Universe Online - Enter the Game: Complete Edition (11 page)

No history, logs, or anything.

Damnit.

But I have enough electronic parts to build an external memory buffer, so I go ahead and do that while reading through the software code.  I find what I'm looking for after a short while, and grin as I input new code into my jury rigged computer.

Gravity Generator Output: 30%

Aaaah.  As the weight of my body drops from the new setting taking effect I sigh in something resembling relief.  The power readout from my solar array says that the drain has dropped to 60% instead of 90%.  Much better!

With that done, I disconnect from the computer to go out again.  The next project should only take part of the time that the last one required.  I still end up having to go back out three more times before I've gathered enough of what I needed.

Air tanks.  I dump them into the storage tanks for the atmospheric processors as quickly as I can, and keep track of how much pressure is available.  I do end up having to reconnect the processors to the capsules air piping system, but that's done in minutes while I wait for pressure to build up.

Finally the icon flashes green, and I hit the pump-up command and listen as the hiss of air is flooded into the capsule.

10%... 20%... 30%

The pressure climbs quickly, and at 80% I release my helmet and take a deep breath of the icy cold air.  Aaah.  The heating system in the atmosphere system is still warming up, so it is quite cold.  But breathable.  And my ears pop when the atmosphere reaches 100%.

“Aaah, finally!  And no new-burnt plastic smell, either!”

I'm tempted to laugh all over again, because I'm quite happy.  I don’t however.  Now things are looking up.  I have food, air, water and now a real place to rest and a slow but steady power supply that'll work around the clock.

Only after I've basically collapsed into my self-claimed seat do I realize that I'm actually rather tired now.  Worn out.

I've done quite a bit of work today, and I'm totally satisfied.

“Time to sleep.  Try not to break down this time, 'kay?”

I lean back in the seat and close my eyes.

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Fun Fact #5: The Dive Pod takes about 2.5 seconds to disconnect the mind from the virtual world. Without the slight time delay, bad things can happen due to feedback. Ouchy.

I wake up feeling good.  Far better than I usually do, at any rate.  And I only slept about 8 hours in-game.  Not even an a hour and a half in the real world.  And yet I’m as refreshed as if I really had slept that long.

Huh.  It must be a side effect of how the Dive Pod works.  Regardless of how it happens, it’s still a nifty feature.  I can sleep in-game and feel just as rested as if I had slept 8 hours outside.  And since 8 hours in the real world is two days in-game, it’s a lot better to sleep while logged in.

Less wasted time!  Hahaha.

Still, I sit up in my seat and stretch slowly, enjoying the warmth and the fact that I can breath without my helmet on.  Too bad I do have to put it back on in order to check on everything.  So it’s with a sigh that I do so and get a start to my new day in Universe Online.

My helmet seals with a hiss, and I turn on the HUD quickly.

It’s a senseless worry though.  Everything is going well.  One of the batteries is filled completely, while the second is over 75% and the third is hovering right around 10%, which is basically a minimum amount it'll reserve before the rest is put through the transmission coil to be redirected to the systems that are currently active.

Basically the dim red emergency light, the much reduced gravity generators, and the atmospheric processors.

Speaking of which, those are basically topped up completely, as well.  It is a life support system that's only built to supply a total of five people in the escape capsule, the pilot and four passengers with breathable air and warmth.  But it’s only supporting me.  So the amount of work it actually has to do is greatly reduced.

It brings a smile to my lips, but I'll soon have to shut it down anyway in order to get out.  There's no proper airlock in the capsule.  Only a hatch.  And I don't want to lose any of my precious air.

So I hit the Pump-Down command and listen as the air gets sucked from the capsule and stored back into the pressurized tanks.  It’s regrettable, but that's the price one has to pay for survival.

Once done, I also turn off the gravity generators to allow the batteries a chance to completely fill and then jump out of the capsule.

First on the agenda: Finding water and a way to start producing food!

With the extra rations I found stored here in the hold, that isn't a big issue in and of itself.  But I need water.

A person requires about a gallon of water a day, simply to continue living.  More than that is better, but the bare minimum is right about that level.  And that's without doing things like using water for cooking or hygiene.

In that regard, I'm thankful that my starting kit included damp packaged wipes.  Kinda like baby wipes.  I just haven't really been able to use them cause I haven't really been able to get into a place where I can remove my suit.  I'm not even going to attempt it, even in the capsule.

Thankfully there aren't any smells in space!

My starting kit included ten gallons of water, condensed into pressurized bottles.  The suit holds five of them at any one time, and I sip it periodically from a straw in my helmet; or it gets mixed with the food ration I feed my suit in order to create the slurry I eat.

It isn't very appetizing.  But it tastes better than you'd expect.  Like a high-tech MRE.

I’ve got a whole bunch of them too.  On the order of feeding 500 men three square meals a day, for a week.  It’s simply a huge number for a single person.

But I'm more than happy to have it.  I may even be able to turn it into fertilizer or the like, assuming I could get water to mix it with for when I start growing my own food.  Along with my own waste materials.

Back out in the zero-g black space of the hold, I'm tempted to rush back off to search, but first I need to finish taking inventory of everything that's left.  I'd only checked a part of the crates within the hold, after all.  The ones I'd previously claimed show up with icons in my HUD's vision, so it’s easy to tell where and what I've searched.

I actually came to realize that it’s a bonus of the Searching and Scavenging Aptitudes.  It causes a change in the way the game presents information to the user with them.  Most of the others probably do the same.

And they are now boosted by 10% by the Survivalist Aptitude I had gained just yesterday!

I'm still a bit giddy about that, I'll admit.

Work comes first though!  This is a game, but it’s a game I treat as if my real life depended upon it!

It’s the closest I've ever been to being 'normal'.  To be able to run around and do things that other people take for granted.  Even the meanest child has the ability to run around freely for as long as their legs will carry them.  I was never able to experience that until I got into VR's.

It’s why I'll never stop!  I'll push forward with everything I have!

It makes me sound like some two-bit hero or protagonist, but whatever!

It’s the freedom that I crave.  To go where I want, to do what I want.  No one ever realizes what it’s like not to have that sort of freedom until it’s taken away.  I simply learned it from a very young age.  Not even able to walk by myself.

Wars have been fought over that kind of thing.  So what's so unusual about me being so passionate about it?  Not a damned thing, that's what!

Oh well.  I calm myself and get back to the task at hand.

All told, it’s basically much the same as what I'd already found.  Spare parts, replacement materials, mechanical bits and electronic bobs.  I do find several lights, the sort of high powered ones that you'd see on construction sites.  And a few other things I keep tabs on.

I even find an old, but really large battery stashed behind a bunch of half-smashed crates.  It hasn't been touched, either.  Lucky!

Or perhaps it’s a reflection of my rather high Luck attribute?

I have no real way to tell.  Just like in any game, the Luck Attribute adds a bunch of different variables to the usual randomness of the game systems.  Most of it is small things, things that are never noticed.  But sometimes it can be very, very blatant.  Like finding a battery more than eight times the size of my current power storage ability.

To put it simply: I drag that darn thing out of there.  But it’s really heavy, bulky, and has a surprising amount of mass.  Ten feet long, four feet wide, and about two feet tall. It’s 80 feet cubed.

It is worn though.  I'll have to do some quick fixes to get it back into working order and make sure all the energy cells inside of it are good.  But I cannot do that from where it was.

So I use my strength and telekinesis to the best of my ability and slowly pull it out towards the capsule and my makeshift solar power system.  Several times I have to stop and move crates out of the way.

But finally I get the damned thing out to where I can hook it up and check it out.  With the later option being first.  I don't want it to blow up as soon as I start charging it.

That'd be bad.  Very, very bad.

Survivalist Tip #... Whatever: ALWAYS CHECK YOUR SALVAGE BEFORE USING IT! DEATH IS ONLY THE BEGINNING...!

Yep.  Just like so.

Or maybe it should be that death is always an option?  Well, no matter.

Once I get it to a good resting place, I pull out my multi-tool and go to work on it, removing panels and checking out everything I can see, reach, or remove.

The insides are basically four rows of ten 1x1x1 foot battery cells, stacked two deep and interconnected to provide both balanced power storage and draw.  So saying I'm thorough would be an understatement.  I basically dismantle the entire battery and check everything.

Good thing I did too.

Several of the connections had corroded or rusted; but it is easy enough to fix.  Some of the wiring had suffered degradation over the long term exposure to space.  The cells themselves though are still in nearly pristine condition.  But the built-in electronic controller is dead.

It looks to have been smashed by an impact some time in the past.

I click my tongue but can only shrug, pulling out the electronic guts and taking it with me back to the capsule.  I'm heading to my equally makeshift computer, where I connect it up to see if anything can be retrieved from the memory.  Even if it’s fragmented code, every bit helps.

Even I'm not stupid enough to try to mess with the operating system of something that'll hold and transmit that much power, thank you very much.

Long story short, I'm able to salvage the software code, and even optimize it a little bit with my Software Aptitude before rebuilding the system using the Hardware and Assembly Aptitudes.  It takes a bit of time, cause it got down to being really finicky work.

It comes out to be nearly twice as big a project as rebuilding the I/O system for the capsules computer console.  But it is all worth it.

Then I rebuild the thing, and weld it to the floor using some more of the metal braces.  I don't weld the battery itself though.  I may end up having to move it later, in which case it'd be a bitch and a half to break the welds to do so.  Instead I just set the braces to hold it securely to the floor so it doesn't fly off should something happen.

That done, I disconnect the second external battery that's almost fully charged and use it as a starter test for its really big brethren.  Or maybe I'll start calling it the Big Uncle Battery.  Heh.  The BUB, or Bub.  Yeah, there we go.

Anyway, I connect the smaller battery into Bub, turn it on and watch closely as the controller information flashes across my HUD.  Just like with the capsule computer, there isn't a usable monitor around, so I have to do it through my helmet.

But it looks good!  The safety checks all come back green, and the battery cells start equally distributing the power received between them.  No signs of faults or overloads!  Hell yeah!

I keep myself calm though and wait until Bub has completely drained the smaller battery before disconnecting it, letting it idle with its stored internal power.  With the big battery now usable, I change the power supply distribution setup.  Bub takes the full load from the Solar Array, and then sends it to one of the capsule batteries, which leads to the second which leads to the final one still inside the capsule.

Heh.  But the funny thing is that even with its full load of power, Bub is barely reading 1% charged.  Well, perhaps it shouldn't be surprising.  It has a whopping total of 80 battery cells, each of which is larger than the other three batteries; basically one foot cubed chunks of high density energy storage!  Mwhahahaha.

It’s already a great thing.  Now I really won’t have to worry about power for a while.  At only 10% charged, Bub could power the capsule at full draw for days.  Not to mention the power requirements of my suit, too.

I actually get the feeling that batteries like Bub are used for something like shield generators, or the stations weapon systems or power distribution nodes.  But it works for this too.

It finally ticks up to 2% charged while I watch it humming away happily.

I float in a cross-legged position nearby and refill myself with a drink of water and another slurry meal of rations, calming down from my excitement high.  My nerves are still tingling.  I still have plenty of work to do today.

That said, I finally pull up the map in my HUD, and look for what had interested me after my jaunt out of the station yesterday.  It only takes me a minute to find what seems to be a bulge.  Like a storage tank for water or fuel or the like.  They're spaced evenly around not only the outer ring of the station, but also inwards toward the center as well.

But the one closest to me is still about a mile away, far past anything I've explored.  But regardless, there's another reason for wanting to check it out.