A One Way Ticket on the Neo Kosmo

Chapter 8: Enginestart_test

Enginestart_test. Kyler typed the command into the shuttle's console, bracing for the roar and reverberations around the cramped confines of the colony ship's hangar bay as the engines span up to full thrust capacity before spooling back. He'd lost track of how many times he'd entered the command in the last two weeks – it seemed an endless series of diagnostics on the colony ship's fleet of shuttles.

It was important of course. When the shuttles did get called up to carry thousands of passengers, tonnes of equipment, and hundreds of prefabricated structures through the atmosphere and down to the vibrant blue and green planet below, it was vital to know that each one was in good shape.

But god, was it boring running simple diagnostics and tests. All day, every day, the same. Enginestart_test, enginestart_test, enginestart_test. As soon as one was done, he was on the to next, trying to keep up with the rigorous time-line that the captain had set for starting colonisation efforts.

Kyler submitted the code and slumped back in the chair, waiting. He frowned. There was silence. Lazily, he reached a hand forward and tapped the screen to re-enter the command he was now too familiar with: Enginestart_test. Again there was silence and he leaned forward to the blinking screen.

Error 871_b.

In the lead-up to boarding the Neo Kosmo he had practically memorised the manuals, but he still opened the technical specs to confirm his suspicion. He was right. The error was a fault in one of the backup heating systems that, if he had to guess, was caused by radiation damage during the trip to this side of the galaxy.

As Earth's first colony ship, the Neo Kosmo carried no shortage of experimental technology and shielding, but even sitting idle and protected, 500 years was a long time for any electronics to stay functional.

Kyler looked at the time, cursing to himself. "20 minutes left," he huffed to no-one, knowing the repair would take at least an hour. He called the Maintenance Chief on his datapad. "Angharad, you copy?"

The chief replied quickly. "You finished early? Got more for you."

"No, this shuttle's heating back-up has gone."

"Type-c male connector, right? Cheap crap those," she said, tutting. "They've been blowing out all over the ship. Hang tight and I'll send a new one over."

Kyler sat back with his datapad and tabbed over to work on the draft of his letter to formally request a transfer away from maintenance. He had signed on to the Neo Kosmo as an engineer to do something meaningful, to be fixing unforeseeable problems on Lamperi Gi that would threaten the future of the colony. Instead, he was little more than a diagnostic computer.

A few moments later the comms buzzed back to life. "Angharad here. Small problem. All out of those connectors."

Kyler frowned. They'd only arrived at the planet a few weeks ago. How could they be all out? "Come again?" he asked.

"That connector is used in at least a hundred pieces of equipment on the ship – we're all out of spares," the machine chief replied tersely.

Kyler acknowledged and ended the call, staring at the blinking words on the console. His eyes lingered for a moment on the joystick and throttle levers. All crew had to be multi-skilled, and he smiled as he remembered the training and test flights they had run before the Neo Kosmo had departed Earth. He shook it off and opened the manual, reading aloud.

"Replace part. If unable, bypass back-up system." Simple enough. "Another exciting day of interstellar colonisation," he mumbled to himself, typing the next code into the console: Enable Bypass – Subsystem 871_b.