Warp Systems Abominable

(Hallelujah, Impairor class frigate)
Tash-Murkon Region


Danny pressed the go button on his console, confirming that all systems were nominal, (although barely acceptable might be a better description).

"Warp activated," the warp tech said over comms.

Our comm chatter was strictly amongst the crew. We didn't bother Captain Cardenas. She was one of the few who opted for an avatar clone. Must already be missing her body.

The clone was kept in stasis until Vanessa decided she wanted to walk around the ship.

The ship shook back and forth lightly. Danny grabbed the bottle of quafe before it could spill. The soft drink was ridiculously expensive because the Quafe Corporation knew that plenty of capsuleers loved the stuff and would pay ISK for it. They offered a discount for regular people but was still 80,000 Amarrian dollars a bottle. Capsuleers were paying an astonishing 56 ISK a bottle.

The Captain was a billionaire in her previous life according to the dossier, but she'd sold it all, and converted the sum into ISK. The console displayed her ISK balance with Concord Bank for some reason. Billions of dollars became 5000 ISK. The ISK was a very large unit of currency.

The ship started to shake more violently. Danny held onto the console with his left hand while holding the quafe with his other. He never could have afforded a quafe during his previous tour, but now he was making five times more in daily salary.

"Is there something wrong with the warp module?" he asked over comms.

"This warp is taking a long time. Our warp factor is piss poor!" the warp tech responded.

Danny pressed the display button, which showed a visual representation of the warp. They were warping from one jump gate to the next, on their way to the Career training station.

"Capacitor is at 50%," the cap specialist yelled out, her voice contrasted with the mostly male crew. On his last tour there were seven women crew members, this time only two: Cap and Enviro.

Danny put the cap on the quafe, and put it in the corner hoping it wouldn't roll and shake too much and lose the fizz.

He started to walk down the hallway to the back of the frigate, where warp systems operated. The shaking made it hard going. One of the doors had busted open and was swinging back and forth with the vibrations.

He counted to thirty seconds, then to fourty, as he tried to get to the back of the ship.

"Cap to 20%!"

"Warp complete!" the warp tech said in relief.

With the vibrations gone, he walked the rest of the way to the doorway that said "WARP". He opened the door.

"What happened?" Danny asked calmly.

"The warp module on this piece of shit spazzed out. Our warp factor was only 2%. I need to active the jump gate real quick, sir."

The Ni-Kunni man turned back to his controls. He was as short and wirey as most of his bloodline, Danny observed. Very determined however. The man didn't look over his shoulder once as Danny watched him engage the jump gate.

Jumping from gate to gate was much calmer than the warping, at least on this ship. Despite the vast distances between warp gates, it was only a few seconds, and a bit of nausea, and the jump was complete. Crew applicants had to prove that they weren't especially susceptible to nausea, because the strange motion during warp and during jump affected everyone but could cause severe sickness in some people.

"I want to see a better warp this time," Danny said.

The Ni-Kunni turned back for a moment, and then started punching in the jump to the station.

The warp was smooth, either because the ship's warp module was finally working right again, or because a jump from gate to station is only half the distance of a gate to gate jump.

"Nice one," he said anyway.

"I'm Ryjirin, or just Ry if you want," the man said.

"I'm Crewmaster Danny. We don't live by formalities here, so call me what you wish. Look into fixing the warp module when we're in station."

"There's not much to customize or fiddle with when it comes to warp modules, Crewmaster. They're pretty much black boxes to us. But I will improve what I can."

"You're the busiest man on ship most of the time, so get some rest if we end up in station for a while," Danny said. He had been a shield systems tech on the Leviathan. He didn't know much about warp systems.

He had as much to learn as the crew. Command had told him that as an experienced crewmaster he would be able to choose his billets. To learn and to survive, that was his mission.