Elle found herself in a tight metal corridor. All her muscles were stiff from sitting through her last 8-hour shift, and she stretched again, sighing.  Her shift was finally over, though, and there were 16 beautiful hours of freedom before she would have to strap into the Nav chair again.
 
    Just then, the shipwide speakers crackled briefly, then began to issue a synthesized feminine voice.
 
     “180 degree turnover maneuver to begin shortly. Please prepare for zero gravity.”
 
    It was the computer, announcing that it was about to start the maneuvering necessary for the deceleration that would take up the remainder of the voyage.Tech notes  Far below her, the sound of the Walterium reactor dwindled, then faded altogether.
 
    Her hair rose around her like wispy snakes as the artificial gravity produced by the ship’s forward acceleration ceased.  Several minutes passed as she floated serenely in the crew tube.  She loved the serenity of the ship during midpoint, with neither the churning of the reactor nor 1.25 gravities weighing her down. Then, with a slight bump and low pitched rumble, the throb of the main engine started up again.
 
    She sank slowly to the floor as the ship cut in thrust. 
 
    As soon as she landed, however, she noticed that her balance was off,  as if she was standing on slanted ground.

    Elle’s eyebrows raised. That shouldn’t be happening. Normally, when the ship was under way, any  gravity produced by thrust would be focused directly down. This seemed to be going slightly horizontally.  Something was definitely not right. As 1st Nav it was her responsibility to do whatever she could to set it right. She didn’t trust Gregory much either.  She headed quickly towards the door.  She could now actually feel the horizontal gravity’s force accumulating, it was work to walk along the corridor..
 
     Suddenly, with a lurch and a shuddering groan the ship was struck by severe cavitiations. Already unbalanced by the unusual gravity, Elle lost her footing and slammed to the floor, sliding across the corrugated surface. With a cry she threw her arms up, just before she slammed up against a wall. Her head struck the steel of the airlock doors and stars danced briefly across her vision.  
Squinting from the pain, Elle levered herself off the deck and started again, more carefully, to gain access to the bridge.  Just as she reached the bridge door, the ship convulsed again, almost sending her sliding back again.  

    She slapped the door open pad, but the steel double doors did not slide apart. The ship was in lockdown mode.Tech notes  

    Gritting her teeth, she popped open the emergency acess panel, and yanked on the yellow and red striped bar inside. There was a slight pause, and then a pronounced clunk as the MagLocks released. The doors hissed open.  

    She stumbled through the door, heading for the Nav chair.  The bridge was awash in warning lights and buzzers, flashing red strobes and a Synthesized voice saying “warning hull overstress warning hull overstress warning hull overstress warning” Over and over.  
      
     She spied Gregory in the Nav chair. He craned his neck to look at her.  Was he doing all this?  

    “What the hell are you doing?” She shouted at him.  

    “Nothing!! We’re in a powerslide! The engine won’t shut off!”  
   
    “What?” Elle whispered under her breath making her way slowly to the Nav chair. A powerslide was a combat maneuver, a turn while under main engine thrust. It created a huge amount of stress along the hull, and was only used by vessels a third the length of Gravlaw.  

     She reached the back of the Nav chair, holding tight to the headrest to keep her footing. Quickly she scanned the instruments. Greg was right. The ship was in a wild, corkscrewing, unchecked turn, rotating quickly enough to create it’s own gravity using centrifugal force. None of the maneuvering thrusters were engaged, meaning that whatever was affecting the turn had nothing to do with the maneuvering systems. The only operating engine was the Reactor. She quickly checked the readout.  It was turned down to neutral, but it was quite obvious that the engine was operating at or near full power.  So the bridge connection to the engine had failed somehow?   
       
     That left two options. There was a secondary, emergency control station located farther aft. They could attempt to reach the station, but in all probability Gravlaw would shatter and spill it’s atmosphere and crew  before they got halfway there.  
   
    So there was really only one option left, which was to-  
   
    “Call engineering! Have them scram the engine!!” 
   
    Greg hesitated only an instant before reaching for the Comm board. A few moments later his voice shouted out from the shipwide broadcasting system.  
   
    “Shut the engine down! Scram! Scram!”  
   
    Scramming the engine would certainly stop the acceleration, but they'd be drifting in space untill the engine could be reset. Under the circumstances, Elle thought, I don’t think anyone’d protest.  
   
    Just as she finished the thought, the Engine blew out with a tremendous roar.  A sustained groan issued from the ship’s hull as the metal unburdened itself of stress.
 
    They had stopped the acceleration of the spin, but not the spin itself, or the centrifugal gravity. Greg immediately activated the fore and aft thrusters, slowly counteracting the spin.  The horizontal gravity caused by the spin diminished, then finally disappeared altogether. The interior of the ship was again at zero G.

<<Go to next part of story>>

back to main
<Back to Main>