Heavenly View

by Rambling Writer


4 - Impulse

During the early days of post-cascade salvage, back when the sheer density of debris meant you were risking death just by being in the wrong orbit, ponies didn’t worry that much about the integrity of the hulks they picked up. A wreckage was a wreckage, right? Just slap a few tow cables on it and you were good to go.

But while that was true for the vast majority of the wrecks, you could never be sure just by looking at it. If high-speed debris had punched through it in exactly the wrong way, it could do serious damage to the integrity of the infrastructure. Once, while a trawling crew was on approach to Regal Harmonics, the ship they’d picked up had broken clean in half, the untethered part drifting straight towards the habitat leg of the station. Thankfully, emergency crews got it under control before it could do any damage, but it resulted in a serious re-evaluation of trawling procedures. Now, several years and safety regulations later, you needed to fully secure your salvages rather than just hooking some tow cables to them and gunning it for the spacedocks.

Step one was simple: go over the wreck and see if anything major was broken, and if so, how badly. At least, it sounded simple, until you got to asking what the hay “anything major” meant. Then you looked at “how badly” and asked what that meant. Then you realized it changed from ship to ship to ship, and that was where most ponies gave up. Trawlers had to know a lot of ships and about ship design in order to pinpoint the right stress points, the parts that could be blown away and still not leave the ship at risk of breaking apart, what damage was catastrophic and what didn’t need a second glance.

Mesonox knew her ships. For instance, since Solar Wind had an engine block based on a Firefly shuttle, the framework around that engine block would be heavily reinforced with plenty of redundancies. That made the lookover perfect for a rookie to take on; the infrastructure was relatively simple with lots of backups, so either Solar Wind was definitely going to break apart there or definitely not going to break apart there.

Still, Mesonox refused to take that ease for granted. She walked to Wind’s stern, carefully examining the hull along the way, stopping to test for loose hull plating whenever she moved from one plate to the next. Most hull plates didn’t have the mass to do serious damage, but keeping them secured looked nicer. In spite of the plethora of holes she passed, everything was down tight.

Abruptly, her radio crackled. “Found- an airlock,” grunted Glen. “Power- wasn’t working- so- I’m opening it- manually.

Need any help, Pawn?” asked Stella. “I can send the rookie over to-

Nah.” Glen grunted again, more loudly, and something groaned at the other end of the line. “Just got it open,” he panted. Didn’t feel like that wheel’d been used much.

Copy that. Keep us posted.

Will do, King. Out.

Mesonox felt her wings tense up inside her spacesuit. There was always the chance, no matter how small, that some ship they’d be pulling back to Lunar Crown in the future was going to be full of dead bodies caught in the cascade. Maybe she’d be the one examining the inside to find them. Just the thought of that was… ugh.

She distracted herself by swinging herself fully onto the engine block. Holes littered the hull like drops from a light rainstorm, usually only an inch or so across, sometimes several feet. She wasn’t sure whether this was usual, so she tapped a few buttons on her fetlock computer to turn on a camera and start recording her work. She could ask Stella about it later.

That set, she crouched down to take a closer look at the holes. Nothing out of the ordinary on the smaller holes, and when she shone a light in, the insides looked fine — relatively speaking and as far as she could see, anyway. She hadn’t expected anything different (small holes meant small debris meant small chances for damage), but she wanted to be thorough. The larger holes, though, needed more work. When she got to one of those, Mesonox did a slow circle around it, carefully examining the walls from every angle. If they were large enough, she stuck her head in to get an even better look. The bigger the hole, the bigger the risk of some important strut getting sliced in two and impacting Solar Wind’s integrity.

Astonishingly, the engines themselves had seemingly escaped the worst of the damage. There were a few punctures in the thruster grids, but when Mesonox had been expecting them to be just about shredded, it was barely anything. She didn’t even see any major holes through them. Near them, sure, but not through. Reaching one of those near holes, Mesonox wormed her head in to examine the damage.

Not much of a change from what she’d seen in the other holes. More wiring, some tubing, anything that had lain in the way of the debris neatly annihilated. No major breakages. The biggest difference was in the hole itself; rather than being straight, this one curved, just a tiny little bit. When Mesonox examined the curve more closely, she found some sort of composite plating that didn’t look too different from hull plating. Extra protection for the engines, maybe? They still didn’t know what Wind had been testing.

But even with the curve, the debris had still torn through the plating; at those speeds, nothing could help that much. She shined her light into the hole, onto the engine itself. She had to be thorough, although she was only expecting more of the-

Huh.

Mesonox frowned at one part of the engine. An arc of three rows of strange gemlike cylinders, each about two inches long and less than an inch in diameter, decorated it, glinting oddly in the light. Slim wires coiled around each individual cylinder, looking like solenoids. From the way the rows curled along the thruster housing, each one formed a complete ring around the thruster (assuming none of the circles had been damaged).

Engines didn’t have those. Gems were almost entirely used for magic and engines didn’t have much use for magic. Spells were used during their construction for things like fortifying their strength or increasing wire conductivity, but full-blown arcane artifice like this just didn’t happen. How would it even work? The gems were unprotected, so at the slightest leak of aether, any magic risked going out of control if not carefully focused. Was that what the wires were for? Or maybe… Mesonox squinted at one of the gems, but she couldn’t make out any runes carved into its surface (not that she knew anything about runes, anyway). Hmm. Weird. Especially galling since it meant her studies of engines were useless here.

Ah, well. Mesonox tapped a button on her fetlock computer several times, snapping some pictures of the gems. (Quartz, maybe? They seemed to hold onto the glow as the flash died.) Solar Wind was dead and ultimately the property of the Equestrian government. The precise workings of her engines weren’t part of Mesonox’s job, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t allowed to be curious, just that she wasn’t allowed to waste time thinking about them on the clock. She’d ask Glen about them once Solar Wind was secured and View was taking her back to Lunar Crown. Maybe Littora, too. And, what the hay, she’d run it by Stella and Gimbal as well. The more, the merrier.

That was the only thing off Mesonox could see, so she pulled her head back out. Out of curiosity, she examined the area around the engine. Nothing out of place… except for a few strange vents that deliberately opened up that inside chamber to the aether. She took a few pictures and filed them away to speculate on later.

A few more hole pokings, and Mesonox was surprised to see that she’d gone over almost the whole engine block. Just to be sure, she did a circuit of the area, confirming that she remembered everything. Yes, she did. Easy. A bit dull, but easy. Her suit kept her wings by her sides, but she still flexed them with self-satisfaction as she flicked on her radio. “Stella? Um, King?” she said. “I’ve finished with the engines. No structural problems at all.”

Nice job, rookie,” Stella replied. “Have you checked around the RCS thrusters?

Mesonox immediately turned bright red. “Not yet,” she said. Honesty poked at her and she reluctantly added, “I… forgot.”

Then get to it and let this remind you next time,” said Stella. She didn’t sound accusative or disappointed, more… advisory. Like forgetting it once was no big deal, but don’t let it become a habit.

Swallow. “Will do.” Mesonox began magtrotting towards Wind’s edge.

You still there, Pawn?” Stella asked. “Is no news good news, or did you die terribly?

Died terribly,” Glen replied. “Luckily, somepony from the Necromancy Corps was hanging around and brought me back to life as thanks for finally picking her up. Anyway, it’s good news no news: I’m not seeing any bodies. Inside’s been ripped up by debris, but it’s all spaceship insides, not sophont insides.” A pause. “Hay, I’m pretty sure they left the lights off.

“You can tell without power?” Mesonox asked. “Were the light switches still analog?” It wasn’t standard procedure on prototype ships, but only in the sense that it wasn’t official, yet everyone did it anyway. Computerized switches meant more coding meant more chances for bugs, and when you were working on a brand-new ship, the last thing you wanted was to try to turn on the lights in Corridor C and accidentally fire up Engine Block C because of some bad coding. If you believed the tales, it’d even happened once, in some disastrous test that got hushed up. (In spite of her best efforts, Mesonox couldn’t find any hard facts to confirm that little astral legend, but it kept popping up, and switches on prototype ships stayed analog, Just In Case. Just because the sailors now journeyed through aether rather than over water didn’t make them any less superstitious.) If the switches were analog, very little real testing had occurred, if any.

Yep. The one I’m looking at is, anyway. Can’t see any labels on it, but it’s down — I know we’re in space, shutup — which I’m guessing means ‘Off’.

It probably wasn’t long before they were going to start testing her,” said Stella. “Then, well, the cascade happened.

Glen snorted. “Hah. Can you imagine? ‘Hey, boss, we’re not going to be able to test our fancy new spaceship today, because, uh, SPACE IS CLOSED. Yes, all of it.’

Mesonox chuckled. “‘Also,’” she added, “‘we kinda lost the ship when space was closed, soooo…’”

Bad day all around,” said Glen. “I swear to Twilight, insurance in those days must’ve been a nightmare.

It still is,” said Stella. “I hear there are still scams going around about ponies claiming their ships or satellites were caught in the debris and definitely not banged up beforehoof.

Stella’s and Glen’s conversation was like a balm on Mesonox’s mind as she worked through the tedium of investigating still more holes, this time on Wind’s sides. For the most part, it was the same as the engine block, with lots of holes but little structural damage. At one point, she poked her head around in one of the holes near an RCS thruster and spotted some more of those solenoidical gems. Hmm. Strange. She snapped a few more pictures and shrugged it off.

Other than that, there wasn’t much to talk about around the sides. Much like the engine block, it was largely intact. She let her mind drift back to the conversation, actually listening to it rather than merely perceiving it.

-like those old Zebrabwean princess scams,” Glen was saying. (Mesonox only had a vague idea of how he’d gotten there.) “Try it enough times and someone’s gonna bite.

I guess,” Stella said skeptically. “But you’d think insurance companies would be more-

Mesonox cleared her throat. “I’ve finished with Wind’s aft half, King. No problems whatsoever.”

Good, good. Same for her front half. She’s riddled with holes, but everything’s secure.

While we’re on the subject,” said Glen, “nothing’s wrong in here, either. No bodies, no dangerous cargo, no loose fuel rods, nothing. I’m leaving.

Perfect. Queen-

I hear you,” said Gimbal. Moving into position for the tethers.” With just a few deft maneuvering bursts, Heavenly View neatly slid around and pivoted until her main engines were pointing at Solar Wind. Several more small bursts took her a little further from Wind. “There we go. Aiming the tethers as we speak. I see you, King, and you, rookie.” (Mesonox gave View and Gimbal a smile and a wave.) “Pawn, let me know when you’re out.

It was only a moment of waiting before, “Just got out.” Mesonox glanced down the hull and spotted Glen, halfway between the bow and the stern, waving at View so Gimbal could see him. “Fire when ready.

Alrighty, then, computer says you’re all out of the way… Firing the upper tethers in 3, 2, 1-” From three modules on the upper half of the ship, three thick cables began drifting lazily towards Wind, given a light nudge by their magnetic coil launchers. Mesonox readied her grapple, just in case Gimbal had misaimed.

But given Gimbal’s experience, it was no surprise that she hadn’t. Mesonox didn’t even need to move and the cable softly hit just a few feet from her. She snatched the clamp at the end and placed it flush against Wind’s surface. It immediately adhered to the hull, thanks to a not-magnetic enchantment that was basically a scaled-up version of the ones in her magboots. Synching her fetlock computer with the clamp’s internal systems, she ran a few diagnostics. Once they were done, she sounded off, following Stella’s and Glen’s examples.

They repeated the dance on the lower half of the ship with just as much ease and soon all six cables were secured. Mesonox grinned to herself; this was easy. She imagined Gimbal had the same expression; her voice was light and breathy, almost a laugh, as she said, “And there we go. Textbook.

Even Stella sounded happy as she said, “Copy that.

Opening the pod bay doors so you can strap some engines onto this bad girl and we can get home.” Mesonox heard a rumble through the aether and watched as a large bay on Heavenly View’s top opened up. “Just FYI, I’m going to step away to get a drink. Don’t call me ’til I’m back.

Could you repeat that?” said Glen. He snickered at the lack of response.

The aethernauts didn’t jump when they returned to View; they just pulled themselves along the cables. Inside the bay were several chunky crates, almost big enough to hold a pony; the ponies undid the magnetic clamps on three of them delicately massaged them out of the bay. The crates were massive — as in, even in zero-G, they had a lot of mass and inertia. It was a little bit of a juggling act to get them back over to Wind, but between the three of them and some creative grapple use, they managed. Mesonox took her crate to her tethers and opened it up.

The contents, drone pods, were one final safety precaution, a way for dragged ships to fight against inertia without friction. The pods were to be placed all around Wind’s hull, so that as View traveled back, bursts of thrust from the pods could keep the two ships in line along the same vector of travel, even as View made course corrections. Salvage was easier when the ship you were salvaging wasn’t swinging around like a flail.

Mesonox pulled the first pod from her crate, basically a slim, three-foot-long engine with a computer and a rope attached, and set about adhering it to the hull. It wasn’t that different from clamping the tethers to Wind, really, although there was an extra step of checking their connections to View’s computer. But that was easy, almost entirely automated. Then she had to connect the pod to the tether (you couldn’t have more space debris flying around if the adhesion failed), which required nothing more than a heavy-duty carabiner. Mesonox was done in about a minute and already moving to the next one. Once they were all in place, all that was left to do was to tow Wind back to Crown.


“Just FYI, I’m going to step away to get a drink,” said Queen. “Don’t call me ’til I’m back.” Without waiting for a response, she stood up and strode back to the galley. She promptly beelined to the coffee machine, dumped in some water without adding any coffee, and turned it on. Quickest way to heat up a little bit of water on View.

As the coffee maker warmed up (har har), Queen took a quick detour to an intercom. “Hey, Knight? You down there?”

The intercom crackled. «Sure. You need something?»

“With the rookie, we’ll be spending less time idling out here, right?”

«Hopefully, yeah.»

“Out of curiosity, how much fuel would we be saving, if any? A lot, a little, none at all…?”

«Hmm. That’s hard to say.» Knight smacked her lips. «Pretty low. Most of the reactor’s energy goes into the engines, but if I had to guess… No more than five percent. We’ll need to do more salvages and run some numbers to be sure.»

About what Queen had expected. Ah, well. You couldn’t have everything. “Still, time saved is time saved, right? They’re almost done already.”

«They are?» Knight whistle-clicked. «Nice.»

“Yeah, Wind wasn’t banged up too bad, so between that and another set of hooves, we’ve only got like ten minutes before she’s secure.”

«Ha! Remind me to thank the rookie for her help.»

“Knight, remember to thank the rookie for her help.”

«I will drown you.»

Queen laughed. “I’ll keep that in mind. Say, I’m in the galley right now; need me to bring you something?”

«Nah. I’ve got some seaweed down here. But thanks for the offer.»

Queen had never really been sure of how Knight kept the reactor clean when she was eating seaweed down there. (Not even seaweed bars, actual seaweed.) But it was clean, and that was really all that mattered. “Anytime.”

The coffee machine dinged. Queen poured herself a mug of not-quite boiling water, then stirred in a mix of synthcocoa. Once it had settled down, she sniffed her mug and smiled at the aroma. Synthcocoa wasn’t quite as rich as the real thing, but it succeeded in one important way: unlike regular cocoa, you could buy it cheaply in bulk up on Lunar Crown. Space travel had progressed that the present cost wasn’t nearly as expensive as the “ten thousand bits per pound of payload” it’d once been, but you still couldn’t just fling things up willy-nilly. Synthcocoa was a good enough substitute, especially for the price.

She took a sip, savored the way her tongue was almost scalded, and headed back for the cockpit. Technically speaking, leaving the cockpit while salvage was in progress was against regulations, but everypony else had it in the bag. At this stage of the process, there wasn’t much that could happen. Hay, with the help of the rookie, they might even be done by now. There weren’t any alarms screaming, at any rate.

Well, there was one.

Bing.

A quiet one.

Bing.

What was that? She knew the sound, but she couldn’t place a specific alert to it. She’d never heard it while trawling, that was for certain.

Bing.

Something in her head clicked. It was an… energy notification. Yeah, that was it. The computer had detected an uptick in energy signatures. Probably just from the tethers or pods.

Bing.

…But she’d never heard it before because the scanners were designed to filter out readings from-

Dropping her mug, Queen bolted for the cockpit.


Just over halfway done, on Wind’s far side, Mesonox was whistling to herself as she connected the next pod. She knew she was lagging behind Stella and Glen a little, but she had an excuse. For a first day, this was going splendidly. In fact, it was almost a disappointment; what if it only got worse from here because this job was so good? But she brushed it off; things could get quite a bit worse and she’d still be fine.

She squinted at the fuel readings on her pod. It was full, of course, but it got her thinking. “Stella? Glen? Have you ever run out of fuel for these? They’re kinda small.”

Nah,” said Glen. “Crystalline thaumatic storage is really efficient, and it’s not like they’re powering much, anyway. The typical burn from one of those is only two or three seconds, so, erg-wise, that’s only-

Suddenly, Gimbal’s voice broke in through the radio. “Everyone, whatever you’re doing, drop it and get back to View NOW,” she said, nearly panicking. The thrumming of a holographic-haptic keyboard buzzed through the speaker; Gimbal was pressing a lot of buttons very fast. “We just picked up some strange energy readings and I have NO idea what’s up with them. Knight, get to your terminal ASAP.

Mesonox paused, one hoof still on the pod. Her training was nearly reflexive and made her want to finish checking the diagnostics, but when you heard a voice like that… She began hobbling across Wind’s hull, leaving the drone pods behind, wishing magboots weren’t so awkward.

On another end of the line, Stella said something uncouth, then, “Where did they come from?

I don’t know, they’re inside Wind- Knight, where are you?

Mi yah,” said Littora. “Mi a luk at eh now.

Mesonox’s ears twitched as she heard one quiet clang through the aether, then another. Stella and Glen reaching View? Hopefully. She still didn’t have a good angle to jump. She hobbled along.

Littora spoke up again. “Mi, mi tink mi hav ih. Ih… luk lakka…

Silence. Stella cleared her throat. “Knight?

DI ENGINE A BUSS!” Littora shrieked. GIT OUTTA DEH!

Mesonox didn’t understand the first sentence, but tone alone was enough to convey its meaning. She fully got the second one. And like a neat little bow on the whole shebang, the spaceship that was supposed to be dead twitched beneath her.

For the briefest of instants, she froze; none of her training had ever covered anything like this. Then pure flight instinct took over and she did her best to run in an environment that hated running. She felt like she was re-entering the tiniest of gravity fields as Wind’s speed slowly inched upwards. Bad bad bad. Dead ships didn’t accelerate.

Heavenly View was right in front of her. Stella and Glen had already made the jump. Mesonox took a few quick breaths to psych herself up, then jumped. Fortunately, her aim was true and she was heading straight for-

Something flared behind her as Gimbal yelled, “MOTHER OF-

A wall slammed into her back with the force of a freight train and sent her spinning. Before she could even register it, she’d smashed into View hard enough to hear something break. She’d bounced away before she could secure her magboots and she kept on spinning.

For a few seconds, nothing more happened. Mesonox panted in her helmet, which suddenly felt very small. View and Wind kept passing in and out of her vision, somehow tangled up together, twisting and yanking on each other in strange ways. And they were getting smaller.

“No!” she screamed. She reached out in front of her, the only direction that was consistent as the two vessels swung into and out of view. With each pass, they shrank. “No, help! Help! SOMEPONY HELP ME!

But nopony came, and all Mesonox could do was scream as she drifted away from the only solid objects for miles.