Crew Log 03.18.3305
19 Mar 2019Tralhar
The Commander offered me a chair in his exploration mission. Said it was intended to be a solo journey, but I asked to tag along, get some more familiarity with a ship larger than the small fighter I pilot for him. I do like this Krait Phantom. That is irrelevant though.Today, roughly three hours ago, we had a sensor alignment issue. A physical misalignment issue. We found an Earth-like world out here in the Formidine Rift and the Commander came in close to both map it and collect some various samples. I don't know what they were - I'm not the scientist type. Anyway, we dropped out of supercruise at just the wrong time, and we both heard the sound of straining metal, like the hull when gliding toward the surface of a planet, but we were well out of range of the atmosphere.
The Commander cut the engines completely and told me to stay in the ship, like I really had anywhere to go. He made his way toward the stern compartments of the ship, the airlock and escape pods. He donned the HE Suit he keeps back there and entered the airlock. The radio was silent, no communication from him at all. The only sound I heard over my tinnitus was the dull hum of the reactor idling about. That, and the beeping of the ship's computers. 'Scanner Error' over and over again.
I grew bored. This ship is fairly big, but not when compared to his Corvette, so I have no idea what he was doing. I moved to the helm for a better view out the canopy. The planet was beautiful - the sun cresting over the horizon, clouds and oceans shining through the atmosphere, the green on the planet's surface looked so inviting. The beauty was cut fairly short by something I never though I'd see in my life - the Commander climbing the starboard-bow's antenna relay. This man, I swear. It looked like he was climbing a horizontal ladder. He looked at me from the end of it and I heard his voice on the radio,
"That's my chair. But since you're there, I need you to do me a favor."
I glanced around for a transmit button, hoping to not hit anything that would kill him. Thrusters were all offline, and there are no hardpoints on this particular vessel at this time. After some time, I found it and replied. "No favors - only tasks and assignments, sir."
I heard a scoff with his reply, "open the modules panel, your gloves should work. It is the screen to your right. Find modules and select sensors."
It was strange, that he'd ask someone who had barely worked with him for a month to help with something like this on his ship. I guess I made a good impression.
"There is a diagnostics tab and adjustments tab," he started, "find those. Tell me when you're there."
I gave him a thumbs up through the glass.
"My hands are clear, tap on 'center receiver'."
It didn't do anything. I even told him that. "Nothing changed. No additional warnings, no sounds, no verification - nothing."
"Okay, that's fine." He seemed incredibly calm for being outside the ship so far away from home. "Try 'Perform Calibration'. That should get us somewhere."
I flipped through the panel, looking through the diagnostic commands. Eventually, I found it. I hit it and a progress bar came up. His voice came through the radio, "I've got vibrations, can you hear anything in the ship? No motion out here."
I listened past the constant screeching of my ears... the warning shut off, but otherwise nothing. No movement of any sort, no buzzing, grinding, clicking, anything. "Negative. No abnormal noises in here."
He was quiet for a minute. The progress bar filled and came up red - unable to calibrate. I relayed that to him.
"Good, it's a start. Keep your hands clear for a second."
I showed him my hands and rest them on my lap, watching him as he wrestled with the dish. Something popped. The dish managed to straighten out. He came back on the radio, "run the calibration again."
"WilCo." I replied, moving to restart the sequence. Following the same path as last time, the calibration started, the progress bar went faster, I heard whirring and a couple clicks from motors reverberating though the hull. Progress ended and came back green - perform device centering. "Good news, Commander, calibration successful. Watch your hands."
He climbed back toward the hull of the ship, getting out of my sight before I heard him again, "Green light for centering."
I hit 'center' and was able to watch the dish move along its x and y axis before returning to the dead-center of its range. "It... looks good from here, Commander. Come on in."
A few minutes later, the airlock cycled and the Commander returned. I moved back to my co-pilot seat and he took the helm with a sigh - flipping a few switches, cycling through the modules panel and such. The drives spun up again, thrusters came to life and he smirked before patting the dashboard of the ship. He thanked me, kinda. The planet came up with the mapping grid before he fired four probes. They did their thing, map data was collected as were some samples. He plotted our new route and hit the Frame Shift Drive. Just like that, we were on our way.