Somewhere over the rainbow, Arc 5 of "Gone with the Sun"
Chapter 57 To the company store
Cronos
The old Cerberus headquarters station was at thermal equilibrium. It had been set tumbling very slowly in the void following Cerberus' climactic battle, à la 'rotisserie mode' for the old NASA Apollo modules; the essentially circular orbit was so situated as to set black-body equilibrium around twenty degrees Celsius.
Shepard and Ashley reported back to Hackett, "Initial exploration: nothing living." but that was not the end of the matter. Comfortable for humans the temperature might be, but without power searching was like speleology – navigating underground caves.
That is, it was a difficult, strenuous task, especially when armed and in environment suits. Worse, it was unproductive; absent station power, there could be no search of the onboard computer systems, databases, and VIs, and other searches were limited in time.
At that point Nairobi arrived by FTL, a welcome addition to the strength despite minimal manning. Nominally crewed by several hundred (not counting marines,) most of her engineering and watch officers had been transported back to the Citadel by relays of frigates and shuttles. They did return with fresh personnel as needed.
Pegasus and Peacemaker also made supply and evacuation runs back and forward along the chain that day, bringing Tali and others including a news crew headed by Khalisa al-Jilani. Her documentary group began interviews on Nairobi.
Something would have to be done about station power. Crewmen began tethering techpacks and pallets of supplies to Cronos station's dock entrances, thereby freeing space in the frigates' and Nairobi's holds.
The away teams, including Shepard, Javik, and Miranda, met to ponder the little which the first day had yielded, then retired to their cabins. Tali had joyous reunions on Normandy.
Even Javik cheered up.
Company
There would be no exercise period today; he'd sweated quite enough. Shepard stripped and stored his armour, then flopped on his bunk – still a souped-up hospital bed – thinking A shower would be good at this point, but he collapsed, nodding off almost at once. Half an hour later his military habits woke him when Miranda entered ("Oooooooh. That was a long day.")
Shepard sat up. As bone-tired as he'd been, it was good to have the company. He swung his legs off. Joints creaked as he stood.
"You bet. Time for shower and chocolate, in that order."
Miranda began to de-armor. Still in gown and underwear, Shepard picked his way around her and began preparing an evening drink. Cinnamon, sugar, cloves, a bit of that whiskey…
"Get me one too, would you?"
"It's in progress." Initial noises began to emanate from the perking machine beside the bed. He studied her movements as she detached the last greave and laid it down.
"How do you do that?"
"What?"
"Perfect precision even when you're at the end of your tether."
"Oh, nonsense."
"Your eyes are tired, and your hair needs a shampoo, but you haven't fumbled a single clip on your armor."
This was the graceful black flex-armor she wore on away missions in vacuo. Beautiful, but fiddly.
"My fingers are smaller, I guess." It was true. His own comparatively massive fingers would have had difficulty with the gear. "Also, I'm a practically perfect person, remember?"
"Mmm. That you are."
Miranda looked up and grinned at him as he made for the shower. "You too. You're not looking so bad yourself, now."
Shepard began to disrobe for the shower. "Jana says I'm still not to do anything military, and the spinal interfaces have a long way to go."
Miranda's voice echoed around the door: "But you have filled out a bit. And you did fine today. I think we can step things up a little."
He dialed up 'medium warm' and soaped down. "Does that mean five-kilo dumbells?"
The door opened, and before he quite realised what was happening, Miranda stepped in and took the soap. "Maybe. But first, shampoo. Here."
Shepard laughed, a little incredulously. "I guess we deserved this."
Miranda put her arms around him, there under the water, and looked up smiling. "More than you know. Just do as you're told and shampoo my hair." She closed her eyes. So he poured a judicious measure and began massaging it in. "Mmmm, that's nice."
Things were happening down below. Her eyes opened again. "You've got a serious case of lackanookie going on. Thought so. Down boy."
"Can't help that. It's been months. Weren't you the one who said I shouldn't be naughty?"
"Something's been making you moody. And you were the one who said Kelly was being funny about it. I can't figure it out any better than you. Diagnostics over." Her hand moved the shower to cold. "We'll do something about this later. We can't get you home with her, and it's too soon anyway."
So they had their toddy and Shepard retired to his bed. By the time Miranda's hair was dry, he was snoring lightly.
"Dammit."
After a few moments she began sorting through her mail, ordered supplies for the morning at her desk comm… then headed for her own bed. Hesitated.
She turned and descended – still in pyjamas – to the QEC room, where she could put through some confidential calls.
Repower
A team of UNAS nuclear weaponeers arrived by shuttle with two nested eight foot long tubes which they would not discuss.
These comprised a very small nuke. Small, that is, in the sense that the explosion was derided as negligible by the Russian marines, though it seemed fairly impressive to Javik. Taking the form of a blunt cigar shape, it was set up to point at the center of rotation, which contained Cronos' Reaper "heart" – the power supply reactor.
With no magnetic field the only possible damage was by prompt radiation. Its oddly elongated explosion emitted two glowing puffs at each end, dispersing eight kilometres from its target. There was no obvious effect on the station, though Javik's four eyes discerned a curious transient glow at its barycenter. No-one else remarked on it.
The weaponeers then got back on their shuttle and zipped back down the chain to Earth. No explanation was forthcoming. Javik thought of asking Shepard but he seemed preoccupied.
It took nearly all day before the engineering teams were able to finish. They tugged the old Reaper heart out and dispatched it on a slow inward trajectory to the center of Anadius. They then had to reassemble, insert and start a scrammed reactor salvaged from Firebase White. With the new power systems they could bring up layer-1, under Miranda's direction.
Nearly an hour more passed before layer-2 was up. Layer-3 was down for the count except in a very few isolated areas, such as security vaults.
The engineers were given some rest at this point.
Next chapter: #58, "Uh Oh, my soul"
Saturday, August 1, 2015
