Alpha One - Chris Burton [60]
“Okay, will do.” Green 8, under Jake’s command, banked, returned to main drive thrust and began her return leg back to Alpha Two.
Siobhan Maguire stared at her visor monitor and enlarged the font just to ensure what she read was correct.
“Jake, we have another problem.”
“What kind of problem?” Jake piloted the Sabre 2 back to the Moon base. The plasma burns took out one of his two thrusters, meaning bringing the jump ship in to the hangar would be interesting.
“The aft thrusters are off-line too. I think we burned out a power unit, by overstretching the drive mechanism.”
“You think…do you know for sure?”
“I need to pull off the internal side panels to be sure. We can access both sets of thrusters internally.”
“Okay, this is your thing, Siobhan. Make sure there is no decompression risk when we hit atmospheric conditions.
Enson Maguire was an engineering specialist. She was a good jump ship pilot. She was still involved in the Top Gun tournament, albeit as a bit player; she was no match for the best pilots in the tournament. She was graduating as an engineer. Jake was grateful for all of it. She could make their landing at Alpha Two infinitely easier if she could get the aft thrusters on-line again.
Maguire pulled off the fascia panel and began to disconnect the thruster compartment unit. The unit was accessible both externally and internally, making it complex. She needed to ensure the external pressures were equalized before accessing the unit, in case the external panel’s seal was damaged. Fortunately the seal was still in place and, within five minutes, she successfully accessed the unit. She didn’t need her palm monitor to analyze the problem; the power unit had burned out.
“Okay, this is not good. The power unit is fried. The coupling welded itself to the free wheel. I don’t know whether the spares inventory has any free wheels. Even if it does, Sabres are not really my forté. I prefer Rapiers from a mechanical perspective.”
Maguire stood up and accessed the spare parts bin. The thruster came with a backup Power unit, within the thruster compartment. She only needed to find the right power coupling within spares to allow the new power unit to attach correctly to the thrusters. Fortunately, the maintenance division at the Academy was thorough, and a full complement of parts was available.
“I am going to need to open up the compartment on the other side to see how the coupling connects to the power unit. My palm monitor diagrams are unclear. I may need you to set up a temporary shield around the damaged thruster to ensure we don’t create a vacuum.”
“Okay, let me know. Is there anything else I can do?”
“No, get some rest. It’s going to be your piloting expertise that will get us out of this one. Especially if we end up with no thrusters.”
Jake didn’t reply. The thrusters were critical to a jump ship. They were used to adjust trajectory and maneuver into the correct position. More importantly, they were the means for both take off and landing. The unit had a 90-degree swivel device which pointed the thrusters toward the landing surface when a jump ship took off or came in to land. If the thruster power unit was not working, then landing must be conventional via a landing strip. This was extremely difficult on a surface where gravity was much lower than it was on Earth.
Ten minutes later, and following Jake’s creation of a shield to prevent a vacuum forming, Maguire accessed the opposite thruster panel and noted the set up of the power coupling. She then looked again at the damaged thruster. She realized there was no prospect of her repairing the thruster power unit and proceeded to prepare to install the new unit.
Armed with the correct installation method, Maguire set about disconnecting the old power unit and coupling, then connecting the new one. Within forty minutes, the aft thruster was repaired. She also decided there was no possibility of repair to the damaged front thruster. While