Yes, let's replace the computer now.

“Alright, let's go,” Tendou nods confidently. He takes a few minutes to bring the new computer over on a handcart, the machine itself being a black, metal box, with a few buttons and numerous ports across the otherwise unremarkable surface. It is quite large compared to a human though, roughly cubical, with each side half Tendou's height, almost a meter across.

He runs a few wires out to it while it sits there. Then he takes his engineering gun and plugs it into a port near the top. “Just clone like this, and...” he mutters while tapping at the screen a few times.

He must be copying the system over like you mentioned. There are a couple minutes delay as he waits for it to complete. During that time, something occurs to you once again. How does he know how to do this? You only told him it was necessary a little while ago. When did he have the time to figure out the entire process? Does he have some prior experience with ray frames that he's drawing on?

Now that you think about it, you know very little about your pilot. He mentioned his home being destroyed shortly before you met, but besides that... Checking through your logs again, you realize that there is no other information. He said his name, lied about his age which Pilot Assist figured out for you, and mentioned he has no allies or other human attachments.

Besides that, there is nothing.

Wanting to know more, you ask him a question.

Tendou, how much experience do you have working on ray frames?

He doesn't see the message at first, since he's getting up to unplug his engineering gun from the computer sitting in front of you. He returns, unplugging from your own port, and tucking the small device away in his bag again.

“Now-” he begins to speak, just as you are playing a chirp to get his attention. He stops short and looks around, spotting your message. “Ah, no,” he shakes his head, before returning to his task, continuing to speak as he starts messing with the wiring overhead. “I don't have any experience. Where I grew up, we only had farms, there wasn't that much mechanical stuff. I never actually saw a ray frame in person before, you know, all of this.”

He stops briefly to grab a few tools, returning to unscrew metal panels from the canopy. The entire time, his eyes hold a slightly unfocused look. “I'd heard about them. Huge robots left over from some ancient past... Though, you said that was only like fifty years ago or something, right? So I guess it hasn't been that long after all. My grandparents... maybe my great grandparents might have been around then. Huh,” he muses, dropping one metal access panel after another, to land with a squish in the sky blue goo that still fills the entire floor of the cockpit.

“Closest I ever got before was just fixing up old farming equipment as a kid.”

His explanation is giving you some reservations. He never even saw a ray frame before a couple days ago, but he's confidently taking apart your internals as he speaks. You don't have the time to change your mind before he starts pulling out wires though.

PWR_OK inactive

Reset

In a matter of milliseconds from receiving the message from the Primary Control System, most of your connections vanish. All sight, sound, and data connections, severed, all except for the Backup Control System. You call on it, and receive somewhat garbled response, but after some time, it does manage to pass through most of what you lost. You reconnect to your various inputs, so you can perceive the world again.

The first thing you see is Tendou, head and shoulders into the canopy of your cockpit, pulling wires this way and that, and dropping numerous screws one after another, down to the floor below.

You sound a couple beeps to get his attention, then when he peeks down, display another message for him. After all, you have to ask.

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

If this is your first time working on a ray frame, how do you know what you're doing?

“I just asked some of those guys,” he responds, pointing in the direction of the other humans working in the storage area. So, he asked about that while he was gathering his tools? Looking back, he only spoke to four people, for less than two minutes each. Was that really enough time to learn something like this?

Whether it is or not, Tendou returns to his task while going on. “They mentioned that you have to get everything unplugged, and I remember seeing those schematics earlier, so I pretty much know what I need to... deal with,” he grunts the last part, metal rattling, and then a metal plate falls into your cockpit with a crash. “There.”

Stepping down, Tendou is wiping his brow. He glances at your monitors, but you still haven't said anything else, so he explains, “Now, if I did everything right, I should be able to just... pull the old computer out. But how do I...” he trails off, muttering as he looks up at it, outside of the field of view available to the camera in your cockpit.

He continues to stand and consider things for nearly a minute. You would offer advice, but you aren't completely clear on the issue. You're just about to ask for clarification when he nods strongly. “I'll do it like that.”

Getting right to it, Tendou kneels down to scoop up a handful of the goo from the floor. Pinching out a small portion, it pulls into a tiny ball between his fingertips. He begins to fasten it into his glove, giving you your first close look at the... thing.

It's an odd contraption. There's a small plastic piece just beneath the wrist, similar to the placement of your own phaser. There's a indent in one side, perfectly shaped for Tendou to slot the little blue sphere into it.

Then he pulls on the small thing, revealing a rubber band connecting the plastic to the glove's main body. It pulls from the underside, stretching like a slingshot as he pulls it back the full length of his forearm. But unlike a slingshot, he clips the plastic bit onto a little latching mechanism at the elbow.

It stays in place there, which you suppose makes the whole contraption more akin to a crossbow than a slingshot. But what is it for?

You aren't left waiting long. With the thing ready to go, Tendou steps up onto the seat, upper body disappearing into the canopy again. “So this is the release here, and this will go like... Alright,” he continues to speak to himself, voice growing tense. “Let's just go for it.”

After a deep breath, he counts down, “Three, two, one, go!” There's mechanical sound, followed immediately by a bright flash of blue sky from above. It washes over the entire cockpit for a moment, before there's another significantly louder metallic sound, like metal grinding over metal.

Then Tendou is stepping back down, but this time, he's bringing the entire computer with him. You can't see well at first with the huge machine blocking your sight, but when he quickly carries it out through the hatch of the cockpit, you get a better look.

It's not so much that Tendou is holding it, he only has the palm of his gloved hand against the side. It's like it's... stuck there, or something. The way he maneuvers it around indicates no strain or inertia like you would expect of a chunk of metal weighing far more than the young man himself.

He quickly moves a couple steps away, squats down, bringing the old computer to rest on the ground, a short distance from the new one. Then he just... sits there. You wait for a full six seconds, before suddenly, the whole computer shudders and thumps against the ground much harder than before.

“Whoo,” Tendou immediately sighs, falling back on his butt. He takes a few slow breaths.

On one hand, you have questions. On the other, you feel like you can guess the answers to some of them.

It's clear that glove is for moving heavy objects. The exact mechanics of how it accomplishes that are far less certain. How is BP fuel involved? And why does it need that crossbow contraption? And why does any of it actually work?

Clueless to your questions, Tendou is already getting up again. He grabs another tiny blob of fuel and loads it into the glove like before, and approaches the new computer.

“Ok, just like before,” he mumbles. “Three... two... one...” He presses his gloved hand to the side of the new computer, the other one coming down decisively to hit what is apparently a button. go-ow!” Tendou flinches back as soon as he hits the button and the crossbow mechanism goes off. Then you spot the little ball of fuel bouncing away across the room at high speed.

Tendou just stands there, bending over with a hand pressed hard into his stomach. “Ow, ow, damn that hurt,” he groans. “Why didn't it work?” He eventually takes a step back, sitting just below the entrance to your cockpit. It's at the very edge of your vision with how your head is angled, so you can only see him from the knees down. You can still hear him talking to himself though.

“Think, think... What did it say about the glove again? Size should be fine, weight? No, no, that can't be it, right? The other lasted for... at least ten seconds, maybe fifteen? So that's uhh... about a ton, I think. No, no way this one is more than double that. Not a chance. So then what...?”

A short silence follows. Tendou must still be thinking.

“Oh.”

He stands up and climbs back into the cockpit. “Damn it.” he breathes the words under his breath.

What went wrong?

Your pilot sighs deeply and takes the controls. It's a bit jerky standing up while everything's running through the backup computer, and there are clearly less resources for Pilot Assist, but he manages. You turn and begin to walk, while he explains, “I forgot the new computer doesn't have any Chi.”