Out of bounds

[Sombs]

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Day 10 - Location unknown

The repairs of the ship were almost done. There were only tiny hullbreaches left that needed to be taken care of. And that would mean there was less work to do for the crew.

Since the life support systems were running on minimum, the engine room had turned into a meeting place for the crew. The AP-605940 Energy Core was illuminating the room in a soothing blue light. Ezrael entered the engine room, welcomed by a noticable wall of hot air. It felt instantly like being on Curacao, while the corridors of the ship were turning more and more cold. Looking around, Ezrael spotted Leon at the control panels. Annie was right next to him. It was quite an interesting sight, since both Leon and Annie had removed the upper parts of their Apahanta suits, wrapping them around their hips. While Leon presented his rather skinny upper body like that, Annie wore a black tank top. It was not a rare thing to meet the crew like this. Some of them used to wear civilian clothing over their Apahanta suits sometimes. Yet it was a memorable sight, the two of them standing infront of the control panel, talking about something Ezrael couldn't hear from where he was. So he moved over to them. "Adrianna and Sherry would probably complain about it if I would start showing off my body like that," Ezrael said jokingly, patting Leon's shoulder from behind as he joined the two engineers.

Turning his head to face Ezrael, Leon gave him a surprised glance. "We're not making progress, Ez."

"I don't recall having asked about it," Ezrael gave him back, looking at the control panel. There was a 3D projection of the Apahanta and her internal systems. "I remember how Kalliste Silver always called the Apahanta a coffin. Quite fitting. We're buried alive in some distance void area." He faced Leon again, smirking. "Any new ideas? Theories or something? Do you think we could find jump holes here at the jump hole? Like the one we saw at the Razgriz rift?"

"I thought of that already, Captain," Annie sounded, folding her arms infront of her. She did that often recently, Ezrael noticed. Especially when Leon was around. But then again, it seemed like they were hanging out together all the time since the ship was stranded. "Theoretically, it could be that there are jump holes around here since the stray black hole somehow affects hyperspace. So it could be that it affects subspace as well."

"That is however only if the theories are fitting. We still know jack about this anomaly and we can only assume," Leon clarified. "And then again, the Razgriz rif is tiny in comparison to this thing here. Finding a jump hole using our weakened sensors and our very limited fuel in this area is like trying to find the hay in a stack of needles. Also, the jump hole of the Razgriz rift was in the very center of the gravity well, which is the very reason the Apahanta didn't reach it. Whatever forces allowed the jump hole to be there are probably a few billion times stronger here."

"With other words, you two find it rather unlikely we find something," Ezrael concluded, which was followed by Annie and Leon nodding simultaneously.

"Technically, there is a way to combine our shields with our artificial gravity generation system which would allow us to travel within the gravity well for a certain amount of time, but the modifications would require us to use a lot of resources and time for something we don't know whether it helps us in any way, so that is currently not an option."

"Okay," Ezrael said quietly, randomly glancing over at the energy core. "What's the current output of the core?"

Leon followed his eyes, facing the energy core while slightly sighing. "At a minimum, as ordered. There are some fluctuations but I guess that is simply because we never ran the ship in hibernation mode. Meaning we don't have values to compare and explain. The Core database doesn't find anything on this either, but that is because the Core's AP-609 and our AP-605940 use different energy cores."

"Right, I remember that. But those fluctuations are not dangerous, right?"

"No. Not directly. It just means the energy core is producing a bit more energy than we told it to. It is impossible to adjust to that fluctuation as it, well, it fluctuates in intensity, duration and frequency." Leon smirked. "The Apahanta is a bit bubbly sometimes."

That caused Ezrael to chuckle. The Apahanta was unique, that was true. But then again, anything about the ship was unique. The Captain, the crew, and the circumstances of their disappearance. "Maybe it's a nomad poltergeist. I remember how Astarte called the Apahanta a nomad graveyard. See, coffin is really fitting. To think that parts of the ship are based on nomadic materials and technology." It reminded him of easier times. Looking back at it, it almost seemed like the days when Ezrael tried to communicate with nomads to pacify them was a piece of cake in comparison to this. "Nomads would simply feed on the radiation to gather energy. They would see this black hole as a giant food source, maybe."

Leon and Annie suddenly stared at each other. "Apahanta, list all nomad-related technologies used by the ship. Mark them on the 3D model."

Surprised, Ezrael turned around, watching Leon and Annie stepping closer to the control panel. There were red bits within the Apahanta starting to glow. They all represented parts of the ship using APM's Advanced Hardware, more specificly those parts that used nomad materials. "What are you up to?" Ezrael asked, noticing the satisfied smiles on Leon's and Annie's face.

"Undressing Apahanta," Leon replied.

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Uncharted System Stories: 18 | 32 | 34 | 37 | 38 | 85

Templates: Character | Transmissions

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