Carpathian Forty-Three

Carpathian Forty-Three - Part 14

The Twins, Alpha and Beta, are old, older than Carpathian Forty-Three, older than any of the crew. They are bipedal maintenance robots, linked to the engineer of the ship through a small quantum computer, just a few qubits, to allow The Twins a semblance of autonomy and memory. Alpha is the cautious one, Beta the risk taker, such as a maintenance robot that is linked to the mind of the engineer can be a risk taker. Rhianu is the fifth engineer they've worked with. Occasionally Rhianu dreams of the past engineers that The Twins have worked with. It's a surreal and slightly unpleasant experience.

The link between engineers and maintenance robots predates The Chorus on Luna. In some ways it was a precursor, in others it was an evolution of drone technology. Semiautonomous drones would be an apt description for The Twins. There's more to the pair than that, given their length of service and quantum sub processor. They don't experience emotions that people would recognize, saver perhaps Rhianu, and even then, it's more like the suggestion of emotion.

Beta hands Stephen his gloves, as Stephen prepares to standby for any emergency Extra Vehicular Activity that may be needed as The Twins repair the ventral thrusters that are malfunctioning. It's routine. Stephen slides his hand into the glove and Beta twists the wrist to lock them into place.

"Feeling better, Rhi?" Stephen asks.

Rhianu sees, hears, feels what The Twins do. Beta's wide black eye, the predominant feature of its face, 'winks' at Stephen, the iris opening and closing quickly, whirring as it does, almost like a camera shudder.

"I suppose," Rhianu's voice is piped into Stephen's ear through an earpiece.

Rhianu is in engineering, hard wired into The Twins' Quantum Processor. They are strapped into a seat usually reserved for acceleration maneuvers. Engineering has no gravity of its own, unlike The Ring with its spin gravity. Strapping in is the best way for Rhianu to concentrate on The Twins and the task at hand, without floating around engineering.

Alpha helps Stephen on with his backpack, checking the life support feed lines there, oxygen, cooling. Their mechanical fingers twist the connections home deftly, whirring as they do so. Unlike Beta, Alpha has two eyes, smaller than Beta's, but offset, not parallel. It can be disconcerting to people to see the asymmetry of Alpha's 'face'.

The Airlock has no gravity either, being part of The Hump, the cargo and systems module on Carpathian Forty-Three. Stephen and The Twins clomp around the confined space, magnetic feet and boots holding them to the floor, or walls depending on your frame of reference. Alpha pats Stephen's shoulder twice, the life-support backpack is connected and checked.

"Command is go for EVA," Voclain says over the channel, from their position in the command module. Stephen smiles slightly at the words that pull them all back to the task at hand.

"XO is go," Stephen says. Beta hands Stephen their helmet. They won't wear it unless they need to go help The Twins. 'Thank you,' they mouth at Beta without saying it.

"ENG is go," Rhianu says.

Stephen steps out of the airlock, into the port corridor of The Hump. The huge airlock door slides into place behind them, metal gears and plates protesting the motion. The airlock panel blinks a few times, then confirms the door seal.

"Maintenance is go," Rhianu says, as the voice of The Twins.

Stephen peers into the airlock, brightly lit with white LED lights that ring the inner and outer doors. Beta sways a bit on their feet, almost a nervous dance.

"OS?" Voclain asks.

"Sorry, yes. I'm here," Miki's voice says over the line. "Uh. Yeah. Okay. OS is go." Most of Fort's EVA responsibilities shifted to classical computers before they died. There's not much for Miki to do, but they are still on the checklists, as Carpathian Forty-Three's stand-in Operating System.

"Everything okay Miki?" Voclain asks.

"Yes, Just, you know, so much input. I'm working on the braking simulation. I'm sorry, sort of got caught up in that."

"How's that going?" Stephen asks in a soothing voice.

It's more chatter than they're used to, but Miki's been thrust into this, the only real chance they'll settle into a rendezvous orbit with Saturn and Titan. None of this needs to hurry. The Twins aren't on life support.

"Good. I've gotten into a rendezvous orbit twice now. There are so many variables. It's kind of a fun challenge."

"I'm glad to hear that," Stephen says. "Captain, do we need Miki for this EVA? Most of Fort's EVA functions have been moved to classical systems."

There's a pause. Stephen looks at The Twins, Beta nervous dancing, Alpha stock still. He smiles at them, to their backs, they don't see the expression.

"I don't suppose so," Voclain says. "Let's hold for a bit and get Thak on backup observation."

They'll pull in their accountant to provide a second set of eyes watching over The Twins.

"Miki, go back to your sim, just be ready to help out if we need you." Voclain's voice is stressed, not anger, more worry. Their impromptu Ship's Operating System isn't the calm presence Fort was.

Beta turns and 'winks' at Stephen again, then goes back to their dance, waiting for the EVA to start.

"It looks like someone shot gunned the ventral Hump," Thak says thirty minutes later. Alpha and Beta are outside, standing on the skin of The Hump, inspecting the gas lines, electrical connections, the skin of the ship. Thak is watching their feeds from Operations.

There are hundreds, maybe thousands of small blemishes and holes along the skin of the ship, dark smudges that are hard to see unless you're looking for them. The skin of Carpathian Forty-Three isn't as pristine as it once was, there are dark spots and over paint covering it. These holes and blemishes blend into the overall aged ship.

"Micro meteorite shower," Rhianu says from Engineering.

Beta and Alpha spread over the hump, mapping the extend of the damage. There are electrical and communications connections that are completely severed, as well as gas lines for the thrusters and the helium lines with holes. Alpha bends over and looks closely at one of the comm lines, they shine a light from the side of their head on the line.

"That's the instrumentation that's failed," Rhianu says. Instruments that should have alerted them to the damage depended on that comm line. It's why Fort didn't detect problems. Beta clomps around the skin silently, noting all the holes and dents.

Alpha reaches out and starts repairing the comm line, pulling wire from their backpack.

"Are we going to need to get out a welder for the thruster lines?" Voclain asks from the command module.

"Wait one," Rhianu says.

Alpha's wire splice works and alarms sounds on their consoles. Rhianhu silences it. There are blinking alerts on all their consoles now, detailing the damage.

Thak sighs, loud enough for all of them to hear.

"I don't think we need a welder. These are all really small. Beta should be able to patch things on their own. It's just going to be tedious."

"Roger that," Voclain says. "You need a couple of shifts for this Rhi?"

Rhianu makes a hmm sound in their throat, loud enough for them to hear on the channel.

"Gimme thirty for finish the walk around."

"Anything we can do to help?" Stephen asks from his station outside the airlock.

"Doubtful?" Rhianu says. "Lemme finish this up and we can talk through it."