Raptor One – Chapter 86
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Work on the upper deck took a entire hour to finish as we took and dismantled into transportable bits all the pieces we could before working on each module, bringing it all back to factory standard.
I sigh while adjusting myself from the hard work when Peppy and Shy come over to me.
“White, we are done with the dismantling, what now?” Peppy ask me.
“We will get into the middle deck module three and get it ready for installation of the furniture, we will transport the furniture when we are done.” I say to the girls as we walk down to the lower deck.
Getting on the lower deck we see Zu and the girls returning, Zu waves our way as they help bring the purchased items inside.
“We are back, where do we place those?” Zu ask me.
“Place it on the middle deck module two, how was the search?” I ask as we help transport the items.
“We found the hydroponics components, but...” Nail say and stop while looking at Zu.
“We had to bargain the price as the components are used, we can set up a simple hydroponic module, but it won’t be that good.” Zu finish what Nail said.
I nod and ask for the info on the components, Cold give me the info I need, so I get to work on understanding it.
“Huh, not as bad as I thought it would be, I can get a level one hydroponics running.” I say to myself and look back to the girls. “What about the seeds?” I ask Zu.
“We got access to it, and the price is not on the roof so that’s a plus.” Zu reply back as she places the components down on the floor.
“Spacibo girls, you three can rest, Shy and Peppy, go to the engine block and adjust the components for me, it just need to be linked then reworked, can you do it while I get the module up running?” I ask both Peppy and Shy.
“Sure.” Peppy and Shy nod before walking away to the engine block, the rest also walked out.
I stretch myself before starting the work, time goes fast, but the work finish just as fast as I get the crew module prepared, then installed, and lastly finished just in one hour.
I sigh while adjusting my posture as I watch the completed Living Quarters, thirsty as heck and a little hungry, the living quarters looks just like I imagined, on a side is six baths equipped with vents for drying, shower and toilets, besides it lies a two rows of three lockers, each with armor and weapon racks, on the middle lies the kitchen along with two tanks and space on the storage for five crates worth of food, on the other side lies the low table with soft mattress all around it, on the roof just on top of the table lies six bunker beds.
A full on living quarters with all the luxury a pack needs, no space left unoccupied.
While I was looking at the full room Peppy and Shy came, I look at their faces with a grin as they look with awe at their new living quarters before I can talk however the other three girls come.
“Wow, that’s a nice view.” Nail say.
“I like this more, less walking more doing.” Cold also reply with a nod.
“Not to mention it’s better for socializing.” Zu reply to Cold.
“Da, all we need can be found and done here, and with the hydroponic working we won’t be in need for food anytime soon, but the same can’t be said for water as it needs gas based resources to produce, so we will need a lab, and I'll be frank here, I intend to build both a refinery and a lab at some point.” I say with a nod.
“Seriously?” Shy ask me.
“Da.” I say with a nod.
“What do we need to do now?” Peppy ask me.
“Right, we need to rework the command bridge, so I need to think of the details, I don’t have a idea of how the final look will be but I'm sure two of you will be off duty from the bridge so I can place two of you to use on other places of the ship.” I say while thinking how to proceed.
“For now, we relax, after getting our fill we will start with the command bridge and wait for the hydroponics components to arrive while working.” I say and sit in front of the low table with a portion of food and a extra big cup of water.
The others follow and sit down with their food and drinks, a conversation starting as we all eat and drink while relaxing on the soft tapestry that was once used to cushion the pillows.
Finishing the two portions of food that I took and ate made me groan, the taste of nutrient paste...
Bland, is all I can say, I need to get the hydroponics running as soon as I can, but I’ll need the reactor working, and we don’t even have a reactor yet, only the battery... C.L.E.F Battery to be exact, ‘C’oncentrated ‘L’iquid ‘E’rchius ‘F’uel Battery, all six batteries being MK3, divided into two armored battery rack that allow the containment of the battery with minimal risk to the ship as we all know, erchius tend to become very volatile and prone to explosions when dealing with hot and unstable situations, that is, anything that aren’t at freezing space type of temperature.
Worse part is that it don’t need a spark to detonate, but a spark will help detonate it even more, that make me wonder how they made erchius battery, do they stabilize it? Make it inactive? Inject a second material for energy retention? Or a combination of those questions?
“What’s in your thoughts?” Zu ask me snapping me back to reality.
“Wondering how Erchius battery works and how tasteless nutrient paste is...” I say with a sigh and get up. “I’m going out to order more components, they must have used reactor components for us to make a rector core.” I say and walk out.
“Take care.” Zu say as I leave.
“Don’t forget the hydroponics components!” Peppy also say.
“I’ll keep the price in mind as we do need to get a basic defense on the ship.” I nod and say back before the bulkhead closes behind me.
Walking out of the ship I look for the dockmaster again two minutes of looking later I find her and walk over.
“Privet, still working devochka?” I extend a hand in hello while talking.
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“Oh, hello there weird avali guy, what’s the matter? Need something gain?” She ask me giving me a nod in acknowledgement.
“Sure do, need components for a reactor, contact the person here...” I say and give her the contact. “For the hydroponics components and buy casings, electric and logic wires, circuits and some good plating along with impact dampeners.” I say with a sigh.
“That’s a lot to ask there lil boy, how much of each? I'll contact the station and see if they sell reactors, you’ll find those only on shipyards and scrapyards.” The dockmaster say while looking at me and back to my not so small ship.
I look back at my ship, ISS – Tenacity is written on it, if you look closer you see that the words are written on the middle deck and expands from module one to two, module three is covered in extra protection due to the solar sails plating that defend the module three of the middle deck from almost all angles.
“It’s a beauty, your ship.” The dockmaster say while looking at Tenacity.
“Da, she’s the cumulation of my blood sweat and tears, she has gone by some hardship and was almost scraped.” I say while looking at Tenacity shiny dual layered steel plating, her technological yet minimalist appearance paired with her armored hull and it’s shining name show all the care she received.
“She was almost scraped?” The dockmaster say looking at me.
“Da, got in a dangerous situation that degraded her from a ship to a derelict, managed to return home where she was grounded so bad that she was non flyable with too much integrity damage, but long time of work on her and some well militarized standards got her back flying again.” I say and look back at the dockmaster. “How's the contact? Is it acceptable? I also don’t need fresh reactor components either, used ones are fine.” I say to the dockmaster and she nods.
“Right, got the price for the hydroponics components, used ones, the guy was pissed at the hard bargain but said that it’s your for half the paid price.” She say and show me the price.
75.000 Credits, not counting the most likely faulty components that will need repair.
“Da, sure.” I say and send her the payment.
Total credits->
Credits:(161.978[C])
“Got it, and... sent, now it’s my turn. OI! You two there! Come!” The dockmaster blares her voice and three workers rush her way.
“Ma’am!” One of the workers say while stopping in line.
“GO get those components over to the ship there.” She say and point to my ship while giving the info of the components.
“Yes ma’am!” They say and leave after having a look at the name of my ship and the components name, type and location.
“Now for the reactor components... Yeah, as I thought, we don’t sell fresh ones but I can set up some used components together for you, we do have some ships limp here, some where taken for the scrapyard, others towed to the space docks, but there’s always used components left on the storage as we don’t want a ship blowing inside the hangar bay.” She grins.
I grin back. “Da, very true, even more with those Erchius battery, most ships just use some sort of makeshift battery rack, no blast protection at all.” I say with a nod and she chuckles before looking down.
“Lost some good workers and friends like that...” She say with a sigh before continuing. “100.000 credits for the reactor parts.”
I stare her in the eyes while wincing inside. “They are used components, half that price.” I say.
“Sure they are, 200.000 credits then.” She say, eyes locked on mine.
I wince even more inside. “The component can be faulty, you will blow up the hangar bay like that, half the last price.” I say, not backing up.
Her eyes shake and the intensity of her stare lowers before she breaks the stare, I won by guilt.
“30.000 credits and no more words.” The dockmaster say before turning her back.
I give a visibly wince, this time at my words. “izvinyayus, doing dark empath chert on you, that was too low...” I say and break my stare on her.
“That’s a low blow alright, gonna take it or not.” She say as she turns back to me, very moody yet.
“Da, I will, izvinyayus da? We are tovarishch, please don’t take my words to heart.” I say showing a sad look and sighing as I give the payment.
“Hey, puppy looks is also a low blow...” She grumbles as the payment reach her, her mood a lot better now.
“Alright, alright, fine, no hard feelings, so, what components do you need?” She ask me.
“Rodzher, that, I was focused on my bad action that I forgot, spacibo. Let’s see... 3 casings, 6 steel plates, 10 logic and electric wire, and 9 circuits.” I say after some thought.
Not like I will use the old circuits from the consoles on the making of the central AI tower, but I will use it to upgrade the existing ones and connect to the central AI tower via logic wire connection.
Hope the logic wire can sustain Sigma commands, she’s pretty darn powerful herself.
“Okay, the price is... 10.880 credits.” The dockmaster say and I give her the payment.
I watch as my credits decrease before stopping again.
“Spacibo, I'll be back on the ship and finish the work while I still have energy...” I say with a tired sigh and start walking back.
Entering Tenacity I get right back to work on the command bridge, dismantling non essential items and recovering it’s components was easy and did not consume much time so I was able to re-arrange the ship stations and open a good amount of space on the back of my station to build the Central AI tower where Sigma will be.
The extra components I used to upgrade the existing stations and make the life of my pack easier, the building of the tower itself was a complete pain on my nerves as both mind and body was put to test along with my poor knowledge as Adeptus Medicalis as I was building, wiring, adjusting, testing, and a lot more with no input from Sigma as I don’t have the license...
Fucking bureaucracy, making life harder since the existence of intelligent beings.
I sigh in exhaustion, I'm almost at my limit, I can feel the dull ache of my body and the sluggishness of thought and reaction, my body is almost out of juice.
“Maybe I can at least get the reactor running...” I whisper with a groan as I right myself.
Looking at the time...
Time->
Seconds:(0/60)
Minutes:(52/60)
Hour:(6/6)
Cycle:(1/4)
12:52am, almost starting the second fourth of the cycle... God, how I miss the good ol’ coffee, a cup and I would be running on energy again...
Walking to the reactor room I see Peppy and Shy working on the Reactor, it seen they just finished setting the room and pieces ready for building.
“I was going to ask if we already got the reactor components, but seeing that you two are already working on it...” I say while approaching the girls.
“Ah, White, you finished with the command module?” Peppy say and look back at me, a tired sigh leaving her.
“Hello, White, as you can see, we are having a headache at the thought of ‘Reactor’ over here.” Shy say with her small voice and also give a tired sigh, they must be working non stop with no success here.
“Leave it to me, but help me with the pieces at least or I won’t have energy to last to the end.” I say with a nod and get to work, both Peppy and Shy helping me, the work itself lasted another hour of pure work as I use my knowledge and skill to use because the mishmash of components was a nightmare to even understand.
Luckily I did research on Nuclear Reactors, so I knew what component did what, allowing me to build the reactor with no issues.
We give a collective sigh of exhaustion while I drop to the ground, leaning on my hands.
“That was surprisingly hard.” Shy say while looking at my tired self.
“Yeah, did not know ‘Ship Based Nuclear Reactors’ was this... Unique.” Peppy say with another sigh.
“Da, *Huff!* One last spurt of energy before I hit the bed...” I say and get up with a huff. “Peppy and Shy, after we finish the testing phase with this borrowed Uranium Fuel canister, help me with the purging ports of the Armored battery racks, it’s time is due as we need it back at operational status.” I say and start to boot up the Nuclear Reactor from it’s control station.
The dry testing show that the coolant system was working as it’s alarm echo before it start a SCRAM, many of the rods that rose with no issue failed to lower down, the control station detected each and every problem with ease showing it was working at 100%.
“Right, we got problem on the control rods, that’s dangerous as this can lead to critical failure, and even a meltdown if the coolant network gets damaged with the control rods like that.” I say and get to work.
With the cause clear, the repair did not take much time at all, in five minutes I was done repairing all the control rods, another test later, this time with water in the coolant network the Reactor worked like a charm, so I lowered the settings to 1% and did a hot insert, the moment the fuel rod was inside the reactor I heard the alarm go off, so I got to the console.
“There's no turbine activity?” I say out loud and both sisters look at each other.
“Maybe there’s a fried logic wire?” Peppy say while unsure of the cause.
“Maybe.” I say and deactivate the Reactor so I can check the turbine module on the roof.
“Yup, a fried logic wire... And done.” I say and easily change the logic wire.
Jumping back down from the reactor after closing the turbine I do another check.
“Wooh!” I hear Peppy cheer as the Turbine starts up with no issue and gets louder as it’s ‘RPM’ gets higher until it reaches it’s maximum rotation before automatically reducing back to match the heat production that only one fuel rod can generate.
“Looks like we are done.” Shy say with a smile and I nod.
“Da, get Zu to bring the Fuel rod back to the Dockmaster, Peppy, help me with the...” I say and falter, my body slumps forward but Shy manage to hold me before I hit the ground.
“White! What happened?” Peppy say while coming over and helping haul me back up.
“...Ustala...” Is all I can say as I rest a little.
“Ustala?” Shy say looking at Peppy.
“He’s tired, let him rest a little, help me get him to the crew quarters.” Peppy say.
“Ah, right!”
With those words they haul me back to my bed where I just fall asleep...
“He-Kyaa...” I hear two voices before I'm out cold...