Connor glanced down at the tablet he’d been issued to make sure that he was going the right direction in the winding hallways. He would memorize the map after his self imposed work day was done. Everyone on Third shift had been issued the day off to rest and recover from the effects of cryo-sleep. If someone was really getting hit hard with it they got two day’s off.

As fun as sitting on his ass and doing nothing sounded, he really just wanted to get to work. He could put everything behind him when he was safely in a mining ship engine bay. His own depressed thoughts of his family, the horror of what happened during second shift and the growing unease of who would snap next; it would all be put behind him once he had a wrench in hand. 

[i]Just focus on the machines.[/i] Connor stopped when he came to the door of the conference room for the hangar and took in a deep breath to settle the nerves in his stomach. He hoped the crews would all be out exploring the ship. He wasn’t really looking forward to meeting twelve new people, especially when he was the only mechanic. Especially when one of those people would be Owen Reece.

It was just his luck that not only was the guy that thought he was an idiot was assigned as the pilot for one of the ships he was responsible for; he was also the lead freaking pilot! He couldn’t have been assigned to Hangar Five, it had to be Hangar Six. 

The guy was going to be breathing down his neck, if that little look he shot him at the briefing was any indication. This was going to be fun, he could already tell.

He opened the door and saw no one inside of the conference room. Thank God for little blessings. He stepped inside and looked around the space. It was like a normal office conference room with a long table, black cushioned swivel chairs, a whiteboard on one wall and a holographic projector in the middle of the table. 

The only difference from a normal office space was the line of windows on the right wall that revealed the hanger. Connor walked over and peered out at the large metal space and the four blue ships lined down at the bottom. From where he stood he could see all of the dings and scratches each pod had from mining in the asteroid fields. 

A small smile stretched on his lips despite his sour mood and he headed for the heavy metal door by the windows that lead out into the hanger. His work booted feet clanged loudly on the metal stairs, the sound echoing almost eerily in the silence of the hanger. 

“Miss me?” He called out to the pods, holding out his arms and grinning up at the towering machines. 

Shaking his head at himself Connor strolled along the wall and entered into the little office space that would be his for the next year. He wrinkled his nose at the disordered mess of the place and sat down at the desk in front of the three interconnected computer monitors. He turned them on and leaned back in his chair with a loud creak, looking around at the disorganized state of the office. He hoped that it wasn’t too much of a reflection of the mechanic before him. 

Turning his attention back to the computers he logged onto them to see if there were any notes the other guy left him about the ships. 

He started opening files and felt a tick begin to form in his eye as he read through the notes that were left for him by the previous mechanic. Finally he had to stop reading and turn away from the monitor’s pinching the bridge of his nose. There were multiple parts in each pod that needed replacing and pod 24’s engine wasn’t working at all. The note entries had been made a week ago, which meant that the previous mechanic had plenty of time to fix the problems but had probably said ‘fuck it’ and decided to leave it for the next guy to fix. Which would be Connor.

“Well thank you mystery douche.” He muttered, standing up from the desk chair to head for the locker in the office. He opened it and pulled out a dark green jumpsuit and a set of work gloves.

The excitement he would feel about getting to work was severely dampened by the knowledge he was picking up a lazy guy’s mess. After suiting up he returned to the computers and entered into pod 24’s system so he could open the cargo bay door located on the right side. Hearing the hydraulics hiss he grabbed the tool belt hanging by the door, thankful that they were still in good condition and a radio that was under the desk. 

Since pod 24’s engine wasn’t running he decided to start with it because it would require the most attention to figure out the problem. Connor walked up to the pod, smiling up at the sight of the open cargo bay. “Hey there beautiful.” He chuckled, setting down the radio at the top of the loading ramp and reaching inside of his unzipped jumpsuit to pull out his music player. Plugging in the battered device held together by some duct tape he turned it on and set the radio to full blast.

A guitar started strumming and he nodded his head to the beat, doing a little jump as he strolled into the ship with the radio in hand.