Petty Officer 1st Class Echelon was walking down the hall at a brisk pace. Turning sharply he entered a turbolift and pressed several buttons. The doors closed, and he was sent upward at great speeds. After a few patient moments of waiting, he exited into the shuttle hangar.

“Alright,” he said to man ahead of him, “I’m here. What’s the problem now, Brevden?”

It had been during his off duty when he received a call from his friend Brevden, an experienced TIE Fighter pilot aboard the Atrus. Brevden had asked if Echelon could come down to one of the hangars to fix a broken shuttle. Echelon had reluctantly agreed, for he was anxious to test his skills as a tech.

He strode over to the standard Lambda Imperial Shuttle. Three wings. An icon across the galaxy. Beside the shuttle stood Brevden, suited in his black TIE outfit.

“Well,” Brevden started, “this is my buddy’s. He said the hyperdrive got damaged during Belgaroth.”

“Why would a shuttle be in the middle of a bat-”

“Don’t ask me. Weirder things have happened to that guy.”

Echelon shrugged. “Let’s take a look.” He quickly strode up the ramp and entered the shuttle. In the back of the compartment, he found the hyperdrive maintenance hatch. He opened it and shone his flashlight around. Inside was a large, narrow box. The hyperdrive.

Hyperdrives were very complex machines. They would build up energy in a super-conducting coil, and then release it into an ignition chamber which would release radiation which would in turn cause ripples in space and time. The ship would then be proppeled by those ripples. Sort of like riding a wave. Once in hyperspace, a null quantum field generator would protect the vessel from an accidental jump out of hyperspace, and intertial dampeners would keep the crew and ship from being ripped to shreds by the sudden acceleration.

“Alright. Hand me that fusion cutter,” Echelon asked. Grevden handed the tool, and Echelon went to work. Turning it on, he cut the outside of the hyperdrive. He removed the section he cut and took a look inside. Immediately, he saw scorch marks and charred dust scattered about the inside, which mainly consisted of several boxes, tubes, and a hell of a lot of wiring.

“Looks like a fire started,” Brevden commented, peeking over Echelon’s shoulder.

Echelon thought for a moment then said, “Yes, but mainly an Ion blast. It could have started a fire though.” He reached in and examined the inside somemore. “Even then, the materials in here are pretty resistant so they should have continued working, unless...” If it was an Ion blast, he thought, it would have damaged the super-conductive wires, they were the most sensitive to something like that.

He located the super-wires array, as he called them. It was a large tube in the back of the hyperdrive. It was attached to several wires, all of which Echelon would have to take out. Luckily the wires weren’t pernamentally attached, they just had to be unplugged. He unplugged the wires, one of which was very large, and it ran down to the ignition chamber. That must of been the transfer cable, he thought.

Taking the super-wires cylinder out, he placed it besides him and Brevden. He took the fusion cutter and cut the edges around the top. The circle he cut popped right off, and the conductive coil slid right out.

“Oh. Ouch,” Echelon said looking at the coil in his hands. It was completely charred and there were to distinguishable wires.

“The wires must have fused together. They are going to need to be replaced.”

“We might have some in the stock room. I’ll go check. A few minutes later, he had returned with a new coil. Echelon grabbed it and mounted it back in the hyperdrive. He reattached all of the cables except the transfer cable because he noticed a small gap in the insulation.

That may have caused the Ion blast. I better duct tape that. Ah the joys of duct tape. Fixing hyperdrives since 200,000 BBY.

He reached back, grabbed a roll of duct tape, and pulled off a strip. Very carefully, he attached it to the gap in the insulation. Then he hooked the cable back up to the super-wire coil.

“Alright. That should do it Brev.”

“Thanks a million. Hopefully this will work. I’ll have the pilot test it tomorrow.”

“Anytime.” With that, Echelon left the hangar and returned to his napping.

OOC:

Word Count: 753. I hope it meets the requirements for this skill.