The seconds turned into minutes as the room grew ever smaller. The approach of the walls was slow, contracting rhythmically like the stomach of a living organism. But it felt inevitable.
Starshoulder grit his teeth.
This isn't working.
Hesitating briefly, he put away his scrawled-in notebook. It was helpful most of the time, but for every entry in it there had been a time he worked it blind. It just so happened now was to be one of those times. Drawing strength from the spite he felt towards his unfair boss, he surveyed the walls, nodding as he came to a conclusion.
Raising his hand, his spanner collapsed into a silvery liquid, reforming into a scanner of some sort. Bringing it to the lever, he began moving it systematically around, waiting for some kind of signal.
He could feel the sweat beading on the back of his neck, but he forced himself to remain calm. Abruptly, his hand jolted, and he brought his scanner back to its previous position.
By now, the walls were far closer, enough that there was hardly any room for him to spread his arms to the side. Moving hastily, he felt around the section his scanner had reacted to with his free hand. The illumination of his yellow lantern was dim, but his eyes had long been accustomed to working in the perpetual darkness and smog.
"Aha!"
He let out a triumphant sound, his fingers closing around a hidden switch behind a particularly dense section of tubing. Looking closely, you could see the colours were just off compared to the surrounding room.
It was usually the case that each section of the Engine Room followed its own 'rules', whatever they were, and that these 'rules' tended to follow certain 'themes'. If a room was 'cold', then there wouldn't be a boiler, for example. Finding a boiler would mean finding the 'key' or 'fulcrum'.
Starshoulder was not one for consistent nomenclature, if his notes were anything to go by. This was a bad habit and had almost been the cause of his demise more than a few times.
Flicking the switch with the reaching tips of his fingers, the contraction of the room that had abruptly began to speed up as though noticing Starshoulder's progress halted. Almost unwillingly, the walls receded, as if they were sulking at being denied a tasty morsel.
Patting the tubing condescendingly with his scanner before putting it away in his belt, Starshoulder spoke in a mock sympathy.
"Well, well, better luck next time, eh? Maybe I'll bring you a tasty piece of Zanthrax ore, would that make you feel better?"
A pipe hissed and Starshoulder chuckled.
No I have no idea what it said. I don't speak Room, let alone whatever strange, esoteric dialect this Engine Room employed. Anyways, back to the story-
As the room relaxed, the lever grew slack and Starshoulder pulled on it, the door sliding open with a hiss. Giving the room a brief once-over, he added a note to a margin in handwriting so terrible a demon was attempted to be summoned.
Of course, the liminality of the Engine Room interfered and the ritual fizzled out, but not before Kateratrix Kill-All, Archduke of the Fourth Circle of the Demon World Mornius was angrily woken up in the middle of the night.
This was not the first time such a ritual had been attempted and subsequently failed by Starshoulder's terrible handwriting, and Kateratrix was growing rather irritated by it. Oh well, sucks to be him.
The offending crew member, unknowing of his ongoing feud with one of the more blood-thirsty Elder Demon Lords around, stepped past the threshold of the open door, whistling a merry tune. The door slid shut behind him, though there was one more room in this shy section of the Engine Room he had to check before leaving.
There was no connecting corridor, despite him having entered this door through one. Instead, it led to another open room. This one was long and thin, lined on one side by a series of bulbous brass vats. The numerous pipes that ran along the previous room all coalesced and ran into the bottoms of these vats.
The vats were opaque, though searingly hot to the touch. Clearly Starshoulder was used to the gurgling sounds that came from within them as he made no indication of reacting. Instead, he approached, inspecting one of the dials on the nearest vat, tutting.
"Ahhh, I see what the problem is. Too much of one type of anomaly will give you constipation, you know. How many times have I told you this? A balanced diet is the key to healthy growth!"
He lectured into the air, though if there was a response I honestly could not tell you. Sighing regardless, Starshoulder knelt down and used his lantern to illuminate the mess of pipes. Finding the valve he wanted from the countless large and small ones down there, he adjusted it so very slightly.
A plume of steam erupted from a chimney at the top of the vats that definitely was not there before. Making a mental note, he moved past each of the vats and adjusted the respective valves, causing a similar response.
"And all done there. One more vat than last time, too. Must be a growth spurt. Well, that should be that fixed, and this was last on the docket. Guess I can finally, finally go home."
He could almost feel it, the comfy coolness of his soft bed, away from all this stifling heat and noise. Shaking himself from his daydreams with difficulty, he left through the door he entered.
This time, instead of ending up back in that previous room that tried to eat him, he was deposited on the corridor outside the Engine Room. The distant light of the ship was almost 1:1 of the light one saw on the verge of death (this had been fact-checked by Starshoulder through rigorous, empirical investigation, if involuntary).
The distant sounds of the chatter of the ship's inhabitants was like music to his ears. Exiting into the light, the extent of his decrepit state could be seen. Even for him, that stint in the Engine Room was one of the longest.
I mean we did crash-land on this planet, and the Captain wanted me to fix it all in one go? AND then he springs a bunch of extra anomalies on me? How many times have I told him to be careful about that!
His thoughts were interrupted by Trianglechest, lazing on the sofa in the common room, calling out with a derogatory whistle.
"Wow. You look, honestly, terrible man. I swear your suit was white before, is it supposed to be that colour? Hang on, I can hardly even see the star on your chest, you sure you're him?"
Circleface, noticing him too, made a gesture of binoculars with his hands, overtly looking Starshoulder's form from head to toe. Putting them away, he turned back to Trianglechest still lazing on the sofa and nodded seriously along with a thumbs up.
"Heh," Trianglechest scoffed. "Well, if you've got his seal of approval. Welcome back to the ship, how is it looking down there?"
Starshoulder replied caustically.
"You curious? You know, I have been telling the Captain for ages I need a second pair of hands. Hexagoneye isn't here for now, but you're pretty good with that staff of yours aren't you? And it seems like you've got all the free time in the world too. Perfect! Let me just go tell the Captain right now, he'll be ecstatic at being able to get off this planet sooner."
He paused, assessing, before adding an afterthought.
"And ecstatic at causing you pain."
The face of Trianglechest had been losing colour with every word Starshoulder spoke, until even Circleface seemed worried. Jumping to his feet, he rushed into the kitchen, grabbing a towel and started patting down Starshoulder's soot and smoke-covered suit.
"Now, now," he spoke fawningly. "You look tired, so how about you get some rest, huh? You've been working so, so hard for us, I'll make you a cup of tea even. Just how you like it! Even a complimentary massage, everyone knows how good my massages are, right Circleface?"
Circleface put his hands on his chin, taking up a posture of deep thought. Staying there for several seconds while Trianglechest continued to flit around Starshoulder, like an annoying fly. Eventually he looked up and wobbled his hand side-to-side.
Clearly NOT a riveting display of enthusiasm. Deflating slightly, Trianglechest was about to protest until Starshoulder pushed him off with an annoyed wave of his hands. He back-pedalled quickly, standing as if awaiting the verdict of a death sentence.
Honestly, to him, his life of laziness might genuinely be that serious.
Starshoulder sighed, attempting to press his forehead through his mask and failed.
"Whatever. It's all fixed in there anyways, so you have your stay of execution."
Before Trianglechest could exclaim for joy, Starshoulder interjected with a jab of a finger.
"But I still want that tea. And that massage. And the chocolate you've been hiding under your mattress from Circleface."
He jolted at that last one, but before he could say anything Starshoulder had disappeared. Instead, he felt a chilling aura descend on the room, as if he had woken up some primordial predator.
Circleface stood up, Trianglechest flinching with every one of his approaching footsteps, pausing as he stood right in front of him. Trianglechest squeezed his eyes closed and made his peace with the world.
Let's just say that his tortured screams were a beautiful melody to all other residents of the ship.