Description
Engineering Log, Unsanctioned Entry
I thought I’d seen it all after twenty-seven years crawling around afterburner housings, but today Command asked for the impossible: swap the core engine assembly of a Rifter while in mid-warp.
I remember clamping my boots to the plating, the hull vibrating like a living thing. The stars stretched into razor-straight lines around me as I opened the access panel. The old engine screamed, the new one hummed, and for a moment, I swear I could see the ship splitting into two timelines, one flying with me, one without.
The wrench slipped from my hand and drifted… upward? downward? sideways? Hard to tell in a reality that had forgotten the meaning of directions. The warp tunnel twisted, the engine flared, and everything went white.
I woke up at my desk, drooling on the maintenance report I’d fallen asleep reading. Turns out I didn’t replace an engine mid-warp, I just need to stop drinking Quafe.