Uzhin
By the Tribunal, today was shaping up to be one of those days. You know the ones where you accidentally sleep too much and the moment you get to your shift you spill drive coolant all over yourself and have to go through a decontamination shower before you can go back to work? I mean, those specific things didn’t happen to me, but you get what I mean. With getting ripped into realspace unexpectedly yesterday and the resulting pirate boarding, there had been a lot of things to do in engineering. I was so busy with everything going on that I didn’t even have time to form an opinion on the whole ‘Terrans being small’ thing that the rest of the crew seems to be so obsessed with right now. Of course, my reaction to them having time to spread rumors but not having time to work ended up being something like “less talking and more working.” That didn’t mean that I didn’t want confirmation for myself, I was just too busy with repairs!
In fact, I was in the middle of repairing a heat sink in the reactor when I felt a metal hand tap on my skin. “What in the Twelve Hells do you want? Can’t you see that I’m working here?” I shouted in irritation as I whipped my head around to see who would even DARE interrupt the work that I was doing. As I wheeled around to see who touched me, I came face to face with the armored form of our resident Terran.
He held up his hands in a placating manner. “Hey, I’m really sorry to bother you, but I was wondering if I could get some help with an engineering problem that I’m having.”
I paused for a moment as my entire mental processes came to a screeching halt at the call for aid. “Sorry, what did you say?” I asked while I took a closer look at the armor. I had never seen the Terran up close, so I saw this as my opportunity to study it more closely.
“I said, I need some help with an engineering problem that I’m having. I asked the other guys, and they all pointed you out that you were the most qualified to help me,” the Terran said.
My mind once again halted at his statement. Why would he come to me for help, and why would the others not want to help? They were the ones that were chomping at the bit to get to the bottom of the rumors surrounding this enigma of an alien. Only one way to find out. “Yeah, I can help. What do you need done?” I asked, completely forgetting about the heat sink I was repairing.
“Well, you see, I had a mishap when I was repelling the pirates and I no longer have use of the legs of the mech,” he explained. So that’s one rumor down. “I also got a pretty nasty hole in the chest armor of the mech, and I have a replacement piece that I need to install, but the person that I usually do repairs with is on patrol right now and I need to get this done as soon as possible. Would you be willing to help?”
I thought for a moment. This would be a perfect time to find out how Terran engineering works! “Absolutely! Is there anything else that you will need help with?” I asked.
“Yeah, I’ll also need help installing this electric motor to the wheelchair. While you’re doing that, I can hook up the electronics to the motor systems of the mech!” he said excitedly.
I waved my tentacles in agreement. “Absolutely. How hard could this be?”
“Do you have any wood to knock on?” he asked.
“No, why?” I asked, oblivious to the storm approaching.
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“Well, you just jinxed us, and I hope you know that it’s your fault if something goes wrong.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked.
“Oh, I’m sure that we’ll find out soon enough,” replied the Terran cryptically.
With that bit of ominous and cryptic phrasing out of the way, it was finally time to operate! I could barely contain my excitement at the prospect of finding out how this thing worked. There was a hiss as the faceplate of the ‘mech’ folded in on itself and revealed the frankly ugly little thing in it. “Let’s get started!” it said as it bared its teeth and rubbed its little hands together. I couldn’t help but mimic the motion.
The process of taking off the ruined piece of armor was rather easy; it was just a matter of peeling back the outer layer of the surprisingly tough armor and screwing out the inner layer of it. As soon as we did that, I knew that I struck gold. The part that wasn’t armor, or at least what I could see, was filled to the brim with tiny electric motors and hydraulics systems that seemed impossible at first, due to their size. There were many moments when I asked Alex (I had finally asked his name) to stop what he was doing, which was making sure that the new armor could fit on the old chassis, so he could move the mech to demonstrate how the individual motors and hydraulics systems moved. I would have taken pictures and video, but the Terran had specifically asked me not to, something about patent laws and intelligence communities having a fit, but it was a good thing that I have a pretty good memory!
Attaching the new piece of armor was a whole different story. Due to the mech not being able to be put in a laying position, someone had to hold the armor in place while the other screwed in the thing. And since Alex was much too small to do the holding, I was the one relegated to the task. I’m an Orsier, which meant that I naturally didn’t have all that much stamina, but I was confident that Alex would be rather quick with screwing the thing in. After all, it took about five minutes to unscrew the old one.
Oh, how wrong I could be. It took him a solid forty-five minutes to screw in and secure the breastplate. Even with the ability to switch the tentacles holding the thing, it still hurt so, so much! It felt like they were going to fall off!
“Why in the name of the Tribunal did you not tell me it was going to be that long?” I almost shouted at the Terran as he put in the last bolt. I started shaking out my tentacles to get some feeling back into them.
“Hey, chill man. You were the one that said that this would be easy. You were practically begging fate to throw you a curveball!” He looked down at the modification with a critical eye. “Well, at least this will stand up to a glancing plasma gun shot.” He looked back up to me. “Now that that’s taken care of, we can work on the propulsion system of the mech. He pulled up a holographic schematic on his communication device that showed step by step instructions of how to install the motors on the wheelchair. “While you’re doing that, I’ll work on getting this thing hooked up to the navigation systems, so I don’t have to expend extra energy trying to pilot this thing.”
Of course, there was a navigation system for that since this thing was basically a walking land vehicle for Terrans! I thought to myself as I made the final installation of the motors to the wheels of the wheelchair. “I’m all done down here!” I almost shouted, to the surprise of Alex.
“Damn dude, there’s no need to shout!” he said as he crossed a few tiny wires in an access hatch in the leg. “Alright, I think I’m done down here, let’s take it for a spin!” he said baring his teeth once more.
He climbed into the cockpit once again, and went through some diagnostics, before the whole thing started moving on its own! I cheered in excitement as Alex gave a few claps of his own. “Well, I’ll be damned, it actually works!” He looked at me. “Thanks for your help, I really do appreciate it.”
I flexed my tentacles. “If you ever need any more help with the mech, let me know! I’ll be more than happy to lend a hand, as you say!”
He nodded. “I’ll keep that in mind, thank you for your help!” And with that, he rolled off to parts unknown. I hope that he comes back soon, I’d love to study that miracle of engineering more carefully.
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Alex
Damn was that guy annoying with how much he tried to get me to spill stuff that I can’t under any circumstances! I think I’ll stick with Aeva for help with my repairs in the future.