Chapter 2 - Double Shift

Sometime has passed since I made an entry in my journal been too pooped to do anything but close my eyes.  Even though today was not the best of all days it is finally over and ended in a way I never in a million years would have guessed it would.

To begin with today was a double shift.  I ache all over from the top of my head to the bottoms of my feet.  Welding isn't a hard job really unless you are a good half meter shorter than the intended height of a typical repair crew person.  Takes some imagination and physical creativity to pull it off sometimes.

The reason for the double shift was not a good thing.  I made a lot more than minimum scale pay perhaps but the conditions are not pleasant to reflect on.  And by the way, I really don’t care that after being killed by whatever means divisible by man or beast or the universe for that matter you still have to endure it before you are revived. 

Case in point .. The Captain had turned over the watch to the pilot and the crew of gunners for doing some sort of creature extermination job just outside of the Arkadian planet system.  Our overly aggressive pilot and our underachiever gunnery crew almost lost the ship.  It went steadily from bad to horrible.  I could hear them through the comm laughing it up at the size of the monsters and the number of them they had in tow.  These guys have no regard for the crews below. 

I had just finished my shift and was in my berth gouging slag out of the tip end of my welder when the all hands message came.  I flipped on my ui and sure enough all sections integrity dropping like rocks in 2 X normal gravity.  I took a deep breath and wiggled out of my secluded berthing.  Hugging my welder to my chest I headed towards my last posting at Propulsion.  As I was approaching the first blast door two huge guys flew past me each carrying two welders.  They were headed towards Propulsion as well.  Then the most deafening noise I have ever heard shook every cell of my being.  I fell back against the wall expecting to see the revive center at any second.  I looked around, no not dead yet.  I clung tighter to my welder and made my way to the top of the platform through the second set of blast doors. When I made the turn at the corner I slid and flopped down hard on my butt in the middle of the gory remains of the two guys that passed me.  I sat there for a couple seconds trying not to puke.  Couldn't stop it and puked.  About the time I was spewing a nice partly digested layer of papplon on the poor remains of the dead guys the Senior Engineer stormed up the stairs carrying his overly large welder in one hand and a huge coil of welding wire in the other.  He looked down at me and asked,  “You hurt?”.  I answered “no” meekly gagging as I tried to speak.  Then he said “Get your ass up and follow me!”

What could I do other than what he had said?  I was up running after him expecting at any moment to be shredded like the guys back in the gangway.   I slid to a stop just beside the old engineer.  He was scanning the destruction in front of us.  He pointed to a tangle of burst pipes and said, “You there this pipe first then this .. “  as he waved his large hand in the general direction of the ruptured pipes and turned to start his welder on one of the complex bits of gear that makes the ship move through space.  I positioned my welder at the appropriate angle and started work. 

The first of the pipes moved back into shape and were reconnected to the correct points of contact.  I had just begun work on the second pipe when I felt a large hand on my shoulder pushing me aside.  The old engineer held his welder in one hand and pushed wire into it at a rate I didn't think possible.  When the second and third pipes were reconnected he stepped back and looked down at me.  He frowned at me saying, “listen here noob it doesn't have to be perfect just put it back together ..”  then he raised his head up as if looking through the decking and said “ .. its them boys up top that causes this .. trust me you will be back in here again quick as quick .. now finish up here and don’t make a fuss about how badly it was done before .. we just have to keep her in the fight“.  I noted he looked me square in the eyes when he said “we”.  I just nodded my head and turned to my work.

I had been welding steadily for maybe an hour and the all hands alarm went off again with the fire klaxon going off even louder.  ALL HANDS TO HANGER DECK flashed in red across my ui.  I still had damage to repair.  The damage was not in the red but close.  Hanger Deck was in the near green.  I kept my focus on the task at hand.  Then I head the Captain over the comm say, “Turn that damn alarm off.”    Then in her very calm commanding voice she instructed everyone on the engineering crew not involved in critical repairs to report to the Senior Engineer and the fire brigade below the Hanger deck.  I monetarily thought of my berthing below the Hanger Deck and grimaced at the possibility that all my belongings were being destroyed at that very moment.

Within the next hour I had raised the Structural Integrity of the Propulsion system acceptable levels and ran to the next station in need of repairs. The Reactor is a huge cylinder in the center of the ship that provides power to all the other systems. When I looked up at my ui I noticed it was nearing red.  I turned and ran as fast as I could trailing a stream of sparks behind me as I ran.  I fumbled for the off switch as I waited for the inter-ship televator to move me some 60 meters up and forward.  

We still had a monster called a Cosmic Horror attached to the hull and was trying to eat its way into the core of the ship.  I have only ever seen images of these monsters but I have seen firsthand the damage one can do.   The Captain then ordered a squad of Quads to launch from the ship and draw the Cosmic off to gunnery distance.  I don’t think she had to remind them to clear off as they approached the required distance.  The ship shook as the Cosmic pounded against the hull.

When I got to the reactor I saw a crewman passed out on the floor.  He had obviously come to the end of his endurance.  My welder roared to life knitting a crack in one of the inertial confinement tubes that routed power to Propulsion.  When the crack was repaired I circled around the Reactor looking for the worst damage fixing small cracks as I went.  When I got to the cryo pumps that provide cooling to the poloidal and toroidal magnets inside the reactor I stopped.  "This is bad" I said out loud to no one in particular.  My welder swept the least damaged components of the pump mending hairline fractures.  The other pump was beyond my skill level to totally repair so I turned my welder towards fixing the parts that were mostly intact.  Biting my lower lip I pointed my welder at the most severe damage closed my eyes and pulled the control levers on my RK.  The welder shook in my hands as I knew it would. I stiffened my arms trying to keep it pointed at the massive damage.  My whole body shook with the effort.  I knew this would damage my poor RK but I had to do as much to fix this as my skills allowed.  What I didn't know was the magnetic shielding of the reactor was compromised which allowed the super strong magnetic field to pull my welder away from the part of the pump that needed mending.  I was pulling back with all my strength, welding wire was flying through the RK making a zinging sound as it tore from the spool tied to my belt.  

Having my RK caught in the magnetic field was getting the best of me. I put my foot on one of the brackets that hold the pump to the reactor coolant system for addition leverage.  I could feel the heat from the structure through the sole of my boot.  I tried with all my might to pull the RK away from the reactor.

I have no idea where it came from but a second Cosmic slammed into the bottom of the ship directly aft of the area that was on fire.  When the monster hit us I was flung off my feet landing flat of my back knocking the wind out of me with the welder slamming me on the nose.  We usually get a brace for impact warning from Command but I guess they were busy with other stuff at the time and missed that one.  I held onto my welder though.  Sitting up I took a deep breath and inspected my welder.  The tip was pretty much toast and most of my welding wire was used up. I have no idea why they decided to make the tips out of Melchi Crystal, because it has to be one of the worst insulators in the universe.  I wasn't sure I could do another round with that pump or not but was sure that my nose hurt like all heck.  I set the welder aside and touched my nose which was bleeding I noticed with dismay.  I wiped at it with the back of my glove and got to my feet to inspect the damaged pump.  I couldn't tell if my efforts had done anything towards the repair or not.

The only thing I could do at that point was take my abused RK to the Trade Terminal and toss it in and redeem the recycle fee. With a sigh I let it fall down the chute to be recycled.  A quick scan of my card showed an increase of 20 pec.  Not much to salvageable in them obviously.  When I got to requisition to pick up another welder I passed my card over the reader and quick as quick I had brand new defective from the get go welder in my hands.  I took the welder and my remaining wire back up to the Reactor to see what I could fix other than the cryo pump.  As I ran up the stairs that lead to the Reactor I saw another more experienced crew was working on the pump repairs.  I circled around the reactor again scanning for any possible source of pending disaster.

I was working off to the side of the cryo pump reattaching some dislodged panels when the Senior Engineer arrived to inspect the repairs.  I had my head down smoothing a corner and he approached me.  I felt him standing there and raised my head and shoved my welding goggles up to my forehead.  He wasn't looking at me but at the work I had been doing.  He finally turned to me and noticed my bloody nose.  He pulled a rag out of his back pocket and wiped my nose with it.  I just stood there like a little kid all big eyed and stupid looking.  He asked me, “How long you been at this crewman?”. “Just a few minutes Sir.”  I replied.  “No not mean this here particular fix.  How long you been welding?”  He clarified.  “About a month Sir” I answered.  “Hmmm” was all he said and turned on his heel and walked away.  As he left I took a deep breath all I could smell was whatever was on the rag he used to wipe my nose.  It was probably some oily greasy glob of gack but to me it smelled like the aromatic residual of the millions of repairs he had likely made in his lifetime aboard the Motherships of the Fleet.  With that thought in mind and even though I felt like I could go to sleep on my feet I straightened my shoulders and gripped the handholds of my welder tightly and went back to work.

A couple hours later I staggered back to my secluded berth.  The whole area was covered in soot and fire retardant.  At least the fire was out and the critical damages were set back to normal.  I was glad to see that my few possessions were spared the flames.  I can deal with a little soot and grime.

As I knelt down to shove the welder through the crawl space to my berth I noticed a small book propped against one of the containers.  I pulled the welder back and picked up the book.  Turning it in my hands I opened it.  There was only one blueprint in the book with instructions and bill of materials for construction.  After I squeezed through into my rack space I sat cross legged on the floor and reopened the book to unfolded the blueprint. I gazed in wonder at the boon that had been given to me but by whom?  I flipped through to the back of the mostly empty book and found the name of our Senior Engineer.  Just to the right of his name written in carefully drawn block characters were the words Apprentice 1^st Class. My jaw dropped open and I sat there staring at the blueprint.  He gave me his old blueprints for making the welders.  This thing must be like a 100 years old or something.  I looked at the bill of materials followed by a quick look up of the cost of the materials on my terminal.  I can make these.  All I have to do is find some Metal Residue, how hard can that be.  I smiled and patted the closed blueprint book that lay across my lap. 

Go to --> Chapter 3 - Space Station Refit

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Disclaimer Part

None of the characters in this story / role play are real in the sense that this all takes place in a virtual world.  None of the events depicted are real, come on its in space on a huge Mothership.  Really?

The real parts are as follows:

The environment in which I do my role play is a game called Entropia Universe.  Which is made by Swedish company called MindArk.  MindArk has not authorized me to speak for them in any way nor do I intend to.  But I will tell you it is a very fun game and it truly is what you make it.

Entropia Universe is a free to play game with a real cash economy.

Here is a link to Entropia Universe - Planet Calypso

The Motherships do exist in the game and are owned and operated by individuals.  The fleets of ships that Wasp works on are all part of the Entropia Fleet Alliance.  These folks are pros at getting you across space in an efficient timely manner.  They offer routine scheduled flights every day of the week. 

Here is a link to the EFA Website –  Entropia Fleet Alliance 

Oh and when you aren't reading my blogger or even when you are listen in on  Atlas Haven Radio <-- click here for link.