Troublesome towing work
“How much longer is it going to take?”
“Oh, Captain. Please don’t ask for the impossible. We won’t know until we try.”
“Hey, hey. I don’t think you’ve forgotten, but you mentioned earlier that the life support system is about to shut down. Well, it’s only been an hour since then, so I think we have about three hours at the earliest, but are you sure?”
“Oh!”
“Hey, Maria. What’s with that ‘Oh!’ from you? Don’t act like you forgot. You, distracting yourself with hobbies and wasting time.”
“I understand, Meyrica. I’ll quickly investigate and prioritize starting the backup engines.”
“Hey, Kaori, can you hear me?”
“Yes, Captain. What is it?”
“I know you’re busy, but sorry, could you monitor Maria’s rampage?”
“Um… that might be impossible.”
“It’s okay. If you can’t, tell Kate who’s nearby, and she can stop her immediately. Heck, she said she wouldn’t mind dropping her.”
“Captain, please spare me.”
Anyway, Maria and the others were in the engine room, trying to figure out the cause of the pirates’ strange behavior this time.
The cause became apparent without needing much investigation.
Due to the pirates’ reckless piloting, they damaged the engines, causing them to flee. The problem was that the main engine was completely broken, causing issues with vital equipment, especially the life support system supplying air and the device related to artificial gravity inside the ship.
The pirates fled hastily because alarms for these crucial devices went off, indicating problems with essential equipment for survival.
With the engines shut down on the bridge, most of the alarms that were previously blaring ceased, and some monitoring systems like onboard sensors became operational.
Once the operation of the equipment was confirmed, Meyrica and the others immediately began scanning the ship.
“We need to start the auxiliary engines.”
“Maria-san, about those auxiliary engines, it’s not possible right away.”
“Why? They weren’t broken before, were they?”
“Yes, but there’s an error showing on the auxiliary engine’s fuel tank. It says ‘Empty.'”
“What! We’re out of fuel. We need to reroute fuel to the auxiliary engine’s fuel tank immediately. According to this manual, um, we need to open the second emergency fuel valve from the reserve tank. Aoi, do you understand the second emergency fuel valve?”
“Yes, I understand, but it seems like there’s no fuel in this reserve tank.”
“Oh, no way… That’s right. From there, huh? So, transferring fuel from the main tank to the reserve tank, we just need to activate emergency pump number three and transfer it, right?”
“Huh? Maria-san, with the current battery situation, is it okay to run the pump?”
“Oh, uh-oh. That’s right. In that case, securing emergency power comes first. Should we start the emergency generator? But, yeah, you’re right. Those pirates, they’ve only been up to no good so far. The fuel for the emergency generator must be empty, too.”
“Yes, it’s completely empty.”
“Maria-san, could it be in the damage control?”
“Oh, right. Even pirates must have prepared damage control properly. I’ll check right away. For a ship like this, there should be a generator along with the repair tools.”
By the way, here, “DAMECON” refers to “damage control,” which is an abbreviation for damage control. It’s an extremely important element for ships engaged in combat, directly linked to their ability to continue fighting.
In simple terms, it refers to the emergency repair of damaged areas due to attacks and the like.
In the field, it’s often abbreviated and mentioned.
“Maria-san, found it, found it. The fuel tank is full, and we can use it right away.”
“Good. In that case, bring it next to the battery and connect it to the charging terminal. If the fuel tank is full, it can run for five hours, so with this, we can operate the fuel pump.”
With such extraordinary efforts from Maria and the others, the space frigate was able to operate even the auxiliary engine.
READ THE ORIGINAL TRANSLATION AT GADGETIZEDPANDA.COM
While Maria and the others struggled, there was nothing to do on the space destroyer.
Well, it’s not like there’s nothing to do since we have the captured pirates as prisoners, but there’s no need for me to be here.
In that case, curiosity suddenly arises.
If asked whether I would rather be on an old space destroyer or a current-generation space frigate, unless I’m a nostalgic freak, I’d choose the cleaner space frigate.
So, I used a wire to transfer to the space frigate while Maria was taking emergency measures.
“Captain, what are we going to do next?”
“Huh? Just return to the Akkeshi. But they haven’t said anything since then, huh? Oh, right, we can’t use communication here.”
“Well, that might be so, but Akkeshi was long gone.”
“Huh? Why did he leave us behind?”
“Well, probably out of some base instinctive judgment.”
“I saw it. As soon as we launched, he immediately left this sector of space.”
“So, what do we do now?”
“Well, this thing moves too, right?”
Now, I’m on the bridge of a space frigate discussing what’s ahead.
In the destroyer, besides Kasumi, there are several of Meyrica’s subordinates.
“Alright, this one can definitely pick up the speed. The maintenance situation is similar for both, so there might be some anxiety regarding long distances, but we should be able to reach up to three universal speeds. When properly maintained, this ship can reach up to six universal speeds, so having auxiliary engines that can do half of that is impressive.”
“Wait, can this ship tow that one?”
“That ship? You mean that old wreck of a destroyer?”
“Shouldn’t we just leave it behind?”
“Meyrica, do you have the energy to transfer the prisoners here now?”
“Sorry about that. Maria, what do you think?”
[“Uh, don’t ask me, Meyrica. Oh, right, the answer to your question. Normal towing is probably impossible. We can’t use that kind of equipment here at all, so even if we put out a towing tractor beam, it wouldn’t exert much force. Besides, it uses laser light.]
“Maria, this is a matter of discussion, but both ships are currently docked, right?”
[“Hmm, could it be that…”]
“Oh, that ‘could it be’ indeed. There should be rescue facilities for this kind of situation.”
[“Are you going to use those docking wires? Well, in this kind of space, it’s troublesome. We’ll also have to connect the remote control communication cables for safety precautions.”]
“Whatever, we can do it. Let’s get to work.”
[“Uh, I didn’t say I could do it, Meyrica.”]
“It’s just a hassle. If we all pitch in, it’ll be over quickly. Alright, captain, give the orders here. Kasumi is over there, so it should be fine.”
In the end, it took five hours to connect six wires, two each at the bow, midship, and stern of both ships.
Unfortunately, although we managed to connect the remote communication cables, communication didn’t work, so we gave up on remote control.
Fortunately, both bridges were able to communicate via voice, so we took turns carefully controlling both ships.
In this case, fortunately Kasumi is on the destroyer, which is difficult to pilot.
She’s the best pilot among our crew.
Moreover, she and Maria have been together for quite a long time, so they work perfectly together.
By the way, Maria pilots the frigate.
“So, Captain, what’s next?”
“Without [Akkeshi], we need to report to the nearest government agency. Luckily, we’re close to Luchilaria, where our home port is, so let’s head there.”
“Um, but Captain. It’s almost impossible to land on the planet with this ship.”
“Of course. We’ll get close enough; there should be surveillance satellites. We can communicate from there, and then we’ll wait for further instructions from above.”
“Roger. Shall we go then?”
“Oh, wait a minute. It’s not often I get to sit in the captain’s seat, so I want to savor the feeling.”
“Captain, what are you doing?”
My words made everyone around me uneasy.
But, I’m as good as dead anyway.
I’ll never get to sit in the captain’s seat again, so I might as well enjoy the feeling while I can.
I sat in the magnificent captain’s seat, which was slightly elevated in the center of the bridge of the space frigate, and gave my first order here.
“Depart for the surveillance satellite orbiting the planet Lutilaria.”
“Roger. Kasumi, prepare for departure according to these instructions.”
“This is Kasumi. Roger.”
“Course 2768, speed 1.3 units of space speed.”
Maria said earlier that even with just the auxiliary engines of the space frigate, we could reach a speed of three units of space speed, but after discussing it, we decided that it would be too risky to go faster while towing the space destroyer.
“Repeat: Course 2768, speed 1.3 units of space speed. Kasumi, pilot of the destroyer, Roger.”
“Launch.”
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watch the pric who abandoned them is prob going “i tried stopping them but they refused and said” “we can’t lose our comrades we’ll buy you as much time as we can” and try painting them as martyrs and wouldn’t be shocked if they came back with both ships and either claim pirates killed them and took their ship or that they defected to the pirates or something
Thanks.