Star Man 1: Star Bourne by I. G. Roberts

Author:I. G. Roberts [Roberts, I. G.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Goodreads: 33386067
Publisher: Ian George Roberts
Published: 2016-12-11T17:00:00+00:00

MOBILE AGAIN

Finally, two days later, we completed the repairs so all the maneuvering thrusters were ready for operation, at least all of the thrusters we would be able to fix prior to reaching a port where parts and supplies were available. I ordered all the repair crews to stand down for another full day of rest, partly because they deserved the reward, partly so they would be safe and partly to make sure they were well rested and ready to work once we stopped the tumbling. The repair crews had made a mighty effort with the repairs so far and they’d been able to achieve our first goal much sooner than I’d thought possible. We would now be able to stop the ship’s tumbling and align her stern in our direction of travel. I ordered an announcement to be made to inform everyone on the ship we would be maneuvering in three hours then sat back to wait. The crew knew what was required, all loose items were to be stowed and all personnel were to be secured by the time we started maneuvering. As the time approached for us to make our attempt at stopping the ships tumbling motion, I had the communications officer to signal secure for maneuvering. The crew all immediately moved to stow any remaining loose items before strapping themselves into acceleration couches ready for our coming maneuvers.

When all the acknowledgments came in, I gave the order for the helm to stop the tumbling. I could not be as specific as Captain Carlon was when he ordered the ship flipped before exiting the Zafar system as I didn’t have the knowledge to do it, instead, I needed to trust the crew to do their jobs. I’d already discussed the issue with the helmsmen and we’d modeled the ships behaviour, along with the limitations in the computers. We then configured the helm controls as a simulator and found a way to achieve the necessary result without me needing to order every single thruster burn. During our simulations, we tried various scenarios on the helm simulator till we were confident we could achieve the desired result in the shortest possible time and using the least amount of reaction mass. We already knew we simply could not afford to make too many mistakes or waste too much reaction mass during this effort. The Tangesha at the helm concentrated as he manipulated the helm controls. His job was slightly more difficult than it might have otherwise been due to the missing thrusters. It took him nearly an hour, but finally, he managed to stop the tumbling. By now, the ship was moving through space with the bow pointing forty-seven degrees to the port and with a positive sixty-one degrees’ azimuth.

We’d already discussed how we would reorient the ship once the tumbling was stopped but we had not yet worked out how to point the ship in the direction we wanted. We secured the ship from maneuvering, which released the crew to go about their normal duties till we were ready for the next stage.

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