"We should clean the exhaust and waste pipes. If this baby has to fly, and those are clogged it won't get far, hell, worst case scenario it could blow up."
"You have to show me the best way to do that." Ray shrugged. He had looked, several times, at the shoots, and no tool he could find, was capable of cleaning it out.
Lucky led the way to the back of the ship. "In this model, the purge controls can only be accessed here." Lucky opened an electrical box. "Turn the bottom two, and the ship will attempt to flush out the lines." When Lucky turned the switches Ray felt the ship shudder and then a bright red light flashed a few times.
"Huh." Lucky rapped their knuckles on the panel door. "Guess no one has refilled the water tanks." Raymundo snorted, remembering the tanks held one hundred pounds of water.
"Well, it's not like the barn has indoor plumbing." He crossed his arms. "And I don't think you'd be any more enthusiastic than the rest of us to lug it all by hand."
"Fair." Lucky shrugged. "It's a good thing there is another way to do the purge since we are in a breathable atmosphere." They spun on their heels and walked past Raymundo towards the door of the ship.
Standing on the barn floor, Raymundo looked at the two exhaust pipes. He could stand on the bottom with room to spare for his head.
"You can just scrub it down." Lucky waved a hand. "Pretty straightforward."
"Fair enough." Raymundo shrugged. "Still have to drag a lot of water out here, but... What about these?" He stepped closer to the ship, dragging his fingertips along a row of thinner pipes along the underside of the large exhaust pipes. "Our thinnest pipe cleaners don't fit."
Lucky rolled their eyes and held up a hand. Their fingers thinned and stretched, growing little cilia along the edges. "If you don't have the right tools, become the tools." Lucky lined their fingers up with the small holes and shoved them in. "Don't forget to lengthen them some more inside the waste tubes. Stop growing when you feel the filter at the end. And then," Lucky shifted their body to face Star Surfer. "Harden the cilia, twist them around, and pull." Lucky yanked their arm, at first the specialized fingers came out quickly, but then their arm came to a sudden stop. Sticking their tongue out, they pulled harder, and then there was a slurping sound.
As Lucky’s fingers exited the pipes, all sorts of filth came too. Semi-soft brown goop oozed onto the floor and dripped from their fingers. “See?”
“Yeah.” Raymundo pinched the bridge of his nose as the smell started to fill the barn. “Now we lug water to clean the floor.”
“Exactly!” Lucky grinned.
Word count: 474
