Challenge #01598-D137: That's One Bad Week

[Bad news]

[Worse news]

[Extremely horrible news]

[ohmygodwhatthefuck news]

One of the people who have to deal with it all, to the rest of same: ...well people, I'd say it's about time to drink ourselves into the mother of all stupors. It's been that kind of week. -- RecklessPrudence

First, the Gravity Drive failed. They still had internal gravity, but the virtual black hole in front of the bow that towed them along at CTL speeds[1] was no longer operational. The shipboard Nae'hyn were doing all they could, but the engine was old to begin with and this kind of flaw was equivalent to having a stroke.

Which wasn't a real problem. Not initially. They could burn some rockets to push them along and send out a non-urgent distress call. And they had enough shipboard supplies to last until they reached the nearest station. And then the rockets failed to ignite.

Now the only way they could get to where they were going was by judicious and careful venting of shipboard gasses, and rationing was initialised in the hopes that the ship's gardens could grow things fast enough that there would be food to ration when the rations ran out.

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