5 Apr 3308
06 Apr 2022Radia Daku
4:31:35 UTCSo, for those of you who are curious as to what happened to Leah the other night—here it is. Whenever something goes wrong on the Wayfarer, Leah and I are usually the first to respond if we’re present. We check to see if anyone is hurt, and if they are, that they get taken to the medical wing immediately; then survey the damage and confer with our engineers to see what repairs need to be made or what parts need to be fabricated. This is our protocol. In the three years that I’ve had this carrier, only two times has its hull been breached, this one included—and in the same place.
The first time was because some pirate had followed me to the carrier and tried to kill me when I’d docked. Of course, the automated defenses responded and turned him into popcorn, but not before he set his ship to ram into the bow of the carrier.
Well, when we got to the damaged section, we were under the assumption that the deck was completely depressurized. That was a really bad assumption, because the first door we opened inside the breached area blew Leah off her feet. This meant her suit wasn’t able to keep her planted to the floor, and she was pushed with such force that any contact she could make was brief.
I tried to chase after her, but of course, mag-con makes it hard to run. Luckily she managed to catch herself at the opening of the breach. Otherwise…
For those of you who don’t know, remlok suits have about three minutes of battery life in the vacuum of space and a minute of emergency oxygen. It would take about that long to get to any ship fast enough to catch her.
Needless to say, I’ve been a mess and my wife knows it. We’ve spent every minute after that scare together. I’m going to be adjusting our protocol to make sure this doesn’t happen again, and both of us have gotten a little bit of therapy from the carrier’s medical staff. They actually encouraged me to talk about this, get it off my chest—so there it is.
As for what I’d said earlier about reinforcing the first repair. Carriers should be able to withstand being hit by asteroids—it’s kind of hard to avoid if you’re in space long enough. According to the feed, this asteroid wasn’t much bigger than an Eagle. The person who oversaw the repairs from the pirate attack admitted that he’d “forgotten” to ensure that the section of hull was reinforced and not just covered up. You see—carriers have three layers of armor. The outer armor, made of grade four titanium plating, like all other ships. Under that is a composite-gel layer that acts as insulation from outside radiation and heat—keeps the inside of the ship nice and cool, even when you’re right next to a star. And finally, before you get to the inside wall of a room, you have about two inches of a dual layer made up of tungsten and steel. Normal ships just have the steel inner layer, which is why they’re so easily damaged.
When the breach was first repaired, they never replaced the tungsten layer, which means that section of the hull was very easily damaged. The man who oversaw this told me that, at the time, the plating we needed was too expensive so he put it off for last and eventually forgot about it. I’ve officially relieved him of his job, because not only did his “forgetfulness” cost is five lives, two of which had families back in the bubble, I nearly lost my wife and on top of that, now have to oversee the repairs myself. That last part is more a personal gripe than a problem.
Alright—I need to go ahead and wrap this entry up. I need to tell the families about what happened. I’ve already prepared about ten million credits to go to the families. It won’t bring their loved ones back, but at least it’s something.
7:14:05
I may have found a new activity that Leah’s not going to enjoy. Decided to test out some tweaks to my Artemis suit’s jetpack and I may have accidentally on purpose “wondered” into a nearby geyser. Launched me several hundred meters. I have to admit, it was fun. The jetpack proved to be enough to slow my descent enough to keep me alive, and my shields broke the rest of the fall.
On a completely unrelated note, I now need to visit a medic for a fractured tibia and a broken fibula.
8:47:40
Only a little bit more tritium to get to refill what I’ve used getting here. Once I’m done with this mining, I’ll have to head out for a few thousand light years ahead and find some waypoints to refill my reserves.
Leah—um—found out about my little trip to the moon. To say she was upset would be an understatement. The medical officer seemed to enjoy our little argument. It’s fine. We…made up. Many times.
She’s still angry with me.
0:47:25
Not much of an update. Leah and I have been discussing protocol changes and how to better manage hull breach incidents without risking more lives. Today hasn’t been very eventful.