Fwurg

[Shebi Ajava]

Ajava pays close attention as the cyborg operates the computer. However, Ajava, not feeling at home at all with computers, happily let Trigiel do the work here.

She made a mental list of what she knew about hyperspace engines, stellar navigation and spaceship design. Though this wasn't her field, her training at Crimson Academy had prepared her with at least basic knowledge of all those fields as they were deemed necessary for an effective fleet commander.

Thus, she quickly checked the navigation choices made by Trigiel, interrupting him with her concerns if she thinks he is making a mistake.

((Check: 10 = 7 Force Level + 3 Reason -- double-check Trigiel's navigation))

[Mercury]

((OOC: Thank you for taking many actions in a row. I did not want to spend 10 posts with you scrolling through a menu.))

After the crisis had been averted, the navigation computer was quite helpful - the ship was currently adrift in hyperspace, but still on course. The hyperdrive was currently in a state of failed activation due to insufficient power, but if it had power to the hyperdrive, it would eventually boost itself out back into normal space.

The exact place where it'd appear would be hard to predict - hopefully somewhere around the intended coordinates, but definitely at least somewhat off, and the more time delay, the bigger the odds of ending in the wrong spot.

Even so, from there though it'd be adrift, but at least it'd be adrift in normal space then.

The internal sensors in turn revealed that the ship had no less than ten Gamorreans on board - which didn't match the ship manifest which listed the mother and seven children. Apparently the woman had smuggled two more on board to save on travel expenses.

Speaking of saving on travel expenses, there was another notable feature in the passenger manifest: the tickets for Ajava and Trigiel hadn't been purchased by Quartermaster Nishra. Instead, they had been bought by someone named "BouncingBunny" who had apparently acted on Jedi authority even. Likely it was an account name rather than the actual name of the individual who purchased the tickets. Very cheaply, one might add.

The automated logs were full of warnings that it was way past the maintenance time of various components, that parts had to be replaced and general indications that the ship was about to (figuratively) come apart at the seams. The most important current ones appeared to be related to the power supply which was failing on several different levels. Most notably it wasn't able to provide enough power to the hyperdrive after three switching stations had exploded in a cascade failure.

Worse, the emergency beacon appeared to "require manual activation" which the A.I. explained required going outside of the ship and manually opening the hatch behind which it was set. Seriously, who designed an emergency beacon to be on the outside of the ship anyway!?

Could this situation get any worse...? Why yes: suddenly, Trigiel's worst fears became true.

"Self destruct sequence activated. Two minute count-down."

His first two calls to shut down the sequence seemed to be ignored as the timer kept ticking.

And to add insult to injury, the statement by the A.I. had also reached the passengers back in the cabin who now seemed to be ignoring the final piece of advise of the co-pilot and started to panic.

"WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!!" someone yelled.

[Fecta Trigiel]

"I hate it when I am right about the stupidness of a system when it means our doom. What now?" Trigiel had to think. If the self destruct wouldn't be deactivated from here, then it should be deactivated manually.

"We could of course turn of the power to stop the self-destruct mechanism, but I'm not sure that would do."

Panicking people in the cargo hall? Not important now. Location of the self-destruct? Two options: one central place, or a distributed set of charges. Most likely central location. Where? Engine room or power generator. Same place likely.

"Shebi, try using the computer to turn of the self destruct. I will make my way to the engine room to disable it manually. Do you have a headset?

If all fail, shut down the power, that might buy us time, and don't wait to long, the system is slow."

Trigiel flew ships before, so he followed his instinct to find the self destruct mechanism. Preferably he went through the cargo hold, they haven't been there and it was the most likely place with a way to the engine.

((Check: 15 = 6 Force Level + 4 Reason + 3 Mechanical Engineer + 2 Weapons Engineer -- To find the location of the self-destruct mechanism.))

[Shebi Ajava]

Putting on her headset, Ajava stepped in front of the console.

"I'll try. But there's a good chance that this won't work."

She first tried to use the console to disable the self-destruct. If that didn't seem to help, she has a look at the cargo manifest to determine if there is any equipment that might either help Trigiel to disable the self-destruct. If she finds anything useful, she quickly informs Trigiel of this through the headeset communicator.

((Check: 10 = 7 Force Level + 3 Reason -- Using the computer to disable the self-destruct, or find useful tools))

[Mercury]

Searching frantically through the ship, it was fortunate that Trigiel was quick with the mechanics, or they would have been in trouble. Locating the self-destruct to an engine component overload, Trigiel quickly ripped off the panel to access and dismantle the device. Inside, someone had actually welded a hand-hold to the central power buffer which was charging to blow up the ship. Attached to it was a note.

In case of accidental self-destruct, pull handle

It sure was kind of the engineers to mark it that way, but perhaps this problem could have been resolved more thoroughly at the last check-up.

With a rip, Trigiel pulled the hand-hold, a large DWWWWWVVVVVVvvvv... following as the entire ship seemed to power down. The lights went off, all engine sounds went quiet... except for the panicked passengers who were screaming that their lives had ended.

At least the self-destruct had been deactivated...

Just as the lights went out, Ajava found a reference to the 'repair' of the self-destruct mechanism, which had been neatly noted as "the cheap option". Figures...

[Shebi Ajava]

"Trigiel, what happens to ships in hyperspace that suddenly lose all power?", was all the cyborg received over the communicator.

[Fecta Trigiel]

"They should drop out of it. So now either we are dead or we are not. Look out the window and tell me what you see."

With no lights any more, Trigiel was so happy with his infra red vision. Now he could still see something and make his way around.

"Maybe we should tell the passengers that they are in Limbo, and if they behave nicely that these two gentle jedi will bring them back?"

He had to do: Bring power back online, bring ship to safe place in space, activate emergency beacon, and life support. Don't forget life support. Passengers like life support.

First the power. Trigiel checked first if putting the power buffer back would bring back the power. If that was the case, he checked if it would not re-activate the self-destruct. If that wouldn't work, he searched for another way to bring the power back on the ship.

Bypassing the power buffer would do, as long the power could go somewhere, like the hyperdrive of life support. The ship had power failures, so having no buffer wouldn't really a problem if there was no power to buffer anyway.

The problem was he had not any tools with him, other than the measure instruments, so his options were limited.

((Check: 13 = 6 Force Level + 4 Reason + 3 Mechanical Engineer -- For bringing the power back online.))

[Shebi Ajava]

Since they weren't dead yet, Ajava walks to a window to see whether they were still in hyperspace or not. She makes sure to check a few windows, so they have a general idea of things 'near' them.

After she informs Trigiel of her findings, she states: "Don't worry about anything but fixing the ship. Start with life support and emergency lighting. I'll handle the passengers. If you need extra power sources, just dismantle the speeders", her voice had a hard edge to it.


While determining her next steps, Ajava mentally curses herself for not bringing an envirosuit, and makes a mental note to express her dissatisfaction with the transportation company when she gets back to Unity.

She activates her lightsaber to have some light, and starts her way back to the passenger cabin.

"Calm down!", she loudly says in galactic basic when she arrives at the cabin. "You are not dead, nor are you going to die. My partner, who is also a Jedi, is currently fixing the ship. Please sit down, and remain seated until I till you otherwise."

[Mercury]

Ajava had a lot of difficulty calming everyone down. For one, the Gamorrean children were all rather insensitive to reason and for another, the situation was not exactly in her favour. The activation of the lightsaber, though providing some light, also made people rather nervous.

Finally however, after several calls to calm down, people were getting tired of panicking and seemed to be calming down some. Calmer though they might be, it was clear these people were still very afraid.

Realising this and remembering her Jedi training, Ajava would have to come up with something to occupy these peoples minds, lest the panic would start again... or worse, someone might try to 'help'.

Trigiel meanwhile worked tirelessly on getting things back up to speed. Unlike a normal ship, where things were neatly stuffed away, the entire vessel seemed to be hanging together with ductape and screw terminals.

With no alternative open to him, Trigiel began mapping out the ships wiring to see exactly how the power system was connected and what was available.

He soon established that the ship had 115 available over all systems, and with his skill as an engineer, he would be able to redirect power as he chose to the various systems despite the broken switching stations.

He also determined the power requirements of various components:

• Life support (10 total)
  
  • Passenger area (5 )
  • cargo bay (5 )
  • cockpit (UNAVAILABLE)
• Sensors (30 total)
  
  • Internal Sensors (5 )
  • External Sensors (25 )
• Engines (140 total)
  
  • Hyperdrive Engine (120 )
  • Navigation Computer (20 )
• Other (40 total)
  
  • Primary Computer (5 )
  • Intercom (5 )
  • Communication Array (25 )
  • Self Destruct Mechanism (5 )

((OOC: numbers do not imply any relationship with in the economic sense nor do they convert lineairly in any way. The numbers are for this situation only.))

[Fecta Trigiel]

((OOC: Ajava looked out of the window to see what our situation is. Are we still in Hyperspace, or did the lack of power dropped us back into normal space?))

[Mercury]

((OOC: Apologies, I read over that. You are all still alive and in hyperspace. You need the hyperdrive engines to drop out of hyperspace.))

[Fecta Trigiel]

Not enough power... The first thing the cyborg padawan did was powering the life support and all other systems except the hyper drive, external sensors, intercom and self destruct mechanism. He needed to quickly access power when he had enough for the hyperdrive. While Trigiel was making the power manifest he said over the comm link:

"I have determined how much power we have, and surprise, we don't have enough. Even if I turn down all systems I still don't have what I need to power the hyperdrive to get us out of here.

This is what I going to do: For now I only deactivated the hyper drive, external sensors, intercom and self destruct mechanism. I'm going to cannibalize the power supplies from the speeder bikes, if this is not enough, I will go through the rest of the cargo hold to see what I can find.

The main computer should be back online so you should be able to read the cargo manifest, maybe there is something useful in there, that will safe me time to search the cargo hold.

What's the situation with the passengers? If you are needed to calm them, than that has priority. I trust your judgement on this."

Trigiel went to the cargo hold to cannibalize the power supplies of the speeder bikes. 'How am I going to do that without tools?' he though to himself. Of course, the force is my tool.

If at all possible, Trigiel checked first how much power the two speeder bikes provided. If this was more than 25 he had enough, if it was less than 25 , he had to search for more power supplies.

((Check: 14 = 6 Force Level + 4 Reason + 3 Mechanical Engineer + 1 Telekinesis -- To use the power supply of the speeder bikes. Telekinesis is for unscrewing and such.))

[Shebi Ajava]

As the power flickered on again, Ajava turns her lightsaber off.

As she thinks about what she needs to do to calm these people down, Trigiel's voice came over the communicator, asking about the cargo manifest. "I'm on it.", was her short reply.

Trigiel's request gave her an idea about keeping these people busy.

She grabbed her measuring equipment, and walked to the gamorrean kids. Turning on the measuring equipment, which had all kinds of cool displays and lights on it, she hands it to the kids. "You should watch this, and tell me when the lights go red."

She walks back to the open spot.

"People, please listen. We need your help. You have all brought cargo with you, and some of it might not be registered. I don't care what you are taking with you, but right now we need to know what the ship is carrying because we need to fix the ship's power supply.

So this is what we'll do. I'll point to someone, and that person has to tell me what they are taking with them. The others must help me by pointing out anything that could be used as a power supply."

She starts by pointing to the Zabrak male. "You, go."

((OOC: Are Elmer and I correct in the assumption that the 'Hyperdrive Engine' also does non-hyperdrive propulsion? The power listing omits any mention of non-hyperdrive propulsion.))

[Mercury]

((OOC: There is a separate regular space engine but it is not currently usable in your situation. It requires 100 .))

Ajava seemed a lot more used to military personal then civilians and her attempts at calming the passengers was not exactly successful: the kids were now battling one another over who be in front of the measuring panel, while the adults started arguing over who's idea's was best and no, the battery powered flash-light the Zabrak male had brought would not be enough to power a hyper-drive.

Meanwhile, Trigiel climbed into the cargo hold, hooking up the speeder bikes to the power system using a makeshift transformer. Ironically the measure seemed to fit very well into the way the rest of the system had been maintained and honestly Trigiel would not have been surprised if he had found two speeders already hooked up and powering the system. Regardless, with the bikes hooked up, he re-checked the system: 140 .

Meanwhile one of the Gamorrean kids had rammed the head of another kid through the display, destroying the monitor, earning a squeeling growl from the mother and a crying Gamorrean chiild with green blood oozing over his forehead. Or her. It wasn't exactly clear.

[Shebi Ajava]

'Well, at least they are not panicking right now.', Ajava thought to herself. Not really sure what she should do about the small horde of children, Ajava ignored them for now, hoping that their mother would do something to control them.

She lets the others squabble amongst themselves about whatever kind of useless ideas they can come up with and contacts Trigiel.

"How is it going? You're not going to get any help from up here."

[Fecta Trigiel]

"I got enough power for the hyperdrive and navigation computer, but nothing more. I will deactivate all systems, including life support, if we have no more power. Then I can active the hyperdrive to get us back into normal space. After which I can activate the life support again. But in the meantime you will have no life support and no light."

Before he actually wanted to power the hyperdrive, Trigiel checked first if that thing was not actually broken or leaking. It would be a shame if the hyperdrive sucked down all power instantly without actually doing something.

If the hyperdrive turned out to be operational, Trigiel prepared to turn of the life support and to activate the hyperdrive. Else he repaired the hyperdrive first.

While he worked, he continued talking: "I think the oxygen and carbondioxide levels are good enough to hold it out for a while, especially as the cargo hold still has fresh air as well. But people, including you, might experience the effects of hypoxemia. The main symptoms are tingling in the extremities, headaches, drowsiness, impaired judgement time and euphoria.

Best way to hold on is by meditating or sleeping, which might be a problem with those Gamorrean kids. I haven't found emergency oxygen supplies, but I haven't looked for them so maybe the ship has something in case of life support malfunction. Try the ceiling, maybe there are compartments with oxygen masks there, but I wouldn't try those without testing first what's in them."

Trigiel had some measure equipment installed in his body for taking measurements of the Qvavi flower, maybe he could use some of that to keep track of the air quality.

"Ready? I'm deactivating the life support and activating the hyperdrive now. Together with the navigation computer this should be enough to bring the ship back to normal space."

And with that, the cyborg started to deactivate all systems, starting with the 'other' devices, than the sensors. He kept life support for last. Providing some time for Ajava to prepare the crowd a little.

((Check: 13 = 6 Force Level + 4 Reason + 3 Mechanical Engineer -- For checking the hyperdrive.))
((Check: 15 = 6 Force Level + 4 Reason + 3 Mechanical Engineer + 2 Pilot -- For flying the ship back to normal space))((OOC: I know I took a second check in my turn, but I didn't want to waste a valuable post on 'I fly the ship.' as I believe this to be of little extra value if anything turns out fine.))

[Shebi Ajava]

Ajava, not waiting for the other passengers to discover what was going, stepped in front of them and explained what was going to happen.

"Listen up. In a few moments, we will drop out of hyperspace. Because we do not have enough power, you will all have to fasten your seatbelts and hold your breath during the transition into normal space."

She put her best 'ordering voice' into it, hoping that these people will do what she says just because she is the one in charge.

[Mercury]

Ajava was managing the passengers with all the expertise of a stern commander trying to drill a thousand cats into something that could pass for an army.

"This is your fault!" the Rodian man accompanying the Ithorians called out to Shebi Ajava. "You should fix the ship, not tell people what to do! I demand a refund when we get back!"

"Pee wom me doopee?" the Quarren inquired in some language Ajava did not understand.

In the background, the Gamorrean woman was trying to gather her children by getting out a 2 foot long stick and whacking her children into line with them. She was surprisingly successful too, but the Ithorians protested the violence in strong terms which in turn led to a discussion between the Gamorrean and the Ithorians being yelled over the rest of the conversations.

It then dawned on Shebi Ajava that the Zabrak and his Theelin girl seemed to have disappeared.

Fortunately, Trigiel was more successful: after investigating carefully, found the hyperdrive to be 'operational'. That is, it would work - for now - but it wouldn't pass any kind of inspection or the likes. In fact, one could wonder how it ever passed inspections in the first place.

As the temperature began to drop and the air grew thin, he carefully steered the ship to head back to normal space...

Just as Ajava was about to give up the search for the missing passengers - or perhaps more generally give up on the passengers altogether, there was a loud whir and a flash. The ship had returned to normal space!

[Shebi Ajava]

Getting very annoyed with the childlike shouting, and not liking the Rodian's accusations a single bit, Ajava did indeed give up on the passengers, though she does not like the idea of having two of them roaming about.

"Sir, calm down", she told the Rodian, "Before you accuse a Jedi of sabotaging the ship."

She then turned away and contacted Trigiel: "Trigiel, please disable the main computer and any other unnecessary system that the passengers could use to interfere with your work.", her annoyance with the passengers was easily read from her voice. "Two of the passengers disappeared, and I'll have to go look for them now."

[Fecta Trigiel]

"Roger, close the door behind your back, otherwise more might disappear."

The moment they dropped out of hyperspace, Trigiel deactivated the hyperdrive engine and reactivated the life support systems. Then he activated the external and internal sensors. He needed to know if they were safe.

He checked the external sensors to see what his situation was. If they were not safe, he tried to activate the regular space engine. and steer the ship away from danger, one way or another.

If they were safe, Trigiel activated the communications array and the intercom. Although he did not really know the situation with the passengers, he knew that passengers are more quit if they thought that everything was okay. Over the intercom he said: "Ladies and gentlemen, this is your jedi speaking. I have brought us safely back to normal space and the situation is back under control. Please remain seated and start a discussion about the Kwavli flower while we bring you to your destination."

After Trigiel had maid his announcement, he went to the wire spaghetti what was the communications array. There he searched for a way to connect the communications array to his personal comm link. This way he immediately knew if someone tried to contact him. "Shebi," he sait to Shebi Ajava, "I'm going to search for an airlock. I have connected the communications array to my self."

After that, Trigiel went to search for an air lock.

((Check: 15 = 6 Force Level + 4 Reason + 3 Mechanical Engineer + 2 Pilot -- For bringing the ship to safety if required.))

((Check: 13 = 6 Force Level + 4 Reason + 3 Mechanical Engineer -- For connecting the communications array to himself if the ship is safe.))

[Shebi Ajava]

Leaving the Ithorians and the Gamorrean to keep each other busy, she replied "Go sit down." to the Quarren.

Doubting the sanity of connecting the communications array of any ship that employed 'the cheap option' to oneself, Ajava went looking for the Zabrak and Theelin.

((Check: 11 = 7 Force Level + 4 Vision -- searching for the Zabrak and his girl))

[Mercury]

"Do you think you're better than me? You Veolians are all the same, racist bastards!" the Rodian countered, not having any of Shebi's attempts to calm him down.

As Trigiel redistributed the power once more he reassured himself that they were out in space with no large objects nearby. Once the power had been reassigned and the sensors checked, he began work on the communications array.

The announcement about safety was met with sighs of relief amongst the passengers, though Trigiel was quite sure he picked up on some different sighing.

Soon both of the Jedi were searching the ship. Trigiel noted there were no proper airlocks. The ship had an exit to the cockpit and one to allow passengers to exit, but no proper airlocks - if he closed off the passenger area, he might be able to use the cockpit door as a makeshift airlock, or perhaps the cargo loading hatch could be used instead - neither was intended for the purpose regardless.

Ajava meanwhile followed the sighing that Trigiel had heard earlier, finding a pair of Theelin legs sticking out from behind the speeder bikes in the cargo area with a deeper groaning suggesting what was going on there.

At least they were back in normal space and mostly safe though...

[Shebi Ajava]

Following the sounds Trigiel told her about Ajava quickly arrived in the cargo bay. She silently closed the cargo bay hatch behind her.

'I get to babysit annoying passengers, and they get to sneak out for this... At the end, I'll only be told "good job", while they had all the fun.', she thinks to herself angrily. Then an idea hits her: 'Well if I don't get to, might as well have some fun...'

Ajava didn't plan very far ahead, but she would first separate the two. Stepping out of the shadows she says: "Hi there!"

"You feel embarrassed at getting caught and want to hurry back to the passenger area.", she tells the Zabrak as he looks up in surprise. ((Check: 13 = 7 Force Level + 5 Energy + 1 Mind Trick -- ))

"You feel embarrassed as well, but want to stick around to apologize.", she tells the Theelin girl as her partner suddenly takes off. ((Check: 13 = 7 Force Level + 5 Energy + 1 Mind Trick -- ))

With a sweet smile, Ajava waited to see how this would play out.

[Fecta Trigiel]

If Trigiel wanted to activate the emergence beacon, he needed to improvise an airlock. Given the state of the ship and the idiocy of passengers, he better tried to make it double as safe.

First Trigiel checked if the Cargo hall was air tight, then he went looking for Ajava.

((OOC: EDIT: moved most of the post to after Ajava's action for sake of continuity.))

[Mercury]

((OOC: Ajava's use of Mind Trick is approved. She has several minutes before Trigiel arrives in the cargo hold.))