Griffith inclined his head. “Much appreciated, sir.”
“What else?”
He scratched his beard. “Well, as the alert buoys get older, I really need some people who know their way around repairs. Or at least a chief to manage them.”
“You already have six mechanics.”
“Sure, but they’re all riggers that came up through groundside ops. They could probably smart us out of a cave collapse with a piece of rope and a lighter, but they wouldn’t know how to run a safe EVA if their lives depended on it. And their lives literally depend on it. I can keep escorting them for now, but you know…” He smiled. “A cap’s not supposed to leave their ship.”
“Who’re you thinking?” she asked.
He paused as he slowly licked his lips, then all but mumbled, “Lace…”
She barked a laugh. “Somehow you look at me with a straight face when you say that.”
He crossed his arms, jaw tight.
“No way, Griff,” she said, shaking her head. “I need my hangar chief.”
He scoffed. “For all the ship traffic you got comin’ in and out of here?”
“She’s also my peripherals mechanic.” Adequin jutted a thumb down the aisle behind her. “She’s the one fixing your damn drone right now, remember. You know how useful she is; you served with her for what—eight, nine years before the war?”
“Ten,” he corrected, but didn’t fall for the shift in topic. “You have two hundred people and Lace is really your only mechanic?”
“For life systems, at least. She’s the only one that can convince the food processor to spit out anything other than basic protein strands, and definitely the only one that knows how to fix those ancient water recyclers.”
“The Argus’s original complement was over a thousand. You can’t need more than a few of those water recyclers working at once.”
“We only have a couple working,” she explained. “I requested a parts bin from the Legion months ago, but until it comes so we can fix a backup, we’re maxed out. I already had to ration water usage for a week last month while one was down.”
He blew out a long breath. “Well, if I can’t have Lace, then it’s gonna have to be you.” She did her best to appear horribly offended and his features went flat with worry. “What?” he scoffed.
“I can’t believe I’m your second pick.”
He laughed.
She took the bottle back from him and sipped another drink. “If you need a thermal-control unit shoddily jury-rigged, I’m all over it. But I don’t know shit about those alert buoys.”
“That’s only half the job,” he pointed out. “And I’ve never seen someone shoot around so calm and confident like they were born with an MMU on their backs.” He accepted the bottle back from her and took another drink. “That’s what makes Lace the best of both worlds—you personally gave her that EVA crash course a few weeks back when the inward comms array shorted out.”
“A few weeks? That was two years ago.”
“And it’s a great justification to give her a bump in rank—you’ve wanted an excuse to do that for years.” His eyelashes fluttered. “Pretty please?”
She shook her head. “I can’t budge on Lace, but I’ll get an EVA course going. I’ll keep an eye out for leadership potential, but we’ll at least get a couple of people who know their way around a spanner trained up and ready for you to take next time you’re back.”
He smirked. “One benefit of time dilation—super-fast training.”