* Chapter 2 * The launch had been successful, and everything had been going smoothly for the few days they’d been in space so far. Skizz was doing regular checks to make sure everyone was reacting to space well abut other than that, people were just doing whatever they wanted. Etho still had to do regular checks on the systems every day. Bdubs often kept him company, just usually sitting on some box and chatting away to him while he tweaked any systems. “Hey, Etho, can I talk to you about something?” Bdubs asked, sounding hesitant. Etho looked up from what he was doing, “Yeah, of course, what’s up?” He said, giving Bdubs his full attention. “Back when we were roomates.. when I got nightmares you let me come and sleep beside you.. is it still.. okay if we do that here?” “Of course, if you need anything at all, you can absolutely come find me,” Etho said, “And seriously don’t hesitate to come get me, no matter what it is you need.” Bdubs smiled, “Thank you.” Etho smiled back and changed the topic, “You gonna keep me company while I run my daily jobs?” “Course, got nothing better to do, haha.” The pair did in fact keep eachother company while Etho completely all his tasks for the day, mainly just doing checks on the actual ship’s electronics or systems. It was quite boring stuff to Etho but Bdubs seemed fascinated by learning what he could about it from him, and he was quite happy to oblige. Bdubs wasn’t exactly quick to pick it up. “I don’t get any of this?!” He had exclaimed, in frustration. “That’s alright, it’s hard stuff to learn, Dubs,” Etho had said with a shrug. “Tango learned it quick enough in training..” “Well youre not Tango. Stop putting yourself down for this, it’s pointless,” Etho said, gently ruffling Bdubs’s hair. “Hmph,” Bdubs frowned. “Well I’ve got plenty of time to teach you anyways,” he said, “I’m already finished for the day.” “What?! So soon?!” He looked suprised. “Yup!” He grinned, “So if you want, I can teach you about redstone orrr we could just chill. I need to unpack my stuff in my room, maybe you could help with that!” “Yeah! Course!” Bdubs said, getting up, smiling. He helped Etho up and all but dragged him back to his room, with Etho laughing as they went. When they got to Etho’s room, Bdubs sat on his bed, and Etho knelt to pull out what little things he’d brought with. A photo of him and Bdubs, some books, some comfier clothes, nothing special. “You don’t have a lot of stuff, huh?” Bdubs said with a frown. “Not really- Never bothered to get a lot of stuff,” Etho shrugged. “Yeah but you deserve nice things,” he said with a little frown. “I have all the nice things I need,” he gestured to the little stuff he had. Bdubs frowned, “I know you didn’t have anything before you moved in with me but… why didn’t you get new stuff you like?” Etho shrugged. “The thought never crossed my mind.” Bdubs dissapeared without a word, much to Etho’s suprise until he came back with an armful of plants. “You need at least something to liven up your room!” He argued, setting the plants down on Etho’s little bedside table. Etho did appreciate it, truly, even if he didn’t say so, “Thank you.” He smiled. “No problem, I may have gone overkill on how many I brought anyways,” Bdubs laughed, flopping down on Etho’s bed, and Etho sat down beside him, laughing too. “Only you could bring too many plants onto a spaceship,” he laughed shaking his head. “Says Mr ‘I didn’t bring much because I don’t need much’” he answered, poking Etho in the side, jokingly. “Hey! I don’t need much!” He laughed. “Whatever, man!” He said lightheartedly. The next few weeks aboard the ship went like that. Etho doing whatever jobs he needed to do and then going and chilling with Bdubs. And he enjoyed it. More than anything. But occasionally, he would be called away to do other urgent jobs elsewhere. One such occasion was when some of the redstone wiring broke in the medical bay, which caused Etho to have to rush over to get fixed.
(Chapter 2 continued below, read above section first please!) “What even happened?!” Etho asked, as he knelt to try reconnect the broken wires. “Well- I was stood taking Martyn’s medical records and I had to take a blood sample and he freaked out, man!” Skizz explained, with Tango stood nearby nodding. “He just started trying to get away, and he ended up kicking out some of the wiring?” Tango added. “Alright- Well- One of you go check how Martyn is, and I’ll fix this, luckily it’s not anything major, it’s just the wiring that controls that little hand-light over there.” Etho said, with a relieved sigh. “On it,” Skizz nodded, going to go find Martyn. Etho worked in silence, but he could feel Tango staring over his shoulder. “You good?” He asked, not looking up from what he was doing. “Yeah, sorry- This stuff is just.. really interesting.” Tango answered. Etho shuffled over a little, “Cmon, I’ll show you some stuff if you want? Might as well, with this stuff-” Tango shuffled closer and watched intently. He took the jar redstone wire-paste from his pocket, “This is redstone, alright?” Tango nodded as Etho took some out of the jar and held the broken wires with his other hand. “This stuff hardens when you apply enough pressure, and it’s what the wires are made of, so, if you put it between the wires and tape it up, it’ll harden after a while. And it still conducts power whilst hardening.” He demonstrated, by rubbing the redstone on the wires and taping it up, and then flicking on the button that turned on the hand-light, and it came on. “Woah,” Tango said, smiling. “That’s some very basic redstone for you, there’s a lot more complex stuff, with repeaters and other components and all that sort of stuff, but yeah, just some general basic redstone.” “Could you teach me? If you’ve got the time for it anyways,” he asked. “Yeah, course,” Etho smiled, “Maybe some other time, though? I promised Bdubs I’d go chill with him-” He’d walked back out into the hallway and along as he passed the rooms to get to his, where Bdubs was likely waiting, and he passed Martyn’s room, where Skizz was stood taking blood samples while Martyn was holding onto Ren’s hand for comfort, and also partially to hold him down in case he attempted to break things like before. They didn’t seem to be having any issues so Etho just kept walking. Bdubs was, like he’d suspected, sat waiting for him in his room. “You get caught up with something?” Bdubs asked, noticing the redstone paste stains on his hands. “Yeah- Incident in the med bay, some minor wires got broken, just knocked off a hand light.” He said, wiping his hands off on some spare cloth he had. “Well, good job,” He said. “Thanks,” he responded, flopping down against Bdubs, who wrapped an arm around him as they lay there in the comfortable silence. They stayed there, like that, until they both got tired enough to get changed into pjamas and curl up to fall asleep ••• Sorry if this isn’t written too well ToT I wrote majority of this a while back and I’m not too sure on the beginning sections- Anyways, feedback greatly appreciated!! Lmk if you want to be pinged for new chapters! Next Chapter: Out 30/5/26 Previous Chapter: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/1320975056/ First Chapter: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/1320351865/
