[Time Enough] the whiplash twins
Title: two heads're better'n one
'Verse/characters: Time Enough; Lapis Lazuli, Lorelei Lee, Dora
Word Count: 630
Prompt: 32A "another fine mess"
Notes: Before The Number of the Beast. goldjadeocean requested a bit with the whiplash twins; I think this may the first time I have.
They technically belong to Mr. RA Heinlein and his estate. I mean no harm.
"Well, this is another fine mess you've got us into," Laz muttered, hauling cold, dead weight back in through the airlock. "Dora's talking to herself--or to Buddy Boy--grav's at half and tilted, and you're currently dead. Fine job of captain."
If you'd known that asteroid'd changed orbits, you should've said something sooner, the overfull feeling in her head said, Lor at her driest, and outdated religious systems trying to think at half power and only one set of working hands was a pain. They often wondered how other people managed.
She dogged the door closed with her foot, carefully balancing her full weight and the body across her shoulders against the tilted artificial gravity, then walked into the medical bay.
Thanking Buddy Boy's paranoia that they'd never taken out the extra equipment the exodus to Tertius had put aboard Dora, Laz laid out the body, started checking over the damage. Head and helmet were fine--she'd dreaded that, a little, had wondered as she went out into the cold and dark to retrieve Lor whether they'd have to try to build up a new synaptic net from a fresh-grown clone, if that would make them three, not two. But no, this was just a holed suit, a shard of the rock they'd hit tearing through fabric and skin and letting in the cold. They could fix this.
But in the meantime, into the quickfreeze with you, Cap'n, and the autonomously powered one at that, and me to go see to Dora-doll. Lazy, lazy, getting yourself killed, leave all the work to me.
Oh, shut up, just because I've not got a mouth to yell back doesn't put it all your way. Lor reached up, pulled the crew tabs off the shoulders of the remaining suit, and stretched, hands brushing the ceiling of the freezer section of the bay. "One pair of hands is going to make this slower. Should we yell?"
And admit to Buddy Boy we mucked up a transition and nearly got Dora chopped in half? Laz demanded, putting their hands on their hips, gloved fingers tapping at the gun and the grapple.
"Okay, okay," Lor raised a hand in acknowledgment, then walked out of the bay, heading for Dora's heart.
***
Eight hours of carefully picking out fried electronics and replacing them with the rapidly dwindling supply of spares, before Dora was back online. She didn't even cuss at them, because by the time she was aware enough to realise what had happened she had access to the sensors that kept an eye on the freezer compartments and knew why there was only one set of hands working on her and no running argument in human voices.
"I'm sorry," she said instead, and they shrugged. "Our fault. Everyone needs some stitches, but we'll be fine."
Dora wasn't little enough to need to ask if the 'we' meant her, too. She just picked up the mechanicals she had access to, and started helping with repairs.
It was a scary, cold moment when the repairs were to the stage they had to go back outside, finish checking over the external damage before they left orbit. Dora could probably drag them back inside if another rock chunk hit, get the second body to the freezer and get home by herself.
Probably, Lor muttered, trying not to shiver, but Laz shook their head, straightened unmarked shoulders. We'll be fine, she replied, where Dora couldn't hear and worry. Picture what terrible pirates we'd be, if we couldn't go outside?
I'm you, Lor replied, and I know you're scared, too.
Laz opened the airlock, hooked the line to the outside magnet, tested it for hold, then stepped out onto Dora's hull before she spoke again. "This wouldn't stop Lazarus." I won't let it stop us.
'Verse/characters: Time Enough; Lapis Lazuli, Lorelei Lee, Dora
Word Count: 630
Prompt: 32A "another fine mess"
Notes: Before The Number of the Beast. goldjadeocean requested a bit with the whiplash twins; I think this may the first time I have.
They technically belong to Mr. RA Heinlein and his estate. I mean no harm.
"Well, this is another fine mess you've got us into," Laz muttered, hauling cold, dead weight back in through the airlock. "Dora's talking to herself--or to Buddy Boy--grav's at half and tilted, and you're currently dead. Fine job of captain."
If you'd known that asteroid'd changed orbits, you should've said something sooner, the overfull feeling in her head said, Lor at her driest, and outdated religious systems trying to think at half power and only one set of working hands was a pain. They often wondered how other people managed.
She dogged the door closed with her foot, carefully balancing her full weight and the body across her shoulders against the tilted artificial gravity, then walked into the medical bay.
Thanking Buddy Boy's paranoia that they'd never taken out the extra equipment the exodus to Tertius had put aboard Dora, Laz laid out the body, started checking over the damage. Head and helmet were fine--she'd dreaded that, a little, had wondered as she went out into the cold and dark to retrieve Lor whether they'd have to try to build up a new synaptic net from a fresh-grown clone, if that would make them three, not two. But no, this was just a holed suit, a shard of the rock they'd hit tearing through fabric and skin and letting in the cold. They could fix this.
But in the meantime, into the quickfreeze with you, Cap'n, and the autonomously powered one at that, and me to go see to Dora-doll. Lazy, lazy, getting yourself killed, leave all the work to me.
Oh, shut up, just because I've not got a mouth to yell back doesn't put it all your way. Lor reached up, pulled the crew tabs off the shoulders of the remaining suit, and stretched, hands brushing the ceiling of the freezer section of the bay. "One pair of hands is going to make this slower. Should we yell?"
And admit to Buddy Boy we mucked up a transition and nearly got Dora chopped in half? Laz demanded, putting their hands on their hips, gloved fingers tapping at the gun and the grapple.
"Okay, okay," Lor raised a hand in acknowledgment, then walked out of the bay, heading for Dora's heart.
***
Eight hours of carefully picking out fried electronics and replacing them with the rapidly dwindling supply of spares, before Dora was back online. She didn't even cuss at them, because by the time she was aware enough to realise what had happened she had access to the sensors that kept an eye on the freezer compartments and knew why there was only one set of hands working on her and no running argument in human voices.
"I'm sorry," she said instead, and they shrugged. "Our fault. Everyone needs some stitches, but we'll be fine."
Dora wasn't little enough to need to ask if the 'we' meant her, too. She just picked up the mechanicals she had access to, and started helping with repairs.
It was a scary, cold moment when the repairs were to the stage they had to go back outside, finish checking over the external damage before they left orbit. Dora could probably drag them back inside if another rock chunk hit, get the second body to the freezer and get home by herself.
Probably, Lor muttered, trying not to shiver, but Laz shook their head, straightened unmarked shoulders. We'll be fine, she replied, where Dora couldn't hear and worry. Picture what terrible pirates we'd be, if we couldn't go outside?
I'm you, Lor replied, and I know you're scared, too.
Laz opened the airlock, hooked the line to the outside magnet, tested it for hold, then stepped out onto Dora's hull before she spoke again. "This wouldn't stop Lazarus." I won't let it stop us.