The Gravity (aka Gravy) Drive pushed itself to its maximum. Its hull was damaged, the family within, several were hurt, and it was not going to let them down! Blaring every alert it could, it raced as fast as it could, perhaps recklessly so, toward the nearest base that could help it, and its loved ones. -- Anon Guest
Of all the critical damage a ship can suffer, one of the worst is debilitating damage to their Hungry Caterpillar object defense system. One micrometeor at the wrong vector in the wrong place can mess everything up for everyone.
A subsequent storm of micrometeors just made things worse.
It was a once in a trillion chance. But it was more than enough to cause trouble for everyone alive on board. The fact that it happened during Ship's Night only made it worse. The Hagiographic Maru was losing air, losing power, and was about to lose souls.
Nobody was conscious enough to send out a distress call, but she did so. Nobody was at the helm when she broke course and headed at all possible speed to the nearest station. In fact, the crew were barely alive when the ERT's finally entered the vessel. It was an astonishingly close call.
They saved people first, and investigated afterwards.
The investigation began with the logs, as most such investigations do. Seeking out who, or what[1], might have set off the chain of events. Nobody rose from their bed nooks. No pets crawled over any console. The only movement was the sudden bursts of micrometeors piercing the hull.
For three critical minutes, the crew slept through the alerts and alarms as they went through their preprogrammed sequences. By the time the alarm klaxon sounded through the ship, there wasn't enough air to carry it at an appreciable volume.
By then... the Hagiographic Maru had broken from her set course and was booking it for help. Distress message already blaring on all channels.
Then they actually looked at the distress message. Running over the top of Cryin' Joe Bardnaw's Greatest Hits[2] was pure data in an automated reader's voice. "Defense System Critical Failure. Hull Breach Excessive. Air Depletion Excessive. Crew Unresponsive. Urgent Care Necessary. Alert. Alert. Critical Assistance Needed." As the record progressed, the survivability index gradually decreased.
They managed to get the Hagiographic Maru into drydock when the index was at fifteen percent.
The author? Signed themself as Hagiographic Maru.
It was the Nae'hyn who unriddled it in the end. The ship's own Gravity Drive loved its family, and did everything it could to save them. Human pack-bonding truly spread everywhere.
[1] Shipboard pets cause an astonishing amount of near-disasters and erroneous course-corrections.
[2] The dulcet tones of "Cryin' Joe" Bardnaw and his Hawaiian Guitar Band are used as a distress signal because even strange life-forms from Hyperspace recognise them as a cry of pain and move to assist.
[Photo by Jason Runnells on Unsplash]
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