Clang!
Clang!!
CLANG!!!
CLANG!!!!
Sweat bled down his bare skin, flames blasted fiercely, the hissing of liquids screeched as pants and grunts exhaled out as the tempered tool pounded ingot onto ingot, sparks cracked as they sprung into the heated enclosure, the deep, mystifying, eye drying red encompassed the walls and floors, as the glistening muscles ebbed and waned with each powerful strike of the hammer's wrath
tang!
Tang!!
TANG!!!
And with his gloves made from a large monster pelt, he dipped the object into the fluid barrel, screaming in heat, he yanked it out and laid it to rest on a desk near the door, his work for the day is done. Removing and hanging his thick leather apron and pelted gloves, finally laying his hammer on the bench along with his tongs an other equipment, he stumbled out of the hut, his smithing hut. Small in size in comparison to the main housing, but it was still impressive. After a quick plunge in the cool river, he dried off and sat down in his expanded home, where there was the broken craft, now is a small hut, it's large enough for the craft to fit in, with two meters on either side, the moon pool like hut which closed off the roots. Making a small dome.
Silver hoisted himself up through the hatch and headed to the top floor of his home, there, he stumbled to the top floor of his home, and stripped out of his clothes, leaving them folded in a small grass basket. Flicking a hatch open, hot water sprinkled down onto him, scars littered his body, some seemed from claws, some were burns, some were bites, but it didn't matter, the hot water washed away the lingering pain. Sighing as the impurities of the body dropped down onto the wooden channels that led to the river.
Walking out with his clothes in hand, he scrubbed them down in the cold water of the world, hanging them on a line where the brisk breeze cooled down the serene man, his skin felt clean, his body felt pure, his mind fresh.
After preparing a nice hearty meal, he sat down in one of the cockpit chairs that had been removed, and placed in the ground floor room, on the desk was his call card, dozens of books, few of them were from the ship, and many were hand crafted with stripped layers of wood, bound using twisted blades of grass, it's pliability was outstanding for what it was made of, and it looked very neat and clean, the ink he used was made by mixing the local tree sap with oils from some nuts nearby.
Powering up the call card, he cleared his throat once more, his voice a little huskier as time here passed, being exhausted and starting to lose his perception of time.
"Morning, I uhh…I had a good sleep…what day is it now?…day….year…I've stopped counting, I'm sure this log will have a time stamp…
I woke up today feeling better than the last. Not sure as to why but oh well, perhaps it's the lack pollution in the air, but after my breakfast, I went hunting, the animals here are very fast, but after much time studying them, ummm able to predict their movements…
Life was different for me now, and I've gotten so used to it that looking out and seeing the tower, makes me…afraid. But what I was making earlier was an essential part for the craft, it's an exhaust recycler, it recycles the hydrogen In the mixture and the intake of oxygen. Making water, or burns the hydrogen again as an afterburner… simple design, but a core part of the engine, it was thankfully one of the only damaged parts in the engine, other problems included engine bell piping, the flaps control and the NSCR, the Navigation and Satellite Controls receiver, a crucial component to the ship, it collects and tracks data like time, weather conditions, orbital data, satellite information, geological surveillance and more, however the radar was damaged in the crash, meaning I have no way of knowing where on the planet I truly am, when, and what it's like back on the colony.
But…I have to find out what a research tower is doing in the darkest part of the mountain range, in the dark cherry forest… but even then, I have to jumpstart the fusion cell again…
I sat, pondering over the technicalities of how to jumpstart a reactor with a shovel, a fire, and a waterwheel, as those are the only real things he had to work with. Jotting down basic components of what made the fusion cell, it became clear that it was impossible to do, I mean, how do I make a reactor that was made with precision engineering in a perfect vacuum and in space, on a planet with literally no technology that is not really close to making a bottle of soda. It just didn't seem possible, unless provided with subsequent charge in a short burst which would at least get the auxiliary battery to kick in, which would make jumpstarting the cell about 5 times easier…
Some time later, I forcefully opened my new toilet hut, with crescent carved into the door, stumbling and donning my new straw hat, holding a primitive hoe and watering can, I tended to my plants, picking away at the berries and fruits, re-tilling and watering as I go along, by the time I've harvested and nurtured my crops, around 10am has arrived, it was time for my reparations to begin on the craft, apples, oranges and cherry like fruits slowly disappeared from the basket as I slave away inside the ship, from the control rudders on the flaps, to the sensors to reconnect with the satellite relay network, the main issue was still the damn reactor drive, again the only way to get it running was either replace the core, or jump start the auxiliary firing charge…the first, replacing the core, is completely out of the question for right now, though it's clean energy, and not harmful to humans, who knows what effects it could have on this planet when exposed to its higher concentration of oxygen density in the atmosphere.
Leaning back in my chair, I sigh, looking around for inspiration, on how to repair the hollowed craft, since the battery is intact, but the alternator is dislodged, it wasn't hard to fix it up and get it running again using some rope and pulleys along with bolting it in place using some other bolts from the now stripped chairs.
Many people would be hating the life of hard work if they were in my situation, some people would be mislead into thinking they are destined to thrive or be doomed, but all I believe is that If I do everything I can, that's all I can do, and therefore I won't regret anything, so…I'll keep researching, I'll keep experimenting, I'll keep on keeping on, as long as I can…
Time passes, the pendulum of time persists through days, ticking, stretched into the far beyond. Into the deep unknown.
Another waking moment, as I feel a jitter in my lips, it's the day I've been waiting for, testing day, the craft should hopefully ignite into life, but after doing my daily morning routine, harvesting some berries and hunting an animal, for later, I sat nervously down at the pilot seat. This bad boy may not fly, but it can drive in its ATV mode…I hope… and besides if it doesn't move, then winter won't be a problem with the heating system on board. This is it. I slam my callous palm into the button, pressing it deep into its slot. The endless picking away at the rock faces for minerals, the countless efforts forging, reforging, refining and tempering each individual replacement down to the microns, failing over and over, but never stopping.His struggle to build and generate a stable and powerful enough electrical system to charge the Auxiliary firing charge the chance of restarting. Iteration after iteration, device on device, generators crowded up along the river, some even trailed down the waterfall, exploiting the sheer force of gravity and the dense water. Each one charging a battery for this unimaginable moment, until now hopefully, scars, littered my body, cuts still fresh and gashes still sore from hunting, surviving the harsh night as sleep was avoided to hasten the progress. Bags under my Weary eyes as sleep barely refreshes me, it seemed like an eternity since arriving here, it's heavy atmosphere strained my muscles at first, but now I feel like this is home, being here for this amount of time makes me feel like I found a new life. One side hoped for it to fail, one side hoped for it to work. I only pray it doesn't backfire and explode…
As the button pressed in, a jolt could be felt throughout the entire vessel, the batteries' charge smashed through to the Auxiliary firing charge at full force, if it turns on smoothly, then the firing would restart the main electric engine, which would charge its vast and emptied battery. I calculated each of my hand crafted batteries' charge, each one provided about the same as 3Ah, enough to kill me with a single touch, the endless books I made calculating everything I had to repair, the amount of power, materials, calories even, for this moment, the auxiliary firing charge requires 5kAh, 5000Ah, so my main time was spent crafting batteries and wheels or steam engines to charge these batteries, each water wheel could charge up to 5 batteries each over the course of about 3 weeks, each steam engine was double, I didn't want to go higher just for safety, if I did the maths correctly, then I made 167 water wheels for half the batteries, and 84 steam engines for the other half, totalling to 1,170 batteries, each took 8 hours to make, 2 a day, taking at least 73.5 days give or take, then the water wheels took 6 hours to make, 2 of them a day, two weeks total. the steam engines then took a week to make each, 609 days total. The wiring took 2 hours per 10 meters, 180 meters used total, 36 hours total spread over a week. Then fixing, replacing and making parts took about 9 months total, then rewiring most of the craft took 5 months in and of itself using the 'Electronic's guide to Vessel "sundowner-type-4bEL-c",'it features the wiring layout, the pathing and routing for specific wires and cable, along with the mileage inside the craft,turns out there is just shy of 200 miles of wiring in the craft, so it took a while to figure it out. But here we are, there was a lot of time between each objective to tackle, and there was also the time before when I was surveying the ecosystem here.
Now, the jolt smashed into the craft, all 1,170 batteries piled in a cave and hut releasing its charge at full force, dumping all it's charge into the auxiliary firing charge,a bright flash emits from all the lights and widgets for a split second, as a clunk could be heard, followed by a skull rumbling boom as craft shook, its now meagre 26 tonnes compared to the whole version of 53 tonnes, I managed to strip the other seats, the main radar dish could be removed due to it needing a new dish entirely, which when it was made of a special composite alloy, it was no longer needed, weighed 4 tonnes, and due to it being fitted in line with the shell, had to make a new plate on top, I made it out of wood and glued the peeled paint off the dish onto it to match, it's now a storage unit on top of the craft. The chairs in total weighed a tonne, removed the extra beds and medic pods, 3 tonnes In total, removed the mining and analytics unit in the under side, 6 tonnes total. Then I removed the wiring and cabling for the dish, the heating for the seats, the holo call room equipment, the EVA suits and the extra bathroom unit, that all was 11 tonnes, and finally, I removed the hydraulic system for the bay doors, they remain permanently either open or closed, with the wheels deployed and functional, the door hydraulics for the storage unit, satellite dish control gyro and the wing deployment hydraulics on the second section out have been removed, all weighing not much individually but in total 2 tonnes. The pulley system has seen better days and the rope was remade dozens of times for this…
As the lights and buttons went dark. A small churn could be heard, rising as the electric built from deep within its heart before pounding into itself, the fusion cell burst into life as lights and dings sputtered from its former grave, and a little tune played as the main control screen lit, it displayed a logo of the company, before revealing a self diagnosis screen, checking sensors, amp levels and operating system checks, the core seemed strong, but it didn't sound completely right.
I cheered as the panel displayed current power level along with its results.
Sensor checks: nominal
Control unit checks: Sub-Nominal (requires maintenance on orbital control units)
Operating system checks: nominal
Interstellar FTL Comm Checks: Offline
Secondary orbital Comm checks: Nominal
Main engine checks: Sun-Nominal (requires maintenance)
Ground traversal unit: Nominal
Life support systems: nominal.
The list went on for what seemed like hours, checking each major and minor function to craft, of course being so stripped back meant that a lot was missing, but the manuals mentioned the vital units, so to me, everything else was waste, roaring as I watched the main systems chug to life, I peered at the screens, each flickering and loading, booting up the overlays and options, the hundreds of buttons lighting up like stars in the deep night. That was when I heard the whirring from the fusion cell until suddenly the panels displayed red.
ERROR!!! ERROR!!!
Panic struck my face, the fusion cell was fine, everything was fine, I know, I know that I did everything possible, so why…why isn't it working!?
The panel showed the diagnostics loading, the estimated time…8 hours…
Slumping back, my mind blurred, tears threatened to fall as my hope was slashed, thankfully it booted the system in safe mode, damn Microsoft and their operating systems, life support and short range telemetry data could be used, not everything was for nothing, but it was still a huge hit to me, the craft nor I could move, frozen in place, and due to the radar, it picked up the tower I saw, but it was 26 miles away, I could barely see it back then and that explains it, sure it's a huge building but the weather conditions were perfect then too, but I can't walk that, not down the now 3 mile drop I have to do, there was almost no way down. I'd have to travel 2 weeks around and then 3 weeks back to it, driving was my only option…
"I can't fix it…" I muttered, repeating over and over, until in my mind engrained it deeply, I must have not done everything I can yet.
I got up, my mind a haze, there was only two the things hardwired into my brain, survive, and fix it.stumbling out of the craft once more, I looked at the pile of manuals and calculations again, repeating the steps bar the batteries would be useful. I must repeat each step again, and again, I must remain ever steadfast in my goal, my life and goal…
My life and goal…
My life and goal…
Life and goal….
Life…