what the hell is that white crap?

>>624633
But of course, this isn't ice, this is Black Ice.

It could be because the propellant is cryogenic. Rockets need their propellant(s) to be as light as possible (because of the tyranny of the rocket equation), and Hydrogen is the most mass-efficient propellant there is. However, this engine appears to be using Helium-3, so is likely some sort of fusion torch (using He3 as both the fuel and the propellant). Storing Helium can be done as a gas in massive balloon tanks, but it is far easier to store it compressed and supercooled as a liquid, and this is also a lighter way to store it (you need REALLY massive tanks to store gaseous Helium, so the tanks weight a lot simply from being so large. It is also unmanageable to pump this way).

If a small amount of liquified He3 is leaking, this could be causing ice to form from moisture in the air. Otherwise, if the fuel pumps are designed to operate at cryogenic temperatures (i.e. are not combined pumps/regenerative preheaters) this may just be normal conditions during operation.

If the engines use superconducting magnets to contain the fusion reaction, this could be a bigger problem. If the He3 fuel/propellant is passed through the magnets first in order to cool them 'for free', then a loss of propellant flow would also risk quenching the magnets. even if that does not result in permanent damage (e.g. if the current cutoff safety activates quickly), it would still mean a lot of time and propellant wasted rechilling the magnets before the engine can start up again

Put gloves on if you haven't already. Don't touch the ice, or metal close to ice, with bare skin. Don't try to force any mechanism that might be jammed by ice; brumal stiffening means metal bits might snap under force that would be well within tolerances at STP. Don't try to heat up frozen stuff in a hurry or thermal shock could shatter the whole buklhead.

Toxoglossa 2015/02/17(Tue)09:56 No. 625394 ID: 557bac
File 142419579751.png - (145.46KB , 527x600 , 1-56.png )

You clip your oxygen tank to your belt and hook your mask to your face then put on a pair of gloves. You chip off some of the ice surrounding the console and a high pitched whine is released. It sounds like a seal in the He3 intake is leaking, allowing the supercooled liquid to escape and form strange exotic shapes in zero-g, freezing up the pump.

You try to clean the area around the leak as much as possible and apply a small amount of epoxy to the area. The helium still leaks through a little bit, but you push a rubber gasket into the mess and hold it in place with your pliers for a minute while it hardens.

Toxoglossa 2015/02/17(Tue)09:56 No. 625395 ID: 557bac
File 142419581396.png - (153.18KB , 493x600 , 1-57.png )

With that sealed, you shouldn't have any more ice build up, but you still need to re-engage the pump. There is a lever here that will cycle it and should get it started; however, it is still coated with a layer of frost and you aren't sure if it's a good idea to force it or not.

You find it kind of odd that there would be enough ambient water around to freeze the valve in the first place.

What possible water sources are there in that part of the ship?

>>625395
You should probably not risk breaking it for now. Chip off some more of the ice to help the rest melt, then look nearby for any possible water leaks. I don't suppose you can ask if humidity levels are high?

maybe there's water leaking as well. any way for you to heat the panel up before you prime it? got a blow torch on you that you could use?

Do NOT attempt to warm up delicate electronics with direct application of fire.

First of all, tell Cassius what's going on and keep formal notes. Any malfunction serious enough to stop the engines from working is serious enough that engineers developing the next generation of starships will want to know about it, to say nothing of those doing major repairs or refits on current models.

Then, go to the life support controls and start cycling warmer, dryer air through this section. Maybe fetch some sort of scientific equipment to confirm that the 'ice' is frozen H2O and not, say, carbon dioxide or something.

Wait a sec, it's registering 2.145 kelvin? That could be frozen helium on the panel, or more relevantly, inside the pump! Don't try to cycle the pump until it's back up above 4.25 kelvin, one way or another.

Also, that's colder than the cosmic microwave background radiation. Temperatures like that, outside laboratory conditions, indicate either defective measuring instruments or magic.

>>625395
something's off. don't start the pump until you know what is going on. is that really water ice? check if there are any more leaks. why does it look like that spot isn't the only originating spot of ice forming?

Toxoglossa 2015/02/18(Wed)18:43 No. 625576 ID: 557bac
File 142431383925.png - (192.73KB , 600x539 , 1-58.png )

You take a look at the temperature reading.
Then you do a double take.

What the heck?

Somehow the temperature is several Kelvin below even the howling cold of space.

Cassius comes in over the PA system
> How's it going down there, Aether? I'm still showing a no-go on the fuel.

Your tiny voice pipes up.
"Yeah, hang on. There was a small Helium leak that iced up the pump so it won't cycle. I don't want to force it until its warmed up a little. Also, I think we have a bad thermocouple on the pump: its reading 2.145 K."

You think back to the chemistry lessons you had on the planet 5 light years behind you.

While the He-3 would remain liquid all the way down to a few tenths of a degree above absolute zero, the fuel reserve likely contains a decent amount of common He-4. Normally, this wouldn't be too much of a problem for the Epoch's reactor, but at such a low temperature weird things happen. Below 2.17 K, it can go through something called a Lambda transition and become a superfluid. It's a state of matter that has zero viscosity and can seep through undetectable pores in even the strongest container.

If you're dealing with superfluid He-4, then that would explain the leak; but you can't seem to find any explanation for the low temperature, or the ice.

Curious, you take out your screwdriver and open up an access panel in the pump. There's something in there.

>>625576
Careful... grab it with your pliers. Describe it to Cassius.

>>625576
is that a hole or a black thing?
could it be... Black Ice??

Toxoglossa 2015/02/19(Thu)19:02 No. 625696 ID: 557bac
File 142440135585.png - (96.85KB , 600x396 , 1-59.png )

You dig a pair of pliers out of your toolkit.

Aether
"Cassius, I think I found something lodged in the fuel pump. It looks like a shard of something black, its got a lot of ice on it though. I'm going to try and pull it out. Stand by..."

There's a crackle of frost as the pliers bite into the ice.

Toxoglossa 2015/02/19(Thu)19:02 No. 625697 ID: 557bac
File 142440135956.png - (808B , 600x405 , 1-60.png )

Things go dark

Toxoglossa 2015/02/19(Thu)19:02 No. 625698 ID: 557bac
File 142440136198.png - (54.29KB , 600x600 , 1-61.png )

You take a moment to remember where you are.
You are in an elevator.
It is dark.
There is someone else here, a human named Rosa.
other than that there is much to remember.

>>625698
Tell her you remember some things. You remember traveling in the ship, and finding something stuck in the He3 pump. Some sort of black shard surrounded by ice. Ask where you are now. This isn't the spaceship anymore, so the trip completed successfully obviously. Is this the new colony?

Hmm. It was said that the ship was a mile long, and from the diagram, it could well be big enough that we're still on it. If there's "gravity", though, it'd mean that the engines are on, and that seems odd, under the circumstances.

ask if we're still on the ship. Also there seems to still be something making noise on the other side of the door so we should probably go to a different floor.

Toxoglossa 2015/02/23(Mon)18:10 No. 626339 ID: 557bac
File 142474381892.png - (65.98KB , 600x600 , 1-62.png )

Rosa
>"Are you okay? You kind of spaced out there for a minute."

Aether
"Yeah, I was just thinking; remembering Cassius. We should keep moving if we can."

Rosa
>"Good idea, let's check the infirmity."

She does something with the panel next to the door and after a moment, you feel the elevator ascend.

There's a moment of uncomfortable silence. You aren't sure how far up you've traveled. It seems like several hundred feet. You don't remember any structure like this on the Epoch.

Aether
"I'm still a little hazy: where are we? Exactly?"

Rosa
>" We're on the second planet out from Barnard's Star. A friendly little place named Kur."

Toxoglossa 2015/02/23(Mon)18:10 No. 626340 ID: 557bac
File 142474382788.png - (107.74KB , 600x336 , 1-63.png )

As if on cue, the elevator pings, and the doors slide open, revealing a window stretching the length of the hallway. Visible is a dark, tortured, landscape draped with small lichens and spotted with heavy, bunker-like structures. Above the facility, the sky writhes as mass of storm clouds shear against each other. Despite the thickness of the walls, you can hear the wind roaring in frustration as it tries to find its way into the bunker.

>>626340
Was this your intended destination? ...if this structure wasn't on the Epoch, then where did it come from?

Ask what she knows about the creatures, quietly. Are they blind? How much of this place is infested with them? Are there other survivors? It may soon be time to practice silence, however.

Is there enough light to see Rosa's face?

Ask what we need to do now.

Now that you've got natural light to work with, share your respective item inventories and start working out gestures for silent communication.

>A friendly little place
note to self. rosa is a LIAR

>>626340
Wait lichens? Did we plant those?
Is there life on Kur? Could we survive out there?

Toxoglossa 2015/02/28(Sat)19:09 No. 627111 ID: 557bac
File 142517939152.png - (183.27KB , 600x449 , 1-64.png )

You stare out at the dark landscape. The storm clouds are blocking most of the natural light, but provide the occasional flash of lightning. Its enough to see by but just barely.

Aether
"So what is this place?"

Rosa
>"We still aren't sure. Once we got the lander craft close enough to the planet, something took hold of it and guided it here. It looks like this facility has been abandoned for some time: we think its a research station but there isn't much to research here. Since the planet is tidally locked, life can only exist here in a narrow band between night and day, and most of what we've seen is cyanobacteria and lichens: nothing complicated. Or at least that's what we thought."

Aether
"Those creatures, right? What are they?"

Rosa
>"Again, not sure. They came from deep underground. We think there's a whole ecosystem down there, living without light. The little guys seem to be mostly scavengers: not that dangerous unless there's a lot of them, or if they think you're sick or injured. However, there are signs of larger predators."

Rosa agrees to share what she's managed to find.
She is carrying
a can opener.
a flexible canteen filled with water.
a claw hammer you recognize as one from the Epoch.
a strange box with a handle Rosa claims is some kind of tiny arc light.

>"We found a couple of them when we landed, but they need little carbon ingots to work and mine burned out. The battery is still good though and its brighter than the sun when its on. Hopefully we can get it working: the little guys tend to run when you shine light on them. "

Aether
"That or turn on the lights..."

Rosa
>"Hopefully yes. You Taikos had better luck with the systems here than we humans did."

Just want to say I really like that last piece of artwork. :)

>>627111
This is fascinating! You found an alien facility!

Tell her about the corpse you found and the note that was on you.

any idea where we'd have to go to turn the power back on?

Wait, is this facility alien made, or does it appear to have been made by humans? Either way, it seems very weird.

Ask her if she knows the layout of this place. Knowing where we are and where things are would make any power restoration plans easier.

Carbon ingot? You've got matches. Maybe loot some more bedsheets or something else flammable and non-mission-critical, then figure out a way to burn that stuff in a controlled manner to make charcoal, see if that's an adequate substitute. Graphite-based pencils would also be something to keep an eye out for.

Another idea, requiring some very simple mechanical bits which sadly you don't have yet: mousetrap with a wind-up noisemaker for bait.

How much of the facility is mapped?

Toxoglossa 2015/03/07(Sat)14:58 No. 628060 ID: 557bac
File 142576908094.png - (57.74KB , 600x600 , 1-65.png )

Aether
"Speaking of predators, I found someone dead on the floor below us..."

She listens to your description of the dead man.

Rosa
>"Shit, that sounds like Professor Baker. I wondered where he had gone. After the lights went out a lot of us were left wandering in the dark. Something about this place too, messes with your head, makes it easy to get lost."

Aether
"Well, then which way?"

Rosa
>"Go left. It should be through a set of double doors."

Aether
"How big is the facility? How much have we explored?"

Rosa
>"There's tunnels that go on for miles, and the elevator can take you down over a thousand feet. Most of the upper floors have already been explored, they seem to be dedicated to living spaces and communications. Beneath that is some kind of research space, though there are some areas that are under higher security that we haven't accessed. Underneath that there's a space that seems to connect to a number of locations with a rail system. if we can get power running to them, we might be able to run them."

Aether
"Do we know how to restore power? Or even where?"

Rosa
>"We think so. There's an area near the bottom of the elevator where we've heard machinery moving, we think the controls for the power systems are in there. However, no one has been able to access it: there's some kind of security system that's running on an independent circuit that we would need to get past."

To your left you spot a pair of larger doors. Rosa stops and puts her ear up to them.
>"Its quiet..."

>"It's quiet..."
Too quiet.

No, but seriously, I dunno. Just be careful, I guess?

Horror aside, it's kind of amazing you found a facility on what you would have expected to be an empty planet. And sized to you, and with controls and furniture and equipment that appears familiar.

I mean, how do you explain that? Built by very similar aliens? Did people from earth somehow get here before you? (If we traveled here relativistically, there's always the risk ftl could have been invented while you were gone, people set this place up, and then died / left).

>>628060
It's quiet time. The predators act on sound, so no more talking, and move as silently as possible.

What kind of a security system are we talking about, here? A big heavy door and a keypad that always replies "incorrect password," or heavy weapon turrets with terahertz radar targeting?

Goddammit if this is an Alian vs Predator plot where this place is just desined to attract victims in going to be pissed!

Toxoglossa 2015/04/05(Sun)09:22 No. 633034 ID: 557bac
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Rosa presses her hand to a panel next to the door and it slides open quietly. A dim square of natural light of the planet illuminates a small corner of the room. Inside it is silent and dark.

Nothing unusual... advance, maybe check out what that is on the floor, and then go into the blue door on the left.

Take point, cautiously explore forward.

Amaranth 2017/10/10(Tue)19:43 No. 835715 ID: ed67d9
File 150768983661.png - (30.18KB , 600x600 , sas59.png )

...it looks like the tear got worse. Of course it did. Well, it's fine. You lived a long life. You did a lot of good (and a lot of bad, but more good than bad!)

Amaranth 2017/10/10(Tue)19:43 No. 835716 ID: ed67d9
File 150768983818.png - (36.27KB , 600x600 , sas60.png )

Wow. It's taking longer than you thought. Huh. You wonder if it's going to hurt. You hope it doesn't.

You're very glad that you got to get one more hug in from Aubrey.

You love Aubrey very much.

You're going to miss her.

You hope she doesn't cry too much when she finds out what happened.

Amaranth 2017/10/10(Tue)19:44 No. 835717 ID: ed67d9
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HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAH

Of all the ways to go, this is how it went.

...and yeah, it hurts. It hurts more than anything you could ever conceive. But you laugh and laugh anyway.

Amaranth 2017/10/10(Tue)19:44 No. 835718 ID: ed67d9
File 150768984374.png - (20.33KB , 600x600 , sas62.png )

OH WAIT YOU ALMOST FORGOT TO TELL THEM

SUGGESTERS, KHOROS ISN'T LA—

... 2017/10/10(Tue)19:44 No. 835720 ID: ed67d9
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RETURN TO SNOOTS AND SHADOWS
>>/quest/835703