Rupi's breath was heavy as she worked her fingers deeper into the tight, slick hole. Two fingers, always, that had been in there many times before but never seemed to lose the tactile joy of the experience. She was almost there.
"Ah...yes...come on....AHA!" she cried, pulling her hand out of the thin metal tube she'd been digging around in. "I...wait on."
That wasn't right. There was supposed to be something blocking the tube, and there was definitely something in there, but when she'd pulled nothing had come out with her fingers other than grease. Cursing loudly, mostly because the death metal she liked to play when she worked was up so loud she had to yell to hear herself swear, Rupi smeared the grease onto her overalls and set the tube down. Well, that was a problem.
Something had wormed it's way through one of the air intakes and into Serpentine's engine, clogging up the whole works. Whatever it was it had cut right through the intake cover, so she couldn't run the bike again without being sure it was gone in case it tore up the whole engine.
It'd have to be replaced, and that was that. Problem was, Rupi didn't have one of those tube's just laying around to fit snugly back into place.
Rupi had pretty much replaced or customised every part on the bike other than the frame, so she knew exactly what needed to be done to fix a differently shaped part on.
With one of the two roller doors open the waning light, meant to imitate sunset on the surface, poured into the garage. In with it came the warm air, slightly musty despite the air filters. You got used to it, the air, the false sunlight. As far as Rupi was concerned it was always night in Tienar.
Her overalls fell off her shoulders and her shirt, damp with sweat and smeared with grease, was peeled off and tossed onto a bench. Work was exhausting, and she wasn't going to be hot for no reason.
Dropping down onto her back on a sliding board, Rupi slid herself under the bike and started digging around in her insides.
