Chereads / The Last Year of the USDS Explorer / Chapter 3 - DAY #2 [Sleep or Death]

Chapter 3 - DAY #2 [Sleep or Death]

As soon as we get the holes sealed I have the crew start trying to get some more of the ships main systems repaired so we can reduce power usage as we are losing power very fast and could end up adrift before we even run out of air. While we work on the main systems of the ship we are also trying to seal any breaches that we come across in case we missed some and strap down some of the floating debris since it is the most dangerous to us while in our pressure suits. I can only hope that our current power output is too low to be detected just in case we happen to be in a hostile area. I did notice while looking outside the ship at one point that there are some shiny objects in the distance that are reflecting the light from the nearest star that I believe to be a supernova. I have also discovered (by accident) that we are drifting toward the shiny objects very slowly and our ship has yet to detect this drift (or our power level is too low for the engines to correct it). I have always thought that it was amazing how the few things that you don't think you would ever need never seem to get damaged. Now I am wondering if there is an asteroid somewhere that we can anchor to so that we can reduce this drifting issue and have a more stable platform for defense. Not only would an asteroid help us greatly with the drifting and defense issues but if we are lucky it will also have several ores available for us to mine, refine, and run through the assembler systems (these are like self run 3d printers that can make almost anything as long as you have the computer data needed for it) to make repairs that much faster. The only drawback to having the ship based assembler systems over the station/planet based systems is that we are limited on the types of components that we can produce. If we do find an asteroid I may end up having to use our production bay to the full capacity just so I can build a small mining station (or outpost) on the asteroid just so I can build a station/planet based assembler system so we can produce any specialized parts. Arrica's mother did always tell me that I could never be prepared enough for any mission. She used to tell me this while I was in the military and part of the Earth Space Defense Forces Special OPS team. At the time I was an admiral and had command of the "Forward 3rd (triple carrier) Combat Fleet (has 3 mega carriers, each with its own independent fleet of 2 dreadnoughts, 5 destroyers, 8 cruisers, 19 frigates, 22 battle liners (slightly smaller than a frigate), 47 corvettes, and over 900 fighters/bombers. I retired the day she died.

After almost 30 hours of hard labor we finally manage to get the main engineering bay patched up and got all of the holes sealed up. While we work I keep being distracted by thoughts of what could have pulled us out of a hyper jump since we are still alive and there is so little light outside. With the nearest star being in the wrong direction and of how little light there is I know that it is nowhere near enough to do any damage, if it was then we would have too much light and even if we were as few as 10 light years away from a pulsar we would have been cooked by the radiation by now. This doesn't even mention a black hole that would have instantly crushed us and this ship into something smaller than most micro particles. I have each person take a break in turn so we don't end up killing ourselves due to mistakes (such as burning a hole in our pressure suit with a welding torch). While I am on break I take a look at the air and power systems and see that I need to cut power everywhere I can and set the air system to shut off the tanks that are leaking so we can have some air to breath once we get all of the holes sealed. When Abbie goes on her break she manages to get the doors all sealed and gets the food dispenser working again (this is like a 3d printer for food). George found a way to get the ship to stabilize its roll like a hot dog so that if there is a "dark star" (this is a star that produces heat but no light) we don't get cooked inside of a giant oven. Last just as ten pm comes around Arrica manages to get the emergency chem lights to stat working so we have something more to see with other than our suit lights (this will help us save our suit power). Just as midnight comes around again we finally manage to get the entire engineering bay sealed and pressurized so I tell everyone to get some sleep while they can (not that any of our nerves would let us). The physical exhaustion takes over us and we all end up sleeping almost as quickly as we were woken by the cryo pods. Arrica is the last to fall asleep so she makes sure to buckle each of use into a seat so we don't get hurt floating around. Last thing she does before she finally falls asleep is get the backup engineering gravity generator working at a very low level so it pulls the rest of the floating debris to the floor. She manages to fall asleep around two am and as such none of us is awake to notice the lights come on just as the pressure reaches 90% of standard (standard is 13.8psi up to 15.1psi).

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(Damage report)

Main hull breach

Cockpit integrity 5% (leak detected)

[cockpit pressure 0%]

Hangar integrity 5% (door missing) (leak detected)

[hangar pressure 0%]

Production integrity 20% (leak detected)

[production pressure 0%]

Medical integrity 5% (leak detected)

[medical pressure 0%]

Cryo integrity 5% (leak detected)

[cryo pressure 0%]

Airlock 1 integrity 5% (leak detected)

[airlock 1 pressure 0%]

Airlock 2 integrity 5% (leak detected)

[airlock 2 pressure 0%]

Airlock 3 integrity 5% (leak detected)

[airlock 3 pressure 0%]

Engineering integrity 98% (unknown item detected)

[engineering pressure 90% and climbing]

Engine Status

Main ION engines not responding (not enough power)

Maneuvering ION engines 40% (dependent on power level)

Main Hydrogen engines not responding (no fuel available)

Maneuvering Hydrogen engines not responding (no fuel available)

Gyroscopes not responding (control circuit damaged)

Jump Drive 10% remaining power (jump not possible at this time)

Power Status

Main power 2.75% and falling (requires nuclear fuel and main engines)

Auxiliary power 39.75% and falling (port solar array lost / starboard solar array damaged)

Backup power 39.75% and falling (no fuel available)

Emergency power not responding (battery status unknown)

Vapor Gas Status

Total o2 capacity (4 days remaining due to unknown leaks)

Total h2 capacity (0 remaining please seek ship yard help)

o2 tank 1 0% (leak detected)

o2 tank 2 0% (leak detected)

o2 tank 3 30% (leak detected) (starboard solar array damaged)

o2 tank 4 70% (leak detected) (starboard solar array damaged)

o2 tank 5 not responding (port solar array lost)

o2 tank 6 not responding (port solar array lost)

o2 farm 1 not responding (port solar array lost)

o2 farm 2 not responding (port solar array lost)

o2 farm 3 leaking (starboard solar array damaged)

o2 farm 4 leaking (starboard solar array damaged)

o2/h2 generator offline (no ice available)

h2 tank 1 0% (leak detected)

h2 tank 2 0% (leak detected)

Sensor/Data System Status

Main sensor array not responding (unknown)

Auxiliary sensor array damaged (max range 50m)

Backup sensor array offline (unknown status)

Emergency sensor array offline (unknown status)

Main computer array 10% capacity (reduced power mode active)

Auxiliary computer array offline (unknown status)

Backup computer array offline (unknown status)

Emergency computer array offline (unknown status)

Production System Status

Refinery 1 damaged (reduced capacity) (leak detected) (offline)

Refinery 2 damaged (reduced capacity) (leak detected) (offline)

Assembler 1 damaged (reduced capacity) (leak detected) (offline)

Assembler 2 damaged (reduced capacity) (leak detected) (offline)

Recycler damaged (low power)

Other Systems Status

Weapons offline (damage detected)

Welding drone (unknown)

Recycling drone (unknown)

Relay drone 1 (unknown)

Relay drone 2 (online)

Scout drone 1 (unknown)

Scout drone 2 (unknown)

Combat drone (offline)

Mining ship (unknown)

Asteroid anchor (online)

Cargo system (online)