2010-06-14 - Junker Jive

Once upon a time in an Argama far, far aw--

Er.

It's come to be that time in the day when work is done and everything is all tools are all put away. Standing in front of her MVF-M11C Murasame bearing the battlescars and wounds of a rather nasty space battle, Rachel has managed to restore the chassis and mount the parts for the leg that was blown off in the midst of the battle with Louise Halevy. Connecting this and that, replacing the missing fingers, and replacing the faceplate should be relatively easy, and the protective covering over the right eye has already been taken care of.

Still, it's a long way uphill until everything is finished. She lost a little time after being asked to escort Teletha Testarossa back to the surface to make sure she meets up with her Mithril contacts, but Rachel Miu Athha is certainly not going to complain about it.

Her shoe touches the floor before pushing off with enough force to send her down the hall in a controlled glide, arching her back and stretching while letting out a loud yawn. The grease smudges have ultimately been washed off of her hands and wrists and forearms, but the Second Princess of Orb could probably do with a brief shower, and...

... well, she's got a date with the coffee machine right about now.

BEFORE

Judau Ashta grumpily lays in the recovery bay as Bright Noa angrily berates him. Irritably turning green eyes to the side, he only half-listens as Bright speaks, his lips curling distastefully.

"... the next time you do something so reckless... going to take a while to repair... not a toy!! ... the next time the damn chicken pecks my face because you let it loose... you need to stop being so irresponsible, Judau. Do you understand me?"

Bright Noa is answered by loud snoring as he looks down towards a sleeping Judau rolling over on his side.

"Zzssnnrfl..."

Bright frowns.

"... Judau's to be restrained to the recovery bay until his injuries are healed."

"... awwwwww mannnn... sssrrrnnnnfff..."

"..."

NOW

The Double Zeta is still in a state of mild disrepair; parts are hard to come by, and even though the AEUG is funded by a number of sources, the ZZ is still rather stupidly expensive and resources have been rather thoroughly spread out in the midst of the latest all-out offensive. And thus, Judau has no choice--

But to /push it to the limit./

Rachel Miu Athha floats listlessly through the hall in a controlled glide. As she glides, she might not notice the head that briefly pokes down from the ceiling at the other end of the hall before sliding back away behind the corner. Perhaps not--

At least until Judau Ashta suddenly springs out from the ventillation shaft at the ceiling of the Argama just around the corner, hanging halfway out of the open vent with a wide, dangerously excited grin.

"Yo, Rach!" the junk trader greets; for some reason, he's wearing his pilot suit, which might explain why he's sweating so much.

"I just thought of somethin' /totally sweet/ you need to learn t'do."

In all the times that anyone even remotely empathic has ever met her, there's always been a weight on her shoulders, a sadness that she never seems to want to talk about. There're days when it seems to vanish, but it's never completely, truly gone. One of the people who noticed it once was Tanith. The other, well.

The other is bursting out of a ventillation duct to the waist. He's also got the grin on his face that suggests that he's got a Plan, which is something extremely unfortunate for her: Because she hasn't figured out what that grin means just yet.

Reaching out to help him out of the vent, the dusky-skinned girl reaches out to help the spacenoid out of the vent, while asking what is perhaps the stupidest thing you could ever ask Judau Ashta:

"I-- s-sure! What did you want to do?"

<== FAST FORWARD ... TO THE FUTURE===>

Standing in front of her locker, she stares for a few moments at the two flight suits that hang in there. One of them is the black and pink pilot suit that she wore just a few days ago, when she took that customized M9 Gernsback out into space. Cut much closer in fit than anything she ever wore before, the right hip had the emblem of the Orb Union screened onto it. The left, the sword and wings of Mithril.

Never before has she ever felt so self-conscious as she was wearing that.

Note: She still has never worn a Trace Suit.

After changing her clothes into her Orb Union flight suit and zipping it up, Rachel steps back out of the locker room with her helmet in hand and clipping back her bangs.

"Well, I guess I'm ready, but-- you still haven't told me what we're going to be doing."

Bandages are wrapped around Judau's left leg; fortunately, they're not visible through the white and red pilot suit he wears, and he elects not to tell Rachel as she helps to pull him out of the slightly-too-tight ventillation shaft. The doctor had told him not to put too much strain on his leg for now; he /wanted/ Judau to just lay down in a bed for days.

Judau's theory: zero g is totally good for his relaxing his leg.

This is why he is able to hide his wince as his leg squeezes out of the vent with an even wider, even less promising grin than before. What does he want to do?

"Heh heh!"

'... but -- you still haven't told me what we're going to be doing.'

"Huh? ... Oh, yeah!"

Turning around to look in Rachel's direction as she steps out of the lockers, Judau smirks, running a his thumb underneath his nose with a self-assured air. "We're low on parts an' stuff, right? An' it's pretty expensive to buy new ones -- especially for repairin' the Double Zeta," because it's a big fatty fat fat, "so I figure -- we oughta go get some! That's why I'm gonna teach you --" Judau grins once again as he gives a reassuring thumbs up.

"-- the delicate art of scrap collectin'!"

Very insistently, Judau leads Rachel to the docking bays of the Argama. A transport shuttle has already apparently been prepared; it looks for all the world that this is, in fact, 'official business.' "Now, we gotta take a shuttle to get there, 'cause we gotta have somethin' to put all the parts we get in. We've also got some high-tensile wires an' stuff, just in case we get some /big/ stuff we gotta haul in. An' -- well -- I'll explain all the other stuff when we get there. Trust me:

"It's gonna be great!"

Settling into the pilot's seat of the shuttle, Judau turns on the radio, tilting his head to the side. "Alright! Start openin' the hangar doors -- we're headin' out!"

"Aye aye, cap'n!" a voice that sounds suspiciously like Beecha Oleg's crackles in, and the doors begin to groan open.

"... Captain," says Torres, slowly.

"What?" Bright asks, already feeling a headache blooming. But why--

"We have an unapproved launch from docking bay 4 and the nurse says Judau isn't in his medroom."

"..."

The delicate art of-- what?

The look on her face is like a child's: Somewhere between wonder and not actually getting it, Rachel stares at Judau for a few moments before her mouth opens to speak. It looks like she wants to ask a question, but like an attempt to translate some forms of ancient Japanese kanji, she literally has no way to properly put the concept into words. Thus, her mouth closes with a thoughtful expression, and...

... she follows. God, is she in trouble later.

Gliding behind him and into the shuttle, the younger of the Athha sisters seems to be quite willing to help out with the shuttle getting ready; Rachel occupies the copilot's seat and starts running preflight checks and start-up sequences so that she doesn't feel totally useless in all of this.

"Is that... Beecha?" she asks, voice as quiet as normal.

Then she looks at Judau.

"How do we know what's good enough to actually put into the Double Zeta...? I mean, ... what if something happens to it? You don't want to staple a Zaku head or arm onto a Gundam, do you?"

"Uhhhh, yeah! I needed someone to open the hangar bays, after all!" is about all Judau offers in the way of explanation.

Which would probably beg the question 'why isn't the normal crew opening the hangar doors' if the shuttle weren't launching off into space a second later.

Judau works the controls of the shuttle with a degree of practiced ease that suggests just how long he's been on the Argama already. Even he doesn't realize the level of comfort he has as he inputs the directions and sets the shuttle to autopilot; it just seems natural.

Turning his seat around as Rachel speaks, Judau's brows scrunch together. The young junk trader rubs the bottom of his jaw, considering her words. "Well, you gotta have a good eye for parts an' stuff. Even if they call it 'scrap' people drop off a lot of high-quality parts that actually haven't been damaged that much more often than you'd think, just 'cause some other part of a machine's been busted. Other than that, uh, y'know--

"Trial and error!" The 'v'-sign he offers is only slightly reassuring.

"But that's why I need you around! You're like, really super good with machines, right??" Judau abruptly leans forward to take Rachel's hands, looking like an eager schoolkid. "I mean, I've seen you workin' on 'em and stuff. You probably have a good eye for this stuff! I need you t'help me find all the good parts an' filter out the junk. It'll be awesome! An' I got just the right tools for the job, too! Follow me!"

And without further word, Judau will abruptly take Rachel by the hand to bring her out of the cockpit of the shuttle, to lead her back toward the docking bays with an eager look in his eye -- especially as something dawns on him.

"Man, do you think we could staple a Zaku head onto a Gundam? That'd be /sweet./ Maybe if we find a in tact model... hmmmmm..."

Holding hands.

Usually, she did it with Cagalli and Tessa to reassure herself in a horrifying situation, but this harkens back more to the times that Rachel spent with Quatre, at parties and riding on the Tuatha de Danaan when the blonde boy would just take her hands and drag her along.

He's not rubbing his leg against hers, so maybe Judau doesn't have it as bad for her as Quatre did. Or at least, that's what Cagalli and Leena said...

Still, when he grabs her hands, her face turns a little bit red, then with an apparent cause as he starts to praise her abilities. Rachel doesn't look away, even when the natural reaction would be to do so as she lets out a few short stammering, "W-W-- Well, I'm-- I'm not that great, I... I mean, I just do repairs, and Mister Astonaige has to be there to make sure everything's okay, a-- and Kira's the one that has to make sure the OS in the Murasame's running fine, an-- and, um, um--"

It starts after he says "follow me," and she continues in this way all the way to the back of the transport shuttle. Then, she looks at Judau in confusion, golden eyes blinking rapidly. Newtype senses would probably pick up on all of this embarassment and strange teenage girl feelings, but heaven knows if the Double Zeta's pilot could make heads or tails of it.

"B-- But even if you could do that, you would still have to splice the wires and make sure the head is attached correctly, a-and the mono-camera setups aren't compatible with a linear cockpit..."

Judau hardly seems aware of Rachel's embarassment, or at least part of the nature of it; he instead chalks it up to his words. She's shy, after all, the compliments are probably embarassing her. This belief is simply reinforced by Rachel's words, a broad grin blooming across his lips and exposing pearly white teeth.

"Aw c'mon! I bet you're great at it! Besides, this'll be like -- like -- uhhh, trainin'! Yeah! Scrap collectin' is great for learning how to fix up machines!" Technically true, but god knows Judau has only learned what Elle has angrily screeched at him about 'CONNECTING THESE TWO WIRES TOGETHER WILL KILL ALL OF US, YOU IDIOT' or something.

And so, Judau leads Rachel onward, keeping a firm hold of her hand as if she might lose her way if he doesn't. They're moving at the /speed of Judau/ down the halls as he grabs a control stick and floats through zero gravity, helpfully taking some strain off his pained leg. He only momentarily pauses in his ABSOLUTE FORWARD MOMENTUM as he feels that pulse of feeling from Rachel. Embarassment...? He looks back at her, and smiles.

"Don't worry. Trust me! It's gonna be a lotta fun."

He definitely can't make heads or tails of it.

The hangar bay doors slide open with a hiss when Judau lets go of Rachel's hand. Inertia carries him forward, the AEUG pilot twisting around to flip on various switches. "Now, normally you can use regular mobile suits for scrap collectin', but they're not really made for it an' they're a bit too big to carry along with all the haul ya get. That's why I'm gonna show you how to pilot the /ultimate tool/ for any junk collector worth his salt." That's right. Worth his salt. The final switch turns on, and lights flood into the launch bay, illuminating the empty, silent chambers, and exposing two simple units; small, red, and with bulbous, glass tops, as if fish bowls had been fastened on as heads.

"The Petite Mobile Suit, the ultimate secret scrap collector! Heh heh!"

'The ultimate secret scrap collector!'

"But that's..." One bigass fishbowl.

Logic and training harken back to her in a rush, thoughts about construction and carrying overriding her initial thoughts about how the machine looks. Carried by her own inertia after Judau releases her hand, Rachel glides across the illuminating hangar and toward the construction bots while her arms extend, fingers fanning out to catch herself against one of the Petites.

"... I can understand why you would use something like this, then..."

Setting her helmet inside of the domed 'cockpit,' Rachel starts to pull herself around the exterior of the machine with a careful eye, poking and prodding at the joints and limbs to make sure everything is up to scratch. "I guess as long as they're dexterous enough to sift and sort without something breaking, too," Rachel says as she comes back around to the front.

Swinging her legs up and coming over the entrance to the machine, Rachel picks up her helmet and settles down inside of the Petite. Pulling up the seals and protection out of the collar of her flight suit as she pulls her helmet on and gets set up for the ever-present potential of something really bad happening in space, it never once dawns on her that she may be doing something that she shouldn't.

She stares at the control sticks for a few moments, trying to get a good feel for them. She's never used one of these before, and it's more stripped down than the aforementioned Zaku-- making this a learning experience in colony construction machines meant for civilians. "Stabilizers... verniers... claw control, right?" she asks, head tilting a bit. Her finger's pointing down at a few of the buttons on the control sticks.

"I'm sorry, I've ... never used one of these before..."

Standing just before the rails as Rachel swings over them, Judau seems content to just watch as the younger Athha begins to inspect the small machine. An expression of muted curiosity and appreciation washes over his features as Rachel quickly begins to disseminate the mechanics of the machine. Admittedly the Petite is not a complex machine, but--

"Wow, you really /are/ good at this!" he says wonderingly, rubbing the back of his head. A smile tugs at the corners of his lips as he pushes off the rail, forward flipping through zero g. He stops his momentum by placing his hands on the top of the other Petite's glass bowl head, casually flipping on the exterior opening switch and letting the bulbous top swing open with a slight hiss.

"They build 'em small an' simple to be able to handle construction stuff," Judau explains, "but the Petites are really good for siftin' through junk heaps and picking out specific pieces of scrap to be used as scrap. An' the Shoal Zone is just like a giant junk yard in space, so, y'know."

Swinging around and into his Petite, Judau begins fastening on his helmet when Rachel speaks again. He pauses, looking back at her curiously.

'I'm sorry, I've... never used one of these before...'

Judau's head cants slightly to the side, as if confused. His thick brows lift before he goes back to securing on his helmet, grinning easily. "Y'know, I had no idea how to pilot a mobile suit when I first used one," he says after a moment. "An' the first time I used one was in the middle of a battle, too!" While he was trying to /steal it/, but he elects not to explain that particular part--

"I always figure, the best way to learn things is just to close your eyes, jump in an' /do it./" He grins, offering a thumbs up as his helmet visor slides shut and the bulbous top slides slowly shut.

"It's definitely more fun, anyway! C'mon--

"Just follow my lead, okay? I'll show ya how you collect scrap in style!"

The hangar bays open with a groan; a moment later Judau's mobile suit, attached to the hangar by a long metal chord, /launches/ into the vast field of mobile suit scrap glistening in the field of stars beyond in a somewhat dangerously reckless spiral that either suggests Judau has no idea what he's doing or he knows /exactly/ what he's doing.

Yeah.

"WOOOOHOOOOO!"

"... and you still just... jumped into one, and could figure it out like that?" She sounds amazed, honestly amazed-- it's like the next coming of Amuro Ray in this shuttle, for as wild and uncontrolled as the Double Zeta's pilot is.

There's something strange about being in Judau's presence. It reminds her of Tanith, in some odd way-- given, recent events in China have made things difficult for the young navigator on board the Argama, but there's a sense, a feeling of something different in her life. It isn't like being with her sister, but rather... a sense of normalcy, a feeling that she actually does have a place somewhere in the world. It's a good feeling, basically.

Allowing the dome to close and lock down with a whirring and hiss, Rachel turns to watch as Judau opens the bay doors, then the launch right out, and-- the yelling, too.

As he blasts on off into the Shoal Zone, Rachel Miu Athha's expression seems to soften properly, leading to a smaller smile as that good feeling comes back. Looking down to her controls next, she murmurs a short, "Let's see here," before a "One, two, and go!"

In a much calmer and controlled manner, the second Petite checks the cables and follows after in a straight line... and not spiralling off all willy-nilly!

There's something that's oddly calming about all this, and maybe, in part, this sort of outing is as much for Judau's well-being as much as Rachel's. Judau can't really explain why -- there's just something oddly comfortable about Rachel. It helps him keep his mind off other things -- less pleasant, more recent memories.

"Heh heh, yeah! It was sorta tough at first, but things're pretty easy if you just dive in headfirst!" says Judau, dispensing his potentially (un)wise (and hazardous) advice with a carefree sweep of the Shoal Zone's seemingly endless expanse. The Shoal Zone. He never thought he'd be here. Though the circumstances around it are horrible, this place is like heaven for junk traders.

"ALRIGHT!" Judau's Petite helpfully mimics his excitement as it suddenly /bursts/ straight upward just in front of Rachel's, launching directly into the field of salvage beyond. "Wow, there's so much of it..." He says, wonderingly, before remembering Rachel's previous words. "See? You just hafta dive right in an' everything'll work out just fffffffAAAH--"

Nearly ramming head-first into a solid chunk of what looks to be a Zaku torso, Judau yanks on his Petite's controls, sending it abruptly, and awkwardly, spiraling off to the side until it lands, relatively less harmfully, against the side of a chunk of asteroid drifting through the junk field.

"... ah... heh heh... see? Totally fine!"

The Petite peels itself off of the space rock as an endless field of debris drifts beyond; chunks of mobile suits, battleships, satellites -- anything and everything one could imagine made by man for space. "The Shoal Zone's one of the biggest debris fields in the earth sphere," Judau explains. "You gotta keep your eyes peeled, though -- a lotta this stuff is just scrap that barely pays anything, an' they're definitely not gonna work for salvaging spare parts. You gotta keep lookin' an' pay close attention. It's like, y'know... space diamonds in the space rough." Judau rubs the back of his head.

"Or somethin'."

Coil extending further and further, Judau's Petite drifts further out, grasping onto a chunk of GM arm and inspecting it closely even as Judau's gaze inevitably finds itself drifting back to Rachel's suit. "You figurin' the controls out alright?"

Maybe they share a common way of looking at things like this-- and at space. The vastness, the ability to float through it and understand just how huge the universe is, but at the same time... to look at just about anything and everything with the wonder and wide eyes of someone a lot younger than they really are.

As Rachel's Petite glides out in comparison to the wild spiral that Judau brings to the table, she can't help but take a look all around herself, the junk that floats and spirals around through space in a perpetual junk field of parts. While it may be the Shangri-la of Junk Collectors, she's taking a look at things in a more abstract way; the light of the Sun blasting between parts and the blue glow of the Earth flowing between others.

It's like a painting, almost.

Suddenly, there's a Judau right in front of her.

"Just be careful," she warns, though there's not a single hint of anger or malice in it. "I don't want to have you crash into something, then I have to explain everything to Captain Bright and Astonaige and..." Well, you can see where she's going with this.

The motions of her Petite are a little jerky, for the moment. Too much thrust, then too little, then a few light taps to get it moving again in the right direction. The arms move a little more slowly as it reaches out and grabs onto the torso of the Zaku that Judau just about plowed face-first into.

"Yeah," she says, finally. "I think I'll be okay in a few minutes. I've just got to... hmm. The hole's a little big through the chest," she adds absently, half-pushing the Mobile Suit's parts to the side. Blasting ahead again with another jerking motion, the Petite is on to what looks like the remnants of a Gespenst's hip and part of a leg.

"Space diamonds... got it," Rachel adds, as though she's actually taking notes (she is).

'I don't want to have you crash into something, then I have to explain everything to Captain Bright and Astonaige and...'

"Hey, hey, don't worry!" Judau reassures cheerfully. "I totally got a handle on this! Besides -- I can deal with Bright, that know-it-all is just full of a buncha hot air."

MEANWHILE

The radio on board the transport shuttle crackles on.

"--sshhhhudau! Judau Ashta! Come in right now!" fizzles in Bright Noa's commanding voice through an empty cockpit. "I know you're there, Judau! You have no idea the /hell I am going to bring you when you get back/--"

BACK TO OUR INTREPID HEROES

Judau Ashta sneezes.

"Huh, weird," he mutters, rubbing his nose idly. "Anyway, like I was sayin', Bright's all bark! He's like a teddy bear. Like, an angry teddy bear. Y'know, sorta like, it's got its fangs all bared but it's still all soft an' fluffy. Like that."

MEANWHILE

"--/and you won't have time to complain when you're stuck cleaning up the grease pits with a tooth brush for the rest of the week/--"

AND AGAIN

Judau's Petite tosses the GM arm aside casually. Though he takes note of the other Petite's more jerky movements, he doesn't spend much time dwelling on it; Rachel's actually getting the hang of it even faster than he expected. Light glistens off the edge of old and wartorn metal as the Petite's arm brushes through idle pieces of scrap, crawed digit clamping down on another chunk of machinery as Rachel idly speaks.

"Sometimes the bigger pieces still have some parts that are still good even if others are damaged," Judau continues. "What I do is just hit 'em, y'know, until the external armor peels open an' you can get a good look on the insides. It's a really good technique! You should keep it in mind.

"It works, like, fifty percent of the time!"

Judau spins the chunk of torso in his Petite's arms, scanning it critically. It looks like the thruster set for an older model of the Tieren-line mobile suits. He squints, slowly... before something dawns on him. Clenching down on, he grins, spinning the Petite about.

"Yo, Rachel!" he calls out with an eager voice.

"Catch!"

Which is just about when the Petite chucks the thruster set at Rachel's own suit as if it were an oversized, ungainly baseball -- not hard enough to be dangerous, but enough so to - hopefully - launch it right into the Petite's waiting claws.

"Check that one out, tell me what you think!"

There's a silence from Rachel as Judau explains Bright to her, at least from his view. It isn't just silence, but a /heavy/ silence, as though she was about to say something but suddenly decided that it wasn't a good idea. The childlike curiosity and wonder seems to likewise deflate as she starts to think back on the times that she'd dealt with him personally. Plus, with Quattro.

The time he rather directly told her to "get her emotionally crippled ass back to the Argama" at the end of the Mercury mission over the secure line.

Judau gives her some good advice, something that she didn't even think about in the first place. Maybe she should go back to dealing with that Zaku torso, even though the body parts are still pretty... well, ... old. But then he points out his super secret technique shortly before lobbing an entire thruster package at her.

"W-Wha--?!"

Snapped out of her daze in a split-second, the claw-grip hands reach out to catch the thruster set as it makes impact with the Petite's small frame. The machine is tossed, just slightly, forcing Rachel to tip-tap-tap-tap the controls and make last-minute adjustments in order to get the bulbous-headed machine to come to a stop. "J-Judau, please ... be a little more careful next time," she says, eyes closing for a moment.

Turning her attention to the thruster set, Rachel's opening eyes narrow a little while she tries to lean closer to the domed cockpit hatch. Then closer. Then, she's almost kissing the glass, so to speak.

"If we had a Tieran to our name on the Argama, we could probably make some use of it... the nozzles need to be hammered out and the connection and leads look okay except for the part where it was blown off..." Rachel tilts her head a little bit, and she briefly looks at the hatch controls. She almost wants to go out there for a closer look. "I think if we spend about half a day on it, I can get it running again..."

The silence is poignant; it's more than that, though. It's the /sense/ that comes along with it. Even if Judau isn't particularly skilled in using it, his mind is an (ironically) powerful thing. He catches up on that unease even if he can't discern the why, his brows furrowing together.

"... Sorry," he says, even if he's not quite sure what he's sorry about. "Rachel... don't worry. If anything happens - anything at all - I'll go ahead an' deal with Bright myself. Okay?"

But there's other matters to deal with. Such as Rachel awkwardly catching that thruster set, jostling around the Petite. Judau can't help but laugh -- not mockingly, but out of genuine enjoyment, the sound infectious as it crackles in over the radio. "Sorry, sorry!" he apologizes again, this time much more light-hearted. "But y'know, ya gotta stay on your toes! With all this debris floatin' around, you can never be too careful; it can be pretty dangerous. Rule #1 of salvaging: always be aware of your surrou--"

CRUNCH

That is the sound of a giant robot foot smacking right into the backside of Judau's Petite.

"UWAAAAAAAA--" Flipping through space, Judau goes topsy-turvy inside the cockpit of his Petite. His vision swirls about chaotically as he punches down on the vernier thrust, reversing the momentum and snapping Judau suddenly into his seat's restraints.

"--GGGHHHH--"

WHANG

The Petite finally comes to a stop as it lands against something large and metallic. Judau, still dazed, comes to just as he hears Rachel's voice crackling in over the radio. Connection leads? --Oh, right.

"Ugh..." mutters Judau, rubbing at his neck as he squints at the other Petite a fair distance beyond. "Wow, that's... really good." The Newtype blinks, slowly, focusing himself a bit more. "See, I knew it! You've got a natural talent! You're awesome, Rach!" To emphasize this point, the Petite slams its right claw down, striking that metallic surface again with a muted, tiny impact. Realization slowly dawns on Judau as he hears the noise through his suit, looking down... at a long metal leg, connected to an equally intact body.

"... uhhhh..."

Ten seconds pass. And the"HOLY SHIT!"

Declares Judau Ashta, standing on top of the leg of a--

"IT'S A GELGOOG!"

If Judau could reliably jump-freezeframe in joy in space, he would be doing it /right/ /now/.

Though her face is hidden by the domed top of the Petite, by her helmet, and by her visor, her emotions are laid so bare that Judau can feel it from his position. That... may just be what Amuro is attempting to achieve with this young girl, to awaken that sense of awareness that others just don't have. It also helps that Bright Noa is a touchy subject for her: His attitude, followed by the sudden surge of acceptance for her after tearing Yazan Gable's Hambrabi in half.

People like Tanith, Tessa, Cagalli, Quatre, and now Judau-- those are the ones that make her feel a bit better. Betterererer enough now to even turn her head toward the Gundam pilot and allow a faint smile to cross her face. "Thank you, Judau."

And then clearly, the Newtype's famous sense of space-awareness seems to have skipped a generation, especially as Judau Ashta demonstrates his uncanny ability to play Junk Pinball by bumping into this and that. Almost releasing the salvagable thruster set to make sure that he's all right, she instead eases the machine forward at a slower, easier pace. There's still a bit of rickety-rackety in the movement, but it seems progressively better than her first attempts to fly around?

"N-No, I've ... I've just studied machines for a long time, that's all," she says, her face turning a little red with embarassment. "I-- I know that doesn't sound very 'Princess,' b-but Uncle Homura insisted..."

Ten seconds later and a powerful freakout, Rachel looks up in a fair amount of surprise. "That-- W-Wow, it's in remarkably good shape for something floating around out here..."

"Heh heh heh!" Judau chuckles smugly, wiping his thumb across his face. The expression is a bit awkward, what with the visor in the way, but somehow the young Spacenoid manages.

"See?? Stick with me, and you'll learn how to be a great salvager in no time!"

Soon, though, the young green-eyed Newtype is utterly immersed in his totally-on-purpose-not-accidental discovery. The Petite orbits around the floating Gelgoog, meticulously inspecting every inch of it; scorch marks and dings from bullets ricocheting off titanium armor pepper it here and there, but otherwise, it's just as Rachel says -- it is in almost miraculously good shape.

"Wowwww..." mumbles Judau wonderingly, reaching out with one of the Petite's clawed hands to poke at the thing -- as if it might somehow come to life if he does. "This has gotta be a One Year War model, the quality an' design totally fits. Mannnn, this is awesome! These things are like, collector's items, d'you know how much money you can make for an intact OYW mech?? All the damage looks like its superficial, I bet the pilot just ditched it or somethin'. If you just did a little repair work--"

Judau pauses, considering. By the time he's ready to speak again, he turns, grinning wide in the direction of Rachel's Petite.

"We're totally takin' this thing with us."

There appears to be no room for debate as the Petite's thrusters activate, sending it upward with a jerking motion before it rapidly descends upon the head of the Gelgoog. Landing only somewhat roughly, Judau starts inspecting the mobile suit, as if looking for a convenient way to transport it. "Start gatherin' what scrap you can find, I'll take care of this thing! Uhh... somehow. How'm I gonna carry this thing in..."

Realization dawns on Judau in a bright smile as the Petite's right claw swings backward, clamping down on the cord at the back. Ripping it free offhandedly, Judau sets about awkwardly using those ungainly claws to start wrapping that wire around the Gelgoog's head, because that is totally smart.

"Y'know," Judau says, abruptly, his tone conversationally casual as the Petite flies around the Gelgoog's head. "I think it's pretty cool that a princess knows how t'do that sorta stuff. I dunno why, but talkin' with you doesn't feel like talkin' with a princess. It's a lot more relaxing or somethin', I guess, y'know?" Not like Judau has ever even met any princesses before in his life besides Rachel and Cagalli. Plus--

"Not as much frilly pink dresses, too."

Rachel nods a little bit, even though there's no way that Judau could clearly see it from the distance between them, and the thruster set that's held up in front of the Petite. The smaller machine makes slow, careful moves around the torso and eventually the cockpit bloc while he excitedly talks. When it's her turn, she adds a slightly-- just slightly-- enthusiastic, "It's an amazing find, Judau... I'm betting you're going to make a money off of something like this."

The Crab People Mobile Suit turns and heads closer to the open hatch of their shuttle, reaching out to very lightly, very gently push the thruster set inside to let it drift and hopefully stay inside of the open bay, given all the space. "Okay. I'll look around," she says, nodding.

Moving back through the Shoal Zone with slightly more controlled bursts of thrust and movement, Rachel lets out a single, short laugh. "Well, it... I mean, I've had to do that sort of thing when I was little. Father and Uncle Homura, and parties, and... I had to look 'appropriate and presentable," she says. "Cagalli, too."

"But," she says, in a totally innocent way. "I like talking with you too, Judau. You, and Tessa, Tanith, Cagalli..."

There's a short pause. "This right arm might be usable, too..."

"Really??" Judau asks, wonderingly. "Man, I can't imagine either of you in dresses or anything like that. It's just sorta weird to visualize or somethin'. Stuffy things like that just don't seem to fit you." Judau grimaces slightly as the coil starts to tense up around the Gelgoog, running gradually out of give. He yanks the Petite's claw arms back a bit, as if trying to find a way to secure it or tie it into a simple knot.

"I know wearin' suits an' stuff just makes me feel like a blowhard or somethin'."

Giving a light-hearted laugh at this, he tugs at the cord again, somehow - through the ingenuity of Judau Is a Psychotic - managing to tie the connecting wire to some kind of a haphazard, completely not-safe looking knot. "... Yeah that oughta work," he ultimately decides.

Rachel's words bring Judau to a pause. He laughs a little awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck even as the Petite grabs hold of the metal cord tightly. "Y-yeah, well -- dood friends'll always be there when you need 'em. So don't worry - I got your back!" Yanking on the cord a couple times to ensure its stable, Judau smiles faintly, staring at his console.

As Rachel begins to sift once again, the thrusters on Judau's Petite ignite to full, yanking that Gelgoog into a slow crawl behind it as it drags the massive machine along with him through the weightlessness of space. "Hmmm... this is a little more banged up than I thought..." he wonders to himself.

"Then it's decided!" he suddenly declares. "You're gonna help me touch this thing up. With your help, I bet we can get this thing lookin' as good as new in no time!" And, with this decision now set in the stone that is Ashta Law, Judau whistles happily as he yanks his Gelgoog along, the thing swaying dangerously from side to side as he remains blissfully oblivious of the potential hazards of 'swinging around a mobile suit on a tenuously attached cable.'