Dueliet had gathered a group at the larger console table in the operations area. She easily held herself upright despite the crafts continual shaking and calmly projected her voice. She stood at the same height as the engineers standing behind the chairs.
She had light, carefully applied make-up on and one of the tidiest uniforms, that fitted immaculately. She was one of the few people on the craft that weren’t starting to look like a mess. Her identification card was perfectly secured in the spots of reinforced stitching on her uniform. It introduced her as Dueliet Rozinier the communications officer.
He recognised some of the team from engineering in the group. There were three engineers that seemed to be most involved. Martin, the chubby middle aged one was politely translating the calculations of two younger team members for the group.
For this assignment, a team of academics had joined them. They had fresh identification tags slung around their necks. It was unusual to have people in white shirts or casual clothing on the bridge.
The academics had mainly collapsed in the chairs around the table. There were eight of them that had joined the craft for this assignment. Scanning their tags Mean found that they were neatly split by roles. Half were researchers and half were students. Most of them were female.
One of the academics was wearing an environmental suit. Thought the suit was modern, Mean still felt it made a weird scene at the meeting. The only way it could weirder was if she had been one of the first navy diving suits and still been part of the conversation while taking notes.
She was doing well to write anything with the shaking of the craft and the restriction of the suits gloves that looked like intricate plate armoured gauntlets.
Guess she must be visitor they were talking about who could disengage the reactor at over twice the usual speed. Mean thought while he looked for her identification.
Her identification hung on her arm giving her name as Sophie Talsker and her role was listed as head researcher. The suit’s clear face-piece showed delicate features around her eyes and concealed the rest of her body. It had a little speaker to pass on her words that would have otherwise be muffled.
“No that’s not going to be enough,” Sophie stated. “We are only here to save you time by smoothing the extractor dis-engaging procedure into one step. We still need the agreed energy in reserve to complete the process with time to spare.”
Yarg, one of the young engineers countered angrily, “We’ve calculated the best setup and have some systems running as if they were in the stone age. Can’t you make an adjustment to make this work?”
Sophie shot back, “We have already improved your rough process as much as possible. It’s only because this is such a critical extractor that our team has even been lent to help out.”
Well we’ve got to get there in one piece first, Mean thought. I guess I’ll grab the chair at the end of the table.
“Ah good, you’re here Mr. Manson,” Dueliet acknowledged Mean as he approached. “He’s one of the contractors that will help us with the next phase of this assignment. He must have finished the repair quicker than expected, so let’s see if we can find one last solution here as well.”
Oh no, not again, Mean thought. I must have been called here to get the civilians ready for dealing with our hard-case crew… What’s up with the engineer… His identification says Hosej and he’s got an energy of curiosity… Is he stupid? Don’t tell me he’s looking for a Mr. Manson behind me.
The people at the table were quiet as he took the empty space across from Dueliet. He had the engineers to his right and the civilians to his left. Of those he recognised, none of them were people he talked to.
The short haired student named Milly told him, “You’re going to be in serious trouble for what you did to the inspector when we get back.”
Well that’s another person that can safely stay in the ‘people I don’t talk to category’, Mean thought with irritation. Dueliet’s lucky she makes life easier around here, otherwise I’d make these inductions really awkward.
When he didn’t reply to Milly, Dueliet worked to get the conversation back on track. “Okay we are just about there. We just need to make sure there is enough stable plasma to get through the final phase of the disengagement. The lightening alone will have been enough for at least one cell to re-ionise within the next day. What are the factors we can adjust so that we have the reserves we need once we get to the extractor?”
Everyone at the table was quiet.
Martin summed things up, “Okay we’ve been through this, the simplified factors are: functional system usage, control system usage, course and speed.”
Yarg spoke with irritation, “Functional systems are already at their efficient bare minimum and speed is tied in with that so it is silly to list it as a separate factor. If we take any more control systems offline we will just be drifting.”
There was silence again.
Hosej, one of the young engineers spoke up, “Um, Gurney’s been telling me that to make seemingly impossible situations work, you just have to strip everything down to the basics. If control system usage and our course are the only things we can adjust, then he’d probably suggest throwing the craft into the storm where it will spit us out in the right direction. Then we can almost drift the rest of the way.”
The table was quiet. A few people gaped like goldfish trying to find the words to object.
The engineers and the civilians looked amongst themselves. No-one else came up with a plausible idea.
Mean was pretty sure that Martin sighed before saying, “Okay even though Gurney’s not here we still have a solution similar to what he would come up with. As a rough principle it should work, so let’s see if we can make it happen before it is too late.
Those around the table started looking towards Brad. Mean did too but he had a clueless expression unlike the others at the table.
“Are you kidding me?” Brad asked as people waited for him to say something. “We have shut down pretty much all of the navigation and atmospheric sensors except for a few short range ones that Lana is using to boost the dampening field and Ronnec is using to steer us through the storm. We had modelled the smoothest way through the storm and plugged only the slightest overlap data in before we shut those systems down.”
When people still waited Brad scratched his curly fringe and spoke again, “To move from our hopefully smooth course, to one that would smash us in the right direction, the only other modelling system we have running is this projection table. With the few sensors that are still actively linked into it, we would be making a decision with about ten percent of the data that we had the first time.”
Dueliet passed this information onto the captain succinctly through the mic that hung from her comms earpiece. “Yep, Captain Bureafoul is fine with that let’s make a plan and make it happen.”
Mean watched as those working around the table wove the old data in with the current limited sensor readings. A little projector was making a flickering ghostly sea on the table. Numbers, output waves and many other technical hieroglyphics surrounded the constantly changing projection.
Dueliet told those at the table, “That will have to be good enough, other wise we will run out of time. Please move onto revising our course.”
Martin imputed the command to bring up the reactor model in the simulation. It’s oil rig like base and the geometric mesh shelled encapsulating its landing were rendered. Soon after that the image of an angular crab was added. Then the current course was inputted.
The mechanoid crab image that represented their craft battled through the simulation ocean. The simulation cycled through approach after approach. Before each reset, any changes they’d inputted were incorporated. Then the little craft would carve its way through the swells of the mini storm ravaged sea again.
Lightning flashed flooding the operations room with light monetarily. It was followed quickly by the crash of thunder. Rumbling continued as their surroundings were hidden in the dark again.
It’s probably lucky that we can’t see the lightening on the simulation, Mean thought. Even on its current course the remaining legs are working in overdrive to keep the foils smoothing out our path through the seascape. In the simulation our large pincer claw held in-front of the craft looks like a kick-board, that’s helping stabilise us. But these visiting geeks probably don’t realise that with the current field levels the joints won’t last much longer.
Despite finessing the simulated crab craft’s path, it would still make it to the structure with remaining charge levels in the red. The cycle continued a few more time without any new changes.
“There,” Brad exclaimed shortly after the start of the latest restart of the simulation.
“What are we looking at?” Dueliet asked.
“That’s the edge of a huge wave that will smash towards the extractor,” Brad said.
“But that’ll be behind us,” Sophie objected. “And it’s outside of the data margin, how can you be sure?”
“I’d say it’s about eighty percent certain and our only real option,” Brad stated. “We need to be here by this par of a demicycle,” he said as he imputed a destination outside the simulation data range.
The simulation split into two routes. One with the little mechanoid crab fighting it’s way on a stable path through the conditions. The other was constructed jerkily as the modelling software of the table struggled to put it together.
Finally the second route was calculated. A second little mechaniod crab fought it’s way off the side of the simulation and seemed to have disappeared. Then it came crashing back into the modelled projection. It hurtled past the other modelled crab and almost overshot the extractor.
The second craft displayed a workable remaining charge level. But it had a ten percent higher damage estimate and a twenty percent variability window given the lack of data.
“F***,” said Yarg. “We won’t survive that.”
“Actually it’s the current course that pretty much guarantees our destruction,” Martin pointed out.
The captain had wandered over by this stage. After they watched the simulation a few more times he broke their silence, “Okay, thanks for giving us a shot at this. Forward the new course to Ronnec and if you’ve finished your role for this phase, find somewhere to strap in.”
The captain gripped the back of Sophie’s seat and dropped into a lunge beside her. He chatted with her and Dueliet. The rest of the academics were already strapped in. A few of the engineers walked across to one of the other empty stations and strapped into the seats there.
Yarg got up and walked shakily towards the bridge.
Why does he want a seat over that way, Mean wondered. On top of that his frequency and heartbeat…
Mean jumped up and jogged to catch him as the craft once again shuddered.
Ronnec yelled to Lana, “Right that connection is sorted, I can adjust the power ratio between our stations now. I’ll start with course changes and engineers should be ready…”
Yarg pulled something that glinted out of his overalls and lunged for Ronnec.
Mean lunged and smashed Yarg off course.
Then flinging his arm he smashed Yarg’s head into the floor
“What the…” Ronnec started. “Should I be putting one or both of you in the brig or on tidy up duty?” Ronnec asked with his eyes flicking between Mean and the map in front of him.
Mean let out a sharp sound like a laugh, “I’ve been on tidy up duty all day. If you like to avoid being stabbed with shiny pointy things, I suggest you start by locking Yarg up.”
Ronnecs eyes flicked back to his console and he focused on moving both the wheel and two sliding levers on his right hand side. The craft swayed to the port side. He touched the comm connection on the headset that was sitting at an odd angle over his glasses. “Can I please have security to remove an unconscious Yarg to the brig.”
Ronnec focused back on Mean, “Sorry till I know what’s happening, can you head back to the main operations table.”
“What the…” Ronnec said. “Scrap that,” he hit the the craft-wide comms button, “HOLD ON.”
Ronnec swung the wheel and as soon as the ship swayed back towards starboard he shoved the levers on his left to match. The ship jolted roughly as explosive engine thrust was released “That’s way more than a twenty percent variance,” Ronnec bellowed toward the operations table.
Mean looked at the wave readings on Ronnec’s side monitor. He chucked his knee under the desk to brace himself.
“I NEED MORE POWER NOW” Lana yelled at Ronnec
Her jaw clenched shut as her eyes darted between Ronnec and her main console.
Ronnec did a few fine adjustments then slid a virtual slider on his plexiglass screen, “All yours”.
Lana adjusted the inputs furiously for a couple of seconds.
The craft was hit hard and lifted by a huge wave. Mean watched as some of the crew that hadn’t braced were jolted around in their seats with their heads swinging wildly.
Despite being smashed by the huge wave, the craft was in one piece. But it was skipping across the ocean straight at the extractor.
In the projected simulation it had looked like they would be coming into a calm area around the tower. The craft shook as if it had smashed through an invisible barrier.
“The atmosphere around the extractor is point three two times heavier,” Lana said checking her side console.
While the waves had shrunk, craft’s structure groaned as it skimmed towards to the extractor.
“I can probably still hold the field with a twenty two percent power reduction,” Lana called to Ronnec.
“Okay, thank you,” Ronnec supplied. He adjusted the slider to divert some power back to his table. He quickly worked the legs to get the foils in place.
The craft was now surfing a harsh line along the face of the huge wave as it collapsed behind them.
The next moment the craft crashed and bounced off the base of the extractor. With one last twist of the controls and a spurt of thrust the craft spun and sat up against the rig like base.
“Ronnec you dimwitted, flea brained, moron, did you deliberately bounce us off the reactor,” Gurney shouted through the comms.
“Yep, thanks for checking in,” Ronnec replied. “Reserves should be still close to what the visiting team need now.”
Ronnec flicked a lever and slid his chair across to the next console in he stared at the console with eyes wide, exaggerated by the lenses in his glasses. He carefully worked so that the large claw swung behind the reactors two front legs to secure them in place .Then he worked the small claw controls watching camera and simulated feedback.
The cracks of thunder were almost deafening now that they were at the reactor. Huge bolts of lightening continuously hit the strange shell. The shell which was like an almost oval shape was made of various polygons. The polygons edges were made of metalic feather like pieces that wove together fusing as they made smaller shapes.
The lightening that hit the shell snaked violently around these connections and was then transferred into the area in the centre of the platform. Each lightening strike would shoot along a path and be transferred into the reactor for storage as plasma. Every now and again blasts of energy would also be discharged through steel orbs on the underside of the platform.
With a few final tweaks Ronnec let out his breath in relief. The set of the main chambers position under the water was much better. The cable that made a data connection in the claw was now also linked to the craft’s system.
Ronnec confirmed, “Okay team we have a connection with the reactor, but it wouldn’t last for long. It’s time for our visitors to work some magic.” Dueliet helped Sophie to a console in the bridge side of the room.
“Okay thanks for that,” Sophie started sounding surprised. “The energy reserves are actually looking good.”
Sweat ran down Sophie’s forehead. She hesitantly stabbed at the keys for the system control console and then looked back towards the others in her team. They were all still firmly planted in their seats.
Despite the seeming emotional uncertainty, she diligently adjusted whatever it was the console was giving feedback for. The contact through the claw relayed commands to the mechanisms in the submerged part of the structure.
There was a deafening roar.
It was as if an army of angry whales were bellowing. The noise reverberated through entire craft’s structure.
Despite this Sophie continued to work in the relative comfort of her protective suit. She furiously adjusted things with almost panicked haste.
And then everything started to calm.
The oceans, the skies, the structure, the craft and it’s crew.
All seemed to collapse into a nervous silence.
And the silence would seem to continued for a minute more. Mean still had ringing in his ear. A lot of the other crew did too judging by the increase volume of yells in the room.
As the calm endured, things began to relax more. The oceans settled and swells only unhappily threw spray up around the pillars of the structure. The structure appeared to rise much further out of the now calmer waters. It seemed content to merely look ominous for the time being.
The craft floated lazily in the gently swells. Inside the crew were slowly wandering around, checking things over.
“Plasma systems are still intact,” Gurney reported in. “We have enough energised plasma for a decent test run. The absorbed lightening and discharges should give us another two par three cells when the ionisation is complete.
Sophie was the most vocal. Having completed her task, she was now noisily complaining. “I’m not paid enough to risk here life like this. Why did I agree to this stupid job in the first place?”
Having tired of this, Dueliet told her, “That’s enough, some of the crew had volunteered to be part of this mission.”
Sophie quietened down.
The crew had got a chance to catch their breath and around the bridge people were talking in normal volume ranges again. The captain put a call over the comms. “Hello team, thanks for pulling off another miracle. This assignment wasn’t supposed to be even possible and you’ve done an outstanding job.”
Chapter list: https://wordpress.com/page/levelzerotraining.wordpress.com/195
Dezhanite Drafts 