A Life Without Meaning

𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝕊𝕚𝕖𝕘𝕖 (𝕀)

The Razorcrest kicked them out of hyperspace sometime during the next cycle. Despite the residual awkwardness born out of their fight, Ellia couldn't just sit back and not help out. So she found herself crammed into the cockpit alongside Din and the child as they tried to fix the rigging enough to get them through a full jump.

Ellia was using a hexdriver to try and tighten the bolts around the main fuel lines, while Din was working on rewiring the lightspeed board.

At one point, she heard him curse loudly, and a loud clang of metal caused her to glance over her shoulder. Din's tool rolled across the floor as he glanced up at her with a wince.

"'s too small" he complained, "I can't reach"

Ellia pressed her lips together, and wordlessly moved to take his place. He scrambled to move out of her way as she reached inside of the panel. She stretched her hand as far as it would go, and could feel her fingers just barely reached the board itself, but it was maybe a centimeter or two beyond her reach.

Sighing, she pulled her arm back out. Looking over at Din, she wordlessly shook her head.

Din grumbled to himself again as they fell into another silence, both of them racking their brains for a solution.

From the opposite side of the cockpit, the child let out a soft squeak from where he was sitting, playing with the silver knob of the console lever.

Din seemed to watch him for a moment, before suddenly tilting his head to the side.

"This is a terrible idea." Ellia muttered in a scratchy voice.

Getting over the shock of hearing her speak for the first time in hours, Din simply shrugged his shoulders.

"Let's exhaust all our resources." he suggested.

Ellia shook her head as she glanced in at the child who was happily playing around in the wire-lined panel. She heaved another heavy sight before moving back over to complete her work on the fuel lines.

A few minutes later, Din walked back over to the pilot's chair.

"All right, let's try this again." he flicked a few switches on the console, but nothing lit up. He looked back over his shoulder at the wall.

"Okay, did you- do you have the wire?" he called out.

An alarm suddenly flared up on the main computer, and Din quickly moved to shut it down, only for the entire panel to go with it.

"Nothing" he muttered to himself dejectedly. With a sigh, he rose from the chair again, and as Ellia kept working on the lines, her arms now sore from just how hard she was tightening the screws, Din knelt down in front of the panel with the child in it.

"Okay." he said, "Did you get the wire out? The red wire?"

The child made a questioning noise in response, but Din shook his head.

"No, no. The red one." he clarified, "Show me the red wire. The red one."

The child gave off another small coo.

"Yes, good." Din complimented, "Now, you're going to plug that red wire where the blue wire goes in the board."

Again, Ellia could hear the child whimper in confusion.

"Put the red wire where the blue wire goes in the board, okay?" he repeated, "But don't let them touch. You see where you took the blue one off? Yes, now but the red one..."

There was the sound of a scuffle.

"No. Don't put the blue one back" Din said quickly, "Put the red one where the blue one was. And put the blue one where the red one was. But be careful. They're oppositely charged, so keep them away from each other. Make sure you hold them apart from- No! Hold them apart-"