"Sure."

Tina is extra cheerful over the next few days.

Probably for the obvious reason. Erika briefly considers gossip and then attempts to set the idea on fire with her mind. There is no level whatsoever in which she is emotionally equipped to deal with that right now.

Tina and Sargon get to be a semi-regular thing. It's fun. She's happy. Time goes on.

Good for them. No, really, she means it, she's just--too burnt out, emotionally, to spend much of what she has on it.

When the two months are up, they have the money for the part, by a less comfortable margin than they had hoped but more than they had feared.

Tina goes out and gets the part, and then takes Serenity into a maintenance dock and powers down the grav rotors. Then she has to open up the outer ring, remove all the pieces in the way, replace the part, re-tune the rest of the assembly, put everything back where it goes, double-check her work, open it up again for adjustments, and re-seal the ring for the final time.

"All right," she says, coming back inside with a spring in her step. "Our girl's fit to fly. Praise me, 'cause I just did in eight hours what's supposed to take two people ten."

"You're a mechanical miracle," says Sargon.

"I am!"

"Maybe the Alliance is doing unethical experiments on people to make the perfect mechanic and she's an escaped subject."

Tina giggles. "Nah, man, I'm all natural."

"And we're lucky to have you."

She beams.

"Now, about our financial situation, anyone have any clever ideas?"

"We could rent out one of the shuttles," Anwar suggests. "Find someone who wants the local mobility without minding too much which corner of the 'verse they're kicking around in on any particular month."

"Are there a lot of people like that?"

"We won't find out if we don't look."

"True."

So they put out an ad.

Nobody bites before their next cargo run, but they try again when they reach their destination.

At their destination they get a couple of bites; a surveyor and his wife, and a Companion.

And which of these is willing to pay more?

The surveyor's offer is slightly higher, but the Companion would like to point out that having someone as respectable as a member of her Guild onboard is liable to open doors that would otherwise be closed to them.

The Companion has a point. Would she like to come meet the crew?

She would be delighted.

"Bea Karimi. Pleasure to make your acquaintance."

"Sargon. Likewise. And this is Anwar Koskin, our captain, and Tina Lalonde, our mechanic, and Erika Lehnsherr, our accountant."

"Hi!"