Freefall

Lack of oxygen can potentially stop such a fire... but I'll admit that I'm not terribly familiar with this other than that fire is particularly dangerous in space because a) there's a limited supply of oxygen and b) without gravity, the fire tends to distribute itself evenly rather than concentrating on a highest point. Normally, the station does have gravity, but in an emergency/repair situation, I could see it being otherwise.

Honestly, this could fall under "hard decisions that make one unpopular". "You sealed Bob and Tom in with the fire!" "Yes, but they would have also died if they'd opened that airlock, and we would have lost half the station."

Let's hope a station fire doesn't break out in the Freefall universe

On the other hand, without gravity fires tend to snuff themselves out since there's no convection to feed them fresh air. Of course, that's not applicable on a rotating space station.

Letting the air out isn't a very good way to fight a fire, though. Sure it'll stop the fire, but the things that were on fire will stay hot, and the moment you put air back in, the fire will start again. And the wind caused by letting the air out can spread embers everywhere, so it'll be even worse when it starts again.

"Normally, the station does have gravity, but in an emergency/repair situation, I could see it being otherwise. "

I do not think they can turn off that. They get it from spinning, and stopping and restarting is a hell of an expenditure of energy and propellant material.

Edited by Adannor on Mar 27th 2024 at 9:17:43 PM

Just to be clear, there are plenty of ways to extinguish fires that do not involve venting something out into space. Venting important substances into space is more likely to be a direct consequence of a fire.

Ah, you have a point... I'd forgotten whether we had gravity generators here. So, long story short, De Morel is sounding surprisingly reasonable. Which is nice... I like not having Straw Villains.

I still hold with the idea that the Union likely made some implausible demands in the past, whether through not understanding the reality of finances or simply through inertia ("Overall union wages have gone up 4% every cycle, and the rates based on seniority are fixed in our tables. We will not budge on this") which led to the antagonism. Yes, he's being overly stingy, which is part of his problem, but I suspect he had his reasons, and not all of them start with trying to squeeze money from the stone hearts of the union workers.

Being wrong in secrecy is fine.◊

Soooo… Will he flat-out admit that he was wrong, or is he going to pull an I Meant to Do That in regards to Sam’s plan?

He may try the latter but end up having to do the former

Poor ignored Rover...

He just did nothing after speaking a bit in the negotiations

Know he knows what it's like to be Helix

Ah yes, April 1st, AKA The Day The Internet Becomes Useless.

Obligatory link◊

Cursed Sam

Ahahahaha, what the fuck?!

The Mayor getting a leg up on Sam for once? That’s how you know that it must be April Fools.

They're in for a surprise if they join the union...◊ those breaks are indeed mandatory.

Oh damn

They probably would have to be sweet talked into accepting them

Probably letting them engage in a "hobby" that lets them do non-work work, like researching folding proteins or "gardening" in the hydroponics.

Well gardening may be out of the question

They could also sell it to them as practicing human interaction or other learning activity.

Can I just say that I love how cute these robots are?

Might be able to get away with "mandatory interact with the humans time", perhaps. Good to get non-work-related socialization in somehow.

Random acts of Construction◊

If someone doesn't stop these e'er-do-wells quickly, they'll move on to breaking-and-redecorating, or even start smuggling illicit medication.

Never snitch on the brownies◊

Troubleshooting via Scottish folklore◊