Well actually it already is wrecked, but I need to put the crew in danger of dying before they are rescued. Situation is as follows. The ship has experienced massive damage to its engineering section but was able to send out a Mayday before it lost power. It is now operating on emergency battery power. It will take the rescuers somewhere between 18 and 24 hours to come to its aid. I want to put the survivors in some sort of danger of dying before then. I've done enough research to realize that they wont freeze or asphyxiate before they are rescued. I've considered the old standby of the emergency antimatter ejection s fail-safe failing and when the battery dies the ship explodes. But that seems too much like an old Star Trek trope. I've considered toxic gas buildup but can't think of anything that would do the trick. Anyone have any suggestions as how I can put my damsel in distress?
I need to wreck my spaceship
- Thread starter mizor
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The gas buildup would take more than 24 hours, unless there's a diesel-generator standby that's using the oxygen and prodviding CO, but that would be too stupid. The failure of the anti-matter system would work, even if it has been used before; after all, that's a magnetic bottle, and the electro-magnets need electricity. If that was used before, then it might work again.
You might have some sort of leak that goes undetected until too late.
You might have some sort of leak that goes undetected until too late.
Battery back up are not designed to run everything on the ship. Systems will shut down that are not essential and because of that some internal reports might get overlooked such as leaks from minor chemical tanks that will slowly build up.
Also, not every battery is going to deplete at the same rate, they will feed off each other, unless the batteries are designated for individual systems. Life support would be one of the major systems to keep operational, as well as communications.
And yes, it will get cold as more and more systems shut down. The apollo 13, I think it was 13, the astronauts got very cold when they lost power.
Also, not every battery is going to deplete at the same rate, they will feed off each other, unless the batteries are designated for individual systems. Life support would be one of the major systems to keep operational, as well as communications.
And yes, it will get cold as more and more systems shut down. The apollo 13, I think it was 13, the astronauts got very cold when they lost power.
Would the ship be carrying anything that could be hazardous to their health, that could possibly be dislodged/unleashed due to the damage to the ship? If you want some drama, you could have some critically injured crew members and not enough available supplies/personnel to attend to them.
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If they're dead in the water, so to speak, they could be on a collision course with something large. It's not like they stop moving.
That's what I was thinking. Or maybe the ship is on a collision course with a rather large asteroid.
thanks for the help everyone . You all gave me some good ideas I can work with and also made me realize that I forgot that with no power they wold be in a micro gravity environment.
So to further add to this discussion, if a ship is vaporized, or partially vaporized by say a CME, could there be survivors?
I'll comment that the firefly episode "out of gas" covered an event similar to what you are writing now. Check it out - it was very well done, and may give you some ideas for how to build tension in your story, as well.
Sarpedon
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Toxic coolant leak. Basically, any complicated mechanical system will have various chemicals in it. Most of these are not great to be exposed to. Look at a modern seagoing ship: they are filled with pipes. Most of these are harmless if unpleasant if ruptured. Others may be toxic.
Sounds like it's time to borrow my son's physics book and have a talk with some people with medical backgrounds.
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The gravity issue depends on whether they spin the ship to get an illusion of gravity or whether there's some kind of handwavium artificial gravity. If the ship is spinning when they lose power it'll just keep spinning.
Some suggestions based only on the thread title:
through human error? Mechanical failure? Hull breach. Sabotage. Coolant leak? Micrometeorite puncture? Thruster imbalance. Radiation spike. Life support contamination? Denebian Phage Worms in the anti-gravity matrix? Ensign Duprez clogged the toilet again and the pressure release override read a methane breach? Doctor Corbett dropped a syringe of emergency-heal nanobots that get into the electrical system causing a security lockdown. Captain Gerald Fitzpatrick meets his arch rival, Patrick Fitzgerald, the ensuing blaster duel cracks the dytholian fuel intermix.
through human error? Mechanical failure? Hull breach. Sabotage. Coolant leak? Micrometeorite puncture? Thruster imbalance. Radiation spike. Life support contamination? Denebian Phage Worms in the anti-gravity matrix? Ensign Duprez clogged the toilet again and the pressure release override read a methane breach? Doctor Corbett dropped a syringe of emergency-heal nanobots that get into the electrical system causing a security lockdown. Captain Gerald Fitzpatrick meets his arch rival, Patrick Fitzgerald, the ensuing blaster duel cracks the dytholian fuel intermix.
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Why not make it do triple duty then? It's toxic without proper shielding. As the batteries weaken, so does the shielding. Within 24 hours, they'll be dead. Of course, the shielding fails in an asymptotic progression, so the last few hours will be the most dangerous (and coincidentally the most dramatic).
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