<span style="font-weight: bold">â€œSo did you go to school to be a mechanic or did you just kind of pick it up as you went along in your career as a pilot?â€</span><br/><br/>Dren popped open a panel and began digging around inside, tracing wires and noticing where some were free from it's soldering, pulled out a precision welder and tapped the solder to reattach the wires, using his claws to strip the insulation,,<br/><br/>"Nothing formal." he said, "I couldn't really afford to go to a training facility so I worked on spare parts when I had a job at a junk yard. Once I became good enough to enlist as a NSF mechanic, I started taking out some of the mechs I worked on when no one was looking. I did it so often and got so good at it, I tried out for a junior pilot position." He spoke as he worked, terminating loose wires where they seemed to go and everything seemed to check out fine so far.<br/><br/>"I got on as a cadet and most pilots were trained by combat tournaments in the Academy. I suppose I won enough to advance into active duty and got assigned to a ship for a few months, then....." He paused. That was when the 'accident happened' and he didn't continue on and ended his story there, but with her expecting more, he added, "Then I joined the Gate research team as a test pilot and here I am." With that he shut the lid on the compartment he was working on, the pushed off to float upside down to weld a large gash in the front shoulder. He had to remind himself that these people were still strangers to him, no matter how much he liked this place. His tail whipped behind him as he worked, the bell on his tail making dull clunks as it waved in the air.