Pestle (3)

Third part. Still faking it. Don't judge me. DON'T YOU JUDGE.

The Swami had magicked up a nice schematic of Pestle. We were all gathered in the common room of _Abalone_ to review what we knew, or thought we knew.

"All right," said the Swami, "first a word on what happened to the Gob."

"He was Gobbled?" asked Hot Henry.

"He's Gob to meet his Maker?" suggested Layla.

"PERHAPS HE DIED," observed Hoggrid over the comm. Betellians don’t understand humor.

"He did die, Hoggrid," replied Swami. "An aperture on the spinward end opened and a beam of high-energy particles cooked him for around five seconds. We're not quite sure how high of an energy level, but temperature drop-off analysis suggests that the _Gob-Smacked_ hull hit six thousand degrees K."

Mincey whistled. "It's like the sun opened its mouth and rimmed him out," he grunted. Stay classy, Mincey.

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Pestle (4)

Part Four. I think something's starting to click! no, wait; that's just a hissing cockroach. Still have no idea where I'm going.

"Lopez," I barked, "Damage report."

"Huh?" said Lopez, popping his head up out of the ventilation duct where he was working. "What's wrong with you? I just told you what's broke and what's not."

"I always wanted to say that," I confessed sheepishly.

"You're the worst captain ever," Lopez accused. "Look, we can limp around if we need to, but otherwise we're stuck here for awhile. Stay out of my way while I get some of our main engines going again. Should take, I dunno, twenty hours?"

"You have ten," I commanded.

Lopez favored me with a withering look. "Would you just make yourself useful or something?" he complained. "Go see if Swami's figured out where Hot Henry has gotten himself. I'll bet you anything he's ripping us off right now." Lopez disappeared down the duct again. A moment later a flickering blue radiance filled the engineering hold as my Weasard engineer resumed welding.

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