Well the alternator was shot, that much she knew. The rough hole in the rusted casing kind of gave it away. It looked like part of the hole had collapsed inwards and damaged some of the copper wire, but she wouldn't know the extent of the damage until she got the part out and cracked it open. Senna dug a tool from her belt and set to work. She had the part removed and in her hands by the time her mentor, Wrench, came out to check on her.
"How's she looking?" Wrench asked. Senna quite literally jumped to answer her, banging the back of her head off the hood of the truck. She winced, cradling the alternator in one hand so she could rub the now sore back of her head.
"Alternator is shot," Senna replied, extending the part out towards Wrench. She took the part with a 'hmm', looking over the damaged outer casing.
Wrench was a relatively small woman, shorter than Senna by at least a couple of inches despite being nearly twice the girl's age. At a glance she looked rather disheveled. Her frazzled brown hair was haphazardly knotted into a frayed braid, her coveralls were stained and ripped in more places than any one person could count, and grimy oil was so ever present on her hands that it had taken up permanent residence under her nails. Her brown eyes were sharp, though. There was an intelligence behind them that few people had.
It had been the talk of the town when Wrench had moved out to the Rim ten years ago. After all, not many people left Central. There were all sorts of rumors as to why Wrench, whose real name was Ko Geary, had left the fancy city to live in a shack attached to a junkyard. Senna had been six at the time and not terribly interested in adult gossip, but her father had talked about the new mechanic in town. She hadn't looked half as disheveled back then. No, she had been a fancy city girl still. Senna had only seen her like that a couple of times, with her father. Wrench's hair had been a shockingly vibrant shade of green back then, but that color had faded away almost as quickly as the gossip. It only took a few months for the friendly residents of the Rim to accept her as one of their own. Within a few years everyone had forgotten if the wrench-shaped sign that hung above the junkyard door had come before or after Ko's nickname.
Senna had been her apprentice for six years now. She had started at the age of ten, not too long after her father had died. Her mother never liked the idea of her working in a junkyard, but Senna took after her dad. They had repaired all sorts of things around the house together. Continuing to fix things in his absence had always felt like the right thing to do. Not even her mother could argue with that - and her mother could argue about almost anything.
Senna hovered over Wrench's shoulder as she cracked open the casing back inside the shop. She squinted at the copper wire wrapped on the inside. Sure enough, there was a cut. Actually, it was more of a gash.
"It's worse than I thought," Senna mumbled and Wrench nodded grimly.
"I'm going to need to rewind the whole thing." She sighed, chucking the part rather unceremoniously down onto the rough work table. "There should be a spool of wire in that cabinet." She gestured rather vaguely with her left hand. Senna leapt into action.
The cabinet was an ancient thing made of blue grey metal. She had to give the door a hefty tug to get it open, since the thing no longer sat straight on its hinges and had to be jammed shut in order to stay closed. It was one of those things that never really made it onto the repair list. Wrench never seemed too concerned about it.
Senna dug through the miscellaneous items on the shelf. All of them were coated in a thin layer of dust, which puffed up into the air when jostled. Senna sneezed, but kept looking. She found the wire on one of the lower shelves, behind a white cardboard box. It was tucked so far back that she had to be on her knees with her head craned at an angle to even see it. She moved the white box out and onto the floor so it wouldn't be in the way, reached back to retrieve the spool, and set that aside so she could return the box to its rightful place.
It was only a glance. Strange how things work out like that. She glanced down into the open box. The pair of devices inside immediately caught her eye. It was love at first sight.
The copper wire lay abandoned as Senna took one of the two devices out of the box and turned it over in her hands. It looked almost like a pair of glasses, except that there were no lenses and no bottom to the frame. Instead there was a small screen that extended over where the left eye would be. Senna put them on, mostly out of curiosity. A quick adjustment to the nose piece later and the thing sat perfectly on her face. She toyed with the buttons on the side, but nothing happened.
"Hey Wrench! What are these?" She stood, turned to her mentor, and pointed at her own face.
Wrench looked up from the motor, which was only halfway unwound at this point, and frowned.
"Those are HMDs. Head mounted displays. They were a big deal back in the wireless age. You could use them to talk to other people and display certain things on that little screen so it looked like it was in the real world. They called it 'augmented reality'."
"Cool!"
"Don't get too excited. The only thing they're good for anymore is collecting dust. They don't work without a wireless signal and wireless signals don't work with all the interference from the N-Gel." She waved a hand dismissively and went back to unwinding the alternator. "Did you find the copper wire?"
"Yeah." Senna grabbed the spool and passed it off to Wrench, the HMD still on her face. She grabbed the white box with the second HMD in it and brought it over to her end of the work table. Wrench looked up and shook her head.
"There's no point."
Senna placed both of the HMDs on the table anyway. They were pretty scuffed, but overall the external damage didn't look that bad. The screens were still fully intact. She investigated the side panel, mentally calculating the size and shape of the tool she'd need to remove it.
"You aren't going to get them to work," Wrench insisted as she continued unwinding copper wire. Senna didn't hear her, not really. She knew Wrench was talking at her, so she gave a hum of acknowledgement, but that meant nothing. Her mind was already working on the new project it had found. An ancient piece of wireless tech was far cooler than a rusty old truck any day of the week. She cracked open the side panel with ease and started troubleshooting, jotting all of her observations down in a wrinkled and oil stained notebook.
It took everything for her to tear herself away from her work to get home in time for dinner. Wrench actually had to take her notebook away from her.
"Your mother will kill me if you're late for dinner," Wrench stated plainly as she held the beat up notebook. "Remember last time?"
Senna groaned and slid out of her chair.
-
Her mother was already sitting at the table when she burst through the door, even though she had gone as fast as her custom motorcycle could carry her. At first Senna was sure she was in trouble, but then she noticed that the table wasn't even set. Her mother, Nami, was holding a letter. Several other letters were scattered on the table.
"Hey mom! You won't believe what I found today!" Senna started cheerfully once she was sure she wasn't in trouble. Nami looked up from the letters with tired eyes.
"I know, I know," Senna assured her mother before she got a chance to say anything. "I'll go hop in the shower now."
"Wait, Senna..."
Senna paused in the doorway of her room. Maybe she was in trouble after all. That wasn't her mother's nagging voice, though. It was her sad one. Senna turned back and flashed her mother a lopsided smile, leaning against the door frame.
"What's up?"
"You know the old friend I've been talking to?" Nami gestured down to the letters in front of her and Senna nodded.
"The one from Central?" She pushed herself off the door frame. Was that all this was about? Her friend? Well that didn't seem urgent at all. Nor did it seem like the thing Senna needed to be involved with in the first place. "Hold on let me grab a change of clothes."
"Senna this is important."
It was the 'important' that did it. Nothing good ever came from a conversation where her mother used the word 'important'. After that Senna's ability to follow the conversation shut down. It was a subconscious reaction, not an intentional disobedience, but the results were the same. Her mother kept talking while Senna's brain only processed a word here or there. She listened for some key phrases as she grabbed a fresh shirt and a mostly clean pair of pants.
"Senna are you listening to me?" There it was, a key phrase in need of a response.
"Hm? Yeah mom. So get this - I found these old wireless devices at the shop today! Wrench called them HMDs. Head mounted displays. They're really cool! I mean, they need a fair bit of work, but..."
"Senna!"
Senna cut off quick. When she turned her mother was already there. She rested her hands firmly onto Senna's shoulders. Senna met her mother's steady and unnerving gaze.
"We. Are. Moving. To. Central." Each word came out in a sharp staccato, with the most emphasis lying on the words 'moving' and 'central'. It took a few seconds for Senna to register the meaning. When it finally hit her, it hit her like that one time when she pulled a toolbox down onto herself.
"What!?" Her voice was too loud, too shrill. She shook her head wildly, her black hair flying around her with the force. "No! Mom, no!"
"This is a good thing, Senna. You'll be able to go to an actual school. You can go to the university and get a real job!"
"My job at the shop IS a real job!" Senna flailed her arms as she talked, her bundle of clothes swinging around in her fist.
"Senna, you work in a junkyard! With a university education and your intelligence you can do so much better than that. You could be an actual engineer. Instead of repairing old tractors you can make new things. Like that inventor you're always talking about. Kage...roo..."
"Kagerou. Kagerou Sato."
"Yeah, that one. Wouldn't that be great?"
It would be pretty great. Her options were fairly limited out on the Rim. There weren't any schools near her. Everyone was expected to go into a family trade or find an apprenticeship. A chance to go to a real school, even to the university, was tempting. She could have a curriculum that challenged her and the resources to work on whatever project she dreamed of.
Except that all of that would require her to leave the job she already loved and all the people she cared about, like Wrench.
"Senna, please. You have to understand how rare an opportunity like this is. People may move from Central to the Rim, but never the other way around. We won't get a chance like this again." Nami's hands left Senna's shoulders, her eyes still sad. Senna didn't like that. There was something wrong about it.
"If this is such a great opportunity, then why do you look so sad? If Central is so great, then why did you and dad leave in the first place?"
"Your dad and I left because his work required it. He needed to be near the outer dome in case it needed emergency repairs. But he's..." Nami trailed off, choking on the words. She took a deep breath to collect herself and tried again. "He's gone, Senna. He's gone and we need to move forward. I need to do what is best for you and your future."
Senna looked past her mother to the letters on the table. She knew very little about this mysterious friend from her mother's past. She knew even less about Central. All she knew was how much she'd miss her home and everyone in it.
"I've already written a letter accepting his offer. We are moving to Central, that isn't going to change. Honestly I thought you'd be more excited."
"Excited about leaving home? About never seeing Wrench or the Farmers or Mr. Carpenter or anyone I know ever again?"
"I thought you'd be excited about all the new things you'd have to learn about and explore. All the new people and new friends you'll get to make. I mean, you were gushing about some old wireless device you found in a junkyard moments ago. Where did that excitement go?" A hissing sound came from the kitchen.
"The soup is boiling over," Senna said flatly. Nami sighed and nodded.
"I'll take care of it. You go take a shower and get ready for dinner." Senna didn't need to be told twice. She wanted to be as far away from this conversation as possible. Before she reached the hallway entrance, her mother called out one last thing.
"I love you."