Posted by Civilian Karilan Massat (Owner, Quill and Parchment Books) in The Quill & Parchment- Second Chances

Posted by Civilian Rafael Torres (Resident) in The Quill & Parchment- Second Chances

Posted by Civilian Karilan Massat (Owner, Quill and Parchment Books) in The Quill & Parchment- Second Chances

(snip)

Karilan was uncomfortably quiet for quite a while, simply looking at Torres. Her finger tapped the rim of her cup as she blatantly judged him.

“Tell me, Mr. Torres… you are working on a base model T-97 dual impulse engine with tri-bored matter infusion intakes and a bored-out mixing chamber. The engine is operational, but its output is only 80% of what its maximum should be. What do you do?” she asked flatly and then sipped her coffee.

Massat

Torres knew a test when he saw one, but he also saw things differently than others might and that was how he tended to find himself in conflict. “Well, the manual say to check the primary deuterium supply to ensure that there’s no issue there but that it’s likely to be something in the driver coil assembly that’s blocking full output, but, unlike its predecessor, the T-97s, in my opinion, well, um, they they get gunked up a bit in the vectored exhaust director and while you’re generating full power capacity, it ends up wasted. I dunno, I think they should go back to the old components in the director. They wanted to make it all shiny and new, but really the old version worked better and still can handle the extra power output of the engine.” He shrugged, mostly to let his unease with his rather presumptive answer generated for himself.

~Rafael Torres

It was a good answer, and it showed a more than rudimentary grasp of principals. But Karilan was an engineer of no small ability… and probably unbeknownst to Torres was somewhat of a celebrity in engineering and technical circles. If they were going to take on this person in such a capacity, they had to be sure that he was able to handle it. Not just from a technical standpoint… but able to handle the pressure and not free to past avenues of escape.

“Thats a good answer, Mr. Torres. I appreciate your instincts in going past the manual. Tell me… why do you like engines? Like working on them?”

Karilan

Raf didn’t answer right away. In fact, he looked back towards the drapes that concealed their presence, letting his mind go elsewhere for a moment. But the discomfort that rose up was quickly quashed and stuffed back down so that he could look at Massat with intention. “I’m a no one from nowhere. A ship don’t care who you are or what you’ve done. And honestly? You can have all the fancy pilots and cocky captains you want, but you ‘ain’t going anywhere without a functional engine. But, even if the engine is the heart of the ship, it’s more than just parts. I dunno, but sometimes I think they have personalities. Quirk, just like people. They like what they like and you gotta get to know them or else you’re always fighting them. I’ve done enough fighting, you know, so I figure you do right by the ship, or it’ll do right by you.” He shrugged and drank from his cup, hoping his embarrassment wasn’t completely obvious.

~Rafael Torres