Chapter 194: Chapter 194

"We're in," Sarah announced over the comm. "Through the outer doors anyways. The inner ones look pretty standard, no armour plating. Shouldn't take long to get them open."

Cam added, "I'm resealing the outer doors now."

"Alright," Rebecca replied. "Keep us updated on your progress."

My tail twitched as I tried to suppress a smile. The corners of my lips kept pulling upwards though as I glanced at the boss and commented, "I honestly didn't expect Cammie to make that much of a fuss, about why she should be out there rather than you."

The boss grimaced, "I didn't expect her to question my orders at all. She was right though. It doesn't make sense to have me getting in the way when we've got a top-notch engineer and a mechanic with years of experience salvaging old equipment."

"Exactly," I nodded. I tried not to sound like I was teasing as I pointed out, "I suppose you could have had Jenna stay behind if you really wanted to join them. After all, you do have more experience at that sort of work than she does."

Rebecca sighed, "I guess. Except I wanted to include her specifically so she could start getting that experience. I don't want her to feel left out, or that she doesn't have enough ways to contribute to the ship."

"She's great with a gun," she added, "And the way she's in constant contact with Jenny and the ship means I'm always going to want to have her with me whenever we're off-ship, meeting clients or doing business. But I'd like to see her take an active role in other ways too, and salvage is always going to be a profitable venture for us."

That left me smiling, "I get it Rebecca. And I like that you're looking out for her and her feelings, as much as you're looking out for all our best interests."

"Got the inner doors open," Sarah's voice came over the comm again. "Chalk up another win for our catgirl here. Hot-wiring the airlock was a brilliant idea."

I could practically hear the blush as Cammie protested, "It weren't nothing special. I just remembered how we got into the Kaden Merit's hold, and figured that'd be way easier than trying to cut through them armoured doors."

Our engineer agreed, "It certainly was. And it means we didn't have to worry about depressurizing anything on our way in."

"Unfortunately it seems like that concern was moot," Jenna added. "This deck is already depressurized."

Sarah sighed, "Yeah. Or, mostly. There's no power here, no emergency lights, but it looks like there's a very thin atmosphere."

"Much too thin to even think about opening our suits," the android stated.

Cammie asked, "Do y'all suppose the atmosphere was vented when the base shut down?"

I shook my head as I transmitted back, "There was nothing on our scanners to indicate that. If the base atmosphere was vented I would have seen it."

"A slow leak then?" Jenna asked. "Perhaps it's been gradually bleeding out into space for years."

Sarah disagreed, "Even a slow leak would have left the place at hard vacuum after four centuries."

"There was life support when Nyssa and I were there on the Artemis. Breathable air, gravity, the works," I reminded her. "That was only six or seven standard days ago."

My blonde girlfriend responded, "Alright good point. If resources were as scarce as we've been told then I could see the AI shutting that off as soon as you left. And a slow leak would explain why most of the air's gone by now."

The boss finally spoke up, "All this is very interesting but it doesn't really have anything to do with our immediate objectives. So how about we get things moving again?"

"Yes ma'am," Sarah replied. "I know you're tracking our progress Amanda, can you give us some directions? We want to get up to the top level, so I can get a look at the base's power plant."

I nodded as I focused on my sensors and the deck plan we'd worked out earlier. "Alright, you should be in a staging compartment. There'll be three doors, you want the one in the middle directly across from the airlock."

"That'll open to a large corridor. Follow that in about ten meters. Then turn left and continue another twenty meters. That should bring you to what looks like a ladderway and a lift shaft," I added.

The group used a cutting tool to get through the internal doorway. From there they quickly located the ladderway, which was sealed behind another hatch. Sarah's cutting torch made short work of that, and from there they had access up and down to all the decks. They headed up a half dozen meters to the deck above them, where they found the engineering section was secured behind a fairly substantial bulkhead. All three of them got to work with the cutting tools, but it still took a good ten minutes.

"Alright we're in," Sarah announced when they finally got through that latest obstacle. "And there's some emergency power in here. Not much, but I can see a few of these control panels are still energized."

Jenna asked, "What are we looking for? I don't suppose it'll be as obvious as button or a switch labelled 'on' or 'power' or something?"

Our engineer sighed, "Let's hope so. I was expecting to find something like a ship's power plant in here, but I don't recognize any of this stuff."

"Do you figure it's too old to match what you're used to seeing on ships?" I asked. "Or maybe Korantis-12 technology is just that different?"

Sarah replied, "The latter. Ship tech hasn't changed all that much, even over centuries. It gets better every decade, but even ancient museum ships still have the same basic stuff in the same basic arrangement. This is something else entirely."

We were all quiet for a few seconds as we thought about what that might mean for any gear we salvaged. I vaguely remembered the captain mentioned that concern at one point, about whether or not anything we retrieved from the Kára would be compatible with standard ship systems. And for that matter I knew first-hand how much trouble Sarah had wiring Jenny into the Demeter's data bus.

Rebecca and I exchanged a quiet glance, then she started to suggest "Maybe we'll need to consult with Jenny on this? She might -"

"Found the main start-up controls," Cammie's voice suddenly came through the comm. "Some of this stuff's set up weird, but the primary generator looks like an old J-47 reactor. That's what they use back at Port Bayview. I never got to play with it myself, but I always wanted to."

My tail started wagging as I smiled, while the boss just looked surprised.

Our engineer's voice matched Rebecca's expression as she asked, "What's a J-47? And how does it work?"

The catgirl's voice made it sound like she didn't think it was anything special, "Oh it's just an older model regenerative reactor? A few of the larger settlements back home still use 'em, but I heard they can get a little cranky at times. Ganvis never went that route on account of they were expensive to set up back in the day, and anyhow the wind generators were a better fit for us."

Rebecca asked, "Cam do you think you can get that system back up and running?"

"I can sure try ma'am," the catgirl replied. "Like I said, they never let me play with the one in Port Bayview, but I read up on it incase I ever got the chance. It's ancient tech, but they were popular for a while so I figured I might stumble on another one someday. Never thought that'd happen out in space though."

I frowned, "That's a good point actually. Assuming they really are the same, or even just similar, how would Deveronian settlements get their hands on old Korantis military tech?"

Jenna pointed out, "Korantis-12 and Deveron-8 used to be trading partners, remember? Your sister's mission is to reestablish those links. The Deveronians probably imported those power plants in exchange for the food they were shipping out."

"Of course!" Sarah laughed. "I came in here thinking my extensive background in ship's systems would solve all our problems, but once again it's Cammie saving the day with her knowledge of home-grown equipment."

The catgirl didn't say a word but somehow I could practically hear her blushing over the comm.

It was another minute or two before the feline mechanic spoke up again, "Alright I've got the diagnostic panel here. It's ah, not great. I'm pretty sure I can start this up, but I can't say how long it'll last. Or how much power we'll get while it's going."

"Enough to open them docking bay doors I suppose," she added.

Rebecca hit the comm transmitter and replied, "Do what you can please Cam. But only if you feel it's safe. If that reactor looks unstable to you or you think there's other risks, then we'll find another way."

Over the next ten or fifteen minutes my sensors tracked a slow but gradual increase in power from the installation's engineering section. Cam was careful to ensure there weren't any dangerous spikes as she brought the ancient reactor back online, while Sarah monitored the other related systems in the old base. Our engineer was especially interested in the diagnostics and damage control readings, once those sub-systems were back online.

"That's about all the power I think we're gonna get out of this old gear," Cammie eventually reported. She sounded almost disappointed, or maybe apologetic that she hadn't been able to coax anything more out of it.

Sarah chimed in, "Honestly Cam you've done a lot more than I thought possible. Boss you should see some of this stuff. I don't know whether to feel impressed Loke kept it running all this time, or horrified that he'd been relying on this contraption as his sole source of power for so long."

I warned, "My sensors are picking up some increased radiation in that area. It's not high enough to pose an immediate health hazard, but if you three are done there I'd suggest vacating that deck as soon as possible. And as medic I'm going to say nobody should spend more than two hours in that area. And I mean cumulatively, not per visit."

"You heard the fox," the boss stated. "Let's wrap this up and move on. Cam, good job getting the power online. What else do you need to do there, or can you head back down to the hangar deck now?"

Sarah replied, "Let me just check the power routing first boss. It'll be another minute or three."

It was closer to five minutes before our engineer spoke up again, "Alright here's the verdict. Loke must have been selectively controlling things, because there just isn't enough power to run more than a few systems at a time. Even life support's limited, like we could get one deck habitable, but only by shutting down other systems."

"Can we open those hangar doors or not?" Rebecca asked. "That's the main question Sarah."

Cammie replied, "Yes ma'am I think so, but it's all manual. We'll have to go back down to the ops deck and find the right control panel to operate that stuff."

Sarah clarified, "All the routing has to happen from here though. So if we want to power up anything else that means someone has to come up here and redirect the power, from one system to another."

"Perhaps that's something I can handle, if it's necessary?" Jenna offered. "I don't imagine a little radiation is going to do much damage to me."

Cammie obviously didn't like that idea, "It don't matter if you're not biological Jenna, radiation can still hurt you. Especially your main processors and memory modules. I know they're hardened but that don't mean there ain't no risk. And I'd be worried for you the whole time you was here. Especially if you was all alone." Thıs text ıs hosted at novel·fiɾe·net

Rebecca asked, "Can you just leave the thing set so all the doors and airlocks have power? I know working in e-suits isn't great, but if we don't have to keep cutting through doors and bulkheads that'll speed up the rest of the job."

"Yeah we can do that," our engineer replied. "Give us another five, ten minutes. Then we can clear this deck."

Once again Sarah's estimate was off by a bit, but after about fifteen minutes our shipmates finally made their way clear of the engineering deck and back through the bulkhead to the lift shaft and ladderway. They headed down to the next deck, but rather than leaving the ladderway Cam hesitated there.

"Do y'all mind if I take a quick detour here?" the catgirl asked. "I know Jenny's eager to find out about the other Re/Gen unit, but we figured that'll be a couple decks below us. Right?"

The boss nodded, "Alright. Sarah, Jenna, please go with Cam. I don't want anyone wandering off on their own. Assuming all the inner doors are all operable now this shouldn't take long, right?"

"Thank you ma'am. And yeah, the doors all seem to be working ok now," Cammie replied as the three of them continued on down to the fourth deck.

I was still tracking them on my sensors as they made their way to the deck we figured housed the crew accommodations. Then I spoke up again, "I don't know for sure where the Re/Gen unit's located. We're only guessing the infirmary's on that deck. Having said that, there's a few compartments that seem likely. The nearest one will be on the starboard side of the corridor, third door down from your position."

Without gravity our shipmates still had to move slowly and carefully, so it took them a minute or so to reach the compartment in question.

"Sorry cutie," Sarah reported after they got there. "Looks like the base's mess, so at least we know this is definitely the crew's habitation deck."

I grimaced, "Alright that means my second guess is probably the galley. That'd be the next door on that side of the corridor. Third guess is door number six on the port side."

Another half minute or so passed before Jenna confirmed, "That's the galley next to the mess."

"And there's storage next to that," Sarah added.

By that point I could tell the three of them had split up, although they were all in sight of each other. And rather than waiting for me to direct them to different doors, it looked like they were just opening all of them along both sides of the corridor.

Soon enough Cammie reported, "These sure do look like crew quarters all along in here."

"I know I don't have to say this," Rebecca spoke up, "But don't disturb any of those."

Sarah replied, "Yeah we know. For what it's worth the cabins look empty. I'm guessing they had time to pack up all their stuff when they left. I mean it wasn't an emergency evacuation."

"Thanks Sarah. That's good to know," the boss responded.

It took another ten minutes before we determined that the infirmary wasn't on deck four after all. So Cam reluctantly agreed to leave it for now, while the three of them got on with their main objective. Our shipmates made their way back to the ladderway, then headed back up to deck two.

Once they got there it took them less than five minutes to locate the control room for the two docking bays. And only a couple minutes after that both sets of hangar doors began to slowly open. Sure enough the port-side hangar was loaded with salvage from the Kára, while the starboard hangar was exactly how I remembered it from the Artemis' brief visit six or seven days earlier.

"Great job people," Rebecca stated with a smile. "How about you three come back to the ship now? You can take a break, then Sarah I'd like you and I to get out there and take a closer look at that gear."