Asch'an (Part Two)
Part two is up. As always, comments are appreciated!
The corridors were deserted, corroded, marked by patchwork repairs around which tiny robots were clustered. The ship had been in a fight. Many fights, in fact, but there were no signs of inhabitants. No fur, no bones, no bodies. "Stupid piece of shit!" breathed Mukirr, as he unsealed the last of the pressure doors with a heave. He was forced to do things manually, for the lack of power, relying on brute strength to force his way to his destination. They couldn't have a lack of power, though. They couldn't! There would be too many safeguards in place, too many emergency protocols. He would have had notification, something to tell him that he was skirting the edge of oblivion. Coming to a large circular room, Mukirr stopped. There was an interface port here. An interface terminal, too. If he could bring it online, he'd be a step closer to finding a solution.
Tapping his diagnostic computer into the interface terminal, he began to use it to feed power through the terminal, seeking out a computer. He whispered a prayer to Tannith, prayers for something to come online. Something to realize that he was there. Something to... Just something. "Come on..." he pleaded, almost whining in desperation as the computer began to run its own diagnostics. Lights blinked on his tablet as the system began forming an interface, beginning communications, feeling out the systems and breaking down the code-walls that would prevent him from taking control of the ship.
//INTERFACE COMPLETE. PRIMARY DIAGNOSTICS COMPLETE.\ flashed on the screen. Mukirr restrained a fist-pump. He would have to bring the control interface terminal online soon. "If only Red were here." he muttered, before continuing. But he'd left Red to tend to his ship. Repairs had to be made, systems to be maintained in case this ship was every bit as much the metal coffin that he feared it to be.
\ACCESS PRIMARY POWER INTERFACE// he commanded, flipping bits to make the command an imperative.
//POWER INTERFACE ACCESSED. DISPLAYING CURRENT RESERVES\
Numbers scrolled across the tablet, giving way to graphical representations of the limited power reserves that remained. Mukirr cursed, tapping the screen to ensure that that the figures were correct. They remained unchanged. "Makes sense, though," he muttered, as he began to think, "I just have to find a way out of this." The ship had been sitting for ages. Her backup reactors only operating at a bare fraction of their maximum potential. She would have long since fissioned the materials within, gradually cooking them down into so much lead. Her main reserves were completely gone, only able to be replenished within a star. But there was still some power.
Mukirr tapped out a few commands that he hoped would bring the main interface terminal online. If he was going to do anything, he'd have to start working through a main interface; not just a placeholder system, and he needed more information. Specific information about the options that he had available to him. Placing the diagnostic computer in a convenient niche on top of the main interface, he waited for the system to boot up.
Information scrolled across the screen in a claw-scratch script, something akin to the writing on the back of Mukirr's tablet, but with more flourish. Complex, smooth, not harsh and angular like his writing. It was in the ancient script of the Kasch'en, something that Mukirr, as part of his training as a forsaken acolyte, had studied extensively. However, familiarity and fluency were two different things. While he had a good idea of what was being displayed, the technical translations came with difficulty. He would have to rely on the diagnostic terminal to understand the finer points of the diagnostics. That would slow things down. Still, it was a start.
"Ignore the weapons, ignore life-support," Mukirr said to himself as he searched for the power distribution subroutines. The mains were offline, but there were a number of emergency systems that sat on standby for just such an occasion. "Just divert the power into the main systems," muttered Mukirr, as he asserted control over the ship's systems. One emergency reactor was still online, tied into the some of the main sensors and attitude thrusters. This would allow a limited control over the ship if the systems failed or power went out, presumably for maneuvering while refueling. But he could reroute this power into some of the main systems, maybe sequester enough for a hyperspace jump, if he was lucky. "Aaand... Got'cha!" Mukirr called to nobody in particular.
Normal lights came up, bathing the room in an antiseptic white light, while a holographic informational display showing an overview of Si_vis_ shimmered into existence_._ Detailed data readouts flashed red, warning of potential problems, and mapping them out. When all was said and done, practically the entire ship was glowing red. Mukirr looked on in horror, the data scrolling across the screen, snippets working themselves across the diagnostic terminal as well. What had he gotten himself into this time? Warnings of severed power conduits, control systems taken offline, entire decks exposed to vacuum, hull breaches, shield failures, lack of life-support. "Not the problem now," Mukirr said, with an air of finality, as he began to input more commands. All he needed to do was to get the ship operational enough to make a jump home. He killed the messages pertaining to the general state of the ship, and focused on the engines and shields.
"They appear to be taking no action toward us." said the sensor operator, flipping through the different systems with ease. "Radiation signature suggests that their reactor systems are operating at minimal power. This remains consistent with the remains of other vessels that have been found." The ship looked and was acting deserted, but the aetherwave sensors could not penetrate the radiation baffling on the hull.
"Move in closer, and prepare a boarding party of Val'kov." replied Commander Ri'ir. If they could get just a bit closer, they might be able to secure the ship for themselves. Bring it in. Especially if it was, in fact, the Sivis. The weapons technologies alone would make them - would make him a force to be reckoned with. And if they could bring online, move it under its own power. . . Well, space travel was dangerous, after all, Penitence could potentially be written off as lost and Riir would have a much more powerful ship to command. A ship finally worthy of his ambitions.
//WARNING: INSUFFICIENT POWER FOR SUBLIGHT ENGINE ACTIVATION.\
//WARNING: INSUFFICIENT POWER FOR NAV-SHIELD ACTIVATION\
//WARNING: SHIELD COVERAGE INSUFFICIENT FOR SUBLIGHT ENGINE ACTIVATION\
//WARNING: SHIELD COVERAGE INSUFFICIENT FOR RYS'VET ACTIVATION.\
//WARNING: INSUFFICENT GESTALT FOR RYS'VET INITIATION\
//WARNING: INSUFFICIENT GESTALT FOR FAR JUMP FTL ACTIVATION.\
Even with the limits that he'd placed on the diagnostics, the screen quickly filled up with warnings. And even with the emergency power routed into the main systems, there still wasn't nearly enough to go anywhere fast. With all the red flashing on the screen, Mukirr wasn't going to trust trying to spin up the jump drives. To lose power mid-flight would risk a collapse of the quantum wavefront, which would end his trip incredibly quickly. There had to be something that he could do. Some sort of cheat. The krellium shells around the reactors were still intact, there should have been no reason for him not to have enough power, even if the reactants had decayed to lead, he could still fission the... Mukirr smiled. He had a way out.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you." said the Ka'schen, interrupting the thought. She stood, enigmatically as always, in the doorway, looking at Mukirr as if he were insane. Did he not know the risks? Krellium fission was almost never used outside of weapons platforms because it simply could not be controlled over the long term. The energy that the krellium recruited from subspace increased exponentially as more power was put into the matrix. The system would never be able to handle the stress! Mukirr, however, pointedly ignored the woman. He had to be insane just to be seeing her, right? It had to be an artifact of the overly-cautious part of his mind that was trying to keep him from potential death. Well, tough. It was either this or a slow death, and he wouldn't be having that. He would go down fighting.
Still, the woman pressed, "A small miscalculation would destroy the ship. And trust me; you don't want to do that."
What would you have me do instead?" asked Mukirr, exasperation creeping into his voice. He was beginning to tire of her.
"Wait." said the female. "Wait for someone to pick you up."
Mukirr merely scoffed at that idea. "Yeah, we'll wait. Wait for someone, probably pirates, or a member of an enemy nation to come and take my find out from under me. Wait for someone else to take this ship by force once they realize that I'm the only one here! Wait for someone to take my one chance at survival from me, and leave me on the drift." he spat as he jabbed an accusatory finger at the woman. "I've done this before, I'll take my chances." he said, as he cut power to the outlying systems, routing everything into the sublight engines. If he could avoid initiating krellium fission, he would, but he didn't think that he'd have that option.
//WARNING: INSUFFICIENT POWER FOR SUBLIGHT ENGINE ACTIVATION\
//WARNING: INSUFFICIENT POWER FOR NAV-SHIELD OPERATION\
He didn't. "Fine," muttered Mukirr under his breath to the ship that was being so uncooperative. "You want it that way? You got it. We'll change the rules," he added, inputting additional commands to override the safety systems in and around that single operational reactor. The process was simple enough, but required a certain amount of startup power. He could only do it to one. "Take the moderators offline, and feed some of the energy back directly into the krellium shell." he added, more or less to himself.
//WARNING: INSUFFICIENT MODERATION IN KRELLIUM CORE\
//WARNING: UNSTABLE FISSION REACTION COMMENCING, ATTEMPTING MODERATION\
"Can't have that." muttered Mukirr, attempting to force the computer to accept the new commands. There was no way to make the system fission Krellium in a stable manner. At least, no way to do it in the time he had allotted. On the upside, if he were to delay the moderation of the reaction, when emergency moderation measures were taken, he would have a window of opportunity where the power released should be sufficient to run the main drives.
//WARNING: EMERGENCY MODERATION SYSTEMS INOPERATIVE. REVERTING TO SAFE MODE.\
//WARNING: UABLE TO INITIATE SAFE-MODE. ATTEMPTING EMERGENCY MODERATION\
//WARNING: KRELLIUM MATRIX FISSION DETECTED. UNABLE TO MODERATE FISSION REACTION.\
//MINIMAL MODERATION ESTABLISHED. CONTAINMENT FAILURE IN 10 MINUTES\
"Good," muttered Mukirr as he began to reroute power to the drives. The ship surged, making minute course corrections. Enough to bring it into a more stable orbit of the sun.
//SHIELD COVER ESTABLISHED. RYS'VET DRIVE ONLINE\
//SUBLIGHT ENGINES ONLINE\
//INERTIAL DAMPERS ONLINE\
//NON-KASCH'EN DETECTED! INTRUDER ALERT!\
"See what becomes of waiting?" Asked Mukirr, as he flipped through the commands, locking down all the doors leading from the intruders' position to the main control room. Then he killed power to those systems. No use letting them the opportunity to wrest control from him, and it would give him more power to do the things that needed to get done. "Velocity?"
//BEARING 000 X 121 FROM SYSTEM CENTER. SPEED .21C AND RISING.\
//ETA 3 MINUTES 41 SECONDS TO SYSTEM CENTER\
//SHEILDS NOMINAL\
//WARNING: CONTAINMENT FAILURE IN 8 MINUTES 32 SECONDS\
"Sir! Reading a radiation spike from Sivis." said the sensor operator, "Power output has increased by a factor of 100!"
"They're coming about. Heading 000 mark 273 Projected course will take them into the system's primary." returned the helmsman. "They're accelerating at a rate of 20,000 km/s and rising. Current velocity .21c and rising."
"What about our insertion team?" asked Ri'ir. "Can they change the course?"
"They report that they are being held up in one of the main corridors. Apparently, the ship has initiated a quarantine protocol" replied the communications officer. "They report that they are going to attempt to force the locks, but that will take time. They were never prepared."
"Can we bring weapons to bear?"
"Cannons are tracking, but finding it difficult to establish a positive lock."
"Disable their main drives, we should be able to stop them with our grappling cables."
"Firing now." replied the weapons officer. "Main cannons report 67% accuracy. Impacting their shields." Green bolts streaked from the cannons studding the Penitence. Most either impacted shields, or simply missed by a large margin. With every shot that hit the shield, the ship gained in apparent speed, and it would only be a short time before the Sivis would attempt to fight back.
"Door's closed." grunted Shiner, the Val'kov leader. "Locked out." His mouth made no movement, though if one looked at his blank metal face, they would see disappointment. Or was it conviction? The Val'kov walked with even steps on the ground, their feet generating their own magnetic fields that would hold them firmly against the floor. They were not phased by the lack of air, either. As creations of the last war against the Antarans, they needed neither food nor air nor water nor rest, taking their power from a self-replenishing fusion core, and given life through Forsaken magics.
"Cut through?" asked another of the Val'kov, as he moved to bring out a laser torch.
"Too thick. Holds vacuum. Wait." Added Shiner, as he pulled a small device out of his pack. Roughly circular, he slapped it in the center of the door where it adhered with a magnetic clank. Whirring and chirping to itself for a few minutes, it finally cranked, and with an almighty heave, the doors were open to the Val'kov, revealing a 20 meter stretch of corridor and yet another door. It bothered the Val'kov little, however, he and his team needed no sleep, and would continue to move forward inexorably. Or, at least until they ran out of door-openers.
With the patience of a machine he stalked forward, followed wordlessly by his team.