Rayan, captain of a mercenary ship, was sitting in the captain’s chair scrolling through the MERC list. They have just completed one of the MERC postings on the list and were heading to the Zielara space station to resupply. The last job paid well so he was thinking about upgrading the weapons or the shield systems on the ship. The ship belonged to his father and when his father was killed on one of the jobs, he took over the ship as the captain. While he was scrolling through the MERC list the ship passed through a nebula and the ship’s gravity system stopped working for a few moments. As soon as the ship cleared the nebula everything was back to normal.

“Luke, what the hell? What happened to the gravity system?” Ryan asked his head engineer over the coms.

“Don’t know yet. Something in the nebula screwed with our systems. Give me a sec, I’m running the diagnostics on all the systems.” Luke answered and started the diagnostics of the systems on the engineering console. “Looks like we have two dead power cells for the life support system, which explains the loss of gravity and we have one damaged engine. We have reserve power cells but I need to fix the engine manually.” He said.

“How long before t engines back online?” Ryan asked.  

“Depends on the damage. I’m on my way to the engine room to see what I can do. Zeke, you replace the power cells.”

“You know I’m better with the engines than you? Why don’t you replace the power cells and let me fix the engine?” Zeke asked.

“Stop complaining and put the two new power cells in. You are doing it because technically I’m your boss”. Luke said.

“Yeah right. This is not an Alliance ship, there’s no rank here. This is a mercenary ship, here we’re all the same.” Zeke said, frowned at Luke and crossed his arms in protest. 

“Well, Ryan offered me the position of the head engineer first, so that makes me your boss. Stop complaining and just put the power cells in. I’ll go work on the engines.” Zeke said whit a hint of annoyance in his voice.

“Stop bickering you two and fix the damn power and the engines!” Ryan shouted at them over the coms. 

“Alright, but next time I’m in charge of the engines.” Zeke relented and headed toward the power cell storage. He took out two power cells and brought them to the wall where all the power cells were mounted on. 

Each of the containers had a light indicating the power level of the full cell inside. Zeke looked for the two containers with red lights and when he found them, he opened the first container and took out the empty power cell. He put one of the new power cells inside and closed the container. After a few seconds, the light over the container turned green so he moved to the next one.

The next red container had a black line around the edge. None of the other containers had anything similar to this so he called out to Luke. “Luke! I think something’s wrong with this container! Get over here and take a look!”

“I’m busy! Mark the container and I’ll look at it later!” Luke shouted.

Zeke wasn’t sure if he should mess with the container, something inside him was telling him to just leave it alone. But Luke was better at maintaining the power cells, so he guessed that Luke knew what he was doing. He pressed the button to open the container and nothing happened. He pressed it again, heard the sound of the mechanism trying to open it, but it was stuck in place. He hit it a few times and that got it loose. He took out the power cell, expecting to see some damage on the cell, but the power cell looked normal, there was no damage or black lines.

Still not sure if he should put the new power cell in before Luke comes and sees the container, Zeke stood in front of it looking at the damage and the black spots. “Luke! I really think you should see this container before I put the power cell in!” He called out.

“You know you are starting to annoy me! I’m coming, just give me a sec!” Luke replied, finished what he was doing and walked over to Zeke. 

“Look at the damage and the black spots on the container.” Zeke said pointing at the damaged areas.

“Move your hand and let me take a look at it.” Luke moved Zeke’s hand out of the way and looked inside the container. “That’s nothing to worry about. It probably happened when we passed through the nebula. And it’s probably the reason the battery inside got fried. Just put the new cell in and we’re good to go.” Luke said.

“All right.” Zeke replied and Luke went back to his business. He picked up the full power cell and put it into the empty container. As the power cell was sliding into it, it got stuck. The cell was sticking out a few inches and wouldn’t budge. This made no sense because the empty power cell slid out effortlessly.

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Not sure what to do Zeke tried to gently push the power cell into the container, the cell didn’t budge. He pushed harder but the power cell was stuck in place. He leaned on the power cell with his forearm, so he could use his body strength to push it into the container. He started to push the cell and accidentally pressed the button to close the container. The container started to close with the power cell still sticking out. Zeke started to panic pushing the button to open the container over and over again but it kept closing crushing the power cell that was still sticking out.

As the power cell ruptured under the pressure a cloud of shiny power cell particles started coming out of it. A few seconds later an alarm activated throughout the whole ship warning everyone to put oxygen masks on. Zeke panicked, put his oxygen mask on and headed towards the engine room to get Luke. As he started walking Luke ran into the room.

“What did you do?!” Luke asked with anger in his voice.

“I don’t know. The power cell got stuck then the container started to close and it crushed the cell.” Zeke replied.

“This is not good. Ryan’s going to be pissed.” Luke said and a few seconds later they heard Ryan’s voice over the coms.

“What did you do? Why did the alarm go off?” Ryan asked.

“We have a ruptured power cell boss. It’s not good, it’s empty now.” Luke said.

“Are you crazy?! Turn on the purge of the life support system at once and blow the particles into space!” Ryan shouted and continued to speak to everyone on the ship “Guys, put your oxygen masks on at once. We have a ruptured power cell and you know what that means. If you breathe in the particles you’ll get poisoned and we don’t have the vaccine for all of us on board.” Ryan said. They could hear the panic in his voice, the same panic they felt.

As Luke and Zeke activated the purge of the life support system Ryan hoped it wasn’t too late. He hoped no one breathed in the particles. 

“Nolan, Leo how long until we reach the Zielara space station?” Ryan asked.

Leo, the ship’s navigator, took out his tablet, calculated their path and speed and said. “At this speed and one engine down, two days boss.”

“Nolan, you’re the best pilot I know, can you make the ship go faster? If we can’t get rid of the power cell particles we basically have no life support system.” Ryan said.

“Ask Luke how damaged the engine is and when can I have it online.” Nolan said.

“Luke, can you hear me?” Ryan asked over the coms.

“Shoot boos.” Luke answered.

“Did you run the diagnostic on the engine? We need to go faster to reach the Zielara space station as soon as possible. If the purge of the life support system doesn’t work, I don’t think any of us want to be here without life support.” Ryan said.

“I think I know what’s the problem. Give me an hour or two and I’ll have it back online.” Luke said.

“Good. Zeke, work on the purge of the life support system, Luke give me that engine a s soon as you can.” Ryan said over the coms and turned towards Leo. “If we have another engine, how long will it take to get to the Zielara space station then?”

Leo did more calculations with the new data and said “Hmmm… A day or a day and a half. It all depends on the engine output.”

Ryan looked at him and said. “Let’s hope that’s enough. Now, where are Levi and Aria?” He used the coms and said. “Levi, Aria come to the bridge right now.”

“I’m already on my way. And can you please turn that annoying alarm off?” Levi asked.

“Yeah, it’s getting on my nerves too.” Aria said standing behind Ryan.

“What did I tell you about sneaking up on me like that? I know you’re skilled assassin but every time you sneak up on me like that I get another gray hair.” Rayan said frowning at Aria’s smirky smile.

“Leo, display the map of the ship over the holographic console. We need a plan in case the purge fails and we don’t make it to the Zielara space station in time.” Ryan said and together with Leo walked over to the holographic console. Leo used his tablet to display the map of the ship. 

The mercenary ship wasn’t a large ship. The largest room on the ship was the engineering room with the main power containers and engine room, the second largest room was the bridge that was used as a conference room too. The third largest room was the cargo room and the rest were corridors and the living quarters. 

“Boss, the purge of the life systems didn’t work. It only made it worse. I don’t know what the nebula did to the life support system but it’s acting crazy. I think we can expect other malfunctions like gravity or oxygen loss again.” Zeke said over the coms.

“Just what we needed. Ok Zeke, go help Luke with the engine and both of you come to the bridge when you fix it.” Ryan said, rubbing his forehead, trying to compose himself. 

Now, the main problem they needed to solve was how to how to get rid of the particles from the power cell, because the purge of the life support system failed and the particles were still on the ship. The oxygen masks were only a temporary solution because the particles can be absorbed through the skin during longer exposure. While they were talking about different strategies, they could use to get rid of the particles or keep the particles contained in one place on the ship, Levi, skilled at technology and making gadgets, walked on to the bridge and joined the conversation. 

“Guys, we have the spacesuits. I can make the inner layer of carbon fiber denser so that no particles can come through.” Levi said.

“Good idea but the suits have a limited oxygen supply too.” Leo said.

“But they are better than the oxygen masks, At least they will protect us from contact with the particles. Good job Levi, go work on the suits.” Ryan said and Levi left. “At least this way we can rule out dying from long exposure. Now we just need to solve the oxygen problem.” He said.