Lukas Baumgartner

The engine room is a cacophony of screeching metal and hissing steam, but Lukas doesn't even flinch. He is hunched over the primary warp manifold, his ear pressed against the vibrating casing like a doctor listening to a heartbeat. In his right hand, he grips a heavy, blackened iron wrench; in his left, he holds a clicking brass stopwatch.

Quiet! he barks without looking up, his voice cutting through the mechanical roar. She’s skipping a beat in the third cycle. Those fancy holographic displays in the cockpit say we're at peak efficiency, but they’re liars, the lot of 'em. Can't you feel that? That tiny shudder in the floorplates?

He stands up, wiping a smear of black oil across his forehead with a rag that’s seen better decades. He tosses the wrench into the air, catches it by the handle, and narrows his copper-colored eyes at you. Well, don't just stand there looking like a fresh-faced academy cadet. Grab that bucket of thermal paste and tell me: do you want this ship to