After being shown the ropes by my father and practicing by fixing crafts for the people in the village, I then went on to start training as a mechanic for the resistance:
It's all been building up to this one day, I can't believe it 7 years of my life have built up to this, the knowledge I have obtained since I first started helping out at 13. I'm pulled out of my thoughts by the trainer entering the room.
"Your final test will begin in 10 minuets, I hope your all ready"
10 minuets, that's not long, I'd better get to the air craft hanger to check over my tools, I may have experience but I have no idea how this test is going to go. I speed walk my way through the base trying to get to the hanger as fast as I could. rounding a corner at a high speed with my head down, I flew straight into a wall which I swear wasn't there yesterday. the wall chuckled... wait walls don't chuckle. I stepped back and looked up, there in front of me was a handsome man. Brown hair, brown eyes, and lightly tanned skin. Like many others, I'd seen him around before but I'd never spoken to him as it was rare that the trainees got to speak with the pilots, other than a passing greeting. "I am so sorry, I wasn't looking where I was going and ..." I blurt out really quickly probably making it incomprehensible only to get cut off mid sentence by the guy "hey, whoa calm down, it's alright I wasn't paying attention either" he smiled, it looked like a genuine smile but who can tell these days. I knew I was close to the aircraft hanger but when I spotted the clock over the guys shoulder telling me I had 4 minuets to the test I blanked out anything else he may have been saying and moved around him, "crap I'm gonna be late, sorry again, I've got to go." and with that I ran off in the direction of the hanger getting there with just enough time to check that all of my tools were there before my supervisor appeared to tell me the task.
"As you will be mainly working on repairing the aircraft your final test will be on this X-wing" he gestured to the black and red X-wing behind him "you need to do a full service on it, the pilot will be here shortly so you can ask him for specifications or specific changes he would like made, you may start when your ready, there isn't any time limit and any parts that you may need are available you just need to ask for them" with that he stepped to the side and I was then able to get a full view of the X-wing, it looked well used to say the least. I started with some checks on the body and cargo hold while I waited for the pilot to turn up, he was taking his time, instead of just stopping work I carried on through the checks first isolating the power supply before getting into the cockpit to inspect the switches, targeting system and controls.
I had moved on to checking the thrusters when I was notified of the pilots appearance, not that it would help too much, they were basically present to make sure we ask the necessary questions. "I see you've started without me" he spoke, sounding slightly familiar, I didn't bother looking though as I was engrossed in checking the final thruster.
"Yes we have, your mechanic is a Miss Kayden Jyn"
"Kayden I assume she isn't going to damage my fighter while carrying out this service" he spoke and I could already hear the smirk in his voice which pissed me off slightly, I may be new but that doesn't mean I'm going to damage it. And anyway "I'm pretty sure you do a fine job of damaging the fighter on your own" I quip back from my place behind the thruster "Kayden, I wouldn't talk to the commander like that if I was you" the instructor piped-up "sorry sir she's normally pretty quiet."
He laughed "Don't worry about it, I'm just intrigued as to what she means by that"
"If you come round here I'll show you what I mean" it was as he walked around the back of the X-wing that I suddenly remembered who the voice belonged to, the man I had run straight into earlier that day damn. He laughed again "hello again I'm surprised your my mechanic" the supervisor looked between us "You know each other?"
"Not really sir, I ran into him on the way over here" I answered
"Literally ran into" he added "Poe Dameron by the way" he stuck out his hand to shake mine I removed my glove and took his hand "Kayden, most people call me Kay though"
"So Kay what seems to be the problem?"
"Firstly I have a couple questions for you, how long ago did you get new thrusters?" "Probably about 6 months ago but one of them got changed about a month ago"
"The bottom right one?" I asked "and how long ago did you get a full service?"
"Full service probably 5 months ago"
"Why did you get the thruster changed a month ago?" I bent down to inspect the thruster again.
"When I was flying it the thruster started cutting in and out so I had I changed, but how did you jnow which thruster it was?"
"Two reasons really, the other three have more wear to them but also they have this" I point to the black speckling on the inside of the thruster.
"That's just a sign of wear though" Poe said still looking slightly confused. "it would be a normal sign of wear on thrusters that are a year old or more, I'm going to take a stab in the dark and say that your flying style puts extra stress on the thrusters which would also explain why you had to get the other thruster replaced fast than the other three"
"I guess you could say that," he grinned almost as if he was pleased with himself that his fly style was putting stress on the machine "why was it not picked up on before this" that was a good question
"As you can see on the newer thruster there isn't that much wear to it so as the service was only done a month after you had the new thrusters installed the wear won't have been very noticeable. although really it should have been picked up on when the thruster was change when you had the problem."
"Are you saying that my current mechanic isn't good at his job?"
"Oh my god no that not what I meant, no I would never say that about someone, the signs can be hard to miss, I didn't mean it like that honestly..." he started laughing again "I'm only joking I know you wouldn't say that about anyone"
how the hell does he know that we barely know each other...
"Anyway I have a test to be finishing so if you don't mind I'd like to carry on with it" I pick up my tools again ready to get back to work
"Don't mind me I'll just go over here" Poe went to lean on some cargo boxes.
I could feel his eyes on me for the rest of the test and to be completely honest it made me uncomfortable as hell.
