2020.01.12 Calculating
| ~Calculating~ | |
|---|---|
| The crew of the Infinity are in a race against time to certain radiation poisoning | |
| IC Date | ??? Sometime after April 1, 1999 |
| IC Time | ??? Sometime after April 1, 1999 |
| Players | Nikolai Zelazny Finley |
| Location | Infinite Horizons USS |
| Prp/Tp | Space |
| Spheres | Mage Technocracy |
| Theme Song | Radioactive, Imagine Dragons |
While the Infinity's AI is usually prompt, bordering on immediate, the length of time between it's response:
"...Calculating..."
and the next moment are aggregiously long. Or, perhaps that's just because the team are in a very literal race against the clock before certain death. As the microseconds whiz by, Zelazny can hear footsteps coming towards him and, eventually, make out the muffled call of a woman yelling his name. By the time Finley comes into view, she's in a dead sprint straight towards the engineer.
Waiting for the computer to respond, Zelazny quips out a quick, "C'mon, Infinity! I know you're in there somewhere! Put all those quantum data chips to use!" to which he then silences as the voice of Finley reaches him. He turns around, "Oh, hey! You made it!" he flashes a rather happy grin, "Guess what! I got good news and really terrible news!"
Nikolai follows after Finley though not as quickly. He was not the most athletic fellow.
"What's the good news?" Finley gawks at Zelazny a bit as she thrusts Zelazny's respirator at him and hold the suit out to assist him in getting in.
"Well, the good news is.. I got the door open!" Zelazny points to it, "Now, the really terrible news is that we're all about to die from horrible radiation if I do not get in there and get it fixed before I turn into bubbly goo!" He manages to sound rather cheerful about it, despite his rapid speech; each word hammering out after the other in short order. As he speaks he also tries to get into the suit, hopping around on one foot as he does.
Zelazny pages: Well, confirmed then. Dang. Why can't that boy just ever be honest with anyone? He could have just effin' told us all
Nikolai mutters "That is not good news"
~Radiation levels are critical. Estimated time of survival 4 minutes 36 seconds. All personnel should remain within their containments suits. Advise complete ventilation of engine room before attempting to restart engine.~
Finley -stares- at Zelazny for a few precious seconds before the AI confirms her worst fears.
Quickly, she drops to one knee and holds the suit for Zelazny to get his other foot into - Or, get a foot to the face. Either is highly probable at this junction. "4 anna half minutes! FUCK!" She looks up to Nik, then up at Zelazny. "Tell me how to vent the room? Or... HOW can I help?!"
To the voice of the AI, Zelazny momentarily stops what he is doing and grins, "See? I know what I am talking about!" he offers cheerfully before he works into the suit, "Ok, now. I have to get in there and stop that radiation leak. Then I have to ventilate the place. I am sure I can do it in no time at all." he wiggles the rest of the way into the suit and secures the respirator, "Wish me luck!" he pauses, "Oh, you can help by making sure I do not die when I get back here with what is sure to be severe radiation burns!" he thumbs up, then moves for the door!
Nikolai looks to the announcement "Is there a way to vent the leak without getting radiation poisoning?"
~AI access to the ventilation system has been compromised. Advise manual ventilation release. Sending manual release coordinates to your containment suits.~
~~Radiation levels are critical. Estimated time of survival 4 minutes 28 seconds. All personnel should remain within their containments suits. Advise complete ventilation of engine room before attempting to restart engine.~
Fuck. Don't die, don't die, don't die.... Finley leaps to her feet and races back down the corrugated hallway into the med bay to begin grabbing emergency kits.
Nikolai starts heading towards where the coordinates were given. "Would Zelanzy be safe if we vent when he is attempting to do what he does?" running towards where the coordinates were.
"There you go!" Zelazny says as he pushes the door to the engine room open, "You're a pilot, rig.." he pauses as Nikolai begins to head off, "Oh, well. OK then! Great minds think alike!" he then heads into the engine room. His goal? To find and seal the radiation leak before he starts up the engine.
The coordinates that show up on your suits show three manual ventilation controls. Each control is triangulated around the main dimensional drive. They do not ALL have to be opened, but the more of them that are open, the quicker the ventilation will occur. Without mag boots, you are all weightless while there is no power to the engines. (I probably should have mentioned that in previous installments but I hadn't brushed up on my space physics). That being said, it will be faster getting from one manual release to the other while weightless.
Zelazny blinks a bit, then stops what he is doing with the door, "Well, and then other great minds think better that mine!" he starts to head for one of the other valves, "Ok, I will take one of the others! We have to open all three if we can!" he calls out over the intercom.
Nikolai does not seem pleased about this at all, getting snagged in the door and starts tumbling head first into a freefall "CYKA BLYAT!"
Fin recalls that there is a med kit nearby and pushes her way to grab it off it's hook. She slides it around her and then tugs herself back to where the others are. She gestures towards a valve, "turn it?" She asks Zelazny.
It takes a moment of orientation, but soon all three of you are in the air, floating towards your respective ventilation valves. It is strangely beautiful, the way you all float through the air - if it weren't for the blaring or warning of imminent death and updates from the AI that your suits can only keep you from getting exposed to radiation for so long. One by one, you each reach your valve, pull open the panel that hides the manual lever and begin to manually open the ventilation systems. This is not easy as it requires a bit of muscle to turn these manual levers.
Zelazny floats up to the valve once he gets the panel off. He stares at it a few moments. He remembers these. They are usually operated by people stronger than him or uses specialised equipment.. or simply are not in a hurry! He blinks a few moments, "Wait.. wait.. lets.. yes! Yes, I can do this!" he fishes out his scanner and runs a quick program on the little attached computer, "Eureka!" he calls out, to then aim the scanner beam for the valve. He then goes for it and turns!
Zelazny's valve is the first to give a satisfying HISSSS as ventilation valves open and radiation begins to vent from the immense engine room. Then Nikolai gets his valve to release into a short, stuttering Hiss hiss hiss. Meanwhile, Finley is struggling against hers, seeming to be able to get no leverage as she pushes against it.
~Radiation levels decreasing. Critical radiation levels holding at 4 minutes 22 seconds until breach of containment suits. Advise all personnel vacate engine room until radiation has been eliminated. Current estimated time: 23 hours and 46 minutes until radiation is cleared.
Like a sprawling flying squirrel, Finely latches onto the wall at the valves and HEEEEAAAAAVVVVVVEEEEEES! And then grunts and pants and HHHHHHHEEEEEEAAAAAAVVVVVVEEEES! Again. "Goddamnit!" She re-situates herself and pauses, listening to the AI and looks back at Zelazny as she plants her feet to try and go for it once more.
"Hoold on there, Doctor Lady Person!" Zelazny calls out, having turned his head around to look at how the others are doing, "I'm coming!" he then turns around and, full of confidence (because he's always that), he just shoves off from the wall, managing quite a good aim towards Finley and her troublesome valve!
With Zel and Fin working together, the third valve releases with a WHOOSH and they manage to get the crank opened wide. Meanwhile, with another push, Nikolai's valve also goes from a stutter to a WHOOSH.
~Radiation level decreasing. Time until safe radiation levels achieved: 6 hours 34 minutes.~
Finley clings to the valve wheel and looks up at Zelazny, nodding and panting a bit. "Good," she says. "Good." She seems to be trying to reassure herself. "Now we patch the leak?"
"There we go!" Zelazny calls out, "And now we ... wait, what? Six hours?" he spins around in his suit as if looking for the nearest speaker that the AI voice comes from, "Six hours?! That.. thats not good! Thats way to long! Any way to make it go .. quicker?" ~6 hours, 33 minutes until safe radiation levels are achieved. 58 minutes until radiation levels are within safe parameters for use of containment suit without risking containment to personnel.~
Nikolai looks up during the entire turning and what not he was speaking loudly in russian... and yes obviously swearing... wouldn't even kiss Baba Yaga with that mouth. "How long would a suit be able to sustain within current radiation including rate of depletion?"
~1 hour, 57 minutes~
Nikolai looks again up "How long would aproximately sealing the leak take by a.... sufficient... technician"
"58 minutes? Well, next time you might want to lead with that you babbling heap of circuits!" Zelazny looks to Nikolai, "Well, thats another good question!" he looks towards the way for the engine room, "58 minutes.. anyone have a deck of cards?" he wonders. He then silences, "Wait, what? 58 minutes, 1 hour 57 minutes.. which is it?" he clears his throat, "Well, does not matter. 58 minutes, then I go. Gotta get the engines up and running as soon as possible! Before we all asphyxiate!"
Finley nods, again, to Zelazny. Surely this engineer is sufficient!
Estimated time for repair, ~1 hour, 12 minutes~
And, because her player is on the Struggle Bus today, Finley adds, "I'll go with you. I can help. Just tell me what to do!" Hopefully, the character's more useful than the player or we may be in for it!
Nikolai looks up "Estimated breathable air left in time?"
Each of your containment suits would pop up a display with the current amount of air you have left, based on your current oxygen use and levels of exertion. You each have about 4 hours of oxygen left in your suits, give or take, as long as you don't overexert yourself or damage your suit.
Nikolai looks between them "We wait till it is safe with suits... then you go in and fix it.. we still have two hours give or take of buffer... no need to extra risk.." Zelazny gives a quick nod to this, "You.. got it!" he grins, "Hey, we've got several hour..s.. to spare! We'll make this happen." he pauses, "Oooh, wait. Uh, Infinity? Do we have any way to focus the life support to just this room and, perhaps, engineering? Might give us a bit longer time? Or is that out of the question because of your compromised systems?" he nods once to Finley, "Oh, once we get in there I might need you both." ~Infinity life support systems are operating within acceptable parameters. Personnel in engineering should maintain their containment suits until radiation levels have normalized.
Hurry up and wait never did sit well with Finley, but she had no other choice at the moment, it seemed. She begins to fidget.
Nikolai looks up "Infinity are there other systems that we can repair or connect while we wait?"
~Which systems would you like to connect to? All ship systems are functioning at less than optimal levels.~
Nikolai sighs "Which would further aid your functionality, the ships functionality, or aid in further repairs?"
~Life support systems are currently adequate for current personnel levels. Flight controls are completely offline but are not critical until engines can be restored. Ship wide communications have been restored to all major area, but personal communication systems are still offline. Weapons systems are completely offline. Navigation systems are functional... but systems cannot determine current location. No known star is within range to navigate by.~
"Well, you tackle the AI flyboy!" Zelazny calls out to Nikolai, "Meanwhile, I will brush up on my techmanuals because.." he lifts up the looted scanner with its attached datapad, "..because.. hells! The manuals are incomplete!" he mutters, "Well, gotta do with what I have." he floats away a bit and begins to read once he has his back secure to a wall.
There is only so much fidgeting one can do! Finley nibbles on her lower lip and looks over at Nik, then Zelazny, but manages to curb the urge to pester either one of them. Instead, she begins to roam down the halls a bit, in search of... Clues... Evidence... Anything! Nikolai looks to Zel "I am not a fly boy, I am an computer and artificial intelligence specialist!"
TO BE CONTINUED...
