>>5554216“Well speak of the devil…” You murmur to yourself, half-amused, half-exasperated.
Determined to deal with the ship’s power problems before Eon arrives to play nursemaid, you contact your Acting Chief Engineer. “Fan, come in. What is the ship’s power status?”
The reply is almost instant, the panicked voice of the jumped up Tyllano damage control Ensign Flies-at-Night begins to holler at you incomprehensibly through your helmet speakers.
“WHOAH whoah, slow down there Chief. Start at the beginning.” You quickly cut in.
The owl-like being takes an audibly deep breath and slows down his talking to a pace his translator can relay. “Captain Annon, did you order the WEAVERs to start throwing bodies into the void core fuel line?!”
You wince at being called the name you always associated with your father, before Fan’s words register completely.
“What?” You gasp, not believing your ears. “Say again! The WEAVERs are doing what?!”
“The WEAVERs are using your command codes to override the void core restart process. Instead of a slow addition of scrap void plate as the manual directs they aRE THROWING IN OUR DEAD CREW!” The Tyllano man loses it at the end, descending into loud, distressed hooting.
<span class="mu-b">Engineering: The void core is a type of nuclear furnace, able to take in matter and convert it almost entirely into heat energy - essentially burning it down to the atomic level and beyond. While the fuel can be any matter, the density greatly affects how quickly the fuel is consumed - with organic matter burning especially fast. To ‘warm up’ a ‘cold’ void core is usually a lengthy process, gradually awakening its ability to convert matter to energy with the steady application of an organo-metallic fuel source i.e void plate. In this case, however, the rapid application of organic matter could be a potentially damaging if much faster start-up option.</span>
You ignore the distraught engineer for a second to gather your thoughts. While the interpretation of your orders by the WEAVERs is distasteful, it could be the best of only bad options.
Where else would you be able to get large quantities of organic matter? The ship’s cargo hold of life bringing aid destined for planets that would collapse without it? The Cryo bay, full of diverse livestock destined to be breeding stock for those same otherwise doomed bastions of life in the dark void?
