Commander Anele Tshwane leaned back in her luxuriously padded leather chair and sighed, closing her eyes to think. As head of security, she’d grown accustomed to the hatred that management seemed to have for the place, but this was a new low for them.
She looked up at the nervous, bald man standing in front of his desk. Joe Nier, mid-grade pipe monkey, claiming to be the new chief engineer. His ID card from SS-09 checked out, but the promotion papers didn’t and he acted like he was genuinely surprised about it. She’d checked station comm logs, and there was a dispatch regarding a “replacement engineer for case ID #49586737666” but nobody had been able to find out a damn thing about the case. She’d tossed him in the drunk tank and had the Holsons give him a bit of questioning, but he mostly seemed intent on looking at the reactor. So she’d had him brought up to her office to interview.
“My only real question is... why?” she said aloud as she opened her eyes to look at Joe, calm and dispassionate.
Joe started, having grown used to the quiet.
“W... why what?” he stammered out, this woman was unsettling. She was a slight, combat-fit woman who stood barely up to his chest, with a crisp uniform that had clearly seen some recent hard use. She was bald, hair shaved for ease and comfort in a helmet. Joe himself was now caught by a pair of soft brown eyes which somehow still made him feel like they knew every misdeed he’d ever committed, and was judging him.
He shook himself slightly and stood a bit straighter. His best bet was to be straightforward.
“Well, you arrive on this station unannounced, the only passenger in the shuttle, are greeted by someone nobody recognises, and claim to be our new chief engineer.” she listed off quietly, “not to mention even your story doesn’t really add up, are you seriously telling me they sent ONE low grade engineer in a dedicated shuttle?”
Joe cleared his throat in indignation, but responded calmly as he could.
“I’m pretty sure there was just nobody who wanted to come to this shit-hole station. Honestly I’d rather be back on SS-09 myself. You really think I dropped everything and flew down here because I wanted to come to this place?!”
He started to forget himself as the rant began to build.
“In my first 10 goddamn minutes on the station I saw at least 12 different maintenance code violations, 5 engineering and structural code violations, I don’t even know how many health and safety violations...” Joe started pacing subconsciously and his arms began to wave as steam built up,
“The lights are all dying! The floors and walls and ceilings are all a mess! Hazardous materials in the hallways! I swear I saw disassembled security bots too! In the residential area! What the hell is going on that this place hasn’t been evacuated yet?” he turned to face Anele, who was watching him calmly, eyebrow raised.
“And to top it all off, the first person I meet tells me there are problems with the reactor and I’m the guy who’s gotta fix it. And then he disappears and nobody knows him. So I’m more in the dark than you are, lady.”
The fluorescent light illuminating the office chose that moment to fail in a defiant final spark. After a few seconds, a small snicker could be heard. Who started it was uncertain, but it soon devolved into full on body-locking guffaws by both occupants of the office. The situation was absurd and nobody knew how to fix it, and eventually it was either laugh or scream...
Soon the hysteria died down, neither Anele nor Joe able to really keep it up for long. But the silence was far more comfortable in the now-dark office, and Anele’s voice was friendlier as she spoke.
“Let’s go grab some coffee. I’ll fill you in.”
A few minutes later, Joe and Anele sat across from each other in the nearby canteen, normally only used by security personnel. It was a sterile place, gleaming tables and gleaming cups,so clean they might never have seen a human touch, but considering the rest of the station, Joe found it soothing. A small, whirring drone had dropped off two tins of instant coffee and some plastic wrapped ham sandwiches, then flown off.
“Enjoy the sandwich” Anele said distractedly as she ripped the plastic open, “these are the last two on station.”
Joe looked at the bread in his hand, then put it down and looked across the table.
“How about telling me how bad things are.”
Anele sighed, but carefully finished chewing before replying, putting the sandwich down.
“Can’t wait to learn how screwed you are?” she asked with a raised eyebrow. Joe shrugged a response,
“Better than learning the hard way.”
Anele acknowledged this with a nod and tapped her chin, thinking where to begin.
“The reactor’s a good place to start, the first thing you should know is that there’s a plasma leak in the main reactor chamber. We’re running on main power as little as possible, but the backup reactor is also in shoddy shape and it’s prone to interruptions. Anything you can do about this?”
Joe’s reply was a groan as he put his head in his hands.
“Let’s get the backup working first. We’ll need to shut down the main reactor until the leak can be fixed.
Anele nodded “That’s what our last engineer said.”
Joe looked up, “Where are they anyway?”
Anele looked away uncomfortably. “Well he kind of... died trying to turn off the main reactor.”
Joe’s face was blank for a few seconds as he processed this, then the logical conclusion came to him.
“The remote circuits are fried, aren’t they?” he said fatalistically. Anele’s nod was sympathetic, and he sighed.
“Long term plasma exposure won’t destroy the reactor or components, they’re built to function in the case of a leak, but it is going to compromise more and more of the infrastructure and controls. We have to shut it down.” he picked up the sandwich and took a bite, chewing thoughtfully.
“A competent engineer should be fine if they’re suited up in a proper Plazmat suit, what happened?”
Anele cleared her throat, still looking away.
“The only functioning suit we have turned out to have a breach in the torso compartment.”
Joe stared blankly.
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
“So you have... no Plazmat suits?”
“We have one. We patched it up after we found out.”
Joe felt like hitting something. He hit the table. “You’re telling me to go in there with a suit that’s already been proven faulty?”
Anele shrugged and looked him in the eye. “You’re welcome to check it out first. It’s in the hazard safe.”
Joe looked back, his mouth a slit. “I will indeed. Let’s go.” he bit into the sandwich as he stood up, angry but determined to get at least one problem out of the way before he worried about the rest.
Anele stood up and made a placatory gesture, “Sure, sure, let’s go but please calm down? You need to keep your head cool to deal with this.”
Joe tensed up and, after a few seconds, relaxed, exhaling slowly as if to push the rage out through his lungs.
“Yea.” he turned towards the door, “I’ll want to get some stuff together from my kit. Is it still locked up?”
Anele gazed at the angry engineer for a few seconds, assessing, then replied calmly.
“I’ll let them know to give it back. We couldn’t tell what half the gear in the bag is anyway.”
Joe shrugged, “Most of em are just ancient entertainment systems, I like collecting old games.”
He stepped out into the passage, then made his way back to the security office. This was going to be unpleasant, and he figured it was a good time to grab an extra tool which he’d pilfered on the way out from SS-09 - a portable plasma cutter, rare and costly at the best of times, and something he doubted they would have locally. Simply refill the water tank and you could create a plasma blade that could cut through titanium alloy like butter, even if it could stay on for less than a minute before using up the limited supply. For larger projects there were cutters with separate power supplies and water tanks, but as tools they were unwieldy and fragile compared to the rugged build of the compact unit.
Stepping through the doorway to security, he took note of his surroundings as he hadn’t before, and was pleased to note it was clean and orderly here, at least in the main reception area. It was also empty, save for the sergeant on duty and two fully suited and masked guards - he felt as if they were watching him even without seeing their eyes.
He stepped up to the desk and smiled at the Sergeant, a stern looking woman in her late fifties, with silver hair cut short and severe. Even the half red, half orange uniform she wore failed to make her look at all frivolous.
“Hi, would you be the one to speak to regarding confiscated property?”
She looked up at him with narrowed eyes, apparently none too pleased at his presence.
“Yes, Mr. Nier, I am Sergeant Mane, and I’ve been told to return your full effects with immediate effect.”
Clicking her desktop terminal’s mouse a few times, she called for one of the corporals to fetch the bag. Upon it’s retrieval she reached in and took something out - and Joe sighed.
“Portable plasma cutters are normally property of the station. I wonder where you would have gotten this one from.” her stone grey eyes were accusing now and Joe cleared his throat.
“Gift from a friend.” he felt his palms grow sweaty, “And I’ll probably need it to fix the plasma leak in the reactor.”
Sergeant Mane kept her glare up for several more seconds, but Joe held out. Putting it back in the bag, she handed it over to him. He tried not to sigh in relief.
“You’ve been assigned to residential unit #43 for the moment, turn right down the first t-junction and straight down for the residential block.” she handed his ID card back as well “It’s been updated with your new authorisations. We’ve wiped the old ones, SOP.”
Joe nodded and thanked her, then quickly backed out. of security and towards the residential areas. His sour mood grew darker as he entered the residential block again. This time he was in a section that appeared to be better maintained, but lights still flickered and he saw several units occupied but lacking power - if the dull red emergency lights filtering through the window slits were any indication. He soon found unit 43 and scanned his card on the access panel. The door slid open and he sighed a little in relief at the brightness of the fluorescents. He put his kitbag onto the small bunk and did a quick inspection, finding everything to be functional - if a little disused. A light coating of dust covered the bathroom fixtures, and the sleeping area had the musty smell of mould. Another maintenance failure.
Resolving to ignore it for now, Joe took a two minute shower and changed into his working overalls - then went through his kitbag and dumped various diagnostic and other tools into the pockets, as well as a high temperature sealant he could use once the edges were trimmed on any damaged pipes. Hopefully he could figure out how to shut down the reactor without going inside. He picked up the plasma cutter and filled it with water from the bathroom tap, then did the same with a small insulated flask, made of tungsten, which would be good for a single refill. Sticking those into his pockets, he used his ID card to log in to the local terminal and get what information he could from a device on the public network. He quickly pulled up a station diagram indicating sections with power and life support, and his jaw dropped. A third of the station had no power, and there were sectors without atmosphere. Great. They’d tossed him so far into the deep end he literally couldn’t see the surface any more. This needed a lot more than one person to fix and he’d heard no mention of additional engineering staff. Even with automation and drones this place needed a full damn team!
The slam of his fist on the small desk brought him back. But the situation was bleak for him. Hell for everyone on the station, but they seemed to have surrendered to it. If he couldn’t get a transfer off this pit he’d need to find a way to get some help. And that was assuming he survived attempting to shut down a reactor that had been bathed in hot ionised hydrogen for who knew how long.
He wasn’t able to pull up any info on the reactor - besides the fact it was marked as a hazard section - nor on the backup reactor, or even plasma flow diagrams. He’d need to be in engineering for this one. Had to go check that damn suit with a microscope too. Sighing, Joe logged off and stood up, stretching. His hand terminal was still off the network and he hadn’t been given authorisation to join it, so he connected it to the desktop machine and copied over a station map and the limited status information. He then stepped out of his dusty hab unit, swiped his ID to lock the door, and started making his way to maintenance and engineering. Time to get this shit show on the road.