The Dekmár Roads: The Factions of Natorna

Chapter 9: Critical Malfunctions

         The Station in geostationary orbit above the gas giant Beonaiha was quiet other than the constant hum of the machinery. After working at the station for so long, the workers eventually tuned out most of the noise. When Cearfer had to visit the stations, the perpetual sounds were rather annoying to him. Granted, he would rather hear the noise and know everything was working as it should, specifically the Electrostatic Discharge Field, protecting them from the radiation from space and the gas giant. Without the noise, he might believe the system had stopped functioning. It was not the case for the workers. Any potential unease that they might have had in the beginning, had long vanished. They did their jobs that they were assigned to do, most of everything else was of little concern to them.

        One of the workers who was named Gorleyer, stretched out his arms and legs away from the bed he had been sleeping on. He flung his heavy weighted blanket off of him and it slowly floated to the floor. There was artificial gravity on board the station, but it was not perfect, despite bound to an enormous planet. They could never get the effects of gravity that was ideal. When the gravity system was installed, it was the most functional. However, over time---even having repairs done from wear and tear, the effectiveness continued to decline. It made the need for their mag boots to ensure firm contact with the ground that much greater as the time progressed. The worker moved his legs to the side of the bed to stand up. He slid his feet into the mag boots that were placed on the side of the bed and stood up. By that time, the blanket had bounced off the floor. Gorleyer snagged it out of the air, then placed it on the bed. On each of the corners of the bed, there were attachment points where the elastic straps on the blanket secured too. Without them, the blanket could possibly come off from the bed. The crew member then departed the room towards the mess hall for breakfast.

        Gorleyer greeted the rest of his crew from his shift. He was the youngest worker on the shift. He was only just been given the privilege or opportunity to work on the station. He first had to be at adulthood before taking the many tests that were required to come to such a station. He was tall and thin compared to the others who had all reached the room around the same time. Everyone else were more filled out and you could even see on their obscured faces that they have seen quite a bit of time cycles aboard the station. They appeared tired.

        The captain arrived a second later and flipped the lights on from a manual override panel on the wall by the doorway. One of the other crew members asked him, "More lights not working? How many is this?"

        The captain replied, "I am not certain. I would have to check the log. Hopefully this would be close enough to the number of automatic light failures to warrant having a shipment to come out here and repair them. Maybe it will not still be considered a minor irritant for us now."

        Gorleyer asked, "What about everything else? Like the gravity system?"

        "I understand. We have a list. But it has to be great enough for one particular item for them to come out." Apparently, no one likes coming out here. As for the gravity, the system technically still works so not sure what we could do about it. Even if it didn't, it's not considered a critical system like life support is. Granted, it would be a greater irritant than lights not automatically turning on for us. So, there would be a chance that they may."

        One of the other crew members added while he flipped a switch near his seat at the table, "Life support issues would get maintenance here real quick." The switch activated metal blinds on the ceiling which slowly opened, revealing outer space. He continues saying, albeit somewhat morbid, "But if the life support system suddenly failed, well, we are pretty much doomed."

        Gorleyer objected to that chain of thought, "But we have space suits that would protect us from a cold and oxygen free zone. We can survive!" He said desperately.