Out of bounds

[Sombs]

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Day 46 - Location unknown II

According to the Apahanta's clock, it was the very early morning of the 46th day since the Apahanta blindjumped out of Sirius. Twelve hours had passed since the battleship left the black hole system and reached this new, unknown area. The hull breaches were fixed by placing makeshift amor plates. After hours of hard work, Ezrael returned to the bridge, playing with the thought of simply dropping the helmet he just took off, but instead he held it until he had reached the three command chairs, placing it on the seat of the counselor. That one wouldn't be used for a while anyway.

"You should get some rest, Captain," Sherry sounded, having remained at the conn for the entire time. She sat in her seat, watching Ezrael freeing himself from the EVA-suit, carefully dropping it on the floor before he sat down on the Captain's seat with a sigh of relief. "In a bed, I mean."

"I'll do that soon enough anyway. What's the status?" he asked her, sitting in the chair like a drop of water, almost laying in it, his bum barely on the edge of the seat and legs stretched out.

"We have confirmation we are most likely not in Sirius. None of the stars or nebulae detected by the long range sensors were identified. We have no data on this region of space." Moving a strand of her hair behind her ear with a finger, she continued while her eyes scanned his body. "Since the Apahanta's weapons are offline entirely, I launched the Handsome Rover to collect a few smaller ice asteroids and ordered the KSRs to process the ice into clean water. There seems to be some alien bacteria living in the ice field, but we should be able to get rid of it."

"Maybe we find some of these scrubbies here. A bit of laughing gas would be funny right now," Ezrael lamely commented. "Let's hope the alien bacteria is not related to the nomads. I remember how during my Core times someone died in the cargo bay of the Apahanta because he wanted to touch the nomadic remains. The bacteria ate him alive within the next days and we had a containment breach on that deck."

"I was also talking with Chief Engineer Isley. I think it is most wise for us to get the engines running again, since we are very likely to run out of fuel very soon. Maybe a few days, maybe a week or two, then we're dry."

"Wait, how did that happen? I thought we had enough fuel for months!?" Ezrael asked her, obviously surprised by those news.

"Not anymore. We had to increase the power output of the Apahanta in the recent days for all the preparations,
tests and manufactoring as well as for the AGS Shields and the engines to bring us into the gravity well. Additional to that, one of the fuel tanks blew up and ripped a hole into the ship, I know you saw that already."

"We covered it with one wooden plank so far, yeah," the Captain joked, looking to the side to face Sherry. "Damn, so we jumped from one problem into the next one."

"It could be worse, Captain. We haven't explored the system yet. While the Apahanta is currently barely manouverable, we can use the Handsome Rover to scout ahead. There is a likelyhood for us to find more valuable materials in space, looking at the gas giant and its moons over there. The ice field is probably a product of it or of one of the moons, as two of them are white and icy. Since there is also a volcanic moon, we might find some non-frozen asteroids we can mine. I mean, something must have turned that moon into a volcanic world in first place. Most likely a giant asteroid."

"I agree. Anything else?"

"Not yet. Shields are at 5%, so merely enough to keep radiation away. Isley will need to disconnect the AGS Shield modification so we can use the shields in a more regular way again. Generally I'd advise him to revert all changes he did to the ship as we are very unlikely to experience such a situation ever again. We can use the spare materials for other things."

Ezrael took a deep breath. "Could we build a solar array to power our ship in the meantime and to fill our batteries?"

She smirked at him. "We could technically craft solar panels, yes, but they'd be incredibly inefficient. We can't power a battleship with solar energy alone. "

"But the Handsome Rover. And with the Rover, we might be able to collect more materials," the Captain explained.

Sherry shook her head slightly. "We could do that, yes. But in the end it doesn't make a big difference at all, maybe a few minutes. We need to set priorities here, Captain. The moment the energy is out, we're dead. So we need to be as efficient as possible with the resources we have in the area we are in. I really would like to explore the system first. There are many gas clouds in the distance, a few hundred clicks away. If they contain valuable gases, we could at least produce our own fuel. Everything else isn't a problem anymore from that point. We have a water source here, we have a hydroponic garden with so many potatoes and other plants, we won't starve. We have cryo pods in the worst case. So my advise for now is to scout with the Rover, repair the engines to cruise-ability, get shields and weapons back online and then everything else. We need fuel. And protection."

He kept his head moving, yawning, shaking his head every now and then. Not in disagreement or anything but merely to stay awake. He was horribly tired. "Good, I agree with that. I'll get some bed now. All of the bed."

"By the way, Captain, before you leave," Sherry said, interrupting him from standing up to get to his room. He slowly sat down again, appropiately this time. "We might be the first people to have discovered this and the black hole system. I thought you might want to name both systems, at least for our database."

That was actually a nice idea, Ezrael thought, rubbing his left cheek with his hand. "I'll think of something nifty. Tomorrow at breakfast, okay? Think of something yourself as well."

Sherry nodded and Ezrael build up his body once more. Ignoring the fact that his EVA-suit was still on the ground, he just stepped over it and headed for his room, leaving the bridge. The Commander however remained seated, leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes.

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

Templates: Character | Transmissions

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