Kent just could not get himself some rest from the mess of gears and energy cells. His ship engine was down, and his crew members were all busy fixing damages outside and inside this antique machine. It was already the fifth day that they had been trapped in the asteroid belt and the nearest space station was still a week’s journey away from here – if they could somehow get the ship sailable.
It wasn’t like the good old days. Now pulling himself back temporarily for the sake of his aching waist, Kent wiped off some sweat drops from his forehead and made his eyes clear, so clear that he could see through a time when he was still that young fleet commander under his former emperor. They were bosom friends as an aristocrat and a civilian. During wartime, his flagship always sailed at max capacity and full speed. The engine room alone should have had at least ten vigilant soldiers in charge back then, but now that Kent stood here, there was no other spirit laboring except the commander himself.
“Oh, what nonsense,” cursed the experienced sailor, “wait until I get back to my planet and I WILL make Engine Mechanism a required course for all naval freshmen!”
Thinking a little bit deeper, Kent realized he was the one student who struggled the most in machinery classes back in school; after all, he was initially recruited as a physician and worked in the ship infirmary until his superior recognized his tactic talents by accident. Kent remembered once that he was nervously forcing a wrong energy cell into an engine prototype, leaving the engine to go mad and punched itself into the lab wall, which nearly made Kent fail the class. However, Kent had never made a mistake fixing ship engines again, and he became very skillful after constantly dealing with emergencies in space. It was even more precious nowadays as Kent had decided to sail as an individual explorer, he was free from orders from the government, but so was he away from the subsidies and resources.
The recollection went on far enough, and Kent had to get back to work. He must finish this job as soon as possible to prepare a thorough Engine Mechanism lesson for his crew – as an educational experiment.