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Description
Nervously pacing back and forth, Sveta watched as each of the students entered the Exam Room one by one. Today was the last day of Third Year Training for each of them. If they passed the exam, they would be certified sorcerers, and would be allowed to train with people even more skilled in magic. If they failed... Regardless of how they'd done during the year, they would have to repeat every class. In no way was she prepared for it. Even thinking about performing magic in front of the Magic Board terrified her, drying her throat, making her dizzy.
"Miss Sveta Firebrand. Your Exam is ready." The woman in charge of bringing everyone in looked bored. Nearly shoving her through the door, she quickly shoved it closed behind her.
Eyes wide, the mageling looked up at the Magic Board. They stared back with equal intensity. A long silence filled the room as they stared at her, judging her silently. Sveta's knees trembled slightly, and she took a few more steps into the room. "Miss Firebrand. Destroy that target." Headmaster Miori pointed to a man-shaped target at the edge of the room.
Gathering up her will as best she could, Sveta tried to draw forth some fire. Fire had always been easy. Simple, effective, and not difficult to bring up. Sweat began beading on her brow, but the longer she tried to bring forth fire, the more she could sense the Board staring at her. Trying to shake off her fear, she brought her arms into Fire Stance One, attempting to bring it forth once more. Hands trembling, the smallest spark began to light between her palms.
"Miss Firebrand. We do not have all day. Destroy the target!" Miss Miori's voice snapped forth, destroying her concentration. The little flames snuffed out, burning her fingers as they did so. Shifting to Fire Stance Two, she tried to blink the tears from her eyes. A slightly larger flame built up. The impatient gaze of the Magic Board burned into her back. Losing her concentration for a split second, the embers in Sveta's hands lept free, scorching her fingers again.
Just before she could tell the Board she couldn't do it, a massive grinding sound swept through the building. In shock, the fire in Sveta's hands exploded outwards, coating her body in a sheet of flame, before flying off and destroying the target. The wall behind it caught fire momentarily, before the rest of it vanished to some unknown location. "Miss Firebrand, I think we all know how this Exam went. Your magic is too uncontrolled. You do not pass."
With a resigned shake of her head, Sveta walked out of the room, shoulders slumped. This wasn't the first time she'd failed, either. She just couldn't deal with the pressure of being watched. Alone in the halls, everyone else having successfully passed their exams. Making her way out the back exit of the school, the slight girl focused on the power of wind, gathering herself a small platform. Stepping on it, she decided to go visit her friend, Jake. Maybe he'd gotten further on his project.

Jake was working away at the extracted starter motor of his Hind on top of its wing. The round red part lay in parts; screws were unceremoniously placed in a black ice-cream container. The small gears and the electric motor were haphazardly assembled on the two halves of the motor. The mechanic moaned to himself, recognising the worn gears, and the parts in particular that were damaged. It was a half-inch gear that was worn beyond measure and unbelievably rare. His fellow mechanics had told him it was useless, the gear was bound to fail, but he pressed on ahead anyway. And now, with the metal haphazardly strengthened, the gear was now twisted. No way could he use that piece of junk again.
Shoving the loose bits onto the bottom and slightly bigger half of the piece, and picked up the ice-cream container of screws and bolts after closing shut the engine cowling. Then dropping down from the wing of his craft, he began walking back over to his garage to pack up the day when he spotted his childhood friend, Sveta, walking along the path from the town to his corner of the settlement.
He called out to her, then fell into step alongside his old friend. "Well, I screwed myself over. How'd your day go?"

Halfway along the journey, Sveta had opted to walk, instead of taking the energy to move her air transport. When she finally made it to Jake's area of town, and heard how his day had been, she only felt worse than before. "It wasn't... It was okay, I guess." This hadn't been the first time she'd failed her Exam. More like the tenth. The eyes of her examiners just made her too nervous. Sure, she could do incredible things when people weren't watching, but that didn't help for when hey were. At this rate, she'd never make it to anything other than Mage rank.
"Hey, I'm sure you'll get the Hind working eventually. Just keep trying." Her voice held a note of optimism. The least she could do was make her friend feel better. Sveta's own problems were her own issue.

"Yeah Right. That thing'll never get off the ground." he said in the age-old expression of optimistic denial. "And look, you failed. Big whoop. Just keep practicing, try showing it to someone - to me if no-one else, and just remember that your ten failures aren't as bad as my six hundred. You'll succeed this next time." said Jake.
Smiling sweetly, the words out of her mouth next seemed horribly at odds. "At least you can only kill yourself with the Hind if things go very wrong. I lit myself on fire today, in front of the Board. I don't think I'm ever going to pass. So, what happened to your contraption today?"
"Bullshit. You'll pass. As for what happened to me, It..." he shrugged as he kept on walking. "I... just... started it up, it was fine, and then kaput. Dead." he said, glancing over at his blue-and-grey craft. "It was one tiny little worn gear this time."
They continued in relative silence, until he remembered what she had said. "And in the event that things go very wrong, just how is crashing and burning in a two-ton craft into an apartment building, or something bigger, come under 'I can only kill myself'?" he asked. That part didn't make sense in his mind in the slightest.

"Because nearly every building is equipped with at least one person who can divert disasters like that. Aircraft don't crash all the time, but they do. By the way, which gear was malfunctioning this time?" At least talking about something other than he repeated failure put her in a much better mood. Maybe she'd even manage to sneak past Danila today before he could make fun of her.
His mind was full of equations and systems, and so he didn't quite hear the last part of her speaking. He jolted himself out of his reverie, and when Sveta asked again he put everything onto one arm and grabbed the gear out of the 'top' half of the starter motor. Glinting a little in the late afternoon's sunlight, the small half-inch part was handed to the delicate hands of his childhood friend.
"This one. The things are bloody rare and no-one around here makes them. This one I found cracked and in the bottom of a junk pile. Tried to strengthen it and failed, made one hell of a mess in my cave- I mean garage."
Taking a good look at the mangled gear, Sveta imagined what it would look like in pristine condition. "Well, Jake, I gotta get back home before Danila gets back from his trip. I'll see you tomorrow." Turning to go, Sveta pulled a pencil and some paper from her pack. Scribbling on it for a while, she eventually made a drawing that looked more or less like the shattered gear that Jake needed to run the Hind. Circling it, she placed the objects back in her pack.

A half-hour later, and she arrived at her house. The massive building nearly intimidated her every time she entered. Going through the front door, Sveta looked left, then right. Hoping against hope that she'd made it back home before the rest of her family, she tip-toed through the halls in an attempt to make it to her room. Of course, her luck never held that well.
Just before she crossed the last few feet to her door, a large shadow blocked her way. Looking up into her brother's blue eyes, she shrank back. "Hello, Danila." The mageling's voice was hardly more than a whisper.
"Look who's back. Fail your exam again? Of course you did. Everybody knows that you can't do anything right. Hah, might as well give up, right? It's never going to work out." His face split into a grin the longer he went on, his words just as cutting as knives. "But you're not going to stop, are you? Poor sis, too stupid to know when to quit. You'll never be as good as Mother or I. But it's so much funnier to see you try and fail. Go on, go try and practise. Just try not to burn down the house in there."
Head down, Sveta nodded. "Yes, Danila." Seemingly satisfied with today's insults, he turned heel and left. Entering her room, the girl did her best to lie to herself. His jibes didn't really bother her... Right. She wouldn't let him put her down. Putting that aside for the moment, she sat down, pulling out the drawing she'd made of her vision of the undestroyed gear.
Taking the knife from her bedside table, she blew the dust from the blade. Focusing on her inner fire, she easily brought a small blaze forth in her hands. Firing it white-hot, the same magic that produced it kept it from burning her. The knife, however, began melting. Quickly, she weaved air through the fire, heating it up to a scalding heat. Forming the invisible fluid into a bowl, Sveta caught the dripping knife's metal within it. Here, by herself, the magic was easy, almost natural. Using the hot air as a mold, she carefully formed the metal into an exact replica of the image in her mind. Pulling water from the air in the hall outside her room, she pulled it under the door, quenching the hot metal. A whirlwind of air contained the steam, collecting it, cooling it, pooling it. Sending it all back, she misted it back into the air. With her last bit of air magic holding the still-warm gear, Sveta felt much better. Her magic could be useful. Danila was just an ass.

Bolts were turned and unturned, gears and pistons and braces were wrenched and shoved back and forth, fuel and power lines were reattatched and replaced. He aboured on even as the sun went into the position where it would be below him. It was a common fact that ever since the world had been destroyed, there was no technical 'night' or 'day'. Instead, they had opted to sleep whenever the massive rock they were on happened to turn away from the sun. So Jake laboured on, the evening sun lighting the cliffs above Red Star, and he made the checks once more.
Lines. Check. Cables. Check. Components. Check. Tanks? Check. Everything seemed to be in optimal condition. Jake yawned, put all of the tools strewn about the engine interior back in his tool-bag and closed the cowling off for the night. He'd get back to work in the morning, without the starter motor. All the craft required in the morning was a kick-start, the old fashioned way. That was to say, with ropes and a good yank. He wandered over to his garage, stumbled inside and collapsed down on his bed, still clad in his grimy overalls. He drifted off to sleep, the sound of a door opening reaching his ears before he drifted off into unconsciousness.

Kari walked over and set a plate full of steaming food down on some empty space on his bedside table. Then pulling up the covers so that the patched rags managed to stretch between the edges of the single bed. Giving her son a kiss on his head, she left his workshop and walked back up to their house. It was a fair distance away from his garage, and right on the edge of the cliff that the Sky-Village was built upon, and into the old building they managed to secure. Their home was humble, shabby yet clean and both aesthetically pleasing and spartan. She walked into the cramped kitchen and sat down at the table.
"He failed again today. Do you think he'll ever-" Kari said timidly before a look from Red caught the words in her mouth. He extended an arm and pulled her into a hug.
"He won't. That boy's got Pioneer blood in his veins. Even if he does keep on failing, he'll never give up. That I can assure you." he murmured into his beloved's head. The two sat there like that for a while, till the battered microwave pinged. Time passed, and in the morning one young mechanic woke up to a plate of pasta on his bedside table.

A knock sounded on the door somwhere in the middle of the night. Sveta cracked an eye open, then closed it once more. The knock sounded again. Clearly, whoever it was wouldn't be going away. Grumbling to herself, the young mage adjusted her clothes, rubbed the sleep from her eyes, and opened the door. Jumping back in shock, she warily looked at the taller figure. Danila?
"Hey, Sis. Don't look so happy to see me, huh?" Breathing a sigh of relief, Sveta stepped forward and gave her other brother a hug. Pavel smiled and ruffled his sister's unruly hair. Brushing some soot out of his hair, he began rifling through his pockets. "When I was in the Gaia cluster last week, I got you something. If I could just- ah! Here it is." Grabbing something from the large pocket on the side of his pants, he pulled out a large snow-globe. Inside, a small stone shaped like a cat smiled out. "I saw it, and thought you'd like it. We only just got back now, sorry to wake you up."
Carefully taking the snowglobe from her brother, she placed it on the dresser in her room, then went back into the hall. "Thanks, Pavel." Giving him another hug, she shooed him off. "You should probably sleep. You've got to leave again tomorrow, right?"
He nodded. "Yeah, we do have to leave again. But before that, I've been waiting to tell you this since I left." Leaning down, Pavel whispered the best plan she'd heard in weeks. With magic-enhanced silence, the two of them snuck through the halls of their home.
When Danila woke the next morning, the first thing he noticed were the sheets glued to his chest. The next thing, after he ripped all that fabric off, was the sheer amount of items glued to the floor and ceiling. Everything on all his desks had also been affixed, impossible to move. Fucking Pavel...

Jake awoke with a jolt and quickly jumped up off the bed. This was another day, another opportunity! He could try again, and if he failed then he'd simply try and try again! Or at least that's what his dream told him. In reality, he was miserable. He got up, pulling a blanket off himself and slowly outside into the crisp Thursday morning. The Hind glinted in the morning light, and as he made the early morning checks with a air of gloom, he heard the jeers and inuslts thrown at him by the usual bunch of lazy jaded kids that watched him in the mornings. Each one stung to his core, not that the engineer would show that on his face.
He checked the fuel, all the electrics and finally affixed ropes to the rotors of the thing and attatched them to the dual-pulley he had prepared. Hopefully it would start and stay up this time. He climbed up inside it as the jeers and catcalls grew louder, pulling at a rope and undoing a knot as he did. Once inside, he closed the door of the cockpit and sat down inside the plane, buckling himself in as the knotwork which held back the pulley on the ropes went down and down.
With his right hand, he reached down to the bottom of his overalls and down through the hole in them to pull the gun he carried out of its holster. Jake knew that it was for self-defence purposes, and only in emergencies, but that didn't stop him. Somewhere, he read or heard that the best way to commit suicide with a gun was with the barrel in your mouth. But then he began to worry, what if the shot went through his mouth and out the back of his neck? What if the gun didn't fire at all? What if-
His thoughts were interrputed as the pulley system activated, and with a huge jerk, the propellers were kick-started into life. With his left hand, he fired the key, hoping that the charge from the battery would help spark the engine into life. Closing his eyes, he tightened his grip on the gun and put his finger inside the trigger guard. Now or Never indeed.
However, with a few clanks and a whir of machinery, the Hind started up, and the engines remained at a smooth pitch. He opened his eyes, gun still in his mouth and waited for the inevitable failure. But none came, and except for the dull whine of the engines and the flickering of the interior lights, there was nothing. With his left hand, he flicked off the interior lights.

Jake let the Hind run idle for a moment, letting the engine and oil temparature grow to a modest height. Previously he had only wondered if it could fly at all. Now, however, he was nearer certain than he had ever been. This time it was stable. This time he would be airborne, and stay that way.
He tapped at the plastic of the dashboard, and waited for all the meters and readings to come to an acceptable height. The dull whine of the rotors soothed him somewhat, and as he flipped switches, a dull roar of the jet engines started up. He took a breath, and took the controls tenatively.
Depressing a lever, the jet engines howled as the rotors increased their speed and the sensation of flight overtook him as the Hind rose up steadily. When it didn't malfunction or break down, he quickly holstered the gun and whooped in joy.
He pushed forward another lever slightly and the jet engines howled, taking him forward, then up and to the left when he pulled back on the controls, and out into the huge open skies of the shards of rock hanging in a blue globe of air.

Immediately, he felt wind against the frame of the craft. Must have flown right into a current. He jinked and banked his way into the shadow of the floating rock which housed his home. He flew around, bringing the throttle up to maximum and flying around into the warm sun. Jake laughed in joy, taking the direction back around and into the bay which housed the colony of Red Star.
He depowered the forward engines and made his way down onto his landing pad. Then landing, the mechanic descended onto the pad and exited to cheers and a crowd of toddlers and small children rushing at him, their parents soon following. Jake descended his craft's ladder, and tried to walk through the mob of excited children that swamped him.

From her position on a platform of air, Sveta passed the gear back and forth between her hands. Another day, another attempt to make the Hind fly. Hopefully this time, everything would work right. Sure, Jake didn't have a part, but he'd manage to find a way through. Certainly better than she had.
As she'd watched nearly every other time, the small aircraft shuddered a few feet up into the air. With bated breath, she watched as it continued moving further up... And remained airborne! Cheering on the inside, she angled her air platform down, landing amidst a small mob that had begun forming. Watching the haphazard craft circle the colony, she smiled. After the short test flight, Jake landed the craft. Though she wanted nothing more than to shout congratulations to him, Sveta decided to wait until there were less people to shout over.

Jake tried not to strut down the walkway that led from his pad to his garage, but failed horribly. It was something all aviators did once they managed to operate a lump of metal through the sky and land it safely. He eventually reached the run-down garage and entered inside. Once he closed the door, he shouted out in success, and ran over to punch the sack of dirt a dozen times with extreme vigour. Then wiping the smile from his face, he turned and- Wait a minute... thought his mind.
He turned back to his bed. Or more accurately, his bedside table. On it there was a plate. Full of- he walked quickly over and sat down on his bed, taking the plate of cold pasta into his lap and beginning to shovel it down with his fork. It was delicious, made all the better by the success of his flight. In the short amount of time that the plate was emptied, he made up his mind. First, he'd get to work on the starter motor and scrap that pulley system. That rope could be put to much better use than rip-starting his craft over and over again.
A small while later, he exited his workshop with a tool bag, a canteen of drinking water, a small billycan of oil and a heavy box of parts in hands. He managed to walk over to the table he kept on the side of the pad and dumped the box of parts and the bag onto the table, before sitting down and collapsing onto the stool he kept there.

He eventually regained his energy, and after a deep drink from the canteen which left it just a little over three-quarters full, Jake began to work in the uncomfortable heat of the midday. He got to work, putting bolts back in their holes and putting the starter motor together, or at least as best he could, considering a vital part of it was mangled beyond hope of repair, and also missing.
He glanced upwards from his work, and saw Sveta. He leaned back in his chair and waited for the Mage-in-training to arrive down to him. When she did arrive, he saw a slightly sad expression on her face.

"Well, you got it up and running." she said. Jake frowned and wondered why she would be acting like this.
"Yeah. Pulley and rip-start. Just working on the starter motor now. Can't carry around that huge thing for every time I want to start 'er up, can I?" he said, patting the Hind's wing. She looked a little sad, and pulled out something from the pocket of her robes.
"I suppose you won't need this, then." she said, holding out the small thing for him to see. Jake took it, and inspected the thing- it was a gear. Precisely the kind of half-inch gear he needed for the sparter motor on the table. He looked up to his friend with a smile.

"If I wasn't covered with muck and grime, I would hug you. Thank you so much." Jake said, putting the precious gear alongside the rest of the pieces of the starter motor. Sveta looked confused.
"But isn't it unnecessary? I mean, you managed to get it working..." his friend said, trailing off when Jake massaged the bridge of his nose and smiled.

"I think I'm redundant for saying this, but technology isn't like your fancy-pants Magic. Everything has a place here, everything's useful in some way or another. But still, Thank you so much for this." he said, turning back to his work before he glanced up again and saw his other old friend Peter. The two exchanged greetings as the older man walked up onto Jake's helipad. Peter had been a part of the old Home Guard, but now after its restructuring he was now in charge of all police units inside the Sky-Village. And it was with two other guards that he went up to the young mechanic.

"Hey Jake. You finally got it up and operational and I'm happy for you, but I need you to come with me. There's a few things we need to sort out. Licensing and all that." the Guard said, and the mechanic stood up, lumping the wreck of the starter motor together and putting the lump of metal back in the box on the desk.
"Damn. See you." he said to his Mage friend, and got up to follow Peter away to the central building in which the village's security was based.

A very long time later, he emerged outside the building, hands sore from writing, and carried the box of new gear he had been given. Being a registered aviator and mechanic helped a lot, and even then having a Home Guard official as a family friend helped a lot, too. Reaching his garage, the boxes of brand new gear found homes on tables, albeit haphazardly, and soon Jake collapsed onto his bed with a smile on his face. Life was good.

Description
Nervously pacing back and forth, Sveta watched as each of the students entered the Exam Room one by one. Today was the last day of Third Year Training for each of them. If they passed the exam, they would be certified sorcerers, and would be allowed to train with people even more skilled in magic. If they failed... Regardless of how they'd done during the year, they would have to repeat every class. In no way was she prepared for it. Even thinking about performing magic in front of the Magic Board terrified her, drying her throat, making her dizzy.
"Miss Sveta Firebrand. Your Exam is ready." The woman in charge of bringing everyone in looked bored. Nearly shoving her through the door, she quickly shoved it closed behind her.
Eyes wide, the mageling looked up at the Magic Board. They stared back with equal intensity. A long silence filled the room as they stared at her, judging her silently. Sveta's knees trembled slightly, and she took a few more steps into the room. "Miss Firebrand. Destroy that target." Headmaster Miori pointed to a man-shaped target at the edge of the room.
Gathering up her will as best she could, Sveta tried to draw forth some fire. Fire had always been easy. Simple, effective, and not difficult to bring up. Sweat began beading on her brow, but the longer she tried to bring forth fire, the more she could sense the Board staring at her. Trying to shake off her fear, she brought her arms into Fire Stance One, attempting to bring it forth once more. Hands trembling, the smallest spark began to light between her palms.
"Miss Firebrand. We do not have all day. Destroy the target!" Miss Miori's voice snapped forth, destroying her concentration. The little flames snuffed out, burning her fingers as they did so. Shifting to Fire Stance Two, she tried to blink the tears from her eyes. A slightly larger flame built up. The impatient gaze of the Magic Board burned into her back. Losing her concentration for a split second, the embers in Sveta's hands lept free, scorching her fingers again.
Just before she could tell the Board she couldn't do it, a massive grinding sound swept through the building. In shock, the fire in Sveta's hands exploded outwards, coating her body in a sheet of flame, before flying off and destroying the target. The wall behind it caught fire momentarily, before the rest of it vanished to some unknown location. "Miss Firebrand, I think we all know how this Exam went. Your magic is too uncontrolled. You do not pass."
With a resigned shake of her head, Sveta walked out of the room, shoulders slumped. This wasn't the first time she'd failed, either. She just couldn't deal with the pressure of being watched. Alone in the halls, everyone else having successfully passed their exams. Making her way out the back exit of the school, the slight girl focused on the power of wind, gathering herself a small platform. Stepping on it, she decided to go visit her friend, Jake. Maybe he'd gotten further on his project.

Jake was working away at the extracted starter motor of his Hind on top of its wing. The round red part lay in parts; screws were unceremoniously placed in a black ice-cream container. The small gears and the electric motor were haphazardly assembled on the two halves of the motor. The mechanic moaned to himself, recognising the worn gears, and the parts in particular that were damaged. It was a half-inch gear that was worn beyond measure and unbelievably rare. His fellow mechanics had told him it was useless, the gear was bound to fail, but he pressed on ahead anyway. And now, with the metal haphazardly strengthened, the gear was now twisted. No way could he use that piece of junk again.
Shoving the loose bits onto the bottom and slightly bigger half of the piece, and picked up the ice-cream container of screws and bolts after closing shut the engine cowling. Then dropping down from the wing of his craft, he began walking back over to his garage to pack up the day when he spotted his childhood friend, Sveta, walking along the path from the town to his corner of the settlement.
He called out to her, then fell into step alongside his old friend. "Well, I screwed myself over. How'd your day go?"

Halfway along the journey, Sveta had opted to walk, instead of taking the energy to move her air transport. When she finally made it to Jake's area of town, and heard how his day had been, she only felt worse than before. "It wasn't... It was okay, I guess." This hadn't been the first time she'd failed her Exam. More like the tenth. The eyes of her examiners just made her too nervous. Sure, she could do incredible things when people weren't watching, but that didn't help for when hey were. At this rate, she'd never make it to anything other than Mage rank.
"Hey, I'm sure you'll get the Hind working eventually. Just keep trying." Her voice held a note of optimism. The least she could do was make her friend feel better. Sveta's own problems were her own issue.

"Yeah Right. That thing'll never get off the ground." he said in the age-old expression of optimistic denial. "And look, you failed. Big whoop. Just keep practicing, try showing it to someone - to me if no-one else, and just remember that your ten failures aren't as bad as my six hundred. You'll succeed this next time." said Jake.
Smiling sweetly, the words out of her mouth next seemed horribly at odds. "At least you can only kill yourself with the Hind if things go very wrong. I lit myself on fire today, in front of the Board. I don't think I'm ever going to pass. So, what happened to your contraption today?"
"Bullshit. You'll pass. As for what happened to me, It..." he shrugged as he kept on walking. "I... just... started it up, it was fine, and then kaput. Dead." he said, glancing over at his blue-and-grey craft. "It was one tiny little worn gear this time."
They continued in relative silence, until he remembered what she had said. "And in the event that things go very wrong, just how is crashing and burning in a two-ton craft into an apartment building, or something bigger, come under 'I can only kill myself'?" he asked. That part didn't make sense in his mind in the slightest.

"Because nearly every building is equipped with at least one person who can divert disasters like that. Aircraft don't crash all the time, but they do. By the way, which gear was malfunctioning this time?" At least talking about something other than he repeated failure put her in a much better mood. Maybe she'd even manage to sneak past Danila today before he could make fun of her.
His mind was full of equations and systems, and so he didn't quite hear the last part of her speaking. He jolted himself out of his reverie, and when Sveta asked again he put everything onto one arm and grabbed the gear out of the 'top' half of the starter motor. Glinting a little in the late afternoon's sunlight, the small half-inch part was handed to the delicate hands of his childhood friend.
"This one. The things are bloody rare and no-one around here makes them. This one I found cracked and in the bottom of a junk pile. Tried to strengthen it and failed, made one hell of a mess in my cave- I mean garage."
Taking a good look at the mangled gear, Sveta imagined what it would look like in pristine condition. "Well, Jake, I gotta get back home before Danila gets back from his trip. I'll see you tomorrow." Turning to go, Sveta pulled a pencil and some paper from her pack. Scribbling on it for a while, she eventually made a drawing that looked more or less like the shattered gear that Jake needed to run the Hind. Circling it, she placed the objects back in her pack.

A half-hour later, and she arrived at her house. The massive building nearly intimidated her every time she entered. Going through the front door, Sveta looked left, then right. Hoping against hope that she'd made it back home before the rest of her family, she tip-toed through the halls in an attempt to make it to her room. Of course, her luck never held that well.
Just before she crossed the last few feet to her door, a large shadow blocked her way. Looking up into her brother's blue eyes, she shrank back. "Hello, Danila." The mageling's voice was hardly more than a whisper.
"Look who's back. Fail your exam again? Of course you did. Everybody knows that you can't do anything right. Hah, might as well give up, right? It's never going to work out." His face split into a grin the longer he went on, his words just as cutting as knives. "But you're not going to stop, are you? Poor sis, too stupid to know when to quit. You'll never be as good as Mother or I. But it's so much funnier to see you try and fail. Go on, go try and practise. Just try not to burn down the house in there."
Head down, Sveta nodded. "Yes, Danila." Seemingly satisfied with today's insults, he turned heel and left. Entering her room, the girl did her best to lie to herself. His jibes didn't really bother her... Right. She wouldn't let him put her down. Putting that aside for the moment, she sat down, pulling out the drawing she'd made of her vision of the undestroyed gear.
Taking the knife from her bedside table, she blew the dust from the blade. Focusing on her inner fire, she easily brought a small blaze forth in her hands. Firing it white-hot, the same magic that produced it kept it from burning her. The knife, however, began melting. Quickly, she weaved air through the fire, heating it up to a scalding heat. Forming the invisible fluid into a bowl, Sveta caught the dripping knife's metal within it. Here, by herself, the magic was easy, almost natural. Using the hot air as a mold, she carefully formed the metal into an exact replica of the image in her mind. Pulling water from the air in the hall outside her room, she pulled it under the door, quenching the hot metal. A whirlwind of air contained the steam, collecting it, cooling it, pooling it. Sending it all back, she misted it back into the air. With her last bit of air magic holding the still-warm gear, Sveta felt much better. Her magic could be useful. Danila was just an ass.

Bolts were turned and unturned, gears and pistons and braces were wrenched and shoved back and forth, fuel and power lines were reattatched and replaced. He aboured on even as the sun went into the position where it would be below him. It was a common fact that ever since the world had been destroyed, there was no technical 'night' or 'day'. Instead, they had opted to sleep whenever the massive rock they were on happened to turn away from the sun. So Jake laboured on, the evening sun lighting the cliffs above Red Star, and he made the checks once more.
Lines. Check. Cables. Check. Components. Check. Tanks? Check. Everything seemed to be in optimal condition. Jake yawned, put all of the tools strewn about the engine interior back in his tool-bag and closed the cowling off for the night. He'd get back to work in the morning, without the starter motor. All the craft required in the morning was a kick-start, the old fashioned way. That was to say, with ropes and a good yank. He wandered over to his garage, stumbled inside and collapsed down on his bed, still clad in his grimy overalls. He drifted off to sleep, the sound of a door opening reaching his ears before he drifted off into unconsciousness.

Kari walked over and set a plate full of steaming food down on some empty space on his bedside table. Then pulling up the covers so that the patched rags managed to stretch between the edges of the single bed. Giving her son a kiss on his head, she left his workshop and walked back up to their house. It was a fair distance away from his garage, and right on the edge of the cliff that the Sky-Village was built upon, and into the old building they managed to secure. Their home was humble, shabby yet clean and both aesthetically pleasing and spartan. She walked into the cramped kitchen and sat down at the table.
"He failed again today. Do you think he'll ever-" Kari said timidly before a look from Red caught the words in her mouth. He extended an arm and pulled her into a hug.
"He won't. That boy's got Pioneer blood in his veins. Even if he does keep on failing, he'll never give up. That I can assure you." he murmured into his beloved's head. The two sat there like that for a while, till the battered microwave pinged. Time passed, and in the morning one young mechanic woke up to a plate of pasta on his bedside table.

A knock sounded on the door somwhere in the middle of the night. Sveta cracked an eye open, then closed it once more. The knock sounded again. Clearly, whoever it was wouldn't be going away. Grumbling to herself, the young mage adjusted her clothes, rubbed the sleep from her eyes, and opened the door. Jumping back in shock, she warily looked at the taller figure. Danila?
"Hey, Sis. Don't look so happy to see me, huh?" Breathing a sigh of relief, Sveta stepped forward and gave her other brother a hug. Pavel smiled and ruffled his sister's unruly hair. Brushing some soot out of his hair, he began rifling through his pockets. "When I was in the Gaia cluster last week, I got you something. If I could just- ah! Here it is." Grabbing something from the large pocket on the side of his pants, he pulled out a large snow-globe. Inside, a small stone shaped like a cat smiled out. "I saw it, and thought you'd like it. We only just got back now, sorry to wake you up."
Carefully taking the snowglobe from her brother, she placed it on the dresser in her room, then went back into the hall. "Thanks, Pavel." Giving him another hug, she shooed him off. "You should probably sleep. You've got to leave again tomorrow, right?"
He nodded. "Yeah, we do have to leave again. But before that, I've been waiting to tell you this since I left." Leaning down, Pavel whispered the best plan she'd heard in weeks. With magic-enhanced silence, the two of them snuck through the halls of their home.
When Danila woke the next morning, the first thing he noticed were the sheets glued to his chest. The next thing, after he ripped all that fabric off, was the sheer amount of items glued to the floor and ceiling. Everything on all his desks had also been affixed, impossible to move. Fucking Pavel...

Jake awoke with a jolt and quickly jumped up off the bed. This was another day, another opportunity! He could try again, and if he failed then he'd simply try and try again! Or at least that's what his dream told him. In reality, he was miserable. He got up, pulling a blanket off himself and slowly outside into the crisp Thursday morning. The Hind glinted in the morning light, and as he made the early morning checks with a air of gloom, he heard the jeers and inuslts thrown at him by the usual bunch of lazy jaded kids that watched him in the mornings. Each one stung to his core, not that the engineer would show that on his face.
He checked the fuel, all the electrics and finally affixed ropes to the rotors of the thing and attatched them to the dual-pulley he had prepared. Hopefully it would start and stay up this time. He climbed up inside it as the jeers and catcalls grew louder, pulling at a rope and undoing a knot as he did. Once inside, he closed the door of the cockpit and sat down inside the plane, buckling himself in as the knotwork which held back the pulley on the ropes went down and down.
With his right hand, he reached down to the bottom of his overalls and down through the hole in them to pull the gun he carried out of its holster. Jake knew that it was for self-defence purposes, and only in emergencies, but that didn't stop him. Somewhere, he read or heard that the best way to commit suicide with a gun was with the barrel in your mouth. But then he began to worry, what if the shot went through his mouth and out the back of his neck? What if the gun didn't fire at all? What if-
His thoughts were interrputed as the pulley system activated, and with a huge jerk, the propellers were kick-started into life. With his left hand, he fired the key, hoping that the charge from the battery would help spark the engine into life. Closing his eyes, he tightened his grip on the gun and put his finger inside the trigger guard. Now or Never indeed.
However, with a few clanks and a whir of machinery, the Hind started up, and the engines remained at a smooth pitch. He opened his eyes, gun still in his mouth and waited for the inevitable failure. But none came, and except for the dull whine of the engines and the flickering of the interior lights, there was nothing. With his left hand, he flicked off the interior lights.

Jake let the Hind run idle for a moment, letting the engine and oil temparature grow to a modest height. Previously he had only wondered if it could fly at all. Now, however, he was nearer certain than he had ever been. This time it was stable. This time he would be airborne, and stay that way.
He tapped at the plastic of the dashboard, and waited for all the meters and readings to come to an acceptable height. The dull whine of the rotors soothed him somewhat, and as he flipped switches, a dull roar of the jet engines started up. He took a breath, and took the controls tenatively.
Depressing a lever, the jet engines howled as the rotors increased their speed and the sensation of flight overtook him as the Hind rose up steadily. When it didn't malfunction or break down, he quickly holstered the gun and whooped in joy.
He pushed forward another lever slightly and the jet engines howled, taking him forward, then up and to the left when he pulled back on the controls, and out into the huge open skies of the shards of rock hanging in a blue globe of air.

Immediately, he felt wind against the frame of the craft. Must have flown right into a current. He jinked and banked his way into the shadow of the floating rock which housed his home. He flew around, bringing the throttle up to maximum and flying around into the warm sun. Jake laughed in joy, taking the direction back around and into the bay which housed the colony of Red Star.
He depowered the forward engines and made his way down onto his landing pad. Then landing, the mechanic descended onto the pad and exited to cheers and a crowd of toddlers and small children rushing at him, their parents soon following. Jake descended his craft's ladder, and tried to walk through the mob of excited children that swamped him.

From her position on a platform of air, Sveta passed the gear back and forth between her hands. Another day, another attempt to make the Hind fly. Hopefully this time, everything would work right. Sure, Jake didn't have a part, but he'd manage to find a way through. Certainly better than she had.
As she'd watched nearly every other time, the small aircraft shuddered a few feet up into the air. With bated breath, she watched as it continued moving further up... And remained airborne! Cheering on the inside, she angled her air platform down, landing amidst a small mob that had begun forming. Watching the haphazard craft circle the colony, she smiled. After the short test flight, Jake landed the craft. Though she wanted nothing more than to shout congratulations to him, Sveta decided to wait until there were less people to shout over.

Jake tried not to strut down the walkway that led from his pad to his garage, but failed horribly. It was something all aviators did once they managed to operate a lump of metal through the sky and land it safely. He eventually reached the run-down garage and entered inside. Once he closed the door, he shouted out in success, and ran over to punch the sack of dirt a dozen times with extreme vigour. Then wiping the smile from his face, he turned and- Wait a minute... thought his mind.
He turned back to his bed. Or more accurately, his bedside table. On it there was a plate. Full of- he walked quickly over and sat down on his bed, taking the plate of cold pasta into his lap and beginning to shovel it down with his fork. It was delicious, made all the better by the success of his flight. In the short amount of time that the plate was emptied, he made up his mind. First, he'd get to work on the starter motor and scrap that pulley system. That rope could be put to much better use than rip-starting his craft over and over again.
A small while later, he exited his workshop with a tool bag, a canteen of drinking water, a small billycan of oil and a heavy box of parts in hands. He managed to walk over to the table he kept on the side of the pad and dumped the box of parts and the bag onto the table, before sitting down and collapsing onto the stool he kept there.

He eventually regained his energy, and after a deep drink from the canteen which left it just a little over three-quarters full, Jake began to work in the uncomfortable heat of the midday. He got to work, putting bolts back in their holes and putting the starter motor together, or at least as best he could, considering a vital part of it was mangled beyond hope of repair, and also missing.
He glanced upwards from his work, and saw Sveta. He leaned back in his chair and waited for the Mage-in-training to arrive down to him. When she did arrive, he saw a slightly sad expression on her face.

"Well, you got it up and running." she said. Jake frowned and wondered why she would be acting like this.
"Yeah. Pulley and rip-start. Just working on the starter motor now. Can't carry around that huge thing for every time I want to start 'er up, can I?" he said, patting the Hind's wing. She looked a little sad, and pulled out something from the pocket of her robes.
"I suppose you won't need this, then." she said, holding out the small thing for him to see. Jake took it, and inspected the thing- it was a gear. Precisely the kind of half-inch gear he needed for the sparter motor on the table. He looked up to his friend with a smile.

"If I wasn't covered with muck and grime, I would hug you. Thank you so much." Jake said, putting the precious gear alongside the rest of the pieces of the starter motor. Sveta looked confused.
"But isn't it unnecessary? I mean, you managed to get it working..." his friend said, trailing off when Jake massaged the bridge of his nose and smiled.

"I think I'm redundant for saying this, but technology isn't like your fancy-pants Magic. Everything has a place here, everything's useful in some way or another. But still, Thank you so much for this." he said, turning back to his work before he glanced up again and saw his other old friend Peter. The two exchanged greetings as the older man walked up onto Jake's helipad. Peter had been a part of the old Home Guard, but now after its restructuring he was now in charge of all police units inside the Sky-Village. And it was with two other guards that he went up to the young mechanic.

"Hey Jake. You finally got it up and operational and I'm happy for you, but I need you to come with me. There's a few things we need to sort out. Licensing and all that." the Guard said, and the mechanic stood up, lumping the wreck of the starter motor together and putting the lump of metal back in the box on the desk.
"Damn. See you." he said to his Mage friend, and got up to follow Peter away to the central building in which the village's security was based.

A very long time later, he emerged outside the building, hands sore from writing, and carried the box of new gear he had been given. Being a registered aviator and mechanic helped a lot, and even then having a Home Guard official as a family friend helped a lot, too. Reaching his garage, the boxes of brand new gear found homes on tables, albeit haphazardly, and soon Jake collapsed onto his bed with a smile on his face. Life was good.