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Showing posts from November 15, 2009

Chapter 4 – The Rapid Restart

“James, Time to wake up. Your alert criteria have been met!” Great, just enough time to not feel rested and it is time to get up. Isn't that always the way? “Computer, I am awake.” Grabbing the H2IK manual, I flip over to the reactor restart section. The restarting of the fusion reactor is a very power hungry process. It can take all of the power in the cells, though in the tests there was always at least one cell still charged at the end of the cycle. You will need to be in your suit and on internal life support. I put my helmet back on and secure it to the suit collar. Reaching down I turn the full pack on from standby. Tell the computer to switch to backup power. This will require the override code: Charley Zero Nine. Once that is done tell the computer to begin Reset Protocol Alpha One. “Computer. Command. Switch to backup power, Override Code: Charley Zero Nine” I hear the Command and Control circuit breakers click over to the Battery Bus as the computer responds “Done....

Chapter 3 – Graceful Recovery

I sit and watch the power cells charge and the diagnostic run. So far the computer has asked that Life Support, Navigation and Communication to be switched to the main bus. The Power Cells are charging nicely, even with the increased load. There are only three more to go before the Battery system begins charging. Life support checks out so I can remove my helmet and turn off the suit pack. I decided to swap them out and leave the second one on standby while the original pack is being recharged. That way if I have to take life support off-line I will have a full pack to run on while I'm working. With Navigation on-line, the computer begins an analysis of the star patterns in the sky to figure out where in space the ship actually is located. Communications began a scan of all normal channels looking for any signals right after it was activated. With the computer now doing diagnostics and the power sub-system charging, there is not much to do, so I turn my attention back to the...