After fixing most of Star Surfer Raymundo only had one area of the ship left needing major functionality repairs: the warp drive.
The area had been cleaned, so there was no remnants of the purple fluid which fueled the warp drive. While Raymundo was sure humanity was still a ways off from creating their own warp drive, there was plenty in the room he thought he could fix.
The pipes and the wiring were well within the limits Raymundo had access too. Comparing the blueprint to the room, he started to narrow down what exactly he would have to buy in order for the mechanical and electrical side of things to be ready for whenever warp drive was feasible for humans.
Raymundo carefully followed each pipe, running gloves fingers along the parts he couldn't see. There was lots of orange flakes, the metal rusted out enough in some areas for Raymundo to see right through. But there was one hole clearly not caused by rust. A nearly fist sized jagged puncture right through both sides of the pipe. It was the largest hole he had seen thus far.
After noting all the materials he would need, Ray stopped by the computer to fulfill some curiosity. Digging back through Charwin's logs, Raymundo paused at the moment his ancestor decided to land. The warp drive fluid had already been leaking and not a word or a thought as to how.
Charwin put many theories in their log, updating them constantly as they lived out their life on Earth. It didn't sit right so Raymundo went back to the warp drive room, and went back over every piece, comparing everything to the blueprint. He even got out all his various measuring tools from his truck to make sure every inch was accounted for.
Something wasn't right. One of the electrical boxes was sitting way too close to the punctured pipe. And after rubbing his sleeve across the front which had a large burned out hole, something clicked.
It was, or rather had been, correctly wired, but the pipe had too much of a bend pressing it up against the front of the box, which wasn't properly insulated. The fluid carried current, the box carried current, and...
"Zap." He mumbled. Being stranded on Earth came down to a difference of five degrees on the angle of the pipe. “Okay,” he made a note on the copy of the blueprint, “easy enough to make sure that doesn’t happen again.” It was a small change to his list, but an important one, if not for him than for whoever ended up flying Star Surfer back to Qwortar.
Word count: 441
