Few noticed it; only the transport tunnels were affected, and with the crew going about their daily routines only those unlucky enough to be traveling from room to room witnessed the brief outage, throwing the metal tunnels into darkness for just a second, just a heartbeat, before the stark LEDs returned to their normal brightness.
Generators were checked, wiring was examined. Nothing was found.
And then it happened again. For about thirty seconds, the computer screens in the control room went black, the programs freezing up, and when they came back up, one of the telemetry reports from the ship’s outer sensors was returned corrupted, its data unreadable.
Generators were checked, wiring was examined. Nothing was found.
On Earth, one power fluctuation was nothing to worry about; two was a fixable problem, an arrow in the sky pointing towards some larger thing in need of attention. In space, one bad power fluctuation could mean a complete system failure, and two could mean death. The fragility of it all was thrown into stark relief, and the pattern wasn’t stopping.
Is it too early to be worried? Is it too naive, too suspicious or superstitious to read into things? To consider this some kind of tampering? Some kind of warning?
IN CHARACTER:
beginning at exactly 13:35 on mission day 1433, and continuing at regular intervals of roughly 437 minutes from that point on, brief power fluctuations of varying intensity began plaguing the Argo
effects of the fluctuations have included: lights flickering, minor computer system brownouts, navigational system errors, corrupted telemetry reports, and communication shutdowns. nothing immediately dangerous or life-threatening has occurred, but the accumulation of inconveniences could potentially become dangerous in conjunction with one another if systems aren’t restored between the power fluctuations
for safety and to ensure that minor systems are the only things being affected, the engines, servers, and crucial life support generators must be checked between each fluctuation to ensure all are in proper working order and have not been disrupted by the brownouts. those crew members on maintenance and life support duties will rotate system checks between fluctuations
the 437 minute pattern was noticed at around 18:00 on mission day 1434; no other patterns in the fluctuations or their intensities has yet been observed
OUT OF CHARACTER:
this is an ongoing event, and will continue to affect all characters and threads until otherwise noted
currently, threads may be started from mission day 1433 to the end of the current cycle
fluctuations themselves may be incorporated into threads as timing allows, and their aftermath can be incorporated into threads taking place past 13:35 on mission day 1433 as desired
fluctuations have, thus far, occurred at the following times:
mission day 1433, 13:35 (flickering of light fixtures in transport tunnels)
mission day 1433, 21:12 (corrupted telemetry report, control room computer brownout)
mission day 1434, 04:49 (communication shutdown between control room and rest of ship)
mission day 1434, 12:18 (airlock hatch malfunction, navigational system error)
mission day 1434, 19:55 (flickering of light fixtures in outer ring)
mission day 1435, 03:23 (airlock hatch malfunction, corrupted telemetry report)
mission day 1435, 11:00 (thirty second long shutdown of the primary ventilation systems)
mission day 1435, 18:37 (flickering of light fixtures in outer ring)
if you need the status of a power fluctuation after 18:37 on mission day 1435, message the main; otherwise, periodic fluctuation updates will be posted through the cycle
