Learning to Live (COMPLETE)

8.5.2

Ahsoka walked back into the shop and went directly to her workspace, where Wheeler was twirling a screwdriver with her hand. Pushing her thoughts about Rya out of her mind, she climbed up and approached the Pantorian. "I hope I haven't kept you waiting."

Wheeler waved her off. "Nah, I just got here a few minutes ago. Before we start working, though, there's one more person you haven't met yet." She walked over a few work spaces, and showed Ahsoka to another bench worker, another human male. "This is Nox, the only other person who wasn't here on Saturday."

Nox looked up from the blaster he was working on and gave Ahsoka a small wave. Ahsoka put on a smile. "Nice to meet you."

"You too," Nox replied, then scratched his neck. "Ah..you're the ex-Jedi, right? I saw something about you the other day."

Ahsoka nodded. "So I've been told. Don't worry, though. I'm not a Separatist or whatever else they're saying."

Nox smiled, but Wheeler pulled her back to where they were supposed to be. "Nox doesn't talk much," she explained. "He likes to come in and work when the others aren't here."

This didn't particularly bother Ahsoka, so she nodded again and moved on. "Rya mentioned a clock-in system. How does that work?"

"That's what I'm going to show you," Wheeler said, walking her over to a small computer mounted on the wall of her workbench. "Go ahead and sign in here."

Ahsoka typed in her last name where it asked for it, but she stopped when she came to the passcode. "Did someone else set this for me?"

Wheeler shook her head. "Whatever you type in now is your permanent passcode. It gets you in through the back doors, and it lets you clock in too. I use the same code that I chose for my locker."

That made sense, so Ahsoka put in Rex's birth number again and hit enter. The program logged her in and opened to a new screen, where it listed various repair orders, some of which Ahsoka recognized from the registrar Rya showed her.

Wheeler pointed to the empty list of finished items under her profile. "This resets every day, but once you hit submit right here, it logs your hours for today. If you don't scan in a new repair for fifteen minutes, it logs you out automatically and you have to sign back in."

"On the repairs, is the barcode to scan easy to find?" Ahsoka asked.

"It's on a tag, you can't miss it," Wheeler assured her. "You and I are going to work on a speeder together to get you started, and then you can go off and do your own thing if you want. Sound good?"

"Sounds great," Ahsoka answered, and they set off for the back garage, where Wheeler and Ahsoka worked together to move a worn speeder into the open floor area of the workshop. Ahsoka logged the repair in her system and grabbed the tools provided in her workbench. Wheeler got started on the controls, and Ahsoka tackled repairing the engine.

While they got to work repairing, Ahsoka asked what questions she had. "Rya said something about 'no upgrades'. Has that always been the case?"

Wheeler nodded. "Yeah, it just makes everyone's job easier. If they've signed up for our membership program, though, you can list it on their profile. I'll show you that after we're done."

"No one has said anything about that yet," Ahsoka told her, rolling her scooter back so she could see under the speeder. "When do I learn all of these things?"

"It'll come over time, Tano," Wheeler assured her. "Honestly, some of these things, I've forgotten about. They seem like second nature now, and I keep forgetting you've never done this before. I guess that's my fault. Transitioning underground isn't easy."