."

If they could figure out how much was going into each system, they could better figure out how to reroute some power from places it wasn't needed into other areas, and maybe make the whole process more efficient while they were at it. From what Casey had seen, this core was probably capable of recycling about 60% of its used energy to utilize again. That would give Orias some more power to work with, especially with the new weapons he was trying to integrate.

Man, where did this guy pick up such good materials? Scratch that, he didn't wanna know. Besides, it was probably more due to Orias's skills at assembling random materials that the ship turned out the way it did.

Deciding on a better path for the energy to take--and building that path--would probably fix up this ship just the way his new customer wanted.

[Etrofder]

Orias looked at the reactor for a moment, trying to decide for himself. He had a very... plug it in and see what happens mentality. He tried to stay within safe limits, but was never a fan of exact numbers. Best he could do was a ball park estimate.

"Honestly, I couldn't tell you exactly how much is going where. Custom parts tend to throw off the measurements here and there." He said, a bit embarrassed.

He ran his hand along a thick, insulated line. "This generator puts out about 125,000 EUs per minute. I'd wager the engines get nearly half of that." A hint of pride colored his tone. The speed and maneuverability of Fohen was it's absolute best feature, and on a custom rig like this, he had no doubt he rivaled the fastest ships in the system.

"That's not really an issue though. They're top of the line, and they can take that kind of power. Navigation systems probably get around 15,000. A little light, but I don't need that many fancy bells and whistles to figure out where I am. Life support is pretty standard. Just enough to recirculate the air, water, and get us some heat. Shields'll get some juice in a pinch, maybe upwards of 25,000 if we really need 'em. Basic electronics, like the toaster and microwave are insubstantial really. As for the weapons, they're rated as needing about 15,000. Obviously I've got more power than that. The other systems seem to be able to handle the extra juice, but the guns don't like it."

[Flakeblood]

Right, custom parts did tend to be specialized; that was the whole point.

"It's fine, I get it." He thought a bit more before speaking again. "If it's really putting out that much, where did all the extra power go before...? Doesn't matter much though."

He clapped his hands together excitedly. If you weren't sure where to start, try something and see how it worked out. A lot of this business was learn as you go, especially in custom work. He'd be careful of course, since he didn't want to irreparably damage something, but he needed to try something, to gather information if nothing else.

"Well, let's see if we can't mess with the section of the grid supplying power to the guns then, huh? See what we can come up with there. I'm thinking we could probably get something to filter how much juice gets to the weapons. Then, no worry for overloading." He frowned thoughtfully. "At least in that section. Might have to deal with some spilling into other systems."