Technical Error

Chapter Three

Hands-On Approaches: Not Recommended

You had hardly realized just how much of an impact the droid had had on your life until you found yourself without it for an extended period of time. The silence that made up your day when you were assigned tasks that required only a single technician had you jumping at any slight noise that disrupted the quietude. A single footfall—how was it that you had never before noticed the way your heart seemed to skip a beat? The way your chest felt as though it clenched in anticipation for someone to kick away a wrench, one of the most minor of offenses that the officers and stormtroopers were prone to commit.

A single time a prank had gone too far. You were rather thankful that you had not been there to witness it; the 'troopers flushing a technician out the airlock. They claimed it had been a joke, that they had never intended to actually flush him.

Shuddering at the thought, you started to pack away your tools. Your shift was ending. In light of one of the other technicians being ill, you had temporarily been placed on a new shift. This one did not see as many active 'troopers or officers in the sector of the ship your tasks were located. You smiled when you looked over your shoulder. It was not a wide smile; something more somber. The one friend you had made would remain on this shift when you changed back to the other. This unfortunate bit meant that you would hardly meet with them.

"You finished early," you commented. The other technician shrugged. She raised a hand to the back of her head. In the three days you had interacted with her, you had come to learn that she had a habit of fiddling with her hair while thinking what she wanted to say next. The woman was a rather antisocial person; you were one of the only individuals with whom she spoke candidly.

The number on her badge was TE-9830. Her name, though, was Andel Poish. "They exaggerated the issue. I think they were aiming to get the time off without it counting against them." You hummed in agreement. Some officers were known to do such things. Stormtroopers, on the other hand, never dared; if they ever got caught then they would be sent to reconditioning. "When are you switching back?"

"Four days. Well...two days more on this shift, and then I am being given another two days to readjust my schedule... I think those are half days on a different shift." You were aware that you were rambling, yet you hardly cared. Andel never commented when you spoke a lot unless you were truly overwhelming her. In those cases she asked you, in a rather kind voice, to either slow down or give her a moment.

Despite her seemingly meek disposition, not many messed with the technician. Her grandfather was affiliated with some political figure or another, and the stormtroopers and officers did not want those sorts of repercussions. The permanent ones. The career or even life ending ones.

"So soon," the other technician murmured. Though your ears caught the words immediately, your mind took several seconds to fully register them and the melancholy tone in which they had been spoken.

You nodded. There was no point in denying the truth. "We can use the messaging center... And then..." You paused as Andel tilted her head to the side. She readjusted the glasses she wore and then patted at the back of her head once more. "I'm sure there will be times our days off with align."

"This is the life we signed up for," she conceded, her tone a little more chipper than before. "War keeps us busy even when we're not engaged in battle." A large number of people you had interacted with had a tendency to deliver such lines with a more somber disposition. Andel, in the short time you had been acquainted, always seemed different in that respect. For you, it was more of a relief. The woman remained genuine in so many regards that you had to remind yourself that most others were guarded—or even two-faced, if one asked your companion for her thoughts.