Symbiotic ship

Aboard the SS Sin Eater: Yellow Alert: Asteroids

Note: this is a work of complete and utter fiction. Any relationship to persons or events are unintentional

Sarah's eyes opened to see only blackness. Immediately she attempted to lash out at the darkness, only to feel her hands restrained. She pulled, scared, trying to force her way out of whatever was restraining her. Pull, nothing. Pull, nothing. Pull

Click, the restraints opened and her fist slammed into the transparent bubble before her. A moment later it slid to the side and she fell to the padded ground before her. Apparently someone had thought this through. She glanced side to side. Seven other human beings were falling out of the pods as well. One was a little taller than the rest and smacked his head on the metal just beyond the padding, splitting the skin on his forehead.

"Ow." The man groaned, putting a hand up to his head to stem the tide of silvery red fluid pouring out. "They really need to work on these things."

"Suck it up Tyrone." Said another man who, like the others, wore an orange cloth shirt and pants. He snatched a device from the wall and tapped the screen. "Look alive people, we're going through an asteroid cloud. You know your positions, get there and get ready for," He paused and looked at Sarah. "What is a little girl doing awake?"

Another of the humans picked up a tablet. She aimed it at Sarah and pressed a symbol. "Sarah, no name listed." She raised an eyebrow. "Engineer second class?"

"Second class?" The second man gave her a look. "That's the same as me, how is a kid a second class engineer?"

"Says she has a specialty in shields, sounds like what we'll need." The woman looked at Sarah. "You're set to deck 21, get up there."

Sarah nodded, grabbed a tablet, and ran down the hall and to the lifts. She pressed the button and 21 seconds later was on deck 21, with just a 40 cm wall of blessed steel between the outside and inside. Sarah tapped on the tri-bonded titanium steel alloy. It was a strong metal, stronger than any mankind had been able to produce, but a few kilograms moving at a few thousand kilometers per second could still punch through it. That's what the shields were for.

A ferrofluid forced through pipes near the core of the ship generated an artificial magnetic field around the ship. A series of induction magnets lining the ship's hull targeted any debris within range, forcibly magnetizing them, and allowing the magnetic field to throw them from the ship. A smaller set of lasers stood ready to burn or destroy debris that managed to resist the effects. In theory it was a great system

In practice, Sarah mused while walking through the small door that held her destination; it was a lot of work. Lasers, at least this kind, hadn't been perfected yet and had a bad tendency to burn out. There was no way to fix them from the inside, so they were a last resort. The induction magnets were a huge power draw, and could mess with any computer that tried to regulate them, and any circuit breaker that tried to regulate them. Thus, a human touch was required.

"Sarah, are you in position?" A noble sounding voice asked. Sarah stepped up to the terminal, which resembled a large fuse box mounted on the wall. She opened it, the twin covers locking to the left and the right of the box. Within were a series of switches, eight knobs, and seven large tubes. The tubes were in essence industrially sized fuses, which carried more power than any circuit breaker could. This station was definitely made for an experienced engineer, it was literally over her head. Sarah glanced around, seeing a metal box shoved into a corner, she grabbed a handle, and dragged it over to the station. "Sarah, are you in position?"

 She placed the tablet in a holster in the left door and pressed a command. "Yes Sir." On her screen an image of a ship, which looked very little like the SS Sin Eater, had seven small dots that formed a circle around it. One of them was green, the others red