Finally Raymundo fixed everything he could on Star Surfer. Messed up parts within the warp drive didn’t have an Earth counterpart (yet), but he couldn’t get his hands (legally) on a fuel source that was strong enough to make it run anyway.
Hours ticked by as he scrolled through the dense protocols, translated into English alright, but into legalese, many words and metaphors leaving Raymundo with a headache. He would look them up at home, not have the proper context, and then end up having to read whole sections over again. Days later, he had enough of an understanding to know something else wasn’t right with his ship.
The broken warp drive wasn't a reason for Star Surfer to be sending a Qwortarian signal of distress.
"Turn off distress signal." His voice was nearly as monotone as the ship's from how many times he repeated himself.
"Access denied." The ship's robotic voice answered back for the umpteenth time.
"What do you mean access denied?"
"To have your access denied means-"
"Stop." Raymundo sighed. Looking as the screen he saw the blip of the distress signal being sent at regular intervals.
It explained the barn being built to be a Faraday cage, but it didn't fix the problem of whenever the door was opened the signal would escape.
"Why is my access denied?"
"Permissions for the distress signal have been set to follow the owner's command only."
"I am the owner."
"Actually you are the captain. The last owner designated was Glayd."
"Who's Glayd?"
"The brother of your ancestor who crashed here.”
“But it’s been a hundred years! Glayd is dead or at least back on Qwortar!”
“Glayd, or Glayd’s descendants are the designated owners of the ship. Thus are the ones with the access to the distress signal.”
Raymundo pinched the bridge of his nose.
“How far does the distress signal reach?”
“The edge of Earth’s solar system without any other disruptions such as, but not limited to, solar, human interference, and space debris.”
“That’s good I suppose.” No more leaving the barn door open, even though that was how his phone got a signal. “Power down.”
The interior lights turned off, a dim glow from the barn lights leading Raymundo off his ship. Once locking the barn back up he headed out to meet up with his secret keepers to brainstorm ways he could be reached when he was secluded in the barn.
Word count: 404
