[ TT ] Your ship 's dead in space , nothing working but life support . You 've still got momentum from when the engines worked , and with no way to `` steer '' , you 're months away from crashing into the very planet you were supposed to colonize . No one can reach you in time to help . How do you tell your crew ?

I had tried everything. It was too late for that. Far too late. 
 A bead of sweat drifted from my forehead, as I attempted again, willing the engines to power back online. It was something of a miracle we still had life support, most of the dwindling power leached away like blood from a fatal wound. Half the ship had de-pressurised and was completely out of power, after the hull breach one fateful day ago. Clipped an asteroid. Ironic really, the finest ship in the fleet, taken down by a damn pebble. It had taken everything we had to repair it, at least to keep something between the crew and the vast vacuum of space, and an excessive strain on the already damaged core to return oxygen levels to normal; but the damage to the main Core was too great, power conduits severed, the feeble choke of the failing heart of the ship. 
 
 One final attempt to jump start. 
 I had n't slept since the impact. How could I, knowing that it was my responsibility to bring her back from the brink. Knowing that if I failed, a single mistake could mean life support going offline? 
 
 `` Please.'' I muttered, reconnecting the dwindling backup generator to the core. 
 The lights flickered. Silence. 
 Usually I'd be met by the purr of the engines, the roar of systems surging back to full power. To me, that sound was home, a song of hope. 
 
 The captain should be first to know the severity of the situation. He may as well have been married to this ship, and now I was the one to tell him... it's terminal. 
 
 `` Chief engineer to bridge...'' No response. Communication link down, the old fashioned way would have to suffice. 
 
 It felt like eternity, traversing the darkened passages. Representatives from the major sections were gathered in the flickering light of the control hub. The silenced had slipped into here too, hushed murmurs of how the crew would cope, the prospects of getting help, and the inevitable. 
 
 `` She's dying, captain.'' 
 It was the first time I'd seen true fear in his eyes. 
 
 [ to be continued ]
