I had a win with Commander Nugget yesterday, but today I want to feed him to the recycling unit. I went to bed like he ordered, but my stupid brain used that to try and reset my normal and just kept me tired. That and seeing 0400 on the ship’s clock makes me want to vomit.
/Propulsion, DE, Engineering Actual, accelerator @ 70%, begin plasma and propulsion magnetics./
/EA, DE, Propulsion initializing startup sequence. Recommend initializing collision @ 60% plasma volume and propulsion initiation @ 20% antimatter/
/Copy propulsion. EA out/
We set those data points at the pre-maneuver meeting, but these coms are for logs as well as the lower-level operators not invited to the meeting. My two propulsion techs—an MM2 and an ET2—are monitoring the thrust control and troubleshooting station. I shake my head at the long names they have for a data screen and keyboard next to the propulsion magnetic field power breaker. Not a great place to put it really. If that breaker throws, it’s probably going to toss some lightning.
I’ve got a 15-20 minute break in paying attention, so naturally that’s when people happen. “Morning, Senior.”
She scoffs at my address, “Oh please, Penny. It was one instance nearly a month ago.” I clench my jaw, ready for a fight, when she puts both hands up and shakes her head. “I am annoyed, but I did not come to fight. Petra said that perhaps if I offered a truce, you remove the goat noises.”
What? Oh, I forgot I set her tablet to re-infect the room’s console every time they paired. Three weeks is a lot of goat noises. “Oh, I forgot about that. I can fix it now with your tablet, or come by after the maneuver.”
To my surprise, she hands me the tablet. This would have been a prime opportunity to get me back in the chief’s quarters off schedule. Anyway, I delete a startup macro and the image file I hid the code in and then restart her tablet.
“This should re-synch with your room console and erase the alarm.” I hand it back, turning back to my techs, watching percentages rise.
“It could be your room again too, your bed is still empty.” I hear the olive branch, but it feels like a hidden opportunity for her to save face.
“I’ll consider it. I miss sleeping in gravity, but I don’t know how safe I’ll feel. Or that I could sleep through those kinds of activities.”
Ivanka stands there for a few moments, likely waiting for me to look at her, and scoffs when I don’t, muttering “difficult woman” as she stomps away.
That went surprisingly well. Why was I so afraid of interacting with her again? How much of this conversation tempered by Petra before she came to confront me about the goat noises? Time will tell I suppose.
I pull the order log up on my tablet and arrange it to display about hip level while I pull up propulsion displays in my HUD. My plasma volume looks like it will hit 60% before the collider is ready, but it gives the system around the PG time to warmup and for me to start studying the temperature data for hotspots. When everything seems to be within tolerance, I tell Commander Nugget that we are go for anti-matter and Engineering Yellow.
In this case, yellow signifies an explosion risk and two or fewer valves to space. A visual reminder that propulsion is a dangerous activity. The scary part is that using my big, beautiful baby, is a Red condition: controlled explosions and/or one valve to space. Before we can move to this condition, the folks in engineering forward will shut me and six other people in the one valve to space area and prime the emergency disconnect charges just in case u blow up propulsion. I probably wouldn’t have designed the ship this way, but I also didn’t have a trillion dollars to spend either.
I get the order to initiate plasma inclusion into the reaction chamber and I notice that a section of piping where the shutoff valve spikes red for a moment before yellowing. I snapshot the event to look at it later, but yellow for now is acceptable.
/EA, DE propulsion, red spike on transfer thermal readings. Present yellow, recommend inspection before next propulsion event/
/Noted, propulsion/
Ugh, I hate “noted”. It feels like I’m being disregarded and dismissed. Not wanting transfer areas to continue to be hot, “ET2, increase antimatter containment power by 15%”
“Confirm increase power to 103.5%?”
“Increase confirmed, decreased to 100% if coils peak drift into red.” I order. If we were targeting a long propulsion burn, I would have to increase cooling non-linearly to disperse the heat load, but increasing cooling to 100% should be enough. ET2 catches that desire like a pro and we should be sitting pretty.
/EA, antimatter collection at 15%, recommend collider re-align, plasma isolation, and sound collision alarm/
/Propulsion, Copy. Initiate Annihilation Propulsor/
“MM2, Re-align collider and plasma generator to standby, ET2 energize collider and plasma to HOLD.”
MM2 and ET2 reply, “Aye Chief.”
I tap my com-link button on my hip “Attention Copernicus. Initializing Propulsor in 20 seconds. Brace for Impact. Mark”
The three of us around the propulsor strap into our flight attendant-style seats and engage and pressurize our suits. The other three people in the one-valve area have orders to secure themselves and their suits for these maneuvers.
The first explosion is technically the smallest, but it has been designed to be the most jarring as it takes us out of an “at rest” condition. It feels like someone learning to drive a manual transmission while firing a gun next to your ear. The stuttering push feels smoother as the ship hits a sort of resonance until we expend our proposed burn of anti-matter.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
I instruct my team that further orders will be chat or visual due to auditory impairment. I inform Engineering that antimatter is successfully contained and propulsion systems are in HOLD and standby. I get log notices that the ship has been taken down to all-clear. We’re scheduled to maintain this course for several hours. I immediately put in a request for additional sound mitigation for our headsets and tell my techs to rotate out for a quick meal and to pick up their hearing protection.
Key personnel in the aft section of the ship get called into a small conference room in engineering forward, which I guess is technically the aft officer’s mess, for a quick after action report. They talked about coms, interface feedback and power demands, among other things, all of which I read from my damned tablet because I can hear only muffled “wah wah” from the screen and the crew. The XO gives a rundown of the next maneuver in two hours.
The first burn was to take us out of the solar plane, the next is to direct us just below parallel to eventually put us on plane, and then a final to put us in orbit around Saturn. Target for the third burn is 4-5 days from now depending on our propulsion accuracy. Seems weird to say that, “propulsion accuracy” but the experimental drive is experimental. The bear of it is, if we have to take conventional thrust back, it’ll take at ten-ish years to get back. Not that I would let my baby be broken for that long. Perish the thought.
/EA, while we’re here can I Sandwich?/
/If you can type and eat, then you can tell me about this inspection recommendation./
I smile at that and grab an officer sandwich and appreciate the cold-cut trio? Nice. I briefly muse about assembling sandwiches in zero g and smirk. Thank goodness I have the typing sensors in my gloves.
/I’m going to keep an eye on the transfer piping from the PG to the collider reaction chamber. I pulled more power through the magnetic field generator for said piping to try and mitigate the issue, but if it happens again, I might have to get near the 125% operational maximum and to boost coolant significantly.
/Also, if it happens again after we do electronics checks and a back-pressure check on the valving, we’re going to have to pull that part of the ship apart to see what happened/
That would take our “main propulsion” down for weeks, but it beats a plasma intrusion to the people spaces. Apparently, we’re flammable.
/Copy. The other item is hearing protection. You have that on order?/
I nod and jam the number six for the display. He gives me a thumbs up and shoos me out of the room. I engage my mag boots and jam my sandwich in my maw as I walk out of the wardroom.
When I finish my breakfast it finally hits me that the fruits of my wrinkly brain just pushed a space ship with anti-matter! I cut my boots and dance myself in a circle and maybe squeal a little bit. Hard to tell since my hearing is still buggered, but one of my crew-mates sees me and I can’t bring myself to care. I float-dance my way back to Propulsion and engage my celebratory horchata beverage pack to my face.
My little private party lasts a whole half hour before I crash and mag myself to the nearest surface and pass out. Super unsafe, but exhaustion brain don’t give a shit. I wake to someone poking me in the arm and find that it’s twenty minutes to our next maneuver. I thank my teammate and ask if they got food and the hearing protection. MM2 pulls out a spray can? And hands it to me. He mimes spraying it over his ear plugs and then putting on his helmet and then spraying the foam to encase the sides of my head. I do so and the only thing that is left to hear is the ringing in my ears. I look at the can and read that it is emergency thermal retention foam and sealant? Did I just spray flat-fix on my head? Or emergency crash foam from Demolition Man!!
As we get closer to initialization, the three of us strap in. The containment fields and collider were in hold and stand-by for the 2-hour interval, so the preparation is much shorter than earlier this morning.
/Propulsion, DE EA, initialize Annihilation Propulsor/
“Attention Copernicus. Initializing Propulsor. Brace for Impact. Transferring Propulsion control to the Bridge.”
“Control received. Advancing to all-ahead two-thirds.”
With an antimatter load of 40%, this is a big burn. We’ll have to generate plasma while thrusting to keep up with protecting the thrust cones from annihilation damage. I’m worried about that red spike that we’ve seen twice now. And I see that little fucker again.
/ET2, MM2, Increase field strength to 115%, match with cooling/
/EA DE Propulsion, red indication in transfer passage and thrust cone passages. Recommend diversion of Collider power to aux thrust systems/
/Copy Propulsion. Chief Engineer and Reactor Chief recommend full power test and I concur/
Hmm, not my favorite way to test that, but powering down the collider is still an option and 115% peaks on the reactor won’t kill anyone. Might decrease pump life on the coolant systems though.
That absolute bastard of transfer piping is mostly yellow and flickers red enough I wonder if anyone on my team suffers from epilepsy triggers. It’s hectic, but the system holds with reactor and aux cooling at maximum. Even environment fans are at max.
Engineering Actual informs me that we’re moving up the chemical thrust maneuver up so that we can conserve fuel. I inform them that forward chem thrusters are green, and aft chem thrusters are yellow from main propulsion burn. I get told to monitor the aft thrusters for a two-minute burn of forward and aft maneuvering thrusters.
After action is both promising and troubling. I say that for two reasons: Everyone but me has good news and machines and people performed at or exceeded expectations. As the bearer of bad news, I relayed that the hotspot did not respond as expected to increased field strength and cooling and that four days would be enough to peel back the shielding and insulation to put eyes on the problem.
An hour and thirty minutes after the debrief the CO summons me to his stateroom, making me leave my team to finish the coil resistance checks and transfer system pressure checks without me.
As I’m admitted to a comfortable sitting room, I see the CO, XO, EA, and Chief Of the Boat sitting on a sectional in gravity . . . drinking?
“Mercer, good.” Captain Morris stands and hands me a glass with ice and an amber liquid. Oof, hard to refuse something handed to you by the CO. I take a sip of what I deem a fine whiskey. The CO nods and walks back to his seat.
“I’ve asked you here for several reasons. Talking with my staff,” he motions to most important people onboard as I take a seat on the Master Chief’s section. “We’ve determined that we need to use your Propulsor again before we have the time to pull apart and repair that section of the ship.”
My vision starts fading and I’m sure I’m going pale from shock. We don’t even know what’s wrong!!
The Chief of the Boat (CoB) chimes in, “this is of course unless that maneuver would cause irreparable damage to the ship.”
Now for the EA to add his piece, “What they are both trying to tell you, is that it would take a massive chem thrust maneuver to compensate for the Propulsor being OOC. The chem burn would extend the estimated return to Earth time to the estimated fuel life of the reactor without resupply. Now this is without any other input. Say the onboard chemist can convert the projected returns from a Titan hydrocarbon reclamation, that return time would be greatly reduced.”
Well, shit. I need to pull enough mitigating safety measures out of my ass or the crew returns as old people, or a reduced life-support crew. Fuuuuuuck.