There's a reason people say money makes the world go round.
The engines are coin-operated.
Scene: Sol 3 Engine Room, a number of shadowy figures tend to various flashing displays, the sound of a large bank of engines can be heard in the background.
*engines wind down*
Secret Society Member 1: throwing down the clipboard they were reading, “Oh for fu-“
They walk over to the power display, read it for a few moments, frowning.
Secret Society Member 1: turning to the other figures in the room, “Whose turn was it to keep the meter going today?”
The sound of awkward fidgeting is heard as the other people in the room look around at each other.
SSM 1: “If they don’t own up we’ll have to do a whip round.”
The other figures all look around at SSM 2.
SSM 2: sheepishly: “Well you see, the thing is, all those investments we had to make in order to bankrupt the *engine sputters over the words, making them inaudible* corporation and bribing the various government officials to look the other way have left me a little short this week. I don’t quite have enough to cover it…”
The others all groan and complain to one another, as though this happens a lot when itms SSM 2’s turn.
SSM 1 stares at SSM 2 for a few uncomfortable moments, as SSM 2 looks at their shoes. SSM 1 sighs and digs their hand into their pockets, followed by the sound of everyone else in the room counting change.
SSM 1 grabs a nearby plastic bucket, upends a few used tissues and candy wrappers onto the floor, and walks around the room collecting change from the other members. A few hushed whispers of “you need to sort this out boss, we can’t keep doing this.” are heard as he passes by some of their more unhappy cohorts.
Finally they approach a coin slot and begin feeding coins in, until the engines fire back to life. A panel is read, and a few more coins inserted, before the bucket is placed on a counter nearby. SSM 1 approaches SSM 2, placing a hand on their shoulder. The conversation unheard over the sound of the engines, but SSM2 looks at the floor, nodding briefly, before being lead to the door by SSM 1, the door sliding noiselessly into the frame. After SSM2 passes through it slides closed. SSM 1 shakes their head, and returns to their clipboard and resumes perusing it, as the image pans away.