Morning all and welcome to Friday. I don’t know about you but this week felt really long to me. No matter, it is done now, or almost done. So shall we get started on the final prompt of the week? I think we should. So set those timers and let’s kick Friday off right.
I like this. I am not sure if they are on a ship or a station, but I think once I figure out the details this could be fun to play around with.
Friday, May 5th: We can deal with this.
“We can deal with this,” he told himself. “Yeah, we can deal.” Another alarm sounded pulling his attention from the current problem. He reached over turning to inspect as he moved. His hand pressed the button to silence the alarm as his eyes scanned the data the systems diagnostics was feeding him.
“This is not good,” he told himself. He shook his head and moved to the interface. Normal use required a touch screen and minimal input from him. For this, he was going to have to go deep. He folded down the keyboard and rolled up his sleeves as the touch screen icons faded and the true interface behind the buttons scrolled across the screen.
His fingers danced over the keyboard sending command codes to shift pressure, cool down systems and bring the backups on line. He was a general and all the little codes were his soldiers. He deployed them into battle ruthlessly. He knew that some of the more luxurious systems would be offline but he would be able to keep the basics running. He diverted everything he had into keeping everything running and the main core functioning in acceptable parameters. It wasn’t easy but it was working. He lost track of time. He was aware that the in hose communication system was buzzing but he ignored the call. Diverting power to a functioning channel to make up for a frayed and sparking cable line was more important than anything anyone had to say to him. He knew at some point someone would be sent down to see what was going on and he would tell them a he worked but he couldn’t spare the time to reach for the com system.
There was no stopping once he got started. It was continue working or accept defeat. There were no other options. He dimly sensed someone in the vicinity but he didn’t look up from the screen his fingers a blur on the keyboard. Whoever arrived was smart enough not to interrupt him by idiotically asking him what was going on. It was clear what was going on to anyone with eyes.
He felt the person in the area was gone but didn’t know when they left. The com stopped sounding off. Slowly the alarm bells ceased and the pressure levels returned to normal. He took a deep breath and reached for the secondary import. He typed in a list of needed repairs, marked it urgent and sent it to the maintenance department. He could find balance but it was a thin balance that would need to be monitored. It also wouldn’t last long unless things were repaired.
Feeling slightly steadier he stepped away and grabbed the communicator from the wall. His eyes still watched the scrolling code as it went across the screen. They were out of the woods but they were still at its edge and he knew wolves were moving through the trees.
“I can hold for now,” he told whoever answered, not really paying attention to who it was that answered. “But those repairs are needed now, we only have a couple of hours before the backup blows all to hell.”
He hung up the com and went back to the interface. He suspected that later he would be yelled at for disrespecting some officer or another but at the moment he found it hard to care.
Ten til Midnight 