Dusters THIRTEEN

Norrie and Fagan set up a test bench in the only open area on the ship, the Galley. Everyone was forbidden to enter when they were running tests and all ferrous metal was removed.

They ran cables from the Aft part of the ship for power and plopped a spare collector on a table in the middle of the room. It broke a lot of rules, as they fouled (blocked open) air tight doors that would shut automatically ensure the overall integrity of the ship in an emergency. The rig had the crew a bit on edge.

Norrie took the protective alloy shell off the collector, which required removing several hundred Aluminum screws. The whole device was about 8 feet long and 6 feet wide and weighed about 400 pounds. It took everyone to get it in the Galley.

“We can get to the individual components like this and it shouldn’t impact the operation on the collector.” Norrie said.

“These are redesigned from the collectors I read up on while traveling here, we must have had different documentation.” He noted.

“They gave you bad data Fagan, the old ones were prone to failure. I guess these wound up not much better, but they do work differently.” She said. She dropped her long black hair out of the pony tail, shook it out and then straightened it and re-tied it behind her head. Fagan just watched.

Norrie was a sturdy cute woman who moved and spoke with confidence, it was hard for Fagan to not find her attractive.

“Ready now?’ He asked.

“Shut up smart ass, we have work to do.” She told him, matter-of-factly. “Get the power connected and I will plug in the monitors and start the recorder to capture the logs.”

He smiled for a second and got to work. We’ll get along fine.” He thought.

They rigged the power connection with a local master on off switch. Norrie pulled the cover off the power director unit, which monitors and manages the distribution across the coils of this individual array. Just a small part of the ship’s overall array.

She plugged in a portable terminal and accessed the system’s diagnostic module. “From here we should be able to make this puppy do back flips if we want.” She said, and winked at Fagan. He laughed.

“Ok, let me tell the others we’re starting.” He said, walking over to the intercom. “This is the copilot, we will be conducting a collector test in the Galley; all hands will please stay clear of the area until I announce the test is complete. Thank you and enjoy the flight”

That had Norrie and Fagan laughing and they heard someone outside the Galley laughing too. Fagan hadn’t heard anyone laugh since they had arrived here and he was very happy to feel a bit good for a change. The few days of very seriousness had been slashed.

Fagan went to his terminal and motioned Norrie to come over. He showed her the simulation of the accident and then isolated it to just the faulty collector by zooming in.

“Ok, I am removing all of the other collectors from this simulation so we can see what went wrong with this puppy.” He said, with his fingers dancing over the touch screen.

He started the simulation and they watched for 23 seconds, until the simulated collector failed.

“We have to recreate that, should be doable.” He said.

“Where do we start Fagan?” She asked.