Part 14: The Reactor

BGM: The Reactor

Seriously, though, let's shut down this reactor.

>help commands
AVAILABLE COMMANDS: download, disable_ai, enable_ai, help, su, quit, reactor, pss, copy, power_control, decrypt, change_outfit

Reactor! Okay, a starting point.

>help reactor
USAGE: reactor [action]
emergency override control over the reactor system
AVAILABLE ACTIONS: enable, disable
>reactor disable
ERROR: no backup power supply is active!
WARNING: disabling reactor now will permanently terminate your connection
are you sure you want to continue? (Y/N)
>n
reactor will remain enabled

Well, shit. *Hyun-ae, advise me!



If everything's working properly... it should be that simple.
Um... I mean... I'm sure it won't be. This is a really old ship, and... clearly, already one thing has gone horribly wrong!
Anyway, your first step is to at least try!
...Oh.



AAAAAAGH. Curses!
Of course it wouldn't be that simple. Um, very well, let me try to take account of the ship's systems, see if I can't figure out what's stopping you...
Ah... that's pretty bad...
Right! Very well! I know what the problem is!
So here's the thing: There's two power systems on the ship. One's the nuclear reactor. The other is... well, it's called the Power Storage System. It doesn't really generate anything. It's just a battery, basically.
That's what the ship's been running off, in lower power mode, and that was fine, except restarting the communications totally drained it.
Geeze... ship goes six hundred years of just running me with no problem, but send a few radio signals and everything goes to hell!
Anyway, I see what the error was now. If you turn the reactor off right now, everything will shut down, forever, because it can't fall back on the Power Storage System.
But don't worry! Don't worry, don't panic, there's a backup. If you switch to that, it should be quite alright.
Right, so, all you have to do is switch the Power Storage System to use the secondary battery instead.
Then you'll be able to disable the reactor safely!



Okay okay okay, we're cool. I think we're cool. There was a command on that list that's probably what we want.

>help pss
USAGE: pss [action]
emergency control override of power storage system
AVAILABLE ACTIONS: switch_battery, enable, disable
>pss switch_battery
SUCCESS: active battery changed!

power storage system status: disabled (will use secondary battery when enabled)
primary battery remaining -- 0.1%
secondary battery remaining -- 20%
power usage is at 99%
WARNING: insufficient power in active battery to meet power demands without reactor
>fuck
UNKNOWN COMMAND (did you misspell it? try help for command list)

Okay, uh. Let's enable it and see what happens!

>pss enable
Working...

SUCCESS: power storage system has been enabled!
WARNING: insufficient power in active battery to meet power demands without reactor

power storage system status: enabled, using secondary battery
primary battery remaining -- 0.1%
secondary battery remaining -- 20%
power usage is at 99%
try disabling unnecessary subsystems with power_control

Oh thank god, a clue.

>help power_control



Goodness, that's a lot of subsystems. Let's see, what can we do without?

>power_control disable gravity docking rail waste
SUCCESS: gravity has been disabled!
SUCCESS: docking has been disabled!
SUCCESS: rail has been disabled!
SUCCESS: waste has been disabled!

A lot of these are only relevant to the people living on the ship, of which there are none. We can safely disable those.

>power_control disable core3 core4 core5 core6
SUCCESS: core3 has been disabled!
SUCCESS: core4 has been disabled!
SUCCESS: core5 has been disabled!
SUCCESS: core6 has been disabled!

These are AI cores with no AIs stored in them. They're just taking up space.

How are we doing?



Still 35%...

Okay, we can disable the ship's sensors, no problem.

>power_control disable sensors
SUCCESS: sensors has been disabled!

We still need to lose 4% to reach PSS capacity... What's left?
Bulkheads could be disabled, but it would only get us 1%.
We need Communications active to keep talking to the ship.
Main Computer can't be disabled without losing contact with the AIs.

That just leaves... core1 and core2.
*Mute and *Hyun-ae.

>power_control disable core1
core1: stores and executes AI construct *Mute.
WARNING: this ore has AI *Mute stored on volatile media.
if unpowered, all data will degrade within 24 hours or less!
are you sure you want to continue? data may be permanently lost! (Y/N)
>



Sorry, *Mute. I have to take this risk if either of you is going to survive.

That brings us down to 19% power. Proceed with the plan!

>reactor disable
will safely fall back on pss if reactor disabled, continue? (Y/N)
>y
reactor is going down... this may take a minute

initiating reactor shutdown sequence... 100%
SUCCESS; nuclear reactor is disabled!
Logging disabled, engaging low power mode...NOW

SUCCESS: remaining subsystems transferred to power supply system



Okay. Reactor disabled. We won.



Right?



The reactor isn't cooling down.

Why isn't the reactor cooling down.



...and... um... oh geeze, oh no, we still have a problem.
It's... It's still at critical temperature!
Well, the good news is, you're safe now...
I'm not, though! Even if there's no nuclear explosion, it's... just the heat alone can do enough damage to the computer systems to... well... kill me... This is really bad...
Please, you have to figure out something to do with that excess heat!
I'm... already, I'm suffering some serious damage. Some subsystems just... aren't responding. My word, I feel like I did when I was alive...
I feel like I'm dying.
Please, you have to do something!



A bit more futile fiddling with the ship later, I get an urgent message from *Hyun-ae.

You know every corner of this ship, there must be something we can do!



Quickly, enable the bulkheads, enable the emergency life support, then disable the bulkhead seals!
There's not enough safe air left on the ship to actually keep anyone alive, but... but it should be enough for venting the excess heat into space!
Quickly, there isn't much time!



Got it! Back to the terminal!

>power_control enable life_support
Working...

SUCCESS: life_support has been enabled!

And the bulkheads were already enabled, so... here goes nothing!



Come on come on come on



YES

>quit



BGM: Hyun-ae (Cheer)

The nuclear reactor is now both completely deactivated and at a safe temperature. We're safe!
I was pretty scared there for a moment... I mean, it's not that I didn't think you could...
...it's just... the thought of actually dying for good was... scary. It was scary.
But you did it, and I'm fine now! Thank you so much.
I'm sure you're breathing a little easier too, right? Well, that was close...



I thought so. Hoo, really, my word that was a close call. There's actually something I've been thinking about for a while that I wanted to ask you about.
And... well, I had sensors working before. I've seen your ship. I know it's only big enough for one person!
It sounds awfully remarkable that you could have a ship like that just for yourself! I just mean... in my time, we were using generation ships, and that was incredibly state-of-the-art!



Wow... that's really amazing! Remarkable, really.
See... when I found out that I was going to get put into stasis, to wake up far later... that was the future I always dreamed about.
One that was full of amazing things. Like... I don't know, holograms, miracle medicine, ships that travel faster than light, colonies on other planets!
That sort of amazing. I mean, I've never liked science fiction, it's just too unrealistic... but when I was a kid, I figured, it'd still be fun to live in it.
Imagine my surprise. But... it sure sounds like you're from that future!
Oh, sorry, I'm rambling, aren't I?
It's just... the idea of finally getting that perfect future I was denied, traveling with someone in deep space? Well, that sounds awfully romantic.
Sorry, I'll stop now. Let's get back to the serious business.



Indeed. We still have some questions to ask you.