I'm crashing. Well, maybe I'm not crashing...?
Yet, I'm not on the ship anymore, at least not in it's entirety. Came out of jump near the near the Speaker construct, if you consider a million light years close; never even got to see it. Dropped out of jump, and before I could even get the first reading or look out a window, alarms were going off. It wasn't just one system alerting. It was every single alerting system, all screaming at once. Alarms and alerts and everything going red. There wasn't a single reading in the green, or even just a warning yellow.
My cyber-connection to the Viteză Furie was overloaded. Were it not for the fact that I had integrated one of the AIs into the Viteză Furie systems, the volume would have blown out the connection. As it was, even the AI, Orrk, working in concert with the Viteză Furie's systems, and my own efforts, it was a near thing. Filtering through all the alerts, triaging, and dealing with everything critical first. Got the fusion plants shut down before they went critical, activated the backup power systems, and just tried to keep the ship intact.
By the time we as a team, Orrk, the Viteză Furie, and I, got a handle on things, and confirmed that the ship had not simply exploded. We were tumbling, without power and nothing was responding.
Jump space. That's what the techs called it when I was being trained all those years ago. Almost twenty years ago by my own clock. Jump space, or Arc space as I have come to call it. That strange and beautiful tunnel through some other space that let me bypass absolutely absurd distances in normal space. I have monitored my passage in and out of Arc Space, using my ever improving monitor satellites. It is a thing very similar to the spacial anomalies I observed at the Nebula Universe. A hole opened up in space, through which the Viteză Furie slips into that other space, into Arc Space. A space that pushes you out if you are not going fast enough. Not even CT was completely sure what Arc Space is.
I have a number of drive systems that work in similar ways now, salvaged from the wrecks I explored on the original Speaker, or built using information obtained from them. The original drive system that the Arc Drive system was supposed to replace uses other spaces. They are all just a way around the almost insurmountable distances between stars, between universes, and across the void as I have been traveling. It would take longer than most universes live, I think, to travel, between two typically spaced universes at light speed. To get to a nearby star, you need to go faster than light to make the trip useful and not one-way. If you want to cross the void, you been to be going so much faster.
I was honestly not looking when it happened. I have made the jump back to normal space so many times without incident, and the recorders are there to help if I miss anything in those first few moments. Honestly... If something were to happen in the first few seconds, there is nothing I could likely do. No reaction that would save us. We are just moving too fast when we exit jump.
Now... I rather wish I was watching. I was instead watching the readings, because there had been some anomalies recorded in the last few jumps, both in and out of Arc Space. I wanted to see if I could pinpoint exactly where the issues were. Diagnostics had not revealed anything, so I suspected something like the micro-fissures that disabled the ET/EC comm unit for so long.
Alarms, alerts, klaxons, all screaming. We managed to keep the ship together, restore basic power, and stabilize so it wasn't tumbling. At that point I was taking stock of things, and marveling at what was once the Speaker construct. Next thing I know, I'm waking up in the Lounge module, strapped down on the couch; the Viteză Furie having separated into it's individual modules. The AI's were keeping the modules, with the help of Arl, Jen, Liss, and Edix, in a formation and in contact with each other.
My friends, my companions, because they really are not and never were pets, working with the AI's moved me to the lounge. Each taking a module and somehow managing to keep things running. They got the flight systems for each module operational and were piloting them, with the AIs help and instructions.
I know why they moved me to the lounge. With the exception of Engineering, it has the thickest shielding, and was closest to the Control module, being the next in the chain of four.
Not sure if I I explained the module lay out. Helps as a reminder in preparing for the eventual re-connection of the modules. They don't have to be hooked together in this order, but this is what makes sense. Control, Lounge, Engineering, and Drives. Control has the cockpit, secondary storage, primary airlock, and primary armory. That is the module Arl is in with Orrk. Though I was initially worried as I came awake and reconnected to the ship. The windows in the cockpit were blown out, exposing it to space. It's a good thing we can all withstand to be exposed to space without too much risk. Still, whatever caused the windows to blow out, knocked me out.
I haven't searched the logs yet. Still worrying about other things. I really hope Arl is going to be okay. They got the shields working to replace the blown out windows, but all the readings are weird.
Jen and Edix are with me in the Lounge module, which also has the secondary lab, Medical room, half the living quarters, and main storage. The secondary armory is also in that module, along with a small vehicle airlock and vehicle printer. Funny. Only discovered the vehicle airlock and printer a few weeks ago. I'm always learning new things about the Viteză Furie.
Liss was in the Engineering module working with Max. Engineering housing the rest of the living quarters, storage, the garage, and heavy weapons armory. Edix was doing their best to pilot the Drive module by remote, and has honestly done a great job working with the Drive AI, Hath. While Jen worked with Mel, the Lounge module AI, to keep the Lounge module stable and in formation.
What I can guess happened is that we came out of jump and hit shock-waves from the destruction of the Speaker Construct. As with the first one, it was powered by a contained universe birth scar. It's destruction released that contained scar, and all the energy that had been siphoned off of it. At least that is what I think happened, based on what I saw before everything went to hell.
From what Edix, Jen, and Mel have explained. The ship slammed directly into a tendril of the spacial rupture, which is when the windows got blown out. They moved me to the lounge, while the others worked with the AIs to try and stabilize the ship. What they describe sounds like the ship experiencing the structural stress of a continuous jump. Not the pre or post jump, but the actual jump itself as you pass between one space and the other. Only, it lasted about a day.
The stress that put on the ship was immense. Once it stopped, and the ship was in what looked like space again, the stresses were still trying to tear the ship apart, and it was tumbling again. It was different stresses, but no less threatening to destroy the ship.
They initiated the Module separation because that would force a stabilization of the ship before the modules could separate. The figured they would just reconnect after things were stable. It didn't work, and while they have been able to pilot the modules, and keep in communication, it has been a near thing.
What they have managed to do is nothing short of miraculous. If I had not decided to add and integrate the additional AIs on our last stop over, as well as giving my companions training in how to operate the ship, it would have not gone so well. That the modules are individually intact is a testament to that.
I have not taken over anything accept monitoring. They are doing a fantastic job and have the communication down. Interfering would likely cause us to lose one of the modules, probably drives, or worse, have a collision. They have some directional control and it is taking all of that just to keep the modules from flying apart or smashing into each other. The path through this space, is hard to know. This is not our space, and the weird readings and behavior of some systems are a testament to that. Beyond the windows, it look like we are passing through viscus ink. There are swirls and patterns in it. We are moving, and quickly, but our control over where we are going is limited, and to know where we are going... Completely non-existent.
So are we crashing? I don't know for sure. But yeah... We might not be running into anything, but until we have full control back, can re-dock the modules together, and have not slammed into anything. I'm going to say that yes, we are crashing. We have not yet crashed, but we are, crashing.
Why 124? Because, for the same reasons that it has proven difficult to maintain communications. Were it not for the ET/EC units in each module, communication would have been lost. There is something about this space we are in that is different, and I don't currently have a way to test it. Thus, it took three tries to get the system to save anything, because of the weird effects of whatever space we currently find ourselves in.
It is almost as if patches of it are sufficiently different from out normal space that things don't quite work right, and that is making keeping the modules in contact with each other, and from flying apart or colliding, quite the task for my companions. They are proving themselves to be up to the task.
I am very proud of them all. Well, back to crashing. There is a lot to do before we actually crash.
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