While Seth was gathering the last of the tools, Carl returned carrying a meter-wide spool of flexi-pipe. It looked like nothing more than an old-fashioned garden hose while on the spool, but the material could be crafted to any diameter up to seventy centimeters using a heat gun.
“Routing sequence ready to activate,” Mary reported from the console.
“Good to go here,” Seth acknowledged, and Carl nodded.
“All right.” Mary made a final entry on her screen. “We have forty minutes to get this under control before Val arrives and tells us everything we’ve done wrong.”
“They should have woken her up instead of me for the last rotation,” Carl grumbled.
“She’s a system engineer, not a marvelous maintenance tech like yourself.” Mary grinned.
Seth sighed. “We’ve done such an amazing job keeping the system from breaking, too.”
Mary headed for the prep area. “You’ve done everything according to spec. I reviewed all the maintenance records today, and it checks out. This is a deeper systematic issue or equipment failure.”
“If we couldn’t even monitor it, then how are we supposed to fix it?” Carl asked while he slipped on his hazsuit.
“That’s why we’ll have Val,” Mary replied. “If we can locate the problem, she’ll devise a solution.”
If it can be fixed, Seth thought with grim reality. They only had so many spare parts and so much time. It was a distinct possibility they might be without the waste processing system for the remaining duration of the voyage—beyond unpleasant, and also a major health risk. Their people might start out their time at their new home like they were peasants in the Dark Ages of Earth.
He tried to push those thoughts to the back of his mind while donning his own hazsuit. Need to think positive.
Once dressed, the three workers passed through the decontamination chamber into the landing around the ladder.
“Keep the spool up here,” Mary suggested. “We can feed lengths of tubing down as we need it.”
Seth poked his head down the ladder opening. “Oh shit…”
Mary and Carl dropped to their knees to take a look. Scowls formed on their faces when they saw that the river of filth beneath them was now nearly hip-deep.
“I believe this situation calls for some groan-worthy wordplay,” Seth announced.
“A total shitshow?” Carl suggested.
Mary headed down the ladder. “A journey to hell on the River Shits?”
“This is a disaster of mythic proportions—I’ll give you that.” Seth chuckled and descended the ladder after her with the tool bag slung over his shoulder.
He grimaced when he passed down the final two rungs to the pool of awfulness. The lukewarm liquid pressed around the loose legs of the hazsuit. “And I can confirm, we’re in deep shit.”
Mary looked like she was about to gag inside her suit. “All right, we got the joking out of our systems? Time to get to work.” She slogged toward the nearest recirc junction.
Seth followed her while Carl began feeding down a length of tubing.
“We can connect the new pipe to this offshoot here,” Seth pointed, “and then open the other valve to create the suction effect after it’s in place.” He indicated the other point.
Mary gestured for Seth to open his tool bag, and she grabbed an appropriate wrench to remove the end cap on the pipe offshoot and got to work.
Meanwhile, Seth and Carl measured a length of the narrow tubing to run from the junction into the waste pooling on the deck. Once they had a sufficient length to reach the deck plates, they began working the tube with the heat gun to expand the diameter to match the offshoot from the main system.
With the end cap removed in short order, the three of them began affixing the tubing to the main system with the adhesive.
“We’ll need some secondary splices,” Mary stated once the tube was in place. “This corridor is too long for just the one.”
“We can flood the secondary tanks individually,” Seth suggested. “The sudden pressure change should draw it all in a matter of minutes.”
“So we’ll need three more splices, and to seal off the lateral connections,” Carl concluded.
“Right. The second location should be right up here.” Seth set off down the hall.
They spent the next half-hour working on the splices and necessary seals while the level of waste continued to rise in the corridor. By the end, the filth had gone from straight raw sewage to a combination of treated graywater. While that made for a slightly more pleasant wading experience, it also spoke to an even more serious issue with the processing system.
“If the graywater is spilling in too, the calculations about capacity in the secondaries are wrong,” Seth said when no one else commented on the change in their surroundings.
“It doesn’t change what we need to do right now,” Mary replied. “We’re done with the prep—we proceed with the planned re-routing. Can’t do anything until these trenches are clear so we can see what we’re up against.”
Seth reluctantly agreed. They didn’t have another choice.
The three of them packed up the tools and slogged to the ladder for the alternate access point Carl had used earlier, having completed their circuit. Due to the layer of filth on their hazsuits, they had to climb the ladder one at time to avoid dripping on the person below. Mary was the first up, and Seth climbed up last with the tool bag.
Carl was finished in the decontamination chamber when Seth reached the top of the ladder, and he stepped inside to hose off. To Seth’s dismay, he found that he no longer even smelled the horrors of below, even though he knew it still lingered.
Seth stripped off the hazsuit and returned to the control room, where he saw Mary and Carl talking with the fourth member of their team, Valerie. The latest arrival was already scowling like no one’s business.
“What the hell did you do to it?!” Val exclaimed.
“Just started acting up this morning.” Carl took a step back.
Val rolled her eyes. “Well, let’s hope this plan of yours works to clear the trench or we’re going to be out of luck.”
“Executing the sequence now,” Mary stated.
The holographic display zoomed out to show the whole waste processing system, which now had six errors blinking red at various points where the standing water level was reaching critical levels. Blue indicators appeared at the four splice points the team had been working on, and each flashed rapidly as the sequence initiated. The blue changed to red and green directional lines to indicate the new flow of wastewater moving through the system.
Seth watched the pressure indicators for inside and outside the system, waiting for the tipping point.
Levels in the corridor began to drop as the vacuum within the piping system sucked the standing wastewater into the secondary holding tanks.
“Thank the stars! It’s actually working.” Mary shook her head with wonder.
Seth grinned. “You doubted me?”
“We’re not even close to a solution yet—let’s not start the celebrations,” Carl cautioned. He checked a new message indicator on his station and groaned.
Val frowned. “What now?”
“Oh, nothing with this. Apparently Kimmy lost her stuffed animal, Bugsy. Sharron wanted to know if I’ve seen it,” he replied.
“Not to be a heartless non-parent here, but this isn’t the time to worry about your kid’s toy,” Mary said.
“Don’t I know it.” Carl dismissed the message and focused on the system readout. “I hate to be the bearer of bad news here, but we have another problem.”
Mary wiped her hands down her face. “What is it?”
“Remember how Seth pointed out the graywater mixed with the sewage? Well, when we changed the pressure in the system, it altered the flow in the graywater processors. If the differential keeps rising, we’re going to have the sewage working its way to the drinking water supply.”
Val huffed. “Why didn’t yo
u wake me up sooner?” She made several rapid entries on the nearest console. “This doesn’t make any sense! It’s acting like there’s a physical blockage in the central assembly, but none of the sensors register an obstruction.”
“That’s why we’ve been focused on clearing the trenches,” Seth explained. “We need a visual inspection—either the sensors are busted or there’s something that’s too small for them to detect.”
“It does look that way.” Val checked the current overflow levels. “This vacuum approach seems to be working, but it won’t buy a lot of time. We need to remove that original obstruction before those tanks fill.”
“Okay, it should be clear enough now to peek inside without any waste washing over the lip to inside the assembly,” Mary reported.
Val nodded. “I need to get down there—can’t do anything from up here until we find that obstruction.”
“I’ll go with you,” Seth offered.
“Thanks. Let’s go.” Val pushed back from the station
“We’ll keep the re-routing going as long as we can,” Mary said.
“Good luck.” Carl got back to work.
Seth and Val ran toward the prep area.
“What a way to be woken up,” Val moaned while grabbing a hazsuit off the rack.
“I don’t know what happened. Everything was fine last night, then there was a little leak this morning, and it’s been getting exponentially worse since then.”
“One of the primary intakes must be blocked,” Val mused. “There are half a dozen fail-safes to keep it from becoming obstructed, but something has to be in there gumming it up.”
“And that would cause an entire level to flood?”
The engineer shrugged. “I wouldn’t have thought so, but something caused this shitstorm.”
“You missed our round of puns and wordplay earlier.”
“I’m okay with that.” Val dropped into the open ladder shaft.
The wastewater level was twenty centimeters lower than it had been during the expedition not ten minutes prior, to Seth’s relief. He noted the unpleasant high water mark ringing the walls and tried to keep his attention focused on the ceiling while they traversed the trench toward the central processor.
A door in the left wall of the hallway opened into the central assembly—a mammoth machine rising eight meters through the two-deck chamber and plunging three additional sublevels below. Suspended at the middle level of the room, a viewing catwalk ringed the outer wall of the chamber, accessible from the adjacent control room.
In the center of the chamber, a meter-high wall ringed the most sensitive part of the assembly, protected by a solid, sealed hatch. With the standing water level lowered, it was now safe to open the hatch to look inside.
“Help me with this lever,” Val requested when she grabbed hold of the hatch controls.
Seth jogged to her side with the water sloshing around his ankles. He gripped the lever next to her. “Damn manual controls.”
They grunted as they tried to force the hatch open.
“Gah! When was the last time this thing was open?” Val muttered.
“Just yesterday, but I think the sediment must be caked on the components.”
“Gross.” Val crunched up her nose while she pushed on the stubborn lever. “Why was it open, anyway?”
“Funnily enough, for lubrication.” Seth gave one more push and the lever clicked forward. “Come on, it’s moving!”
“Like that maintenance did any good!” Val leaned all her weight against the bar as it notched forward again.
With a metallic groan, the lever finally slammed back. The hatch parted, exposing the inner mechanical gears and circuitry that kept the plant running.
Seth gazed into the pit, searching for anything out of place. “It’s dry, at least. The seal held.”
“Yes, there’s that.” Val leaned on the ledge, frowning at the moving components. “Damn. I hate working on these things when they’re active.”
“We can’t shut it down now that we’ve already bypassed the waste load to the secondaries.”
“I know,” she sighed. “I just need to go slow and steady.”
“Not to rush you,” Mary said over the comm, “but we have some bad news…”
Seth swore under his breath. “Tell us.”
“Well, we stopped the sewage from spilling into the air intakes, but we’re having an issue with the fumes,” Mary explained. “The filters for the secondary tanks weren’t meant to handle an untreated load. The off-gassing is triggering an alarm in the environmental control system. They just pinged me that their emergency protocols are about to kick in.”
“Fine, let them.” Seth leaned over the ledge to inspect the gears closest to him—such delicate things. This was such a terrible ship design. What were they thinking?
“No, we can’t let those protocols activate,” Mary countered. “That protocol involves using fresh water to filter out the toxins. And increasing fresh water consumption will change the tank fill levels, alter the pressure, and ultimately speed up how quickly that sewage forces its way into the fresh water tanks.”
“Then they’ll need to override it somehow, because we’re no closer to figuring out a solution.” Seth worked his way around the perimeter of the pit to inspect a different section of gears.
“I don’t know if they can.”
“Not my problem.” Seth ignored Mary’s continued protests while he focused on the pit. “We need to get in there somehow,” he told Val.
“That’s a great way to lose an arm. It’s too dangerous with these loose suits.”
“Then we shut it down.”
“Didn’t the captain say we have to keep it running?”
“Do we have another option? I can’t see shit from up here.”
Val bit her lip. “All right, let’s do it.” She ran to the control panel next to the hatch lever and hit the emergency stop.
“What the hell are you doing?!” Mary shouted over the comm.
“Saving the ship.” Seth leaped onto an upright support in the pit before the gears had even halted.
Val was only a step behind.
They nimbly worked their way down into the machine, shining the lights on the hoods of their hazsuits into every nook and cranny that might be hiding some minute obstruction.
“See anything?” Val asked.
“No.” Seth spun around a support pole and moved toward the wall. “Wait… maybe.”
In front of him, one gear was completely stationary, whereas the others were still turning slowly while they wound down.
That’s odd. He moved over to the gear. “No way!” Upon closer inspection, orange threads were jammed into the gears, spooled around the teeth and axle. He followed the lines connected to the gear and saw it traced to the flow-gate control for the primary collector.
Val climbed over to him. “What the hell is that?”
“I have no idea, but I think that’s our problem.” Seth tried to pull the threads free, but it wouldn’t budge. “We need some cutters.”
His companion produced a pair of trimmers from a pouch on her waistband. “Shame on you for coming in unprepared.”
Seth flushed while Val began slicing the fibers free. “What is this made of? It’s like carbon fiber.”
“What could possibly have fallen in here?”
“Don’t know, don’t care. I just want it gone.” Val hacked away at the tangled mess, stripping away multiple threads at a time.
“We have two minutes before emergency overrides activate,” Mary announced. “You have to get out of there!”
“Almost… got it!” Val broke the final threads free and collected the material in the pouch on her suit. “We’re coming out!”
She and Seth began frantically climbing up the awkward pipes and support struts.
“Forty-five seconds!” Mary counted down.
“I really hate this place.” Seth hauled himself on top of a horizontal support and lent a helping hand
to Val.
“We’ll be on solid land again soon enough.” She jumped for the top ledge and caught it with her fingertips.
Seth boosted her up with his hands on the bottoms of her feet, then made the jump. The slick covering from her feet had coated his fingers, and his grip slipped.
“Got you!” Val grabbed his wrist and leaned backward, using all her weight to lever him up over the ledge.
Seth got his torso over the top and swung his legs up just as the machinery below activated. He fell forward over the outside of the ledge, face-first into the remaining pool of filth. It washed over his suit, obscuring his vision in brown. Something solid floated by.
He jumped to his feet, retching.
“You okay?” Val asked.
“I—” Seth suppressed his gag reflex. “I really hope the system is fixed, because I need a shower like you wouldn’t believe.”
Val smiled. “I do have some idea. But good news—that gear is moving now.” She pointed at the tiny part deep down in the pit.
“System warnings are clearing!” Mary announced. “Restoring the normal flow. Let’s hope this works….”
Machinery in the chamber whirred to life as the waste processing system returned to the proper routes.
Seth wiped his hand across the front viewport of his suit in an attempt to clear his vision, but the motion only smeared the film.
Mary and Carl cheered in the control room over the comms. “Lines are clearing! We’re back in business.”
“Thank the stars.” Seth shook off his hands. “Let’s get out of here.”
“What about this giant puddle we’re standing in?” Val asked.
“Now that the system is running again, the floor drains for the overflow should take care of it in a few hours. We’ll hose it down later.” Seth stumbled toward the exit.
Mary and Carl were beaming when Seth and Val made it back to the control room after going through decontamination.
“Whatever you did, it was brilliant!” Mary exclaimed, giving Seth a hug, then Val.
“This was our culprit.” Val held up the mass of orange threads in a sealed bag.
“What the—?” Mary began.
Carl’s face dropped. “Uh…”
Explorations: Colony (Explorations Volume Four) Page 5