Errata

Atlas 5.3
Bytehard Systems, Inc.

SAFEBOOT

ESSENTIAL SYSTEM FUNCTIONS ONLY

sysscan

Initializing diagnostic scan...
Checking primary disks...okay
Checking secondary disks...okay
Primary power grid...NOT RESPONDING
Auxilary power...75
Conversion grid...NOT RESPONDING
Storage grid...NOT RESPONDING
Transport grid...okay
Life support...okay
Power core...NOT RESPONDING

ERROR 526: CRITICAL POWER FAILURE

EMERGENCY SHUTDOWN

The technicians stood in a tense semicricle around the main console. Their haggard, often bloody faces were washed in the monitor's dim, pale glow. No one spoke as the station's central computer once again shut itself off halfway through its skeleton startup. The battery-powered emergency lights threw the small, dead forest of computer banks into red-lit peaks and shadowed valleys. The observation screens were dark. It was a long time before anyone spoke.

"We've...lost power. How did we lose power?" a high-level administator ventured at last. Computer specialists exchanged nervous glances.

"Maybe," one of them offered. "Maybe if the shielding for the conversion floor was weak and the radiation overloaded the turbines..."

Other voices chimed in, thinking out loud to keep thoughts from turning ugly. Theories were proposed, examined and discarded, slowly at first, then more quickly as the shock of what had happened began to wear off.

"It could have been that GRB we tracked earlier, it coulda fried some of the superconductors..."

"Doesn't explain why the system keeps crashing on aux. Even if there was a power surge, the system should be intact..."

"There must be a hardware problem. We'll have to check everything manually. That's the only way to..."

"No, it's gotta be software. There's something wrong with the system itself..."

"There's something weird going on here. How did transport and life support stay up when everything else went down? Aren't they on the same hard grid?"

The door to the observation deck burst open then, to admit the young tech-in-training who had been sent to physically check the sections of the station that had not been closed off by automatic systems designed to contain fires and prevent atmospheric loss. He stood there for a moment, breathless.

"Well," the adminstrator asked. "How are we doing structurally?"

"One of the personal transport units is gone," the young man replied. "Somebody...somebody jumped ship."

Silence. Heads turned, counting, assessing.

"Where's...Gaia?"

Outside the heavily shielded walls, the station continued to fall around the planet, debris from its shattered, glittering core spiraling out into the brutal emptiness behind it.

THE DAILY PLANET
OCTOBER 18, 2446
ORBITAL POWER SAYS STATION SECURE
By Sully Archer
METROPOLIS ---

Representatives from Orbital Power issued a press release today denying reports of a disturbance at the Atlas Orbital Power Station, in geosynchronous orbit since 2198. "This station has survived solar flares, mechanical failures, even a meteor strike," one official said. "No unusual activity was reported yesterday. Atlas has been in the sky a long time. There's not much could even dent it. Our power supply is perfectly safe."

No astronomical events were observed yesterday, but sources within the energy giant tell the Planet that several high-level executives were called to emergency meetings late last night. So far the subject of those meetings has not been disclosed. In fact, OP's public relations officer denies they even took place.

Meanwhile, yesterday's series of brownouts has consumers worried that another energy crisis is on the way...

THE DAILY PLANET
OCTOBER 19, 2446
PLANET REPORTER FABRICATES FACTS
By Staff
METROPOLIS ---

An internal review of a story reported by the Planet's own Sully Archer has concluded that Archer failed to follow basic journalistic principles in the preparation and reporting of yesterday's article, "Orbital Power Says Station Secure." Several statements from the article could not be authenticated, including claims that senior executives from Orbital Power were called to emergency meetings on the seventeenth...

Archer's current whereabouts are unknown, but the senior editorial staff of the Planet assures its readers that he is no longer working for the paper...