[capnq]

The electrician that Milsu Sutre had hired found a recognizable power coupling in the Masters' unfinished ship fairly quickly. They'd hooked up a portable generator, and were about to test it for the first time. Sutre stood in front of the antique display screen with a camera, hoping to record anything that might appear when the power came on. The metallic hull of the ship blocked their environment suit radios, so he had turned on the camera as soon as he entered the room, while the electrician bounced around to the generator to start it. He zoomed in the camera so that the screen filled the viewfinder, then waited for some sign that the power was flowing.

Power: active
Initiating start sequence: TARS Node-25
WARNING: input voltage 48.746% below optimal - compensating...
Initiating memory check
WARNING: memory faults in 70.143E6 sectors - compensating...
Memory check complete
Initiating systems check
WARNING: life support system - offline
WARNING: primary processing unit - offline
WARNING: primary manuever control system - offline
WARNING: secondary manuever control system - offline
WARNING: astrogation system - offline
WARNING: external communication system - offline
WARNING: system faults in 3 internal communication stations
WARNING: 183 internal communication stations - offline
WARNING: system faults in 3 external optical sensors
WARNING: 20 external optical sensors - offline
WARNING: system faults in 8 internal optical sensors
WARNING: 376 internal optical sensors - offline
WARNING: 2 engines - offline
WARNING: 4 primary reaction mass tanks - offline
WARNING: 4 secondary reaction mass tanks - offline
WARNING: system faults in 6 attitude thrusters
WARNING: 8 attitude thrusters - offline
WARNING: 4 tertiary reaction mass tanks - empty
WARNING: 4 tertiary reaction mass tanks - offline
WARNING: 4 passive defense systems - offline
WARNING: 6 active defense systems - offline
WARNING: targeting system - offline
WARNING: fire control system - offline

The ancient text had filled the screen and was scrolling faster than Sutre could read it. The electronics were still working! Well, some of them, anyway. The warnings that he'd managed to read had gotten progressively more cryptic, but it was obvious that a lot of things weren't functional; many of the items reported must not even have been installed before construction had stopped.

The electrician bounced through the door behind him. "Anything happening?" he asked.

"It's incredible! Look at that display! It's running some kind of diagnostic."

"Wow! The Masters sure knew how to build things to Last!" the electrician laughed. "I really expected that all we'd get would be a few sparks and some smoke."

"You didn't mention that when I hired you."

"I almost didn't take the job, but I figured that you might still have some luck left over from finding this place."

"Sure looks like it. All by itself, this could make up for not finding many other artifacts in the city."

[ October 19, 2002, 19:11: Message edited by: capnq ]