Excerpts from text in the Asimov museum, Toroid 1 of the Anchor Station.
Following the core incident a number of major engineering works were necessary. In this exhibit we highlight a number of the more major works, and the ACTP members who helped fixed them.
The item in front of you is the door to the toroid one airlock that was repaired by ACTP members Darwin, Carla and Ellis in the aftermath of the Core Incident. If you look closely you can still see the scratches caused by Ulysses Grey’s crowbar near about one third of the way down on the right. In the final reckoning all that needed replacing was the damaged seals and a complete replacement was not required.
The original cause of the toroid one airlock malfunctions was never satisfactorily established. Accounts of the time vary from a badly timed malfunction, through Computer malfunction and the work of an Earth Dominion agent to an Alien sabotage attempt. Contemporary scholars agree that it may well have been the work of Darwin Blue. He had the access, skill and motivation to make the attempt. And with his involvement in the rectification of the damage it is unsurprising that components that were seemingly “missing” previously turned out to have “been there all along”.
This is a replica of the carriage that was accelerated into the toroid six engine. Notice its relatively large size and imagine it moving at approximately 300m/s upon impact.
Following a thorough investigation into the ITTS malfunction involved in the Core Incident led by Engineers Callie, Carla and Darwin it became clear that the major malfunction was caused by a combination of disabled safety systems and the depowering of the section outside of Toroid Six by a physical severance of the connection to the power source inside the toroid.
Darwin managed to negotiate for the power to be restored while Callie and Carla reenabled the safety protocols and repaired some minor damage to the tracks resulting from the firefight. This left the need for replacement of the two carriages lost to the depths of space. Blue sector nobly sacrificed a fabber to allow its iridium to be used in the construction of these.
The toroids of the Asimov spin to create artificial gravity. However, the ship itself had to maintain zero net angular momentum to allow for accurate maneuvering and sensing over the course of its journey. This was achieved by spinning toroids in opposite directions.
However, as we all know angular momentum is a product of distance from the axis of rotation and mass. Therefore any movement of mass within or between toroids had to be carefully balanced by moving ballast between tanks at different heights within the toroids (shown in blue). This was the purpose of the mass redistribution system.
Unfortunately during the Core Incident a large number of mass redistribution pipes (marked in red) were damaged and had to be fixed. This work was undertaken under the supervision of ACTP members Ferrous, Callie, Carla, Darwin and Victor, working, as ever, under the competent supervision of Head of Engineering, Ellis de Bouillon.
Perhaps the most difficult item to repair following the Core Incident was the toroid six engine. The engines worked in pairs, and while only one was damaged, the other had to be shut off to avoid an unbalanced thrust taking the ship further off course. Through the leaded glass in front of you is one of the least radioactive remnants of the damaged engine.
To quote Computer, “That engine is a complete write off, Ellis” about summed up the situation the ACTP members had to deal with. Critical parts had gone out the back of the ship, and the remaining wreckage was too radioactive to work on, even with the assistance of the ARC suits. Ultimately the wreckage was cut into small pieces and stored in uninhabited parts of Toroid 5. In another two centuries the radiation will have decayed sufficiently for the materials to be recycled.
This left the ACTP members the task of completely rebuilding the engine. This required a major effort from recycling to source the critical parts, and in the wake of Mordecai’s removal from his post the recycling efforts were slow and painful. Eventually sufficient iridium was recovered from various sources including two fabbers from each toroid and a shuttle of unauthorised construction found in a core repair bay. Toroid Six itself managed to find a third of the required material as a gesture of goodwill towards the rest of the ship, credit accruing to Ambassador Darwin Blue for this coup.
The project was directed by Ellis de Bouillon, despite his departure from the position of Department Head. Much use was made of the ARC and VAPOUR under the remote oversight of the new Department head Victor, and these were especially useful in the removal of the radioactive remains of the old engine and large scale zero-g construction required for the new one. Pit Blue was also heavily involved with the project, while Darwin functioned as a liaison and peacemaker with the occupants of Toroid Six itself, ultimately securing a contribution to the work detail and access to its fabbers and molecular foundries.
While the physical damage was great, immediately following the Incident, the ship had acquired an unfortunate spin along that was unable to be corrected automatically due to malfunctions of the maneuvering thrusters. Reprising her role from the flip, ACTP member Varian White took up the mantle of manual pilot once more. To see just how challenging this task was, we invite you to try your own hand at the required course correction on the control panel mockup in front of you.
Varian’s assistance was also invaluable during the course corrections involved in the multi-decade landing process.