“Yes?” The engineering tech looked up.
“Go with Layne to Engineering,” Herzer said, looking into the distance. “Stop the burn.”
“That’s a tall order, Herzer,” Linda said. “The controls are…”
“Just stop it,” Herzer snapped. “We do not want the ship heading anywhere near Earth, okay? Bad things can happen. You’ve got about thirty minutes to stop it. After that, things get bad. Just go.”
“Okay,” the redhead said, frowning. “I’ll go.”
“And try to avoid orcs,” Herzer said, looking over at Layne, who was already putting his helmet on.
“Will do,” the Blood Lord said. “And scorpions. And maddened elves…”
“Linda,” Geo said, smiling. “Throw the main power breakers on the left-hand panel—”
“I know how to turn off the engine, Geo,” Linda said. “I just don’t know how to keep them from turning it back on. The breakers are set for remote reset.”
“When they’re locked down, pull the primary power buss,” Geo continued. “That means even if they try to reset, the safeties will prevent it. And if they override the safeties, they still won’t have power. The safeties aren’t going to let them reset for a minimum of five minutes. That’s how long you have to fully disengage the busses.”
“That’s not going to be easy, is my point,” Linda said, donning her helmet. “But I’ll do my best. But when we start screwing with the engines, they’re going to react.”
“Cross that bridge when we come to it,” Herzer said. “Just get going.”
“Nicole.”
“What?” Nicole asked tightly. She was really not enjoying climbing around on the outside of the ship. She kept feeling like her suit, which had to have taken some damage in the shuttle’s engine room, was going to fail at any second. And they were in direct sunlight so the icepacks were getting a workout. The sun was to starboard of the ship and they were passing over the first support ring from starboard to port. As soon as they were over the “meridian” they’d start cooling off and the icepacks would be turned back into ice as the thermal controls sucked heat out of them for the system.
“We need to get the inner blast doors closed,” Herzer said. “The primary door node is on the upper section of the forward structural member, under the upper crew quarters. Can you find airlock nine?”
“I think so,” Nicole said. They had been climbing over the forward structural member, to steer clear of the midline member and the control section. Hopefully the orcs and scorpions were staying close to Control.
“Enter airlock nine, go to the crew quarters. There’s an access hatch to the control nodes on the floor towards the port side. Number twenty-eight. Lock down all the doors and pull the control assembly and destroy it. We’ll keep the bots from repairing it from here. Once you’re done, get out of the area. Reyes will probably react.”
“Will do,” Nicole said, sighing. “You hear that, Josten?”
“I heard it,” Josten replied resignedly. “I don’t know diddly about door controls, though.”
“Well, you’re about to learn,” Nicole said. “And at least it will get us out of the sun. Come on, I think the airlock is to our left…”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Layne looked around the immense engine room in wonder, then over at the slight engineer he was accompanying.
“Do you have any idea what all this does?” he asked unsurely.
“Yeah,” Linda replied. “I even know how it all works.”
The engine room was the largest open area on the ship. The ceiling was nearly fifty meters high and thigh-thick power busses reached up both sides to the four ion cannons of the main drive. Midline were six large cylinders, the primary fusion reactors that drove both the lateral plasma thrusters and the primary ion drive. Near the port bulkhead was a smaller fusion generator for internal power.
On the forward bulkhead was a large breaker assembly. The breakers were vacuum-filled and remotely operated from a control panel aft of the breaker assembly. Running out from the assembly were the six primary power shunts, large room-temperature superconductor buss-bars that carried the main load to the primary power distributors.
“Six breakers,” Linda said as they approached the breaker assembly. The breaker controls were large buttons, hand-sized, covered by shields with red and green readouts over them. Currently, they were all showing green. “Those big bars,” she said, pointing to the six primary power busses, “carry the power from the breakers to the distributor system. I’ve got to shut down the power then remove each of those buss-link bars.”
Each of the bars was about two meters long and a quarter meter square, connected to the breaker assembly at one end and the distributor assembly at the other by a hinged assembly closed with large mag-bolts. There was about a meter’s separation between each of the bars. The entire assembly was surrounded by a yellow plastic mesh cage just about covered in warning signs. Layne looked at them and shook his head.
“I don’t think you can lift one of those, can you?”
“No,” Linda admitted. “So this is how we’re going to do it. You’re going to shut down the breakers, starting with six and working to one. I’ll pull the bolts. When you’ve got all six shut down, you start helping me lift out the buss bars. We’ve got five minutes, maybe a smidgeon more, to get it all done. After five minutes, they can turn the power back on. When it’s coming back on, there’s a siren. When the siren goes off, we have fifteen seconds to get clear. If you’re near one of those things when it goes hot, you won’t survive the experience. Clear?”
“Clear,” Layne said. “I’m going to take the chance on losing pressure and take off my helmet. I don’t want anything getting in the way.”
“Same here,” Linda said, undoing the buckles and unsealing the helmet. She set it on the deck and looked around. “There’s supposed to be a big mag wrench on the forward bulkhead. You get used to the controls while I go find the wrench.”
Each of the buttons had a label under it, a metal plate with worn writing. The numbers were really the only thing that was clear. It was the first sign of age Layne had noticed on the ship but it was apparent that nobody had bothered to fix the labels in some time, possibly centuries. He worked his fingers nervously until Linda came back with a large wrench over her shoulder and a box in her hand.
“These things weigh a ton,” the girl said bitterly. “I ought to get Herzer down here doing this.”
“He’s got other things on his mind,” Layne noted. “What’s the box?”
“High voltage hot-stick tester,” Linda said, hitting a control and extending a very long probe. “I’m not going near those things until I’m sure they’re dead cold.”
“So, you ready?” Layne asked, nervously.
“Yeah,” Linda said, setting the wrench down and opening up the door to the safety cage. “Hit number six.”
“Great One,” the goblin pilot Reefic said, waving his arms in excitement. “Power to the starboard thrusters lost has been!”
“How?” Reyes asked, sitting up in his station chair and looking at the incomprehensible readouts.
“The main breakers are bein’ reset,” Gomblick replied. The kobold engineer’s words were nearly incomprehensible since kobolds all had a thick accent. “There’s someone a muckin’ wit’ the engines, Great One.”
“Tur-uck,” Reyes said, spinning around in his chair. “Take a team of orcs and scorpions to the engine room. And a kobold. Get the engines back on line.”