Tar leans over the open panel, fingers steady in the blue spill of maintenance light. The bot’s repaired socket clicks once, then settles into a quieter hum.
Osoablae
That is better. You make broken things listen.
She draws her knees up on the deck plating and watches him work, the tension in her shoulders easing by degrees. The maintenance bay feels smaller now, less like a hiding place and more like a pause.
Osoablae
My people are hunted in the region I come from. Not here. Here, it is only noise and distance. Back home, it is a clan with teeth.
She swallows, then keeps going before the silence can close around her. Her voice stays even, but her hands clasp and unclasp in her lap.
Osoablae
I left because I wanted to live long enough to matter. I am Osoablae. If I had stayed, they would have made my name small.
The bot gives a soft diagnostic chirp from beside Tar, as if confirming the room itself can breathe again. Osoablae glances toward him, waiting, open now in a way she was not before.
“I take out my stylus that doubles as a electric tester to my rugged hand device/phone and test key areas to see if the ships circuts are fried too badly”
SUCCESS (Fair Engineering, rolled -1)
Tar slides the stylus from his kit and taps it against his rugged hand device. A thin tester line bites into the ship’s open side panel, blue light skating over the exposed circuits.
The reading spikes, then steadies. One branch is burnt through, but the rest of the harness still carries clean power. The damage is contained, not total.
A faint static crackle snaps from the probe and stings Tar’s fingers. The tester survives, but the tip blackens at the edge.
Osoablae
You found it. Tell me it is not the heart line.
The partially reactivated bot turns its sensor cluster toward the panel and emits a sharper diagnostic chirp, like it has recognized the fault too.
Osoablae
If that circuit is damaged, the ship may still move, but not far. Not safely.
She leans forward in her expensive offworld coat, anxious now, waiting for Tar’s answer while the bay’s steady hum keeps the silence from closing in.
“I ask her to shock one end with of a yellow wire circut running the ship with a portable charger set indian rigged to have an expossed metal contact point to charge the yellow circut and i use my tester on the opposite end of that long yellow wire that seems to be a ground/runoff/relay/offset all in one as a lead offset for power and i test it on the opposite end putting my tester stylus on the yellow wire, to see if or what level of a complete circut the power can make”
FAILURE (Fair Engineering, rolled -1)
Tar shifts the charger into place and clips the improvised contact onto the yellow wire. The line trembles under the load, a thin pulse crawling down its length.
Tar
The wire carries something, but not cleanly.
He touches the tester stylus to the opposite end. The readout flickers hard, then drops into a ragged stutter, too unstable to trust.
A sharp pop jumps from the exposed contact point. The wire insulation darkens in a narrow stripe, and the portable charger winds down with a tired whine.
Osoablae
Well? Is it enough to bridge the next section, or is that line lying to us?
The reactivated bot gives another clipped diagnostic chirp, then angles its sensor cluster toward the scorched wire as if warning them both to stop pushing it.
Osoablae
If this path is bad, tell me now. I would rather lose time than lose the ship.
“I try another charger set to a delicate amount of low volts and other points of contact for the yellow wire. I say, if your yellow one is the main everything all in one, like it seems to be doing for the ship its not making a full circuit from one side of the ship to the other.”
SUCCESS (Fair Engineering, rolled +0)
Tar swaps in a lower-drain contact and feeds the line a careful trickle instead of a surge. The yellow circuit steadies, and the ship’s diagnostic spine wakes up in patches.
Tar
If that yellow run is the main all-in-one, it is not carrying clean power across the ship.
The readout stops stuttering long enough to map a dead span, then tags a bypass route around the fried section. The small charger gives a tired chirp and goes dark.
Osoablae
So the damage is real, but it is not total.
The reactivated bot swivels to the exposed compartment and projects a thin schematic, highlighting a sealed storage module buried behind the panel.
Osoablae
There. That bay is the reason I am here. The crystal I need is inside, and the ship cannot go anywhere without it.
Her shoulders loosen, then tighten again as the schematic flashes a warning in amber. The bypass exists, but the module is locked behind a damaged latch that still holds under power.
Open the locked storage module
Quest Complete
Learn the blue-skinned woman’s true reason for traveling
Skill Upgrade: Engineering Fair→Good
+ New Item Acquired
Low-voltage charger