Star Wars: I Am a Slave ✓

Chapter 14 - Power Generators & Flight Simulators

Rey awoke later that night to discover the sandstorm had stopped. It was time to head out to the Ravager for salvage.

The salvage target for the day determined the time Rey would work. If it was the Ravager, she would sleep all afternoon and work at night in the dark after the other salvagers had headed back to the Niima Outpost. If she wasgoing to salvage one of the smaller craft, she would leave at sunrise and work until the craft became to hot too touch with her bare hands.

Because of the sandstorm, Rey did not run into any other salvagers heading back to the bazaar. She would have the ship to herself. After she climbed into the access port and shut it behind her, Ani appeared. "Come with me," he instructed and led her into the aft bowels of the ship. They stopped in front of a sealed blast door.

"How am I going to get in there, Granddad?"

"We'll use the door."

Rey furrowed her brow at him, very annoyed.

"Trust me." 

Rey nodded her head.

Ani said, "Remove that panel to your left."

Rey removed her driver and used it to take the access panel off the wall. 

"Now, you see the fuse? I want you to twist it one quarter turn to your left, but don't remove it this time."

Rey followed his instructions, surprised when the blast door slowly opened before her. It did not open all the way, but it left a big enough hole for Rey to jump through. "What is this place, Granddad?"

"The power station for the ship. We're going to see if we can get it started again."

"Don't the engines have to be running?"

"These are battery-driven supplies. The batteries recharge with solar radiation or the engines. If we can get the solar panels uncovered at some point, we can insure that the power will stay on indefinitely—or at least as long as you need it." Ani crouched to inspect the system. "But we should have enough power for tonight at least. Standard Imperial procedure shuts the life-support down and internal power down when a ship is on a collision course with a planet to prevent additional explosions on impact."

"Doesn't it have to be controlled from the bridge?"

"Generally, yes, but the bridge controls are gone, so we'll use the local panels here." Ani pointed to them. "Come over here to this control center." 

Rey walked over the raked deck to the panel on the wall which housed multiple banks of large toggle levers.

"Grab these ten big levers, and start pushing them up one at a time."

She grabbed the first one and pushed with all of her strength but it barely budged. 

"Get under it and use leverage and leg strength to help you." 

Rey tried again, successful this time. All of a sudden, a bank of the power supplies started crackling and humming with electricity running through them. She continued with each switch in order. Some were easier than others to throw.

"Good. Now come over here to this display and let's see what the power levels are."

She looked at the display as it came to life. It asked for an authorization code. "Small problem, Granddad. Need a code."

"Try this . . ." Ani thought for a few seconds. "Vev-aurek-dorn-two-one-esk-resh-three-seven."

Rey punched in the code and watched the screen move to the level panel. Most of the banks showed full power while pulling in additional power through the solar panels. One of the systems was at a critical low level, though.