NONE ARE AS BLIND

NONE ARE AS BLIND AS THOSE THAT WILL NOT SEE.

Multiverse Q2572, Quadrant: LA928.443.662, Sector: VX986.403.964. System: Silika, Planet: ER643, Silika Prime  Date:5689....06/05...024 *B.I.

Twenty-five seconds before system entry

Charge partials from the systems solar flares flowed around the planets bathing them in energy, penetrating the thin atmosphere as the magnetic poles warped the stream around the planet displaying aurora never seen before by the eye.

Caught in the aftermath of the flares on the extreme edge of the Silika system the ships shield's failed forcing it from N-space somewhere near the third planet in the system.

Fifteen seconds after system entry

"Navigation offline. Jump engines offline. Emergency shut down in progress. Hull breach detected in sector four. Sealing all hatches. Oxygen levels now at twenty-five percent."

Arlinda woke as the emergency message began repeating itself shattered her dreams.

"Navigation offline. Jump engines offline. Emergency shut down in progress. Hull breach detected in sector four. Sealing all hatches. Oxygen levels now at twenty-five percent"

"RAFAEL! RAFAEL! SHUT THAT DAMMED ALARM OFF WILL YOU." Arlinda shouted as she hurriedly rose from her makeshift bunk, sprinting across the deck towards the central command console.

"YES MISTRESS!" Rafael replied as its delicate synthetic hands flew across the ships secondary control panel shutting down the alarms.

"Navigation offline Jump engines offline. Emergency shut down complete. Hull breach detected located in sector four..."

"SHUT OFF THOSE DAMMED ALARMS BEFORE I SHUT YOU OFF DAMN IT!" Arlinda shouted again over the system announcement.

"Sealing all hatches. Oxygen levels now at twe...."

"Done mistress." Rafael sighed as the alarms suddenly silenced.

"Thank God for that!"

"As you say mistress."

Glancing round the bridge Arlinda watched as Rafael rose from its chair and began making the rounds of the empty chairs that were there rest of her command deck. Switching of the consoles as it went it quickly finished the task silencing the stations that were still screaming the emergency at the empty chairs in front of them.

Overriding the main console displays Arlinda configured them until all the multilayered alarms were visible on the one screen. That's when she began to wonder again if she'd spent her credits wisely.

Perhaps she would have been better off spending her credits on the system upgrade rather than her cargo. And then there was the whole issue of Rafael. It was a first-generation synth and already third hand, just like her ship, which was why she could it afford it. Although she still wasn't sure it had been a good idea to spend almost half her credits on the synth.

"Rafael...I left you in charge, didn't I? ...What went wrong?"

"Yes mistress. We appear to be in deep shi...trouble mistress." Rafael replied as it finished making its way around the old cargo haulers bridge and sat back down in the second officers chair with a clunk.

"Really? ...Is that all you've got?"

"Unfortunately, yes mistress."

"Then run a bloody system check you piece of junk."

"Certainly mistress," Rafael replied as it plugged itself back into the systems. "Running diagnostics check, running, running...diagnostics check complete mistress."