Flooding on level 400!

Following his grave accident in the mine, Bratrizik spends a week recovering in the medical bay but is soon well enough to be back on duty. Vesks are tough and are not easily incapacitated.


After the Gap - January 15, 317 @ 10:54



CASPER receives a communication from the cargo ship Serenity indicating that Serenity is approximately 2.5 hours away from landing. The loading of the cargo ship occurs every 12 days, and requires all three workers at Mine-2 to pitch in. Nict tells CASPER to activate the reception protocol. The landing strip lights are turned on, flooding the area with blueish lights amid the swirls of the methane snow. The cranes inside the mine's loading zones begin to move bundles of titanium rods from the staging to the loading area.

@ 11:07

Leaving Control, Nict boards CAT-1 and heads out to plow, followed by Yiris on board CAT-3. They push the methane snow into the giant grates at the end of the landing strip, where it is liquified and pumped into the mine for processing fuel. Bratrizik, meanwhile, boards CAT-2 and takes his vehicle to the mine to begin the loading process of titanium bars. With his vehicle now full, he then heads out to plow, while Nict reports to the mine for loading.

@ 13:38

When Serenity lands, the strip has been cleared, and all three CATs are filled with their cargo. A CAT positions itself underneath the Serenity, and a giant crane inside the ship lifts and stores the titanium bars. This process takes under forty-five minutes, with the last CAT receiving the mine's delivery of food, supplies, and entertainment.



After the Gap - January 16, 317 @ 03:47


CASPER interrupts Yiris's android meditation and reports that a mechanical drilling unit, DR-238-S on level 400 has hit a pocket of liquid methane. DR-238-S was following a titanium vein when it evidently pierced through the titanium and released the liquid methane. Finding a pool of liquid methane underneath the surface is rare but not unheard of. The most recent occurrence was approximately 13.2 years ago on level 298, which resulted in a loss of productivity for three days as an entire section of the mine needed to be drained. Previous occurrences happened 39.3 and 61.7 years ago in completely different areas of the mine.

Yiris wakes Nict and Bratrizik and appraises them of the situation. The android then files a notice with the other bases and then compiles a short report to CIDERA indicating that the production will be affected. CASPER is unable to calculate the impact as the extent of the pool and the amount of liquid remains unknown. Level 400 is flooding fast, however, and DR-238-S is no longer communicating with CASPER.  

@ 05:58

CASPER reports that all sensors from level 397 down are out, probably due to a short-circuit. Nict authorizes the closing of all blast doors to isolate as much of the flooded area as possible.

Bratrizik questions CASPER on the best place to stage an intervention. CASPER indicates that Security Post 380 is the closest to the pool rupture. An overlay of the mine's thousands of kilometers of tunnels show that the lowest level sitting above the section of level 400 is level 386, which came within a vertical kilometer above DR-328-S. Checking inventory, Nict finds that Mine-2 retains three aquatic drones. One is currently stored on level 298, the last level where liquid methane was discovered. The second sits in equipment storage on level 5. The third one is partially disassembled in the workshop on level 5.

@ 06:37

Gearing up, Nict and Bratrizik take CAT-2 and drive to the mine. The first five levels are large enough to accommodate a CAT driving through it. They drive down to level 5, and stop at the equipment storage area. Maintenance robots M2-M34 and M2-M58 assist Nict in moving the aquatic drone out of storage to maintenance. Nict then spends about an hour transforming the aquatic drone into a sled drone that Bratrizik can maneuver in the liquid methane. 

@ 07:40

With this step complete, Nict contacts Yiris and advises the android of the situation. Yiris informs them that various automated units on levels 397, 398, and 399 have stopped responding. CASPER speculates that some of the blast doors were not able to stop the rise of the methane on sections of these levels.

Nict places the converted drone onto a tracked cart that can then be driven down to the lower levels. The process of traveling down 39 kilometers to Security 380 takes over an hour and requires several elevators rides and about 40 kilometers of lateral travel. Yiris informs her colleagues that they most likely will lose radio contact once Bratrizik reaches level 400.

@ 08:56

Once at level 396, Bratrizik and Nict drop the drone in the liquid methane, and Bratrizik enters the liquid. He can already see evidence that the methane touching the edges of the mining tunnel is crystallizing. Heading down the shaft with the drone, Bratrizik reaches level 400, and locates DR-328-S with little difficulty. The drill is immobilized in the flooded tunnel, and the Vesk will not be able to pull it through the machinery to reach the front access point. Unable to contact his friends, Bratrizik enters the rear access of the drill, and travels through the flooded compartments to the front.

The machine has clearly been pushed back several hundred meters from the liquid methane's pressure. Bratrizik climbs out of the drill's front access point and swims down the mine shaft. About three hundred meters ahead he finds titanium metal plating encased in a sheared vein of titanium, with liquid methane behind it. The plating is inclined downward at a 72 degrees angle, and is about 12 cm thick. As far as the Vesk can see, the plating continues in both directions, and he cannot see a top or a bottom. He ventures about 50 meters in the space before he runs out of slack line, so he decides to return and informs Nict and Yiris of his discovery.

@ 11:22

Upon hearing this information, CASPER crunches numbers and speculates that level 386 comes closest to the structure, if projected height continues. Bratrizik heads that way with Nict and the Vesk uses ground penetrating radar. The radar does not indicate the presence of a pool of liquid anywhere below or sideways.

Returning to Control, the three of them discuss ways to close the methane leak and plans to pump out the methane and rehabilitate the all levels below 396. According to CASPER's calculations, it will take over two months with all available piping and pumps to return that section of the mine to active. They decide it's probably what they will need to do anyway, so plans are made to begin the pumping in the morning.

Yiris alters the record and removes the visual evidence from the server after creating a physical copy and hides the disk in her room. Anyone consulting the mining records will see the methane leak and its aftermath, but they will not see any reference to the strange structure underneath the mine.



After the Gap - January 17, 317 @ 6:33

Yiris queries CASPER with a status report. The computer reports that over 162 billion gallons have been detected in the flooded mine, but the rising has stopped at level 397. 

10:21

Nict builds a small submarine drone with 500 meters of cable. She delivers it to level 396, and begins maneuvering it remotely. The drone enters the methane pocked, and quickly uses its sonar to detect that the top wall is over 23 kilometers away, while the far wall stretches over 14 kilometers.

Bratrizik takes a sample of the titanium ore that was breached, and begins analyzing it. CASPER indicates it will take several hours before the analysis is complete.

14:57

Returning to the surface, Nict and Bratrizik board the mine's freighter and take off from the mine in the general direction where the top of the structure would be it if emerged from the ground. The strong winds and methane snows buffer the freighter, but Nict expertly keeps it stationary as Bratrizik launches a drone to explore the area. The winds are too strong, and the drone crashes. Bratrizik launches another drone, and this one crashes too. The winds are simply too strong.

CASPER reports that there now is a 0.02% differential in temperature from the liquid methane. The source of this heating is unknown. Yiris decides to file a different version of the status report than what really happened. She only mentions the leak and the flooding. 

17:48
 
CASPER informs Bratrizik that the titanium ore analysis is done. The titanium in the retrieved plate appears to have been weaved together at the molecular level through an unknown process.


23:01

CASPER reports that the methane level has dropped back to level 398. Nict asks whether this is due to the pumping. CASPER responds by the negative, that this process is faster than pumping. What is going on under the surface of Mine-2?