Strong shaking of the ship made John fell off his chair, despite all the safeties. Fortunately, he was wearing his work F-suit, which absorbed the whole force of the hit. His reflexes also helped in this dangerous situation caused by sudden disruption of the ship's artificial gravity - at the moment disruption was about the hit, alarms gave the crew a short moment to react as they were instructed during practice concerning main core malfunctions, including gravity control.
Marlow, remembering that training, turned on his magnetic shoes, and connected safety wire to a rail. After stabilizing his posture, he collected the most important items from his quarters and packed them into F-suit's built-in backpack. The sight he saw in front of his eyes after leaving the room did not make him feel better - steel elements were sticking out at weird angles and moved dangerously each time there was a disturbance in artificial gravity. Moreover, there were traces of blood around, meaning there were people wounded in the process at the very least.
John used his PEC to try and contact his colleagues, but managed to reach only a few, though connection problems could have been caused by the magnetic interference. Among people who could be reached were Martin and the mechanics crew, and Rashid, of whom all were staying in their respective quarters at this time. When he attempted to learn something more, his connection would always get cut, and ultimately the only thing he received was a call to join the crew in main reactor's engine room. Since work at hangar was his current assignment, this kind of message must have meant something bad was happening. After all, engine room's crew was filled in earlier with new members for him and Martin to be able to freely swap to their new work spots. He sent a message to Johnson a moment later, wanting for the friend to confirm whether he got summons too. While heading towards his destination, he was finally able to establish a connection with his colleague's PEC - a stable one that his, allowing them to talk properly.
- Any ideas what's this about? - Martin started with a question - I couldn't have a look outside because of all the window shutters closing during emergency, but all these torn and sticking out elements inside the residential area sure look dangerous.
- The main core doesn't seem to work as it should, the energy flow keeps fluctuating, there are surges in gravity field and some weird turbulences - John replied - It feels like energy flow cannot be maintained properly, but it doesn't make sense. This reactor is the most reliable one ever constructed, and should go without trouble for several dozens of years. Only serious physical damage could get it to break, unless I don't know about something.
- Conclusion? Something freaking bad happened.
- The question is: what? I simply cannot believe it's the reactor itself. Something happening with the connectors is more likely. Unless it suffered serious physical damage.
- Physical? Inside the reactor? As far as I know, central module was secured and was free from serious damages that could affect the reactor itself. It's suspicious. Do you think it's some kind of inside work?
Marlow shrugged.
- No idea. I cannot think of a reason why would anyone try to do something to the reactor. Without it, we may end up unable to reach the planet with this ship. Sure, emergency pods are sturdy indeed, but it's last resort with no guarantee of reaching the goal. To me, the chances are too low to take such a risk, no matter the reason. Still, we can only keep guessing.
Once they reached an airlock leading directly to engine room, they were stopped by military security and had to go through verification before being allowed an entry. However, before that, they had to set their F-suits to vacuum mode. It was an unusual instruction since this mode was used for operating in outer space, in extremely low temperatures and high level of radiation, and the engine room was located in zone where breathing was possible and no such conditions, aside from radiation, could occur. Still, they did as instructed.
Afterwards, they walked into a separating compartment, and one of the airlocks closed behind them. Before the second one opened, they heard announcement instructing them to keep stabilizing wires and magnetic shoes ready - once they confirmed their readiness, both felt the force trying to suck them in. They immediately connected wires to the nearby rails.
Now both of them could look around. Various items were floating in vicinity, and a group of people kept tinkering around the reactor.
- John, look! - Martin pointed at one of the beams of the hull's internal frame.
- Damn it! Fuck! - John cursed out loud seeing folds and tears which explained there was a risk of decompression and the entire module breaking - We are lucky this module is still intact.
While ship's coating had several layers to avoid decompression caused by physical damage such as space debris, such marks being visible inside meant the upper layers did not work as they should and everything was holding on the lowest layer now.
- John, Martin! Nice to see you again - Julian was the one to welcome them - We'll need every hand we can get.
Both men flew closer and connected their safety wires to rails next to reactor's wall. Over a dozen of people were already working there - Marlow and Johnson knew many of them either from working or attending lectures together, but it was still only a part of the team there. It was a given since one was an engineer and the other was a mechanic, therefore they were not expected to know every single reactor specialist.
- Maybe you can give us more details, Jules? - Martin immediately talked to the guy they knew the best here - We only got the order, but no details about the problem and what we are supposed to do.
Julian waved his hand, showing them to follow him.
- No wonder they didn't give you any details - he said - The situation is not good, so they probably don't want the people to panic. Just have a look.
On the reactor's wall located by the side where the hull got damaged, there was a huge dent.
Marlow immediately understood the situation. Of course, on the way to The New Gaia his duties were limited to simple engineering and mechanics, but it did not change the fact that neither was his field of expertise. As a science officer, he had a vast technical knowledge, including topics exceeding the functionality and repairs of the machines. For years, he had a chance to be involved in designing, programming and constructing various devices - he loved research, and engineering, and all of these required knowledge of physics. The dent had no traces of being done from the outside. Knowing that was the risk of decompression, and maybe there was already something affecting the temperature, he quickly deduced possible reason.
- When did the leak happen? - he asked.
Martin looked at him, visibly surprised - his face seemed to say "What the hell!?"
- Several hours - Julian was unusually calm about the fact - but Grace said it can be easily handled.
- Oh, Grace, you say? - Johnson eyed his colleague.
The only Grace they could easily associate with this kind of situation was Grace Depoitre, a young doctor of physics, who was main person responsible for all reactors on Future. She was from France, where she used to work for a gigantic corporation specialized in nuclear energy, providing solutions for numerous countries, and being considered the greatest authority in that field. John remembered that much about her background, but Martin obviously thought of something else.
- That's this hot chick you are crazy about, right? - Julian tried to run from Martin, but did not manage much to his misery - So, you finally managed to talk with her?
Marlow felt a sudden urge to hit Johnson's head, but managed to stop - he did not want to damage the F-suit - and only grunted to pick others' attention.
- So, it's Grace who is responsible for the work here? - Julian responded by nodding - That's fair. I'd like to have her tell us what she needs, and let's get to work. I doubt we have time to laze around in such circumstances.
Miss doctor was inside the outer compartment of the reactor and could not went outside to meet them.
- Sorry about that, but I cannot go out due to security measures - she explained - I get you wonder why you were sent here out of all the places, but there is a really specific reason for that... or rather, two problems we cannot handle ourselves.
- We're listening - John replied.
- I believe you have already managed to guess what happened here, but I would still like to explain the situation a bit, so we are on the same page here. So, as you noticed, there was a leak and the critical temperature was exceeded. It's not something that should happen in normal circumstances. Sadly, events that led us here were not really normal, or rather - our safeties should have worked... but, they haven't... We believe that cause lies in one of the central engines, which both of you are familiar with. Until now, it caused absolutely no issues, but before exceeding the reactor's temperature, readings from the main computer showed a huge engine overload - the energy consumption raised suddenly, even though bridge was not increasing power.
Marlow and his colleagues looked at each other.
- This kind of thing shouldn't happen - he said - The energy consumption should not change without increasing the engine power, and even if it somehow did, we have emergency reactors that are configured to take over the additional load.
- And, despite that, the whole load was on the main reactor - Grace said, and let out a sigh - That's why we need to secure this compartment and do a full engine diagnostics. Technically, we should be able to make it without one of the engines, but - on the other hand - there is a chance there might be a serious flaw that could potentially cause a bigger incident. Kaller himself said to do a thorough investigation.
Before she mentioned Mathias' surname, John was wondering how Grace knew that much about engines they were using - now it was obvious professor must have briefed her.
- Ok, so securing comes first, then diagnostics on the engine.
- Precisely.
- We could use a bit more people, to be honest.
- Professor promised to take care of that. Ok now, I'm rather busy so please excuse me.
They moved away from the reactor and moved closer to the spot where the outer coating was damaged and decide on the plan for now.
- Going with the inside first would be like approaching a horse from the back - said Martin during damage assessment - By the way, that Grace was talking as if she had a stick up her ass. Though, when I think about it, it could have been a pleasure for her, right?
Marlow nearly did a facepalm, but he remembered he was wearing a Field Suit and could have damaged it.
- Damn it, Martin, when will you grow up?
- What's that about? I don't get what did I do wrong.
- We are at work, so please, calm down.
- C'mon, John, I'm just joking to loosen the atmosphere. What's wrong with that?
John did not need such excuses. Even if these were only jokes, it was not a proper time and place for that. The sole fact that miss doctor mentioned Kaller was enough to suspect what happened here was no accident. To not spread the anxiety, he did not want to bring this up to colleagues, but the whole situation sounded fishy - for something considered a malfunction, they had way too much security around. It felt like the previous sabotage case.