I Thought That Was A Weird Sound
26 Jul 2021Ambratwhurst
I've been working for Ida in the past month or two. We fixed up everything and were enjoying a well earned week off. Sadly to haul for Ida is akin to a sisyphean task; when you get that boulder to the top of the hill, you get but a moments rest before it begins to roll down the other side.
Which isn't to say the work is torment. It's just never done.
A new wave of station attacks, not as large of a scale thankfully, but still...
Ieyasu Dock - Pleiades Sector PD-S b4-0
Nothing unusual about the system. It hasn't even been given a memorable name. Naturally I figured this repair mission wouldn't be memorable either.
I was wrong.
The Catherine Wheel, my type-9, was just about to enter the jump-point when a sound roared, emanating from what seemed to be just outside her hull. The sound was somewhere between the dragging of a classroom table and a blast of an air-horn, but not as tame as that sounds. I've heard this sound before, but not often; Finity's End, my old keelback had let out that sound once before encountering a minute error jumping to Maia. But unlike that time, no error messages or warnings appeared on my screen, and in all honesty I didn't feel like walking the 2 kilometers to the drive chamber; I was close to the cargo carrier anyways.
That will teach me.
I exited skip space at the carrier and landed Catherine Wheel no problem. I stepped into the dock master's office, told him i was here to pick up the repairs materials. I also asked him to send someone to check on the FSD. Just in case.
By the time she was loaded up, the inspection showed now damage to her FSD. By this point, i was half convinced the sound was my FSS scanner going off because i bumped it or something. So i lifted off and headed for Ieyasu Dock.
No problems, at least none I noticed. The FSD seemed slow to charge, but then again, it always seems slow. I dropped off my cargo and turned back to the carrier.
3 seconds into super-cruise, the last vestiges of the tunnel still slightly visible and the Catherine Wheel dropped out of super-cruise.
"It's Fine" I thought. "It's a Lakon". Lakon's are tough ships but they have a few bugs, sometimes all you need to do is a reboot. I settled back into my seat, increased thrusters, and engaged the FSD.
Nothing.
No warning, no g-force, no tunnel, no sound. Nothing.
So I'm stuck. Not physically, but all I have is thrusters and the gravity of nearby planets... 12Ls out from a station that has reduced port services...
A station filled with construction workers, engineers, mechanics. Not one able or willing to take the time and help a ship that's bringing them critical repair materials. might I add at a reduced cost.
I'm not mad about the money, I'm just saying you'd think they'd be grateful enough to afford one mechanic to repair a volunteer emergency vessel.
Whatever. They were too far out anyways. I'm better off fixing it myself.
I grabbed my tools and headed off to the drive chamber.
The Vacuum chamber had ruptured. a shard of the chamber nicked a coolant line. Trying to reengage super-cruise that last time sprayed what was left of the coolant all over the room. Must have had a faulty sensor, otherwise the vacuum leak would have been detected.
All in all, I knew it wouldn't be a difficult fix, Lakons are built to be fixed easily; but without a full crew or even a gunner and copilot it would take some time.
The vacuum chamber was completely destroyed. I had to scrap all three of my pulse lasers for a replacement. Way to small, and week to make a jump but it might get me into super-cruise. why do pulse lasers even have vacuum chambers?
I then spent what feels like 6 hours impatiently trying to siphon coolant from various modules. The FSD on the T-9 gets real hot fast.
Repairs done I slowly throttled up and low waked it to the carrier. The mechanics made quick work patching everything up when i got there, but by that point station repairs were all but done. On the bright side, the drive should hold out for another thousand light years or two.
I think I'll stay in this sector for a while, there's been news of Thargoid attacks in another nearby system. Looks like we'll have another repair job soon.