Chapter Text
“Listen, Jessie -” Cid began, sounding exasperated as he walked out from his office in the newly established Ironworks headquarters in the fledgling Revenant’s Toll.
“Due respect, Chief,” the Ironwork’s stubborn young deputy president pushed back, following Cid close behind. “We can’t keep putting it off forever. We do have bills to pay around here, Calamity or no.”
Cid sighed. “I’m not responding to anonymous clients, Jessie, no matter how much money they have. Last time I did that I ended up in an eight month long back and forth about the power supply for a damn coffee maker!”
“Chief -” Jessie tried to begin again as she followed Cid through a set of double doors into the engineering bay beneath the building.
“Don’t Chief me, Jessie, I’m not doing it. You know it’s him,” Cid said, clearly annoyed.
“Cid,” Jessie said, herself growing frustrated as the two descended a slim flight of metalwork stairs into the bay. “Even if it is him, which you don’t know, it’s practically an open secret about you two’s history anyway. Take the commission, and get us some breathing room in the budget, and then you can poke away at upgrades for the Enterprise all you want.”
“Alright, alright,” Cid finally relented, “I’ll think about it.”
“Excellent!” Jessie half-cheered, clearly elated at having won the Ironworks’ president over to her side. “I’ll let the client know we’ll take it.”
“I said I’ll think about it, Jessie,” Cid corrected.
“Of course. One more thing…actually, two more things, and then I’ll leave you to your work. First,” Jessie said, producing a thin sheaf of papers on a clipboard along with a pen, “the final signoff on the new recruit. I know she’s already working, but that just needs your signature on the second and fifth pages.”
Cid took the clipboard and flipped to the second page and began to scribble against the paper without even reading what he was signing, still walking in the direction of the airship hangar. “The miqo’te girl? A bit short, tad quiet?”
“That’s the one, sir,” Jessie agreed with a nod.
Cid scribbled his signature on the final page. “Didn’t she fix the coffee maker too? I like that girl already.”
“Mornin’ Chief!” greeted Biggs and Wedge in unison from behind a half-assembled engine as Jessie and Cid passed by, interrupting any answer to the Chief’s question.
Remembering something, Cid stopped and turned to talk to the roegadyn man and his seemingly inseparable lalafellin companion. “Biggs, did you get a chance to look over the changes to the Enterprise’ s engine that I left for you?”
“Aye, Chief, Wedge ‘n I took a look over ‘em; thought your math checked out on the changes to the fuel intake. The new girl took a peek at them too…she was askin’ to see you about it whenever you came in,” Biggs answered. “Said she’d be over by the Enterprise when you had a free moment.”
Cid tilted his head, slightly confused. “Did she happen to say what she’d be doing on my ship?”
Wedge, who had been finishing putting a few screws in, stuck his head out from inside the motor shell. “Slipped our minds to ask, Chief! Who knows, maybe she’s fixing that starboard pull the steering mechanism has!”
Biggs barked a laugh, joined by Cid. “Well, she’s certainly welcome to try,” Cid said with amusement. “Been at that one for months now to no luck. See you boys at the meeting later?”
Biggs nodded agreement. “You think Claude will bring those pastries she made last time? They were so delicious I almost forgot what the meeting was for!”
This time it was Jessie’s turn to chuckle over the remark about her girlfriend’s baking. “I’ll see if I can convince her for you. But Biggs - you have to submit the expense report for your trip to Limsa. Please, it’s a week late already,” the redheaded hyur chided.
“Atch,” Biggs said, rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment, “I’ll turn it in this afternoon, promise. So long as you get Claude to put a few extra rolanberries in the muffins, for me?”
“I’ll see what I can do,” Jessie conceded, knowing Claude much preferred mixing in currants to rolanberries.
Jessie and Cid waved their goodbyes and kept walking towards the airship hangar. “You said you had two things, Jessie?” Cid prompted.
“Oh, right. There’s a letter here for you from a one Minfilia Warde at the behest of the Scions of the Seventh Dawn? I wasn’t sure if I should take care of it, or if you wanted to handle it personally,” Jessie explained, handing over a missive, still sealed with a wax-stamped eye surrounded by twelve spokes.
“I'll read it, but I trust you with it, Jessie. You know I’m not one for the diplomatic side of things,” Cid said, making his way into the airship hangar where the still-grounded Enterprise sat in drydock, undergoing some repairs.
“Right, then. I’ll take care of it. Unless you need anything, I’ll go -”
Jessie was suddenly cut off by a very loud crashing sound from within the Enterprise, followed by a nearly as loud shouted curse.
Cid muttered one of his own before breaking into a jog towards his ship. “At least she can’t make it any more grounded than it already is,” he grumbled.
Clambering aboard and then below decks, Cid’s eyes took in the scene: a completely disassembled ceruleum intake manifold, pieces laid out all over an oil-streaked sheet of tarp with a begoggled miqo’te knelt next to the contraption, a socket wrench in hand, seemingly completely unharmed.
“Oh, uh, hello!” she said, not lifting her goggles from her eyes and continuing to work on the boxy metal beside her.
“Care to explain what you’re doing to my ship?” Cid asked with a frown.
“I’m fixing the ceruleum intake manifold? What does it look like I’m doing?” the miqo’te asked, incredulous. “I saw it had a crack in one of the runners when I was up here yesterday afternoon taking some measurements for something else; figured I would just fix it before someone got hurt. Speaking of which, I wanted to talk to you about those engine upgrades you had that roegadyn review…Biggs, I think was his name? Anyway, your engine is great and all - really liked the high pressure coolant system, by the way - but I think I figured out a way to do better and also have the engine run more efficiently by improving the radiators with a water aether based system that bypasses the graphite pumps you’re using right now.”
Cid and Jessie exchanged a glance, both a bit stunned by the volume of information that had just been thrown at them.
The miqo’te girl looked over from the manifold she was still reassembling and paused after a downstroke on her wrench. “Oh, gods, I did it again, didn’t I?”
She slid her goggles to her forehead, brushing a strand of red-flecked black hair out of her face. “Sorry, I can apparently get a bit verbose for people.” She stuck out her gloved hand in an offered handshake. “I’m Aydria Fireheart, your new recruit.”
Cid gave a firm handshake in return before breaking off. “You were saying you had a more efficient design for my engines?”
“Oh, right,” Aydria said, rummaging through her pants pockets and producing a piece of scrap blueprint paper folded far too many times on itself. “It’s all in there. It’ll probably be a bit expensive, but you’ll save on repairs from less overheats.”
Cid unfolded the blueprint out in front of him, slowly making sense of the various sketched parts. “And you did all this…yourself?”
“Yep, just last night,” Aydria said proudly.
Jessie peeked over Cid’s shoulder at the materials list that was scribbled into the corner of the blueprint. “Chief, as brilliant as this is, that would cost almost our entire repair budget.”
Cid folded the blueprint back up. “Guess we’ll have to take that mystery client on then after all,” he said, cracking a smile. He turned his attention back to the short miqo’te in front of him. “As for you, Ms. Fireheart, brilliant work. We’re lucky to have you - welcome to the Ironworks!”