The Grav Plating

Capt. Atticus Elliot opened the access panel under the gravity control display. Ever since he bought the Loreninn, the grav plating had been randomly switching on and off. It had been making him queasy at times as though it was oscillating between full on and off.

The panel was stubborn and wasn’t coming easily, so he reached for the flathead screwdriver. He reached all around where it should be, even lifting his legs, rolling side to side and feeling under himself. He started to get up and the sudden 2 Gs slammed him back down. Now, he was pissed. He began feeling again and found a wrench…”hell, good enough, damn ship!” He whacked the panel’s stuck left lock with the tri-wrench and it made a loud bang and a dent. The gravity returned to normal, which caused him pause for a second. He pulled back the wrench to hit it once more and in doing so, struck the bottom of the control panel, the gravity switched back on and the access panel fell off with the corner just missing his face.

With the panel open, he peered inside. He didn’t really know what he was looking for…just something wrong. He reached up and used the control interface to pull himself farther into the access hole and as he did the gravity switched off again, returning the ship to 1 g. Everything was covered in dust. Internal starship components weren’t meant to be covered in dust he thought. He blew with a large puff. This just stirred everything up and he started to cough. Bad idea. He grabbed a cloth from his pocket and began to carefully dust the components he could get to to see if anything looked fried.

Nothing! He couldn’t see anything that looked unusual. Not sure that he knew what unusual would look like, except something obvious, a broken cable, something burnt, something loose, the normal symptoms for anything mechanical that is broken. As he laid half in the access hole, he heard the hatch open and before he could ask “hello?” he smelled her. His heart started to pound immediately. Excitedly, he yelled “just a second!” and pushed himself out of the panel. When Amelia said “hi” from so close, it startled him and he sat up with a start, his head hitting a home run on the grav control panel. The gravity switched on again and they both fell to the floor, unprepared for the sudden doubling of their weight. As they both lay there looking at each other wincing, a thought occurred to him. “maybe it’s the control panel?, every time I touch that damn thing…”. Half of him wanted terribly to get up and pull the panel apart in joy that he might have finally found the problem, but the other half just wanted to lie there and look at her.

Amelia started to get up under the strain, and he said “hold on!” and gave the control panel a good whack. She flew to her feet, almost effortlessly. “damn! Why didn’t I try the whack test first!? No matter how advanced or complicated things get, a good whack still works.” She looked at him smiling, trying not to laugh. Then she noticed the blood on his forehead and ran to the galley and got some disposable towels, wetted them and came back. She was helping him get up and he went to reach for the panel as a support, aborted the moved and fell back to the floor. “Sorry! Didn’t want to touch the control panel again and have us hit the floor for a second time.” He crawled from underneath the panel and she helped him up and over to the couch. He was in heaven, smelling her and touching her as she tended to his cut. Being in her arms was the ultimate paradise and for the first time in his life, he could see something that would make him forget all his crazy schemes and dreams of exploration. For everything that he had ever been searching for was right here.

His hand reached a little too low and she said “Attie, don’t, I’ve gone back to my husband and I can’t.” He pulled his hand and his eyes moistened as he tried to hold back the emotions. She sensed it and laid him down, with a piece of disposable towel pressed against his forehead. “Do you have a re-generator in here?”. “No, its at home.” “Well, its just a small cut, it’ll be ok” and she bent over and kissed it. He looked into her eyes and he could see the change. Her left hand slowly lifted his shirt and ran up his chest. She always had a thing for his chest. At first, he let her without trying anything back, but he knew she would let him rub her chest. It was fair and logical. A chest for a chest. And she was a logical woman. Taking the risk, he lifted her shirt. She didn’t respond. His right hand slipped under her bra feeling her erect nipple. She inhaled and withdrew her hand from his chest. She then looked up “that hatch is open and the windows are clear, people could see!”, but before he could get up to change the conditions, she was already heading out the hatch. She turned around, tucking her shirt back in and waved her now shaking hand. He said “I love you!” and she ran off down the ramp. He stumbled for the window to watch her go, but as he leaned on the control panel to get a better look, the grav plates came back on. He laid on the floor for quite a while lightly sobbing, in pain, both emotional and physical. He couldn’t take this anymore. He had to get away.

When finally he heard a clang against the hull, he realized that the hatch was still open and the gravity plating was on. That wasn’t supposed to happen. The grav plating was only meant to be used when the ship was sealed, for the ship itself acted as a Ronari Cage, just like a metal box acts as Faraday cage, except this was for gravity. He regained himself and stumbled over to the hatch and looked at the 4 door switches that were supposed to tell the system the door was opened. With quad redundancy, he doubted that this was the problem. It had to all be in the control panel. Someone from the outside yelled “do you have your plating on?! All my shit is rolling toward your ship!” Atticus slammed the hatch while yelling “sorry!”.