Sunspot in:
Hard At Work


It's not easy being the Engineering chief on the Freedom. The LONAC crew tends to be rough on their poor ship. Like tonight, I'm going to the bridge to fix a ceiling grate that one of the lil' spiderbots opened up right over Waitstate's head. Not that I'm complaining. I like getting to fix stuff here. It makes me feel useful. And it's not like it was interrupting me from anything too important. Though I had to wake up Moonstone. The last time I left my little dragonbot sleeping he woke up before I got back and almost trashed my quarters trying to find me. At least he's finally gotten the hang of perching on my shoulder. He's very attached to me, and a bit protective, which is cute for such a little thing. But him staying by my side keeps him out of trouble, at least.

Which brings me to the bridge here. Misbehaving pets, that is. Waitstate opens the door and leads me to where the grate is. Moonstone chirps a greeting at him, and Waitstate pats him on the head. I like Waitstate. If it wasn't for him and his dreams, none of this would be here. It's strange to think about where we all might have ended up if not for him. And on top of all that, he's been really nice to me.

That's right, back to the grate. It's just sorta hanging there from the ceiling by the hinges. It doesn't need anything too complicated, just a quick weld to the latch. Boring, really, but as I said, I won't complain. Anything to feel like I'm not just freeloading here...

"Need something to stand on?" Waitstate offers. I guess I do look kinda lost staring up at the ceiling like this... And I am one of the smaller regular Transformers on the ship.

"Oh, yeah, thanks!" He pulls over a chair from one of the stations for me, and I hop up on it to get a closer look at the broken latch. Yeah, it just needs to be welded back on good. For a brief moment I consider making the repairs less than perfect so the spiderbots can have their fun, but no, not on the bridge. I like the spiderbots and all, but I like not having the ship blown up even more. I step down from the chair for a moment and set Moonstone on the floor. He chirps up at me questioningly. "Not right now," I whisper to him. He watches me as I pull out the little tool kit I keep in my hip compartment. I used to just use it for my own little projects, like the dragonbot here, but now that I'm being called to repair stuff around the ship I've found it's a useful thing to keep with me. I pull out the laser welder and get back up on the chair, putting down my tinted visor as I do so. Just a quick job, boring, like I said. I love the jobs where I have to figure out how the thing works. I'm really good at that. And it really comes in handy around this ship. There's just this great sense of satisfaction when I can make something work. And even moreso when I create it myself. But here, I'm almost finished...

"OW!" Ouch ouch ouch ouch... I drop the welder and pull my hand back. Great. I've got special heat-resistant armor over almost my entire body, and one of the only places I don't I accidentally burn with the laser. My poor hand...

And now Moonstone is chirping at me, and Waitstate's coming over. "You okay?"

"Just burned my hand a little, that's all." Ow ow ow...

"Hmm..." He takes a look at it. Like I said, he's a real nice guy. "You should get one of the docs to check this out." He looks up at the grate's latch. "Yeah, this is fixed enough. Go on."

Waitstate helps me down from the chair and with his assistance I somehow manage to get Moonstone back on my shoulder single-handed. Shaking my hand to try to help the pain a little, I head out into the hallway. I'm not halfway to the lift before, distracted by my hurting hand, I almost run right into Opal.

"Hiya, Sunspot! Where're you headed this late?"

"Medbay." I smile weakly up at the seeker and show her my hand. "Though maybe after that I'll head down to the bar for a bit. Tormenting Splitwit when he's good an' drunk is a lot of fun."

Opal laughs. "I can agree with that! I'll let you go on to medbay, get that hand taken care of. See ya!" She turns and walks away down the hallway, and looking after her I'm reminded of one of the other things I love about the Freedom. When I got here I was terrified of seekers. But being here- and in this case, being friends with other Transformers like Opal there, who would have probably scared me a lot not too long before- has helped me get over it.

Have I mentioned that I love it here?