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Unburdened by other duties, Javi was the first to reach the engine room. It took him a moment to find Vlasa, and when he did, he immediately slid to a stop. Crammed into a tight corner between a wall panel and the main control terminal, Vlasa sat slumped. Wires ran from the wall panel into his left cybernetic arm. Another heavy wire ran from his chest plate to the control terminal.
Recovering himself, Javi wiggled over and lifted the Echanic’s slumped head. It responded without resistance. Vlasa’s cybernetic eye looked unpowered and dead while his real eye looked glassy and unfocused. Leaning in close, Javi listened for breath sounds.
“I’ve found him.” Javi said trying to keep his calm, “But he does not appear to be breathing.”
“He should have a diagnostic report screen on his chest implant. That monitors his health and his cybernetics.” Ariana responded, her voice reassuringly calm.
Javi unzipped Vlasa’s jumpsuit and searched the chest plate, “I’ve found what looks like a screen, but it is unpowered.”
“That shouldn’t happen.”
“It appears he plugged himself into the ship. I can only guess his cybernetics were shorted out either from the ion pulse or a power surge from the ship.”
“You need to reboot his cybernetics.”
“Ari, I am neither a doctor nor an engineer. I have no idea how to do that.”
“Right now, you’re the only thing we’ve got. It will be at least two minutes before Noah, and I can get into the rest of the ship. And with our section still depressurized, Squee and Olivia can’t get to you either.”
“Okay. What do I do?” Javi said, feeling his hands already beginning to shake.
“Look for a port and plug him into a power terminal. That should give his implants some power so you can reboot them.”
“Should?”
“I’m not a doctor or mechanic either. Just going from what he’s told me about his implants.”
“Okay.”
Javi scrambled around the room looking for an appropriate cord and port. He quickly found a power port on the wall, but couldn’t locate a cord. After a feeling of despair started to grip him, he suddenly remembered the wires running from Vlasa into the wall and control terminal.
Examining them, he found that they ran into a port on Vlasa’s cybernetics. He followed the cord into the wall and found the other end. As he removed it, he groaned in frustration. That end had been stripped of its plug and twisted together with other wires in the wall. A slight tug pulled the jumble apart.
Quickly Javi examined the cord coming out Vlasa’s other side. It too had been stripped of its plug. He sat there holding two halves of a whole cord. He glanced between Vlasa and the cords and lowered his eyestalks in determination.
“This may make things worse, but I don’t know what else to do. I’m sorry in advance.” Javi said.
Hastily, he replugged one end with a port into Vlasa’s chest piece. Then he plugged the other cords end plug into the wall power port. Taking the two frayed ends, Javi brought them together and twisted the exposed wires. An electric tingle surged through his hands, and he immediately dropped the wire.
The two ends separated when they hit the deck. With a groan of frustration, Javi bent down and twisted them together again, doing his best to keep them from making contact with the deck itself when his fingers again jerked and dropped them. This time the wires remained connected on the floor.
Satisfied the ends would remain together, Javi looked back up toward Vlasa’s chest piece. A dull glow emanated from the small screen, and he let out a triumphant hoot. He bent closer to read the time display.
Surprisingly, he couldn’t read the language. His triumph hoot turned into an anguished roar, “Why isn’t this thing in universal?! Everything’s in code.”
“Hopefully that’s just the boot menu.” Ariana replied, “When he showed me the screen, it was in universal.”
“You must look for a squiggly shape that has a slash through it at forty-five degrees and two backward ‘H’s next to it,” Squee said.
“How can an ‘H’ be backward?”
“The small one.”
“Right,” Javi said scanning the display. “Okay, I think I found it. Now what?”
“That is the word ‘restart’ written in code. Select that option.”
Javi pressed a finger to the display where he hoped was the appropriate button. Nothing happened for a second, and he started looking over the screen for an alternative icon. Before he found anything, the screen changed and gave him a welcome screen in universal. The chest piece emitted a buzzing noise, and suddenly Vlasa breathed a desperate gulp of air.
Letting out his breath, Javi slumped as the tension of the last few minute eased. Vlasa did not wake up, but continued to breathe rhythmically. The diagnostic screen finished loading and now displayed a harsh warning message.
“He’s breathing again. But the diagnostic screen says it’s in emergency support mode. It says to seek medical care immediately. Minimal brain functions detected. Cybernetics are providing life support, but most show as offline.”
A long silence answered him before Ariana said, “He’s breathing and alive. That’s a victory for the moment. Keep watch over him. Air pressure has been restored enough for me to get the doors open. Everyone, meet me in the engine room.”