IC - 6 - Back to Engineering - Sam

[Mephistophilis]

Day 1
11th March 2189
19:00 Earth Central European Time
Barnard's Rest Colony, Titan

Sam and Moses arrive back in the Engineering Facility. It is even more chaotic than the last time they were here. There is an atmosphere of palpable tension. Towards the centre of the open space Sam can see Chief Engineer Arnold White hobbling about, directing a number of technicians and scientists including Mike who they met earlier. A number of rotating red flashing lights are accompanied by blaring klaxons and sirens.

'This doesn't look good' says Moses.

[Mr. Handy]

"We're here to help," says Sam, getting out her tools. "What's the situation?"

[Mephistophilis]

Chief White looks up at Sam and Moses, 'Who the hell are you?' he asks impatiently.

Before they can answer he continues 'Shit, it doesn't matter anyway, we have a situation here, if you think you can help realign the conductors from the wind turbines stay here with me. Mike there is trying to fix a fault in the emergency generator.'

Moses points to the power loader where one of the technicians is struggling to strap herself in, 'If you need someone to drive one of those I'm your man.'

[Mr. Handy]

"I'm Samantha Golightly, engineer," says Sam, joining Chief White. "The company sent us. I was one of the ones who found you outside and saved your life."

[Mephistophilis]

White looks embarrassed and struggles to say something clearly, eventually he manages to mumble 'Thank you.'

He quickly regains his composure. 'Right. Here's the situation, the colony receives its power from wind turbines mounted on pylons in the upper atmosphere, he shows Sam a schematic on his datapad. 'We can't use microwave or laser transmission due to the opacity of the atmosphere so physical power conduits run down to the surface, helped by the low gravity.

White shows another schematic, 'The tremor has caused the station to shift and torqued the conduit, misaligning transmission. There are two independent cables running down the pylons from each turbine, we need to reroute power to the auxiliary pathway or reconfigure the primary conduit. Either way we will need to reinitialise the output grid for each turbine.

He looks to Sam, 'You think you can do that for these?' and he points to several turbines. 'Oh, and by the way, we've been locked out of CENTRAL so you'll need to do all this manually.'

OOC,San is going to need to make an Electrical Repair roll to figure out what she needs to do to try and get some of the turbine power conduits online. Feel free to make up some technical mumbo jumbo to explain it

While Sam contemplates how she is going to reconfigure the whole energy output grid from several turbines using only her datapad she watches Moses clambering into a power loader, he looks remarkably cheerful given the circumstances.

[Mr. Handy]

The grid is unfamiliar to Sam, but she soon acclimates herself to the system. "If we reverse the polarity of the magnetron, we can redirect the electron flow via the auxiliary pathway and bypass the conduit entirely," she says as she works on her datapad.

OOC,Electrical Repair roll (50% skill) to understand how to reconfigure the energy grid: [dice]0[/dice] I'll spend 7 Luck to succeed.

[Mephistophilis]

After several minutes of trial and error Sam has figured out how to redirect the power from the turbines. After starting the reinitialisation sequence on her turbines she shows her solution to Chief White. 'Ah, good idea, good idea, bypassing the conduit.' After White has shows Sam's approach to the other engineers they set to work and before long he says 'Okay, they're all reconfigured, we just have to wait half an hour for them to reinitialise.'

On the far side of the room Sam can see Moses thumping about in the power lifter. He seems to be hefting great metal canisters into openings in the wall. 'Just tell me where to put them'. Mike and some of the other technicians have a panel off the wall and they are busy inside with various tools, 'I think we've found the problem Chief, fuel rods have become decoupled, should be able to realign them.'

Keeper rolls,Electrical Repair 60%[dice]0[/dice], Operate Heavy Machinery 50% [dice]1[/dice], Mechanical Repair 50% [dice]2[/dice]

[Mr. Handy]

"Thanks, Chief," says Sam, rubbing her hands. "Do you remember what happened out there?"

[Mephistophilis]

White holds up his hands, 'I was sealing a leak in the pipeline out by Station 1. My radio went, it was blaring static, then...I dunno...a few minutes later maybe, blam, something crashes into my helmet, great big crack appears in the visor and then black. That's all I remember.' He shakes his head, 'The Doctor said something about ARM tracks but I don't remember anything about that. I'm very lucky to be alive. Thank you. I've been working out here for a long time and that's the closest I've come.'

[Mr. Handy]

"You're welcome," says Sam. "It could happen to anyone. I took a tumble myself when I went to rescue you. Luckily for both of us, my suit wasn't breached."

[Mephistophilis]

White nods, 'Aye, you don't get long on Titan to seal a suit breach. I'm lucky you were there.'

[Mr. Handy]

"Do you know Sergeant Montrose well?" asks Sam.

[Mephistophilis]

White shrugs, 'I wouldn't say we're best buddies but we've both been out here a while. He's a...complicated man, has a few demons of his own, if you know what I mean. Come to think of it I haven't seen him for a while, why do you ask?'

[Mr. Handy]

"He's locked himself in his quarters, apparently with a shotgun," says Sam. "I just came from there when the emergency happened. There's a Colonial Marshal with our group who knows him, and she's trying to talk him down. A couple of my other colleagues are helping her."

[Mephistophilis]

'Shit!' he laughs. 'I wouldn't like to be facing Montrose armed with a shotgun, even if it is just one of those riot guns from the security centre.' He looks more thoughtful, 'I wonder what's happened to him to go all crazy like that? And he's not the first one either, you heard about Dr Holzer? Real shame, he was a good man.'

[Mr. Handy]

"Yeah, that's part of why we came here," says Sam. "My job is to look into the reported inefficiencies, but there's been much more for me to do. I'm not sure what happened to Montrose to make him this way. It does sound oddly like what happened to Holzer. There was some weird stuff he wrote found in his quarters. Has anyone else been acting strange?"

[Mephistophilis]

White looks uncomfortable, 'Not strange as such, some of the miners working over at Pumping Station 4 have complained of odd dreams, but that's about it.'

[Mr. Handy]

"Dr. Holzer was having strange dreams too," says Sam. "Maybe Montrose as well. It seems to be contagious."

[Mephistophilis]

'Well space madness is more common than you'd think,' says White. 'This far out in the solar system, surrounded by a hostile atmosphere, crammed into these little tin cans with a bunch of other inadequates. A lot of people crack.'

[Mr. Handy]

"I've seen space madness before," says Sam, "but it affects everyone differently. I've never heard of a group of people all experiencing the exact same delusions. Dr. Holzer, in his writings, said that some of the men found religion, and they used the same bizarre words he did. He wondered if they were hearing the same voice he was."