PHOENIX ━ dameron

008 | bird in flight

"Where is Oddy, anyway? Usually he's hanging over your shoulder," Lyra remarked.

"Hell if I know," Reeve huffed. She put her hand on her hip. "Out of sight, out of mind, and I can actually focus on getting things done."

Lyra yawned again and sank onto the stool. Her posture stooped and her muscles sighed with relief.

"Here," Reeve told her as she dropped a hunk of metal into Lyra's hands. Lyra swallowed another yawn and stared at it with confusion. "I have to go work on the hydraulic lift on the other side of base, Rose Tico said it's doing that weird thing where it only raises up halfway before it gets stuck."

"Weird thing. Is that the technical explanation?" Lyra asked, examining what she had been given. It looked like half of an astromech's head. Two exposed wires poked out of the side, one red and one blue.

"Wouldn't want to blow your mind with technical terms," Reeve said. She jabbed her finger at the hunk of metal. "That needs to go to Eleni, don't ask what she needs it for because I don't know either."

"Does anyone ever?"

Reeve rushed off as soon as her com began to beep with an incoming transmission about the urgent need for a repair. Lyra kept a leisurely pace as she wended her way over to the far side of the hangar. Eleni Dameron's workstation was a three-walled space that might have been a small junkyard. The Major herself was nowhere to be found, so Lyra set the half of an astromech head down on the least cluttered workbench. A new droid sat nearby, and the top half of its body was still missing. No doubt Eleni was asking around for spare droid parts again. Lyra was still half convinced that Ellis had stolen his new mouse droid from Eleni's pile of donations. She probably wouldn't have noticed, anyway.

"Oh good, you're here."

Lyra stepped back from examining the droid to get out of Eleni's way.  She rushed into the space and dumped a handful of different sized screws on the workbench.

"Reeve wanted me to drop off the–"

"–the droid head," Eleni finished excitedly. She picked it up and weighed it in her calloused hands. "This is perfect!"

Lyra smiled. She had no idea what it was for or why she needed it, but Eleni's joy was contagious. "Did you need me for something?"

Eleni's dark eyebrows raised in confusion, but then recognition flashed on her face and her green eyes lit up. "Right, yes. I did!" She set the droid head down on the workbench. "Be right back."

In a blur, Eleni ran out of the space and right back in with a holopad in her hands. She set it down and turned on the display, and a familiar design came to life. It was Lyra's X-Wing, clearly denoted by the paintjob and the chuck of metal that was still missing from the hull.

"Why do I feel like you're about to ask to borrow my ship?"

"Because that's what I'm about to ask," Eleni grinned. It reminded Lyra of Poe, the way Eleni's entire face twitched with anticipation at the prospect of something novel. "You aren't exactly using it right now."

Lyra scowled. "That's a low blow."

Eleni either didn't hear Lyra or she didn't care about her dramatic act. "I'm testing out a prototype for an engine that'll make the jump to hyperspace easier. It's taxing for the engine of the ship to be put through such instantaneous changes in pressure over a short period of time. Especially in the circumstances of your Squadron's getaways," Eleni moved her hand across the holo, marveling at it. "Those Incom Hyperdrives are gonna be dated in the next few years, and I'm gonna beat them to the punch. This modification will put your thrust at 330 KTU."