Odalis walloped a big shiny sphere with her mallet.  She was annoyed by the flashing yellow lights connect to the sphere via an intricate network of heavy-gauged, metal-mesh-shielded cables.  The yellow lights winced ever so slighly with each wallop.  The Floppy Dongle, a ship intended for cargo hauls and extended travel, started to rattle slightly.

“I don’t think that will fix it,” Tom commented with quite a bit of snark.

“What would you know, pencil pusher?” asked Odalis, arms crossed in a challenging pose.

Odalis continued to show the sphere who the boss was.  This time, her banging was harder and more frequent.  Tom sat, legs crossed as he sat on a crate full of spare parts.  His eyes were squinted towards Odalis in a pensive, judgemental gaze.  His coy smile was inviting to a swift punch or at least a sneaky spitball.

“Weeeelllll…  I know enough to say this starship and your crew is not up to spec, and you know what that means: you have limited access to UNDSA sectors.”

Shane barged in with his usual wide-stanced penguin waddle.  Unlike Odalis, Shane had no tool belt or high-tech aides handy.  He preferred to travel “light”.

Shane blurted out, “You know, your body looks mighty nice with all that sweat glistening.”

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