Piccard skipped class that period, and stayed in his own room, if it was either some useful subject like Physics or History, he would definitely not miss it for the world. But the current subject was English, and he already knows everything he needs to about his native language anyway. He was wearing his flight goggles while he tinkered with a certain machine, several sized lenses held up onto an inclined wooden base in no particular order. He set it under the opening in his window where the sun shone through. The sun's beam struck the first lens and focused into the next lens, into the next, and so on. He then put an ice cube underneath the last lens and on top of the ice cube, a piece of glass attached to a small tube, going to a different, sealed container.
The ice then started to melt, some into steam, others into water. The steam collected into the container above, and into the tube. A few drops of condensed water fell into the sealed container. After all the ice was melted, Piccard wiped the table of remaining water, and checked the container, there was only a slightly sizeable blob of water in the container. He sighed and immediately drank it. It wasn't productive, in fact, Piccard himself wasn't even sure what he was doing, but it was always healthy to have a hobby. He looked at the self-made clock hung on the wall, it was just about time for lunch. He went out of his studio-slash-lab, and into his room, he raised his goggles that he had forgotten to take off earlier, and wore his jacket.
He made his way to the cafeteria, and saw how packed it was, he slowly raised his right hand to his face, and slowly bowed his head into his hand. Facepalm. Yes, the consequences of his redundancy was rearing its ugly head once more. He sighed, and waited outside the cafeteria for the line to die down, one of the perks of being a tinkerer was that he was used to frustrating situations, and in turn was much more patient. The crowd finally thinned itself, and Piccard finally entered. Although, as soon as he stepped inside, instead of the usual chatter, he heard shouts and insults, he eyed the commotion with half-parts caution, and half-parts uninterest. He picked up a tray while still eyeing the two students arguing. He went to the hot food queue, got himself some turkey, and went to the soup line and got chowder.
Piccard looked back at the two students and saw that the commotion had calmed when he was finished collecting his food-stuff, one of the black-uniformed men was taking the two students out of the area. He now started searching for a table, and found where Aislinn, Clark, and the always-gender ambiguous Keepa were sitting, Keepa's true gender may trouble some other students, but to him, 'looks like a girl, sounds like a girl, is a girl.' So he didn't mind much. He made his way to their table.
"Hi guys. I'm gonna sit here if you don't mind." He said with a smile, his eyes going to each of them. He set his tray down and sat a few inches beside Aislinn. He gave Keepa a small nod and a smile. He cracked his neck to either side. "So Clark, got anything to trade? I happen to have something back at my room that you may be interested in." He said with a smile. "Aislinn, I got your commission, almost finished, I trust I'll get compensated handsomely?" With a sly smirk and a wink.