"Well, I'll be a garbled Snorz-giraffe!" I stared, confounded, at the engine. It really seemed to be displeased with me! Every day at exactly 0516 hours, it would emit this green steam and threaten to shut down if I didn't give it a little love. The one time I had ignored it, we had been stuck for a week! They all thought I was a genius when I got it working, but... the truth was, I hadn't really accomplished anything. If I didn't know better, I would have said this engine was sentient and had it out for me!<br/><br/>TK421, my personal protection, buzzed around the room, carefree. Sure, I had made him sentient! What the hell was wrong with a sentient protector, then, eh?! But seriously, people often gave me shit about the little guy... why couldn't I protect myself, why does a tool need to think, etcetera... but I'd shine them all until they cried for their gods if they ever tried to damage my little guy! Tyki was the first successful engineering project I ever had, after a long serious of hilarious (to others) and dangerous (to me) failures. He still had his core components from all those years ago, but I had certainly given him his share of upgrades... of... well, varied kinds.<br/><br/>Hey, you just shut up! It gets lonely in here sometimes, okay?! Not everybody wants to shack up with a grime-covered techheaded brat with a part she's apparently not supposed to have! Not that I knew that before I left home! Everyone was like me back there! Just... just be quiet!<br/><br/>Uhm, anyway, this stupid engine. I had no idea what the green gas was. There was no place for it to conceivably come from, but it was there nonetheless. Scans said it was harmless, sooo... I worked away at it. Very few people came back here... I was used to that. But maybe today would be different.