Foothold, page 7
part #1 of Foothold Series
Reactor chamber 2 was sealed, but David could see the hull breach through the view port on the chamber door. There wasn’t much left of the reactor itself.
He entered chamber 1 and could see that Reactor 1 was intact, and seemed normal. He moved over to the control panel and checked the diagnostics, which confirmed a problem with coolant flow.
Frowning, he checked the logs. Coolant flow showed as normal until just before the overload event, when it suddenly dropped in one of the two coolant lines.
“It looks like one of the coolant pumps has failed. I’m just running a diagnostic.”
“OK,” replied Grace, “Keep me posted.”
David ran the diagnostic and it did indeed look as if the coolant pump on line 2 was malfunctioning.
“The pump on line 2 looks bad, can you check for a spare?”
“OK, just a sec,” Grace replied, then after a moment, “We’re in luck, there’s a spare unit. You’ll find it in locker #3 in back of the reactor room.”
“Roger that, just checking for it now.”
David retreated from the reactor chamber back into the main reactor room and headed for the storage locker at the back. Sure enough, he found the spare pump in locker #3 as described. He removed the spare, grabbed some tools from the toolkit that was also there and headed back to the reactor room.
“OK, got it. I’m going to replace the defective unit.”
“Roger, ship says it’s located at the front of the chamber under the floor panel next to the control panel.”
Eight countersunk screws, one in each corner and one on each side secured the access panel to the deck. David extracted a screwdriver from his toolkit and set to work, carefully placing the screws aside as he went. He forced himself to work slowly and methodically, pushing feelings of anxiety away.
“OK, I can see the pump, swapping it out now.”
“Before you do, make sure you close the isolation valves front and back, unless you want a flood.”
“Thanks, closing them now.”
David turned his attention to the pump. There were more screws to remove. As he worked on them, he could hear the sound of his breathing in his helmet but little else, somehow adding to the feeling of isolation that came from wearing a spacesuit. Finally he had removed all of the screws and set them aside. He then released two clamps front and back of the pump and with a heave, pulled it free. The water that had been inside the pump gushed out and immediately boiled in the vacuum inside the chamber, taking David by surprise.
“OK, I’ve got the old pump free, it doesn’t look as though I have to do any mopping up down here though.”
“Yeah, I’m watching from the bridge, I ought to send the video back for science class.”
David grinned as he heaved the not inconsiderable bulk of the replacement pump into place.
“I almost wish there was no gravity right now as well, this thing is heavy.”
Ten minutes later the replacement had been made.
“OK Grace, I’m now opening the isolation valves. Can you run a diagnostic?”
“Running now.”
A couple of minutes passed then she spoke again. “Diagnostic is good, shall I restart the coolant flow?”
“Yes, go ahead.”
A moment later David could feel a slight vibration through the deck plating as the replacement pump started.
“It looks good from here,” Grace said, “Flow rate is nominal.”
“OK, I’m going to finish up here and return to the bridge, then we’ll try for a restart.”
David secured the deck plate, gathered up the faulty pump and tools and returned them to the spares locker before heading to the bridge.
***
“Hi,” said Grace as David reappeared. “We’re all set for a reactor restart.”
“Great! Coolant still looking good?”
“Yes, it looks like you’ve fixed it with the new pump.”
“OK, I guess it’s time for the moment of truth then. Ship, prepare the start up sequence for Reactor 1.”
“Sequence prepared, confirm for initiation,” intoned the ship’s computer.
“Confirmed. Initiate.”
Grace and David unconsciously held their breath. This was a key moment; without a reactor they were dead in space, and they only had two shots to restart it.
The ship started to relate a commentary of the reactor start up progress.
“Reactor 1 diagnostics confirmed… Coolant flow rates nominal… Containment fields initiated… Containment fields stable… Commencing fuel injection… Initiation pulse triggered… Fusion confirmed. Reactor 1 is now operating at 10% capacity, all systems nominal.”
David and Grace both let their breath go at once and looked at each other and smiled when they realized they had been holding it. Relief washed over them as they spontaneously hugged each other.
“Thank God,” Grace whispered, “I was worried for a bit there.”
“Yeah, me too, but we got through OK. Now a bit of heat in here would be welcome.”
“You bet,” replied Grace, and called to the ship to bring the environmental systems back on line.
“Environment systems restarting,” announced the Ship.
The main lights came back on and the background noise of the ventilation fans replaced the silence that had prevailed on the bridge during the crisis.
“Our top priority now is to get the accumulators recharged as quickly as possible,” David said. “I feel uneasy that we only have one restart chance up our sleeves.”
“I’m with you on that. We should boost the Reactor output to at least 50% though.”
“Ship, increase power from Reactor 1 to 50% and start charging the accumulators,” David commanded.
“Confirmed, increasing power.”
“I’m just going to bring the navigation system back online,” Grace said. “I want to check our heading, we may have been pushed off track when the reactor blew.”
“OK,” David started to reply when he was interrupted by an alarm tone and an announcement from the ship.
“Warning, coolant flow irregularity to Reactor 1.” Followed immediately by: “Reactor 1 overload warning, emergency shutdown in progress.”
“Oh, shit!” Grace exclaimed, “It’s happening again!”
A sense of dread stabbed at David as he realized that the nightmare had returned. Once more they were without main power and hurtling uncontrollably through the void. But this time, they had only one more chance to start the fusion reactor and save all their lives.
***
David thought furiously. The fact that they’d had another failure meant that the pump wasn’t the problem after all, or at least not the only one. Perhaps given time, they could figure out what the real problem was, but the one thing they didn’t have was more time. Every minute they delayed, the accumulators were slowly draining as they maintained the stasis fields, and if their energy level dropped below 40% they wouldn’t be able to restart the reactor.
“Ship, what’s the accumulator charge level?”
“66%,” the ship replied.
“How long do we have before we can’t restart the reactor?”
“At current usage, 5 hours 32 minutes.”
“OK, we need options. As I see it they are as follows: firstly, try to fix the problem as quickly as we can and try again. Secondly, try again and keep the reactor power level down to 25%, on the basis that going to 50% tripped it. That will give us enough power to trickle charge the accumulators and maybe buy some time while we work the problem. Thirdly, we revive John and Heidi and get some help. Any other ideas?”
John Coultas and Heidi Baumgartner were their two specialist engineers, who were in stasis chamber 2 along with their perishable cargo.
“One other option I thought of was to use the lander fusion plant. We’d have to figure out a way to connect it to the ship’s power though,” Grace said.
David considered. The ship had four landers that would form the basis of their settlement on their new home world. One of the landers was a dedicated fusion power plant that had a fuel supply that would provide them with 30 years’ of electric power and heat energy. More, if they kept their power levels low. It was designed so that the ship would start the reactor before the lander separated from the Hope, using the ship’s accumulators. It wasn’t designed to power the ship, but they could possibly wire it in manually.
“Ship,” David asked, “How much accumulator energy is needed to start the lander reactor?”
Grace realized that David had taken her idea a step further.
“Approximately 19%,” the ship replied.
David smiled, “That’s a great idea Grace.”
“But we only try that if we fail on our second restart,” she said, realizing where he was headed.
“Yep. I’d rather not go there unless we have to, it’s risky and eats into our fuel levels, but it gives us an extra shot. Great thinking!”
Grace nodded, “So what do you think our best first option is?”
“I don’t like option 2 - only a fool tries the same thing twice and expects a different outcome. It’s too risky, even if we keep the power levels low. Option 1 is also risky, we’ll have to rush and the chance of making a mistake is high. So I think we should revive John and Heidi and get some professional help.”
Grace nodded, “As a bonus that will cut our power consumption and give us some more time.”
“Good thought - Ship, how much extra time will that buy us?”
“Shutting down a stasis unit will add 3 hours 47 minutes.”
“That seals it for me - let’s wake them up. Grace, I think it would be best if you do that - it’ll give you a chance to explain why I’m here and not Vasily.”
The other members of the crew had remained in stasis during the drama with the change of captain, so were facing another surprise to season the drama of their current crisis.
“OK, I’m on it.”
“Thanks. I’m going to start trawling through the reactor logs to see if there are any clues.”
***
Grace headed to the stasis suite, stopping on the way to pick up some jackets for everyone from their quarters - it was starting to get very cold with the lack of heat from the environmental systems.
Once at the suite she initiated the revival process for stasis chamber 2. This was quick, as really it simply involved turning off the power. However, the ship would perform a diagnostic first as part of their safety-first protocols - these were designed to compensate for the fact there was no chance of rescue if anything went wrong.
From the point of view of John Coultas and Heidi Baumgartner, no time had passed since they had entered the chamber four and a half years previously. There was no wake up process to go through, it was simply one moment they were saying farewell to their crewmates and the next they were looking at Grace standing outside their chamber holding their ship suits.
As they exited their chamber John was the first to notice that something wasn’t right. They were supposed to be the last of the crew to be revived, just before they descended to the surface of their new home. Their task was to button up the ship and then join the rest of the crew. The only reason they would be woken earlier would be if something serious had gone wrong.
“Jesus, it’s cold in here,” he exclaimed.
“Look at the condensation on the ceiling,” Heidi added. “What has happened?”
“Sorry to be the bearer of bad news,” Grace replied, “But we’ve had a major power failure. We need some help to get the reactor back online.”
John was as sharp as a tack and noticed straightaway the use of the singular. “Only one reactor? What happened to the other one?
“Looks like a containment failure.”
“No, it can’t be!” Heidi said.
“She’s right, must be something else if we’re still here.”
Grace shrugged. “See for yourselves,” she said, handing them their clothes. “You might want to put these on, it’s not too tropical in here!”
“You’re not wrong there,” John said, shivering.
As they hurriedly dressed, Grace added, “There is one other thing…”
“There’s more? What else could go wrong?” John exclaimed.
Grace sighed. “Well, it has to do with our captain. You guys were already in stasis so it was decided that we wouldn’t wake you and stress the system.”
“So, what?” John prompted.
“Vasily isn’t here. David had to take over.”
***
“I just can’t fucking believe it,” John repeated. “Christ, this is, this is… just unbelievable.” He was still shocked at learning that they had a new captain.
Heidi was a little more coherent, and was already thinking past the news to the consequences. “It must have been hard for you,” she said sympathetically, drawing Grace into a hug.
“It was at first, but there is the mission, you know, and David is a good captain, and a good man. It’s not his fault you know,” she said, looking pointedly at John.
John realized that he was being a little insensitive. “Yes, yes of course he is. Hell, he was just as good as Vasily in the sims, better even, if I recall, and a good sort, if a little quiet at times.”
“Yes, well, we’re wasting time,” Grace said. “We need to get to the bridge.”
John realized now would be a good time to shut up about new captains and focus on the job. “Lead the way, we’re right behind you.”
***
David looked up as the others arrived on the bridge, and then stood to greet them.
“Dave, mate, good to see you!” exclaimed John, thrusting out his hand.
David smiled and shook hands with John. Any fear he might have harbored that John would be disapproving or formal, having found him in command rather than Vasily, evaporated. Which was, in fact, what he expected. John was probably the most easy-going person he knew, which perhaps had to do with his upbringing. Although a naturalized European citizen, John had been born and raised in Australia, a nation known for its less-than-formal approach to life.
Heidi embraced David sympathetically for a moment then was immediately back to business.
“So, what is this problem we are having?”
“Looks like a core breach,” David replied.
“I’ll be a monkey’s uncle if it is,” John said.
“Excuse me?” Grace asked.
“Have you ever seen a core breach? If it was a core breach, we wouldn’t be here talking about it, we’d just be a cloud of atoms! Nothing survives a core breach, believe me!”
“Show him the drone video, Grace,” David said.
“Sure. Take a look at this then, and tell me if your nephew isn’t small and hairy,” Grace retorted as she brought the video from the drone on screen. It started with showing the intact starboard side of the reactor housing. Then the shattered portside reactor housing came into view as the ship rotated.
“Fuck me!” John exclaimed, “Look at that!”
Grace stopped the video and zoomed in a little. The image on the screen showed the result of an explosion, with a large hole rent in the ship’s hull with signs of melting around the edges.
Heidi bent in for a close look. “There’s nothing else down there that could explode like that. It looks like the core must have breached and the plasma vented through the hull.”
She turned and looked at John. “Even though that isn’t supposed to happen.”
John scratched his head. “We’ll need to get in there and take a look.”
“First things first though,” David said. He filled them in on their abortive attempt to restart Reactor 1. “So we’ve got one more shot to restart the reactor, and about 7 hours to do it,” he concluded.
“Right, we’d better get on to it,” John said. “Heidi, can you review the reactor logs while I head down to the reactor room?”
“Sure. We can go faster if Grace can help too.”
“No problem.”
“I’ll come with you,” David said. “I can show you what I know so far.”
“OK, let’s go - I just need to stop off on the way to get a pressure suit and some decent tools.”
***
Heidi and Grace were working their way through the detailed logs recorded by the ship of Reactor 1’s performance before the last overload event. Grace was skimming through the log trying to identify the problem areas while Heidi was methodically working through it line by line. This didn’t prevent them from talking as they worked though.
“So, it must’ve been a real shock to you when Vasily was pulled from the mission?”
“You have no idea. God, it was the worst day of my life. I didn’t know what to do or what to think.”
“But you decided to stay?”
“I had to, Heidi. I just had to. Maybe it makes me a bad person, but after all these years of dreaming about going, and the training, and the selection tests, I just couldn’t turn my back on it, not now.”
“And, David, he thinks like this too?”
“Well, he did what I did. I guess we deserve each other.”
“If it were me, and I had to choose between John and the mission - I don’t know if I could leave him.”
Grace thought for a minute.
“I guess we have to live with the choices we make. Don’t judge me too harshly, perhaps it has turned out for the best. Vasily and Joyce, they married.”
Heidi looked up, startled. “You’re kidding?”
“Nope. They had a daughter, named her Grace.”
Now it was Heidi’s turn to reflect. “Perhaps you are right, you are all happy in the end. Perhaps this was the way it was meant to be. You and David, are you…?”
“Yes.” Grace smiled. “It’s all good. He’s not a comedian like Vasily, but he’s definitely a keeper.”
***
“There’s nothing wrong with this pump,” John said emphatically. They had just finished removing the new pump David had installed, stripped it, checked it, and replaced it. It was now humming away circulating coolant as designed.
