-Conrad-
AAAARREEEEENNN!!… AAAARREEEEENNN!!… AAAARREEEEENNN!!
“Fire in the Reactor Room. Fire in the Reactor Room.”
“Suppression system failure. Suppression system failure.”
“Reactor lockdown initiated. Reactor lockdown initiated.”
“Reactor Room Purge starting in Twenty Seconds.”
Conrad and the others in his housing pod’s rec area looked up in a brief moment of shock as the brilliant blue and white emergency lights, alarms and automated messages began blaring, announcing the impending doom of anyone working in the Reactor Room.
In any normal crew the announcements would cause them to freeze until their training kicked in or possibly even panic, but this was a crew made up of Veterans and Warriors.
Their little rec area exploded into the organized chaos of crew scrambling for emergency duty stations, and Conrad could hear shouting and the clanging of feet slamming into the deck plates as the other areas reacted as well.
Conrad had long ago built the habit of keeping his utility harness on anytime he wasn’t asleep, so he responded immediately himself, bolting out the door just behind the leading crewmembers.
“Damn, there really is always someone faster.”
As someone with the primary duty of Maintenance Technician his job was to find the solutions to mechanical issues.
In this case there were three issues in front of him to address; the failure of the fire suppression system to activate, which was causing the automated system to seal the doors keeping crew inside the Reactor Room. and that of the fire source itself.
He had no access to the fire, so that was out. Nor could he risk the rest of the ship and crew by opening the Reactor doors in a Purge event, which meant the oxygen in the affected area, and all attached unsealed areas, would be vented out to kill the fire… and those still inside the room.
That left only the Suppression System. He did not know what fault would occur to prevent it from activating, but he knew that there was a manual override outside and inside of each sealable section. If, for some reason, the crew in the affected section could not get to the override, it was a Maintenance Tech’s job to do it from the outside.
Preferably before everyone inside was killed by the Purge.
This meant that Conrad had to cover about 50 meters of winding, narrow and suddenly crowded bulkheads to cover, and virtually no time in which to do it.
He chose to pour on the speed and let the dust settle after.
Thanks to the lower standard gravity in GalCom ships he was able to make far better time moving at speed than even the normally faster Ruulothi. Long crouching strides carried him through the halls at the speed a normal run for him would cover. Stairs up became a couple of long jumps, and stairs down became a simple skipping step. He launched himself around clusters of crewmates and individuals who didn’t see him coming, ricocheting himself off the walls to recover his momentum and move on.
The hardest part of his madcap dash through the ship was the doorways that forced him to slow down and time his movements to when there was the most space available. The ship worked in two shifts, so many were already at their posts. Once he got ahead of those responding from their various rec areas he was in the clear to move as needed.
For the most part the crew were already familiar of his unique style of emergency movement. They had been working together for a around a week and a half now and were well aware of the Human pinball that served with them. Those that heard him coming made way for him and made sure the doorways were clear, not only because of his movements, but because he was someone that could fix the problem.
A problem that he was rapidly running out of time to fix.
“Purge in Ten...”
“Shit… come on, almost there.” He pushed himself to go faster, now past the level in which he felt he could safely control his movement.
“Nine…”
“There!” He reached the place at the back of the ship the branched the hallway to either side and had a set of stairs going straight and down a level. The override switch was in an access port on the slanted ceiling of the stairwell, in the wall and out of the way. This served to prevent injury on corners and edges during atmospheric operations and combat.
“Eight…”
He pulled out his square-tipped, universal maintenance key and braced himself, reaching for the access port.
“Seven…”
Conrad slammed the key home and popped the hatch, pushing it up hard enough to slam into the ceiling, where magnets held it in place.
“Six…”
Whether because of his slamming the hatch or because of desperation from the countdown, Conrad began to hear slamming and heavily muffled shouts coming from the other side of the Reactor Room door just in front of him. He had to mentally force himself to ignore them and focus on his task.
The access port had a series of four lights along the top, four above another access key point and one to the side. Two glowed the Ruulothi red of a properly operating system. Three glowed the blue of a malfunction. Two of the lights showing faults were above a key port and the third was on the side above a button. Using the lights, he quickly diagnosed the problem. The influx valve was stuck closed, resulting in the machinery shutting down to prevent overpressure, a completely different catastrophe waiting to happen.
“Five…”
He put the key into the first offending blue light’s port and cranked it around so that the valve was forced open. Its light turned red.
“Four…”
The banging and screaming were increasing in both volume and frequency while the flashing emergency lights and alarms continued to assault his senses. It sounded now like someone had grabbed a tool or some other object and was banging on the door with it.
He put the key into the last blue port and turned it in order to activate the pumps and prime the system again, and was rewarded with the sound of machinery inside the wall rumbling to life. It, too, turned to red.
“Three…”
He watched a pressure gauge begin to rise to marked pressure levels, and his hand hovered over the emergency restart button.
“Two…”
“Come on, comeoncomeoncomeon… Go FASTER!!”
“One…”
The gauge ticked over to safe operational levels as the countdown came to the final moments, and he slammed his hand down on the emergency restart.
“Suppression systems activated. Purge cancelled.”
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“Pwaaahhh!” Conrad let out the breath he had been holding, his shoulders sagging as the tension left him.
The door in front of him hissed open, letting out three crewmembers.
“HAHA! Cutting that one a little close weren’t you little one?”
The giant brown Ruulothi addressing him through the cheers of the olive colored, lizard like Sadiil named Stiirl and a younger, black and brown Ruulothi named Fuurnaal, was Kelraan, the head Engine Tech of the ship.
“Oh, I just wanted to see if I could make you sweat a bit is all.” Conrad shot back with a grin.
Kelraan gave a deep belly laugh. The two behind him whooped and whacked on the walls with a pair of breaching bars, the GalCom equivalent of a Halligan bar.
“Seems to me the fire would have done that just fine without your help, no? We’d have had our breath taken away for sure in another moment.”
“Indeed, but better late than never.” Said a familiar new voice. “Please refrain from banging on the walls now.”
The two Engine Tech understudies immediately stopped their antics and stood to the side, allowing Lorthaal to step out of the engine room. He said nothing more as he moved to look at the panel that Conrad had been working on, checking the lights and gauge pressure against his wristlink before nodding in satisfaction.
“Acceptably done, Conrad. Please reset the system for full operations and come to the mess hall for debriefing.”
Lorthaal walked over to a ship terminal on the inside of the door and hit a button to make an announcement. “Voorkar, kill the alarms and reset the system. The drill is completed. Make sure the others are gathered for debrief.”
The relative silence of a running ship returned as the flashing lights and alarms ceased. Once he could speak without raising his voice, he turned to address the Engine crew, “Thank you for your cooperation in setting the stage. Kelraan, I trust that you will run them through what they actually need to do for a fire in their section, yes?”
“Of course, Captain. Alright you meat-sticks, fun’s over. Back to work!”
A couple of disgruntled, “Yes Sir’s” later and they returned to their section and closed the door, leaving Conrad alone in the hallway with Captain Lorthaal, who turned to leave.
“We meet in ten minutes and debrief with the others who were running their drill.”
“Understood, Sir.”
A few moments later and Conrad was alone in the hall. He turned his attention back to the panel and pulled the emergency restart button back to reset it. Then he double checked everything before turning the key in the last port on the right of the panel, turning the final light red and returning the system to normal operations from the lockdown it had been placed into for the training drill.
His task completed, he headed back to his rec room for a breather before his meeting.
__________________________________________
“Alright now! Cut the chatter so we can begin.”
Voorkar stood at the spiritual front of the mess hall, where the food was dispensed and selected, and paced back and forth as he went over the reports from the various sections.
Conrad and Ruufarrl weren’t the only new faces. There were two others, both young Ruulothi, who had been the focus of the newest round of drills that they had just completed. One of them was training to be bridge crew, Communications if he remembered correctly, and the other was a Maintenance Tech like Conrad but with a specialty in Electronics. Ruufarrl had been sent straight to the primary Security teams.
He hadn’t had much interaction with them so far. Their berths were separate from one another, spreading the inexperienced newcomers out amongst the veteran spacers and preventing too much collective stupid from congregating in one location.
“Not that any of us are particularly dumb, we were all basically handpicked for the crew. But rookies make dumb mistakes, and groups of rookies make progressively dumber mistakes if left to our own devices or unsupervised.”
“So! In review, there were no major issues identified that need to be worked on. This last week of drills has taken well. There are still some minor issues that need to be corrected or worked on, but most of that will come with familiarity and experience and isn’t anything that is of concern enough to warrant more serious training. Congratulations to you all. You are now cleared to work your primary posts. Your Section Heads will work with you on ensuring your full integration into the crew from here on out. Captain?”
Lorthaal gave his XO a respectful nod as he stepped forward to address the group. “Your persistence and skill speak well of you all, and it means that we won’t have to waste time releasing anyone at our first stop. There will be more trainings to come, but they are for specialty roles and integration into the Security teams. We will be heading to a planet that I have a working agreement with after our first delivery. Once there we will be going into the field for a couple days to complete the weapons familiarity part of your training.
“In the meantime, you will work your assigned posts and the extra duties that some of you have already qualified for. Get some rest for your first shifts. Dismissed.”
Conrad knew that at least part of the last statement was directed at him. In his primary capacity as a Maintenance Tech he worked directly under Kelraan, as he was the head technician on the ship. But he also served as a Loader when they made their deliveries, which meant he was going to take on a more active role in things at this first stop than the others.
He got up to head back to his bunk. This first week had been a long one of random drills and trainings leaving him lacking on sleep, and he was looking forward to some quality rack time.
He said the required greetings and niceties on his way through the ship and his rec area, not allowing himself to get too bogged down in random conversation. In the short time since his boarding, he had integrated fairly well with the crew in his habitation pod, and they noticed the signs of his exhaustion and let him be.
He didn’t even wait to see where Ruufarrl had gone before crashing to his bunk and passing out.
________________________________________________
“Alright! Sections four through seven are getting pulled and placed over there, near the hangar bay doors. Sections thirteen through eighteen are getting placed on the trolleys. Then we need to move Sections two and three to thirteen and fourteen and onload the new cargo in two and seven to account for weight distribution.
“Conrad, you and Vistiin handle four through seven first, then focus on the redistribution. Understood?”
“Yes, sir! On it!” He turned and nodded to the second of the Sadiil serving on the ship and they began to move as one unit, Vistiin pulling the cargo from the rear most racks and placing it on the ramp for Conrad to shift across the hangar bay. This would allow the other loaders to get their cargo out and placed on the ship’s deck for movement after Conrad and Vistiin finished with their loads.
Loadmaster Nooraal was a grizzled old Ruulothi showing the gray of his age in places, and Conrad could hear him finishing his orders to the other loaders of the day as the two of them began rotating the stock in their section for removal.
It was his first time in an Exo rig since he had left the Dark Meridian. All told it really wasn’t that long ago, but it sure felt like it. Even so, the controls came back to him quickly, and he was soon moving cargo at a quick and steady pace.
He and Vistiin worked well together and didn’t need to say much of anything to get the job done. They simply intuited what the other was doing and applied that to what was going to be needed in the near future. It was a very different experience from his previous work experience on a GalCom ship.
While Conrad and Kivan had been friendly and had also worked well together, the ship had been too large for them to constantly be working on the same project. Kivan would often need to move his gantry crane across the bay to help others, leaving Conrad to figure out what to do next on his own.
This was a full-on team effort, and he allowed himself to relax and mentally lose himself in the flow of the work. Before he knew it, the on-ship cargo was out and relocated, and they were waiting on the trolleys to return with the replacement cargo.
Both crew of loaders stopped to rest a bit while they waited, taking in what they could see of the planet they were on.
The ship had landed in the open pad outside of a large hangar built onto the side of a large mountain. This particular world belonged to the Hinse, a Founding race and the only one of them that actively stands as a military force.
The Hinse themselves were a heavily built mammalian species that had what appeared to be some sort of scaling over their outer extremities and on common contact points like elbows and shoulders. They had a thick shock of fur that ran from the crown of their heads, down their spine and to their stubby, vestigial tails. Their faces were wide, and they had long, swept back ears with narrow noses Their bodies and shoulders showed the evolutionary frame and strength of a burrowing species. Their hands were large with thick, hard nails and they had digitigrade legs with more thick nails on their toes.
Their worlds of preference were mountainous worlds, much like this one. This particular world was on the outer fringes of their territory and was dotted by both ancient and modern fortifications. If what the other loaders were saying was true, then it is something that was a common characteristic of their other worlds as well.
The edges of the landing pad they stood on had only a simple handrail across them and showed a fantastic view of a mountain range in the late autumn. The air was as clean and fresh, at least in so much as it could be on an active landing pad.
Conrad was enjoying the breeze when he felt a hidden pressure on his senses. Unsure of exactly what triggered it, he slowly looked about him, but could find nothing. There were only a few scattered workers on the pad that were all seeing to their own tasks. Though he could not find the source of his discomfort, he couldn’t shake the feeling either.
Before he could ask anyone else if they had noticed something, the trolleys returned with their next load, and he had to push the sensations aside and get back to work. The feeling did subside after a while, but he made a mental note to speak to Ruufarrl about it when he got the chance.
There was some brief delay as they found a cargo bin that wasn’t marked properly, nor weighed the proper amount. It turned out to be an honest mistake, and the Loadmaster cleared the issue up and got the proper cargo unit delivered.
No sooner were they finished than Voorkar announced that they were preparing to launch. Their business here was completed, and they were moving rapidly on to the next destination, some two weeks of travel away in Klendigal space.
Conrad couldn’t help but chuckle to himself.
“Some things never change. Only the dead may rest.”