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The Havoc Marauder was silent as it floated in the emptiness of space, the only noise coming from the humming of the ship’s system’s running making sure everything functioned properly. Well, that and the sound of Tech’s consistent, stubborn tweaking of mechanical parts as he worked at the ship’s navigational systems.
Technically he should be asleep. All of the other members of the Bad Batch were sound asleep as there was no need for someone to stay up and keep watch of the ship since they weren’t in hyperspace. If any unexpected visitors were to arrive, the proximity alarms would go off, waking them all in time.
But he couldn’t sleep, so he did what he always did when he couldn’t sit still. He tinkered.
Sometimes with systems and functions on the ship, modifying it past its initial composition over the many years. Other times he’d work on his own little projects, ideas that had struck him in the middle of the mission or late at night, like the scanner to detect their inhibitor chips. Tonight though, he’d decided to work on improvements and small patches for the navigational systems.
He’d been meaning to do it for a while and figured now was a good a time as ever. Especially since Wrecker wasn’t running around causing chaos and it was quiet enough for Tech to focus.
He was squished underneath the control panel connected to the large display screen outside Omega’s room, trying to patch up a glitch that had been bothering him and absolutely no one else. But it was just him and the stars. No one could tell him not to fix it, and even if anyone was around they’d probably have no idea what he was doing anyway.
Then, out of nowhere, half scaring Tech to death came a voice.
“Tech?” It said in a small, curious voice.
Tech jumped, bumbling his head on the console, letting out a small “ow” as he shimmied out from underneath, rubbing his head. Standing in front of him, wearing the star pyjamas Hunter and Wrecker had picked out for her and cuddling Lula was Omega.
“Sorry,” Omega winced as Tech sat up. “Did I scare you?”
“Only a little.” Tech said, giving her a small smile. “Why are you awake? I thought you were sleeping like all the others.”
“I was. But I had a bad dream and I couldn’t fall back asleep.” Omega said, looking down at her feet and hugging Lula a little tighter. “I didn’t want to wake any of you up, but I saw your flashlight out here and I thought I’d come over.”
Tech could see that she was still shaken by whatever her dream was about. She probably didn’t want to be alone, so sliding back underneath the console to go back to fiddling with it would probably be the wrong move.
“Did you want to talk about it?” He asked her, considering that to be his best option.
She hesitated for a moment, thinking over his request before nodding. Tech placed the tool he’d been holding down and cleared some space on the floor beside him, patting the spot. Omega came over and sat beside him, crossing her legs and placing Lula in her lap so the stuffed animal was still easily huggable.
“What were you dreaming about?” He asked to start her off.
“Well, you remember the bounty hunter on Pantora, Fennec?” Omega asked.
“Yes.” Tech confirmed.
“I had a dream about her. I was on the ship and I was looking for you guys but I couldn’t find you so I went into the cockpit and I saw you and Wrecker and Echo all dead on the floor and Fennec was there.” Omega said, looking scared and cuddling Lula tighter to her chest. “ She had Hunter trapped and he saw me and told me to run. But, I didn’t want to leave him so I hesitated and I saw Fennec shoot him before I turned around. I tried to run away, but she caught me before I could get away and then I woke up.”
Tech could see the first few tears starting to run down her face, falling off her chin onto Lula’s soft fabric.
“I know that it’s silly and it wasn’t real, but it really scared me.” Omega said with a sniffle.
“I know how you feel.” Tech said, placing a hand on her shoulder like he’d seen Hunter do a few times.
“Really?” Omega asked, turning to look up at him.
“Of course. Everyone has nightmares.” Tech told her. He noticed that his words didn't seem to have the reassuring effect he was aiming for, so he thought of something else.
“Would you like to try what I do when I can’t sleep because of a nightmare?” He asked her.
“Okay.” Omega said, brightening just a little at the prospect of learning something new.
“When I can’t sleep, I like to fix or make things.” Tech told her, mentioning at his toolbox.
“Like you were when I found you?” She asked.
“Yes.” Tech confirmed. “I think fixing the navigational systems is a little too advanced for you just yet, but we could try a smaller project if you’d like.”
“Sure.” She said, wiping the tears from her cheeks and loosening her grip on Lula. “What are we gonna do?”
“How does a baking soda volcano sound?” Tech asked her with a smile, remembering how much fun the basic science experiment was when he was around her age.
“Okay!” Omega said, even though Tech was fairly certain she had no idea what he was talking about.
Tech was able to scrape together the supplies for the physical volcano itself with things he found around the ship. He walked Omega through making the volcano, helping her with a few of the steps along the way.
While they were plastering paper mache onto the structure Omega came up with another one of her questions.
“So, you’ve had nightmares before?” She asked him as she laid another strip of paper down.
“Yes.” He confirmed. “Why wouldn’t I have?”
“I don’t know.” Omega said with a shrug. “I guess it’s just that you guys all seem so tough and brave. I just didn’t think that you’d have nightmares.”
“I can assure you that all of us have had nightmares at some point.” Tech said with a smile, plastering his own strip of paper onto the volcano. “Did you want to hear one of mine?”
“Sure.” She said with an excited grin. She loved hearing stories about the Bad Batch and all the adventures they’d had.
“When we were cadets on Kamino we would sometimes sneak outside when it wasn’t raining and get some fresh air. It was a hidden little platform high up that no one else knew about.” Tech told her. He noticed that she’d stopped helping him with the paper mache in favour of his story, but that was fine with him. “Well, one day we’d all gone up during a pause in the rain. It was all going fine. Wrecker had brought some snacks that he and Crosshair had stolen from the food stores. We sat and talked and snacked for a while. When we went to leave I lost my footing and slipped over the edge.”
“Like when I was stuck on that maintenance tower.” Omega said.
“Yes. Exactly like that.” Tech told her with a smile. “Hunter caught me before I was out of reach and they all helped to pull me back up. I was fine, obviously, but I had nightmares for a while after that where Hunter didn’t catch me and I fell into the ocean.”
“That sounds scary.” Omega thought out loud, fiddling with a piece of paper mache in her hands. “I know I would never want to fall into Kamino’s ocean.”
“Yes, I imagine it wouldn’t be very pleasant.” Tech agreed, smiling at her. She smiled back at him as they went back to the volcano.
Once they were done assembling it, Tech laid out all of the substances that Omega needed to put into the volcano, telling her the instructions for putting it all in.
It only took them a few minutes to add everything they needed and Tech handed Omega the container of vinegar, giving her a boost so she could pour it in properly. Once the container was empty, he placed her back on the ground.
A few seconds went by and the volcano made a loud bubbling noise deep inside it. It had been a while since Tech had made one of these volcanoes, but he was fairly confident it shouldn’t be making that noise.
“Omega.” Tech said.
“Yeah?” She replied.
“Exactly how much baking soda did you add?” He asked her.
“I don’t know.” She admitted. “Why?”
Tech didn’t get to answer her question as the volcano exploded. It was evident that Omega had added more of the baking soda than Tech had told her as the orange foam burst out of the top instead of the steady fizz Tech had been aiming for.
Both of them flinched as the foam splattered all over the table, walls, anything close to it, and, of course, themselves.
They both stayed frozen for a second before Omega moved to wipe it from her eyes and Tech took off his glasses to clean the lenses. On one hand, he was lucky that the glasses had prevented any from landing on his eyes. On the other hand, it was probably going to be a pain to clean off.
“Well, Tech said as he examined his glasses as best he could with blurry vision. “That didn’t go as planned.”
“That was awesome!” Omega said with a little bounce.
“I suppose that’s one way to put it.” Tech said with a smile, trying to look around for a towel for his glasses without much success.
“Oh, sorry!” Omega said, seeing Tech. Tech watched her, or the blur that he could identify as Omega, moving across their kitchen area, grabbing what must have been a towel and bringing it over to him. “I forgot about your glasses. Can you really not see anything without them?”
“I can still see.” He told her as he wiped off the lenses of his glasses. “Just not very well. Most things become a blur.”
“Oh.” Omega said in understanding. About five seconds went by before she came up with another question. “Why did the volcano do that?”
“Well, the baking soda reacted with the vinegar.” Tech told her, putting his glasses back on and regaining his sight. There were still a few spots and smudges that were too annoying to ignore, so he took them off again and resumed his cleaning. “That caused the explosion of foam. Typically, you measure how much of each you put in so you don’t end up with too extreme a reaction. My theory is that you added too much of the baking soda which caused a bigger, less stable reaction.”
“I’m sorry.” She told him. “I didn’t mean to make a mess.”
Tech put his glasses back on again, this time being satisfied with the results of his cleaning, handed the towel to Omega so she could wipe some of the experiment off her own face.
“It’s quite alright.” Tech told her. “There was no harm done and it’s a simple clean-up. Besides, the experiment was more interesting this way.”
“I’ll say.” Omega agreed, wiping the last of the foam off her face and smiling.
“Now, let’s try and clean some of this up before Hunter wakes up.” Tech told her with a smile of his own as he started grabbing cleaning supplies.
They started by both getting clean clothes, being careful not to wake up any of the others. Then they began wiping down the table and walls, making sure there was no foam or sticky residue leftover.
Luckily, Lula wasn’t within the blast radius. Tech considered how upset Omega would have been if the beloved plush was damaged, even if the fix was just a simple wash.
Once everything was cleaned, they were both exhausted. Both from the cleaning and a long, late-night spent awake. Too tired to climb into their own beds, they both found a comfortable spot on the floor near the navigational systems where Tech’s tools were still strewn about.
They curled up together, Omega falling into Tech’s lap and snuggling into his chest with Lula in her arms while Tech wrapped his arms around her and rested his head on hers. They stayed like that until morning.
Hunter was the first to wake up. When he came out into their little cargo hold, he’d expected to find Tech sitting down eating breakfast or working on some project. He was surprised when he rounded a corner and saw Tech with Omega, sound asleep on the floor.
He knew that Tech cared for Omega, despite being less active in her upbringing than the rest of them. Tech was used to being the youngest of the group and not having to worry about someone as little as Omega running around. Seeing them cuddled up together like that brought a smile to his face.
Hunter opted to leave them like that instead of waking them. He figured they both probably had a long night and they looked too peaceful the way that they were, Hunter was fairly sure he wouldn’t forgive himself if he woke them now.
So he made his caf as quietly as he could, taking in the moment before they arose, and it faded into memory.