disclaimer: i cant write for shit and there is *probbably* plenty of useless grammar. keep expectations low.



i was deep, oh so deep. The old super station had been mighty, but it had also been raided and scavanged to bits. I was 34 clicks deep under the surface of the sphere of steel, aluminum and titanium that remained after the former glory of the old empire. i was deep, but unlike centuries of scavangers before me i had found a gem. encapsulated in 5 million tonnes of drydock scaffhold i had a ship, all 1200 metres of it. now that is a lot better than bulk steel.

troubbleshooting a toaster is easy, troubbleshooting a fighter is doable, but this was closing in on the limits of my abilities. it had been a year since my decent into the darkness, i was hearing voices.
"have you tried the engineering bay blueprint repository?"
"yes" i answered "i did the minute i found it".
once more i searched throught the huge database of blueprints, repair doccuments and schematics i had managed to extract from one of the three servers that i could boot up without the power and coolant that the ship systems would supply. although it was over 200 years old many of the ship systems semt to rival or even surpass my own ship systems in complexity, not that that was a large suprize with the hunk of industrial crap i had.
i turned to another of the eight monitors in my cockpit, maybe i should go in again?
"so you will do it? promise?"
i had wondered if the ship power generators would survive a cold restart for a long time. the design documents, the ones i had at least, had always mentioned emergency power in a restart situation, but that was at least 150 years gone.
"this is is a one shot deal, understand? if we do this we might destroy the ship AND die."
"i dont even care anymore, as long as i get out of of here"
that wasnt reassuring.

i left my ship for what i suspected, rightly so, the last time. the small yellow craft had served me well, but god i hated that piece of junk. after a while you get familliar with all the crud that holds something together, and you get tired of replacing it. some people take space walks really seriously, but the small leap semt as familiar as opening the door home. i floated down the coridors of the ship, i had not been in most of the rooms i passed, but i knew the way to the core.
"time"
my oxygen level was fine, but it was sinking a little faster than anticipated.
"at least two hours left, take it easy"
i didnt take it easy.

20 minutes later i had reached the core, it didnt look large from the operating room, but the blueprints had told ne it was a pulsed fusion type reactor about 50 metres in diameter.
i strapped myself into the chair to get a better view over the controls and connected my battery pack to the two terminals behind the desk.
"let's do this"


alfa base 500 kilometers over the super station

"sir, we have a stutterwarp signal in sector j4"
"impossible, there hasnt been a stutterwarp engine operational for ages"
"well, here it is"

i was free

ravener96 wrote:
disclaimer: i cant write for shit and there is *probbably* plenty of useless grammar. keep expectations low.

ftfy

I was deep, oh so deep. The old Super-Station had been mighty, but it had also been raided and scavenged to bits.

I was thirty four clicks under the skin of the sphere of steel, aluminium and titanium that remained after the former glory of the old empire. I was deep, but unlike centuries of scavengers before me I found a gem. Encapsulated in five million tonnes of drydock scaffold I had a ship, all 1200 metres of it.
Now that is a lot better than bulk steel.

Troubleshooting a toaster is sexy, troubleshooting a fighter is doable, but this beast was closing in on the limits of my abilities. It had been a year since my descent into darkness, I was hearing voices.

"Have you tried the engineering bay blueprint repository?"
"Yes", I answered, "I did the minute I found it."

Once more I searched throughout the huge database of blueprints, repair docs and schematics. I had managed to extract them from one of the three servers that I could boot, without the power and coolant that the ship's systems would supply.
Although it was over two hundred years old, many of the ship systems seemed to rival or even surpass my own ship's systems in terms of complexity. No surprise there considering the hunk of industrial crap I had.

I focused on the eight monitors in my cockpit. Maybe I should go in again?

"So you will do it? Promise?"

I had wondered if the ship power generators would survive a cold start after such a long time. The design documents, the ones I had, always mentioned emergency power in a restart situation.. but that was at least 150 years ago.
"This is a one shot deal, understand?" I told myself, "if we do this we might destroy the ship and die!"
"I don't care anymore, as long as I get out of here"
That wasn't reassuring.

I left my ship, for what I suspected, was the last time. The small yellow craft had served me well, but God I hated that piece of junk. After a while you get familiar with all the crud that holds something together, and you get tired of replacing it. Some people take space walks really seriously, but the small leap for me seemed as familiar as opening the front door at home.
I floated down the corridors of the ship. I had not explored most of the rooms I passed, but I knew the way to the core.
"Time"
My oxygen level was fine, but it was sinking a little faster than I anticipated.
"At least two hours left, take it easy."
I didn't take it easy.

Twenty minutes later I reached the core. It didn't look large from the operating room, but the blueprints had told me it was a pulsed fusion type reactor about fifty metres in diameter.
After connecting my battery pack behind the desk, I strapped myself into the chair to get a better view over the controls.
"Let's do this"

Alpha Base - 500 Km above the Super-Station

"Sir. We have a stutterwarp signal in sector J4!"
"Impossible, there hasn't been a stutterwarp engine in operation for decades."
"Well, here it is."

I was free.

FormalMoss wrote: Troubleshooting a toaster is sexy

that's some good clean up work.

Indeed. Also good work in the original form