Viewmount

A cloudy, greenish planet filled much of what could be seen. Far below, the clouds moved so slowly that the movement could barely be discerned. Local space around the small planet was filled with thousands of little points of light. There were lights and beacons mounted all over the surface of the main station. There were more lights and strobes on the outside of star ships floating around the station. And every now and then there was a wash of light from the thrusters of a maneuvering ship.

In amongst all the hustle and bustle, a small shuttle moved silently between the larger ships.

To call it a shuttle was a bit of a misnomer. It was more like a small framework with a cold gas engine mounted on one end. Two figures were clinging to the small vehicle, protected from the void of space by their suits. They traveled at a sedate pace, with the occasional burst of gas to correct their travel.

After a few minutes, their destination became apparent. A starship named Viewmount. It was parked in a geosynchronous orbit, dark and silent.

"That's her?" asked Raymond, one of the two figures.

"Yep, that's her," replied Kirk, the other.

As they approached the side of the ship, the thrusters on the frame threw more gas out to slow their forward momentum. Once within spitting distance, they traveled parallel to the hull, looking for the maintenance hatch.

"There it is," said Kirk. They approached the hatch and stopped. Raymond reached out with some G hooks and attached the craft to the side of the hull to stop it floating away. Kirk also attached a hook on his side. Inserting a large tool into a recessed cavity next to the hatch, they both braced themselves between the craft and the hull and started turning the tool.

As they turned, the hatch started to swing open. Almost all ships had a similar type of hatch which was used for maintenance or accessing the ship when there was no power. The Viewmount was currently un-powered and silent, so the only way in was through this hatch.

Once the hatch was fully open, they detached themselves from their craft and entered the ship, pulling several boxes with them. Inside, there was a short tunnel and then another hatch. Once again, they used the same tool to wind the internal door open. There was a slight flurry as the small amount of atmosphere in the Viewmount vented, but there wasn't much of it inside.

Having opened the internal door, they moved their gear inside, and then Kirk went back outside to grab the last item. This was a rather large crate, about two feet to a side. Kirk passed the crate to Raymond who took it into the ship, then used the tool to close the outer door. Once the outer door was closed, he closed the inner door as well.

"All set?" asked Raymond.

"All set," replied Kirk. "This is your first time starting a Randal class?"

"Yeah. We don't get too many of these around here and when they do show up, they don't hang around long enough to shut down." As they talked, they moved along the corridors of the ship.

"Well, you're going to start seeing more of them. The Chattel Corp is buying a dozen or so and they'll be based here. Servicing these is a bit easier than the older Jackal class ships, but take care to check before doing things."

The lights on their suits provided plenty of illumination for them. None of the internal systems were working, so the nav pack on their helmets was the only way they had to know where they were going.

"Because it's more delicate?"

"No, because a lot of things are very similar but not quite the same. You punch 3-5-1-7 into the maintenance computer on the Jackals and you dump the sewage tanks. You get used to it, always punching in the same numbers. It gets to be a habit; you come aboard, dump the waste and move on. But on the Randal's, you put 3-5-1-7 into the computer and you'll be triggering an emergency shutdown of the ventilation system."

"Wow, that's incredibly dumb."

"Not really. It sorta makes sense to move things around for different ships. Not all of them have the same systems fitted, not all have the same menu functions available. Plus you'd never get all the manufacturers to agree on any common standard. It also keeps things interesting for us."

Laughing, the duo neared their destination. They were deep within the silent ship, near the main engineering spaces above the primary reactor. Once in the main engineering control room they stopped.

Moving carefully so that none of their gear would float away or knock any of the interface panels, they tied down what they had brought with them, except the large case. This they opened, and extracted a bright yellow box with handles on one end with "Veiwmount" embossed in bold letters between them.

This was the "key" to the ship. It had a lot of functions built in and had the start-up codes hardwired into it. Carefully, Raymond and Kirk lined it up with the recess where it normally lived. Once lined up, they slid it into position and then locked it into place. On the front, several high-capacity data lines were attached and locked into position followed by a cover, which went over the whole lot to protect it.

"That was easy," said Raymond.

"Fitting the key always is," replied Kirk. "That's about as standard as it gets around here. All we have to do is fire up the reactor and bring all her systems on line and the Viewmount will be ready to go."

"How long is that going to take?"

"About a week."

Raymond groaned at that. "Why so long?"

"Oh, my mistake," said Kirk. "We'll only be here for about four hours starting up the core and main systems. The normal crew will then come aboard and do all the legwork of bringing all the ancillary systems to full function and cross-checking that the repairs all went well."

"Ah, much better," sighed Raymond in delight. "You had me worried there for a moment."

"Sorry."

A single, small light turned on in the middle of the Primary console. It was amber, and indicated that the key had finished its initiation sequence.

"Sweet," said Kirk. "I've done these a million times at my old job, but rules say we have to follow the manual. You got it loaded up?"

"Ready when you are."

Raymond started calling out instructions, which Kirk then repeated back to confirm them. The first thing to do was get the starter reactor going which only took a few moments. This provided emergency power and supplied power to most of the control systems on the starship. Many lights and indicators turned on in the main engineering control room, most of them amber or red.

"Okay, that's that bit done. On to chapter two," said Kirk.

Working steadily, the next phase involved starting the main reactor using power from the starter reactor. The primary reactor was one of the things that had been serviced during this overhaul, so there was a moment of fear when the time came to turn it on - but it fired up without any complaints. The full initiation procedure took about an hour, but once they had it on and stable, they fed power throughout the ship.

The remaining lights turned on in the main engineering control room, with many of the ones that had been among the first to turn on changing over to green. The main status panel was covered with green, with a few yellows where less important systems had not yet turned on.

"And we have power," said Raymond.

"That we do my friend. Just don't go removing your helmet yet, there's no atmosphere in here."

The remaining tasks for the start up crew was to get the atmosphere generators going, turn on the artificial gravity and start the environmental systems. The regular crew would then get all the other systems started, such as navigation, engines, the main computers and so on.

"Ready for gravity?" asked Kirk.

"All set," replied Raymond as he looked around to make sure that none of their gear was floating above the deck.

"Here we go," said Kirk. Working at a panel, his fingers darted over the controls and then paused, with his finger poised above a large indicator which had ‘Engage' on it.

"The floor is that way."

"Whoops," said Raymond as he re-oriented himself. "Be a shame to go landing on my head at this late stage of the game."

With a chuckle, Kirk turned on the artificial gravity. He felt the familiar pull and then landed solidly on his feet. Behind him, their gear settled onto the deck. A moment later, a powerful vibration was felt through the floor and walls of the room they were in.

"Uh oh," they said in unison.

"What do you suppose that was?" asked Raymond.

"Expensive," replied Kirk. "Something heavy and therefore very expensive dropping to the floor."

End.