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They ended up talking for a few hours, exchanging stories from their youth. Then the human suggested a show of his workshop. He looked pretty proud of it, so Gro’lark agreed. It wasn’t like they had anything better to do anyways.
“Thank you for agreeing to this! I have never actually shown anyone around! Excuse the mess, I’m currently working on a few projects.”
“Oh? What are you working on? Didn’t think you had an official project or anything, the cap said you’re just a mechanic…”
“I am and you’re right. It isn’t an official project. But I hope I can make it one soon. That’s why I took a long term job. Needed the credits. As you can see, the workshop is divided into multiple parts. Let me show you around all of them and explain what I actually do on this ship, shall I?”
The workshop’s layout was pretty interesting. It had two stories, but the second one was only a half of the first, the rest of it being shelves with equipment and books. On the first floor, there were three main work tables, very often used for hard manual work, based on the scratches and dents on them. He also said so.
“These three tables are used for the bigger fixes. That one over there,” he pointed at the one in the farther left corner, “is my ship table. That’s where I slap a slab of metal when it falls off the ship, fix it and go put it back. The one nearest to us is the one where I usually work on my personal manually harsh projects, think armor, my own small vehicles and big suits for space work.”
The one in the middle of the room had something on it. It looked like a big metal lava lamp, except it looked like acid was flowing on the inside.
“And the last one is for them big guns. Ship cannons, larger monster killing thingies, you know, the good shit.” he chuckled to himself.
“But the best part! The best part is the one on the second floor. C’mon! I gotta show you this!” He ran up to the ladder leading up to the platform that made up the second floor, then halted, turned around and motioned for them to move after him.
The table was cluttered, full of all kinds of things, trinkets, designs, little pieces of metal, magnifying glasses, but the most interesting thing of it all were the limbs, in various states of construction.
“What are these?” they asked, carefully picking up a metal hand that looked almost finished.
“Oh, yes! My babies! You see, they’re prosthetics! It’s hard to get quality ones, so even if it’s pretty hard to part with them, I sell them to people who need them. I also use them as a blueprint to create a robotic body for someone with a really traumatic injury. I actually have them for multiple species. My favourite thing was thinking up how to make them for Raa’s. It was a pain. Did you know that since they can’t see shit, they need to have like, a bajillion nerves in the tips of their arms? Yea, connecting them to the nervous system was so fucking horrible.” he rolled his eyes and they could feel his irritation, even if they had little to no clue what he was talking about.
“Well, anyways, I never needed any of these, because I’m just that good at not dying, or at least I thought so. Then the Garlains happened and yea, it wasn’t fun, I’ll tell you that much. But having all limbs is considered an achievement in my field of work, so I’m glad.” he chuckled at that.
“These look quite good, too. They’re not just some pieces of metal imitating a limb. They look like they have a soul…” they said, turning the hand over.
“Oh, why thank you! That is the most amazing compliment you can give to a creator. That it feels like they’ve made the inorganic things look...alive. It’s magic, isn’t it? When I was little, my mom used to tell me stories of magic. She always told me that it doesn’t exist, but I think it does. It’s in everything we do. It’s pretty cool, huh?” He looked like he fell deep in thought at this, so they replied with a polite ‘yes, it is’, excused themself and left.
~
They woke up to an alarm blaring loudly. As soon as they did, they jumped from their bed, grabbed a weapon (a dagger, if you’re asking) and ran out of their room. They passed a couple of the other shipmates on their way to the captain’s cabin, but none of them even spared them a glance, too busy with their own problems to notice anything else.
To their surprise, Jada was also in there, talking to Jin about some ship damage and possible repairs, even if the danger was nowhere near dealt with. They shook off their surprise and walked over to Fir.
“What’s going on? Is there any need for my intervention?” they asked her.
She nodded.
“We kinda ran into a fucking rigamont teritory and there’s quite a few of them who weren’t very happy about it. Would you mind, kaa’r?”
“Rigamonts? Fuck. Oh well. I might as well get started, this is gonna be a long day. Which door should I take?” they asked, already walking towards the exit
“Take 3C and be careful! There’s a load of ‘em!”
Gro’lark was just about to leave the cabin, but hung back long enough to hear Jada call.
“And bring me the navigation antenna while you’re out there!”