Their crewmates have been running themselves ragged, panicking. Their ship wouldn't take off, the weather outside was dangerously cold with blizzards, and help wouldn't arrive for at least two weeks, minimum. Fortunately, napping rolls, a guitar, and hot tea, should help soothe frayed nerves. -- Anon Guest
"You did what?" Captain Karp bared her teeth at the ships' Human, who seemed very calm about present events. "We're stuck in a blizzard for two weeks[1], we're already in danger from the snow and you buried us in more snow?"
"Sort of," allowed Human Ros. He was still smiling. "I sort of built the ship an igloo. Well kind of an igloo hangar. See the secret is all about air flow, and if you want--"
"I want to survive this mayhem with our crew and their sanity intact. You've killed us all."
"Er. Not really? See, the igloo will help the ship retain heat."
"How does snow and ice retain heat?"
Captain Karp got an engineering lesson. They would have fresh air, from the leeward side of the dome of course. Since the ship's habitation zones were above the tunnel to the exterior, that air would have time to warm up. It was all about the dome. It trapped heat, but not enough heat to melt the ice. Therefore the interior was at a stable temperature without keeping stagnant air around.
"My people have been doing similar things for thousands of years," supplied Ros. "We're not dead yet."
"Please keep such sentiments away from the rest of the crew. In lieu of monitoring power usage, you get to calm down the rest of the crew."
"Cargo bay four is empty, right? I can set up a camp in there with a heat element and suchlike. I'll play the guitar, we'll make smores. Lots of quilted sleeping bags. It'll be fun."
And nothing relaxed the fellow crewmates like the sight of a happy, relaxed Human taking their ease. "Just don't sing any mobius songs[2]. We will be watching events closely."
"Note 'em and log 'em sir," smiled the Human, and went to fetch his guitar.
Cargo Bay Four became a -ha!- chill zone in short order. The campfire surrogate, the sleeping bags, and the Human playing funny songs and telling stories. Not giving a single flakk, as he liked to say.
Captain Karp watched the temperature readouts and found that they had a heat surplus to deal with. A simple problem solved by rerouting the air circulation systems. The extra power saved by not heating the ship went into other desperate areas, like the food supply or keeping the med-bay operational.
It wasn't an ideal temperature, but it was a tolerable one. An enormous difference from their prior fate of freezing to death or starving.
Saved from the cold. By the cold. How... Human.
[1] Given that this is the Standard Galactic Calendar, that means it's twenty days.
[2] The kind of song that can be infinitely repeated. Like I'm Henry the Eighth, The Song That Never Ends, or You Spin Me Right Round.
[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / TheoSid]
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