Sparrowhawk 60018 to the Rescue

Posted on Sat Mar 16th, 2013 @ 3:39pm by Lieutenant Jourdan Abbott

590 words; about a 3 minute read

Mission: A Pirate's Life
Location: Cargo Bay & Engineering

Jourdan stepped into the cargobay to see her engineering team working on the huge Steam train they had brought up from a planet several months ago.
"How is my little sparrowhawk doing?" she asked.
"Well we've got the locomotive hooked upto the generator, we're using the wheels themselves to run on these pulleys to generate enough power to run engineering and the bridge temporarily" one of the engineer's reported.

Jourdan looked up at the train. "What about the smoke and steam thats going to come from her?" she asked.
"Well, lucky for us science gave us one of these" he said nodding over to a large piece of equipment on wheels in the corner. "It purifies air, kind of like a life support machine, however it will change the steam and smoke into normal breathable air" he explained.
"Right then, how close are you to finishing?" Jourdan asked.
"All ready, she's steaming up nicely. She may be over 400 years old, but she still runs"
"Those locomotives were always known as relaible" Jourdan explained as she climbed into the cab of the train.
"We're going to have to run this thing at full speed to be able to generate enough power" she said.

She tapped her comm badge.
=A= Abbott to Engineering. We are about to get Sparrowhawk running. Are you ready to switch to external power? =A=
=A= Engineering here, we're ready chief. Whenever you say go and we'll flick the switch =A=
Jourdan saw the pressure in the locomotives boiler rise and then she opened the regulator. There was a loud hissing noise as steam erupted from the valves. Jourdan knew there was too much pressure so she vented it off using the old fashioned whistle, something which stopped people from moving to the safe area's a good five decks away.

Then the huge wheels began to turn slowly, running smoothly on the make shift rolling road. The dials on the generator began to show that they were generating power.
"We need more chief, we're at 5% of the power we need"
"Understood" Jourdan replied. She nodded at the engineer next to her to shovel more coal into the loco. She then opened the regulator to get the wheels running faster.
"30%"
Jourdan opened it more seeing the speedometer jump upto 50mph.
"Thats 55%" he said as the speedometer sat at a nice 60mph. Jourdan opened the regulator to full and the locomotive shook a little from the speed difference. The clattering and the thundering of the wheels could be hard as Sparrowhawk's steam engine thundered upto full speed, puffing out smoke and steam heavily.
"Chief, she's powering us at 115% of what we need"
"Good, keep her at full power. Replicate enough coal to keep her going like this for an hour" Jourdan explained.
"Yes chief, shall we keep her going for the entire hour?" they asked.
"Until I say so, keep Sparrowhawk running, we need her power. This ship will be running off of her steam power".

The engineer's jumped into the cab and began to make sure she was running okay. Jourdan tapped the side of the large tender happily as she left the bay. She returned to Engineering.
"Right then people. We're ready, Sparrowhawk is fully steamed and running. Switch to external steam power" she explained. The power flickered for a few seconds as Engineering was switched to steam power. For the first time ever a Starship was being powere by one of Earth's earliest power sources. Coal, Water and Steam!

Posting by

Lieutenant Jourdan Abbott
Chief Engineering Officer

 

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