randomplaces | Ridge's 'verse. Sign area in the Nexus. Fix!

He wasn't where he'd been when he triggered his sleep program.

Ridge was sure of this, because the couch cluttered area dominated by a massive neon sign looked nothing like the junk yard his last owner had parked and abandoned him in. This place was fairly clean, utterly free of rat and vehicle corpses....

And there were whales in the sky.

"Where... where am I?" he asked softly, not realizing in his wonder that he'd both broken his cover and complied with the sign's request.

"You're in the sign nexus," replied a cheerful female voice. "Hey, are you one of those Transformer things?"

Ridge startled and scanned the redhead that had walked up to him while he was distracted, noting the oily coverall that she wore, and the toolbox in her hand. "...Transformer... things?"

"Yeah." She grinned and gently ran her fingers over a dent on his hood. "The ones that turn into giant robots. Awww. You look like you've ben through heck. Want me to fix you up a bit?"

"I don't think you'd be able to repair what's wrong with me...." replied Ridge slowly, wondering at her calm acceptance of him.

"Bet I can repair some." Her touch turned into a soothing little pat. "I kept Serenity going till I got shanghaied and wound up here, and she wasn't anything simple. Poor thing like to have had a breakdown every day, some weeks."

"Serenity?"

"Our ship." The redhead happily rattled off stats for what Ridge was able to surmise was a spaceship of some sort.

"Wait. I thought humans were only starting to learn spaceflight." He shifted on his shocks with confusion.

"In your reality." She seemed to aim her watch at him, but then blinked. "Oh. You're from my reality. Well, in my part 'a space we fly all the time." Another grin. "So how about that fix? Some 'a that's gotta hurt. Especially that back bumper. What'd you do, anyway?"

"I... how am I talking?"

"Um." She chuckled. "Voice synthesizer?"

"No. I mean my communication equipment was damaged when I landed...." He tried to trigger his comm and was disappointed to get the usual static. "I guess it's just my vocalizer."

"Awww. Well, here. Lemme have a look at you. I dunno how your voice started working, but maybe I can get you lookin' and feelin' a little better, okay?" She gently popped his hood and looked underneath, then took out his congested air cleaner and started fixing it up.

Ridge sighed, and to his surprise felt himself relaxing under her sure fingers. "Thanks."

"No problem." She grinned. "I was needin' somethin' ta do anyway. Oh, and you can call me Kaylee, okay?"

"I'm Ridge." His lights flashed in a small smile. "Thank you, Kaylee."