Work Text:
Rett twirled a touch dial on his wrist mounted command screen, keeping an eagle eye on the readouts showing the outputs of the machine he sat in front of right now. The temperature readout still sat firmly in the red, even after a cumulative twelve hours of tinkering. Sighing, he ran his finger across the screen, directing the little device that was clamped onto the side of the stolen Aetheron tech to use its tiny wrench like pincers to tighten the connections between the power core and the fans.
Grumbling, Rett sighed as the contraption whirred to life and began working on components that his hands no longer had the dexterity to grasp and turn himself. “ Don’t know what I ever did without you ,” he praised, fully aware that the device could not hear nor comprehend anything beyond the commands he sent via his wrist controls. “ Really should get around to fixing up a big brother for this thing ,” he huffed, as he extended his arm, a large set of mechanics pipe wrench in hand. Rett braced himself and groaned as the strain on his wrist increased with each turn of the tools, “sure would be a lot easier with a set of mechanical hands.”
Metal groaned against metal as the thread on the pipes turned tighter and tighter. A light, now orange, not red, began to blink slowly on his wrist. The temperature had begun to fall, though still stopping short of a safe working parameter. In frustration, Rett grabbed his stick from beside his workstation stool and hauled himself off of the seat. He slammed the wrench onto the surface next to him and began to stiffly hobble to the hanger door. Focussing on each step, it took some time for him to reach the door. Just as he reached out a hand to open the portal, a lithe man with a bright sunset of hair poked his head in through the opening and practically shouted, “Hey Rett! Did you want me t- Oh, gods, come on man, you absolutely STINK!”
Pyke stepped to the side and allowed the form of Kavir to slip past him and into the hanger beyond. Turning back to stare at Pyke, Kavir admonished him “That’s not a particularly tactful way of putting it, but he does have a point.” He smiled gently back at Rett while picking up the wrench that had just been relinquished for the day. Hauling himself to the now vacant mechanics stool, he sat and began to puzzle over the tech that Rett had since abandoned. “Now, I’m no Aetheron, but I think I can muddle along with this for a bit.” Looking back at the two men still at the door he urged, “Please, Rett. Go and jump under the sonic shower, this will still be here once you’ve been and bathed.”
Grimacing as he used his stick to hobble out of the door and past Pyke, Rett grumbled, too exhausted to argue. “Thanks Kavir, I.. I could use the break,” he groaned as the nerve in his neck flared with pain and his eyes watered with the effort of movement. “Pyke, give me a hand with this back brace? The buckles are.. well, I can’t turn my neck enough to see what I’m doin’.”