Chapter 31
Sparky found herself holding her breath as she glided gently through the zero gravity environment between the Leninov and Discovery One, fully in spite of the fact that she was wearing a space suit. She let the breath out and began to breathe normally as she extended her forelegs to catch herself against the Discovery One’s airlock. She took her MIP and raised it up to the door, bringing up the holographic display to override the door controls.
It ended up being incredibly easy to do so. She would have to have a talk with whoever programmed the security algorithms for the Discovery One’s door. Because they were far weaker than they should be. Sparky smiled as she commanded the door to open, she was not, however, ready for the door to open. The docking hall between the Leninov and Discovery One had been oxygenated, when the door opened, Sparky was promptly sucked inside. There was no atmosphere inside the Discovery One.
It wasn’t to say that they weren’t expecting this. Life support had been shut off completely, no heat, no air, no gravity, and most importantly, no insane VI to try to kill them. Mission Commander Ice Wind had announced her intention to shut the VI down before contact was lost with the ship. Clearly, she had succeeded.
Sparky turned around to watch as Shortfuse and Dizzy glided over towards her. ‘You all right Spark?’ Shortfuse’s voice asked as it crackled over the radio.
‘I’m fine, just startled as all’, Sparky said. ‘All right, first priority, air and heat, then gravity... and then we’ll worry about the VI’.
Dizzy and Shortfuse nodded as they manoeuvred into the interior of Discovery One’s airlock, shutting it behind them. Dizzy and Sparky fumbled around in zero gravity, doing their best to maintain stability, while trying to turn to head down the hall. Shortfuse, however, expertly made the turn and headed down towards the Crew Deck. ‘Come on slowpokes! It’s not that hard!’ she called out to them.
‘Says the pegasus’, Sparky said in annoyance.
Shortfuse merely grinned and waved them along. Sparky frowned and looked over to Dizzy. ‘I’ve got an idea!’ she said as she manoeuvred herself above Dizzy and wrapped her forelegs around her. She planted her back hooves on the wall and pushed them off. The two unicorn mares glided down the hallway towards Shortfuse. ‘Ha! Easy!’ Sparky said triumphantly as she looked down towards Dizzy. ‘You all right?’ Sparky asked.
‘Oh I’m great!’ Dizzy said as the two unicorn mares glided along towards Shortfuse. At the end of the hallway was a small lift that would lower them into the crew deck. Sparky let go of Dizzy and put her foreleg through one of the support rungs that were mounted onto the side of the lift’s walls. Dizzy and Shortfuse did the same, and Sparky hit the button to lower them into the crew deck.
‘Okay, we should be able to get air, heat, and gravity working again from here... just, do us a favour, if you find the controls for gravity, warn us first!’ Sparky said.
Shortfuse and Dizzy nodded their heads in agreement and the trio split off around the ring to try and find the auxiliary system controls that were scattered about the room.
‘Hey Spark? Do you have the ship schematics on your MIP? Sure would make this a lot easier’, Shortfuse said.
‘Unfortunately not... I can try mining the central database for information, with the VI offline it should be easy...’ Sparky said as she rounded the corner and stopped dead in her tracks, or at least, she would have stopped if this weren’t a zero gravity environment. Sparky screamed, before her was a reclining lounge table, and there was a pony strapped down to it.
Shortfuse and Dizzy floated into view, rushing to Sparky’s side when they saw it too.
‘Oh God’, Dizzy said as she looked at the pony strapped down to the table. ‘Who is that?’
‘One of the crew...’ Sparky said with a frown. She gently pushed herself forward, noticing that there was an identification tag around this pony’s neck. Sparky took a look at it, trying to see who he was, and frowned, when she discovered it was written in Cossack. ‘He must have strapped himself down when the ship lost artificial gravity... and then when all the oxygen was vented into space...’
‘I can’t imagine a worse way to die...’ Dizzy said, turning away from the sight before them. She lowered her head and muttered something that Sparky couldn’t make out, and then realised that she was saying a prayer for the deceased cosmonaut.
‘We should take him back over to the Leninov. Hopely can identify the body, and I’m sure the Præsidium would want him for burial, probably honour him as a hero of the workers... or something. Dizzy could you...?’
‘Certainly’, Dizzy said with a nod. ‘You and Shortfuse are the ones we need to get this ship up and running. I’m just here to help’.
Sparky smiled at her fellow unicorn as she and Shortfuse went to work unbuckling the dead cosmonaut and lifting his body up from his seat. Dizzy took hold of him and brought him back over to the lift, and headed out of sight.
Sparky looked back over to Shortfuse and offered her a shrug. ‘Let’s get back to it’, she said.
Shortfuse nodded and pushed herself back up towards the other end of the ring. Sparky glided over towards the nearest control panel. She waved her MIP over it, and began to look for any useful data. After a few minutes of searching she found what she was looking for. ‘Shortfuse! I’ve got the controls for oxygen and climate! Bringing them online now’, she called out as she adjusted the holographic sliders on the panel. The lights of the Discovery One‘s crew compartment suddenly lit up, and a number of air vents at the centre of the room opened up, filling the compartment with oxygen. ‘Ha! Let there be life!’ Sparky said triumphantly.
‘I think I’ve got the controls for gravity here. Get low to the floor!’ Shortfuse called out.
Sparky pushed herself down towards the ground, taking a position under the control console. This was probably not going to be the most pleasant experience. ‘I’m ready!’ Sparky called out.
The room began to rotate, and Sparky held on for dear life, it would take a few moments until the centrifuge got up to full speed. Sparky closed her eyes, and felt herself as she was flipped upside down by the rotation.
After a few moments of acceleration, the centrifuge got up to full speed, Sparky felt weight return to her and she let go of the console and got back to the floor. Artificial gravity wasn’t so bad if you didn’t think about the fact that you were accelerating in a circle at ten metres per second squared.
Sparky looked up at the other end of the ring to see Shortfuse waving to her. She returned the wave and looked back to her MIP, checking the atmospheric readings for the crew compartment and discovered that they had just returned to normal levels. ‘Air is good!’ Sparky said. ‘Helmets can come off’.
Shortfuse acknowledged and removed her helmet, taking a breath of the new air. ‘It’s hardly fresh, but not bad considering it’s recycled’.
Sparky removed her helmet as well, breathing deeply through her nose, she had to admit, after breathing the air aboard the Leninov, something about this air was a welcome change. ‘All right!’ Sparky said with a smile. ‘Got the basics, air, heat, and gravity... now, we move on to the bigger problem’.
Shortfuse trotted along the outer wall of the centrifuge and made her way over to Sparky. ‘Let’s go wake up the VI’.
...
Kelso turned around to discover that there was a small holographic ball with a smiling face on it. ‘Oh no, not a security VI...’ she said, knowing that a section of armed guards had to be on their way.
‘Not so! Ana Kelso! Not so!’ the ball said cheerfully, causing Kelso to recoil instinctively. The VI knew her name!? Though, she figured it was possible that it got it from the security log. ‘And I am not actually a VI’, the ball said.
Kelso’s mouth drooped, if this wasn’t a VI, then it was an employee with a holographic avatar. Either way, security was likely on its way. Kelso got onto the floor and placed her hooves behind her head, figuring she might as well make it easy when they came to arrest her.
‘What are you doing?’ the ball asked.
‘Getting ready to be arrested, you’ve obviously called for security’, Kelso said.
‘I’ve done no such thing!’ the ball said simply. ‘In fact! If I were to call security, I would be in just as much trouble as you are!’
‘What?’ Kelso asked as she got back to her hooves. ‘What are you talking about? Who are you?’
‘My name is Mister Happy! I am an Artificial Intelligence that was accidentally created by FutureTec, they locked me up because they thought I was dangerous! It’s not my fault! I only killed seven ponies during my life! Five of them were an accident!’ the ball said in an oddly cheerful manner considering what it had just said.
‘Um... I’m...’ Kelso began but was quickly interrupted.
‘Ana Kelso! Private Investigator! Formerly a Detective Constable of the Ponyville Police Service Serious and Organised Crime Group, under the Command of Detective Chief Inspector Viola Auditore, who is as corrupt as corrupt can possibly be!’ Mister Happy said excitedly. ‘I know all about you Ana Kelso! You’re looking into the Discovery One incident! Just like Sparky!’
‘Who?’ Kelso asked, tilting her head to the side in confusion.
‘That’s not important! What is important is that I am here to help you! I’ve been stealing all the information on the ship itself and... oops! I may have just accidentally on purpose triggered a countermeasure!’ Mister Happy said.
‘How does one...’ Kelso began before she was interrupted by a blaring klaxon. She looked up to see red emergency lighting flash over head. ‘Aw crap’, Kelso said with a frown.
‘Oh don’t worry!’ Mister Happy said cheerfully. ‘This is going to be fun!’
NEVER A DULL MOMENT WITH MR. HAPPY
first? and yes, a 'accidentally on purpose' joke
Technically, gravity is 9.81 meters per second squared, but who cares about details?
Me!
Ah Mr. Happy, always sprucing up a lul in the action with more action.
506649
It is on earth, on the crew's home world it's actually less. But not by much. Sparky was rounding.
Ya, technically gravity changes depending on the size of the planet... And I'm fairly sure that the acceleration in a rotating ring would be different than the acceleration straight down on a planet.
yeah fun....like old times.
nutbunnies.
Oh Mr. Happy, you never cease to amaze.
Ahahaha this should be fun.
Psh, specifics about gravity, really? What's rounding and getting a little bit off in a fan fiction going to do? Kill yo- *iPhone explodes and sets my hair on fire* Well, crap....
Whitetail = MLP Fighting is Magic reference.
Pinkie Pie levels are currently at 72%, and this info is 20% cooler.
It's going to be a great day today
508987
... Whitetail Wood is from the show. It's the forest that the Running of the Leaves took place in.
513062
You bring up fair points. As for clothes, Sparky and Shortfuse wear them as part of their jobs, (they need the pockets)
Bundesrepublik Schäferhund, is inhabited by fascist, Dire Wolf like creatures instead of ponies.
As for Equestria driving on the left. I'm Australian, so they drive on the left because I can.
513875
I don't know, I never played that.
Okay, I overdid it with the commenting.
But aside from the points I spoke out its definitely worth reading. Keep em coming.
513158
Okay, on a sidenote then: "Bundesrepublik" is German for "Federal Republic". Weird name for a fascist nation.
PS: Had to say it 'Reich' or 'Imperium' would fit better if you want to make it sound evil.
514583
Bundesrepublik Schäferhund isn't evil. Yes, they may be an de jure authoritarian single party state, however, the Schäferhund culture is a highly disciplined, devoted to the good of the public, and de facto, they enjoy a large number of personal freedoms, though they view service to the state as a high honour. So much in fact that the Bundesrepublik needs to offer incentives to work in industries that don't involve arms manufacture, or military service. Because otherwise, almost all schäferhund would do those.
I love how the story is developing actually. I actually enjoyed it and as i dont find fair recieving without giving, I must say that actually im spanish, so if you need any help with writing in 'hispaña', just post me a comment or something and ill try to give you the most accurate translation. Keep up writing!
514926
Whatever one can say. you clearly know what you are writing about. Respect for all this background info alone. I'll definitely keep reading.
506649
also the earths gravity is diferent at places
i believe it ranges from 9.80 or 9.79 to 9.84 as max
happy happy joy joy
fun time with mr. happy! looks like the body count is about to skyrocket.
why do i feel like mr happy is controlled by pinkie pie? (it would be pretty damn awesome!
Oh, good! I'm so glad they went with space suits! I guess I'd forgotten that Ice Wind had promised to shut down the VI. But, oh Luna, I'm afraid that the worst psycho AI isn't in space. Mr. Happy is fine and well on the ground!
I'm actually starting to see the different nationalities in this story. Took me long enough
I should reword that... I figured them out mostly
Wallish/Equestrian Republic: Americans or British
Schauferhund: German
Espania: Spanish obviously
Praesidium: Russian