A steamy situation

Cidera Corporation's mining operations on planetoid H-7758 has been in operations for over fifty years. A small planet roughly 1,000 miles in diameters, H-7758 is rich in titanium, which constitute all of the planet's exports, but its cold and hostile methane climate ensures a certain level of isolation. CIDERA exploits three large titanium mines, Mine-1, Mine-2 and Mine-3, as well as a research facility located at Mine-1. A subsidiary of CIDERA, Stellar Rehabilitation, Inc. runs a maximum prison facility. At the height of the titanium boom, more than two thousand people lived and worked in Cidera's operations, but this number has dropped to less than fifty when the prison facility is excluded.

For the past year, Mine-2 has been staffed by three workers, who have signed two year contracts to run, maintain, and exploit the company's assets on its behalf. Yiris is an android technomancer with light rainbow colored hair. She is very interested in learning more about androids, their mores and their culture. Nict is a shirren mechanic who ran out of money and was desperate enough that he picked the first high paying job available. He hopes to save enough so he can access more traveling opportunities. Bratrizik Wound Sealer, son of Sroronaz Lifestealer, is a vesk mystic.  He has not shared with the others why he accepted such a remote and bleak posting. 

While the mine operations require round the clock supervision, the staff at Mine-2 have plenty of time to pursue their own passions. Since their arrival, they have created an arboretum, a compost station, and a bio-engineering room.


After the Gap - January 4, 317 @ 07:58

CASPER, Mine-2's Artificial Intelligence, notifies the workers that the pressure control system has a faulty valve that needs to be changed. The computer is unable to automatically shut the valve down, and none of the mine automatons are able to perform this task. Yiris receives the report and notifies the rest of her crew. Bratrizik reports to the equipment room, suits up and grabs Cat-3. He drives across the landing strip from the residential quarters to the actual mine. 

@ 08:26

Entering the mine through the magnetic field, he drives Cat-3 down from First to Third level, where the mechanical processing section of the mine is located. He exits the vehicle, and follows an automaton to the sector where the problem is located. Deadly jets of steam limit the view to a few meters. 

CASPER reports that the pressure is increasing and has reached critical failure stage. Bratrizik attempts to manually shut the system down, but the valve will not bulge. Suddenly the pipes shudder and the valve explode. A section of pipe is propelled straight into Bratrizik's stomach, puncturing both the environmental suit and his body. The Vesk immediately collapses to the ground.

Watching live through the mine's security video feed, Yiris and Nict are horrified. CASPER informs them that Bratrizik still shows vital signs, but these are getting weaker. The two of them rush to the equipment room and suit up before driving to the mine aboard Cat-2.  

@ 08:49

Parking near Cat-3, Nict disembarks from the vehicle while Yiris preps the medical bay on board Cat-2. Bratrizik is unconscious, but Nict is able to perform an emergency medical procedure to heal him, before carefully transporting him with the automaton's help to Cat-2 elevator and thence to the medical bay. While Yiris keeps an eye on Bratrizik's vital signs, Nict drives Cat-2 back to base, and they then transfer the Vesk to the better equipped lab, where he recovers quickly but will need a few days of rest.

@ 10:43

Nict heads back to the mine and locates the manual emergency shutdown of for the Third level. With the mine's operations completely stopped, the mechanic conducts repairs by removing the faulty sensor module and several sections of piping. He then runs stress tests on the system, and CASPER reports that it is operating within parameters. The mine is soon once again operational. Yiris files a report with Cidera describing the accident and the measures taken to solve it, as well as the minimal impact on production.