The Judgement of Reclaimation

Narut does not notice the whispering, being completely entranced by the outdated technology he was looking at. He fiddles with the controls of the Contrig 3500, not noticing the sudden movements of the pressure gauge...

Until a beep on the main computer draws his attention. He opens the process matrix, and finds an error.

"Capt- um... Marlene? You'd better come see this."

I look at Marlene nervously and realise that the engine had stopped.. What do you exactly mean by "sinking"?

"Please just wake everyone up nicely, panic will not be good right now." Marlene moves cross to Narut. "What's wrong?"

Narut expands the window and switches from the process view to the network map.

"Each system on the ship - pressurization, navigation, engine control, air conditioning, every machine - its connected to the power grid. Part of this computer's function is to monitor that power grid."

As Marlene walks away I begin to shake Will awake.
Telling me not to panic just seems to make we want to panic more!
"Ummmm, Will? You should really wake up now..."

Seeing Marlene's impatience, Narut continues.

"Well, this network map shows each system. Logically, each system that exists on this ship appears here. But physically, they seem disconnected. On a newer system they would show them as disconnected, but instead this one is just showing impossibly low response rates."

He looks back up at her. She is still impatient and waiting for information.

"...well, there must be something wrong with the systems. Where do the systems phsyically connect?"

"The circuit breaker under the chair against the back left wall." a sudden loud creaking sound of metal bending jolts everyone awake. "Shit."

Willacy was pleasantly awakened by the sound of screeching metal attempting to blow out his ear drums. "Argh!" Willacy's body shot forward, and a surprised Clara quickly stepped away. As the power of thought returned to Willacy, he recalled being lightly shook. "Clara, in the future, do shake me more violently." He looked around the submarine. "So, we're sinking. Anything else I should know?" he asked her. The metal sound loomed forebodingly in his frontal lobe.

"Arrg... dammit... i allays hoped i'dd die quietly in my sleep..."
I climb back onto my seat.
"Wake me when where all dead?"
I lay back down.

Narut stumbles out of the cockpit seat and runs to the circuit box. He pries it open and examines the breakers.

"Geeze, these are really outdated... first the computer, now these..."

He scanned the fuses. Half of them were completely fried.

"The fuses are busted. If we want to get the systems online, and thus not die at the bottom of the ocean, we need to replace the fuses somehow."

Oh Hey! I always keep a few fuses on me at ALL Times just for this event! Here ya go!

ZZZZzzzzzzzz............

I look at Monzul in astonishment as he went back to sleep.
"Don't go back to sleep!" I say in slightly panicked voice.
I begin to shake Monzul back awake.
"This isn't funny!"

"Fine! Lets us all die consciously... Anything you'dd rather have me doing other than panicking and shaking people?"

(My flaw is being grumpy right after i wake up.)

"Non of us are tech specialists... If Yuji were here he could have done it." The sub jerks horribly throwing everyone around and then it settles. Marlene gets up and walks over to the window looking out into the dark ocean. "Well that was lucky..." She sighs. "We almost went over a cliff, but we've stopped moving now." She leans against the side of the sub and then jerks away instantly yelling. "GOD - FUCKING COLD!" suddenly her face tightens as she realizes something dreadful. "We need to get this sub moving otherwise we are going to freeze to death."

Narut walks over to Monzul, for some reason thinking that he might be the kind of person who carries fresh fuses around

Narut looks up at Marlene. "You could call me a tech specialist, but that isn't enough. There are two ways for us to get out of this. Either we find a way to replace the fuses, or we utilize some form of Emergency Surfacing Inflatable."

He looks away, avoiding eye contact with everyone present.

"Sex dolls won't be enough. I would know."

"This thing wasn't made with surfacers." Marlene slumps down into the pilot's seat. "I can only think of one thing to do. We might be able to use the remaining fuses to create a small power loop that might be able to power the sonar. You should be able to ping then. We would have to sit and wait though."

Clara is obviously too panicked for any useful information. The new guy proves much more useful. Willacy takes in the scene before him, but is unable to find any type of replacement cable to his dismay. "I wonder," says Willacy. He fetches the sealed bag he retrieved from the depot earlier and flings it over at Narut. "There may just be something usable in there. Knock yourself out."

"Ummm, a fuse is just a piece of metal in a vacum tube right? Couldn't we replace it with a piece of metal?" I ask tentative.
"It would leave the system vulnerable to power spikes but... it should hold unitl the surface umm, at least thats what I think."

Narut looks up from the mess of electric equipment.

"She's right. We could wrap something as simple as a chewing gum wrapper around the blown fuses, but each one has a high chance of spontaneously combusting, which could destroy the entire circuit and basically we'd have no chance of survival."

"I don't think it would hold until the surface anyway, but it seems to be our only option." Marlene pulls out a combat knife. On its handle is a thermometre. "Yeah we better hurry." She said as her breath turned to fog. she returned the knife to its sheeth. "Maybe we can think of something better to cover it in? Doesn't it need the vaccum seal in order to pass an electric current without burning out?"

I close my eyes and try to remember how fuses work.
"A vaccum isn't needed, some fuses themselves are not vacuum sealed. But the fuses here broke because there was too much current passing through I think. That could be from a short or a random power spike... If its a short then I think we have a bigger problem."
My panic begins to lessen as I become destracted with thinking and remembering old stories.

"She's right, Marlene. These fuses weren't faulty. This entire circuitry, now that I look at it, is unlike anything I've seen installed in military equipment for the past 30 years. This and the old computer seem very out of place. When was this submarine made?"

"This is an exploritory sub from the early 1990s. We had a large surplus of them and the were retro fitted to be external subs attached to the nuclear vessel. This is the first time i've heard of one breaking down though." Marlene dropped her gun with a loud bang of metal against metal. she sighed again, not able to think of what to do. She heard a muffled bang as something hit the metal of the sub.
Marlene looked up at the squad then heard it again, no one had done anything and instead they were trying to figure out how to fix the fuses. The muffled bump occured again. Marlene took her hand and hit the side of the sub with her hand two times. The muffled bumps copied her.

Narut looked up from his jury-rigged surge protector, believing that he had taught the others enough about how to make several more of them. He heard the bump on the hull, cocked his head to the side, and shrugged his shoulders.

"Capt- er, Marlene. How long till we run out of air?"

"We won't there are new filter systems that suck oxygen from the CO2 we breath. If we ever do it'll probably be in about a week." Marlene didn't look at Narut at all as she said this. Instead she got up and began walking around the cramped space looking at the hull oddly. after she finishes her sentence she leans against the hull in one spot and knocks on it.