Editing Episode 510: St. Albans Secrets
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The repairs are finally finished. We sit back and bask in the glow of a job well done. And it occurs to us that we have a mystery spot on our hull that’s been plated over. In fact, upon closer inspection, we have a matching pair to either side of our hangar bay. They are actually room-sized protrusions over the ‘wing’ structures of our hull, and the plating we’ve discovered cover portions of it fore and aft. We originally thought they were part of the fuel tanks to port and starboard but now it’s looking unlikely. So what’s behind the plating?<br><br> | The repairs are finally finished. We sit back and bask in the glow of a job well done. And it occurs to us that we have a mystery spot on our hull that’s been plated over. In fact, upon closer inspection, we have a matching pair to either side of our hangar bay. They are actually room-sized protrusions over the ‘wing’ structures of our hull, and the plating we’ve discovered cover portions of it fore and aft. We originally thought they were part of the fuel tanks to port and starboard but now it’s looking unlikely. So what’s behind the plating?<br><br> | ||
| − | We take another close look at the layout of the hull and the suspected rooms. It doesn’t take much imagination to realize that there might be an interior entrance to them. Eyeballing it, we decide the best candidate for an interior door would be on the rear walls of the storage rooms flanking the hangar deck utility room. Sure enough, we find the rear walls are plated in a different metal than the other walls on this deck. It also comes off fairly easily once Rina sets her torch to it. We practically pop the panels off and reveal the doors to the | + | We take another close look at the layout of the hull and the suspected rooms. It doesn’t take much imagination to realize that there might be an interior entrance to them. Eyeballing it, we decide the best candidate for an interior door would be on the rear walls of the storage rooms flanking the hangar deck utility room. Sure enough, we find the rear walls are plated in a different metal than the other walls on this deck. It also comes off fairly easily once Rina sets her torch to it. We practically pop the panels off and reveal the doors to the canon bays, starboard and port. After a short debate we decide against sealing up the false panels, but leave the doors exposed. We may be in need of them. We take a torch to it and carefully cut away the patch plating and when the metal falls away and the smoke clears, we see a pressure hatch staring us in the face. It’s a door to a heretofore undiscovered space on our ship. It’s a pressure hatch.<br><br> |
| − | We get that pressure hatch open, once we double check to make sure that we’re not breaching a fuel tank, and look inside. The air is stale and rank with a boozy stench and looking at the pipes and lines and whatnot crammed inside our first thought is we’ve stumbled onto a still. It’s about fifteen by twenty feet by standard height off the deck. A second look around triggers Rina’s memories of the Naval patrol boat she’d served on—specifically its cannon bay. Here is the railroad track that the cannon rounds are conveyed to the cannons on, there is the chain tackle that raises and lowers the rounds onto the tracks. There is a compression system for firing the | + | We get that pressure hatch open, once we double check to make sure that we’re not breaching a fuel tank, and look inside. The air is stale and rank with a boozy stench and looking at the pipes and lines and whatnot crammed inside our first thought is we’ve stumbled onto a still. It’s about fifteen by twenty feet by standard height off the deck. A second look around triggers Rina’s memories of the Naval patrol boat she’d served on—specifically its cannon bay. Here is the railroad track that the cannon rounds are conveyed to the cannons on, there is the chain tackle that raises and lowers the rounds onto the tracks. There is a compression system for firing the canon rounds at the target, through a pair of tubular tunnels in the bulkhead, one forward and one aft, very like torpedo tubes on a submarine. There is a cargo deployment ramp—empty—facing a cargo door of the sort made to slide down into the deck.. On a hunch, we go back outside of the cannon bay and sure enough, there’s another plate welded over the torpedo tubes’ hatch, forward and aft, and the cargo door as well. We cut them free.<br><br> |
Going back inside we look at the rounds stacked on the ammo racks. They aren’t cannon rounds, exactly, but 5-gallon barrels pressed into service as rounds. The barrels come in two types—one half are beer kegs, labeled as ''Elsinor Pilsner'', the other half are barrels labeled as ''Blue Sun Birdseed''. Sniffing the birdseed barrels closely, they are revealed as the source of that boozy scent. But shifting the barrels and listening hard, we can tell that they aren’t filled with booze. So what are they filled with? Are they explosives, as the machinery and the racks, the pumps and tubes, suggest?<br><br> | Going back inside we look at the rounds stacked on the ammo racks. They aren’t cannon rounds, exactly, but 5-gallon barrels pressed into service as rounds. The barrels come in two types—one half are beer kegs, labeled as ''Elsinor Pilsner'', the other half are barrels labeled as ''Blue Sun Birdseed''. Sniffing the birdseed barrels closely, they are revealed as the source of that boozy scent. But shifting the barrels and listening hard, we can tell that they aren’t filled with booze. So what are they filled with? Are they explosives, as the machinery and the racks, the pumps and tubes, suggest?<br><br> | ||
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'''Nika:''' I miss Rick. I do.<br> | '''Nika:''' I miss Rick. I do.<br> | ||
'''Arden:''' You remember? When we discovered the compressed air things? He would have conniptions.<br> | '''Arden:''' You remember? When we discovered the compressed air things? He would have conniptions.<br> | ||
| − | '''Nika:''' Oh, Christ. Can you see Rick? (squeaks) He would have been like, ‘Air cannons!’ (mimes loading a | + | '''Nika:''' Oh, Christ. Can you see Rick? (squeaks) He would have been like, ‘Air cannons!’ (mimes loading a canon round and firing it) I miss Rick.<br><br> |
She ain’t the only one. We spend a moment or two recounting the man’s wilder stunts and get back to work prepping for departure for St. Albans. And no, we’re not hunting Siberian tigers when we get there.<br><br> | She ain’t the only one. We spend a moment or two recounting the man’s wilder stunts and get back to work prepping for departure for St. Albans. And no, we’re not hunting Siberian tigers when we get there.<br><br> | ||
