Sunday 15 March 2009

Narrator: The Salvage Rig M.R. Mato Mato has arrived.

Captain Tagon: Mars? The U.N.S. shipyards are in orbit around Jupiter. We've got a chit for U.N.S.-sponsored repairs.

Mato Skipper: Sorry. Jove-yards are booked solid for the next eight weeks.

Captain Tagon: All of them? What are they doing, building another fleet?

Mato Skipper: Repairs and replacements. The way I heard it, some kerfluffle out at the rim took the Sixteenth Fleet apart.

Captain Tagon: Define "kerfluffle."

Mato Skipper: Hello, civilian speaking. Dunno what it was exactly. Heavy fighting, for sure. The carriers barely made it home in one piece.

Captain Tagon: So, kind of like what happened to us, then?

Mato Skipper: You're in two pieces. I'd call that more of a "cluster-fluffle."