Yutaka's stomach growled. He ignored it.

Honestly, who would waste time eating when there was so much more interesting stuff to do, like this engine? He looked at it once more, hands coated with grease and whatnot, before turning around and rummaging for something.

(the following names are borrowed from a sci-fi book I recently read lol)

The engine, Quantum Singularity Hyperflux Induction Drive model X7, hummed quietly in the background as he withdrew his vaccuum pipe and reached deep inside the engine to figure out what exactly was it doing.

He had a report to file after this. Something was up with this girl. Not that, or that, or - ah. The coherence regulator. Yutaka yanked it out, the little heart-sized device that regulated the engine's fluid balances, and instantly regretted it as oil squirted the font of his tunic in protest.

Ignoring the wet (and oily) stain, he stuck the vaccuum pipe into where the coherence regulator was, which began pumping out a steady stream of oversaturated oil condensate. Exactly what the engine was running on - and apparently they just needed a new coherence regulator, else it'd become unbalanced again.

Great. Like they had a spare. The mixture was running down his arms, and Yutaka carefully placed the coherence regulator - Boze-Einstein model 92P - on the floor, where it vibrated slightly of it's own accord. Standing up and making his way to the washbasin in the corner that had been installed - really, while the others might cringe at oversaturated oil condensate, it was harmless, wasn't it? - he let the water run over his arms, letting all the liquid go down the drain.

Sighing, he turned the tap off, dried his arms on his pants - too bad he couldn't do anything about the new big black blot on his tunic until it got washed - and strode briskly out of the engine bay, casting around to find someone important enough to find him a new Boze-Einstein coherence regulator. It was pretty important, after all.

He had already served a meal for the evening, something simple. It had to be simple on this ship, or else he had one person or another complaining that they didn’t like the meat. Or that the vegetables were weird. It was exhausting. What Flux did supply was nutrient dense and perfect for the high energy inhabitants of the ship.

Flux had just finished cleaning up after the meal and had pottered out into the walkway between the dining hall and the rest of the living quarters. Most nights, he would retire to his room and pick through the scribbles of equations he had frantically written the night before and try to make sense of them. A new energy converter that meant a person could last weeks without food or water, or a new and improved prosthetic arm. That was his current hyperfixation, trying to find the best possible configuration for an arm. It was likely obvious to everyone else who the attachment was for, but Flux was seemingly unaware of that fact.

He wanted to ask Yutaka what he thought about his latest design for said arm, but the man hadn’t shown his face at dinner. Which meant he needed to go snooping through the rest of the ship to find him. Nine times out of ten, Yutaka was in the engine bay, but there were times where he was wandering the halls. He hoped he didn’t have to venture all the way to the other bay.

It was peaceful in the hallway until the doors behind him all but crashed open and Flux whipped around, mismatched eyes blown wide open in shock as Javalasii came galavanting out of the room. A quick sharp yelp and jumped back towards the wall, fingers splayed against the surface behind him.

“Damnit, Dallas!” He called out, huffing out a chestful of air as he watched the slice of meat hang from the dragon’s head.

“You two are going to break something! If you damage my kitchen, I’ll wring your necks!” The threat wasn’t very meaningful, he never meant the threats he made. Since his retirement, Flux had become all bark and no bite. Even when they were out of assignments, he never opted for the violent roles. More the scouting or just sort of being there ones.

Flux grimaced, crinkling his eyes as Dallas went tumbling into the wall, his dragon clearly not pleased with the interruption. His shoulders hunkering up at the thud that came from it. He was almost relieved that he didn’t have a dragon of his own to pester him, it looked awfully exhausting to have one. There was that spiky one that kept lurking around the ship…though she was always staring at Urchin rather than anything else. If Urchin was on deck, that other dragon was almost certainly somewhere nearby.

Flux straightened his spine, a sheepish smile on his lips as Dallas picked himself up from the floor. He stole a glance to where the wall had a rather solid dent in it before trailing his grey and blue eyes back to his crewmate.

“I didn’t know she’d toss you off, I should be the one apologising.” He offered, a smidge guilty about the damage dealt. But he soon perked up, looking over his shoulder with wider eyes and then back to Dallas. He’d probably find it boring, jabbering on about his inventions, it bored almost everyone he spoke to actually.

“Oh! Uhm, yes.” He chirped, clasping his hands together in front of him. A short lived smile lifted his lips before he began again. “I’m hunting down Yutaka, rather boring stuff, equations and..uhm yes boring things.” Flux chuckled, tilting his head to the side, opting for a more concerned look now as he tried to assess the other man’s eye.

“Are you alright? I mean, the wall has a new divot, you hit it pretty hard.” Obviously, Flux had seen and experienced worse damage. That didn’t mean that something like that wasn’t painful, just not excruciating.